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__label__cc	0.59674	0.40326	by thenimblebar on January 3, 2020 The story behind Empress 1908 Gin’s ingredients, colour change, taste, where it’s from, and our favourite cocktails One of the most strikingly coloured spirits you will find on liquor store shelves and back-bars around the world today is Empress 1908 Gin from Sidney, British Columbia. While most gin purists would scoff at a gin that isn’t clear, once you dig under the surface of what makes this gin, you’ll realize that it honours time-tested distillation traditions (and still manages to feature some cool modern twists). You might as well start with a drink in hand, so I’ll start with this for point number 1: 1. Empress 1908 Gin and Tonic Wins The Award For Best Looking G&T Empress Gin will make the most beautiful G&T you will ever have. Especially if you pair it with grapefruit to compliment the grapefruit peel botanicals in the gin itself, and a great quality tonic. President and Master Distiller, Peter Hunt, recommends Fever Tree Elderflower or Fever Tree Premium Indian. 2. An Iconic Victoria Hotel + The Year It Was Built = Where the Name Comes From Nestled in the southern part of Vancouver Island, just outside of Victoria, this indigo gin celebrates the heritage of the island on which it was born. In 1908, the famous Empress Hotel was built in Victoria, British Columbia. An iconic part of the downtown Victoria skyline, the Empress Hotel is a regal building that stands at the foot of the Inner Harbour. The reason the Empress Hotel and Victoria Distillers are such good friends? When Victoria Gin launched in 2007, they did so straight from the Empress Hotel’s lobby, and they’ve been a fixture in the Empress Hotel’s bar program ever since. So it seemed fitting that a decade after Victoria Gin’s launch, the distillery was looking to expand its portfolio while the Empress Hotel was going through a huge $60M restoration. Naturally it was the perfect time for the two to join forces and create a badass gin. 3. The Colour is Actually a Happy Accident The Empress Hotel is really famous for doing Afternoon Tea every day. It’s not that expensive, only $82.00 for…TEA. Locally, it’s well-known that if you get a chance to serve Afternoon Tea at the Empress, you’re easily clearing 6 figures a year. That’s right, there are folks earning more than $100,000.00 a year by just serving tea. It’s amazing. Given that Afternoon Tea is such a long-standing and luxurious tradition, Empress Gin wanted to capture some of that in their bottle. They did this by experimenting with a number of signature tea blends from the Empress Hotel, and they ended up with two: Blue Suede Shoes, featuring butterfly pea blossom, and the Empress Blend Tea made by the Metropolitan Tea Company (tagline: from crop to cup). It was while they were testing different teas, in particular the Blue Suede Shoes blend, that they discovered that the butterfly pea blossom imparted an indigo hue to the gin. BTW this is kind of proof that they didn’t set out to just create a gimmicky colourful gin. 4. There’s a Subtle Nod to India. Here’s why. There are two very uncommon ingredients in Empress Gin and that’s 1) cinnamon and 2) ginger. WTF? Cinnamon and ginger in a gin! Between the years 1876 and 1948, British queens and kings were called Empress and Emperor of India, respectively. Queen Victoria was the first Empress of India, and so Victoria Distillers wanted to include a subtle nod with popular Indian spices, ginger and cinnamon. 5. There’s Nothing ‘Violet’ About the Flavour Overall, the experience is akin to a traditional London dry gin…but with modern flair. Here’s how I would describe the experience of tasting Empress Gin by itself. Nose: Delicate juniper that’s been blushed with subtle rose notes by an angel Palate: Said angel gets spanked by demonic notes of spiced grapefruit Finish: A long, earthy, and warming black tea A lot of folks mention tasting violet, but when you blind taste it, there’s really nothing violet about it. 6. The Colour Can Change To Blue OR Pink. Here’s How. Butterfly pea blossoms have these little molecules called anthocyanins — pigments that change colour depending on their PH levels. They’re red when they’re acidic, purple when they’re neutral, and blue when they’re basic. So if you add acid, say lemon juice, to Empress Gin, it will become a beautiful red-pink colour. And if you add something basic to it, like cucumber, it will turn blue. President and Master Distiller, Peter Hunt, recounts bringing the new gin to market at Victoria’s 2017 Art of the Cocktail. His team was experimenting mixing up new drinks, and when they lined up all their creations, they realized that some were purple, some were pink, and some were blue. “That’s when we had this aha moment that the gin actually changed colour as the PH changed. And we were like ‘okay, that’s pretty cool.’ It was one more layer in the creation of this product,” says Peter. 7. This Gin Is Crushing It When I sat down with Peter, he also told me that when Victoria Gin was at its peak, it was selling 3,000 cases per year. With Empress 1908 Gin, they’re doing 7,400 cases in a MONTH, and it’s growing. They’ve had to more than double their production facility. It’s not just one of the best-selling gins in the ultra-premium category, it’s even outselling long-standing economy behemoths like Beefeater and Gordon’s in many markets. 8. The Master Distiller’s Favourite Empress 1908 Gin Cocktails Are Dead Simple 2 oz of Empress Gin, 0.5 oz simple, 0.75 oz lemon juice, muddled thyme, mint, basil, rosemary (basically whatever Peter can find in his garden) Glass: Collins Method: Build all ingredients in the Collins class, muddle herbs, and add ice (optional: top with a splash of soda) Garnish: Sprig of rosemary 2 oz Empress 1908 Gin, 0.75 oz Giffard Pamplemousse, 0.5 oz dry vermouth Glass: small cocktail coupe Method: stir ingredients, and strain neat in the coupe Garnish: Grapefruit twist Want to come and get nerdy with us about gin? Learn more about the Nimble Bar School here. “Why Does Upselling Matter?” Sometimes it can be hard to get buy-in from your team when they’re only thinking... A 2-part framework designed to build your awareness around what may arise, and a mental toolkit to gracefully handle... Sam Casuga has worked at some of the best bars in Canada, and is currently a senior bartender at...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1618
__label__wiki	0.9364	0.9364	Category Archive 'Hypocrisy' Democrats, Hypocrisy, Impeachment, US Constitution Apple Caves to the Chicoms Apple, Hong Kong Demonstrators, Hypocrisy, Red China, iPhone Anybody remember Apple’s defiant “1984” Mac ad? Erick Erickson finds that advertising poses are cheap and by no means necessarily sincere. Late last week, Apple removed an app from its App Store that allowed people in Hong Kong to see where the police were or where tear gas lingered. They then added the app back to the store. But now, after vocal criticism from China, Apple has formally caved to their communist overlords and deleted the app from the App Store. Apple, of course, has bet big on the Chinese market for iPhones and cannot afford to anger China. It has completely capitulated against a totalitarian regime all while its CEO continues to lecture Americans on social justice in this country. Tim Cook is willing to file legal briefs on behalf of all sorts of causes in the United States and is outspoke on all sorts of social issues here. But in China, he is a stooge for the communists and no voice at all against injustice. RTWT Joe Biden’s Faux Catholicism Catholicism, Hypocrisy, Joe Biden, Vicar of Bray A lot of democrats, Nancy Pelosi, all the Kennedys, like Joe Biden have roots in the old-time Roman Catholic working class, but rose, via politics, up and out, not only of their class origins, but out of any meaningful religious convictions. Western Chauvinist, at Ricochet, discusses the impeding Biden attempt to run for the Presidency as an ethic Catholic. When he was exploring a run for the presidency in 2008, Biden famously said: “I will shove my rosary beads down the throat of any Republican who says I am not a Catholic.” I stand in awe of Joe Biden as a fellow Roman Catholic. Never have I known a coreligionist so utterly immune to conscience in the pursuit of the awesome power of the presidency. Not even John Kerry. Or the Kennedys. Oh… never mind. I thank God we Catholics don’t have to claim the Clintons! My sympathies to the Baptists (Bill) and the Methodists, for whom Hillary Clinton once taught Sunday school. Ack! Get thee behind me Satan!! The above quote is taken from Fr. George W. Rutler’s piece in Crisis Magazine titled, The Strange Case of Dr. Biden and Mr. Hyde, in which he “destroys” Joe Biden. No, really, I sound jokey, but you must read the whole thing. Here’s a teaser: Biden was given an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, Dublin, in 2016, enriching his academic laurels which were tenuous after he placed 75 out of 86 in his Syracuse College of Law class, although he claimed to have been in the top half. But if politics is the art of the possible, one must expect artistic liberties. Drawing on, and perhaps exhausting, his information on Shakespeare, Biden said that his mistake regarding school grades, like his propensity for appropriating sources without attribution, is “much ado about nothing.” Academic rankings are not assurances of intelligence; in fact, Mr.—that is, Dr. Biden told a voter during a campaign stop in New Hampshire in 1987: “I think I probably have a much higher I.Q. than you.” Armed with such confidence, Biden has wrestled with his conscience like a Sumo wrestler, thudding against that “aboriginal vicar of Christ” and bouncing off. Free of constricting guilt, and unafraid of the foolish need for consistency which is the hobgoblin of those little minds with I.Q.’s less than his, Biden now presents himself to the public as a prodigy of rejuvenation. With hair thicker and teeth whiter, beyond the skill of frail Mother Nature, and armed with his lethal Rosary, he is ready to lead America like an eager Boy Scout helping an unwilling lady across the wrong street. I don’t think I can add anything to that. Rutler has left Joe Biden standing naked in the public square, strategically clutching his Rosary beads and grinning that dopey Brite Wite grin. Be sure to read the entire Butler hit piece on Biden cited above. It’s great stuff. Bernie Sanders Worth $2.5 Million* Bernie Sanders, Hypocrisy, Socialism * Forbes story. Yale Law Blacklists Conservative, Christian Public Interest Groups and Organizations Hypocrisy, LGBTQ, Liberal Intolerance, Yale Law School Yale Law School The Federalist: After the Yale Federalist Society invited an attorney from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent Christian legal group, to speak about the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, conservative students faced backlash. Outlaws, the law school’s LGBTQ group, demanded that Yale Law School “clarify” its admissions policies for students who support ADF’s positions. Additionally, Outlaws insisted that students who work for religious or conservative public interest organizations such as ADF during their summers should not receive financial support from the law school. On March 25, one month after the controversy, Yale Law School announced via email that it was extending its nondiscrimination policy to summer public interest fellowships, postgraduate public interest fellowships, and loan forgiveness for public interest careers. The school will no longer provide financial support for students and graduates who work at organizations that discriminate on the basis of “sexual orientation and gender identity and expression.” Yale based its decision on a unanimous recommendation from the school’s Public Interest Committee. The committee explained: “The logic of our broader recommendation is that Yale Law School does not and should not support discrimination against its own students, financially or otherwise. Obviously, the Law School cannot prohibit a student from working for an employer who discriminates, but that is not a reason why Yale Law School should bear any obligation to fund that work, particularly if that organization does not give equal employment opportunity to all of our students.” The law school also thanked Outlaws for raising this issue. Discriminating against Christians and Conservatives who do not accept the Party Line on Gender and Sexual Orientation Equality, on the other hand, is morally obligatory. Snowflakes & SJWs Upset: Satirical Flyers Posted on Yale Cross Campus Free Speech, Hypocrisy, Peter Salovey, Political Correctness, Snowflakes of Color, University Reign of Terror, Yale According to the Yale Daily News, mocking African-American group poses is “racially provocative.” The Oldest (and seriously competing for Left-est) College Daily was outraged. The Yale Police Department is investigating reports from Yale students who witnessed two masked people post racially provocative flyers on bulletin boards around Cross Campus on Tuesday night. … Yale students took photos of the posters, removed them from the bulletin board, replaced them with messages of support for people of color and reported the incident to Yale student life staff and the YPD on Tuesday night. The flyers depicted the symbol of a “White Students’ Union of Yale” and quoted slavery advocate and class of 1804 graduate John Calhoun — the former namesake of what is now Grace Hopper College. The quote reads, “In looking back, I see nothing to regret, and little to correct.” YPD officers are currently reviewing camera footage to identify the perpetrators, Goff-Crews told the News. … The department has also stepped up its patrols in “sensitive areas on campus,” including the center of Yale’s campus, where the incident occured [sic]. “I find the sentiments signified by these flyers deeply troubling, and I want to be clear: hate is not welcome on our campus,” Salovey wrote in a campuswide email. “As I have said in the past, the answer to speech one finds repugnant is more speech. [Flyers aren’t speech? Quotations from Calhoun aren’t speech? – JDZ] I have no doubt that the members of the Yale community will respond to expressions of hate, racism, and exclusion on this campus with even stronger affirmations of our values—and a renewed commitment to creating a diverse, inclusive community where all people are welcomed.” In the email, Salovey confirmed that the perpetrators violated a University policy which only permits registered student organizations to post flyers on campus [Oh, my! that is an expulsion-worthy offense for sure. –JDZ]. Yale has notified the Southern Poverty Law Center — which monitors hate groups in the U.S. — and the Anti-Defamation League — a Jewish group that fights anti-Semitism and bigotry — about the incident, according to Salovey’s email. … On Tuesday night, a student posted a photograph of the flyer on the popular Facebook group “Overheard at Yale,” prompting heavy backlash against the perpetrators among commenters. Students and alumni interviewed by the News condemned the flyers. Prior to Salovey’s email, at least two individuals told the News that they contacted Salovey’s office calling for the University to respond to the incident. On Wednesday morning, Gene Lyman ’92 also emailed Salovey’s office calling on the University to investigate the situation thoroughly, discipline any current students involved and “reassert Yale’s values as an inclusive and intellectually honest community.” “Even if this should prove a hoax, or someone’s sick idea of a joke, I cannot emphasize enough how unacceptable the sentiment expressed in these flyers is,” Lyman wrote in the email to Salovey. Lyman said he received a response from Joy McGrath, Salovey’s chief of staff, as well as Salovey’s email to the Yale community. Sohum Pal ’20 sent an email about the incident to Salovey, Goff-Crews and Dean of Yale College Marvin Chun on Tuesday night. In his email, Pal called for the establishment of a Title VI office, which would enforce the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color and national origin at educational institutions, and for a systematic change in University responses to grievances around racial discrimination. Pal said that the University should create a “mechanism for change” instead of releasing emails to “reaffirm its commitments.” “Tonight, people put up these fliers around campus,” Pal wrote in his email. “I felt vulnerable — is it any surprise? My time at Yale has been many things — sometimes empowering, but more often I’ve been struck at how expendable students, faculty, and staff of color must be to the university.” Unlike Lyman, Pal said he received no direct response to his email. Ashtan Towles ’19, a former peer liaison for the Afro-American Cultural Center, told the News that while the perpetrators remain unknown, the act was “done in cowardice,” comparing the masked individuals to Klu Klux Klan members who don masks to protect their identities. “This incident is merely one of thousands through which white nationalists have attempted to stoke fear in Black communities, but I am always in awe of the resilience and pride that exists in the Black community at Yale,” Towles said in an email to the News. According to Simon Ghebreyesus ’21, the sentiments of white pride in the flyers are a “sinister presence” for students of color to grapple with at Yale and across the country. Epongue Ekille ’21 told the News that she had generally viewed Yale as a racially inclusive place but the flyer incident “negates it all.” “It was both surprising and not at the same time. Although Yale is proud of its diversity, the matter of the fact is that the student population is majority white and wealthy,” Ekille said. “I’m not surprised that people who have these opinions exist at Yale, I’m just surprised that they would publicly advertise it.” Evidently, the answer to speech satirizing the rhetoric and poses of African-American Identity Group activists is not actually “more speech.” The answer is to publish hysterical news stories, to refer to the “repugnant speech” as “discrimination,” and “exclusion,” and “hate,” to suggest that it constitutes a possible violation of federal anti-discrimination law, and to treat it as a proper basis for investigation, notification of national left-wing speech and thought supervisory groups, and disciplinary sanctions. How terribly cowardly it was of those right-wing students to conceal their identities! Kavanaugh Disqualified For Youthful Drinking! Barack Obama, Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats, Hypocrisy Back in 1991, Joe Biden Discredits Jeff Flake and Today’s Judiciary Committee Democrats Brett Kavanaugh, Democrats, FBI, Hypocrisy, Joe Biden Kavanaugh Accused of Connection With 1985 Yale Mock Panty Raid Brett Kavanaugh, Hypocrisy, Panty Raids, The Left, Yale Panty Raid at Berkeley, May 18, 1956. The same establishment elite that views Larry Flint as a free speech hero, that lectured us that we were guilty of censorship if we didn’t want tax money paying for Robert Maplethorpe’s anal horse whip art, that defends flamboyantly obscene gay pride parades down main street, and that wants sex education for third graders is shocked, shocked that members of the same fraternity that Brett Kavanaugh belonged to, back in 1985, took part in pledge hijinks alluding to the 1950s college panty raids. Diane Herbst, at People magazine, basically quotes a hatchet job from a couple of little left-wing reptiles at the Yale Daily News: In his first year at Yale, embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, which had a culture “notorious for disrespecting women,” according to a new report from the Yale Daily News. Julie Klein, who graduated in 1987 alongside Kavanaugh, described the frat as an “animal house,” while another classmate of Kavanaugh’s, Jennifer Lew, recalled on the YaleWomen Facebook page how frat brothers would “ransack” female students’ rooms while they attended classes and steal “undergarments,” reports the Yale Daily News. On Thursday, the student newspaper published a January, 1985 photo of Kavanaugh’s DKE frat brothers holding a flag created with women’s underwear and bras as they marched across campus. Kavanaugh, reportedly a sophomore member of the frat at the time, does not appear in the image. Obviously what the DKE pledges were doing in 1985 was some sort of tongue-in-cheek parody of student behavior of the ancient past. Wikipedia: Panty raid A panty raid was an American 1950s college prank in which large groups of male students attempted to invade the living quarters of female students and steal their panties (undergarments) as the trophies of a successful raid. The term dates to February 1949. Panty raids were the first college craze after World War II, following the 1930s crazes of goldfish swallowing or seeing how many students could fit in a phone booth. … By the 1970s, mixed dorms and less inhibited attitudes to sexual intercourse on campus led to fading of panty raids. But when lefties find an opportunity to smear an adversary like Judge Kavanaugh with accusations of guilt by association, the libertine left goes all Puritan on us. Reject Kavanaugh! Brett Kavanaugh, Hypocrisy Putting It All in Perspective Brett Kavanaugh, Chappaquiddick, Democrats, Hypocrisy, Ted Kennedy The Media and McCain Hypocrisy, John McCain, Media Bias Dr. Bastiat: Watching the media coverage of McCain’s presidential campaign against Barack Obama, I was surprised that he didn’t personally beat up black orphans on stage during campaign stops. Watching the media coverage of McCain’s funeral, I was surprised that he didn’t rise on the third day. the Archives of Never Yet Melted in the 'Hypocrisy' Category.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1622
__label__cc	0.678784	0.321216	“Up the River” at sunset. Thanks to Karen Clark for this photo. KIWANIS IS UP THE RIVER ATTENTION ALL KIWANIANS: June 30 is our 5th Wednesday meeting and Joe has a trip up the Sebec river planned. We have a float boat and a few other watercrafts available but additional boats would mean that more could enjoy an evening on the river. We will be leaving from the Milo waterfront at 6:30 PM. The trip takes approximately two hours. Please bring your own food and beverage. Please let Joe or Nancy know if you are planning to attend. The tentative rain date is July 7. 3 RIVERS KIWANIS CLUB PRESENT: MAC MCHALE &THE OLD-TIME RADIO GANG Fishtraks recording artists, THE OLD-TIME RADIO GANG will be appearing at THE MILO TOWN HALL FRIDAY, JULY 2ND AT 7 PM. FOR INFORMATION CALL 943-7748 Remember: At Three Rivers Redemption and Feed you can request that all or part of your bottle refund goes to P.A.W.S., your local animal shelter. We are currently providing a safe home to 18 cats, 7 kittens, 3 dogs, a rabbit and a duck, many of who are being treated with respect and love for the first time in their lives. 3 Family Yard Sale July 3rd 9-12 15 Highland Ave. Milo SUMMER FUN!!! Red Sox player Colton Durant got his first base hit against the Mets on Wednesday night in Brownville. With that base hit, Colton drove in 2 runs for the Red Sox; and the final score was Red Sox 10, Mets 5. It should be added that the Mets had a TRIPLE play against the Red Sox team; there were 2 runners on; 1st and 2nd.....the batter popped one up to the second baseman.....infield fly rule came into affect; the 2nd baseman tagged the runner going from 1st to second base, then threw the ball back to second base and caught the other runner trying to get back on the bag......Great job Mets players.....and a good win for the Red Sox. Red Sox player J.T. Kearns gets set for the pitch from the Mets pitcher Jesse McGlaughlin. Red Sox outfielder Stephanie Vachon gets ready for the pitch from a Mets player.. Starters were the same as the team of the year before: Larson, Morrill, Davis, Meulendyke, and Lockhart, with promising sophomores and freshmen to come. The team went undefeated, beating Milo by double digits in the last game the two great rivals would ever play at the Town Hall in their first encounter of the season. It was remarked in The Town Crier that Carroll Conley was a gentleman to unload his bench and not pour it on to make things worse for Milo. Then came the double overtime game at the Junction, won by Billy Davis's free throws 51-49. Milo had a new coach, Roger Clapp. Charlie Hotham had left for Winthrop. What a scare Pete Webb and company threw into the Railroaders! A harbinger of things to come. During the 1963 tournament, I was shoveling snow on the extra gang in -30 degree weather in the yard at Brownville Junction. I remember the boys had trouble getting by Easton in an early round but made it to the finals against, you guessed it, Milo. I rode to Bangor that fateful night in Brownville Junction sports history with my father, a school board member, forgetting that it's hard to beat a good team three times in a season. I wasn't the only one. The memories of 1959 were still with us. Pete Webb and Pete Meulendyke almost played to a draw that night. It was probably the work of young Steve Hamlin underneath that made the difference for Milo. He was solid. Milo 56, BJHS 51-a score I won't forget. It was at this time that the Milo-Brownville Junction thing reached its apex, never to completely extinguish. BY CAROLYNE SINCLAIR Just a reminder that the ladies’ breakfast will be held at The Restaurant on Thursday July 1st and there will be a public breakfast at Park Street United Methodist Church on Saturday, July 3rd as part of Alumni Weekend activities. 2nd Annual Pleasant River Duck Race Results On June 19th, American Legion Post #92 in Brownville Jct hosted the 2nd Annual Pleasant River Duck Race and unlike NASCAR the race was held even though it was pouring rain. The race course is approximately 1/4 mile long with the Finish Line on the south side of the Green Bridge in Brownville Jct. With a starting field of 370 ducks, there were no quack-ups although a few ducks did venture off the course and slip out of the groove. The winning ducks managed to make the run in record time and crossed the finish line in an amazing 35 minutes with the order of finish as follows: 1st Place $100.00 #569 Dale Stubbs, 2nd Place $75.00, #286 Hunter Hall, 3rd Place $50.00, #273 Bailey Weston. The race is an annual event with the proceeds going to the American Legion Post #92 scholarship fund. This year’s race raised $301.00 after the purse moneys were paid out. We would like to thank everyone who adopted a duck for the race. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the selling of tickets, the numbering of ducks, merchants who allowed advertising flyers on their windows and bulletin boards, our camera people, the race officials and helpers who braved the rain to put on the race and retrieve the ducks after the race. Thanks to all from American Legion Post #92. Bowerbank Days Aug. 13-14 2004 Aug. 13 (Friday)- Square Dance 7:00PM-9:00PM Town HallAug. 15 (Saturday)- 5-K Race- Registration 7:30AM Race starts at 8:00AM Town Hall Parade- Line up at 9:00AM Starts at 9:30AM Woodsmen Competition, Crafters, Kids Games, Food Vendors, Civil War encampment Anyone wishing more information on any event please call Eunice Preble@564-5160, Maria Bouder@564-7325 or Jim Gustafson@564-4996. BINGO! BINGO! BINGO!!! A MEAL IS SERVED FROM 5:00PM UNTIL 6:15PM First of all, I would like to congratulate you and your staff for the publication of the Three Rivers News. I always look forward to picking it up when I am in town taking my mother grocery shopping. I feel I can be up to date on what is going on in Milo as well as enjoy the many local articles. I was wondering if you could place an ad in the paper for us. On July 3rd, our family (Trasks) is hosting an Alumni day breakfast at the Methodist church. The ad could read something like this---- The annual alumni day breakfast will be held at the Park St. U. Methodist Church on July 3rd from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. It will be hosted by the Trask family and the class of 1959. It will feature Dottie Trask's homemade baked beans and blueberry muffins, along with the usual eggs, ham, toast, juice and coffee. The tickets are $4.00 and the proceeds will go towards church activities. We hope you and your friends will join us to kick off the holiday week-end. ---- Thank you so much for this and all the good work you do!!!! Gayle (Trask) Kiernan, Winslow, ME, 04901 Gulf Hagas Hike On June 16, the Penquis Valley High School Student Council hiked Gulf Hagas. For some this was a new adventure and for others it was just another walk in the park. Advisors Justin Kelleher and Lynn Gerrish, along with nine students, met at the Brownville Junction ball field for the hike. The day couldn't have been more perfect. The sun was shining and there was a nice cool breeze. Students packed water, snacks and a lunch and the advisors were ready with first aid supplies, extra water, bug spray and sunscreen for the students. We were ready to go. We accessed Gulf Hagas from the parking area between Hedgehog and KI checkpoints. This is when the real excitement began. We walked about .5 miles and then made our way through knee deep water across the Pleasant River (watch out for the slippery rocks). About another 1.5 miles and we were at Screw Auger Falls, where we stopped and took in the incredible view. We continued on to Buttermilk Falls where we had our picnic lunches and rested. After lunch, we headed back to Screw Auger Falls so the students could swim and for a few, jump into the pool below the falls. We had a wonderful time and encourage others to hike into Gulf Hagas. The views are spectacular. If you are unfamiliar with the area, talk to someone who has hiked it before and purchase a trail map at the KI checkpoint. It was suggested that we carry a trail map, which we did, but veteran student hiker, Ryan Andrews, proved to be a great guide and the trail map was only used to look at mileage and the elevation we were heading in to. Students participating in the hike included: Miranda McSwine, Liza Comeau, Kate Hamlin, Ben Faulkingham, Ian Carey, Heather Dolley, Ryan Andrews, Matt Ludden and Dillon Conley. When the Boys left – 1917 Milo Town Crier, 10/22/1967 Milo, June 25 [1917] -- Practically the whole town turned out Tuesday morning to give the boys a royal send-off and flags were displayed all over town. The employees of industrial plants appeared at 7:30. The young men assembled on the island under the folds of Old Glory borne by A.E. Leonard, a veteran of the Civil War, where they were greeted with friendly handclasps by all who could get near enough to speak to them and they were presented with comfort kits by the ladies and the Red Cross. The Milo Military band rendered several patriotic selections after which Hon. M.L. Durgin spoke in brief as follows: "I have been asked to say a few words to these young men before they leave and it is with a degree of reluctance that I comply as all my life I have been reluctant to say the good-byes made necessary by circumstances. Duty however demands that we lay aside our sentiments and we do so for the benefit of our country and the human race. I say to those of you who are starting off to the great conflict take this theme with you that your minds forge ahead to the homecoming when this demonstration will fade to insignificance beside the warm welcome you will receive when you come back. This is the time to be optimistic not pessimistic. You are going to help win the war, to plant this flag side by side with that of the allies where it will remain until the world comes into a heritage of sane democracy. You who will have a part in that redemption, remember that we who cannot go will take care of those you leave behind you; are leaving a loyal people who will sustain you; people who will do 'their bit,' here at home for the great cause and you. If there is any man here within the sound of my voice who will not do his bit, he is one to be shunned and avoided as you would shun and avoid a leper. We are either loyal or we are traitors; one could not be more traitorous than to refuse to do one's bit, one best for you who are leaving your homes today in the country's cause. Boys, my boys, our boys we bid you God speed and may He who rules the universe protect you on your mission." The band rendered another selection after which three rousing cheers and a "tiger" were given the boys and by autos you young men were taken to the junction [Derby] to join other comrades who were taking the train to Dover. The boys leaving were Edward and George Ricker, William Reay, Dana J. Gould, Aubrey L. Gould, Charles L. Strout, William Livermore, J.L. Foss, Harry Karp, David R. Boober, Frank Strout, John L. Marshall, Stephen Young, W.L. Doble, George H. Durgin. Many will leave Milo by auto at 5 a.m. Wednesday for Dover to participate in the send off given the boys of the County. Continued Part XIV And now, having established more or less accurately the location of the first district 5 schoolhouse, let’s return to the town records. School critics were apparently still undiscouraged by the categorical treatment they had received at the hands of voters, and they continued to ask for return of their school tax money. More likely it was inconvenience, and the distance from schools that inconsiderate district lines had laid on some, than criticism of the quality of schooling itself that loaded the town warrant at times with requests to draw one’s proportion of school money and school one’s children elsewhere. However, that may be, the requests continued to come in. At the April 3 , 1837 town meeting voters denied the proposal “of Elliot Staples to be set off as a school district by himself (!), or to receive his proportion of school money.” And from this point on we encounter a strange, complete reversal of policy by the town. Every single subsequent application for withdrawal of one’s proportion of school money was granted! And those applications were rather numerous! We’ll return to this unexplained reversal of policy later on in this story. Now I must tell you about Milo’s public lands; write a possible explanation of why public support of the schools wavered from $250 in 1828 down to $75 in 1829 and 1830 and then back up to $150 in 1831; name an official board known by three different appellations and take note of a ghost that once a year, without fail, passes through the town office and then back to its grave! Back in the early days of the nation, especially in the northeast, when a township was laid out, a section of it was left in lands reserved for public use, more especially for the support of schools and of the ministry. These public lands (I got this information from Roy Monroe) amounted, in Milo, and presumably elsewhere, to 1280 acres. They were divided into four separate parcels here of 320 acres each. Revenue from half was dedicated to the support of the ministry, one quarter to the support of schools and one quarter for the use of the state. In unorganized townships these lands couldn’t be sold; in organized townships, like Milo, they could be sold but all profits from the sale had to be devoted to the purposes intended – the ministry, the schools and the state. I don’t know where Milo’s public lands, in their entirety, lay. Some of them were on the back Brownville road; some were around Stanchfield Ridge. Whereabouts of the rest I didn’t seek out since it wasn’t pertinent to this story. The agency set up to have custody of these lands and of the revenue to be derived from them was composed of the Board of Selectmen, the town treasurer and the town clerk. This information is from the book of the clerk of that board from the years 1842 to 1875 which is in the town office. The board is spoken of, in the records of town meetings, sometimes as the Trustees of School Funds; at other times as the Board of Trust of School Funds. In the town treasurer’s records it is know as the Trustees of Ministerial and School Funds. The fact that revenue did come from the public lands could explain why the item for support of schools to be raised at town meeting went from $250, back to $75, in two successive years and then back to $150. The town’s appropriation could have been supplemented by revenues from public lands. The records do nothing to clarify this. We do know: (1) that revenue came from the public lands; and (2) that the Trustees of School Funds had money in its custody. Two articles in the 1837 town warrant make these assumptions conclusive. The first article read: “To see if the said inhabitants (i.e., the voters) will authorize the treasurer to give a note to the Trustees of School Funds for two hundred dollars, borrowed to pay debts last year.” This article was approved. The second article read: “To see if said inhabitants will authorize the Trustees of School Funds to leave grass and timber on the public lots and collect dues for grass and lumber cut heretofore.” This also was approved. If the Board of Trust of School Funds did supplement what the town raised for schools, with revenue in its custody from public lands, then it is clear that the board held a certain surplus – otherwise it could not have loaned the town two hundred dollars out of this fund. This loan was apparently the subject of an obscure article in the warrant and an equally obscure vote at a special town meeting on October 3, 1842. This was the article: “To see what instructions the town will give the Board of Trustees in relation to the school funds.” And the vote was “To instruct the Board of Trustees to do their duty.” This item of two hundred dollars, loaned to the town, evidently in 1836, surfaced again at a special meeting, September 10, 1849, thirteen years after the loan was made. At this meeting the article was “To see if the town will authorize the treasurer to give a nod to the Trustees of School Funds for money used by the town, belonging to said school fund, dating back to the time when said money was used by the town; and further authorize the treasurer to pay interest to school fund from November 1st, 1847 (eleven years after the money was borrowed). The article was approved. Six weeks later, November 28, this long overdue repayment of the two hundred dollars belonging to the school funds came up again before the conscience of the town at a special town meeting. The article read: “To see what instructions the town will give the town treasurer in relation to money used by the town, belonging to the school fund.” The vote was to pass over the article. That was the last time in the records that I noticed any mention of that two hundred dollar loan. This is by no means to charge the long-since-dead members of the Board of Trust of School Funds with dishonesty. If they were guilty of anything meriting reproof, it was their half-hearted dedication to preserving these funds for the use intended. It was no doubt a common failing in many towns besides Milo, pressed for money to meet its obligations, to eye these school (and ministerial?) funds as a possible help to ease the town out of some difficult situation. Kathy is taking a much-needed vacation. “Traditions of A Milo-ite” will resume soon! July 3rd 9-12 15 Highland Ave. Milo KITCHEN QUEEN RETIRES Connie Clement, one of the original kitchen queens, said a final goodbye to the staff and students of Penquis on Friday, June 11th. A dinner celebration was held at the Hitching Post Bed & Breakfast on Monday in her honor. Ginny and her staff thanked Connie for her long time commitment to M.S.A.D. #41 and presented her with a very special "potted" plant. It won't be the same up in “Bakerville” without Connie, but she's passed on all her little cooking secrets to Linda so she will have to take over the bread making. Happy Retirement and best wishes Connie......Love all the girls! Connie bids farewell to the M.S.A.D.#41 staff. Connie was presented with a wonderful ice cream cake made by Susan Mulherin. Ginny and Connie share a special moment at the retirement party. THE MSAD #41 BOCCE TEAM This is the first year we have competed in Bocce and we brought home a gold medal! The girls are (left to right) Miranda Newbert, Crystal Mills, Elizabeth MacIntire and Jamie Kleinkauf. Well, the Discover New Trails @ Your Library summer reading program has begun officially this week. We were very busy Monday with lots of new children signing up, and those who had signed up the previous week coming in to continue the program. On Wednesday we were busy again with the Monday children returning to give us their list of books read, get stars and go down to Story Time where Kathy Dixon-Wallace read to 14 children and 6 adults. Thank you, Kathy. Summer reading program members are quite excited about Traveler, our horse mascot, and many enjoy patting him each time they come into the library. Many of our adult patrons have also comment on what a handsome horse he is. Every child in the program has a chance to win our mascot simply by signing up each week It is never too late to sign up for the program, but the sooner you bring your child into the library, the longer they will enjoy an exciting summer of reading. Last week as I was typing this column on the computer, Tracy Morse came into the library with a great number of juvenile paperbacks in two popular series. She brought in several of the Junie B. Jones series, augmenting our hard cover set, and also brought in quite a few of the Mary Pope Osborne Magic Treehouse series. I had been asked about this series and had just received four new titles-Christmas in Camelot, Haunted Castle on Halloween Eve, High Tide in Hawaii, and Summer of the Sea Serpent. With Tracy’s additions we have a nice selection of this series. Thank you, Tracy. I will now list the single juvenile titles we have recently acquired. ACROSS THE WIDE AND LONESOME PRAIRIE (Dear America) ALL THE STARS IN THE SKY (Dear America) AMBER BROWN IS GREEN WITH ENVY AMELIA BEDELIA –BOOKWORM ARTHUR AND THE 1001 DADS ARTHUR AND THE BAD LUCK BRAIN ARTHUR PLAYS THE BLUES BEAUTIFUL BLACKBIRD (Ashley Bryan-Maine author) BOY ON FAIRFIELD STREET (Dr. Seuss as a boy) CDC (a book using letters as words) DID I EVER TELL YOU HOW LUCKY YOU ARE ( Dr. Seuss) DUCK FOR PRESIDENT FROGGY’S BABY SISTER GET READY FOR SECOND GRADE, AMBER BROWN GIRL OF THE SHINING MOUNTAINS (Dear America) GRANNY TORRELLI MAKES SOUP GUS AND GRAMPA GO FISHING HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE FUNNY LUNCH HENRY AND MUDGE AND THE WILD GOOSE CHASE HORRIBLE HARRY AND THE MUD GREMLINS HOW I BECAME A PIRATE JIMMY’S BOA AND THE BUNGEE JUMP SLAM DUNK JOURNAL OF FINN REARDON ( Dear America) JUDY MOODY PREDICTS THE FUTURE JUNIE B. -ONE MAN BAND JUNIE B. –CHEATER PANTS JUNIE B.-SHIPWRECKED LAND OF THE BUFFALO BONES (Dear America) LITTLE POLAR BEAR AND THE HUSKY PUP MAN WHO WALKED BETWEEN THE TOWERS NOTHING BUT NET (sports) ON BEYOND ZEBRA (Dr. Seuss) ON NOAH’S ARK ( Jan Brett) PANDA BEAR WHAT DO YOU SEE RUSSELL’S SECRET TALE OF DESPEREAUX VERA GOES TO THE DENTIST WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM-1963 Mon.-Weds.-Fri.-2:00-8:00 Please note the library will be closed July 5 In observance of A son, Justin William Hazlett, to Desiree Hazlett of Milo on June 17, 2004. Wt. 7 pounds 8 ounces. A son, Ethan Henry Bishop, to Shannon Greaney and Peter Bishop Sr. of Milo on June 20, 2004. Wt. 7 pounds 8 ounces. President Zamboni greeted fifteen members, the Dexter interclub, and Ed and Ethelyn’s grandsons, Ben and Colby Darling. Eben DeWitt led the Pledge of Allegiance and Paul Grindle recited a prayer. Correspondence: Orono/Old Town newsletter and a notice from the Dexter Club that they will be meeting at the Dexter Café on Main St. beginning June 25. Birthdays-Sonya Salley on the 24th. Anniversaries-Joe and Mary Jane Zamboni on the 25th-Peter and Sheri Conley and Heidi and Leroy Finson on the 28th. Happy dollars were donated for a 32nd wedding anniversary, groundwork started for the gazebo, the town crew doing a great job, being at camp, Red Sox-one in a row, new skateboard business began by 18-year old in Conn., Laconia bike trip, and photos of Laconia trip! The Coffeehouse on July 2 will feature the Old Time Radio Gang and the Smith Brothers. Help is needed to set up and calls have been made for refreshments. The Humble Farmer show is on July 14. The JSI Charity Golf Tournament is scheduled for August 6. Next week is a 5th Wednesday, June 30, and Joe has planned for a “trip up the river”. It will take about two hours for the trip. Bring your own food and beverage. We will leave the Milo waterfront at 6:30 pm. Let Joe know if you can provide additional watercraft. A rain date is tentatively set for the next business-meeting day on July 7. The business meeting today was concerned with the Annual Auction. Plans were made to set up tents, bleachers, tables, yard sale items, pick-ups, etc. Respectfully submitted by Nancy Grant, Secretary. GUESTBOOK ENTRIES FROM THE TRCMAINE WEBSITE Vincent Arsenault, Newington, CT From TRC : No Email : vta39@sbcglobal.net I'm originally from Bangor but living in CT now (and hate it). I was on the Fort Kent site and found your site from your Animal Control Officer (Valerie). I think your site is great. Keep up the good work! 12 June, 2004 at 09:48:28 Bret Perkins, Lynn, Ma From TRC : Yes Email : bperkins@concast.net I look forward to getting into the TRC site each week. I like getting news from up home Joel Robertson, Washougal, Washington From TRC : Originally Email : cameroon313@aol.com Home Page : http://www.goldenrule.upcsites.com Hi y'all. I still have some left over Texas and West Virginia accent. No not really. My wife and I are coming to Milo for a short visit 7-2 to 7-6 and are looking for a bed and breakfast or camp for that time. It's a short visit but I am due in Windsor Locks, CT the afternoon of 7/6 and back in Portland, OR on 7/9. Great site and I enjoy reading the comments. Best regards, Max Burry, Bayswater, Nova Scotia Email : max.burry@ns.sympatico.caIm I'm here at our seasonal (summer) home in Nova Scotia through the end of September. Would enjoy hearing from old friends and classmates. I graduated from MHS in 1953. CHASE AND CO. WIN 1ST ANNUAL CO-ED SOFTBALL TOURNEY Front Row.....2nd baseman: Barb Allen, catcher: Marilyn (Benedict) Lyford, Right Center: Michelle Mulherin. back row......3rd baseman: Colby Chase, 1st baseman: David Chase, Roaming outfielder: Ron Murphy, Left Fielder: Robbie ?, Short-stop: Matt Carey, Pitcher: Steve Hussey and Right Fielder: David Carey. Not pictured....bat boy: Trevor LyforD David Chase and Company won the Brownville Rec. Co-Ed 1st annual softball tournament. The team played 4 games and went undefeated for the tournament. It was a long, but fun day......and I can assure you that there were some sore people on Sunday morning. There were a total of 7 teams involved in the tournament with double elimination. Teams played on both fields and the weather actually held off for the entire day. A big thank you goes out to the Brownville Rec. Committee and Dean Bellatty for doing such a great job. Win or Lose.....everyone enjoyed themselves. Members of the Brownville Rec. Commission have been very busy this summer. This picture was taken at the Co-Ed Softball tournament while some of the members worked in the Snack Shack. Pictured here are Stacey Slagle, Lynn Kearns and Rusty Lawson. Profits from the snack shack benefit recreation programs. WESTMAIN PROSPECT HIGHLAND CRESCENT PLEASANT MORRILL CLINTON SUMMER ALBERT MAPLE WATER COVE PARK MAIN ELM	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1628
__label__wiki	0.520354	0.520354	HomeWhat is Happening to Robin Hood? The Rise and Future of Progressive Redistribution What is Happening to Robin Hood? The Rise and Future of Progressive Redistribution 22 September 2017 Development Matters policyAngus Maddison Lecture, Progressive, Redistribution By Peter H. Lindert, Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of California, Davis1 Prof. Lindert will be delivering the 5th Angus Maddison Lecture on 3 October 2017 as part of the OECD Development Centre’s Angus Maddison Lecture Series during DEV WEEK 2017. Learn more and register to attend A global history of how governments redistribute between rich and middle and poor is unfolding. While such an account can start from new measures of fiscal progressivity in the 21st century, several countries can trace the history of fiscal redistribution in detail back to the 1960s, and then in broad outline back to the start of the 20th century. What that history shows is a global rise in progressivity over the last 100 years. Earlier regimes took less and gave less. Before 1910, redistribution favoured the poor at the expense of the rich only in Britain and the Netherlands during the French War era of 1792 to 1815, as much as it did in the still-penurious government budgets around 1910. Why had Robin Hood still not arrived as late as the dawn of the 20th century? Three restraints blocked progressivity before the 20th century: pervasive poverty (only small surpluses were available to redistribute), lack of fiscal capacity and the delay in extending voting power to the masses, including women. But, were there reversals to progressivity since 1980? Even if brief retreats toward regressivity show up in estimates, they were soon erased. For example, the Thatcher-Reagan revolution and the Bush tax cuts were smaller than the century-long rise of progressivity. Similarly, while Sweden retreated from progressive redistribution since 1983, the country still shifts a greater share of national income down the income ranks than at any time before 1976. The most striking example of reversion to regressivity, aside from the collapse of Communism, was missed by the usual post-1980 debate because it occurred far from the rich-country core, and before 1980. Chile, perhaps, achieved history’s greatest reversion during Pinochet’s initial crackdown and “reforms” of 1973-1980. The reversion was short-lived, however. Since 1990, Chile’s return to democracy caused a dramatic shift toward progressivity. This picture of progressivity’s rise can be further defined. Consider the long-rise of hidden progressivity in the form of adults’ higher and more equal market earning power due to public education funding, which has important implications for the debate on rising inequality since the 1970s. Thanks to the Lee and Lee (2016)2 estimates of educational attainments since 1870, we can now calculate that the rise of public education also brought a dramatic drop in the inequality (gini) of educational attainments amongst adults. Public spending on mass education in any given year equalises adult skills and earning power later on. Yet, conventional calculations of fiscal incidence have missed the key leveling influence of government budgets in all developed countries. The usual calculations treat public schooling as if it were just a short-run service, like babysitting. By comparing the distributions of taxes and expenditures only within a single year, they miss effects that stretch over many years. Given that fiscal incidence has not retreated toward regressivity, the rise in income inequality owes nothing to a net shift away from progressive budgeting. The widening of income gaps since the 1970s has its origins in market forces, not in fiscal incidence favouring the rich. So, what could happen to progressivity in the future? Two recent conjectures seem unlikely, while a third seems most deserving of policy responses. First, many have imagined that the rise of pre-fisc inequality itself could spark an egalitarian political shift. Yet history tends to contradict the idea that pre-fisc inequality breeds progressive redistribution. In the United States, for example, that would have predicted that the masses would have extracted more money from the rich under Presidents Taft or Coolidge than they did under Roosevelt or Truman. A second imagined source of opposition to progressive social spending relates to an immigration backlash. Might immigration undermine the welfare state and reverse the advance of progressive redistribution, as some have suggested? The threat seems real, yet the mechanism is not so obvious. The outcome would surely depend on the form that the backlash takes. Social insurance would face no obvious threat if immigrants were completely shut out, filtered on the basis of skills or discriminated against in the provision of social services. Only if a country admitted large numbers of less-skilled immigrants and declined to discriminate against them in social services would the accompanying tensions threaten progressive redistribution. Germany and Sweden seem to face the highest likelihood of such a dilution of welfare state benefits given the mass influx of Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other refugees since 2014. Still, the dilution has not happened yet. Rather, the clearest threat to progressive social spending seems to come from population aging and political “gray power.” All populations, with the exception of Africa, are aging faster than careers are lengthening, thus raising the share of adult life spent in retirement. In addition, and perhaps in response, policy has shifted toward helping the elderly and keeping them out of poverty, as the OECD and others show. A rise in the share of adult life spent in retirement clearly calls for a drop in average consumption levels of retirees relative to the average earnings of those still working. Yet, few countries have made necessary policy adjustments. Aging and gray power threaten to erode, slowly but surely, the progressive social spending on children and adults under 65, hurting both progressivity and economic growth. 1.↩ Based on the longer discussion paper prepared for the upcoming 5th Angus Maddison Development Lecture, to be delivered at the OECD Development Centre’s Angus Maddison Lecture Series on 3 October 2017, entitled “The Rise and Future of Progressive Redistribution.” 2.↩ Lee, Jong-Wha and Hanol Lee. 2016. “Human Capital in the Long Run” Journal of Development Economics 122 (2016) 147–69. ← Management and industrialisation in Africa Ever heard of SDG washing? The urgency of SDG Due Diligence →	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1636
__label__wiki	0.76275	0.76275	Source: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Resulting in 19 citations. 1. Bennett, Neil G. Bloom, David E. The Influence of Nonmarital Childbearing on the Formation of Marital Unions Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992 Cohort(s): NLSY79, Young Women Publisher: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Aid for Families with Dependent Children (AFDC); Behavior; Childbearing; Fertility; Marriage; Modeling, Hazard/Event History/Survival/Duration; National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) The central objective of this paper is to explore the interrelationships between out-of-wedlock childbearing and subsequent marriage behavior. In Section II we document a negative association between these events in three large survey data sets. We also fit some simple hazard models, which account for the varying degrees of exposure to marriage formation experienced by individuals, that show that this negative association persists (although somewhat less strongly) when one contrasts women who are comparable in terrns of a standard set of social and demographic background variables. In Section III we attempt to disentangle some of the alternative explanations for the negative association between out-of-wedlock childbearing and subsequent marriage. We do this by examining the effect of children (both those maritally and nonmaritally borne) on a woman's remarriage prospects and by analyzing some time use data for unwed mothers and other women. We also explore the presence of reverse causality in the relationship between unwed motherhood and marriage by examining whether women who think they are less likely to marry (for whatever reason) have higher rates of unwed motherhood. Our results are summarized and discussed in Section IV. The data sets were extracted from Cycle IV of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), and the National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women (NLSYW). Bennett, Neil G. and David E. Bloom. "The Influence of Nonmarital Childbearing on the Formation of Marital Unions." Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992. 2. Currie, Janet Thomas, Duncan Nature vs. Nurture? The Bell Curve and Children's Cognitive Achievement Working Paper Series 95-19, Labor and Population Program, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, August 1995 Keyword(s): Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB); Cognitive Ability; Cognitive Development; I.Q.; Intelligence; Intelligence Tests; Mothers, Education; Mothers, Income; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Racial Differences; Test Scores/Test theory/IRT In The Bell Curve, Herrnstein and Murray demonstrate that a mother's score on the Armed Forces Qualification Test is a powerful predictor of her child's score on a cognitive achievement test. We replicate this finding. However, even after controlling for maternal scores, there are significant gaps in the scores of black and white children which suggests that maternal scores are not all that matter. In fact, both maternal education and income are important determinants of child test scores, conditional on maternal AFQT. We argue that racial gaps in test scores matter because even within families, children with higher scores are less likely to repeat grades. However, conditional on both child test scores and maternal AFQT, maternal education and income also affect a child's probability of grade repetition. We conclude that, even if one accepts test scores as valid measures of "nature", both nature and nurture matter. Finally, we show that the effects on child test scores of maternal test scores, education, and income differ dramatically depending on the nature of the test, the age of the child, and race. The results suggest that understanding the relationships between different aspects of maternal achievement and child outcomes may help unravel the complex process through which poverty is transmitted across generations. Currie, Janet and Duncan Thomas. "Nature vs. Nurture? The Bell Curve and Children's Cognitive Achievement." Working Paper Series 95-19, Labor and Population Program, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, August 1995. 3. Geronimus, Arline T. Korenman, Sanders D. Hillemeier, Marianne M. Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; All-Volunteer Force (AVF); Armed Forces Qualifications Test (AFQT); Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Birthweight; Child Development; Child Health; Family Influences; Fertility; First Birth; General Assessment; Heterogeneity; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Marital Status; Mothers; Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT); Siblings; Teenagers; Verbal Memory (McCarthy Scale) We use data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) 1979-1988 to estimate relations between maternal age at first birth and measures of early socioemotional and cognitive development of children. We compare cross-sectional estimates to estimates based on comparisons of first cousins to gauge the importance of bias from family background heterogeneity. Cross-sectional estimates suggest moderate adverse consequences of teen motherhoo for child development. However, children of teen mothers appear to score no worse on measures of development than first cousins whose mothers had first births after their teen years. The evidence suggests that differences in far background of mothers (factors that precede their childbearing years) account for the low scores on measures of socioemotional and cognitive development seen in young children of teen mothers. Geronimus, Arline T., Sanders D. Korenman and Marianne M. Hillemeier. "Does Young Maternal Age Adversely Affect Child Development? Evidence from Cousin Comparisons." Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992. 4. Greene, Angela Dungee Emig, Carol Conference on Father Involvement: A Summary Report Bethesda, MD, NICHD Family and Child Well-Being Research Network by Child Trends, July 1997 Keyword(s): Children, Well-Being; Fathers, Absence; Fathers, Biological; Fathers, Involvement; Household Composition; Parents, Single This report summarizes the presentations and findings from the "Conference on Father Involvement" which took place on October 10 and 11, 1996 and the half-day Methodology Workshop held on October 12, 1996. These activities were sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Family and Child Well-Being Research Network. Conference organizers invited noted researchers to present multidisciplinary perspectives on the study of fatherhood and empirical papers examining aspects of two broad and complementary questions pertaining to factors that predict increased involvement of fathers and the impact of father involvement on child outcomes. Following the main conference a Methodology Workshop was held to provide a forum for more in-depth discussion of methodological issues related to the study of father involvement. This conference was the third in a year-long series of meetings designed to improve the capacity of the federal statistical system to conceptualize, measure, and gather information from men about their fertility and their role as fathers. This series of meetings was organized by representatives of the various federal agencies that gather and use data on children and families, with significant input from leading members of the research community and support from the Ford, Kaiser, and Annie E. Casey Foundations. In addition, the comprehensive work of the Center on Fathers and Families (NCOFF) at the University of Pennsylvania enhances the federal initiative to improve data on fathers. The other meetings in this series' are described in the introduction to this report (pp. 1-5). Greene, Angela Dungee and Carol Emig. "Conference on Father Involvement: A Summary Report." Bethesda, MD, NICHD Family and Child Well-Being Research Network by Child Trends, July 1997. 5. Hofferth, Sandra L. Moore, Kristin Anderson The Consequences of Age At First Childbirth: Causal Models Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978 Cohort(s): Young Women Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Child Health; Childbearing, Adolescent; Children; Earnings; Fertility; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Marriage; Schooling; Welfare The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on later poverty was assessed using two national longitudinal data sets. Analyses are based on annual interviews conducted between l968 and l972 with young women aged 14 to 24 in l968. Information on women aged 22 to 52 in l976, both wives and female heads, was obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between l968 and l976. Related analyses document a direct impact of early childbearing on schooling, marriage, and family size, and an indirect impact on employment, earnings, and welfare recipiency, through its effect on education, marriage,and fertility. To explore these indirect effects, causal models were developed and estimated. Results indicate that the impact of an early birth is complicated and differs among different population sub-groups. Early childbearing was associated with greater poverty in both samples. Hofferth, Sandra L. and Kristin Anderson Moore. "The Consequences of Age At First Childbirth: Causal Models." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. Caldwell, Steven B. The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Labor Force Participation and Earnings Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Career Patterns; Childbearing; Earnings; Employment; Family Influences; Fertility; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Teenagers; Work Experience The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on labor force participation and earnings was assessed using two national longitudinal data sets. Information on women aged 22 to 52 in 1976, both wives and female heads, was obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between 1968 and 1976. A first birth during the teen years does not directly affect whether a woman is working years later, her accumulated work experience, or the occupational status, hours of work, hourly wages, and annual earnings of working women, when other factors are controlled. However, since early childbearing affects schooling and fertility, it has an indirect impact on labor force participation and earnings. For example, teenage childbearers have larger families and consequently accumulate less work experience and earn less per hour net of other factors. Hofferth, Sandra L., Kristin Anderson Moore and Steven B. Caldwell. "The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Labor Force Participation and Earnings." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. 7. McCrate, Elaine Expectations of Adult Wages and Teenage Childbearing Presented: Bethesda, MD, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992 Cohort(s): NLSY79 Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Family Background; Mothers; Regions; Religion; Sex Education; Sex Roles; Teenagers; Wages, Adult; Welfare Teenage mothers typically experience lower adult earnings than other women. Conventional wisdom has emphasized a one-way causal relationship, with teenage childbearing accounting in large measure for low incomes later in life. According to this logic, adolescent mothers make irrational choices, or perhaps exceptionally poorly informed ones: in either case, their decisions ultimately undermine their future economic well-being. Many empirical studies have investigated in detail the hypothesis that teenage childbearing reduces adult earnings and employment opportunity, generally concluding, emphatically, that it does. In this paper I investigate the second opportunity cost hypothesis: whether the expectation of low adult wages increases the probability of adolescent childbearing. I develop a model in which education, wages, and adolescent motherhood are jointly determined, and test it using data from the 1986 cross-section of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. McCrate, Elaine. "Expectations of Adult Wages and Teenage Childbearing." Presented: Bethesda, MD, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992. 8. McLaughlin, Steven D. Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing for the Mother's Occupational Attainment Keyword(s): Age and Ageing; Age at First Birth; Child Health; Childbearing; Childbearing, Adolescent; Educational Attainment; Educational Returns; Family Background; Occupational Attainment; Wages This research provided documentation of the impact of adolescent childbearing on the economic attainment of the mother. Drawing on data from the NLS of Young Women, causal models of economic attainment were estimated separately for subsamples of women having their first child at different ages. The educational attainment of the early childbearer was found to be severely attenuated. Even after socioeconomic background was controlled, the earlier the birth of the first child, the lower the average education. The findings regarding labor force experience were inconclusive; however, there was a slight positive effect from early childbearing on experience. The earning potential of the short- and long-term occupation was found to be negatively associated with early childbearing. The effect was indirect, so that the mother's age at first parity influenced her education which, in turn, influenced her earning potential. In the short term, the adolescent mother was found to realize a far lower rate of economic return to her education. The mother's ability to exchange education for earning potential is reduced as age at first parity declines. This effect was not found in the long term model. The analysis of actual wages earned demonstrated no age-at-first-parity effect. McLaughlin, Steven D. "Consequences of Adolescent Childbearing for the Mother's Occupational Attainment." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1977. Educational and Occupational Aspirations as Determinants of Adolescent Fertility Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Educational Attainment; Family Influences; Fertility; High School Curriculum; Occupational Attainment; Sex Roles; Siblings; Teenagers; Vocational Education Using the 14 to 24-year-old female cohort of the NLS, this report investigates the relationship between high educational and occupational aspirations and fertility. These aspirations are included in an equation along with measures of socioeconomic background, number of siblings, high school curriculum, and sex role attitudes. The equation is estimated separately within four categories of age (14/15, 16, 17, and 18) and two categories of race (white and black). Findings show that racial differences in adolescent fertility disappear for adolescents age 17 and 18 but remain among those who are younger; older white and black adolescents enrolled in a college preparatory high school curriculum are less likely to experience a birth than those enrolled in general vocational or technical curriculum; sex role attitudes and number of siblings do not affect probability of a birth for any of the age-race groups; and educational aspirations significantly affect birth probabilities only among whites age 14/15 and 17. Analyses show overall, however, that the adolescent fertility process is not profoundly influenced by aspirations. McLaughlin, Steven D. "Educational and Occupational Aspirations as Determinants of Adolescent Fertility." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1981. 10. Moore, Kristin Anderson Hofferth, Sandra L. The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Family Size Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Age at First Marriage; Children; Earnings; Fertility; First Birth; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Schooling; Teenagers The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on family size was assessed using two national longitudinal data sets. Analyses are based on annual interviews conducted between l968 and l972 with the Young Women's cohort of the NLS. Information on women age 22 to 52 in l976, both wives and female heads, was obtained from Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between l968 and l976. Analyses on both data sets provide strong support for an association between an early first birth and higher subsequent fertility. Among PSID women aged 35 to 52, mothers whose first child was born when they were 17 or younger bore an average of more than five children each, approximately three children more per mother compared to women who delayed their first birth to age 24 or later. Age at first birth is found to have a far greater impact on fertility than age at first marriage. Moore, Kristin Anderson and Sandra L. Hofferth. "The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Family Size." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Female Headed Families and Welfare Recipiency Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Childbearing, Adolescent; Childbearing, Premarital/Nonmarital; Children; Earnings; Employment; First Birth; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Marriage; Teenagers; Welfare The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on female-headed families and welfare recipiency was assessed using two national longitudinal data sets. Analyses are based on annual interviews conducted between l968 and l972 with the Young Women's cohort of the NLS. Information on women aged 22 to 52 in l976, both wives and female heads, was obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between l968 and l976. Teenage childbearing per se does not appear to be related to subsequent female headship, although a premarital first birth and a teenage marriage do predict to later being a female household head. The strong association between early childbearing and receipt of welfare disappears when controls for education, family size, labor force participation, age at marriage and race are included. Moore, Kristin Anderson and Sandra L. Hofferth. "The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Female Headed Families and Welfare Recipiency." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Final Research Summary Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Children; Fertility; First Birth; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Marriage; Schooling; Teenagers The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on her subsequent social and economic status was assessed using two national longitudinal data sets. Analyses are based on annual interviews conducted between l968 and l972 with the Young Women's cohort of the NLS. Information on women aged 22 to 52 in l976, both wives and female heads was obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between l968 and l976. Analyses indicate that an early first birth reduces the amount of schooling a young woman is able to complete, even net of family background, motivation, and age at marriage, particularly among white and high school age mothers. Teenage mothers also have substantially larger families, net of controls. An early birth does not increase marital dissolution, except indirectly by precipitating teenage marriages. The variables in turn affect earnings, income and the probability of poverty. Moore, Kristin Anderson and Sandra L. Hofferth. "The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Final Research Summary." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. Meyers, David E. Morrison, Donna Ruane Nord, Christine Winquis Teenage Childbearing and Poverty Presented: Bethesda, MD, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", National Institutes of Health, May 18-19, 1992 Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Age at First Birth; Age at First Marriage; Childbearing, Adolescent; Fertility; Hispanics; Poverty An association between teenage parenthood and subsequent poverty has been noted for several decades. However, because early childbearing is more common among women from disadvantaged backgrounds, whether teenage childbearing increases the probability of poverty over and above the risk due to background factors has not been clear. In this paper, the effect of the timing of the first birth on the ratio of family income to the poverty threshold for the family is examined using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. All women are age 27 when studied. Direct effects are not hypothesized; rather the effect of age at first birth is expected to be mediated by intervening variables including educational attainment, age at first marriage, family size, women's work experience and earnings, and the earnings of other members of the household. Structural equation models are estimated, taking into account background variables that affect both selection into early childbearing and the outcome variables in the model, and employing a variant of Amemiya's principle to deal with problems of censoring and selectivity. Results indicate that age at first birth has a substantial effect on the ratio of family income to the poverty threshold at age 27 among blacks, Hispanics, and whites, though the effect is particularly large among blacks and Hispanics. Age at first birth is found to have a significant direct effect on highest grade completed and number of children among all three race/ethnicity groups. In addition, age at first birth has a significant direct effect on age at first marriage among whites. These variables in turn affect family income and thus poverty. Moore, Kristin Anderson, David E. Meyers, Donna Ruane Morrison and Christine Winquis Nord. "Teenage Childbearing and Poverty." Presented: Bethesda, MD, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", National Institutes of Health, May 18-19, 1992. Glei, Dana A. Ebbing and Flowing, Learning and Growing: Family Economic Resources and Children's Development Presented: Washington, DC, Workshop on Welfare and Child Development, sponsored by the Board on Children and Families and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Family and Child Well-Being Network, 1994 Cohort(s): Children of the NLSY79 Keyword(s): Child Development; Children, Well-Being; Family Resources; Family Studies Moore, Kristin Anderson, Donna Ruane Morrison and Dana A. Glei. "Ebbing and Flowing, Learning and Growing: Family Economic Resources and Children's Development." Presented: Washington, DC, Workshop on Welfare and Child Development, sponsored by the Board on Children and Families and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development's Family and Child Well-Being Network, 1994. Waite, Linda J. The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Educational Attainment The Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978 Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Children; Earnings; Educational Attainment; Family Influences; Fertility; First Birth; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Marriage; Schooling The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on the amount of schooling she completes was assessed using two national, longitudinal data sets. National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) analyses are based on annual interviews conducted between l968 and l972 with young women aged 14 to 24 in l968. Information on women aged 22 to 52 in l976, both wives and female heads, was obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between l968 and l976. Results from analyses on both data sets indicate that early childbearing is associated with significant educational losses, even when the impact of family background, educational goals, and age at marriage are statistically controlled. There is some evidence that older women catch up slightly; but in no instance did even half of the women who became mothers at 17 or younger manage to complete high school. Losses appear to be particularly great for white teenage mothers and for young women who marry as teenagers. Moore, Kristin Anderson, Linda J. Waite, Steven B. Caldwell and Sandra L. Hofferth. "The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Educational Attainment." The Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Marriage, Separation and Divorce Keyword(s): Age at First Birth; Childbearing, Adolescent; Children; First Birth; Income Dynamics/Shocks; Marital Dissolution; Marriage; Teenagers The impact of a woman's age at the birth of her first child on marriage, separation and divorce was assessed using two national longitudinal data sets. Analyses are based on annual interviews conducted between l968 and l972 with the Young Women's cohort of the NLS. Information on women aged 22 to 52 in l976, both wives and female heads, was obtained from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) interviews, which were conducted between l968 and l976. A link between early pregnancy and early marriage was confirmed. An issue of greater debate-the associations among early childbearing, early marriage, and subsequent marital dissolution, was explored in varied ways. Analyses indicate that early marriage, rather than an early birth, increases the probability of subsequent marital break- up. Early childbearing does contribute to marital break-up indirectly, however, since pregnancy is a factor that precipitates many teenage marriages. Moore, Kristin Anderson, Linda J. Waite, Sandra L. Hofferth and Steven B. Caldwell. "The Consequences of Age at First Childbirth: Marriage, Separation and Divorce." Final Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 1978. 17. Morrison, Donna Ruane Maternal Age at First Birth and Children's Behavior and Cognitive Development Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Age at First Birth; Behavior Problems Index (BPI); Children, Behavioral Development; Fathers, Absence; Fertility; General Assessment; Home Observation for Measurement of Environment (HOME); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Math); Peabody Individual Achievement Test (PIAT- Reading); Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) The aim of this paper is to further illuminate the processes through which an early birth affects child well-being. Since it is not possible to capture the developmental status and well-being of a child with a single indicator, such as an IQ score, most child experts prefer a developmental profile that covers a breadth of dimensions or domains. For this reason, this study examines the effect of the mother's age at first birth on three measures related to the child's cognitive development and academic achievement -- the reading and mathematics sub-scales of the Peabody Individual Achievement Test cognitive, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) -- and one measure of social behavior -- the child's score on the mother-rated Behavior Problems Index (BPI). The study uses a national-level sample of children and limits its analysis to first borns to eliminate the possible confounding influence of birth order. The explicit assumption of the present study is that the consequences of being born to a teenage mother do not derive from the mother's age per se, but are largely the product of the correlates of early child-bearing such as low maternal education and father absence, some of which reflect selectivity into early motherhood and some of which are consequences of the timing of her first birth. Morrison, Donna Ruane, Kristin Anderson Moore and David E. Meyers. "Maternal Age at First Birth and Children's Behavior and Cognitive Development." Presented: Bethesda, MA, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 1992. 18. Mott, Frank L. Fertility-Related Data in the 1982 National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth: An Evaluation of Data Quality & Some Preliminary Analytical Results Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda MD, 1983 Keyword(s): Abortion; Adolescent Fertility; Behavior; Birth Rate; Child Care; Contraception; Data Quality/Consistency; Fertility; Male Sample; Methods/Methodology; Sexual Activity; Teenagers; Wantedness The quality of the fertility related data in the 1982 round of the NLSY is evaluated, and highlights of findings from these fertility data are summarized. The study specifies the potential magnitude of reporting errors, how these potential error levels are related to characteristics of the respondents, and the procedures used to clean up the fertility records. Differentials in period and cohort birth rates are also examined, as are sexual activity and contraception, birth wantedness, and pregnancy outcomes for selected respondent characteristics within cross tabular and multivariate frameworks. The multivariate results suggest the utility of a variety of background factors and more proximate respondent attitudes and behaviors for investigating a variety of adolescent and young adult fertility related attitudes and behavior. Mott, Frank L. "Fertility-Related Data in the 1982 National Longitudinal Survey of Work Experience of Youth: An Evaluation of Data Quality & Some Preliminary Analytical Results." Report, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda MD, 1983. 19. Upchurch, Dawn M. Early Schooling and Childbearing Experiences: Implications for Post-Secondary School Attendance Presented: Bethesda, MD, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 18-19, 1992 Keyword(s): Adolescent Fertility; Childbearing, Adolescent; Family Background; Fertility; Heterogeneity; Household Composition; Mothers, Education; Schooling, Post-secondary A continuing research question among social scientists concerns the relationship between educational attainment and fertility, and of specific interest has been better understanding the relationship between educational attainment and adolescent fertility. Early studies suggested that adolescent mothers suffered educational deficits due primarily to the interruption of high school, thereby blocking their entry into post-secondary schooling. Later studies, recognizing that not all adolescent mothers drop out of high school permanently, suggested that even for those young mothers who were eligible to attend post-secondary school, their rates of entry and completion were lower than women who were not adolescent mothers. Fully understanding how adolescent childbearing and education are inter-linked is crucial to forming valid conclusions regarding the social consequences of adolescent childbearing, especially as they relate to poverty. This paper attempts to further define relevant categories of young women (based on their high school and childbearing experiences), to compare these groups conditioned on a number of characteristics, and to examine the impact on post-secondary school attendance. It is new in its approach because it considers fertility and schooling as joint decisions and allows for heterogeneity between the groups of women. In addition, it tests specific mechanisms by which adolescent mothers education might be hindered: "blockage" and "persistent disadvantage." Upchurch, Dawn M. "Early Schooling and Childbearing Experiences: Implications for Post-Secondary School Attendance." Presented: Bethesda, MD, NICHD Conference, "Outcomes of Early Childbearing: An Appraisal of Recent Evidence", May 18-19, 1992.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1645
__label__wiki	0.532091	0.532091	Maurice Labi – Stories and Experiences from Galilee, Israel Notes From Galilee Tag Archives: Jewish settlers A Moment (or 50 years) of Reflection A few months ago my twin daughters got their first summons for active military duty. At 08:00 they appeared in a large building with dozens of other would-be girl soldiers where they took a physical and a written aptitude test. The ordeal lasted for a better part of the day; interviewers stepped in and out of the office, asked questions and jotted down notes in their “military file.” In the near future they will be ordered to appear again, this time to help determine what’s the best post for them and what’s best for the State of Israel. My daughters came home very excited, not sure how they performed and whether they will be stationed close to home or on a base far away for the mandatory 24 month enlistment. I too was excited for them. They will acquire skills like no one’s business, they will learn how to shoot a rifle, engage in self-defense drills, trek over desert terrain, sleep outdoors, serve with men soldiers and establish friendships and experiences for a lifetime. And then, two weeks ago, this idyllic and patriotic notion shattered when 19 year-old woman soldier Hadar Cohen was killed by an armed Arab terrorist. The latest round of violence that’s lasted 4 months, and what many define as the third Intifada, has claimed the lives of 35 Jewish-Israelis. The attacks are random which makes them even more terrifying. The terrorists are young, too young, 80% are under age 25. They come from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and for many their attack is their first encounter with a Jew. And they keep coming after us. They’re being incited by their leadership but that would be only half the truth. Many are encouraged through social media to be the next shahid, a Muslim martyr, to avenge the honor of their families, to make it to Heaven, to escape the desperation and hell they’re in now, to score points with their fellow-friends, to brag of bravery, to instill pain and horror in Jews, to save their Palestine from infidels, to act out domestic violence at their village, for kicks, for fun, and for whatever the f*** the reason, they keep coming and coming, with stones, with knives, with guns. Hadar Cohen, young Israeli recruit border-patrol soldier killed by Arab terrorists What makes me mad is that Israel’s leadership, civil and military, think that if they apply more pressure, put more Arab towns under siege, close off roads, erect fences and dig ditches, install concrete barricades, stretch concertina wire in fields, uproot olive groves, arrest people in the dead of night, blow up the homes of terrorists, refuse to return the bodies of the dead terrorists, threaten the Arabs with more measures– that all this will somehow stop terrorism. It will not. What’s more maddening is that most of the Israeli public, undoubtedly terrorized, is actually buying into its leadership’s bullshit. Family members grieve and wail at open, fresh graves to bury the Jewish victims. The surviving spouse, brother, sister, mother, father speak of their lost ones. The next day newspapers splash the photos of the killed with some touching biography. TV reporters interview the grieving family and all is shown on prime-time night after night after night. The first time, four months ago, I was glued to the screen, shocked. Four months later, I no longer ache. I’m just mad. Mad at the ineptitude of Israel’s military for not saving Hadar Cohen. She recently enlisted, was fresh out of boot camp and was stationed at a border-crossing as a patrol soldier. Her experience was next to none. An Arab opened fire and killed her. The military made excuses, said she was partnered with an experienced officer. Try explaining this to her parents. There is little chance this round of violence will end soon. Israel is doing the same thing for almost 50 years, since the Six-Day War in 1967, when it annexed the West Bank. Over the past 50 years Israel has taken over large sections of the West Bank, built towns, cities and settlements that today number 1/2 million Jews. Right and Left wing governments over the past decades have entrenched the settlements and their near-fanatic residents that it would take divine intervention to pull them out. Would He? Settlers will never leave willingly their “God-promised” land. No Israeli government, Left or Right, has the balls to undo what was done. Billions are poured into the settlements at the expense of crumbling towns and the neglect of the poor in “proper” Israel. I see it daily in Galilee. We’re at a point of no-return. Israel continues internationally and domestically to make the impression that our survival is in question. Bull. Israel is the strongest military power in the Middle East and beyond. We have enough tanks, planes and submarines to bury any Arab nation. We’re a net exporter of military hardware and software to rival the Americans, English, French and Russians. Yet we continue to act like victims. I don’t care much for the Arabs. Like or not, they’re here to stay. A century ago we should have taken the offer to build a Jewish homeland in Argentina (nothing like a juicy steak from the Pampas), or in Uganda (At least take a train to vacation on the Indian ocean), but luck would have it that we’re stuck and surrounded by a bunch of Arabs. I did not count the wars–10?–with the Arabs since 1948. And we’re still fighting. More and more men, women, children are killed daily on both sides. I can’t speak for the Arabs. Nor can I speak for the Israeli government, but every generation or two there rises a wo(man) who might lead us out of this nightmare. I think we’re long overdue. Hadar Cohen, 19, you’re dearly missed–you’re but two years older than my daughters. It’s not suppose to be so. I love you, Hadar. Maurice Labi is an Israeli-American who lived in Los Angeles for many years. In 2011 He returned to Northern Israel (Galilee) with his wife and twin teenage daughters. He is of two lands, of two cultures and he blogs about his experiences in Israel, particularly from Galilee where Jews and Arabs dwelled for centuries. He has also written three novels: “Jupiter’s Stone,” “Into the Night,” and “American Moth” — available at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Maurice-Labi/e/B00A9H4XEI or at BN.com http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/maurice-labi?store=allproducts&keyword=maurice+labi Tags: Arab terrorism, Galilee, Hadar Cohen, Israel, Jewish settlers, Left wing, Right wing, settlements, third Intifada, West Bank Build and they shall not come Israel has a relatively attractive figure: tall with narrow hips; the midsection widens then tapers off at the feet. Galilee occupies the north, the Negev Desert stretches in the south, and at the center of things – Tel Aviv. Distance of towns from Tel Aviv as a measure of success For the past several years, the government through its ministry of transportation is attempting to decentralize the country. Around Galilee where I live there’s highway and bridge construction that would make proud a nation ten times Israel’s size. Mountains are being shoved aside, cranes, bulldozers carry giant boulders like toy things. Trucks haul dirt by the millions of cubic yards. Driving to teach in Upper Galilee I eat red dust for breakfast, and on my return, brown dust for lunch. As much as these 21st century modern highway arteries pump blood into Galilee and Negev Desert, they have really one purpose in mind – to connect them, you guessed it, to Tel Aviv. Everyone in the media and in government talks about the need to develop the outer fringes of the country at the expense of the center. It’s just talk. These new roads and bridges don’t keep thousands of young men and women from swarming to Tel Aviv and its suburbs. Tens of kilometers of railway tracks being laid down have one purpose – bring the masses to Tel Aviv. Israelis (and foreigners) moving to Tel Aviv are willing to put up with horrible traffic, congestion, apartments the size of shoe boxes, arrogant landlords who demand one year’s rent up front. Why put up with such abuse? Jobs. Hipness. Vibe. Sea. Opportunity. These are some of the reasons. Galilee is 60% Arab. So I’m a minority of sorts in my own backyard. The Negev, mostly desert, is vast and desolate. The Israeli military will be moving many of its Tel Aviv installations to the Negev in the coming years. While Tel Aviv gets more freed up land for sky scrapers, the Negev gets army barracks and training grounds. Galilee gets domestic tourism and food-processing plants. road construction in Galilee Tel Aviv gets it all, the rest of Israel gets scraps. Jerusalem? Yes, it’s the capital and the seat of government, and not much more unless you count 40% disgruntled Arabs in the East of the city, and pockets of ultra-orthodox Jews who still think they live in 19th century Europe. What about the West Bank, aka Judea and Samaria? The 400,000 Jewish settlers there don’t care much about Tel Aviv; they’re too busy surviving, praying, and fighting the Palestinian Arabs over land. Why fight them there when you could come and fight good-old native Arabs in Galilee? I step outside my Kfar Tavor home in Galilee and go for a walk in the beautiful trails and fields. Almond, olive and grape vines surround me. It’s pretty. But ask anyone in Tel Aviv if they’d be willing to move here, and you’ll get a laugh. Sure, it’s romantic, it’s reminiscent of the days the first Jewish immigrants returned to the Land of Israel, the air is cleaner (most days), and… that’s about it. I keep walking down the trails. In the very distance, I see the hillsides of Jordan. If I were to get in the car, I’ll be in Lebanon in one hour. Although Tel Aviv is less than 2 hours away (110 km), it’s a different country. Bridge construction in Galilee Tel Hai College is a cottage industry in Galilee, minutes from the Lebanese border. Over 4000 students attend. Most come from the center of the country, near Tel Aviv. They want to get away from the big city, learn and enjoy country-style living. Asked recently if they’d stay in Galilee after graduation and seek a job, make the place their home, only 10% said “yes.” I get in the car and drive to Zefat in the north. Hammers pound the roadside. Concrete is being poured. Men flatten black, steamy asphalt with rakes. For whom, I wonder? The radio’s on. Patriotic Israeli songs about the good old days (in Galilee) are heard. I tap my fingertips on the steering wheel. Dust hits the windshield. Haze all around. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=maurice+labi&rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Amaurice+labi Tags: Arabs, Galilee, Jerusalem, Jewish settlers, Judea and Samaria, Negev, Palestine, Tel Aviv, Tel Hai college, ultra-orthodox Jews, West Bank Your Land is my Land Imagine yourself waking up one morning and finding yourself in a different country. You don’t remember packing, you don’t recall crossing a border, and yet, outside, there’s a “foreign” flag rippling in the wind. You recognize the flag, but it’s not your own. Avigdor Liberman This so-called dream might become a reality for thousands of Israeli-Arabs after the Israeli upcoming general elections only a month away. I’m speaking of Avigdor Liberman’s initiative, Israel’s foreign minister until not long ago, and his political party “Israel, Our Home.” His plan is simple and straightforward: Transfer Israeli-Arabs to a future Palestine. This would solve the Arab problem, create a more homogeneous Jewish state. He’s speaking of residents who live exclusively in Arab villages, in Israel, along the “stitch-line” of the Israel/West Bank border and some villages further north, on the road leading to Galilee, a place I call home. Liberman, a staunch right-wing politician, was born in Moldova, one of the Soviet Union’s former republics. At age 20 he immigrated to Israel. In time, he joined Netanyahu and moved up the ranks. Russian Jews, who are generally right-wing and against making concessions to Arabs, further helped Liberman climb the political ladder. Liberman’s Elections Campaign: Swap Arab city Um El Fahem for Jewish Settlement Ariel Why does Liberman bring up this land-swap idea now? His party has been recently rocked by scandal. Officials in his party are under investigation, accused of siphoning money, controlling and awarding contracts, receiving bribes. Although he’s not personally accused, he’s suffered a black eye. The fallout is evident. Would-be voters and supporters are abandoning ship. According to latest polls, his current 14 seats in Israel’s parliament, will be reduced to 6 on election day. So, in pure Putin-fashion, Liberman is getting on his horse and is trotting all over the Israeli map to sell his idea. His campaign to transfer Arabs appears in newspapers and highway billboards. There’s one such billboard at the entrance to my home village in Kfar Tavor. It reads: Um El Fahem to Palestine Ariel to Israel Bottom Line: Liberman -“Israel, Our Home.” The message speaks to the conservative base. At first glance, the message is appealing, even intoxicating. What’s not to like? Throw them out. All of them. The city Um El Fahem is a buzz-word for Arab trouble-makers, and for good reason. In the 2000 Arab Intifada, Arab residents blocked Wadi Ara, the highway that goes though their city, essentially cutting off Israel in two. The burning tires and stone-throwing are long gone, but their bad-ass image remains to this day. So, it’s no wonder, Liberman wants to get rid of all 50,000 Arabs in the city, send them to Palestine, where they belong. Jewish city Ariel But do they belong in Palestine? Under the law, they’re Israeli citizens. Their forefathers had lived on this land long before Israel was established. In Liberman’s view, Um El Fahem is nothing more than a bargaining chip, to be exchanged for Ariel. Is that a fair or even exchange? Ariel is a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, also known as biblical Judea and Samaria. Any way you call Ariel, it did not exist, at least not in its present form until 1978. Ariel, now numbering 20,000 Jews, sits in occupied territory. The town offers enviable municipal services, parks, schools, and even a university. Arab city Um El Fahem Liberman wants to eat the blintzes and have them too; he wants both to transfer the Arabs from Israel and keep Jews in occupied territory. The rules of his games are odd. He doesn’t ask the Arabs if they want to play; they’re moved off the board game. He’s decided Jewish Ariel will be included in a Greater Israel. What if Ariel were to be a Jewish outpost inside Palestine? Would it not be sinilar to a West Berlin behind Israel’s own wall? Sensing that his block of seats in parliament will further strengthen a conservative government, he’d already let be known that he will no longer seek the foreign minister position. Instead, he wants to be minister of defense. If that were to happen, could the land-swap proposal go beyond elections rhetoric, and really happen? Smelling something’s in the air, the four or five Israeli-Arab parties, who were always splintered and stepping over each other’s toes, decided to put their differences aside. They’re going into the elections as one block. Analysts predict their united party might be the 3rd largest in parliament. No Jewish party, Left or Right, would do business with them, but that’s beside the point. I don’t like Wadi Ara. The road leading to the coast goes through the Wadi. The road is narrow, the traffic lights are slow, the Arab truck drivers zigzag all over the place; it’s a hazard. But I don’t see myself getting off the road and throwing the first Arab I see over the border. They, too, when asked, don’t want to leave. More than 85% want to stay in Israel. Can you blame them? They do well financially. Originally, they used to peddle coal (Fahem, in Arabic) from the forests on the hilltops. Today, they haul heavy-duty loads on semi-trailers, they work in road construction, manufacturing, auto industry. They’re not stupid. They see the turmoil in the West Bank, in Gaza, in Jordan, in Syria. They’re Israeli and they want to remain Israeli. They don’t like us, and I don’t love them much, either. Tough. Liberman is playing with fire. The game can be played two-ways. In Galilee, Arabs are the majority. As a Jew, I’m a minority in Galilee. Who’s to stop Arabs in Galilee from wanting to establish their own “nation” here. As is it, the Jewish-Israeli authorities, police, social workers, and such hardly set foot in Arab villages. Arabs run their own show. Worse yet, Arabs in mixed cities (Jews and Arabs) such as Haifa, Jaffa, Acco, Lod, Ramla, Nazareth – they may claim their own “autonomy.” Before long, Israel will turn into Swiss cantons. Only instead of dipping their bread into fondue, Jews and Arabs should first smell the hummus. This is a centuries-old conflict. It cannot be solved unilaterally. Liberman’s idea is sexy and populist. But it’s a non-starter, a dead-end, a dangerous political game. No one’s going anywhere. Jews and Arabs are here for the long haul. Deal with it, Liberman. Tags: Acco, Arabs, Ariel, Avigdor Liberman, Galilee, Haifa, Israel, Israel our home, Israel's elections, Jaffa, Jewish settlers, Jews, Judea Samaria, Kfar Tavor, Moldova, Occupied Territories, Palestine, President Putin, Tel Aviv, Um El Fahem, Wadi Ara, West Bank Maurice Labi Tribute to Old Man and the Sea Beer Lover’s Paradise in Galilee Life is like a box of dynamite It’s Spring – You’re invited to Galilee Kissed by a Fascist Dictator When in Israel, Don’t Act American Peacefulness amidst Chaos Playing Arab Roulette Deterrence that does not Deter A kitchen Knife Wrapped in Conspiracy Theory The Chinese are Coming! Almond Fields Forever God is watching… PART 2 God is watching…PART 1 Ich bin ein Berliner – Maybe Living in a Bubble Run Maya Run Why Live in Israel? Guns N’ Roses (and Pencils) Twilight Zone in Tel Aviv A Bus with a View To Chase Down a Turkey in Galilee The (young) Old Man and the Sea Muslims Barking at Dogs What $10 will get you in Galilee Greek Fish Out of Water It’s the Land, Stupid Third Year Report Card from Galilee Why Israel Won the War on Gaza. and Lost. Gaza Rockets, Bomb Shelters and Rock Music Stop the Train – I want to get off! Confessions of a World Cup Slob Beware, Lifeguard on Duty “Price Tag” may prove costly for Israel Independence Day Up in Smoke My bed is your bed for $100 Are you happier than an Israeli? Jerusalem of Gold, Dollars, Euros Springtime in Galilee He (ain’t) Heavy – He’s my brother? Uncivilized Civilians A Teacher from Galilee Israel – the Land of High-Priced Milk… and Honey Circumcision. Take one. Action. Cut! Blue Blood, Red Blood – Fade to Black Hebrew’s origin found in London. Almost Love beyond the Jewish grave Follow me around Galilee	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1648
__label__cc	0.542626	0.457374	← Excerpt from Europa (A Woman Sleeping) The Day Came When She Discovered Sex… → Will Facebook Win the Next Nobel Prize for Literature? Will Wine Intoxication Ever Become Mandatory for Shepherds? …An Afternoon with Authors Pietros Maneos and Roman Payne. (See the original interview at www.literaturemonthly.com) They are both Americans, both highly-literary: Payne is the author of five novels that take place in Europe and follow the lives of itinerant dreamers who wander the world in search of adventure, meaning, and the “poetic life.” Like his characters, Payne, 38, is an itinerant dreamer who lives in Paris, wanders in Europe, and devotes his time to “living the Homeric life,” and “inventing the next novel.” Payne and Maneos are both published by Aesthete Press. Above, Left: Roman Payne (Photo, copyright 2014: Marta Szczesniak, Photography) \| Above, Right: Pietros Maneos. NOTE: SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE FOR FULL-SIZED PHOTOS OF THE AUTHORS. Maneos, 35, is no less a son of the divine Homer. He seeks aesthetic perfection in all things: his life, his Ancient Greek body, and his literature, which, like Payne’s, marries Classicism and Romanticism. Unlike other professional authors who seek the cliché in mid-life of some kind of professorship at a university, or a pay check in exchange for scholary pursuits in a library, Maneos chose a life that few have managed to live since the decline of the Ancient Roman aristocracy: he purchased 40-acres of Eden in North Carolina where he is constructing a vineyard to live his own version of a life like one of his heroes: the Roman literary-patron Gaius Maecenas. “Bramabella” is the name that Maneos chose for his vineyard—a construction of two Italian words that, assembled, mean “yearning for beauty.” The two authors and the editor Jean Sitori are sitting in the office of the newspaper Literature Monthly in Paris. Jean is entranced as he watches Maneos stand and demonstrate how to properly hurl the discus. After a moment, Jean turns his attention to Payne… JEAN SITORI: Roman, speaking of hurling the discus, you just got back from Greece where you were living for about four months… Are you happy to be back in France? Were you writing well in Greece? PAYNE: I am always happy to be back in France—that is why I almost never leave France to begin with. When I get tricked into leaving France, I almost always regret it afterwards. I initially went to Greece this trip to research my next novel at a place on the beach just outside of Athens. But the weather got bad, the sea turned cold and violent—fault of Poseidon! I can deal with nasty weather. But when the inspiration to write disappears, I lose my mind. Here I was in Greece: the birthplace of the muses, and they had abandoned me. I tried all the tricks to get literary inspiration back: yoga, running, hard alcohol, nothing worked. My thoughts were so black that I became convinced that writing was something that was no longer a part of me at all. Now, back in France, I suddenly feel like writing again; and my work is going well. JS: Are you reading at present? PAYNE: No. When I am writing well, I do not read. Reading takes valuable time away, and it puts another man’s or woman’s style in your head to mar your own. What are you reading at present, Jean? Jean makes a wholehearted laugh at this and says, “Let’s see… what am I reading these days?” With that, he begins leafing through a copy of the woman’s magazine Grazia, which he said, had “mysteriously” appeared in his briefcase that day. After scanning a blonde woman smoking a cigar for a moment, his eyes light up. He’d found an article worth commenting on to his guests. Jean summarized the article… Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg told Grazia that he made it his 2015 New Year’s resolution to, quote, “read more literature,” and to finish a book every two weeks. This resolution, he said, inspired him to make reading “chic” (we didn’t know that Zuckerberg had a magic wand for making things chic, but why not?!), so he has created a Facebook page called “A Year of Books.” It currently has just over 350,000 likes. JS: Pietros, what do you think of Zuckerberg’ public display of affection for reading? MANEOS: Well, I think that it is noble of Mr. Zuckerberg to do so, especially as the head of a technology company, since society seems to be awhirl over technological platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine and others, which has perhaps led to a decline in the written word. Not that there aren’t a plethora of authors flooding the marketplace, but it seems that modern man has lost the ability to sit quietly with a book for an extended period of time without succumbing to the lure of online ephemera’ JS: Some of the books Zuckerberg said he is reading are excellent titles. Perhaps his publicist thought them up to make the Facebook founder seem complex and interesting, or perhaps he really is interesting. Anyway, many of the titles delve into the Baroque, others into Romanticism, others into Ornate Gothic Style… since your own books are complex and ornate, and explore Baroque Romanticism, do you foresee that pop-culture is going to lean more in your direction and away from current trends, like Philip Roth ? MANEOS: Well, I think popular culture and literary culture are two disparate entities. With regard to popular culture, I think that it is enamored with ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ and other such works, no? But now transitioning to literary culture, I don’t think that there has been much cultural shift from the irony, cynicism, and anti-aestheticism of the previous epoch. I still think that many writers and artists are busy declaiming ‘Isn’t it pretty to think so?’, while writing in short, spare, suburban sentences. I, of course, have rejected this trend for a Baroque aestheticism that one finds in personages like D’Annunzio and Kazantzakis. I embrace epithet, adjective, apposition and heightened musicality, which are despised by many moderns. So, I certainly consider myself part of a burgeoning counter-culture of To Kalon in modernity along with such movements in the visual arts such as Post-Contemporary. JS: Pietros, just what is it about “Baroque aestheticism” that you embrace? And can you explain the term a little for our readers who have turned a blind eye to that phrase up until now? MANEOS: An example of Baroque aestheticism might be, ‘The light, soft and sensuous, brushed across the crest of the Brushy Mountain,’ where spare, suburban 20th century minimalism would simply say, ‘The light hit the Brushy Mountain.’ The great Matthew Arnold once noted, ”The instinct for beauty is served by Greek literature and art as it is served by no other literature and art,’ and I am striving to continue this Hellenic sensibility in the 21st century. JS: Pietros, when one reads your work; or talks to you personally, and listens to your music playlists, one feels that you are more Greek than any full-blood Greek currently alive in Athens, or in Sparta, or Macedonia… How come you didn’t start Bramabella in Greece instead of America? Or at least, why don’t you live six months of the year in North Carolina, and six months of the year in Greece? MANEOS: Well, although I am Greek by descent and sensibility as an ardent student of classical antiquity, I do not speak demotic Greek, so that alone would be a challenge. Additionally, Greece is suffering under dire economic conditions, so if I ventured there, I might end up starving to death, ha! Also, similarly to the orator/philosopher Isocrates, I have always believed that Greece or rather Hellenism is not so much of a language, or a land-mass as it is a world-view, a philosophy, if you will. Figures like Oscar Wilde, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Paul Cartledge, John Boardman and many other Artist/Scholars are as Hellenic as any Greek whose last name happens to end in ‘os’ by happenstance. You too, my friend, are Hellenic even though you were born in America, and have elected to reside abroad. Though, I must make a final confession to you – Traveling to Greece to raise a classicizing army to battle ISIL in Syria-Iraq does intrigue me, as it is perfumed with both Herakleanism and Byronism. JS: Pietros, our poor friend Roman is starting to daydream over there in his chair—one can tell because his eyes look like Lucy in the Heavens with Rhinestones—maybe he is bored because we are so interested in your work right now. To ask you a question about Roman’s work… His first novel was a Parisian thriller in the Dostoevsky style. His second, Cities and Countries, was a Bildungsroman set in an imaginary world. His third was a tragic love story. His fourth was a diary of seducing women in Paris—everyone from impoverished seamstresses without breeding and a ripe age that can be counted on three hands, to blue-blooded countesses cheating on their husbands. Then his fifth novel, “The Wanderess,” well that is more hard to define. The question is… you, Pietros, are a literary scholar and, if I may flatter you by saying: a literary visionary. What do you think Roman’s sixth novel will be about? What do you think it “should” be about? MANEOS: Roman is a great genius, and I think that for Rooftop Soliloquy and The Wanderess he should be considered for the Nobel Prize, but to speak of your question, I think that he should continue in the Heroic and Aesthetic vein. Perhaps, since he is descended from the ‘Chian Nightingale’ – Homer – in such a pronounced way, he could write a Modern Odyssey akin to what Kazantzakis attempted. JS: You make the distinction between two phrases: ‘The light hit the Brushy Mountain,’ and one that I believe you appreciate more: ‘The light, soft and sensuous, brushed across the crest of the Brushy Mountain.’ …Mark Zuckerberg would probably claim to agree with your tastes. Do you think this is an anomaly—the preference of a well-educated billionaire matching the preference of a Homeric poet who is most likely a descendant of the immortal poet Sappho ? Or do you think that we may be entering a new literary age—a time when people are, frankly, sick and tired of “spare, suburban, 20th Century minimalism?” MANEOS: Well, I am not sure about a new literary age, but one can only hope! I think that my kinship with figures like Roman Payne, Tomasz Rut, Michael Newberry, Sabin Howard, Graydon Parrish, Michael Imber and others is indicative of a cultural paradigm shift. I am always hesitant to use the term ‘movement’ – but – there is certainly a shared sense of aesthetic values. And one of my aims is to have Bramabella stand as an expression of this aesthetic. JS to PAYNE: Pietros Maneos is a poet, novella scribe, and satirist… he is a writer of many styles, many genres. What is your favorite genre of his at present? PAYNE: Maneos has arrived at a sacred mastery of certain literary forms (I am not fond of the word “genre”). I would say, these “sacred forms” are my favorites of his, since no one does them better than he does. The forms that come to my mind first is what I would call his “Bramabella Pastorales.” In these poems, Maneos is able paint a landscape like Renoir or Monet, construct a exquisite virgin like John Williams Waterhouse, sing of the youthful love of a troubadour, or the old man’s lament of a Cavafy poem. He can prepare the body to fight like a Homeric hero, fall to tears like a Nocturne of Chopin. They are all that is life: his Bramabella poems are the laments of a poet intoxicated with wine, and the joys of a madman sipping the sweet fumes of the poppy. JS: And what is the literary style that you would like to see Maneos work on next? PAYNE: I would love to see him write a 200 page “roman d’amour” in the French tradition… an old style novel about a couple’s first love, and their last. JS: (To the readers)… This concludes our all-too-short interview, but we at Literature Monthly hope to have Maneos and Payne with us again soon! Posted in Interview, Magazine or Newpaper Article, Poems and Literary Works by Friends and Other Authors, Reviews and Critiques Tagged literature monthly, Pietros Maneos	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1651
__label__cc	0.689695	0.310305	Home Girl From The North Country Sep 28, 2019 to Nov 24, 2019 Royal Alexandra Theatre 260 King W, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1H9 by Conor McPherson (Mirvish). This musical using the songs of Bob Dylan looks in on a tense community in 1934 Minnesota. Previews from Sep 28, opens Oct 6 and runs to Nov 24, Tue-Sat 8 pm, mat Sat-Sun 2 pm. $39-$175. mirvish.com MINI REVIEW This is actually an anti-musical. It has no plot, no texture and, worse, Dylan’s songs have no connection to the weak characters who sing them. Set in the Depression at a boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota (Dylan’s birthplace), Girl parades out a series of characters, all in dire straits. They sing the songs, most of them among Dylan’s mopiest, with the same arrangements, except for Like A Rolling Stone and Duquesne Whistle, which have zero context, and Hurricane, which has great energy and makes you wish for more like it. The performers, including the glorious choral ensemble, are uniformly superb, especially Katie Brayben as a woman suffering from dementia and Gloria Obianyo as her pregnant adopted daughter. But Irish playwright McPherson has plainly read Of Mice And Men too many times. I’m not sure even Dylan fans will like it. NN (Susan G Cole) Location Royal Alexandra Theatre 260 King W, Toronto, Ontario M5V 1H9 View Map Sections Stage Stage Categories Theatre Date & Time Sep 28, 2019 to Nov 24, 2019	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1652
__label__cc	0.669525	0.330475	New York Giants Make Roster Moves 8/31/10 NEW YORK – Hello Giants Fans, the team began the process of trimming their roster down on Tuesday by making some moves. Some of them are a bit surprising to me and other Giants fans but we will need to have faith in the front office and trust that they know what they are doing. The Giants got down to the 75 player limit by making these moves and have until this Saturday by 6 PM to cut down to the league limit of 53 players. The G-men placed three players on season ending IR today. Those players include QB Jim Sorgi (shoulder), who was brought in to be QB Eli Manning’s backup once QB David Carr bolted the team in search of a starting role elsewhere. WR Sinorice Moss (hernia) was placed on IR and this might be the most suspicious move of them all. Moss is a heck of a guy, let me make that perfectly clear but his on field production just has not been there since he arrived in New York. How he continues to be on the team is nothing short of a miracle at this point. Finally, the last player to be placed on IR is rookie LB Adrian Tracy (elbow). Both Moss and Tracy have already had surgeries and will be on the road to recovery over the course of the 2010 season. The final two moves involved the G-Men cutting rookie WR Nyan Boateng and placing OL Kevin Boothe on the PUP list. Boothe should be able to return by week six if everything turns out to be fine with his injury (torn pec). It will be interesting to see who makes the final roster come Saturday. One thing is for sure, the fans will go atomic if rookie WR Victor Cruz does not make the final cut. The Giants play their final preseason game this Thursday at 7 PM EST against the Patriots in New Meadowlands stadium. Are you starting to get concerned about all of the injuries plaguing Big Blue so early on in the 2010 NFL season? PLEASE SUPPORT THE WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT!! 1 Comment \| 2010 Fantasy Football, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, Chris Mara, East Rutherford, Eli Manning, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Front Office, Giants History, Giants Roster, Giants Stadium, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Jonathan Tisch, Justin Tuck, Kevin Gilbride, New Jersey, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG Exclusive, NYG Preseason, NYG Reporter, NYG Story, NYG Update, NYG Website, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Steve Tisch, Tom Coughlin, Tom Quinn, University of Albany \| Tagged: 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Draft, Big Blue, blo, blogs giants, blogs nyg, Eli Manning, Football, football giants blog, G-Men, giants blog, giants preseason game, Giants Stadium, giants website, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Kevin Gilbride, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, New York Giants blog, New York Giants blogs, New York Giants Website, NFC, NFC East, NFL, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, ny giants blog, ny giants blogs, ny giants website, NYG, nyg blog, nyg blogs, NYG Reporter, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Players, preseason football, preseason giants, Prospects, Steve Tisch, Tim Mara, Tom Coughlin, website ny giants, website nyg \| Permalink Giants vs. Ravens Preseason Game Notes 8/29/10 Hello Giants Fans, The G-Men played the Ravens last night in Baltimore. The Giants lost 24-10 in a game that just continued to leave questions unanswered. The defense looked great throughout the game, even though the score would make the reader think otherwise. The Giants are having injury issues already. This is something that could make me physically sick if it continues into the regular season. Giants fans had to endure this stuff in 2009 and I do not know very many fans that would like to go through that again. The biggest issue seems to be the offensive linemen. The team has three of the starting five linemen banged up. This is not good and could put QB Eli Manning’s iron man streak is serious jeopardy if they cannot protect him. I cannot begin to explain how frustrating it is to see nine or ten players on the injured list in week three of the preseason. At some point you have to look at the trainers and say “What the heck is going on?” Why does the team have a rash of groin and hamstring injuries? I’m not sure if it is just a bad luck streak or if there really is someone to blame, all I know is that I can’t take another injury plagued season. Let’s take a look at some of the notes form last nights game. – QB Eli Manning looked rusty and seems to need more playing time to get into a rhythm. – WR Victor Cruz lead all wide receivers with 76 yards and a TD. He should be a lock to make the team. – The G-Men are still dealing with multiple player injuries and had a few who could not play last night. – S Antrel Rolle lead all tacklers on defense with seven. His signing with Big Blue this year is huge for the team. – The defense as a whole looked very good last night despite the score. They had 5 sacks and 1 INT. – RB Brandon Jacobs lead the team in rushing with 41 yards on 6 carries. – Backup QB Rhett Bomar looked good once again and I feel much more comfortable with him as the backup QB. He threw for 140 yards and a TD. – DC Perry Fewell through everything but the kitchen sink at the Ravens. I think Fewell will end up being just fine. – The middle of the field seemed to be very open for opposing receivers last night. The zone coverage needs more work. – S Kenny Phillips had a good game and made a few hard hits on Ravens players. it was good to see that. – Head Coach Tom Coughlin looked like he would explode as he paced along the sidelines. I’m sure the team got an earful after the game. – The offensive line is starting to become a problem. Once the strength of the team, it is now a question mark. – K Lawrence Tynes hit a 42 yard FG and made his extra point kick. He has been very good this preseason. The Giants will play their final preseason game against the New England Patriots on September 2, 2010 at 7:00 PM EST at the New Meadowlands stadium. Leave a Comment » \| 2010 Fantasy Football, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, Chris Mara, Eli Manning, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Front Office, Giants History, Giants Injuries, Giants Roster, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Jonathan Tisch, Justin Tuck, Kevin Gilbride, New Jersey, New York, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG Fantasy Football, NYG Reporter, NYG Story, NYG Update, NYG Website, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Steve Tisch, Tom Coughlin, Tom Quinn \| Tagged: 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Draft, 2010 preseason, 2010 preseason game, Big Blue, blogs giants, blogs nyg, Eli Manning, Football, G-Men, giants blog, giants preseason game, giants preseason schedule, giants website, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Kevin Gilbride, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, New York Giants blog, New York Giants blogs, New York Giants Website, NFC, NFC East, NFL, ny giants blog, ny giants blogs, ny giants website, NYG, nyg blog, nyg blogs, NYG Reporter, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Players, preseason football, preseason game, preseason giants, Prospects, Steve Tisch, Tim Mara, Tom Coughlin, website ny giants, website nyg \| Permalink Possible NFL Schedule Change; 16 to 18 Games Well hey there New York Giants fans and NYGReporter Supporters (has a nice ring to it huh?), no this article is not specifically Giants related, it effects the entire league. So, I am stepping outside my usual shell and reporting on a larger scale. Well, not so much reporting, more addressing. The difference? Reporting I might say “The NFL is considering changing the schedule from 16 to 18 games” (which it is), but in addressing that I am going to say “The NFL should change the schedule from 16 to 18 games”. See the difference? While this almost seems like a thesis statement (do you like the scholarly new college goer wording?) it is not. However, I do strongly believe that in order for the National Football League to progress forward it is necessary to expand to 18 games. And here’s why: Preseason Games: There are too many of them! Everyone knows the 3rd one counts the most, but none of them actually count at all and considering 3 Giants have had head injuries in this preseason alone I think we can all do without two of them. Injuries: Everyone keeps saying it will create more, but did anyone stop to think it will create less? Well not exactly, but it may give guys enough time to get back, especially if the season still starts the same date it will allow two extra weeks of healing time. Just a thought. Competitiveness: If we push more division games toward the end of the season it will ensure competition. Plus, who knows maybe it will allow some bubble teams to make up ground. NFL Expansion: Everyone knows Goodell’s plan to bring the NFL world wide, the extra games could mean an extra bye week or even just more time to go more places. Competing with other Leagues: No, no other football league has a chance, but the MLB and NBA and NHL all have longer seasons and less offseason waiting around time. I know the waiting builds suspense but right around now I just don’t want to wait any longer for football and the thought that I could be watching games that matter is enticing. So anyways, this is simply my opinion, I don’t claim to be an expert on the matter but from a fan’s perspective, I would like to see more hard hitting, meaningful football. ESPN reports that owners are “eagar” while the players “aren’t so sure”. There is a lot that goes into this change. Ultimately, I wish we would all focus on the collective bargaining agreement rather than the schedule. Schedule changes are aimed to take place in 2012, the bargaining agreement is due up this year. Prioritize league, prioritize. Josh Berman – nygreporter.com 1 Comment \| 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, Bill Parcells, Chris Mara, Eli Manning, Ernie Accorsi, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Front Office, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Jonathan Tisch, Josh Berman's Update, Justin Tuck, Kevin Gilbride, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFL, NFL Playoffs, NFL Super Bowl, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG Preseason, NYG Reporter, NYG Story, NYG Update, NYG Website, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Steve Tisch, Tom Coughlin, Tom Quinn, University of Albany \| Tagged: 16, 18, Eli Manning, Ernie Accorsi, Football, Games, giants blog, Giants Stadium, giants website, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Kevin Gilbride, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, New York Giants blog, New York Giants blogs, New York Giants Website, NFL, ny giants blog, ny giants website, NYG Reporter, Roger Goodell, Schedule, Steve Tisch, Tim Mara, Tom Coughlin, website ny giants, website nyg \| Permalink Posted by Josh Berman New York Giants Injury Report; Good News and Bad Hey all you Giants fans! Bet you’re getting sick of injuries huh? Well me too! Here is a quick list of new developements with injuries. I stress new because I am not going to repeat the same old ones everyone already knows. Eli Manning will resume practice this week, he had the tweleve stitches removed. Coughlin says Manning will practice in a baseball cap for the first day or so but should be ready to go for the Ravens game. The quarterback will be non-contact in drills for now. Ramses Barden has a stress fracture in his lower back, Ohm Youngmisuk is reporting. Aparently he has had back pain since before the Jets game. He will be out for the Ravens game. Michael Johnson is also reporting back pain and is expected to be out. Brandon Jacobs is indicating he is feeling better and should be ready to go. Aaron Ross is dealing with plantar fasciitis, some may remember Manning dealing with this last season. Ross was having a good camp and even returning punts; this will slow him down and he is expected to be week to week. Rich Seubert is expected back this week; he has been dealing with a broken bone in his left hand. Jim Sorgi is expected to miss another week or maybe two with his shoulder injury Chris Snee is expected to return from his knee issues. D.J. Ware and Sha’reff Rashad (safety) both suffered concussions in the Steelers game, they will have further testing done. Lastly, good news, Shawn Andrews is expected to practice after not playing since the second game of the 2008 campaign. The injury list is long and ominous, not the way Tom Coughlin wanted to start the 2010 season. Injuries were largely attributed to the failures in the 2009 season so having such a long list already is not a good sign. I am still hopeful that the Giants will be able to pull everything together. Luckily Terrell Thomas can step up very well for Ross, Victor Cruz may find more opportunities with Barden out, and Bomar will get a greater NFL experience with the loss of Sorgi. The Giants do have some depth this seasons, something they showed very well against the Jets. I am confident that they will still have a successful season. Josh Berman- nygreporter.com 1 Comment \| 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, East Rutherford, Eli Manning, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Injuries, Giants Roster, Giants Training Camp, Josh Berman's Update, New Jersey, New York, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG BREAKING NEWS, NYG Exclusive, NYG Injury Report, NYG Preseason, NYG Reporter, NYG Reporter Sports Special, NYG Story, NYG Training Camp, NYG Update, NYG Website, Tom Coughlin \| Tagged: 2010 New York Giants, Big Blue, Eli Manning, Football, G-Men, Giants Stadium, Jerry Reese, John Mara, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC, NFC East, NFL, NFL Free Agency, NYG Reporter, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Tom Coughlin \| Permalink Giants vs. Steelers Preseason Game Notes 8/22/10 This is going to be difficult to say but the Giants lost their first ever home opener in the new stadium to the Steelers last night 24-17. I thought the team looked a lot better as a whole, then they did against the Jets last week. The defense seemed to be getting in the backfield at will. Backup QB Rhett Bomar did a nice job handling the starter duties. The special teams still need improvement but I would give the team a B- grade for this game. The Giants will travel to Baltimore for their next preseason game against the Ravens on August 28, 2010 at 7:30 PM EST. Ray Ray is still down there doing his thing and remains a very dangerous man on the field. Most Giants fans still have a bad taste in their mouth about the Ravens beating the G-Men in the Super Bowl back in 2000. Real Giants fans want to beat the Ravens every single time they play them. This is a category that the Carolina Panthers have also now fallen into and hey look at that, the Giants play them in week one. Let’s take a look at some of my game notes. – WR Hakeem Nicks got into a fistfight with Ike Taylor in the first quarter. Both were ejected. Coughlin said cooler heads must prevail in those situations. – DE Justin Tuck had a sack (shared with Kiwi) and played a great game. He looked very fast and light on his feet last night. – CB Corey Webster had an interception against Big Ben in the game. – Can we please stop using CB Aaron Ross as a returner (my second request). – DE Mathias Kiwanuka had a terrific game and seemed to be in on every play, even if he wasn’t the one who got the tackle credit. – RB Brandon Jacobs was a late scratch from a neck injury he suffered while lifting weights (he was doing shrugs). – Rookie WR Victor Cruz had another good game with 2 receptions for 30 yards (15 yard average). – Backup QB Rhett Bomar had a decent game under the circumstances and is clearly not afraid to run the ball. He was 13/26 for 167 yards 0 TD’s 1 INT in the air and had 3 rushes for 21 yards on the ground. – RB Andre Brown had an up and down game but finished strong with 61 yards and a TD on 13 carries. – RB DJ Ware was injured early in the game and was carted off. – Rookie LB Adrian Tracy lead all tacklers with nine on defense. – LB Keith Bulluck and S Kenny Phillips saw their first action last night. – RB Ahmad Bradshaw scored a TD early in the game and had 28 yards on 6 carries. – K Lawrence Tynes hit a 42 yard FG and made both of his extra point attempts. He has been having a good year so far. – The special teams still need a lot of work. This is going to be crucial now that there are only two more preseason games remaining. – Giants DC Perry Fewell had a solid game plan and was making the right calls during the game. – Backup QB Jim Sorgi will most likely miss the remainder of the Giants preseason games. – DE Osi Umenyiora had a very good game and seemed to have his burst back. If he is healthy, he should be starting opposite Tuck. – The secondary still seemed a bit disorganized back there but they turned things around by the end of the game. – WR Steve Smith lead all receivers with 53 yards on two receptions and also had the play of the game for Big Blue. – The time of possession was pretty close with Big Blue grabbing 28:25 of the game. – The Giants defense gave up 412 total offensive yards to the Steelers. – The New Meadowlands stadium is amazing when lit up in Giant Blue. Did you watch the Giants play the Steelers last night? What did you think about the game? 4 Comments \| 2010 Fantasy Football, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, Chris Mara, East Rutherford, Eli Manning, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Draft, Giants Front Office, Giants History, Giants Injuries, Giants Roster, Giants Stadium, Giants Training Camp, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Jonathan Tisch, Justin Tuck, Kevin Gilbride, New Jersey, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL, NFL Draft, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG Draft, NYG Exclusive, NYG Fantasy Football, NYG Preseason, NYG Reporter, NYG Story, NYG Update, NYG Website, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Steve Tisch, Tom Coughlin, Tom Quinn, University of Albany \| Tagged: 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Draft, 2010 preseason, 2010 preseason game, Big Blue, blogs giants, blogs nyg, Eli Manning, Football, football giants blog, G-Men, giants blog, giants preseason game, giants preseason schedule, Giants Stadium, giants website, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Kevin Gilbride, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, New York Giants blog, New York Giants blogs, New York Giants Website, NFC, NFC East, NFL, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, ny giants blog, ny giants blogs, ny giants website, NYG, nyg blog, nyg blogs, NYG Reporter, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Players, preseason football, preseason game, preseason giants, Prospects, Steve Tisch, Tim Mara, Tom Coughlin, website ny giants, website nyg \| Permalink New York Giants 2010 Camp Photo Album Vol.03 This will be the final installment of photos for the 2010 Giants training camp. I hope that our readers enjoyed the photos we have posted in our Camp Photo Album. If some of you were unable to attend camp yourselves, I hope we were able to bring you a little closer with the visuals. If you have a Giants website of your own and would like to use the photos we took at camp, please send us an email with your request. We here at the nygreporter understand how difficult it can be to have good pics to use with your articles. We had the very same issues when we started this site and would like to offer some help. Although it is not very much, it will at least be a few photos that can accompany your stories. Enjoy! Let’s take a look at the final installment of photos for the 2010 New York Giants training camp. Leave a Comment » \| 2010 Fantasy Football, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, Chris Mara, East Rutherford, Eli Manning, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Draft, Giants Front Office, Giants History, Giants Roster, Giants Stadium, Giants Training Camp, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Jonathan Tisch, Justin Tuck, Kevin Gilbride, New Jersey, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL, NFL Draft, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG Draft, NYG Exclusive, NYG Fantasy Football, NYG Preseason, NYG Reporter, NYG Story, NYG Training Camp, NYG Website, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Steve Tisch, Tom Coughlin, Tom Quinn, University of Albany \| Tagged: 2010 giants training camp, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 new york training camp, 2010 nfl training camp, 2010 nyg training camp, 2010 training camp, albany training camp, Big Blue, blogs giants, blogs nyg, Eli Manning, Football, football giants blog, G-Men, giants blog, giants photos, Giants Stadium, Giants Training Camp, giants training camp photos, giants training camp pics, giants website, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Kevin Gilbride, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, New York Giants blog, New York Giants blogs, new york giants photos, new york giants pics, New York Giants Website, NFC, NFC East, NFL, NFL Draft, ny giants blog, ny giants blogs, ny giants website, NYG, nyg blog, nyg blogs, nyg photo, nyg pic, nyg pics, NYG Reporter, NYG Training Camp, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Players, Prospects, Steve Tisch, Tim Mara, Tom Coughlin, Training Camp, training camp albany, website ny giants, website nyg \| Permalink New York Giants Training Camp Report 8/20/10 Today was the final day of the 2010 New York Giants training camp. Twenty days have come and gone and we’ve learned some interesting facts about the players. The Giants beat the Jets in their first preseason game and will now face the Steelers tomorrow night at New Meadowlands stadium at 7 PM EST. Fans will get an opportunity to see QB Rhett Bomar lead the offense for most of the game. Bomar was taking mostly second and third string reps at training camp. QB Eli Manning will sit this one out as he heals up from the head laceration he received on Monday night. QB Jim Sorgi is also banged up and expect to miss some playing time. Now that camp is over, I expect to see a lot of player movement. The 2010 New York Giants training camp is officially over but that doesn’t mean that Big Blue is done practicing. I expect the coaches to ramp up the intensity to prepare the team for the new season. Tom Coughlin has his lists and OC Kevin Gilbride is drawing up plays somewhere in the facility. New DC Perry Fewell is working on strategies like a mad scientist. Special teams coach Tom Quinn is facing one of the toughest challenges of the 2010 NFL season. There isn’t much time left before the first regular season game. Fans can expect to see things moving much more rapidly now. I’m actually surprised by how many negative comments I have seen from sports “experts” about the Giants. Maybe they can’t see what the rest of us can see or maybe they are right and yet to be vindicated. I simply have to believe that the 2010 team will be much better then the injury plagued 2009 season. There have already been a few injuries in 2010 that have had fans shaking their heads. The injury list simply can’t get out of hand this season or they will have no shot. Let’s take a look at some of the news from this week about the New York Giants. – QB Eli Manning was cut in the Monday night game and required 12 stitches. – QB Eli Manning will not play in the Giants second preseason game tomorrow night versus the Pittsburgh Steelers. – The New York Giants will play their first ever home opener at the new stadium. – Backup QB Jim Sorgi will miss 2-3 weeks with a shoulder injury he got from a hit he took against the Jets. – The Giants cut OL Cliff Louis, who they recently signed to bolster the offensive line. – The Giants cut TE Jake Ballard to make room for QB Dominic Randolph. – The Giants signed OL Shawn Andrews who is a former two-time pro bowler for the Philadelphia Eagles. – Backup QB Rhett Bomar will play almost the entire game against Pittsburgh. – WR Ramses Barden is banged up and will sit out a few practices. – The Giants signed QB Dominic Randolph as a backup due to all of the injuries at QB. – Rookie punter Matt Dodge seems to be having a rough time adjusting and may need more work then originally expected. – OL William Beatty appears to be the man at left tackle, something Giants fans might see for the next eight or nine years straight. – Rookie DE Jason Pierre-Paul has reportedly already put on 12 pounds of muscle weighing in at 282 pounds. – Safety Kenny Phillips seems to be doing very well thus far. Fans are praying that Phillips can remain healthy all season. – 39,875 total Giants fans attended the training camp in Albany this year. It was the fifth best year since they began fifteen years ago upstate. – Rookie WR Victor Cruz emerged and made a name for himself Monday night. This kid has star written all over him. – LB Keith Bulluck and S Kenny Phillips are set to make their Giants debut tomorrow night versus the Steelers. – LB Chase Blackburn and OL Chris Snee are still banged up and sidelined. Not to mention OL Rich Seubert. Who do you think is going to win the game between the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers? Leave a Comment » \| 2010 Fantasy Football, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 NFL Preseason, Big Blue, Chris Mara, East Rutherford, Eli Manning, G-Men, Giants, Giants Coaches, Giants Draft, Giants Front Office, Giants History, Giants Injuries, Giants Roster, Giants Stadium, Giants Training Camp, Giants Transactions, Jerry Reese, John Mara, Jonathan Tisch, Justin Tuck, Kevin Gilbride, New Jersey, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, NFC East, NFL, NY Giants, NYG, NYG Blog, NYG Draft, NYG Exclusive, NYG Fantasy Football, NYG Injury Report, NYG Preseason, NYG Reporter, NYG Story, NYG Training Camp, NYG Update, NYG Website, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Steve Tisch, Tom Coughlin, Tom Quinn, University of Albany \| Tagged: 2010 giants training camp, 2010 New York Giants, 2010 new york training camp, 2010 NFL Draft, 2010 nfl training camp, 2010 nyg training camp, 2010 preseason, 2010 preseason game, 2010 training camp, albany training camp, Big Blue, blogs giants, blogs nyg, Chase Blackburn, Chris Snee, Cliff Louis, Eli Manning, Football, football giants blog, G-Men, giants blog, giants preseason game, giants preseason schedule, Giants Stadium, Giants Training Camp, giants training camp photos, giants training camp pics, giants website, Jason Pierre-Paul, Jerry Reese, Jim Sorgi, John Mara, Keith bulluck, Kenny Phillips, Kevin Gilbride, Matt Dodge, National Football League, New Meadowlands Stadium, New York Football Giants, New York Giants, New York Giants blog, New York Giants blogs, New York Giants Website, NFC, NFC East, NFL, NFL Draft, NFL Free Agency, ny giants blog, ny giants blogs, ny giants website, NY Training camp, NYG, nyg blog, nyg blogs, NYG Reporter, NYG Training Camp, Pat Hanlon, Perry Fewell, Players, preseason football, preseason game, preseason giants, Prospects, Ramses Barden, Rhett Bomar, Rich Seubert, Shawn Andrews, Steve Tisch, Tim Mara, Tom Coughlin, Training Camp, training camp albany, training camp giants, Victor Cruz, website ny giants, website nyg, William Beatty \| Permalink You are currently browsing the blog archives for August, 2010.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1655
__label__wiki	0.548277	0.548277	> Home > University of Southern California > Regional History Collection ∞ https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c84t6rbw/ California family photograph album Contact University of Southern California::Regional History Collection A photograph album of an unidentified family in California with snapshots of various people and places taken circa 1900-1905. Places pictured include Sierra Madre, Alhambra, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Laurel Canyon, Redwood City, San Francisco, the Cliff House (San Francisco), Westlake Park (now MacArthur Park), and "E.B.B. Pasadena Home." Most of the handwritten captions in the album that indicate names are illegible and/or first-name-only, but some names are still legible: Helen Douglass, Pauline, Albert Stifal[?], Hubert, Mary Peters[?], Andy, Peggy, Rose, Carol, and Tom. Also included is a photograph captioned "The Shriners" that pictures two Shriners in red fezzes driving a car with two women passengers riding in the back seat. 0.15 Linear Feet 1 box All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. Advance notice required for access.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1657
__label__wiki	0.59194	0.59194	The News Agency of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness Punjab Courts Can Decide Religious Conflicts By: Saurabh Malik for The Tribune (India) on June 6, 2009 A Full Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today held that courts could enter into “religious thicket” in case of a conflict. Comprising Justice JS Khehar, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal, the Bench also concluded that “maintaining hair unshorn was an essential component of the Sikh religion”; and that admissions under the Sikh minority community quota could be restricted to candidates maintaining “Sikhi swarup” or keeping their hair unshorn. Asserted the Bench: “In the process of analysis we were persuaded to conclude that a court, in case of a conflict, even on an aspect relating to religion, can enter into the religious thicket to determine the do’s and dont’s of the religion by relying upon the views expressed by the spokespersons of the said religion”¦” “Religion must be perceived as it is, and not as another would like it to be”¦ Once a court arrives at the conclusion that a particular aspect of a religion is fundamental and integral, as per the followers of the faith, it must be given effect to, irrespective of the views expressed on the said issue, based either on science or logic”¦ It is not for the court to determine whether it is forward looking or retrograde.” Following are the Bench assertions on various issues. Sikhism and law The Gurdwara Acts of 1925 and 1971 are legislative enactments, which have withstood the test of time, wherein ‘keshadhari’ (a Sikh who maintains hair unshorn) has been incorporated as the fundamental precondition for being vested with the right to be included even in the electoral rolls. Sikh and hair Dismissing a petition filed by Gurleen Kaur and other students denied admission to a medical college on the grounds of plucking eyebrows or trimming beard, the Bench, in its 154-page judgment, asserted: “Having dealt with the historical background of the Sikh religion, legislative enactments involving the Sikh religion, the Sikh ‘rehatmaryada’, the Sikh ardas and views expressed by scholars of Sikhism, we are satisfied they all lead to one unambiguous answer: maintaining hair unshorn is an essential component of the Sikh religion.” Guru Granth Sahib and Sikhism Guru Granth Sahib has not expressly dealt with the issue of unshorn hair. Guru Granth Sahib is a treatise, limited to the teaching of the moral and spiritual code of conduct to the Sikhs. The Guru Granth Sahib is for the guidance of Sikhs in their pursuit towards spiritual salvation. It does not deal with the code of conduct prescribed for Sikhs. The code of conduct is strictly contained in the “Sikh rehatmaryada”¦ Institute’s right to deny admission If a Sikh organisation or body decides not to extend any benefit, which is otherwise available to a Sikh, to a person who does not maintain his hair unshorn, its determination would be perfectly legitimate”¦ Maintaining hair unshorn is part of the religious consciousness of the Sikh faith. Religion and law The Bench asserted that besides legality, the issue of trimming beard and plucking eyebrows was to be examined vis-Ã -vis religion. The action attributed to the petitioners is certainly not in conflict with law. But then the question to be determined is whether their actions are in conflict with the tenets of the religion, on the basis whereof they are claiming their right. For an issue of religion, an action cannot be bestowed with legitimacy merely because the action is forward-looking and non-fundamentalist. [ india ] [ religion ] Help us serve our worldwide family. Make a donation. ISKCON Inaugurates New Temple at Tirupati INDIA: CII seeks revision in National Youth Policy For Many Americans, Religious Identity Is No Longer a Given Assignment: Analysis: Choosing Religious Identity Catholic Priests Move Against Child Marriages in India WORLD: Indian Finance Minister Asks for Billions to Help Poor INDIA: Lankan Children Find Refuge in Bangalore Supreme Court Hears`Bong Hits 4 Jesus' Case Scholarship and Devotion: Can They Co-Exist? Understanding ISKCON When What We Don't Know About Religion Hurts Us All Jagannath Temple Reforms Result in Income Increases, Sale of Land INSIDE ISKCON: Tasty Jail Food Tempts Prisoners to Stay Anti-Freeze in Neem Tilak Ban Angers Indians Shukratal: Where Sukadeva Goswami Explained the Srimad Bhagavatam Mahabharata Video Game in Production Spiritual Struggle or Power Struggle? Government Bows Before God ISKCON Joins Religious Conference in Macedonia Experiencing India "One Nation Under God" on Trial In India, Naming a Baby is Serious Business Lord Rama: Fact or Fiction Dow Jones Indexes and Dharma Investments to Launch New Faith-based Indexes Unless otherwise stated, all content on ISKCON News is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. \| Ad Policy	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1659
__label__wiki	0.622862	0.622862	Vehura Reviews – Iris School of Wizardry -Vinculum Hearts- by Vehura October 23, 2018 Iris School of Wizardry has a surprising story and beautiful character artwork, but the game is brought down by an inconsistent and poor translation. [There is an update to this review regarding the translation.] Iris School of Wizardry was originally released in 2014 by Operahouse for mobile devices. This release is a port for the Nintendo Switch and the player has the ability to play the game in either English or Japanese. You play as Aria, an 18-year-old girl who longs for something more. Her parents died in an accident when she was ten, and she has since been raised by the people around her in town. She has also inherited her Father’s second hand bookshop where she reads books on magic which she can refer to thanks to her photographic memory. A man comes in one day looking for a book, and upon being a rude to her, Aria decides to be a bit snarky with him and show off. It turns out this man, Keith Knight, was offered a job at the Iris School of Wizardry, a top tier school that elites send their children to. And now he will only take the position, if Aria is allowed to attend. If you read the characters routes, starting with the first on the left, Clyde, you will find his is pretty typical fluff and not surprising when you find out his secret. But as you continue to read the routes going right, you will find more and more darker themes begin to slip into the stories. Also, as you play, something that was not explained in one route will be explained in other. All you need is love (of one of your students). As I said before, this game was originally a mobile game. There is a prologue, a chapter one common route, and then each character has four chapters after that worth of story. Everything goes really quick, with each chapter clocking in (for me) at about 20 minutes each. There are times that the story has an interesting set up that could lead to hijinks and it just time skips to after the scene/event. And for some scenes you find out what happened in that time skip only after playing another character’s route, which overall, is an incentive to play every route in the game. Also, because the routes are short, there isn’t a lot of breathing room for the relationships to develop. I often found myself wondering why exactly was it that Aria or the guys even liked each other. This is a story about teenagers and sometimes people fall in love at the drop of a hat, I just wish I actually felt that the relationships felt more real and not fleetingly started. The character artwork is very nice. Marika’s character work is breathtaking and most of the characters look like they are different people, which is a bit rare in the world of “same face” art styles. Once again, however, being a mobile game, most, if not all, backgrounds, however, are stock backgrounds. I have seen some of them used in many games. The voice acting is very nice. You will probably recognize some of these voices if you watch anime or play other otome games. If you want to actually hear the voice acting, you will have to completely turn off the background music. Even on its lowest setting, the BGM is still very loud. The biggest negative for this game however, comes in the from that it almost always comes in, the translation. Update: The translation has been upgraded as of April 1st. While it does read much better, there is still a lot of awkwardly wording sprinkled throughout the game akin to the translation not being localized. The next few paragraphs reflect how the translation used to be. I recommend still reading it. People die when they are killed. folk = fork The translation is very inconsistent and needs to be complete scrapped and re-translated by a English first language JP to EN translator. Most routes are a mess with something that would come off as done by a machine, but then there are incorrect spellings that a machine would not make. Matias’ route started off pretty decent, but about halfway through began to quickly fall apart. Aria’s cat, Titi, is sometimes referred to, in the same scene, as she, he, and it. Titi, you’ve been done dirty I honestly believe that a translation can make or break a game. I understand if a company wants to save some money, but the translation cannot be where you look for something cheap as most people will not even give a game a second look if there is even a typo in a screenshot. I do think that this is not done out of malice or not caring, but more along the lines that the company, which probably doesn’t have an native-English speaker on staff, just sends the script out and, with no way to confirm, just hopes that the translation is good. He might sound like a princess or… I don’t what can be done to remedy this. I don’t have the answer. I wish that I did, because, overall, this game’s story was not bad at all. When I first started it, it was very hard to get into. If a game cannot hook me within the first hour or so of the story, usually I just stop reading. A lot of games that I have paid for have fallen to the side due to this. If I hadn’t been asked to review this game, I probably would not have continued through to discover the surprises it actually has in its story. Unfortunately, the poor translation just drags the game down. With a better translation, this game could have a chance of doing moderately decent numbers, just based on the story alone. But, in its current state, the art and story is not going to save it. I can only hope that whomever it was that translated the game takes my advice and redoes it. I’m sure there are Native English translators who would be able to make this story shine and give it the attention it deserves. Story takes some surprising twists, sneaking in darker themes Gorgeous character artwork Poor translation that has to have been done by a person and not a machine Translation, while improved from its original release is still stilted in places due to the translation not being localized. Storyline/relationship building feels rushed due to small number of chapters, if not read it the most optimal order, there will be a lot of confusion on how the world works Background music too loud even on lowest setting requires you to turn it off to hear the voice acting Final Comments: If the translation in this game is redone with someone who actually is a good translator, it would easily bump this game up to 3/5, but with the current translation, most players won’t bother. Note: Translation upgraded. Rating has been bumped up! Suggested Play Order: I actually found that Keith’s route should probably be the first you play as it explains somethings that they don’t bother within others. Because of this, I would suggest the play order of Keith -> Clyde – > Matias -> Cyril -> A-Jay. Something will happen in A-Jay’s route that I really think you should play his last for. And, to keep the order consistent, [vague spoiler] don’t open the red door. Come back to it at the end… Disclaimer: A copy of this game was provided by the publisher. System: Nintendo Switch™ / Download Only Price: $24.99USD Text Language: English Shop Page: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/iris-school-of-wizardry-vinculum-hearts-switch Iris School of Wizardry -Vinculum Hearts- Coming October 11th to the Nintendo Switch™ Kitty Love -Way to look for love- Coming November 1st to the Nintendo Switch™ Walkthrough – Iris School of Wizardry -Vinculum Hearts- digimerce inciris school of wizardryoperahouse Walkthrough – Nightmare Harem – Lucia Digimerce Releases Demo Versions of Kitty Love and... Operahouse Nintendo Switch Winter Campaign Walkthrough – Kitty Love -Way to Look for... Kitty Love -Way to look for love- Coming... Iris School of Wizardry -Vinculum Hearts- Coming October...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1661
__label__cc	0.529174	0.470826	What happens when someone dies on Mount Everest? I have read that Rob Hall's body (who died very near the summit in 1996) was discovered. However I have not seen any validation of that. I just watched the movie Everest and I'm curious. Has it been confirmed that his body has been found? When someone dies on Mount Everest, are there attempts made to recover, or track location of bodies? mount-everest toing_toingtoing_toing Above about 7500-8000meters, currently they are left there. One opinion based answer is because Everest climbers are selfish. Given many people who climb Everest won't abandon a summit attempt to save a life, do you really think they care enough to risk their life to bring a body off the mountain? (Current rates are 4% fatality of all summit attempts, presume body retrieval would be similar.) A more charitable answer is because above about 8000 meters you are in the death zone. You are slowly dying. You have very limited strength, and no reserves. It is impossible to do much more than put one foot in front of the other. You have very limited reserves (weather, food, water, warmth and blood oxygen level) and "going to plan" can become life threatening if just a couple of minor issues come up. As such, body retrieval, even if possible, is very dangerous, and more than likely, will just create more bodies. Who would risk their life to retrieve a body - would you? Give the presumed answer, the next moral question is is it right for you to ask someone else to retrieve a body and risk their life? Given the problem of the difficulty of moving a body, you could perhaps make it possible by bringing the bodies down in pieces small enough for one man to carry, there are a significant number of cultural and moral barriers to this approach. Even if you decide morally of all that is is OK, you then need to establish a price. There is a minimum cost of probably 1 million dollars (based on 10 men, Everest summit a costs of $100K each). Is it worth spending 1 Million dollars to retrieve a body? If its not 1 Million dollars, why not - why can you retrieve a body for less than that of when a summit attempt costs over $100K? Ok, so now we have got past the morals and established the cost, you hire someone, and go up there and they die in the attempt. What are the laws in your country around paying someone to do a job when you knew the job carried very high risk of death? So the real question should be "Given what happens to a body and the fatality rate, why are so many allowed to climb it?" Hopefully in time technology will make it practical and safe at a reasonable cost to remove these bodies, till then, its just an accepted fact of the Everest gravy train. +1 for a practical answer. However: (1) do you have a reference for the 4% fatality/summit attempts stat? It is much lower than I would expect , especially given the avalanche fatalities of several years ago. (2) Given how little the Sherpas are paid, $1,000,000 for body retrieval seems very high. However, your logic is correct, IMO, even if you reduce that cost to $100,000. Actually, your logic is reinforced because you are paying people (Sherpas) very little to risk their lives to retrieve a body. – ab2 MonicaNotForgotten Feb 29 '16 at 20:30 Cannot find the reference I remembered. Wikipedia gives stats - as of 2010 there were 5,104 recorded ascents by 3142 individuals. Another page states over 250 deaths. That would make 5% of actual summits (what ever it is, it would not materially change the answer. ) – user5330 Feb 29 '16 at 23:40 See alanarnette.com/everest/everest.php. Death rate from 2000 to 2015 is much lower than for 1923 through 1999. Death rate for earlier period (abt 15%) is what I remembered. (Also need to distinguish death rate per summit accomplished from death rate per people who have summited.) – ab2 MonicaNotForgotten Mar 1 '16 at 1:25 every move you make, if done wrong, could be your last I don't think this is accurate. Everest is nontechnical except for the Hillary Step, and I believe there are fixed lines on the exposed sections. – Ben Crowell Mar 1 '16 at 15:27 The answer is yes. But not for everyone. The first two people on record to die on Everest were George Mallory and Andrew Irvine. There's speculation that they may have even summited the Mountain, making them the first team ever to conquer the tallest mountain in the world, and almost 30 years before Sir Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay made their successful summit. They were last seen only a couple hundred metres form the summit, but never made it back down to the bottom. For decades people wondered if they may have made it to the top, but the only way to confirm that would be to find the camera they took up the mountain with them, and develop the film to see if they had taken a summit picture. In 1999 an expedition was led to search for their bodies, and against all odds, they were able to find, and positively identify the body of George Mallory, who appeared to have suffered a fall and broken his leg. His body was found almost perfectly preserved (aside from being bleached white by the sun). Andrew Irvine's body was not found unfortunately, and he was the one who was carrying the camera. There have been other expeditions to retrieve bodies off of the mountain, there is a foundation in Nepal dedicated to cleaning up Mt. Everest, and to date have retrieved tonnes of garbage off of the mountain, and they collect some bodies as well, but most people request that the bodies of their fallen loved ones be left on the mountain. For the Most part, extractions are impossible due to the extremes of being at such high elevation, and bodies are left exactly where they fell if they died in the death zone, except for bodies which lay right on the trail, those ones tend to get pushed over the side of the mountain, or they're left on the side of the trail and the 200km/h winter winds will blow them off the edge in the off season, the rest just stay where they are, and will likely remain there, preserved for years to come (just like George). There are over 200 bodies on everest, and that number keeps climbing every year as people line up to go die on the highest summit on Earth. ShemSegerShemSeger Sometimes a body will be buried in a nearby crevasse -- a compromise between leaving them where they die and carrying them down. – ab2 MonicaNotForgotten Mar 1 '16 at 1:12 Thanks for contributing an answer to The Great Outdoors Stack Exchange! Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged mount-everest or ask your own question. What temperature to prepare for on Everest base camp trek? Using the Yosemite Decimal System, how difficult is Everest? Fitness for hiking to Everest base camp What do mountaineers eat and drink on the day of an Everest summit? Bottled Oxygen on Everest What easy 6,500m peaks would serve as easy qualifiers for Everest? Can you get burned by boiling water on everest? Training to Circumambulate Around Mount Kailash Are corpses on Mount Everest used as way-points? Is there really no way to rescue a climber from the death zone?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1663
__label__cc	0.723257	0.276743	Tag Archives: cartoons Good Cop / Bad Cop Here’s a short animation I made, it’s called Good Cop / Bad Cop. Owain x Tags: animation, bad cop, cartoons, good cop, good cop bad cop, short film, silly, youtube Categories Films, Illustration The Diary Of Joe Meek… I meant to blog about this quite a while ago, but this year got consumed with some rather exciting projects which I’ll be able to tell you all about very soon. When I was a youngster I drew comics all the time, but as I’ve got older my love for drawing has sort of been side-lined into an “add-on-pack” to my love of writing and film-making. I’ve never really believed in myself, or my abilities, as an illustrator / cartoonist / artist / whatever. However I’ve still occasionally entertained ideas of working on a comic book – based on some of my unseen writing – and have made tentative steps here and there at putting something together, usually falling apart after the first page or two. At the beginning of this year a friend of mine told me that the independent publisher Good Comics were looking for submissions to an anthology called ‘Dead Singers Society’, the third volume of which they were due to publish in February. So, I decided to give it a go and put together a one-page strip based on a deceased music artist that I was interested in. I knew that recently departed musicians such as David Bowie and Prince would be prime pickings, and I felt somewhat intimidated tackling someone like Ian Dury – already depicted brilliantly in the film Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll – so I chose to dive back into my creative writing past. I studied English Literature & Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University (2003 to 2006), and one assignment involved writing a diary for a someone either living, dead, fiction or non-fiction. I chose the innovative record producer – and occasional singer – Joe Meek. As someone who loves making music myself – at the time this was a very private process, and the results were usually horrible – I felt a certain kinship towards Joe, especially in his desire to create bigger, stranger, more experimental sounds and often doing so in the most imaginative and low-tech ways. His story grows even more fascinating, and tragic, as you begin to delve into his troubled personal life, his paranoia, his sexuality and the circumstances surrounding him that ultimately ended in murder and suicide. I’d written a number of diary entries imagining his innermost thoughts, skipping across time, that tracked Joe from his early creative explosions, across his frustrations with the mainstream music industry, towards unexpected success with the smash hit single Telstar, and finally into his descent into darkness. Adapting this into a one page comic was going to be quite a challenge, as I still wanted to give a sense to the reader of that journey. So, I grabbed a piece of paper, sketched out four panels repeated over four lines, and went through my fictitious diary to find four incidents to fill each line. I still felt like a bit of a pretender submitting my work to the folks at Good Comics, looking at the other issues the quality of the storytelling and artwork was so strong and individual that I couldn’t see my own work fitting in alongside it. Surprisingly, a few weeks after sending my comic off I had a reply – my email had accidentally wound up in their Junk folder! – and, even more surprisingly, it was to say that my comic was going to be a part of their anthology. It was really flattering and very exciting to see my comic in amongst so many brilliant artists in the ‘zine. It was doubly exciting to pop into Gosh! comics in Soho and see the ‘zine containing my work on their shelves. Ultimately though, I’ll be honest with you, I still felt like a pretender, someone who had managed to sneak their way in despite not having the proper credentials. As with many things, it did make me resolve to try and work that bit harder on my drawings – hence the Valentine’s Day cards – and to try and be a bit more proactive with creative projects – hence the busy-ness. You can pick up a copy of ‘Dead Singers Society Vol. 3’ here, as well as loads of other great work from Good Comics. Tags: aberystwyth, art, cartoons, comics, creative writing, dead singers society, drawings, Fiction, good comics, Illustration, joe meek, Short Fiction, university Categories Illustration, Music, Shameless Marketing How Val Kilmer saved me from my thankless, dead-end job… Hello you, Around the year 2000 or 2001 I got a job working in a plastics factory in Redruth, Cornwall. My shift was midnight to 7am, my job was taking hot plastic lids – the kind used on a handy storage box around the home – and scraping off the jagged bits of plastic from around the edges. I had one glove to protect me from the hot plastic, and a strange little scraping tool. I worked on this machine alone, and that’s kind of how I’d like it. What got me through those long nights working that job was – bizarrely – being able to run through the 1997 film version of The Saint starring Val Kilmer in my head. I was a fan of the film when it came out a few years earlier, I was writing film reviews for my school paper and I think I gave it 9/10, which, in retrospect, was a bit too generous. I think I’d become a bit of a Val Kilmer fan because he was in 1995’s Batman Forever – a film I was beyond excited about because I was a massive Jim Carrey fan – so he had a lot of residual goodwill left over from that. Elisabeth Shue was his co-star in The Saint and I had something of a crush on her thanks to growing up with the film The Karate Kid (1984) and her amazing performance in Leaving Las Vegas (1995). It was also the season when Hollywood was really mining the retro television show caverns for all their worth, and with each movie update you got a funky remixed theme tune, and Orbital’s spin on the theme from The Saint was proudly in my CD collection: https://youtu.be/LCVuIsw78yA I think I loved the film because it was pretty old-fashioned, it took its time to develop its characters and it was more of a romance than an action blockbuster, which, to be fair, was probably why it didn’t set the box office alight in 1997, where it finished 28th of the year behind such classics as Anaconda, Dante’s Peak, and Flubber. Anyway, I discovered, whilst working in that plastics factory, that I pretty much knew the entirety of the film off by heart – having watched it an awful lot on VHS, it was the perfect casual romp for a rainy Sunday afternoon, and, to this day I can still rattle off a reasonably accurate renactment of the whole film and will do so for a small fee at birthdays, weddings and Olympic opening ceremonies (get in touch if you’d like to book a performance). It’s full of such memorable scenes like the one where he’s a flirtatious old man, the one where he’s a flirtatious German with curly hair, the one where he’s a flirtatious South African traveller in leather trousers, and, of course, the one where he’s a flirtatious old cleaning lady. Also, the 1984 spoof (and box office flop) Top Secret starring Val Kilmer is one of the funniest films ever made. #FACT. So, that’s kind of why I felt it my duty to celebrate the actor Val Kilmer with this Valentine’s Day card I made – that and it’s a really silly non-pun – which you can buy from my Etsy shop here: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/OwainsGubbins Also, what’s your favourite Val Kilmer film? Owain. x Truth be told, this one doesn’t get much screen time to do any actual flirting, but if all his other disguises are anything to go by she’s probably pretty flirtatious. Tags: 1997, art, autiobiography, batman forever, cartoons, clickbait, elisabeth shue, factory, gifts, greetings cards, Illustration, job, leaving las vegas, leslie charteris, philip noyce, plastics, quotes, silly, the karate kid, the saint, top secret, val kilmer, work Categories Films, General, Illustration, Shameless Marketing I’m selling some very limited Valentine’s Day cards in my aforementioned etsy shop HERE. They come with a guarantee* of 75% extra romance for you if you purchase them. They’re all hand drawn (digitally) and come with a sexy red envelope to really up the heartfeltedness. Tags: art, bins, cartoons, dogs, drawing, etsy, Illustration, shop, val kilmer, valentines, valentines day Categories Illustration	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1666
__label__cc	0.619827	0.380173	League Division 3 Bill Reeves Bill Asprey Paul Berry (14) Paul Berry, Gary Briggs, Roy Burton, David Fogg, Billy Jeffrey, Andy Kingston, Jason Seacole. A brand new club crest was introduced, featuring the now familiar Ox that is still present today. This simplified design of a Minoan bull was created by club director Desmond Morris, who was also a renowned zoologist and author in human sociobiology. Once again the Admiral shirts saw subtle changes to those worn the previous season. The flared and pointed collars that featured in 1978 were given a less obtrusive cut and the colours on the v-neck were reversed. The long sleeved shirts also featured a different design of cuffs. The away kit was updated with the new club crest. Sheffield W *Colours taken from match-day programme.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1667
__label__wiki	0.811807	0.811807	Justia Patents US Patent Application for Graphene Core For A Golf Ball With A Soft Cover Patent Application (Application #20190358497) Graphene Core For A Golf Ball With A Soft Cover Aug 8, 2019 - Callaway Golf Company A golf ball with a core comprising polybutadiene and graphene, and a soft cover is disclosed herein. The golf ball has a dual core with an outer core comprising polybutadiene and graphene. The soft cover is preferably composed of a highly neutralized polymer, a first ionomer, a second ionomer, and a paraloid impact modifier. Latest Callaway Golf Company Patents: Golf club head having stress-reducing features CG height adjustability by conformal weighting Methods of manufacturing golf club heads Golf club head with structural tension cable Skip to: Description · Claims · Patent History · Patent History The Present application is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/261,851, filed on Jan. 30, 2019, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/164,661, filed Oct. 18, 2018, now U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/252,114, issued on Apr. 9, 2019, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/054,703, filed on Aug. 3, 2018, now U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/279,219, issued on May 7, 2019, which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/705,011, filed on Sep. 14, 2017, now U.S. patent Ser. No. 10/039,959, issued on Aug. 7, 2018, which is a continuation-in-part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/436,169, filed on Feb. 17, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,789,366, issued on Oct. 17, 2017, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/401,034, filed on Sep. 28, 2016, now expired, and the present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/693,220, filed on Jul. 2, 2018, now expired, and U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/695,645, filed on Jul. 9, 2018, now expired, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The present invention generally relates to the use of graphene in layers of a golf ball, and more particularly to a golf ball with a graphene core and a soft cover. Typical process of synthesizing exfoliated graphite (individual sheets of exfoliated graphite are also known as graphene or graphene nanoplatelets) includes reacting graphite with acids such as nitric and or sulfuric acid followed by heat treatment and chemical reduction. Exfoliated graphite is a two dimensional planar sheet made of SP2-hybridized carbon. Graphene (individual sheets of reduced exfoliated graphite) sheets are typically few nanometers thick and few microns wide (aspect ratio of >1000). This high aspect ratio of graphene coupled with their high tensile strength (tensile strength in GPa compared to MPa for polymers) can lead to polymeric composite materials with very high tensile and flexural properties. Graphene's unusually high thermal conductivity (˜3000 W/mk compared to <1 W/mk for typical thermoplastic polymers; can be utilized in making thermally conductive composite materials. For thermally cured elastomeric products, this high thermal conductivity can mean shorter, more uniform curing cycles that can lead to higher production volumes. Various examples of exfoliated graphite (also called graphene) based composites can be found in literature. Wang et al. describe expanded graphite polyethylene composite for electromagnetic radiation interference (EMI) shielding applications. U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,892 describes synthesis of exfoliated graphene based composite by compression molding graphite with polyimide resin under high heat (200 C) and pressure (80 kPa). Shioyama describes synthesis of polyisoprene and polystyrene based composite materials by in-situ polymerization of styrene and isoprene monomers in presence of exfoliated graphite. U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,372 describes an electrically conductive nanocomposite made with expanded graphite and various polymers such as polypropylene, polytetrafluoroethylene, and phenolic resin. Pan et al. describe synthesis of nylon-6 expanded graphite nanocomposite by polymerization of ϵ-caprolactam in presence of expanded graphite. Chen et al. describe in-situ polymerization of methyl methacrylate in presence of expanded graphite to obtain an electrically conductive nanocomposite. Xiao et al. describe making exfoliated graphite composite with improved thermal stability by in-situ polymerization of styrene in presence of exfoliated graphene. The prior art fails to even recognize this problem. The primary purpose of the present invention is to improve durability of golf ball core by incorporation of graphene in the core to improve the impact strength of the ball, and to have a soft cover. This benefit can be seen in either a ball with single piece core, or a dual core with an outer core firmer than the inner core. Improved durability of the core by using graphene can result in higher mean time to fail (MTTF) upon repeated impact in a high speed testing device, or with a golf club in normal play. Another objective is to improve aging properties due to the incorporation of graphene in the core for better retention of compression and COR over time. One aspect of the present invention is a golf ball comprising a center core comprising polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the center core, and a cover layer disposed over the center core, and the cover layer composed of 35 to 45 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The core comprising the inner core and the outer core has a compression value ranging from 40 to 55. In a more preferred embodiment, the graphene material ranges from 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of the center core. In an even more preferred embodiment, the graphene material ranges from 0.6 to 1.5 weight percent of the center core. Another aspect of the present invention is a golf ball comprising an inner core, an outer core, and a cover layer. The inner core comprises a polybutadiene material. The outer core comprises polybutadiene material and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the outer core, wherein the outer core has a flexural modulus ranging from 80 MPa to 95 MPa. The cover layer is disposed over the outer core. The cover layer comprises 35 to 45 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. A dual core comprises the inner core and the outer core has a compression value ranging from 40 to 55. Yet another aspect of the present invention is a golf ball comprising a dual core composed of an inner core and an outer core, and a cover layer. The inner core comprises a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the inner core. The outer core comprises a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the outer core. The outer core has a flexural modulus ranging from 80 MPa to 95 MPa. The cover layer is disposed over the outer core. The cover layer comprises a 35 to 45 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, and 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier. The dual core has a compression value ranging from 40 to 55. Yet another aspect of the present invention is a golf ball comprising a dual core composed of an inner core and an outer core, and a mantle layer and a cover layer. The inner core comprises a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the inner core. The outer core comprises a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the outer core. The outer core has a flexural modulus ranging from 80 MPa to 95 MPa. The cover layer is disposed over the mantle layer. The cover layer comprises 35 to 45 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 3- to 20 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier. The cover layer has a thickness ranging from 0.025 inch to 0.055 inch. The cover layer has a Shore D hardness ranging from 35 to 60. The dual core has a compression value ranging from 40 to 55. A more preferred embodiment of the method includes forming a cover over the core. A more preferred embodiment of the method includes forming a mantle layer over the core. A more preferred embodiment of the method includes that the core mixture is molded over an inner core to produce a dual core with a diameter ranging from 0.7 inch to 1.6 inches. A more preferred embodiment of the method includes compression molding a core from the core mixture comprises compression molding an outer core layer over a center core comprising a polybutadiene mixture. A more preferred embodiment of the method includes compression molding a core from the core mixture comprises compression molding a center core and an outer core over the center core, and the center core and the outer core comprise the core mixture. Yet another aspect of the invention is a golf ball comprising an inner core, an outer core comprising a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the outer core, a mantle layer and a cover. Yet another aspect of the invention is a golf ball comprising an inner core comprising a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the inner core, an outer core comprising a polybutadiene and a graphene material in an amount ranging from 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent of the outer core, a mantle layer, and a cover. FIG. 1 is an exploded partial cut-away view of a golf ball. FIG. 2 is top perspective view of a golf ball. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a core component of a golf ball. FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a core component and a mantle component of a golf ball. FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of an inner core layer, an outer core layer, an inner mantle layer, an outer mantle layer and a cover layer of a golf ball. FIG. 5A is a cross-sectional view of an inner core layer, an intermediate core layer, an outer core layer, a mantle layer and a cover layer of a golf ball. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an inner core layer under a 100 kilogram load. FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a core under a 100 kilogram load. FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a core component, the mantle component and a cover layer of a golf ball. FIG. 10 is an exploded partial cut-away view of a four-piece golf ball. FIG. 11 is an exploded partial cut-away view of a three-piece golf ball. FIG. 12 is an exploded partial cut-away view of a two-piece golf ball. FIG. 13 is a cross-sectional view of a two-piece golf ball. FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view of a three-piece golf ball. FIG. 16 is a cross-sectional view of a three-piece golf ball with a dual core and a cover. FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view of a three-piece golf ball with a core, mantle and cover. FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view of a four-piece golf ball with a dual core, mantle layer and a cover. FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view of a four-piece golf ball with a core, dual mantle layers and a cover. FIG. 20 is a graph of durability testing of outer cores using PTM at 175 fps. FIG. 21 is a graph of durability testing of dual cores using PTM at 175 fps. FIG. 24 is an illustration of graphene. FIG. 26 is a durability plot (MTTF) vs average surface area of graphene. FIG. 27 is a graph of temperature of an outer core of a dual core as a function of cure time. One objective of the present invention is to improve durability of golf ball core by incorporation of graphene in either the core the impact strength of the ball. This benefit can be seen in either a ball designed to have a low compression single piece core, or a dual core with an outer core firmer than the inner core. Improved durability of the core or mantle composition by using graphene can result in higher mean time to fail (MTTF) upon repeated impact in a high speed testing device, or with a golf club in normal play. Another objective of the present invention is to improve aging properties due to the incorporation of graphene in either the core or mantle layer for better retention of compression and COR over time. In a preferred embodiment, a golf ball comprises a graphene core and a cover layer composed of 35 to 45 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. A preferred HNP is HPF 2000 available from DuPont Chemical. Another preferred HNP is HPF 1000, also available from DuPont. The paraloid impact modifier is at least one of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene polymer (ABS), methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene polymer (MBS) impact-property modifiers for poly(vinyl chloride), and acrylic/methacrylic core-shell modifiers for polycarbonate. Polybutadiene based cores were made using following materials. Corresponding levels (by % wt) is mentioned next to each material: Polybutadiene with more than 60% 1,4-cis structure-(40-90%); Polyisoprene-(1-30%); Zinc diacrylate-(10-50%); Zinc oxide-(1-30%); Zinc stearate-(1-20%); Peroxide initiator-(0.1-10%); Zinc pentachlorothiophenol-(0-10%); Color-(0-10%); Barium sulfate-(0-20%); Graphene A (0.01-6%)-is available from various suppliers such as Cheap Tubes Inc., Ad-Nano Technologies Private Limited, MKnano, XG Sciences Inc., Angstron Materials Inc. (graphene A may have an average surface area between 15-50 m2/g); Graphene B (0.01-6%)-is available from various suppliers such as Cheap Tubes Inc., Ad-Nano Technologies Private Limited, MKnano, XG Sciences Inc., Angstron Materials Inc. (graphene B may have an average surface area between 300-400 m2/g); Graphene C (0.01-6%)-is available from various suppliers such as Cheap Tubes Inc., Ad-Nano Technologies Private Limited, MKnano, XG Sciences Inc., Angstron Materials Inc. (graphene C has a higher surface average than either graphene A or graphene B, and graphene C may have an average surface area between 400-800 m2/g); Graphene masterbatch (a masterbatch of 90-99% polybutadiene or polyisoprene and 1-10% graphene)-(0.1-50%)-custom compounding can be done with the help of various suppliers such as Preferred Compounding Corp, Dyna-Mix, Alttran, Callaway (in house compounding). Four different single cores (formula 1 to 4) were made as shown in recipe in Table 1. Control group (formula 1) had no graphene Recipe of solid core (graphene) Formula Formula Formula Formula 1 (0% 2 (0.4% 3 (0.8% 4(1.6% Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- ene A) ene A) ene A) ene A) % wt % wt % wt % wt Polybutadiene 62.5 62.3 62.1 61.5 Zinc Diacrylate 19.9 19.8 19.7 19.6 Zinc Oxide 6.3 6.2 6.2 6.2 Zinc Stearate 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.7 Peroxide initiator 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 Color 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Limestone 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Tungsten 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Barium sulfate 6.4 6.4 6.4 6.3 Graphene A 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.6 Graphene A in masterbatch 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Properties of core Compression 69.4 74.3 74.6 76.4 COR (coefficient of 0.801 0.800 0.795 0.790 restitution @125 fps) Durability score or mean 34 60 47 62 time to fail MTTF(number of shots after which ball starts to crack/fail) Compression is measured by applying a 200 pound load to the core and measuring its deflection, in inches. Compression=180−(deflection1000). Durability Testing of Solid Cores Cores were shot at 150 fps in a pneumatic testing machine (PTM). For each formula mentioned in Table 1, twelve cores were tested. The number of shots after which each core cracked was recorded for each core, and the cracked core was removed from the remainder of the test. The data was reported using a Weibull plot, and the mean time to fail was reported as shown in Table 1. As seen in FIG. 20, graphene modified cores endured more shots before failure compared to cores with no graphene. It is reasonable to assume that the durability of a golf ball having a single piece core of this design will also experience a dramatic increase in crack durability based on this improvement to the core. Dual Cores with Graphene A Only in the Outer Core. In this study graphene A was introduced to the outer core in a dual core construction. Dual cores were made by compression molding two outer core halves around an already molded inner core having a diameter of approximately 0.940″ and a soft compression of approximately 0.200 inches of deflection under a 200 lb load. Curing of the inner and outer core was done at temperatures ranging between 150-400° F. for times ranging from 1-30 minutes. After molding, the dual cores were spherically ground to approximately 1.554″ prior to testing. Table 2 and 3 give details of recipe of inner and outer cores. Components from these recipes were mixed in an internal mixer. Optionally, additional mixing was done using a two roll mill. Compression of the outer core is measured by first making a full size core separately, measuring its compression, and then molding two halves around the inner core to complete the dual core. Compression differential describes the difference between the outer core compression (as molded independently) and inner core compression. A higher compression differential is more susceptible to crack durability upon impact. Inner core recipe % wt Polybutadiene rubber 69.2 Polyisoprene rubber 0.0 Zinc diacrylate 14.8 Zinc oxide 12.2 Zinc stearate 2.1 Peroxide initiator 1.0 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 Color 0.1 Barium sulfate 0.0 Graphene A 0.0 graphene A masterbatch 0.0 Compression 0.220 Outer core recipe of dual core Formula Formula Formula Formula 5 (0% 6 (0.4% 7 (0.8% 8 (1.6% Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- ene) ene) ene) ene) % wt % wt % wt % wt Properties of outer core Compression 69.4 74.3 74.6 76.4 COR (coefficient of 0.801 0.800 0.795 0.790 restitution) Properties of dual core built from inner and outer core Compression is measured by applying a 200 pound load to the core and measuring its deflection, in inches. Compression=180−(deflection1000) Durability Testing of Dual Cores For each formula mentioned in Table 3, twelve cores were tested. The number of shots after which each core cracked was recorded for each core, and the cracked core was removed from the remainder of the test. The data was reported using a Weibull plot, and the mean time to fail was reported as shown in Table 3. As seen in FIG. 21, graphene modified cores endured more shots before failure compared to cores with no graphene. It is reasonable to assume that the durability of a golf ball having a dual core of this design will also experience a dramatic increase in crack durability based on this improvement to the dual core. It's reasonable to assume that the addition of graphene in the inner core could provide a durability enhancement to the overall golf ball, but this study only focused on the outer core. Dual Cores with Graphene-C in Outer Core Only In this study Graphene-C(0.01-6%, available from various suppliers such as Cheap Tubes Inc., Ad-Nano Technologies Private Limited, MKnano, XG Sciences Inc., Angstron Materials Inc., and has an average surface area between 400-800 m2/g) was introduced to the outer core in a dual core construction. Dual cores were made by compression molding two outer core halves around an already molded inner core having a diameter of approximately 0.940″ and a soft compression of approximately 0.200 inches of deflection under a 200 lb load. Curing of the inner and outer core was done at temperatures ranging between 150-400 F for times ranging from 1-30 minutes. After molding, the dual cores were spherically ground to approximately 1.554″ prior to testing. Tables 4 and 5 give details of recipe of inner and outer cores. Components from these recipes were mixed in an internal mixer. Optionally, additional mixing was done using a two roll mill. Compression of the outer core is measured by first making a full size core separately, measuring its compression, and then molding two halves around the inner core to complete the dual core. Compression differential describes the difference between the outer core compression (as molded independently) and inner core compression. A higher compression differential is more susceptible to crack durability upon impact. Table 4. Inner Core Recipe TABLE 4 % wt Polybutadiene rubber 69.2 Polyisoprene rubber 0.0 Zinc diacrylate 14.8 Zinc oxide 12.2 Zinc stearate 2.1 Peroxide initiator 1.0 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 Color 0.1 Barium sulfate 0.0 Graphene-C 0.0 Graphene-C masterbatch 0.0 Compression 0.220 inch under 200 lb load Table 5. Outer Recipe of Dual Core TABLE 5 Formula Formula Formula Formula 9 (0% 10 (0.4% 11 (0.8% 12 (1.6% Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- ene C) ene C) ene C) ene C) % wt % wt % wt % wt Polybutadiene 62.5 62.3 62.0 61.6 Zinc Diacrylate 19.9 19.8 19.7 19.6 Zinc Oxide 6.3 6.2 6.2 6.2 Zinc Stearate 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.7 Peroxide initiator 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 Color 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 Limestone 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Tungsten 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Barium sulfate 6.4 6.4 6.4 6.3 Graphene-2 0.0 0.4 0.8 1.6 Graphene-2 in masterbatch 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Compression 67.0 69.1 68.8 70.8 COR (coefficient of 0.801 0.798 0.795 0.791 restitution) Core Stiffness/Flexural 97.1 91.3 94.6 81.9 Modulus in MPa (measured on dog bone shape cured core) Tensile modulus of the 8.5 9.7 9.6 8.3 core in MPa (measured on a dog bone shaped cured core) For each formula mentioned in Table 5, twelve cores were tested. The number of shots after which each core cracked was recorded for each core, and the cracked core was removed from the remainder of the test. The data was reported using a Weibull plot, and the mean time to fail was reported as shown in Table 5. Testing was stopped after 100 shots. As shown in FIG. 22, graphene modified cores endured more shots before failure compared to cores with no graphene. It is reasonable to assume that the durability of a golf ball having a dual core of this design will also experience a dramatic increase in crack durability based on this improvement to the dual core. It's reasonable to assume that the addition of graphene in the inner core could provide a durability enhancement to the overall golf ball, but this study only focused on the outer core. Dual Cores with Graphene A in the Inner Core and the Outer Core. In this study graphene A was introduced to the inner and outer core in a dual core construction. Table 6 gives details of recipe of inner and outer cores of these dual cores. Components from these recipes were mixed in an internal mixer. Optionally, additional mixing was done using a two roll mill. Dual cores were made by compression molding two outer core halves around an already molded inner core having a diameter of approximately 0.940″ and a soft compression of approximately 0.200 inches of deflection under a 200 lb load. Curing of the inner and outer core was done at temperatures ranging between 150-400 F for times ranging from 1-30 minutes. After molding, the dual cores were spherically ground to approximately 1.554″ prior to testing. Compression of the outer core was measured by first making a full size core separately, measuring its compression, and then molding two halves around the inner core to complete the dual core. Table 6. Dual core recipes with graphene A in the inner core and the outer core Formula Formula Formula Formula 13- 14- 15- 16- inner inner inner inner core core core core % wt % wt % wt % wt Polybutadiene 69.2 69.2 69.1 68.9 Zinc Diacrylate 14.8 14.8 14.7 14.7 Zinc Oxide 12.3 12.3 12.2 12.2 Zinc Stearate 2.1 2.1 2.1 2.1 Peroxide initiator 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 Color 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Limestone 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Tungsten 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Barium sulfate 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Graphene A 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 Properties of inner core Compression 0.221 0.221 0.219 0.217 Formula Formula Formula Formula 13- 14- 15- 16- outer outer outer outer core core core core % wt % wt % wt % wt Polybutadiene 62.5 62.3 62.3 62.3 Zinc Diacrylate 19.9 19.8 19.8 19.8 Zinc Oxide 6.2 6.2 6.2 6.2 Zinc Stearate 3.7 3.7 3.7 3.7 Peroxide initiator 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 0.6 0.6 0.6 Color 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 Limestone 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Tungsten 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Barium sulfate 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5 Graphene A 0.0 0.4 0.4 0.4 Compression 67.8 67.6 67.6 67.6 COR (coefficient of restitution 0.800 0.796 0.796 0.796 @125 fps) Compression 47.3 48.1 49.0 48.3 COR (coefficient of restitution 0.795 0.793 0.793 0.792 @125 fps) Durability score or mean time 29 24 33 40 to fail MTTF(number of shots after which ball starts to crack/fail) For each formula mentioned in Table 6, twelve cores were tested. The number of shots after which each core cracked was recorded for each core, and the cracked core was removed from the remainder of the test. The data was reported using a Weibull plot, and the mean time to fail was reported as shown in Table 6. As seen in FIG. 23, graphene modified cores endured more shots before failure compared to cores with no graphene. The best durability was observed for balls which had graphene in inner and outer cores. It is reasonable to assume that the durability of a golf ball having a dual core of this design will also experience a dramatic increase in crack durability based on this improvement to the dual core. It's reasonable to assume that the addition of graphene in the inner core could provide a durability enhancement to the overall golf ball, but this study only focused on the outer core. Dual Cores with Graphene B in the Outer Core Only In this study Graphene-B was introduced to the outer core in a dual core construction. Dual cores were made by compression molding two outer core halves around an already molded inner core having a diameter of approximately 0.940″ and a soft compression of approximately 0.200 inches of deflection under a 200 lb load. Curing of the inner and outer core was done at temperatures ranging between 150-400 F for times ranging from 1-30 minutes. After molding, the dual cores were spherically ground to approximately 1.554″ prior to testing. Polybutadiene rubber 69.2 Polyisoprene rubber 0.0 Zinc diacrylate 14.8 Zinc oxide 12.2 Zinc stearate 2.1 Peroxide initiator 1.0 Zinc pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 Color 0.1 Barium sulfate 0.0 Graphene-B 0.0 Graphene-B masterbatch 0.0 Table 8. Outer Core Recipe of Dual Core TABLE 8 Formula 17 Formula 18 Formula 19 Components % wt % wt % wt Polybutadiene 62.5 62.0 61.6 Zinc Diacrylate 19.9 19.7 19.6 Zinc Oxide 6.3 6.2 6.2 Zinc Stearate 3.8 3.7 3.7 Peroxide Initiator 0.5 0.5 0.5 Zinc Pentachlorothiophenol 0.6 0.6 0.6 Color 0.1 0.1 0.1 Limestone 0 0 0 Tungsten 0 0 0 Barium Sulfate 6.4 6.4 6.3 Graphene B 0 0.8 1.6 Graphene B Masterbatch 0 0 0 The compression of Formula 17 is 64.3, the compression of Formula 18 is 68.0, and the compression of Formula 19 is 67.1. The compression of a dual core built from the inner core and the outer core is 42.1 for Formula 17, 45.8 for Formula 18 and 48.7 for Formula 19. Compression is measured by applying a 200 pound load to the core and measuring its deflection, in inches. Compression=180−(deflection*1000). For each formula mentioned in Table 8, twelve cores were tested. The number of shots after which each core cracked was recorded for each core, and the cracked core was removed from the remainder of the test. The data was reported using a Weibull plot, and the mean time to fail was reported as shown in Table 8. Testing was stopped after 100 shots. As seen in FIG. 25, graphene modified cores endured more shots before failure compared to cores with no graphene. It is reasonable to assume that the durability of a golf ball having a dual core of this design will also experience a dramatic increase in crack durability based on this improvement to the dual core. It's reasonable to assume that the addition of graphene in the inner core could provide a durability enhancement to the overall golf ball, but this study only focused on the outer core. Effect of Average Surface Area on Durability of Dual Core. As seen in Table 9 and FIG. 26, as the average surface area of graphene nanoplatelet increases, mean time to fail (MTTF) or durability increases. For the same concentration of graphene, nanoplatelet that has higher average surface area lasts longer in a typical durability test. Durability comparison of graphene with different average surface areas 0.4% 0.8% 1.6% 0.8% 1.6% 0.4% 0.8% 1.6% Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Control ene-A ene-A ene-A Control ene-B ene-B Control ene-C ene-C ene-C Graphene Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Graph- Type ene A ene A ene A ene A ene B ene B ene B ene C ene C ene C ene C Average ~15-50 ~15-50 ~15-50 ~15-50 ~300-400 ~300-400 ~300-400 ~400-800 ~400-800 ~400-800 ~400-800 surface area (m2/g) Reference Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table Table table 3 3 3 3 8 8 8 5 5 5 5 Properties of dual core Dual core 48.9 50.9 52.1 54.1 42.1 45.8 48.7 45.0 48.9 48.6 50.4 compression Dual core 0.796 0.795 0.793 0.790 0.793 0.790 0.787 0.795 0.794 0.793 0.789 COR Dual core 50 60 52 57 25 67 82 33 67 78 99 MTTF Improvement in Curing by Addition of Graphene To test if graphene helps reduce the time required to cure a given rubber core, temperature/time experiment was conducted. Controlled cores had no graphene whereas modified cores contained 1.6% graphene in an outer core. Inner cores did not have any graphene. A thermocouple was attached to an outer core of the dual core. Temperature of outer core was recorded while curing the dual core. Temperature inside outer core of a dual core was recorded as a function of time as shown in FIG. 27. As seen in FIG. 27, cores that contain graphene achieve a maximum temperature sooner than cores that do not contain graphene. This can be attributed to a higher thermal conductivity of graphene that causes the outer core to reach higher temperature faster than cores that do not have any graphene. Novelty of this process: Durability of the dual core with a high compression differential is greatly enhanced by incorporation of graphene in inner and outer core. The graphene reinforcement to the inner and outer core helps resist the high stresses experienced by the core when struck at high club speeds. Addition of graphene to the core recipe is very simple and it can be dispersed into the polybutadiene mixture during two roll milling process. Due to high thermal conductivity of graphene, overall thermal conductivity of cores can be increased with incorporation of graphene. With higher thermal conductivity of graphene reinforced cores, curing cycles can be made shorter. Shorter curing cycles can lead to higher output in production. Optionally, graphene can be introduced as a masterbatch in polybutadiene or polyisoprene, making its dispersion into polybutadiene rubber much easier and dust free. As our experiment has shown, incorporating graphene into the inner and outer core recipe reinforces the strength of the outer core and provides greater crack durability protection in the design of a dual core golf ball, which is more susceptible to crack durability failures if the outer core is much firmer than the soft inner core. In general, this is applicable when the inner core is softer than the outer core. More specifically, when the inner core has more than 0.200″ deflection under a 200 lb load, and the dual core is 40 compression or greater. This is particularly crucial if the ball is a 4-piece construction with a single mantle layer with thickness less than 0.050″, or more specifically thinner than 0.040″, with 0.036″ being the target in this study. FIGS. 1, 3, 4 and 5 illustrate a five piece golf ball 10 comprising an inner core 12a, an outer core 12b, an inner mantle 14a, an outer mantle 14b, and a cover layer 16 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The inner core 12a comprises polybutadiene mixture comprising 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 5A illustrates a five piece golf ball 10 comprising an inner core 12a, an intermediate core 12b, an outer core 12c, a mantle 14, and a cover layer 16 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The intermediate core 12b comprises polybutadiene mixture comprising 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate a six piece golf ball 10 comprising an inner core 12a, an intermediate core 12b, an outer core 12c, an inner mantle 14a, an outer mantle 14b, and a cover layer 16 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The inner core 12a comprises polybutadiene mixture comprising 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 10 illustrates a four piece golf ball comprising a dual core, a boundary layer and a cover layer composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The outer core comprises polybutadiene mixture comprising 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 11 illustrates a three piece golf ball comprising a core, a boundary layer and a cover layer composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The core comprises polybutadiene mixture comprising 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate a two piece golf ball 20 with a core 25 and a cover layer 30 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The core comprises polybutadiene mixture comprising 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIGS. 14 and 15 illustrate a three-piece golf ball 5 comprising a core 10, a mantle layer 14 and a cover layer 16 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch, with dimples 18, wherein the core comprises 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 16 illustrates a dual core three piece golf ball 35 comprising an inner core 30, and outer core 32 and a cover layer 34 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch, wherein the core comprises 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 17 illustrates a three piece golf ball 45 comprising a core 40, a mantle layer 42 and a cover layer 44 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch, wherein the core comprises 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 18 illustrates a dual core four piece golf ball 55 comprising an inner core 50, an outer core 52, a mantle layer 54 and a cover layer 56 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch, wherein the core comprises 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. FIG. 19 illustrates a four piece golf ball 65 comprising a core 60, an inner mantle 62, an outer mantle 64 and a cover layer 66 composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch, wherein the core comprises 0.4 to 2.5 weight percent of a graphene. The optional mantle component is preferably composed of the inner mantle layer and the outer mantle layer. The mantle component preferably has a thickness ranging from 0.05 inch to 0.15 inch, and more preferably from 0.06 inch to 0.08 inch. The outer mantle layer is preferably composed of a blend of ionomer materials. One preferred embodiment comprises SURLYN 9150 material, SURLYN 8940 material, a SURLYN AD1022 material, and a masterbatch. The SURLYN 9150 material is preferably present in an amount ranging from 20 to 45 weight percent of the cover, and more preferably 30 to 40 weight percent. The SURLYN 8945 is preferably present in an amount ranging from 15 to 35 weight percent of the cover, more preferably 20 to 30 weight percent, and most preferably 26 weight percent. The SURLYN 9945 is preferably present in an amount ranging from 30 to 50 weight percent of the cover, more preferably 35 to 45 weight percent, and most preferably 41 weight percent. The SURLYN 8940 is preferably present in an amount ranging from 5 to 15 weight percent of the cover, more preferably 7 to 12 weight percent, and most preferably 10 weight percent. SURLYN 8320, from DuPont, is a very-low modulus ethylene/methacrylic acid copolymer with partial neutralization of the acid groups with sodium ions. SURLYN 8945, also from DuPont, is a high acid ethylene/methacrylic acid copolymer with partial neutralization of the acid groups with sodium ions. SURLYN 9945, also from DuPont, is a high acid ethylene/methacrylic acid copolymer with partial neutralization of the acid groups with zinc ions. SURLYN 8940, also from DuPont, is an ethylene/methacrylic acid copolymer with partial neutralization of the acid groups with sodium ions. The inner mantle layer is preferably composed of a blend of ionomers, preferably comprising a terpolymer and at least two high acid (greater than 18 weight percent) ionomers neutralized with sodium, zinc, magnesium, or other metal ions. The material for the inner mantle layer preferably has a Shore D plaque hardness ranging preferably from 35 to 77, more preferably from 36 to 44, a most preferably approximately 40. The thickness of the outer mantle layer preferably ranges from 0.025 inch to 0.050 inch, and is more preferably approximately 0.037 inch. The mass of an insert including the dual core and the inner mantle layer preferably ranges from 32 grams to 40 grams, more preferably from 34 to 38 grams, and is most preferably approximately 36 grams. The inner mantle layer is alternatively composed of a HPF material available from DuPont. Alternatively, the inner mantle layer 14b is composed of a material such as disclosed in Kennedy, III et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,361,101 for a Golf BallAnd Thermoplastic Material, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. The outer mantle layer is preferably composed of a blend of ionomers, preferably comprising at least two high acid (greater than 18 weight percent) ionomers neutralized with sodium, zinc, or other metal ions. The blend of ionomers also preferably includes a masterbatch. The material of the outer mantle layer preferably has a Shore D plaque hardness ranging preferably from 55 to 75, more preferably from 65 to 71, and most preferably approximately 67. The thickness of the outer mantle layer preferably ranges from 0.025 inch to 0.040 inch, and is more preferably approximately 0.030 inch. The mass of the entire insert including the core, the inner mantle layer and the outer mantle layer preferably ranges from 38 grams to 43 grams, more preferably from 39 to 41 grams, and is most preferably approximately 41 grams. In an alternative embodiment, the inner mantle layer is preferably composed of a blend of ionomers, preferably comprising at least two high acid (greater than 18 weight percent) ionomers neutralized with sodium, zinc, or other metal ions. The blend of ionomers also preferably includes a masterbatch. In this embodiment, the material of the inner mantle layer has a Shore D plaque hardness ranging preferably from 55 to 75, more preferably from 65 to 71, and most preferably approximately 67. The thickness of the outer mantle layer preferably ranges from 0.025 inch to 0.040 inch, and is more preferably approximately 0.030 inch. Also in this embodiment, the outer mantle layer 14b is composed of a blend of ionomers, preferably comprising a terpolymer and at least two high acid (greater than 18 weight percent) ionomers neutralized with sodium, zinc, magnesium, or other metal ions. In this embodiment, the material for the outer mantle layer 14b preferably has a Shore D plaque hardness ranging preferably from 35 to 77, more preferably from 36 to 44, a most preferably approximately 40. The thickness of the outer mantle layer preferably ranges from 0.025 inch to 0.100 inch, and more preferably ranges from 0.070 inch to 0.090 inch. In yet another embodiment wherein the inner mantle layer is thicker than the outer mantle layer and the outer mantle layer is harder than the inner mantle layer, the inner mantle layer is composed of a blend of ionomers, preferably comprising a terpolymer and at least two high acid (greater than 18 weight percent) ionomers neutralized with sodium, zinc, magnesium, or other metal ions. In this embodiment, the material for the inner mantle layer has a Shore D plaque hardness ranging preferably from 30 to 77, more preferably from 30 to 50, and most preferably approximately 40. In this embodiment, the material for the outer mantle layer has a Shore D plaque hardness ranging preferably from 40 to 77, more preferably from 50 to 71, and most preferably approximately 67. In this embodiment, the thickness of the inner mantle layer preferably ranges from 0.030 inch to 0.090 inch, and the thickness of the outer mantle layer ranges from 0.025 inch to 0.070 inch. Preferably the inner core has a diameter ranging from 0.75 inch to 1.20 inches, more preferably from 0.85 inch to 1.05 inch, and most preferably approximately 0.95 inch. Preferably the inner core 12a has a Shore D hardness ranging from 20 to 50, more preferably from 25 to 40, and most preferably approximately 35. Preferably the inner core has a mass ranging from 5 grams to 15 grams, 7 grams to 10 grams and most preferably approximately 8 grams. Preferably the outer core has a diameter ranging from 1.25 inch to 1.55 inches, more preferably from 1.40 inch to 1.5 inch, and most preferably approximately 1.5 inch. Preferably the outer core has a Shore D surface hardness ranging from 40 to 65, more preferably from 50 to 60, and most preferably approximately 56. Preferably the outer core is formed from a polybutadiene, zinc diacrylate, zinc oxide, zinc stearate, a peptizer and peroxide. Preferably the combined inner core and outer core have a mass ranging from 25 grams to 35 grams, 30 grams to 34 grams and most preferably approximately 32 grams. Preferably the inner core has a deflection of at least 0.230 inch under a load of 220 pounds, and the core has a deflection of at least 0.080 inch under a load of 200 pounds. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a mass 50 is loaded onto an inner core and a core. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the mass is 100 kilograms, approximately 220 pounds. Under a load of 100 kilograms, the inner core preferably has a deflection from 0.230 inch to 0.300 inch. Under a load of 100 kilograms, preferably the core has a deflection of 0.08 inch to 0.150 inch. Alternatively, the load is 200 pounds (approximately 90 kilograms), and the deflection of the core 12 is at least 0.080 inch. Further, a compressive deformation from a beginning load of 10 kilograms to an ending load of 130 kilograms for the inner core ranges from 4 millimeters to 7 millimeters and more preferably from 5 millimeters to 6.5 millimeters. The dual core deflection differential allows for low spin off the tee to provide greater distance, and high spin on approach shots. In an alternative embodiment of the golf ball shown in FIG. 5A, the golf ball 10 comprises an inner core 12a, an intermediate core 12b, an outer core 12b, a mantle 14 and a cover 16. The golf ball 10 preferably has a diameter of at least 1.68 inches, a mass ranging from 45 grams to 47 grams, a COR of at least 0.79, a deformation under a 100 kilogram loading of at least 0.07 mm. In a preferred embodiment, a golf ball comprises a dual core and a cover layer composed of 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer (“HNP”), 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer; 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of a paraloid impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch. The cover preferably has a hardness ranging from 30 to 60 Shore D, more preferably 45 to 55 Shore D. The inner core preferably has a diameter ranging from 1.1 to 1.5 inches, and most preferably 1.25 inches. The dual core (consisting of the inner core and outer core) preferably has a diameter of 1.55 inches to 1.65 inches, and most preferably 1.59 inches to 1.6 inches. The golf ball preferably has a diameter of at least 1.68 inches. The golf ball preferably has a mass lower than 45.93 grams, and preferably ranging from 45.0 to 45.93 grams. The golf ball preferably has a COR of at least 0.790. The golf ball preferably has an INSTRON compression ranging from 0.10 to 0.13 inches. In a particularly preferred embodiment of the invention, the golf ball preferably has an aerodynamic pattern such as disclosed in Simonds et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,419,443 for a Low Volume Cover For A Golf Ball, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Alternatively, the golf ball has an aerodynamic pattern such as disclosed in Simonds et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,338,392 for An Aerodynamic Surface Geometry For A Golf Ball, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Various aspects of the present invention golf balls have been described in terms of certain tests or measuring procedures. These are described in greater detail as follows. As used herein, “Shore D hardness” of the golf ball layers is measured generally in accordance with ASTM D-2240 type D, except the measurements may be made on the curved surface of a component of the golf ball, rather than on a plaque. If measured on the ball, the measurement will indicate that the measurement was made on the ball. In referring to a hardness of a material of a layer of the golf ball, the measurement will be made on a plaque in accordance with ASTM D-2240. Furthermore, the Shore D hardness of the cover is measured while the cover remains over the mantles and cores. When a hardness measurement is made on the golf ball, the Shore D hardness is preferably measured at a land area of the cover. As used herein, “Shore A hardness” of a cover is measured generally in accordance with ASTM D-2240 type A, except the measurements may be made on the curved surface of a component of the golf ball, rather than on a plaque. If measured on the ball, the measurement will indicate that the measurement was made on the ball. In referring to a hardness of a material of a layer of the golf ball, the measurement will be made on a plaque in accordance with ASTM D-2240. Furthermore, the Shore A hardness of the cover is measured while the cover remains over the mantles and cores. When a hardness measurement is made on the golf ball, Shore A hardness is preferably measured at a land area of the cover The resilience or coefficient of restitution (COR) of a golf ball is the constant “e,” which is the ratio of the relative velocity of an elastic sphere after direct impact to that before impact. As a result, the COR (“e”) can vary from 0 to 1, with 1 being equivalent to a perfectly or completely elastic collision and 0 being equivalent to a perfectly or completely inelastic collision. COR, along with additional factors such as club head speed, club head mass, ball weight, ball size and density, spin rate, angle of trajectory and surface configuration as well as environmental conditions (e.g. temperature, moisture, atmospheric pressure, wind, etc.) generally determine the distance a ball will travel when hit. Along this line, the distance a golf ball will travel under controlled environmental conditions is a function of the speed and mass of the club and size, density and resilience (COR) of the ball and other factors. The initial velocity of the club, the mass of the club and the angle of the ball's departure are essentially provided by the golfer upon striking. Since club head speed, club head mass, the angle of trajectory and environmental conditions are not determinants controllable by golf ball producers and the ball size and weight are set by the U.S.G.A., these are not factors of concern among golf ball manufacturers. The factors or determinants of interest with respect to improved distance are generally the COR and the surface configuration of the ball. The coefficient of restitution is the ratio of the outgoing velocity to the incoming velocity. In the examples of this application, the coefficient of restitution of a golf ball was measured by propelling a ball horizontally at a speed of 125+/−5 feet per second (fps) and corrected to 125 fps against a generally vertical, hard, flat steel plate and measuring the ball's incoming and outgoing velocity electronically. Speeds were measured with a pair of ballistic screens, which provide a timing pulse when an object passes through them. The screens were separated by 36 inches and are located 25.25 inches and 61.25 inches from the rebound wall. The ball speed was measured by timing the pulses from screen 1 to screen 2 on the way into the rebound wall (as the average speed of the ball over 36 inches), and then the exit speed was timed from screen 2 to screen 1 over the same distance. The rebound wall was tilted 2 degrees from a vertical plane to allow the ball to rebound slightly downward in order to miss the edge of the cannon that fired it. The rebound wall is solid steel. As indicated above, the incoming speed should be 125±5 fps but corrected to 125 fps. The correlation between COR and forward or incoming speed has been studied and a correction has been made over the ±5 fps range so that the COR is reported as if the ball had an incoming speed of exactly 125.0 fps. The measurements for deflection, compression, hardness, and the like are preferably performed on a finished golf ball as opposed to performing the measurement on each layer during manufacturing. Preferably, in a five layer golf ball comprising an inner core, an outer core, an inner mantle layer, an outer mantle layer and a cover, the hardness/compression of layers involve an inner core with the greatest deflection (lowest hardness), an outer core (combined with the inner core) with a deflection less than the inner core, an inner mantle layer with a hardness less than the hardness of the combined outer core and inner core, an outer mantle layer with the hardness layer of the golf ball, and a cover with a hardness less than the hardness of the outer mantle layer. These measurements are preferably made on a finished golf ball that has been torn down for the measurements. Preferably the inner mantle layer is thicker than the outer mantle layer or the cover layer. The dual core and dual mantle golf ball creates an optimized velocity-initial velocity ratio (Vi/lV), and allows for spin manipulation. The dual core provides for increased core compression differential resulting in a high spin for short game shots and a low spin for driver shots. A discussion of the USGA initial velocity test is disclosed in Yagley et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,595,872 for a Golf Ball With High Coefficient Of Restitution, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Another example is Bartels et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,775 for a Golf Ball With High Coefficient Of Restitution, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Crast et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,632,877, for a Dual Curable Coating, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Skrabski et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,544,337, for a Golf ball Painting System, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Crast et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,365,679, for a Two component polyurethane clear coat for golf balls, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Crast et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,564, for a UV Clearable Clear Coat For GolfBalls, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Skrabski et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,319,563, for a Golf ball Painting Method, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Bartels, U.S. Pat. No. 9,278,260, for a Low Compression Three-Piece Golf Ball With An Aerodynamic Drag Rise At High Speeds, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Chavan et al, U.S. Pat. No. 9,789,366, for a Graphene Core For A Golf Ball, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Chavan et al, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/705,011, filed on Sep. 14, 2017, for a Graphene Core For A Golf Ball, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Chavan et al, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/729,231, filed on Oct. 10, 2017, for a Graphene And Nanotube Reinforced Golf Ball, is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 1. A golf ball comprising: an inner core comprising a polybutadiene material; an outer core comprising polybutadiene material; and a cover layer disposed over the outer core, the cover layer comprising 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer, 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of an impact modifier, and 5 to 15 wt % of a color masterbatch; wherein the golf ball has a diameter of at least 1.68 inches, a mass lower than 45.93 grams, and a COR of at least 0.790. 2. The golf ball according to claim 1 wherein the impact modifier is at least one of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene polymer (ABS), methyl methacrylate-butadiene-styrene polymer (MBS) impact-property modifiers for poly(vinyl chloride), and acrylic/methacrylic core-shell modifiers for polycarbonate. 3. The golf ball according to claim 1 wherein the cover layer has a Shore D hardness ranging from 35 to 60. 4. The golf ball according to claim 1 wherein the outer core has a tensile modulus ranging from 8 MPa to 10 MPa. an inner core comprising a polybutadiene; an outer core comprising a polybutadiene; and a cover layer disposed over the outer core, the cover layer comprising 30 to 45 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer, 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, and 15 to 25 wt % of a masterbatch comprising from 20 to 50 wt % of an impact modifier; an outer core comprising a polybutadiene; a mantle layer; and a cover layer disposed over the mantle layer, the cover layer comprising 30 to 40 wt % of a highly neutralized polymer, 10 to 20 wt % of a first ionomer, 10 to 20 wt % of a second ionomer, 3- to 20 wt % of an impact modifier; wherein the cover layer has a thickness ranging from 0.025 inch to 0.055 inch; wherein the cover layer has a Shore D hardness ranging from 35 to 60; Filed: Aug 8, 2019 Applicant: Callaway Golf Company (Carlsbad, CA) Inventors: Petra Petrich (Escondido, CA), David Bartels (Carlsbad, CA), Hong G. Jeon (Carlsbad, CA), Carl Brown (Temecula, CA) International Classification: A63B 37/00 (20060101); C08K 3/04 (20060101); C08L 9/00 (20060101); C08F 36/06 (20060101); C01B 32/182 (20060101);	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1671
__label__cc	0.735378	0.264622	Governor: Olusegun Adebayo Oni (PDP) Deputy Governor: Sikiru Tai Lawal Capital: Ado Ekiti. Main Towns: Ado, Ikere, Efon, Ikole Aramoko-Ekiti, Ode and Oye-Ekiti. Ekiti state was created by the Abacha administration on October 1,1996. It was carved out of Ondo State. It shares boundaries with Kwara state to the north, Kogi state to the east, Ondo state to the south and Osun State to the west. Ekiti State has a total of 16 local government areas. They are Ado, Ekiti-East, Ekiti-West, Emure/Ise/Orun, Ekiti South-West, Ikare, Irepodun, Ijero, Ido/Osi, Oye, Ikole, Moba, Gbonyin, Efon, Ise/Orun and Ilejemeje. The people of the state are Yorubas and they share the same cultural values with other Yorubas. The Ekitis are homogenous hard working people. Agriculture is the main stay of the economy of the people. A wide variety of cash crops and food crops are grown in Ekiti State. Some of the cash crops are cocoa, palm produce, timber and rubber. Others are citrus, kola nut, plantain, maize, rice, cowpea, yam and cassava. Ekiti state has a fair amount of solid mineral resources. These are kaolin, clay, cassiterite, tin ore, columbite, bauxite (aluminum ore), foundry sand, granite and elarconits. Ekiti state has both public and private companies. The public companies include the O'dua Textile Mills, AdoEkiti. Ire Burnt Bricks Works, Ire-Ekiti, Ekiti Oasis Companies Limited located in different parts of the state, Road Materials and Construction Company, Igbemo-Ekiti, Owena Motels, Ado-Ekiti and Medical Products Industry Ikere-Ekiti. While the private companies include Polamp Electric Industries, Ikole-Ekiti, Adegbemile Food Industries, Oye-Ekiti, Omotayo Standard Press Limited, Ado-Ekiti, Star Printers Nig. Limited, Ado-Ekiti and Celtic Company Ltd., Ilawe Ekiti. Education is very important to the people and government of Ekiti State. There are 541 public primary schools in the state while there are 141 public secondary schools. There are also four State Unity Secondary Schools. Ekiti has four Technical Colleges, four Women Education Centres and Five Nomadic Schools. The tertiary Institutions in the State are the College of Education, Ikere Ekiti, Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti. There are Special Schools for Handicapped Children and School for the Mentally Retarded. Health establishments in the state include a Specialist Hospital and six General Hospitals at different locations in the state. To get health care delivery closer to the people, there are also district hospitals and comprehensive health centres in all the local government areas. Ekiti State is a tourist haven. The popular Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort is located in Ikogosi, Ekiti. Other tourist attractions are Arinta Water falls, Ipole-Iloro, Olosunta Hills, Ikere-Ekiti, Fajuyi Memorial Park, Ado-Ekiti, Ero Dam, Ikun-Ekiti, Egbe Dam, Egbe-Ekiti and Natural Caves in Ikere-Ekit. Closely linked to the tourism potencials of the state is the festivals that are held seasonally. Some major festivals are common to all the Ekitis and these are Egungun festival, Ogun festival and New Yam festival.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1678
__label__wiki	0.730478	0.730478	Browse Collections / UBC Theses and Dissertations / The effect of preceptorship on role transition of novice... UBC Theses and Dissertations The effect of preceptorship on role transition of novice staff nurses MacDonald, Bernadette 1990 Your browser doesn't seem to have a PDF viewer, please download the PDF to view this item. Title The effect of preceptorship on role transition of novice staff nurses Creator MacDonald, Bernadette Publisher University of British Columbia Description This study investigated the effect of a preceptorship program on role transition of novice staff nurses. A quasi-experimental, control group pretest post-test, design was used. Thirty-four novice staff nurses participated in the study; 20 in the preceptorship (experimental) group, and 14 in the traditional orientation (control) group. Three research hypotheses were investigated to determine whether novice staff nurses who participated in a preceptorship orientation program would: (1) demonstrate easier role transition, (2) report a higher level of job performance, and (3) demonstrate less role deprivation, than those novice staff nurses who participated in a traditional orientation program. Role transition was measured using the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (Schwirian, 1978) and the Nursing Role Conception Scale (Corwin, 1961). Participants completed the two scales during the first week of the orientation or preceptorship programs and again one-month later. Results indicated no significant differences (p<0.05) between the groups on either the Nursing Role Conception Scale or the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. Subject Nursing -- United States Preceptorship Education, Nursing Genre Thesis/Dissertation Provider Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library Rights For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. DOI 10.14288/1.0302361 URI http://hdl.handle.net/2429/28767 Degree Master of Science - MSc Program Nursing Affiliation Applied Science, Faculty of Nursing, School of Degree Grantor University of British Columbia Campus UBCV Scholarly Level Graduate AggregatedSourceRepository DSpace 831-UBC_1990_A5_7 M32.pdf [ 5.1MB ] JSON: 831-1.0302361.json JSON-LD: 831-1.0302361-ld.json RDF/XML (Pretty): 831-1.0302361-rdf.xml RDF/JSON: 831-1.0302361-rdf.json Turtle: 831-1.0302361-turtle.txt N-Triples: 831-1.0302361-rdf-ntriples.txt Original Record: 831-1.0302361-source.json 831-1.0302361-fulltext.txt 831-1.0302361.ris THE EFFECT OF PRECEPTORSHIP ON ROLE TRANSITION OF NOVICE STAFF NURSES By BERNADETTE MACDONALD B.N. Dalhousie U n i v e r s i t y , 198G A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (SCHOOL OF NURSING) We accept th i s thes is as conforming to the required standard The Univers i ty of B r i t i s h Columbia May 1990 @ Bernadette MacDonald In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Department of DE-6 (2/88) Abstract This study invest igated the effect of a preceptorship program on ro le t r a n s i t i o n of novice s ta f f nurses. A quasi-experimental , contro l group pretest pos t - tes t , design was used. T h i r t y - f o u r novice s t a f f nurses par t i c ipa ted in the study; 20 in the preceptorship (experimental) group, and 14 in the t r a d i t i o n a l or i enta t ion (control) group. Three research hypotheses were invest igated to determine whether novice s t a f f nurses who par t i c ipa ted in a preceptorship or ienta t ion program would: (1) demonstrate easier ro l e t r a n s i t i o n , (2) report a higher l e v e l of job performance, and (3) demonstrate less ro le depr iva t ion , than those novice s ta f f nurses who par t i c ipa ted in a t r a d i t i o n a l or i enta t ion program. Role t r a n s i t i o n was measured using the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (Schwirian, 1978) and the Nursing Role Conception Scale (Corwin, 1961). Par t i c ipant s completed the two scales during the f i r s t week of the or ienta t ion or preceptorship programs and again one-month l a t e r . Results indicated no s i g n i f i c a n t di f ferences (p<0.05) between the groups on e i ther the Nursing Role Conception Scale or the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. i i l Table of Contents Page Abstract i i Table of Contents i i i L i s t of Tables v L i s t of Figures v i Acknowledgements v i i Chapter One - Introduction Background to the Problem 1 Problem Statement 3 Purpose 4 Theoret ica l Framework 4 S o c i a l i z a t i o n and R e a l i t y Shock 10 Preceptorship Programs and S o c i a l i z a t i o n 12 D e f i n i t i o n of Terms 14 Research Hypotheses 16 Assumptions 18 Limitat ions 19 Del imitat ions 19 S igni f icance of the Study 19 Scope of the study 20 Chapter Two - Review of the L i t e r a t u r e Development of Preceptorship Programs 22 Benefits of Preceptorship 24 Research on Preceptorship 25 Summary 32 Chapter Three - Methods and Procedures Des ign 33 Set t ing 33 Sample C r i t e r i a and Se lect ion 34 Protect ion of Human Rights . .37 Measurement of Variables : 38 Instruments 39 Data Analys is 44 Summary 4 5 Chapter Four - Presentation of Data Descr ipt ive C h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of Sample 46 Results in Relat ion to Research Hypotheses Hypothesis Two . . .50 i i i Page Hypothesis Three 57 Hypothesis One 64 Summary 6 4 Chapter Five -Discuss ion of Findings Discussion in Relat ion to Research Hypotheseis Hypothesis Two . 68 Hypothesis Three 73 Hypothesis One 76 Comparison of Present Study Results to Other S tud ie s . . . 82 Summary. 8 4 Chapter Six - Summary, Conclusions and Implications Summary 85 Conclus ions 88 Limitat ions 9 0 Implicat ions: Nursing Prac t i ce . . . . 9 1 Nursing Education 95 Nursing Research 99 References 102 Appendices: Appendix A. Preceptorship Program Schedule 108 Appendix B. Preceptor Development Program 110 Appendix C. T r a d i t i o n a l Orientat ion Schedule Hospi ta l (A) 112 Appendix D. T r a d i t i o n a l Orientat ion Schedule Hospi ta l (B) 114 Appendix E . Let ter of Introduction 117 Appendix F . Demographic Data Sheet 120 Appendix G. Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance 122 Appendix H. Nursing Role Conception Scale 126 iv List of Tables Page Table 1. Demographic Characteristics of Sample 48 Table 2. Pretest Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for Experimental and Control Groups 53 Table 3. Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for the Experimental Group.. . 54 Table 4. Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for the Control Group 55 Table 5. Comparison of Post-test Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for Experimental and Control Groups 57 Table 6. Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Nursing Role Conception Scale Scores for Experimental (Preceptorship) Group 60 Table 7. Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Nursing Role Conception Scale Scores for Control (Traditional Orientation) Group ..61 Table 8. Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Nursing Role Conception Scale Scores for Both Groups 63 v Table of Figures Page Figure 1. Diagram of Hypothesized Role Transition Process Occurring Post Work-Entry with Preceptorship Versus Traditional Orientation Programs 18 vi Acknowledgements I extend s i n c e r e g r a t i t u d e to my t h e s i s committee, Dr. Sonia Acorn and Dr. Sharon Andersen, f o r t h e i r c o n t r i b u t i o n s i n d i r e c t i n g , a d v i s i n g , and c h a l l e n g i n g me throughout the r e s e a r c h p r o c e s s . The q u a l i t y of t h e i r s u p e r v i s i o n enhanced the q u a l i t y of t h i s r e s e a r c h . Completion of t h i s study would not have been p o s s i b l e without the c o o p e r a t i o n of p a r t i c i p a t i n g agencies, and without the the p a r t i c i p a t i o n of novice nurses who w i l l i n g l y gave of t h e i r own time to take p a r t i n t h i s study. My thanks i s extended to a l l . I a l s o acknowledge my f a m i l y f o r the c o n t i n u i n g support and encouragement which they extended over the two years of study. Although they were f a r away i n m i l e s , they were always c l o s e i n thought and there with words of encouragement when needed. I d e d i c a t e t h i s t h e s i s to the memory of my f a t h e r , Stephen MacDonald. v i i 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background to the Problem Nurse leaders in education and practice settings have long been concerned about the role transit ion required if-for the beginning nurse practitioner (Goldenberg, 1987/1988; Talarczyk & Milbrant, 1988). While Benner and Benner (1979) described the change from student to practitioner as "a troubled passage at best" (p. 15), Meir-Hamilton and Keifer (1986) depicted i t as "one of l i f e ' s most challenging role transitions" (p. 3). In essence, beginning practice in nursing can be the best of times or the worst of times. Varied approaches have been ut i l ized in an effort to ease the problem of troubled transitions (Goldenberg, 1987/1988; Talarczyk & Milbrant, 1988). The most prevalent is the use of preceptorship programs (Morrow, 1984). In a preceptorship progam, a preceptor is "a person, generally a staff nurse, who teaches, counsels, inspires, role models and supports the growth and development of an individual (the novice) for a fixed and limited amount of time with the specific purpose of social ization into a new role" (Morrow, 1984, p. 4). While the l i terature provides abundant anecdotal descriptions of the benefits of preceptorship programs (Chickerella & Lutz, 1981; Davis & Barham, 1989; Donius, 1988; Goldenberg, 1987/1988; Jennings, Costello, Durkin, & Rotkovitch, 1986; Metzger, 1986; Spears, 1986; Stul l 1987) there is an obvious scarcity of research studies confirming the effectiveness of preceptorships in easing role transit ion experiences of novice staff nurses. Studies of preceptorships have been conducted, (Allanach & Jennings, 1990; Clayton, Broome, & E l l i s , 1989; Dobbs, 1988; Giles & Moran, 1989; Huber, 1981; Itano, Warren & Ishida, 1987; McLean, 1987; Sheetz, 1989 Shogan, Prior & Kolski , 1985). Among these, studies by Giles and Moran; McLean; and Shogan, Pr ior , and Kolski; essentially have been program evaluation, satisfaction surveys. Studies by Clayton et a l . ; Dobbs; and Itano et a l . ; investigated transition in terms of the effects of preceptorship on role mastery and role conceptions when preceptorship programs were used as part of student preparatory education. Studies by Huber (1981) and Allanach and Jennings (1990), examined the effect of preceptorship programs on the role transit ion of novice staff nurse orientees; however, only Huber's study compared the effects of different types of orientations 3 (internship versus preceptorship) on the role transition of novice staff nurses. Spears (1986) has called for research on the effect of preceptorship programs on newly graduated nurses. Part icularly , for pre- and post-preceptorship measurements of novice nurse performance and self-concept, to determine i f changes actually do occur as a result of the preceptorship experience. Myrick (1988) concurs that research in this area is required. "While the underlying assumption for the use of preceptorship programs is that one-to-one learning furnishes an effective method of learning, there is limited empirical evidence to substantiate its effectiveness" (Myrick, 1988, p. 136). Problem Statement It is presumed that preceptorship is indeed a useful orientation strategy which eases the role transition of novice staff nurses; however, evidence necessary to substantiate this belief is lacking. Research is needed to examine the actual effect of preceptorships on the role transit ion of novice staff nurses. Specif ical ly , research is needed comparing the transition which occurs in orientations without preceptorships to the transition that occurs with preceptorships. This comparison is needed in order to determine whether differences in role transit ion of novice staff nurses can be attributed to preceptorship programs. Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of preceptorship programs, used in hospital-based orientations, on the role transition of novice staff nurses. Theoretical Framework Kramer's (1974) theory of rea l i ty shock provided the theoretical framework for this study. The rea l i ty shock concept is borrowed from the l i terature and the experience of culture shock. Culture shock is the surprise and imbalance felt when one moves from his/her accustomed culture to an unfamiliar culture that has different meanings and requires adjustment to previously familiar events (Kramer & Schmalenberg, 1977a). Moving from school to practice is comparable to moving into a new cultural system in which ideals, rewards, and sanctions differ from those received in school. The term real i ty shock is used predominantly in relation to the response of neophytes upon entry into a professional f ie ld (Kramer and Schmalenberg, 1977a). It characterizes the shock-like response of neophytes when confronted with work experiences for which they presumed they would be prepared, but, find they are not prepared. The typical shock-like response occurs when the novice senses professional ideals acquired at school are not appreciated in the work setting. The discrepancy in values of the work and school cultures, which neophytes confront upon work entry, leaves them in a state of values conf l ic t , and thus, susceptible to rea l i ty shock. In the theory of rea l i ty shock, Kramer (1974) suggested the transition from student to novice nurse w i l l follow a predictable pattern. This transition process consists of four phases: (1) honeymoon, (2) shock, (3) recovery, and (4) resolution. During the honeymoon phase, the novice usually perceives the world through rose-colored glasses. In this phase, one focuses on two primary concerns: (1) mastery of s k i l l s , and (2) social integration into the work group (Kramer, 1974). Since neophytes during this phase are so absorbed'with the novel features of their work, they are l ike ly to be inefficient in accurately appraising the work situation. "The sudden real ization that nursing isn't what one thought i t would be and the dissatisfying feeling that this evokes is the precursor to the shock phase" (Kramer & Schmalenberg, 6 1977a, p. 10). When the novice experiences obstacles to goal achievement, either due to lack of personal competency or due to system restr ict ions , the shock phase begins (Kramer, 1974). Characteristic features of the shock phase are: (1) moral outrage, (2) rejection, (3) fatigue, and (4) perceptual distortion (Kramer, 1974). Moral outrage is the anger experienced at finding out things are not as they ought to be (Kramer & Schmalenberg, 1977a). The rejection component can either be a rejection of values acquired in school or a rejection of workforce norms/expectations. Moral outrage and rejection are draining and result in physical symptoms. Often, depression is the f i r s t indication that one is experiencing the shock phase. In contrast to the honeymoon phase, perception is distorted in the shock phase to the extent that everything has a globally negative outlook. The shock phase is depleting and fortunately, i t is time limited. Eventually, recovery or resolution must occur. The recovery phase is identified by the return of a more rea l i s t i c appraisal of the work situation and by a return of one's sense of humor. Tension and anxiety levels decrease and there is a new sense of balance. Accompanying this new balance is an i n i t i a l a b i l i t y to competently predict actions and reactions of others and an a b i l i t y to see more than one's own perspective. "The recovery phase is crucial to constructive confl ict resolution, because in this phase the newcomer realizes that previous perspectives and strategies probably w i l l not work and that new ones are called for" (Kramer & Schmalenberg, 1977a, P. 17). In the resolution phase, there are various ways in which rea l i ty shock may be resolved; some are constructive, while others are more detrimental. Examples of various less functional means of resolving rea l i ty shock include: (1) restr ict ing involvement by performing at a minimally acceptable level; (2) transferring jobs frequently in an effort to find the elusive perfect job; or (3) withdrawing completely from the profession to start a new career, or withdrawing temporarily from the profession only to return years later. The most constructive resolution is a bicultural adaptation, in which the neophyte reevaluates school learned values, maintaining those that are beneficial and meshing them with the rea l i t i es of the work situation. Constructive resolutions are growth producing and enable 8 the person to integrate work values with school values. The interweaving of the two perspectives is more functional than either perspective independently (Kramer, 1974). Kramer's (1974) description of rea l i ty shock brought the d i f f i c u l t i e s , that new graduates have in making the adjustment to practice, to the attention of the nursing profession. Kramer found the f i r s t year in a hospital setting is often marked by dramatically confl ict ing value systems, spec i f ica l ly , the idealism of education and the rea l i ty of nursing practice. Studies by Stewart-Dedmon (1988) and Horsburgh (1989) concur with Kramer's finding that,the discrepancy between the ideal mode learned in their education program and the rea l i ty of the bureaucratic mode practiced and enforced in the work setting is the primary cause of rea l i ty shock for new graduates. Kramer and Schmalenberg (1977a) identified that students are usually presented with the "front-stage" rea l i ty of the nursing unit. This front-stage rea l i ty is the appearance that the unit staff portrays for specific audiences (students, faculty, and administration). "Following employment the new graduate discovers or uncovers the "back-stage" rea l i ty , the things that go on 9 everyday when everyone's guard is down and they are not putting their best foot forward. It causes a great deal of anger because these new graduate nurses had not been prepared for the back-stage reality" (p. 11). The manner in which a neophyte reconciles this confl ict greatly determines whether the person w i l l remain in the profession (Ahmadi, Speedling & Kuhn-Weissman, 1987; Kinney, 1985; Kramer, 1974 ). Many new graduates, dissatisf ied and frustrated, opt to leave the profession within the f i r s t year of graduation (Fisher & Connelly, 1989; Jennings et a l . , 1986; McLean, 1987). Experiencing rea l i ty shock, the novice staff nurse has d i f f i c u l t y in practicing nursing in the work environment. Health care organizations have established the need for the nursing role and have instituted demands about act iv i t ies that ought to occur in the role (Rubin, 1988). The nurse must perform act iv i t ies demanded by the organization to successfully f u l f i l l the nursing role . The novice staff nurse's fai lure to function immediately as a seasoned and competent professional nurse has been attributed to inadequate social ization to the rea l i t i es of the professional role , rather than to inadequate theoretical knowledge (Benner & Benner, 1979). 10 According to Watson (1983) professional social ization is the complex process by which a person acquires the knowledge, s k i l l s , and the sense of identity that are characteristic of a member of that profession. Socialization is aimed at learning new values, bel iefs , attitudes, and behaviours; and in resynthesizing previously learned material in resolving conflicts between and among various role expectations which comprise the role complex (total roles a person occupies). Socialization and Reality Shock Socialization into an occupational role entails: shift ing focus from broad professional goals to specific work tasks, internalizing values of the occupational group, and adopting prescribed behaviours (Leddy & Pepper, 1985). The latter refers to the behaviors one must display according to the norms of the reference group. Professional role expectations are transmitted and maintained through education and regulatory processes (Corwin & Taves, 1962). Thus, through social ization experiences one learns the expectations of a particular role. Prior to entering practice, much of the knowledge nurses acquire in terms of the professional nursing role is provided by the faculty of their preparatory education program (Conway, 1983). Frequently, however, the role expectations of educators are incongruent with those of practit ioners. Yet, "it is the culture of the practicing nurse whose role expectations" novice nurses w i l l encounter and have to reconcile when they begin practice (Clayton, Broome & E l l i s , 1989, p. 72). Deficient role social ization can lead to role conflicts (Hardy & Conway, 1988). According to Rendon (1988) role incongruence creates role conflicts which interfere with eff icient role performance. Beginning nurses are inexperienced in dealing with role conflicts created by the clashing of bureaucratic goals with the professional ideals learned at school. Dobbs (1988) identified that successful role transit ion, from student to practitioner in nursing, requires an integration of the three nursing role conceptions (professional, bureaucratic, and service). This integration is necessary in order that the novice nurse may "accomplish bureaucratic goals while maintaining professional standards and quality care" (Dobbs, 1988, p. 167). The orientation process is an important factor affecting role development and role transit ion (DiMauro & Mack, 1989). According to Itano et a l . (1987) novice nurses need guidance in developing competence in practice while preserving professional conceptions emphasized in education. Several authors suggest preceptorship programs provide such guidance (Clayton et a l . , 1989; Dobbs, 1988; Goldenberg, 1987/1988; Itano et a l . , 1987; Patton, Grace & Rocca, 1981). These programs assist neophytes to reconcile conflicts between values acquired in school with those of the c l i n i c a l practice environment. Preceptorship Programs and Socialization The primary goals of preceptorship programs are (1) to assist novice nurses with social izat ion to professional and bureaucratic nursing roles and (2) to assist with s k i l l acquisition needed for successful role performance. Preceptors serve as role models and resource persons for novice nurses. Preceptors are oriented to the roles and functions of the preceptor. Their orientation covers such topics as: objectives of the preceptorship program, functions of the preceptor role , adult learning principles , stages of adjustment of novice staff nurses, and methods of formative and summative evaluation (Modic & Bowman, 1989). The preparation of preceptors for the role and the preceptorship program's one-to-one arrangement distinguishes i t from a tradit ional orientation program. The latter is a "buddy system" where various experienced nurses, none of whom receive preparation for the role , are "buddied with" the neophyte during the orientation period (Morrow,.1984). Preceptors provide guidance to neophytes in role social ization and in gaining competence in role performance in the practice setting (Clayton, 1989; Dobbs, 1988). The preceptor provides the neophyte with a model of performance to emulate in order to f u l f i l l the performance expectations of practice. In turn, the neophyte internalizes role conceptions that are congruent with the role of practicing professional nurses. Thus, preceptors fac i l i ta te role transit ion of novice nurses by promoting role social ization and role performance. Dobbs (1988) contends when new graduates are not assisted with the transition into the work role they frequently resolve the confl ict of rea l i ty shock in negative rather than constructive ways. For example, (1) values associated with professional practice are diminished or rejected, or (2) values appreciating attainment of bureaucratic goals are discarded and active practice is abandoned. Orientation programs and preceptorship programs have been used in fac i l i ta t ing the 14 transition from school to practice. It is suggested that preceptorship programs are the most effective vehicles to fac i l i ta te role social ization of novice nurses. In summary, preceptorship programs offer a means of easing the transition from student to novice staff nurse practit ioner. This is accomplished through assistance provided to the neophyte in the areas of s k i l l mastery and social integration. In addition, preceptorships are believed to reduce the effects of rea l i ty shock experienced by novice nurses. Definition of Terms For the purpose of this study the following definitions were used: Novice Staff Nurse is an individual beginning his/her f i r s t employment as a staff nurse. Preceptor is an experienced registered nurse with a particular area of nursing expertise who can teach and guide the preceptee (novice staff nurse) and who has received preparation prior to assuming the function of preceptor. Preceptorship program is a formal type of hospital orientation in which novice staff nurses are assigned to designated nurse preceptors. Novice staff nurses receive individual guidance from their preceptors with whom they rotate shifts over the course of the preceptorship program. Traditional Orientation Program is a formal period in which the novice staff nurse receives teaching and guidance in unit routine from a variety of experienced staff nurses. These staff nurses who provide guidance do not receive educational preparation to assume this teaching role . Role "is a set of expectations about how a person in a given position in a particular social system should.act and how others in reciprocal positions should act" (Kramer, 1974, p. 52). Role Transition is the alteration in expectations related to actions and reactions demanded by a change in role from student to novice staff nurse. Role transition was measured by Schwirian's Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance and Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale. Role Conception is the internal representation of role expectations held by an individual at a specific time (Corwin, 1961). Role conception is a measure of social integration. Corwin categorized nursing role conceptions into three categories: (1) professional role conception (PRC) which indicates prime loyalty to the nursing profession; (2) bureaucratic role conception (BRC) which indicates prime loyalty to hospital administration; and (3) service role conception (SRC) which indicates prime loyalty to the patient. Role Deprivation is the internal response fe l t by a nurse when circumstances in the work environment res tr ic t role portrayal such that the nurse perceives an ideal role conception to be non-functional in practice (Itano et a l . , 1987; Dobbs, 1988). Job Performance is the a b i l i t y to competently carry out nursing actions while in the practice setting. An important component of job performance is s k i l l mastery. Job performance was measured using Schwirian's Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. Research Hypotheses The research hypotheses examined in this study were: 1. Role transit ion wi l l be perceived to be easier by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program than by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. 2. Job performance levels reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program wi l l be higher than those reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. 17 3. Perceived role deprivation reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program wi l l be less than that reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. Based on the hypotheses of this study, a diagram of the hypothesized role transition process occurring post work-entry with preceptorship versus tradit ional oreintation programs is presented in Figure 1. Upon leaving educational programs, neophyes have particular role conceptions and s k i l l levels. When they enter the work setting, neophytes recognize that their role conceptions and s k i l l levels must be adjusted to the demands of the work environment. This adjustment creates the values confl ict associated with rea l i ty shock. Two possible strategies to ease rea l i ty shock (traditional orientation programs and preceptorship programs) with the proposed impact of each on role transition are presented. 18 Role Conceptions <r—Education Program Performance Level Work Entry j Role T r a n s i t i o n Process S o c i a l i z a t i o n T r a d i t i o n a l Or ientat ion ^ Role T r a n s i t i o n Preceptorship Or ienta t ion •T Role T r a n s i t i o n Figure 1. Hypothesized Role T rans i t ion Process Occurring Post Work-entry with Preceptorship versus T r a d i t i o n a l Or ientat ion Programs. In t h i s study the fol lowing assumptions were accepted: 1. Beginning prac t ice as a novice s t a f f nurse requires a successfu l ro le t r a n s i t i o n . 2. Pa r t i c ipan ts w i l l provide frank and honest ra t ings of the i r s e l f - p e r c e i v e d performance and ro le conception on pre and p o s t - t e s t s . 3. Role t r a n s i t i o n can be assessed using Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale and Schwir ian 's 6-D Sca le . 4. Preceptors in the preceptorship program have received preparat ion p r io r to assuming the preceptor r o l e . Assumptions 19 Limitations and Delimitations The recognized limitations and delimitation of this study were: Limitations 1. Random selection or random assignment into the tradit ional orientation and preceptorship groups was not feasible. 2. There are some factors that could not controlled. These included: (a) hospital staffing needs, (b) assignments of orientees and preceptees, and (c) multiple unit and hospital variations. Delimitation 1. The length of time to complete the study was circumscribed, so i t was not possible to measure long-term role adjustment. The adjustment during the f i r s t month of orientation was examined. Significance of the Study In the present climate of economic restraints and nursing shortages, the orientation of nurses is a significant aspect of a nursing department's program and budget (Plewellyn & Gosnell, 1987; Hoffman, 1985; Mooney, Diver, & Schnackel, 1988). According to Flewellyn and Gosnell the cost of orientating one nurse is estimated to be between 1500 and 3000 dol lars . Flewellyn and Gosnell 20 note that to just i fy the investment in orientation programs, nursing departments must be able to identify outcomes. That i s , the relationship among the orientation method, performance in the c l i n i c a l area, and retention of nurses. Increasingly, nursing departments wi l l be called on to just i fy expenditures such as those associated with preceptorship programs used to orient novice staff nurses. To be able to just i fy the need for, and the appropriateness of such resource al location, research on the effect of preceptorship programs is essential. Furthermore, given the problems associated with retaining nurses in the profession, and the contention that preceptorship programs ease role transit ion d i f f i c u l t i e s , i t is important that their effectiveness in this area be substantiated through research. Scope of the Study This thesis is organized into six chapters. Included in Chapter One are the study problem, the purpose, its significance and the research hypotheses. In addition, the theoretical framework is explained and its link to social izat ion and role transit ion is i l lus trated . In Chapter Two selected l iterature on preceptorships is 21 reviewed. In Chapter Three research methods and procedures are described. In Chapter Four findings are presented. In Chapter Five analysis of findings is discussed. In Chapter Six the summary, conclusions, and implications are presented. CHAPTER TWO REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE Selected l i terature relevant to preceptorships is reviewed in this chapter. Factors instrumental in motivating nurse administrators to use preceptorship programs for orientation of novice nurses are discussed. Review of l i terature on preceptorships covers anecdotal and research l i terature , but focuses on the la t ter . Development of Preceptorship Programs His tor ica l ly , a standard orientation has been provided by the inservice education department. It usually lasted anywhere from one to two weeks. This general hospital orientation focused on global topics such as hospital philosophy, policies and procedures. Subsequent to the hospital-wide orientation, the new employee participated in an informal orientation to the nursing unit . Different nurses were buddied with the novice nurse to advise her/him in the unit routine, and to provide informal help and guidance (Shamian & Inhaber, 1985). However, these orientation programs were inadequate in providing structured learning of the unit routine, and in assisting with social izat ion to the staff nurse role . This def ic i t resulted in increased anxiety levels in new graduates. The deficiencies of this buddy system for orientation of novice nurses, raised concern among nurse managers. Its inefficiency in orienting neophytes to the unit routine, and in assisting them with role social izat ion, was associated with high staff turnover, rea l i ty shock, early burnout, and low morale among both novice and experienced nurses (Shamian & Inhaber, 1985). In order to reduce the anxiety resulting from adjustment to the new work milieu, preceptorship programs were developed. These programs range from two weeks to four months in duration (Shamian & Inhaber, 1985). According to Shamian and Inhaber (1985) implementation of the preceptorship model appears to be in response to the identified needs of both nursing service and nursing education personnel. However, Backenstose (1983) contends preceptorship is not a total ly new concept in nursing; from its inception nursing has used a type of apprenticeship or preceptorship model in which practicing nurses educated students and novice nurses. Although preceptorships take advantage of apprenticing neophytes with experienced nurses, there is an important dist inct ion between apprenticeship and preceptorship. The difference is that, while apprenticeship is synonmous with an informal buddy system; preceptorship, is apprenticeship but with an "enlightened guide" who is 24 prepared for the formal and informal teaching function. The underlying assumption of preceptorship programs is that the one-to-one learning experience with an seasoned role model, (1) eases transition of neophytes into the staff nurse role; and (2) fac i l i tates integration of neophytes into the work group. This is based on the assumption that the experienced preceptor orients the neophyte to norms and expectations of the reference peer work group to which the novice wishes to become an accepted member. In the preceptorship model "integration of the new employee into the unit is fac i l i tated by someone who is close to the scene of act iv i ty and there is good reason to believe that a peer relationship is better able to affect the required learning" (Shamian & Inhaber, 1985, p. 80). In this model, the preceptor provides an immediate resource person for the novice nurse during the transition period (Metzger, 1986). Benefits of Preceptorship Many anecdotal art ic les have been written on the benefits of preceptorship programs for anticipatory social ization whereby students, as part of their education program, work with hospital preceptors (Chickerella & Lutz, 1981; Davis & Barham, 1989; Donius, 1988; Estey & Ferguson, 1985; Fisher & Connolly, 1989; 25 Jennings et a l . , 1986; Limon, Bargagliott i , & Spencer, 1982; Rodzwick, 1984; Spears, 1986; Wheeler, 1984). In addition, many anecdotal art ic les have also been written on the benefits of preceptorship programs for orientation of new employees, part icularly new graduates (Friesen & Conohan, 1980; Goldenberg, 1987/1988; Marchette, 1985; McGrath & Koewing, 1978; Modic & Bowman, 1989; Patton, Grace & Rocca, 1981; Schempp & Rompre, 1985; Shogan et a l . , 1985). The use of preceptorship programs both in education and practice settings is strongly endorsed by a l l cited authors. Benefits of preceptorship programs can be summarized to include the following: (1) helping novice staff nurses to develop s k i l l mastery; (2) f ac i l i t a t ing the role transit ion of novice staff nurses by assisting them to link educational and practice experience; (3) reducing problems associated with rea l i ty shock; (4) social iz ing and integrating the novice staff nurse within the unit; and (5) enhancing professional growth and job satisfaction for staff nurses who function as preceptors (Shamian & Inhaber, 1985). Research on Preceptorship Despite the evident interest in preceptorship, there has been limited research on the effect of preceptorship programs on novice staff nurses in terms of role transition or performance outcomes. Huber (1981) conducted a study to investigate the effect of preceptorship and internship orientation programs on graduate nurse performance. According to Huber (1981) internship orientation programs, differ from preceptorship. programs in that they are less individually monitored and rely on various non-designated nurses to guide the novice. The internship orientation in Huber's study is synonymous to the orientation provided by the tradit ional orientation programs of the present study. The focus of Huber's study was to determine i f graduate nurses completing a hospital-based preceptorship orientation perceived their performance more posit ively than graduate nurses completing a hospital-based internship orientation program. Participants in the preceptorship orientation program group each had a designated nurse preceptor to guide them and to act as a role model. The internship orientation group did not have designated preceptors. Study participants evaluated their performance a b i l i t y before and after their respective orientations. Performance a b i l i t y was measured using the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (6-D Scale) at pre and post orientation. Analysis of the differences between the groups fai led to 27 show any significant differences. Olsen, Gresley, and Heater (1984) examined an eight week undergraduate c l i n i c a l course to determine i f i t would strengthen nursing students* perception of competence and self-concept. The study sample was composed of 48 students which included eight interns, five non-interns, and 36 control . A pretest, post-test design was employed. Instruments used in the study were the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale and the 6-D Scale. Data analysis using ANOVA with a 0.05 significance level found no significant difference between the groups. Since however, the numbers in the intern and non-intern groups were so small, power to detect significant differences between the groups was low. A study conducted in Canada by Shamian and Lemieux (1984) evaluated whether there was any difference in the effectiveness of two teaching methods in enhancing the knowledge base of participating nurses. The two teaching models that were evaluated were the preceptor teaching model and the formal teaching model. The study sample was composed of a l l nurses (registered nurses and nursing assistants) who worked on 14 designated units within a 600-bed hospital . The participants completed two scales: the f i r s t , immediately following teaching sessions; and 28 the second, after a three month time interval . The findings of this study were that the preceptorship model of teaching resulted in better outcomes in terms of knowledge attainment, s k i l l s , educational program attendance, and assessment capabil i t ies when compared to the tradit ional teaching method. Despite the fact that this study concluded that the preceptorship model of teaching was superior to the tradit ional methods, i ts findings cannot be generalized as the study was limited to one hospital in eastern Canada, and potential for bias arises out of. the heterogeneous sample used in the study. Itano et a l . (1987) studied whether there was a difference in role conceptions and role deprivation in students who participated in a preceptorship program and those students who did not. The study included 118 students of a baccalaureate nursing program. Role conceptions and role deprivation were measured using Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale. Results of this study demonstrated no differences between the groups in role conceptions or role deprivation; In 1988 Dobbs conducted a study to investigate the effect of a preceptorship program used in the senior year of baccalaureate nursing education program as a method of providing students with anticipatory social izat ion to the 29 work role of professional nurses. The study measured role conceptions and role deprivation immediately before and after a preceptorship program using Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale. The study sample consisted of 103 generic baccalaureate students. Results of this study indicated a significant difference at p <.01 in perceived role deprivation. The author suggests that this result supports the effectiveness of a preceptorship program in promoting anticipatory social ization to the work role of professional nursing. However, since a l l subjects in four different groups received the same treatment (preceptorship) one needs to question the degree to which preceptorship, as opposed to another teaching strategy, accounts for the change in the measures over the two testing periods. Clayton et a l . (1989) examined the effect of a preceptorship experience on role social ization of graduate nurses. The sample consisted of two groups,, one having a preceptorship experience in the f inal quarter of the baccalaureate program (n=33) and one group having a faculty member providing a "traditional" c l i n i c a l learning experience (n=33). Schwirian's 6-D Scale was completed by each group three times: prior to the course, immediately following the course, and six months after graduation. Results of the study only part ia l ly supported the hypothesis that there would be significant differences between the groups on the six subscales. At six months follow-up there was a significant difference between the groups with the preceptor group scoring higher on the: (a) leadership (p.004); (b) teaching/collaboration (p.01); (c) interpersonal relations /communications (p.008); and (d) planning/ evaluation (p.009) subscales. However there was no significant difference between the groups on the professional development (p.11) and c r i t i c a l care (p.21) subscales. Sheetz (1989) investigated the effect of nursing student preceptorship programs on the development of nursing student competence among 72 senior baccalaureate students. A non-equivalent comparison group, pretest, post-test design was used. The sample consisted of a treatment group of 36 students who participated in nursing student preceptorship programs and a comparison group of 36 students who worked as nursing assistants in a non-instructional c l i n i c a l setting. Head nurses on the units to which the subjects were assigned observed the subjects on each of the f i r s t three days of the second (pretest) and tenth (post-test) weeks of the preceptorship or nursing assistant experience. At the end of the third day of observation, head nurses rated the student's c l i n i c a l competence using the C l in i ca l Competence Rating Scale. Results indicated students who participated in summer preceptorship programs gained greater levels of c l i n i c a l competence, than did students who worked as nursing assistants in non-instructional c l i n i c a l settings. Giles and Moran (1989) compared the orientation satisfaction outcomes of nurses oriented by a buddy system with those nurses oriented by the preceptorship program. Results indicated nurses oriented by the preceptorship program method were more satisf ied than those nurses who were oriented by the buddy system (p<0.01). However, caution must be used since concurrent and retrospective comparisons of subject experiences with orientation may have biased results . Allanach and Jennings (1990) investigated whether an eight week preceptorship program at one mil i tary medical center eased the transition process of new graduates (N=44). A repeated measures design was used to assess changes in preceptees affective states over time. Participants completed the Multiple Adjective Affect Checklist and the I-E Scale (which measures 32 internal/external locus of control) at: one week prior to the preceptorship program; at the end of the program; and at f ive, and 16 weeks after completion of the preceptorship program. Although the results fai led to support the contention that the transition from student to staff nurse did generate anxiety, participants did verbalize feelings of psychological tension. Allanach and Jennings suggest a possible explanation for this result is that the preceptorship program i t se l f resulted in the more positive affective states of participants. They identify that a control comparison group who had not had a preceptorship experience would have been beneficial in terms of interpreting the effect of preceptorship on transit ion experiences. Summary In summary, the various studies on preceptorship have resulted in inconsistent findings. More research on preceptorship is needed to substantiate the belief that preceptorship is a useful orientation strategy. This study investigated the effect of preceptorship on role transition of novice staff nurses when preceptorship was used as an orientation strategy. 33 CHAPTER THREE METHODS AND PROCEDURES Reseach design, methods and procedures are presented in this chapter. Design A quasi-experimental, control group pretest post-test design was used. This design was appropriate in that random selection and assignment Were not feasible. Whether novice staff nurses participated in a preceptorship program depended completely on the type of orientation program used by the employing agency. Setting The study was conducted in three tert iary hospitals in lower mainland Bri t i sh Columbia, one of which uses a preceptorship program and two others which do not use preceptorship programs for orientation of new nursing staff. These hospitals range in size from 575 to 875 beds. The preceptorship program consisted of a three day central nursing orientation and one-half day general hospital-wide orientation (Appendix A). Subsequent to this central orientation, novice staff nurses were assigned to designated preceptors by the head nurse of their respective wards. Novice staff nurses were 34 preceptored for two to three weeks. Head nurses of the respective units are responsible, for assigning the preceptors to work with novice staff nurses. Experienced nurses who are selected to be preceptors participate in a four-hour Preceptor Development Program prior to assuming the preceptor role (Appendix B). One of the tradit ional orientation programs consisted of three and one-half days central nursing orientation followed by up to a maximum of 11.5 shifts in which novice staff nurses are buddied with various experienced staff nurses on their respective wards : (Appendix C). The other tradit ional orientation program included four days of central orientation, one-half day central hospital-wide orientation, and one day unit specific orientation (Appendix D). Following this central orientation, novice nurses on average received an additional two days of unit specific orientation. Sample Cr i ter ia and Selection A convenience sample (N=34) of novice staff nurses in their f irst-time employment as staff nurses was obtained from three tert iary hospitals in lower mainland Bri t i sh Columbia. Although role transition is required with a l l role changes, this study focused on the role transit ion 35 of novice nurses. Accordingly, the sample selected was limited to novice staff nurses in their f irst-t ime employment as staff nurses, a l l of whom, were undergoing a similar role change; student to novice staff nurse. I n i t i a l contact with three potential participating agencies was made to determine the f eas ib i l i ty of obtaining the needed study sample. Because limited s tat i s t ics were kept on the preceptorship and orientation progams, i t was not always possible to extrapolate the number of participants who were novice staff nurses in their f irst-time employment. However, one hospital that used a tradit ional orientation program indicated on average over the last two years i t had six new graduates per month on orientation. This same hospital indicated that 42 percent of the nurses they employ annually are new graduates. In descending order, this hospital had the greatest numbers in orientation during the months of September, January, and June. Another hospital that used a tradit ional orientation program orientated 177 nurses during the previous year, but was unable to determine of that number how many were novice staff nurses. The months with the highest, proportion in orientation were January, October, September, and June respectively. 36 The t h i r d hosp i ta l used a preceptorship program and employed 240 novice s t a f f nurses during, the, previous year. The months with the larges t proportion of new graduates in or i en ta t ion were January, September, and June. Based on i n i t i a l contact and d iscuss ion with these three agencies, i t appeared feas ib le to obta in the needed study sample. Agency approval to conduct the study was obtained from the three i n s t i t u t i o n s . A l e t t e r (Appendix B) which explained the study and requested p a r t i c i p a t i o n was d i s t r i b u t e d to p o t e n t i a l study p a r t i c i p a n t s (novice s t a f f nurses in the ir f i r s t time employment i n nurs ing) . The sample was selected.. from volunteers contacted through v i s i t s by the researcher to the p a r t i c i p a t i n g agencies' or i enta t ion or preceptorship program during the f i r s t week of the respect ive programs. The researcher explained the study, addressed any questions from potent ia l par t i c ipant s and requested t h e i r p a r t i c i p a t i o n . Persons who met the sample c r i t e r i a and those agreeing to p a r t i c i p a t e completed three sca les : a Demographic Data Sheet (Appendix F ) , Schwirian's Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (Appendix G) , and Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale (Appendix H). Completion of these scales required approximately 20 37 minutes. Participants supplied their names and addresses to the researcher to use for the mailout of questionnaires for the second data col lect ion. One month later , the 6-D Scale and the Nursing Role Conception Scale with an accompanying let ter , were sent to participants for completion. Two weeks after the second set of questionnaires were mailed, reminder letters encouraging reply to the follow-up scales were sent to participants who had not to date returned questionnaires. Data were collected from October, 1989 unt i l February, 1990. Protection of Human Subjects Ethical approval to conduct this study was granted by the University of Br i t i sh Columbia Behavioural Sciences Screening Committee for Research and Other Studies Involving Human Subjects and by Ethical Review Committees in participating agencies. Participants in the study were given a letter explaining the purpose of the study and the requirements involved in participation. In addition, they were given an opportunity to question the researcher about the study. They were informed that individual responses to the study would be kept confidential , that they could withdraw from the study at any time, and completion of 38 the questionnaires implied consent by the respondent to p a r t i c i p a t i o n in the study. To maintain c o n f i d e n t i a l i t y , each par t i c ipant was assigned a code number so that names of subjects d id not appear on the completed quest ionnaires . Previous ly assigned code numbers with an added "A" were af f ixed to the follow-up scales to maintain c o n f i d e n t i a l i t y and to allow comparison of subject ' s pretest and post - tes t scores . Measurement of Variables The independent var iab le was the type of o r i e n t a t i o n . Subjects in the experimental group were those in the hosp i ta l where the preceptorship program was in ef fect and, thus, were assigned to a designated preceptor(s) for the durat ion of the preceptorship program and the study. The assignment of the preceptor was part of that agency's preceptorship program and under the d i r e c t i o n of the agency not the inves t iga tor . The treatment ef fect was the presence of designated nurse preceptors in the preceptorship group and a lack of designated preceptors in the t r a d i t i o n a l or i en ta t ion group. The dependent var iab le studied was ro le t r a n s i t i o n . This var iab le was measured by two sca les : Schwirian's Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (1978) and Corwin's Nursing Role 39 Conception Scale (1961). Instruments Data were co l l ec ted using two instruments: Schwirian's Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (6-Scale) and Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale . Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance The Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (6-D Scale) consists of 52 items categorized into s ix dimensions of nursing performance: teaching/ c o l l a b o r a t i o n , c r i t i c a l care , p lanning/eva luat ion , interpersonal r e la t ions /communications, profess ional development, and leadership (Appendix G) . Subscale items in the interpersonal relations/communications dimension re la te to nurse's behavior in the realm of communication and interpersonal rea l t i onsh ips with c l i e n t s and col leagues. This subscale included such items as helping a patient communicate with others, and contr ibut ing to productive working re la t ionsh ips with other health team members. Leadership subscale dimensions re la te to actions that the nurse would employ in enacting a leadership funct ion . This subscale included such items as the a b i l i t y to guide other health team members and to delegate e f f e c t i v e l y . The c r i t i c a l care subscale taps into nursing a c t i v i t i e s associated with care of c r i t i c a l l y i l l patients. It includes such items as functioning calmly in emergency situations, and recognizing and meeting the emotional needs of a dying patient. The teaching and collaboration subscale depicts behaviors in which the nurse teaches the c l ient / family , as well as, behaviors indicative of the collaborative role of nurses with patients, families, and other health professionals. It includes such items as teaching preventive health measures and encouraging the family to participate in the c l ient 's care. The planning and evaluation subscale comprises behaviors involved in planning and evaluating the c l ient 's nursing care. The professional development subscale describes characteristics of professionalism, such as> using learning opportunities for ongoing personal and professional growth. The Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance was designed to be used for self-appraisal of performance, supervisor evaluation of performance and/or for nurse graduates' ranking of the adequacy of their nursing education program (Schwirian, 1978). Approval to use this scale was obtained from the copyright holder. Respondents use a four point Likert type rating scale .,to .indicate how well or how frequently they engage in described behaviours. On the f i r s t 42 items, subjects rate how well they perform on the identified act iv i t ies (l=not very well, 2=satisfactorily, 3=well, 4=very well, X=not expected in my current job). On the f inal 10 items on professional development, subjects rate the frquency with which they engage in specified behaviors (l=seldom, 2=occasionally, 3=frequently, 4=consistently). Each of the six subscales of the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance is comprised of a different number of items: leadership (5); c r i t i c a l care (5); teaching/ collaboration (11); planning/evaluation (7); interpersonal relationships/communication (12); and professional development (10). Because of this difference in number of subscale items the scoring formula was: X . . . . X n n - m where X . . . X n = the numerical rating for each behavior in the subscale; n= the total number of items in the subscale; m= the total number of items in the subscale for which the subject rated "not expected in my current job". Use ..of this formula ensured the elimination of any scoring penalty for those items which were not expected in the current job (Schwirian, 1978). Content and construct va l id i ty of this scale was established during i ts development. Following an extensive l i terature review of concepts, constructs, and measures to describe nursing performance, deans and directors of 151 schools of nursing were asked to provide operational definitions of effective nursing performance. These same individuals, along with experienced nurse educators, researchers, and administrators served as pi lot respondents to review and crit ique the developing scale. Respondents were consistently asked to consider whether any of the items were biased in favour of, or against, any of the three types of nursing programs. No bias was evident (Schwirian, 1978). From an i n i t i a l pool of 76 nursing behaviours, following factor analysis, 52 items loading on the six sub-scales were retained. Re l i ab i l i t y was calculated using Chronbach's alpha for each of the subscales. The alpha coefficients ranged in value from 0.84 for the leadership subscale to 0.98 for professional development subscale (Schwirian, 1978). In a study by Clayton et a l (1989) r e l i a b i l i t y measures for this scale using a sample of 66, ranged from a low of 0.73 for the leadership subscale to a high of 0.96 for the professional development subscale. Nursing Role Conception Scale Corwin's (1961) Nursing Role Conception Scale (Appendix H) was developed to measure role conceptions and role d e p r i v a t i o n . I t a s sesses r e s p o n d e n t s ' a l l e g i a n c e to h o s p i t a l b u r e a u c r a c y , the n u r s i n g p r o f e s s i o n , and the p a t i e n t . The s c a l e c o n s i s t s of 22 h y p o t h e t i c a l n u r s i n g s i t u a t i o n s . U s i n g a L i k e r t - t y p e r a t i n g , (5=s trong ly a g r e e , l = s t r o n g l y d i s a g r e e ) , respondents i n d i c a t e the way the s i t u a t i o n ought to be and a l s o the way i t a c t u a l l y i s . S i x items make up the b u r e a u c r a t i c s u b s c a l e , and e i g h t items comprise each of the p r o f e s s i o n a l and the s e r v i c e s u b s c a l e s . P r o f e s s i o n a l r o l e c o n c e p t i o n r e f e r s to o c c u p a t i o n a l p r i n c i p l e s t h a t suggest p r i m a r y l o y a l t y to the n u r s i n g p r o f e s s i o n . B u r e a u c r a t i c r o l e c o n c e p t i o n r e f e r s to the a d m i n i s t r a t i v e r u l e s and r e g u l a t i o n s which d e p i c t the n u r s e ' s job i n a s p e c i f i c o r g a n i z a t i o n and sugges ts p r i m a r y a l l e g i a n c e to n u r s i n g a d m i n i s t r a t i o n . The s e r v i c e r o l e c o n c e p t i o n r e f e r s to n u r s i n g as a c a l l i n g and sugges ts a p r i m a r y l o y a l t y to the p a t i e n t . D i f f e r e n c e s between the " a c t u a l " and " i d e a l " s c o r e s f o r each i tem are added to y i e l d the t o t a l r o l e d e p r i v a t i o n s c o r e . P e r m i s s i o n to use t h i s s c a l e was granted by the c o p y r i g h t h o l d e r . Content v a l i d i t y was e s t a b l i s h e d by Corwin (1961) d u r i n g the development of the s c a l e . Kramer (1970) demonstrated c o n s t r u c t and p r e d i c t i v e v a l i d i t y at the 0.01 level of confidence. The test-retest r e l i a b i l i t y coefficients for the role conception subscale were: (a) 0.86 service, (b) 0.89 bureaucratic, and (c) 0.88 professional. Other nurse researchers have used this scale in recent studies but have not reported any new information in terms of the r e l i a b i l i t y of this scale (Dobbs, 1988; Itano et a l . , 1987). In a series of studies u t i l i z i n g Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale (1961), i t has been found that the mean role deprivation score of graduate nurses working for at least one year is 23. The shock phase of rea l i ty shock is associated with scores greater than 30 (Kramer, 1974, p.102). Data Analysis Descriptive s tat i s t ics were used to describe the groups in terms of such demographics as: sex, age, academic preparation, and previous c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency prior to employment as staff nurses. Because these demographic data were of a nominal level , chi-square analysis was conducted. The chi-square s ta t i s t i c tests whether observed proportions differ s ignif icantly from expected (Glass & Hopkins, 1984). In addition, groups were compared on pretest scores of the Nursing Role Conception Scale and the Six Dimension 45 Scale of Nursing Performance to assess for homogeneity of variance between the groups. The overall change within the groups from pre-test to post-test in each dimension of the 6-D Scale were analyzed using paired t-tests . Using the same s ta t i s t i ca l test, the overall change within the groups from pre-test to post-test on the Nursing Role Conception Scale was also analyzed. Differences between the groups on post-test scores of each of the scales was assessed using pooled t-tests . The significane level for the study was set at p <0.05. The SPSS-X (Stat is t ical Packages for the Social Sciences) a computer analysis system package was used for data analysis. Summary In this chapter, the methods and procedures for the study were outlined. A quasi-experimental, control group, pretest post-test design Was used. Sample c r i t e r i a and selection procedures were presented. Instruments used in the study were discussed and procedures for data analysis were explained. Ethical considerations in conducting the study were addressed. CHAPTER FOUR PRESENTATION OF DATA The results from the data analysis procedures are provided in this chapter. Findings in relation to the research hypotheses and supplemental findings are presented. Descriptive Characteristics of the Sample Thirty four novice staff nurses comprised the f inal study sample. I n i t i a l l y , 50 novice staff nurses completed the pretest; 30 in the preceptorship (experimental) group and 20 in the tradit ional orientation (control) group. Since the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a preceptorship program on role transit ion of novice staff nurses, the study design required that role transition from pretest to post-test be compared. Thus, 13 participants, who completed the pretest but did not complete the one-month follow-up portion of the study, were eliminated from the f inal study sample. One participant in the tradit ional orientation group had to withdraw from the study due to resigning from the hospital prior to the one month follow-up portion of the study. Two participants returned their one-month follow-up questionnaires after the cut-off date for inclusion in the study, and were 47 therefore not included in the f inal study sample. The one month follow-up response rate was 70% for the experimental group and was 75% for the control group. The overall response rate was 72.5%. A l l participants were female. The sample ranged in age from 21 to 34 years with the mean age 24.5 years. The majority of the study sample (94 %) were diploma graduates. Participant's previous experience in the employing agency ranged from zero weeks to three years (those with three years experience were graduates of the school of nursing of the hospital to which they were employed). The experimental group's c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency prior to employment ranged from zero to three years with a mean of 63.3 weeks. The control group's experience in the employing agency ranged from zero to 64 weeks with a mean of 21.8 weeks. Additional demographic characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1. 48 Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of Sample (N=34) Experimental Control Characteristic (n=14) (n=20) # / % # / % Basic Nursing Education Diploma (2 year) 5 /25 12/ 86 Diploma (3 year) 14/ 70 1/ 7 Baccalaureate 1 / 5 1 / 7 Other Post Secondary Education Yes 12/ 60 9/ 64 No 8/ 40 5/ 36 C l i n i c a l Experience in Employing Agency * yes 12/ 60 11/ 79 no 8/ 40 3/ 21 Duration < three years 10/ 50 14/ 100 3 years 7/ 35 0/ 0 Hospital Employment Prior to Education Program none 10/ 50 7/50 nurse's aide 4/ 20 4/ 29 other 6/ 30 3/ 21 Work Experience * (Non-hospital) yes 18/ 90 13/ 93 no 2/ 10 0/ 0 * demographic characteristics with less than total sample size because some subjects did not respond to a l l items. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the groups in terms of particular demographic charateristics.... This analysis is used to determine whether observed proportions differ s ignif icant ly from expected proportions (Glass & Hopkins, 1984). Demographic charateristics subjected to chi-square analysis were: (1) basic nursing education; (2) post-secondary education; (3) c l i n i c a l experience in employing agency; (4) length of c l i n i c a l experience in employing agency; (5) hospital work experience other than during education program; (6) past non-hospital work experience; and (7) age. Results of chi-square analysis on demographic characteristics demonstrated significant differences in expected and observed proportions on basic nursing education and c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency prior to employment. In terms of basic nursing education, 86% of the tradit ional orientation group were from a two year diploma program; while 70 % of the preceptorship group were from a three year diploma program. The chi-square s ta t i s t i c on basic education was significant at 0.0012. This highly significant finding i l lustrates that the groups were skewed such that the preceptorship group consisted predominantly of three year diploma graduates, whereas the control group consisted predominantly of two year diploma graduates. This significant discrepancy in observed and expected porportions could be an important factor in role transit ion experiences of the groups. In relation to length of c l inca l experience in the employing agency, there was a s ignif icnt difference in group proportions analysed using chi-square. The significance of the chi-square s ta t i s t i c on this characteristic was 0.0216. The experimental group had a large porportion of members who had substantially more c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency prior to employment as novice staff nurses than did the control group. The significant difference in observed and expected porportions of this demographic variable may be an inf luential factor in the transition experiences of the two groups. Results in Relation to Research Hypotheses Three research hypotheses were evaluated s t a t i s t i c a l l y in this study. For c l a r i t y , results in relation to research hypothesis two are presented f i r s t , followed by results in relation to hypothesis three, and then results In relation to hypothesis one are presented. HYPOTHESIS TWO: JOB PERFORMANCE LEVELS REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A PRECEPTORSHIP PROGRAM WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE IMPROVED THAN THOSE REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A TRADITIONAL 51 ORIENTATION PROGRAM. Hypothesis two was measured by the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Preformance. Pretest scores were compared to evaluate whether the two groups were similar in terms of job performance levels at the beginning of the study, and therefore, whether making comparisons over time to assess the treatment effect were appropriate. Pretest scores of the experimental and control groups on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance are presented in Table 2. On the four point scale, the mean scores for the control group on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance ranged from a low of 2.41 on the teaching/ collaboration subscale to a high of 3.37 on the professional development subscale. The means scores for the experimental group ranged from 2.55 on the teaching/ collaboration subscale to 3.46 on the professional development subscale. However, with the exception of the leadership subscale, at pretest the experimental group scored themselves higher in a l l other subscales of the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance than did the control group. Group pretest mean scores were compared using pooled t-tests, and results indicate no s t a t i s t i c a l l y significant differences between the groups in any of the 52 six subscales of the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. Group variances were also compared and demonstrated homogeneity of variance. In addition, since the control group consisted of participants from two separate s i tes , pretest scores for respondents within the control group who were from separate s i tes , were analysed separately. Pooled t-tests yielded no significant differences in means. There was also homogeneity of variance. These results supported combining responses from subjects at the two separate sites and treating them as one control group. The s ta t i s t i ca l analysis thus indicates that since the groups were not s ignif icantly different on pretest scores, i t is reasonable to compare the experimental group's performance outcomes associated with the treatment effect (presence of a preceptor) to those of the control group. 53 Table 2 Pretest Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for Experimental and Control Groups (N=34) Experimental Control (n=20) (n=14) X S.D. X S.D. t- value p LEADERSHIP 2.74 0.51 2.84 0.50 0.54 0.59 CRITICAL CARE 2.71 0.47 2.49 0.47 -1.35 0.19 TEACHING/ COLLABORATION 2.55 0.40 2.41 0.53 -0.88 0.39 PLANNING/ EVALUATION 2.81 0.52 2.76 0.37 -0.25 0.81 INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS/ COMMUNICATION 3.23 0.39 3.16 0.32 -0.52 0.61 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3.46 0.32 3.37 0.35 -0.79 0.44 p<0.05 The within-group change from pretest to post-test on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance was assessed for each group using paired t-tests . A comparison of pretest to post-test scores for the experimental group on the Six dimension Scale of Nursing Performance is presented in Table 3. The within-group change from pretest to post-test for the experimental group was significant in the planning/evaluation subscale. Although the mean scores of the experimental group on a l l the other subscales increased from pretest to post-test, the change was not s ignif icant. Table 3 Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for the Experimental Group. (n=20) Pretest Post-test X S.D. X S.D. t-values p LEADERSHIP 2.77 0.51 2.84 0.53 -0.55 0.59 CRITICAL CARE 2.71 0.47 2.77 0.55 -0.71 0.49 TEACHING/ COLLABORATION 2.55 0.40 2.60 0.52 -0.37 0.72 PLANNING/ EVALUATION 2.81 0.52 2.98 0.43 -2.26 0.04* INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS/ COMMUNICATION 3.23 0.39 3.33 0.38 -1.03 0.32 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3.46 0.32 3.49 0.33 -0.77 0.45 * indicates significant difference at p<.05. A comparison of scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance from pre-test to post-test for the control group is presented in Table 4. Results demonstrate that the mean scores of the control group consistently increased in a l l subscales, from pretest to post-test, with these changes differing s ignif icantly in only the c r i t i c a l care, teaching/collaboration, and interpersonal relationships/communication subscales. Thus, performance ratings reported by both groups revealed discrepancies in the dimensions of performance in which each group exhibited significant improvement from pretest to post-test. The question is whether these discrepancies are due to orientation program differences. Table 4 Comparison of Pretest to Post-test Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for the Control Group (n=14) Pretest Post -test X S.D. X S.D. t-values p LEADERSHIP 2 .84 0.50 2.93 0.53 -1.07 0.30 CRITICAL CARE 2 .49 0.47 2.93 0.31 -5.09 0.00*** TEACHING/ COLLABORATION 2 .41 0.53 2.72 0.55 -2.55 0.02* PLANNING/ EVALUATION 2 .76 0.37 2.98 0.55 -1.87 0.08 INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS/ COMMUNICATION 3 .16 0.32 3.41 0.43 -3.52 0.004** PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3 .37 0.35 3.36 0.40 0.15 0.88 * indicates significant difference at p<.05. indicates significant difference at p<.01. * indicates significant difference at p<.001. 56 Performance ratings of the two groups at post-test as measured by the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance were compared using pooled t-tests. Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, at the one month follow-up for the experimental and control groups are presented in Table 5. Results indicate no significant differences between the groups. Thus, since there were no significant differences between the groups' scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, the second research hypothesis; that job performance levels reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program wi l l be s ignif icant ly more improved than those reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program, was not supported. In other words, in comparing the performance of the two groups, as reported on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, analysis shows that the preceptorship experience with the presence of a designated preceptor did not have the identified effect on performance outcomes that was anticipated. 57 Table 5 Comparison of Post-test Scores on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance for Experimental and Control Groups (n=34) Experimental Control (n=20) (n=14) X S.D. X S.D. t-values p LEADERSHIP 2.84 0.53 2.93 0.53 0.48 0.63 CRITICAL CARE 2.77 0.55 2.93 0.31 0.95 0.35 TEACHING/ COLLABORATION 2.60 0.52 2.72 0.55 0.69 0.50 PIANNING/ EVALUATION 2.98 0.43 2.98 0.55 -0.04 0.97 INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS/ COMMUNICATION 3.33 0.38 3.41 0.43 0.61 0.54 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3.49 0.33 3.36 0.40 -1.04 0.30 _____ HYPOTHESIS THREE: PERCEIVED ROLE DEPRIVATION REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A PRECEPTORSHIP PROGRAM WILL BE LESS THAN THAT REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM. The Nursing Role Conception Scale was used to evaluate the third research hypothesis. In completing this scale subjects were asked to rate 22 hypothetical nursing,. 58 situations in terms of how the situation ideally ought to be in nursing, and also how the situation actually is in nursing. Scores for both the responses (ideal versus actual) are given. Pretest mean scores of the control and experimental groups on the Nursing Role Conception Scale were compared using pooled t-tests . This analysis was carried out to establish whether groups were similar at the beginning of the study in relation to role conceptions/role^ deprivation, and thus, whether comparisons of role conception/deprivation outcomes in relation to the treatment effect were appropriate. Group variances were compared to determine whether there was homogeneity of variance between the groups. Results of both these comparisons indicate no significant differences between the groups. In addition, since the control group was drawn from two separate s i tes , responses of participants from these two sites were compared separately. Results indicated no significant differences in means and also indicated homogeneity of variance within the responses of participants from the two separate s i tes . This supported joining these subject's responses to be considered as one control group. This overall analysis of pretest scores demonstrated that the groups were not s ignif icant ly 59 d i f f e r e n t in r e l a t i o n to ro le conceptions/ depr ivat ion at the s t a r t of the study, and thus, supported the appropriateness of making comparisons in l i g h t of the treatment e f fect at the one-month pos t - t e s t . A comparison of pretest to post - test Nursing Role Conception Scale scores for the experimental (preceptorship) group, using paired t - t e s t s , is presented in Table 6. Results demonstrate that the within-group change, from pretest to post - test on the Nursing Role Conception Scale , was s i g n i f i c a n t only on the profess ional ro le conception subscale; While mean scores decreased from pretest to post - tes t on a l l the subcales (BRC, PRC, SRC, RD), only on the profess ional ro le conception ( ideal ) subscale was th i s decrease s i g n i f i c a n t . This r e s u l t suggests that for the experimental group there was a decrease in PRC ( ideal ) fol lowing a preceptored o r i e n t a t i o n . There was not however an accompanying increase in BRC as one might expect. 60 Table 6 COMPARISON OF PRETEST TO POST-TEST NURSING ROLE CONCEPTION SCALE SCORES FOR EXPERIMENTAL (PRECEPTORSHIP) GROUP (n=20? : Pretest Post-test X S.D. X S.D. t-values p BRC (ideal) 17. 50 3 .90 17. 10 2.75 0.60 0. 56 (actual) 18. 80 2 .75 19. 15 2.48 -0.49 0. 63 PRC (ideal) 26. 80 3 .43 25. 10 4.39 2.72 0. 01* (actual) 23. 70 2 .54 22. 75 3.14 1.32 0. 20 SRC (ideal) 27. 90 3 .24 27. 70 2.64 0.36 0. 73 (actual) 24. 30 2 .76 23. 10 3.96 1.35 0. 19 RD 5. 40 6 .35 4. 80 6.96 0.38 0 .71 * indicates significant difference at p<.05. BRC= bureaucratic role conception. PRC= professional role conception. SRC= service role conception. RD= role deprivation. A comparison of Nursing Role Conception Scale scores from pretest to post-test for the control (traditional orientaion) group, using paired t-tests, is presented in Table 7. While the control group's mean scores stayed the same or decreased s l ight ly from pretest to post-test, the within group change from pretest to post-test was not significant on any of the subscales (BRC, PRC, SRC, RD). Analysis indicates for the control group the tradit ional orientation program at one month did not show a significant impact on role conceptions/role deprivation. Table 7 COMPARISON OF PRETEST TO POST-TEST NURSING ROLE CONCEPTION SCALE SCORES FOR CONTROL (TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION) GROUP. (n=14) Pretest Post-test X S • D. X S.D. t-values P BRC (ideal) 16. 36 2 .98 16. 36 1.99 0.00 1 .00 (actual) 18. 71 2 .59 18. 93 2.17 -0.24 0 .17 PRC (ideal) 28. 36 2 .10 27. 21 3.19 1.45 0 .89 (actual) 22. 86 2 .35 23. 86 3.76 -1.16 0 .27 SRC (ideal) 28. 43 3 .52 28. 29 2.05 0.14 0 .89 (actual) 24. 57 2 .21 23. 93 2.70 1.09 0 .30 RD 7. 00 5 .88 5. 14 6.49 0.99 0 .34 BRC=bureaucratic role conception. PRC= professional role conception. SRC= service role conception. RD= role deprivation. p<0.05 A comparison of pretest to post-test Nursing Role Conception Scale scores for both groups using pooled t-tests is presented in Table 8. Results indicate no significant difference between the groups from pretest to post-test on any subscales of the Nursing Role Conception Scale. Thus, research hypothesis three was not supported. This analysis suggests that despite a significant within-group decrease in PRC (ideal) for the experimental group; this difference was not enough to cause a significant difference in overall post-test scores on the Nursing Role Conception Scale. In other words, despite some discrepancy in within-group role conception scores from pre-test to post-test, the groups* post-test role conception and role deprivation scores were not s ignif icant ly different even though they participated in different types of orientation programs. 63 Table 8 COMPARISON OF PRETEST TO POST-TEST NURSING ROLE CONCEPTION SCALE SCORES FOR BOTH GROUPS Experimental C o n t r o l (n=20) (n=14) X S. D. X S. D. t-v a l u e s P P r e t e s t BRC ( i d e a l ) 17. 50 3 .90 16 .36 2 .98 -0.92 0.36 ( a c t u a l ) 18. 80 2 .75 18 .71 2 .59 -0.09 0.93 PRC ( i d e a l ) 26. 80 3 .43 28 .36 2 .10 1.51 0.14 ( a c t u a l ) 23. 70 2 .54 22 .86 2 .35 -0.98 0.33 SRC ( i d e a l ) 27. 90 3 .24 28 .43 3 .52 0.45 0.66 ( a c t u a l ) 24. 30 2 .76 24 .57 2 .21 0.31 0.76 RD 5. 40 6 .35 7. 00 5 .88 0.74 0.46 P o s t - t e s t BRC ( i d e a l ) 17. 10 2 .75 16 .36 1 .99 -0.86 0.39 ( a c t u a l ) 19. 15 2 . 48 18 .93 2 .17 -0.27 0.79 PRC ( i d e a l ) 25. 10 4 .39 27 .21 3 .19 1.54 0.13 ( a c t u a l ) 22. 75 3 .14 23 .86 3 .76 0.93 0.36 SRC ( i d e a l ) 27. 70 2 .64 28 .29 2 .05 0.70 0.49 ( a c t u a l ) 23. 10 3 .96 23 .93 2 .70 0.68 0. 50 RD 4. 80 6 .96 5 .14 6 .49 0.15 0.89 BRC= b u r e a u c r a t i c r o l e c o n c e p t i o n . PRC= p r o f e s s i o n a l r o l e c o n c e p t i o n . SRC= s e r v i c e r o l e c o n c e p t i o n . RD= r o l e d e p r i v a t i o n s c a l e . p<0.05 HYPOTHESIS 1. ROLE TRANSITION WILL BE PERCEIVED TO BE EASIER BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A PRECEPTORSHIP PROGRAM THAN BY NOVICE STAFF NURSE WHO PARTICIPATE IN A TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM. Role transition is the alteration in expectations related to actions and reactions demanded by a change in role . Role transition from student to novice staff nurse requires adjustments in s k i l l mastery and role conceptions/role deprivation. In order for hypothesis one to be supported, pretest to post-test scores reported by the experimental (preceptorship) group, had to reveal s ignif icant ly less role deprivation on the Nursing Role Conception Scale and s ignif icantly higher -performance ratings on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance than those reported by the control (traditional orientation) group. Comparisons of group scores at post-test on both instruments using pooled t-tests (Table 5 and Table 8) demonstrate no significant differences between group post-test scores. Since this was the result , the f i r s t research hypothesis was not supported. Summary Results of of the data analysis were presented in this chapter. Demographic charateristies of the sample were evaluated using chi-square analysis and, showed that the 65 groups d i f f e r e d on two var iab le s : basic nursing education and amount of c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency pr ior to beginning employment as s t a f f nurses. These di f ferences may have been i n f l u e n t i a l factors in the ro l e t r a n s i t i o n experiences of p a r t i c i p a n t s . Pretest scores in r e l a t i o n to performance l eve l s as measured by the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, and ro le concept ion/role depr ivat ion scores as measured by the Nursing Role Conception Scale were compared. Results indicate no s i g n i f i c a n t di f ferences between the groups at the s t a r t of the study. This f inding supported the s u i t a b i l i t y of comparing performance rat ings and ro le concept ions /role depr ivat ion over the time of the study to assess the effect of treatment (presence of a designated preceptor for the experimental group, and lack of a designated preceptor for the contro l group) on these outcomes. Within-group changes in performance rat ings from pretest to post - test for each group were assessed. Results of th i s analys is revealed discrepancies in the dimensions of performance in which each group showed s i g n i f i c a n t l y improved performance r a t i n g s . The experimental group showed s i g n i f i c a n t improvement in only the planning/evaluat ion dimension, while the contro l 66 group e x h i b i t e d improved performance i n the c r i t i c a l c a r e , t e a c h i n g / c o l l a b o r a t i o n , and i n t e r p e r s o n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p s / c o m m u n i c a t i o n d i m e n s i o n s of performance. A q u e s t i o n i s whether t h e s e d i s c r e p a n c i e s a r e due t o o r i e n t a t i o n program d i f f e r e n c e s or o t h e r f a c t o r s . P o s t - t e s t performance r a t i n g s of both groups were compared. A n a l y s i s i n d i c a t e d no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s between t h e groups on any d i m e n s i o n s of performance measured by the S i x Dimension S c a l e of N u r s i n g Performance. Thus, d e s p i t e d i s c r e p a n c i e s i n the d i m e n s i o n s of performance i n which each group e x h i b i t e d performance g a i n s from p r e t e s t t o p o s t - t e s t ; t h e s e d i s c r e p a n c i e s were not enough t o r e s u l t i n s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t performance r a t i n g s between t h e groups a t p o s t -t e s t . W i t h i n - g r o u p changes i n r o l e c o n c e p t i o n / r o l e d e p r i v a t i o n s c o r e s were compared. A n a l y s i s showed t h a t the e x p e r i m e n t a l group had a s i g n i f i c a n t d e c r e a s e i n PRC ( i d e a l ) from p r e t e s t t o p o s t t e s t , but i t d i d not have an accompanying i n c r e s e i n BRC ( i d e a l ) as one might e x p e c t . The c o n t r o l group d i d not e x h i b i t any s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s i n r o l e c o n c e p t i o n s / r o l e d e p r i v a t i o n a t p o s t -t e s t . 6 7 Results indicate that there were no s i g n i f i c a n t differences between the groups on either the Nursing Role Conception Scale or the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. Thus, neither group's role t r a n s i t i o n experiences d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y over the other. Consequently, none of the three research hypotheses of thi s study was supported. 68 CHAPTER FIVE DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS In this chapter study findings and interpretation of s ta t i s t i ca l data presented in the preceding,chapter are discussed. Study results in relation to each of the research hypotheses and factors that may have influenced these results are discussed. Results of this study are compared to the findings of other studies of preceptorships. Discussion in Relation to Research Hypotheses, For c l a r i t y , discussion of results in relation to each of the research hypothesis w i l l deal f i r s t with hypothesis two, followed by discussion of results of hypothesis three, and w i l l conclude with discussion of results related to hypothesis one. HYPOTHESIS TWO: JOB PERFORMANCE LEVELS REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A PRECEPTORSHIP PROGRAM WILL BE HIGHER THAN THOSE REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM. Pretest performance scores reported by the experimental group were consistently higher than those of the control group in a l l subscales of the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, but the leadership subscale. This suggests that subjects in the experimental group began the i r preceptorship program with a predominantly more pos i t i ve s e l f - p e r c e p t i o n of the i r performance a b i l i t y . In comparing the within-group change in performance r a t i n g s , the contro l group had a s i g n i f i c a n t improvement from pretest to pos t - tes t in three dimensions of performance ( c r i t i c a l care , interpersonal re la t ionsh ips /communication, and t e a c h i n g / c o l l a b o r a t i o n ) . The experimental group from pretest to pos t - tes t had a s i g n i f i c a n t improvement in only the p lanning/evaluat ion dimension of performance. However, at pos t - tes t there was no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f fe rences in the p o s t - t e s t performance scores between the groups. It i s poss ib le that the higher pretest performance ra t ings of the experimental group were balanced out by the contro l group's improved performance in more dimensions of performance than that of the experimental group. This balancing e f fec t may explain why there were no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f fe rences between the groups in post - tes t performance outcomes. One must question what factors might explain the unexpected discrepancy in within-group performance outcomes? Possib le explanations re la te to demographic var iab les of study p a r t i c i p a n t s , program f a c t o r s , and study design l i m i t a t i o n s . 70 Demographic V a r i a b l e s A n a l y s i s of demographic v a r i a b l e s u s i n g c h i - s q u a r e a n a l y s i s r e v e a l e d t h a t t h e group p r o p o r t i o n s were s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t on two demographic v a r i a b l e s : (1) b a s i c n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n and (2) c l i n i c a l e x p e r i e n c e i n the employing agency p r i o r t o t h e i r p r e s e n t employment as n o v i c e s t a f f n u r s e s . The e x p e r i m e n t a l group had a s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r p o r p o r t i o n of s u b j e c t s , who were educated i n a t h r e e year d i p l o m a program ( 7 0 % ) , as compared t o t h e t r a d i t i o n a l o r i e n t a t i o n group, who had a s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r p o r p o r t i o n of p a r t i c i p a n t s who were educated i n a two year d i p l o m a program ( 8 5 . 7 % ) . The e x p e r i m e n t a l group had a g r e a t e r p r o p o r t i o n of s u b j e c t s who had been g r a d u a t e s of the h o s p i t a l s c h o o l of n u r s i n g of t h e employing agency. They t h e r e f o r e had s u b s t a n t i a l l y more c l i n i c a l e x p e r i e n c e i n the employing agency p r i o r t o t h i s employment than d i d t h e c o n t r o l group ( T a b l e 2 ) . P a r t i c i p a n t s i n t h e e x p e r i m e n t a l group a t p r e t e s t a l r e a d y had more c l i n i c a l e x p e r i e n c e by v i r t u e of the l o n g e r e d u c a t i o n a l program. They a l s o has s i g n i f i c a n t l y more c l i n i c a l e x p e r i e n c e i n the p r a c t i c e s e t t i n g where t h e y a r e now employed. With t h e c o m b i n a t i o n of t h e s e f a c t o r s , i n a d d i t i o n t o the p r e c e p t o r s h i p program, one 71 might expect that the i r performance would continue to improve and be s i g n i f i c a n t l y higher than that of the contro l group. Despite the apparently favorable advantages in demographic v a r i a b l e s , the experimental group post- test performance rat ings d id not d i f f e r s i g n i f i c a n t l y from that of the contro l group. Probable explanations for th i s re la te to program factors or study design l i m i t a t i o n s . Program Factors The d i f ference in focus of the centra l nursing or i en ta t ion aspects of the preceptorship and t r a d i t i o n a l or i en ta t ion programs is one program factor that may have contributed to th i s study not f inding any s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t di f ference in performance outcomes between the groups. The t r a d i t i o n a l or i enta t ion program at both s i t e s was quite s k i l l oriented as compared to the preceptorship program (Appendices B, C, and D). This factor may have been instrumental in the performance improvement exhibited by the contro l ( t r a d i t i o n a l or ientat ion) group on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. This group had a s i g n i f i c a n t performance improvement in three subscales ( c r i t i c a l care , t each ing /co l laborat ion , and interpersonal re la t ionsh ips /communication), (Table 4); while the preceptorship group had s i g n i f i c a n t improvement i n performance on o n l y one subsc a l e ( p l a n n i n g / e v a l u a t i o n ) , (Table 5). Study Design L i m i t a t i o n s A study l i m i t a t i o n which made i t impossible f o r the re s e a r c h e r to randomly a s s i g n p a r t i c i p a n t s to the experimental and c o n t r o l groups i s another f a c t o r that may have i n f l u e n c e d the performance r e s u l t s . Since s u b j e c t s could not be randomly assigned to the experimental or c o n t r o l groups, s u b j e c t s may have d i f f e r e d i n areas of s e l f p e r c e p t i o n , and/or i n t h e i r a b i l i t y to a c c u r a t e l y a p p r e c i a t e changes i n t h e i r n u r s i n g performance. Whether i n d i v i d u a l s were i n the experimental or c o n t r o l group was beyond the i n v e s t i g a t o r ' s c o n t r o l s i n c e t h i s was under the agency's c o n t r o l . Without random assignment of s u b j e c t s t o the c o n t r o l and experimental groups there i s no means to c o n t r o l f a c t o r s such as i n d i v i d u a l p a r t i c i p a n t s having: (1) unequal a c t u a l performance a b i l i t y at the beginning of the study, and (2) unequal a b i l i t y to a c c u r a t e l y r e c o g n i z e performance gains w i t h i n t h e i r own performance over time. Although p r e t e s t mean scores and v a r i a n c e s were assessed and were not found to be s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t , t h i s does not mean th a t d i f f e r e n c e s were not present. N e i t h e r , do these assessments address p o t e n t i a l 73 differences in participants' ab i l i t i e s to recognize performance gains over time. HYPOTHESIS THREE: PERCEIVED ROLE DEPRIVATION REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A PRECEPTORSHIP PROGRAM WILL BE LESS THAN THAT REPORTED BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM. Results indicate that there were no significant differences between the groups in pretest role conceptions and role deprivation scores. In comparing the within-group change in role conceptions/ role deprivation, the experimental group had a significant decrease in professional role conception (ideal) but there was no accompanying increase in bureaucratic role cojnception as one might expect. Possible reasons that may be posed for this result are: (1) The experimental group who were precepted may have received increased pressure from preceptors to conform to bureaucratic rules. Based on their experience, they may have perceived i t necessary, in order to gain approval from their peer preceptors, to adjust downward their ideal professional role conception ratings. However, despite decreasing their PRC (ideal), post-test scores i n d i c a t e t h e y were not y e t ready to s i g n i f i c a n t l y i n c r e a s e t h e i r BRC. Kramer and Schmalenberg (1977b) i d e n t i f i e d t h a t c e r t a i n t e s t i n g t a k e s p l a c e when n o v i c e nurses a r e a t t e m p t i n g t o become a c c e p t e d members of t h e u n i t work group. In essence the f i r s t j o b f o r n o v i c e nurses i s a p r o v i n g ground where the n o v i c e must prove h e r / h i m s e l f i n t h e s t a f f nurse r o l e . P a r t i c i p a n t s i n the p r e c e p t o r s h i p group may have p e r c e i v e d t h a t t h e i r PRC needed t o be a d j u s t e d t o more c l o s e l y match the PRC of the r e f e r e n c e group t o which t h e y a s p i r e d t o become ac c e p t e d members. T h i s may account f o r the d e c r e a s e i n PRC ( i d e a l ) a t p o s t - t e s t measurement. Gi v e n the f a c t t h a t the c o n t r o l group had v a r i o u s e x p e r i e n c e d nurses who buddied w i t h them, s u b j e c t s i n t h e c o n t r o l group may not have i d e n t i f i e d as c l o s e l y w i t h the r e f e r e n c e group t o which t h e y d e s i r e d membership. Thus, u n l i k e t h e e x p e r i m e n t a l group, the c o n t r o l group d i d not r e p o r t a d e c r e a s e i n PRC ( i d e a l ) a t p o s t - t e s t . (2) A second p o s s i b i l i t y i s t h a t the e x p e r i m e n t a l group may have r e c e i v e d n e g a t i v e feedback ( s a n c t i o n s ) f o r h o l d i n g such h i g h i d e a l PRC and f o r at t e m p t s t o l i v e up t o t h e s e i d e a l p r o f e s s i o n a l r o l e c o n c e p t i o n s i n p r o f e s s i o n a l p r a c t i c e . I f t h i s were the c a s e , a t p o s t -t e s t t h e y may have a d j u s t e d t h e i r r a t i n g s ( d e c r e a s e d PRC-75 ideal) in l i g h t of such feedback. (3) Another p o s s i b i l i t y i s that th i s decrease in PRC ideal may r e f l e c t a r e a l i s t i c pos i t ive adjustment to the demands of p r a c t i c e . Perhaps the l e v e l of profess ional ism that neophytes acquire in school is too high for the demands of the pract i ce s e t t i n g . Corwin (1961) i d e n t i f i e d that ro le conceptions acquired in school do not grasp the f u l l complexities of the work experience. Consequently, the r e f i n i n g and adjust ing of these idea l standards i s almost an inescapable adjunct to beginning profess ional p r a c t i c e . Kramer and Schmalenberg (1977a) i d e n t i f i e d that the most successful r e so lu t ion of r e a l i t y shock is a b i c u l t u r a l adaptation, in which the neophyte reevaluates school learned values, maintaining those that are b e n e f i c i a l , and meshing them with the r e a l i t i e s of the work s i t u a t i o n . As such, th i s decrease in PRC ( ideal) reported by the experimental group may indicate a pos i t ive movement toward rea l i sm necessary for successful ro le t r a n s i t i o n . Despite the dif ferences in within-group changes from pretest to post - test in the PRC ( i d e a l ) , there were no s t a t i s t i c a l l y s i g n i f i c a n t di f ferences between the groups in post- test ro le concept ion/role depr ivat ion scores . A poss ible explanation for th i s might be that during th i s 76 f i r s t one month both programs may have concentrated more on mastery of s k i l l s and organizational a b i l i t i e s , as opposed to dealing with social integration. If this were the situation, this would account for the study results fa i l ing to find any differences between the groups on role conceptions and role deprivation. HYPOTHESIS ONE: ROLE TRANSITION WILL BE PERCEIVED TO BE EASIER BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A PRECEPTORSHIP PROGRAM THAN BY NOVICE STAFF NURSES WHO PARTICIPATE IN A TRADITIONAL ORIENTATION PROGRAM. In order for this hypothesis to be supported the experimental group had to report higher performance scores and lower role deprivation scores at post-test than those reported by the control group. Since this was not the result this hypothesis was not supported. Several possible reasons may account for this result . Program Factors The assignment of preceptors for the experimental group is a program factor that may have influenced the performance and role deprivation results of this study. Head nurses of the respective wards to which novice staff nurses were hired were responsible for assigning preceptors to work with novice nurses. On occasions, nurses assigned to function as preceptors with the novice 77 nurses, had not attended the Preceptor Development Program which prepares preceptors to function in th i s r o l e . In these s i t u a t i o n s , these s ta f f nurses who are c a l l e d preceptors , were r e a l l y more l i k e the "buddy" of the t r a d i t i o n a l or i en ta t ion program. Moreover, novice s t a f f nurses in the preceptorship program were frequently assigned more than one preceptor. In essence, these pract ices d i l u t e the expected o v e r a l l treatment effect of a preceptorship program, and may have been instrumental factors in there being no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f ferences between the groups on performance ra t ings ; ro le conceptions/ depr iva t ion; or ro le t r a n s i t i o n experiences. Nevertheless, one needs to recognize the d i f f i c u l t i e s , with the nursing shortage, of having enough experienced nurses prepared to function in the preceptor r o l e . Recent l i t e r a t u r e has i d e n t i f i e d th i s problem (Cantwell , Kahn, Lacey & McLaughlin, 1989; Griepp, 1989; Hamilton, Murray, Lindholm, & Myers,1989; Lewis, 1990). Griepp (1989) noted several instances of nurses with l imi ted experience ( less than one year) being assigned "by default" to function as preceptors because units d id not have enough experienced s t a f f nurses for i t s preceptor requirements. 78 Job factors and i n d i v i d u a l c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s of the preceptors selected for the preceptor r o l e , may influence the q u a l i t y of the feedback, superv i s ion , and guidance given to the novice s t a f f nurse by preceptors (Sheetz, 1988). These factors may also have influenced the study f ind ings . One needs to question whether "the preceptor t r u l y act[s] as a preceptor or do other job r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s make th i s impossible" (Cantwell , et a l . , 1989, p.229). This is p a r t i c u l a r l y a problem with the nursing shortage. When problems and pract ices such as these ex i s t , they neutra l i ze the expected pos i t ive influence of preceptors for novice nurse t r a n s i t i o n to p r a c t i c e . Another considerat ion was i d e n t i f i e d by Sheetz (1989). She found that reg is tered nurses who buddied with students who were not in a preceptorship program assumed the informal ro le of preceptor to students, even though the ro le was not formally recognized by the organizat ion . If s t a f f nurses in the contro l ( t r a d i t i o n a l or ientat ion) program followed th i s p r a c t i c e , even though they had not received preparation for the r o l e , they may have provided guidance to the novice s t a f f nurses of the contro l group, s i m i l a r to that which was provided by the preceptors to novice s t a f f nurses in the preceptorship (experimental) group. As such, the expected difference in treatment between the experimental and control group would not have occurred. If this were the case, i t would account for the lack of significant differences between the groups in terms of transition experiences. Study Design Limitations Whether novice staff nurses in the study had participated in a preceptorship program as part of their educational program is a factor that was not assessed, and which might have contributed to the results. These programs are included in some curricula as a means to provide students with anticipatory social ization to the novice staff nurse role (Chickerella & Lutz, 1981). One could surmise, i f subjects had such an experience, they might be sensitized to the issues surrounding the transition from student to beginning pratit ioner, and this may influence their adjustment to practice. As such, consideration of this factor in the study design would have helped in interpreting possible reasons for study results. The time frame for the study is another factor that may have affected the results of this study. Participants may not have moved beyond the honeymoon phase of rea l i ty shock. During the honeymoon phase, the new nurse's 80 appraisal of her/his job is typical ly very positive-There is a tendancy to view situations through rose-colored glasses (Kramer, 1974), and as such, during this stage "problems are not recognized, they're not even perceived" (Kramer & Schmalenberg, 1977a, p. 6). Accordingly, i f subjects in this study had not moved beyond the. honeymoon phase, conflicts which new nurses are expected to have to face, may not have yet surfaced from their perspectives. As such, i t would be useful to study the groups over a longer time frame, and investigate whether changes in any of these parameters (performance ratings, role conceptions/ deprivation, role transition) wi l l be exhibited with time. A third study design factor that may have contributed to the unexpected results of this study was the small sample size. When sample size is small this l imits the power to detect significant differences should differences actually exist (Burns & Grove, 1987). Individual Factors Many individual factors may have been inf luential in the role transition outcomes of the two groups. According to Spickerman (1988) many factors mediate the severity of real i ty shock. S k i l l s , knowledge levels, 81 and attitudes associated with c l i n i c a l practice are inf luent ia l . Other factors such as self concept, interpersonal relationship s k i l l s , organizational a b i l i t i e s , and compatability between personal and professional goals also contribute to one's adjustment when entering professional practice. Accordingly, i f the groups had persons who were confident, had sol id knowledge bases, strong interpersonal relationship and organizational s k i l l s ; these factors alone, as opposed to the particular orientation program that the individuals received, may have made these individuals more l ike ly to be accepted into the reference work group of experienced nurses. This is l ike ly to be the case since these are the types of s k i l l s that experienced nurses tend to highly value. Kramer and Schmalenberg (1977b) noted that experienced nurses are continually testing the neophyte with informal tests and judging the neophyte's performance based on their own standards of performance, without consideration of the neophyte's lack of experience. Given this , i t is reasonable to suggest that i f participants possessed characteristics such as these described, they would be more l ike ly to be accepted as f u l l members of the unit work group of professional nurses. 82 Comparison of Present Study Results to Other Studies It had been expected that the preceptorship group, as a result of the preceptorship program, would demonstrate s ignif icantly greater performance gains than the tradit ional orientation group. This study failed to support the hypothesis that job performance levels reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship orientation program wi l l be higher than those reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. This is similar to the findings of Clayton, Broome and E l l i s (1989); Huber (1981); and Olsen, Gresley, and Heater, 1984. Huber (1981) found that graduate nurses who completed a hospital-based preceptorship orientation program preceived their performance to be no different than graduate nurses completing a hospital-based internship orientation program. Huber also used the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance to measure self-perceived performance by graduate nurses. Olsen, Gresely and Heater (1984) found that nursing students who completed an eight week undergraduate c l i n i c a l course did not perceive their performance, as rated on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, to be different from that of students who had not 83 completed the course. Clayton et a l . (1989) used measures of performance, as self-evaluated by participants on the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance, to determine the effect of a preceptorship experience on role social ization of graduate nurses. The study only part ia l ly supported the hypothesis that there would be significant differences between the groups on the six subscales of the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. There were significant differences between the groups on the leadership, teaching/collaboration, interpersonal relationships/communication and planning/evaluation subscales, but not on the professional development and c r i t i c a l care subscales. Like other studies that have investigated role conceptions/role deprivation (Dobbs, 1988; Itano et a l . , 1987), results of this study did not find any significant effect of a preceptorship program on role conception or role deprivation as compared to a tradit ional orientation program. At post-test measurement there were no significant differences between the preceptorship and tradit ional orientation groups' role conception and role deprivation scores. Thus, the study hypothesis, that participants in the preceptorship program would report less role deprivation than participants in the tradit ional orientation program was not supported. Participants in this study did not have significant differences in performance ratings or role conceptions/role deprivation at post-test measurement. Thus, novice staff nurses' role transition experiences were not found to be s ignif icantly different whether they participated in the preceptorship or the tradit ional orientation program. As such, the treatment effect of presence of a preceptor for the preceptorship group was not as strong an influence on role transition of novice staff nurses as had been expected. Summary The results of this study failed to support any of the study hypotheses that suggested novice staff nurses who participated in a preceptorship program would (1) report higher performance ratings, (2) less role deprivation, and (3) easier role transition than novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. Results of the study and factors that may be posed to explain the study findings were discussed. Results of this study were compared to results of other studies on preceptorship. 85 CHAPTER SIX SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND IMPLICATIONS A summary of study findings and conclusions are presented in this chapter. In addition, limitations of the study, study implications, and recommendations for future study are provided. Summary The transit ion from student to beginning practitioner in nursing has been identified as a part icularly d i f f i c u l t transit ion. Preceptorship programs have been used as orientation strategies in a effort to ease this transition from student to practitioner in nursing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a preceptorship program on the role transit ion of novice staff nurses. The three research hypotheses that were tested in this study were: 1. Role transition wi l l be perceived to be easier by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program than by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. 2. Job performance levels reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program wi l l be higher than those reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. 86 3. Perceived role deprivation reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a preceptorship program wi l l be less than that reported by novice staff nurses who participate in a tradit ional orientation program. Demographic characteristics of the groups were assessed using chi-square analysis. Results revealed that the experimental and control groups differed s ignif icantly on two variables: (1) basic nursing education, and (2) amount of c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency prior to their present employment as novice staff nurses. These differences in proportions may have been important influencing factors on the role transition experiences reported by the groups. In relation to hypothesis two, results indicated no significant differences between the groups in post-test performance outcomes. There were discrepancies from pretest to post-test in the areas of performance in which the groups reported s t a t i s t i c a l l y significant within-group performance gains. The control group reported improvements in three dimensions of performance ( c r i t i c a l care, teaching/collaboration, and interpersonal relationships/communication). The experimental group reported improved performance in only the planning/ evaluation dimension of performance. Despite these 87 within-group d i f f erences , comparison of o v e r a l l post - test scores revealed no s i g n i f i c a n t di f ferences between the groups in any dimensions of performance as measured by the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. Many possible reasons were presented for these resu l t s (demographic v a r i a b l e s , program fac tors , and study design 1 imi ta t ions ) . Role conception and ro le depr ivat ion scores , as measured by the Nursing Role Conception Scale , were tested to evaluate hypothesis three . Analys is of r e su l t s in r e l a t i o n to hypothesis three revealed a s i g n i f i c a n t within-group decrease in PRC ( ideal) from pretest to post - test for the experimental group; but not an accompanying increase in BRC as one might expect. Several poss ible explanations for th i s re su l t were introduced. On the remaining subscales of the Nursing Role Conception Scale (BRC, SRC, RD), the experimental group exhibited no s i g n i f i c a n t within-group di f ferences between pretest and post- test scores . By comparison, the contro l group reported no s i g n i f i c a n t within-group dif ferences from pretest to post- test in any subscales of the Nursing Role Conception Scale (PRC, BRC, SRC, RD). Post- test ro le conception and ro le depr ivat ion scores of both groups were compared. Results indicated no 88 s t a t i s t i c a l l y significant differences between the groups on these scores. Thus, at one month the preceptorship program had less of an affect on role deprivation than had been anticipated. Since the experimental group did not report higher performance ratings or lower role deprivation scores than those reported by the control group, the f i r s t research hypothesis, that suggested role transition would be easier for the experimental group, was not supported. Role transit ion experiences of the groups were not found to be s ignif icantly different. Results suggest that at one month there was no difference exhibited in either program assisting novice staff nurses to make the transition from student to beginning practit ioner. Conclus ions Conclusions which can be drawn from analysis of the study data are: 1. Participants in both programs (preceptorship and tradit ional orientation) showed significant performance gains in d i s t inc t ly different aspects of performance as measured by the Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance. While the control (traditional orientation) group exhibited performance gains on three dimensions of performance ( c r i t i c a l care, teaching/collaboration, and 89 interpersonal relationships/conununication); the experimental group reported improved performance on only one dimension of performance (p lanning/evaluat ion) . However, par t i c ipant s in neither group gained s i g n i f i c a n t l y in terms of o v e r a l l performance a b i l i t y over the other. Thus, i t can be concluded that both programs provide benef i t s , but in d i f f eren t d i r e c t i o n s , with d i f f e r e n t areas of focus. 2. Role conception scores of the groups at post - tes t were not s i g n i f i c a n t l y d i f f e r e n t . However, the experimental (preceptorship) group reported a s i g n i f i c a n t within-group decrease in PRC ( i d e a l ) . The contro l group reported no s i g n i f i c a n t within-group di f ferences in any ro le conceptions from pretest to pos t - tes t . It can be concluded that the within-group change in ro le conceptions reported by the groups demonstrates that the groups had d i f f e r e n t experiences in the i r or i enta t ion programs. 3. Par t i c ipant s in the preceptorship program did not demonstrate less ro le depr ivat ion than par t i c ipants in the t r a d i t i o n a l or i enta t ion program. Thus, i t can be concluded that preceptorship program par t i c ipant s d id not perceive themselves as having less c o n f l i c t in reso lv ing dilemmas about how s i tua t ions i d e a l l y ought to be in 90 nurs ing , v e r s u s how they a c t u a l l y are i n p r a c t i c e . The p r e c e p t o r s h i p program had l e s s of an e f f e c t on r o l e d e p r i v a t i o n than was a n t i c i p a t e d . 4. O v e r a l l , the f i n d i n g s suggest t h a t , at one-month p o s t -employment, ho d i f f e r e n c e was shown i n e i t h e r program a s s i s t i n g n o v i c e s t a f f nurses to make the t r a n s i t i o n from s t u d e n t to b e g i n n i n g p r a c t i c e i n p r o f e s s i o n a l n u r s i n g . Thus i t can be conc luded t h a t the presence of p r e c e p t o r s was l e s s of a f a c t o r i n i n f l u e n c i n g n o v i c e s t a f f nurse r o l e t r a n s i t i o n than had been a n t i c i p a t e d . L i m i t a t i o n s Recognized l i m i t a t i o n s of t h i s s t u d y i n c l u d e : 1. Random s e l e c t i o n or random assignment of s u b j e c t s i n t o e x p e r i m e n t a l ( p r e c e p t o r s h i p ) and c o n t r o l ( t r a d i t i o n a l o r i e n t a t i o n ) groups was p r e c l u d e d . T h i s depended e n t i r e l y on the employing agency , and t h e r e f o r e , was out of the i n v e s t i g a t o r s ' s c o n t r o l . 2. Because of t ime c o n s t r a i n t s , the p o s t - t e s t was a d m i n i s t e r e d a t one month. T h i s may have been too s h o r t a t ime i n t e r v a l i n which to d e t e c t s i g n i f i c a n t r o l e t r a n s i t i o n d i f f e r e n c e s between the g r o u p s . 3. In p r a c t i c e n o v i c e s t a f f nurses i n the p r e c e p t o r s h i p program were o f t e n a s s i g n e d more than one p r e c e p t o r . In a d d i t i o n , t h e r e were s e v e r a l o c c a s i o n s when e x p e r i e n c e d 91 nurses, who had not had the e d u c a t i o n a l program to prepare them f o r the preceptor r o l e , were assigned as pr e c e p t o r s to novice s t a f f nurses. These f a c t o r s may have l i m i t e d the e f f e c t i v e n e s s of t h i s p r e c e p t o r s h i p program. P a r t i c u l a r l y , i n o f f s e t t i n g b e n e f i t s a t t r i b u t e d to p r e c e p t o r s h i p programs, such as, one-to-one l e a r n i n g , with an "e n l i g h t e n e d guide" who i s prepared f o r the preceptor r o l e . 4. The sample s i z e was s m a l l , thus l i m i t i n g the power to d e t e c t d i f f e r e n c e s should d i f f e r e n c e s a c t u a l l y e x i s t . 5. F a c t o r s such as s t a f f i n g needs, assignments given to novice s t a f f nurses, and work m i l i e u i n p a r t i c i p a t i n g agencies were f a c t o r s t h a t were not c o n t r o l l e d i n t h i s study. I m p l i c a t i o n s F i n d i n g s of the study have i m p l i c a t i o n s f o r n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e , e d u c a t i o n , and r e s e a r c h . Each of these i s presented i n d i v i d u a l l y i n the f o l l o w i n g s e c t i o n s . Nursing P r a c t i c e The p e r i o d of beginning employment as novice s t a f f nurses i s c r i t i c a l to the p r o f e s s i o n a l development and long term adjustment of nurses. The s o c i a l i z a t i o n experienced d u r i n g t h i s time e s t a b l i s h e s the b a s i s f o r t h e i r s a t i s f a c t i o n and l a t e r l o y a l t y to b u r e a u c r a t i c and 92 profess ional standards (Ahmadi et a l . , 1987). Pract i ce set t ings need to foster pos i t i ve environments that f a c i l i t a t e novice nurses' t r a n s i t i o n from school to p r a c t i c e . The a b i l i t y of nursing pract i ce set t ings to provide a supportive environment to beginning s t a f f nurses is becoming more d i f f i c u l t given today's changing health care environment. According to Talarczyk and Milbrant (1988) the present health care environment, with emphasis on "high tech" and cost containment, places increased demands on nurses. It requires nurses who are able to provide competent and sens i t ive nursing care to patients with increased acu i ty . Moreover, i t requires that they de l i ver th i s care in a fast paced manner. These factors add to the pressures experienced by novice nurses in making the t r a n s i t i o n from school to p r a c t i c e . According to Hamilton et a l . (1989) hosp i ta l or i en ta t ion programs have e s s e n t i a l l y focused on the f a m i l i a r i z i n g new nurses to the p o l i c i e s and protocols of the i n s t i t u t i o n ; and have usual ly f a i l e d to attend to providing guidance to the novice in ro le development, that i s , in a c q u i s i t i o n of a t t r ibutes that are c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the profess ional nursing r o l e . Kramer and Schmalenberg (1977b) described how the f i r s t job of novice nurses i s a proving ground. In th i s proving period the novice is put through many formal and informal tests by the referent work group. The problem for neophytes with these tests is that they are ambiguous, and the c r i t e r i a for passing the tests are not c l e a r . Another problem with these tests is that members of the referent work group tend to judge neophytes' performance from the l e v e l of performance they have attained by experience without regard for the neophyes lack of experience. It would be worthwhile for pract ice set t ings to appraise the t e s t i n g , p a r t i c u l a r l y informal t e s t i n g , that takes place and to discuss the impact of th i s t e s t ing on t r a n s i t i o n experiences of neophytes. C l e a r l y , when such pract ices are discussed there is a greater l i k e l i h o o d that t e s t i n g , i f i t i s to continue, could be adjusted so that expectations in te s t ing could r e f l e c t the d i f f eren t experience leve ls between novice and seasoned profess iona l s . Conseguently, expert leve ls of performance would not be expected from beginning p r a c t i t i o n e r s . Based on the present study f ind ings , both of the or i enta t ion programs (preceptorship and t r a d i t i o n a l or ientat ion) were equal in that there were no s i g n i f i c a n t 94 d i f fe rences in ro le t r a n s i t i o n experiences, whether novice s t a f f nurses par t i c ipa ted in a preceptorship or a t r a d i t i o n a l o r ien ta t ion program. This suggests that the benef i ts of preceptorship programs over t r a d i t i o n a l o r ien ta t ion programs, that have been c i t e d in the l i t e r a t u r e , may not be borne out as s t rongly as was a n t i c i p a t e d . If preceptorship programs are to be of greater benef i t in a s s i s t i n g novice s t a f f nurses to make the t r a n s i t i o n from students to beginning p r a c t i t i o n e r s , a t tent ion needs to be given to preceptorship program development and monitoring of the i r e f f ec t i veness . D i f f i c u l t i e s a r i se with preceptor programs having enough experienced s t a f f prepared to funct ion as preceptors. The impact of the nursing shortage, complicates the a b i l i t y of p rac t ice se t t ings to have enough experienced nurses to provide preceptors for novice nurses. Changing preceptor assignments in the middle of the program or assigning severa l preceptors for each novice nurse destroys the cont inu i ty for the neophyte (Goldenberg, 1987/1988). If p rac t ice se t t ings are to reap the greatest benef i ts that have been ascr ibed to preceptorship programs, mechanisms to increase the number of preceptors prepared to f u l f i l l that ro le are needed. 95 Attent ion also needs to be given to the person's selected for the preceptor r o l e . The c l i n i c a l competence; interpersonal relationship/communication s k i l l s ; teaching a b i l i t i e s ; and wi l l ingness of experienced nurses chosen for the preceptor ro le are a l l important ingredients in ensuring the q u a l i t y of the teaching and guidance given to noephytes by preceptors. In th i s preceptorship program studied there were no formal standards in terms of the q u a l i t i e s required in preceptors . As well there was no formalized ongoing follow-up with preceptors and orientees . These factors might l i m i t the degree to which the program is operating consistent with i t s purpose. Nursing prac t i ce needs to address issues of commitment to the preceptorship program as a means to a s s i s t novice nurses with the t r a n s i t i o n to pract i ce i f i t i s to be used as i t was intended to be used. If these programs are to be successful organizat ional commitment to the object ives of the preceptorship program is e s s e n t i a l . Nursing Education Nursing education prepares p r a c t i t i o n e r s for a prac t i ce d i s c i p l i n e , and as such, must be a l e r t to the r e a l i t i e s of c l i n i c a l pract ice in today's nursing prac t i ce s e t t ings . Nursing education must prepare students for 96 the t r a n s i t i o n to p r a c t i c e and the t y p i c a l problems that beginning p r a c t i t i o n e r s f a c e . As such, education programs must provide content i n r e a l i t y shock and a n t i c i p a t o r y s o c i a l i z a t i o n to the r e a l i t y of the p r o f e s s i o n a l n u r s i n g r o l e . To be s u c c e s s f u l i n p r o v i d i n g adequate a n t i c i p a t o r y s o c i a l i z a t i o n programs, educators must be knowledgable of the " r e a l world" s i t u a t i o n i n n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e s e t t i n g s . Role e x p e c t a t i o n s of educators and p r a c t i t i o n e r s must become more congruent. Moreover, i f educators are to adequately prepare students f o r p r o f e s s i o n a l p r a c t i c e i n n u r s i n g , mechanisms are needed to ensure t h a t educators are c l i n i c a l l y p r o f i c i e n t , and thus are q u a l i f i e d , to prepare n u r s i n g students f o r the r e a l world of n u r s i n g . Thus, n u r s i n g education and n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e need to be c l o s e l y l i n k e d i n order t h a t students begin p r a c t i c e with the t e c h n i c a l , i n t e r p e r s o n a l r e l a t i o n s h i p , and conceptual s k i l l s n e cessary to handle the r e a l i t i e s of beginning n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e . Given the pace of change i n n u r s i n g , educators must have some means to maintain competence i n order to provide i n s t r u c t i o n and s u p e r v i s i o n to students t h a t w i l l , upon g r a d u a t i o n , provide them with the r e q u i s i t e s k i l l s to competently begin p r a c t i c e i n n u r s i n g . Many 97 i s s u e s need t o be a d d r e s s e d p a r t i c u l a r l y i n the u n i v e r s i t y s e t t i n g . A c c o r d i n g t o M y r i c k (1988) c l i n i c a l t e a c h i n g i n u n i v e r s i t y s e t t i n g s i s s u b o r d i n a t e t o c l a s s r o o m t e a c h i n g , r e s e a r c h , and p u b l i c a t i o n . N u r s i n g ought t o q u e s t i o n what i s the i d e a l c o m b i n a t i o n , f o r n u r s i n g f a c u l t y i n terms of c l i n i c a l p r o f i c i e n c y , and e x p e r t i s e i n the a p p l i c a t i o n of sound t e a c h i n g and l e a r n i n g p r i n c i p l e s . Another i s s u e t h a t needs t o be a d d r e s s e d i s whether e d u c a t i o n a l s t a n d a r d s a r e a p p r o p r i a t e , or whether n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n i s a d v o c a t i n g and t e a c h i n g p e r f e c t i o n i s m as opposed t o p r o f e s s i o n a l i s m ? N u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n and n u r s i n g s e r v i c e p e r s o n n e l s h o u l d c o l l a b o r a t e i n e s t a b l i s h i n g a p p r o p r i a t e c u r r i c u l u m c o n t e n t f o r n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n programs. There must be agreement between n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n and n u r s i n g s e r v i c e on what c o n s t i t u t e s a p p r o p r i a t e b a s i c e n t r y - l e v e l s k i l l s of new g r a d u a t e s . There have been f r e q u e n t debates c o n c e r n i n g t h e gap between n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e and n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n p e r s o n n e l (Schempp & Rompre, 1986). N u r s i n g s e r v i c e p e r s o n n e l o f t e n c o m p l a i n t h a t s c h o o l s of n u r s i n g f a i l t o a d e q u a t e l y p r e p a r e s t u d e n t s f o r p r a c t i c e . As a r e s u l t , p r a c t i c e s e t t i n g s must spend i n o r d i n a t e time i n o r i e n t i n g new g r a d u a t e s b e f o r e t h e y a r e r e a d y t o assume f u l l p a t i e n t 98 c a r e r e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s . E d u c a t o r s defend t h a t i t i s i m p o s s i b l e t o p r e p a r e a f i n i s h e d p r o d u c t r e a d y f o r p r a c t i c e i n any s e t t i n g . They a l s o contend t h a t p r a c t i c e s e t t i n g s f a i l t o t r e a t t h e new grad u a t e i n a manner t h a t f o s t e r s s u c c e s s f u l t r a n s i t i o n from s c h o o l t o p r a c t i c e . The n o v i c e n u r s e , caught i n t h e mi d d l e of t h i s debate between n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n and n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e p e r s o n n e l , f r e q u e n t l y f e e l s p e r s o n a l l y r e s p o n s i b l e f o r h e r / h i s i n adequate p r e p a r a t i o n f o r the s t a f f nurse r o l e (Schempp & Rompre, 1986). A r e s o l u t i o n t o t h i s l o n g s t a n d i n g b l a m i n g game i s needed so t h a t p r a c t i c e and e d u c a t i o n p e r s o n n e l work c o l l a b o r a t i v e l y t o p r o v i d e p o s i t i v e c o n d i t i o n s f o r smoother t r a n s i t i o n s of neophytes i n t o p r o f e s s i o n a l p r a c t i c e . Another i s s u e t h a t needs t o be addressed by n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n r e l a t e s t o t h e n u r s i n g s h o r t a g e and i t s e f f e c t s . E d u c a t o r s , p r a c t i c e p e r s o n n e l , and p r o f e s s i o n a l n u r s i n g b o d i e s need t o c o n s i d e r the l i m i t s t o which t h e y are w i l l i n g t o compromise p r o f e s s i o n a l e x p e c t a t i o n s f o r b u r e a u c r a t i c s t a n d a r d s . G i v e n t h e c r i t i c a l n u r s i n g s h o r t a g e and the promise of i n c r e a s i n g p r e s s u r e t o make compromises ( i . e . , d e c r e a s e s t a n d a r d s i n n u r s i n g p r a c t i c e and n u r s i n g e d u c a t i o n ) , i t i s c r u c i a l t h a t t h e s e i s s u e s be a d d r e s s e d . N u r s i n g needs t o c l e a r l y and p r o a c t i v e l y delineate the l i m i t s to which i t w i l l submit in decreasing standards. This w i l l ensure that contingencies with accompanying rationale are developed so that nursing education standards and not unduely jeopardized. Cl e a r l y , nursing practice i s the raison d'etre of the nursing profession. Nursing education is charged with preparing p r a c t i t i o n e r s for the practice of nursing. Educators must be p r o f i c i e n t in the practice of professional nursing, and thus, cannot be separate from nursing practice. Nursing Research Preceptorship programs are extensively used for orientation of novice s t a f f nurses to nursing practice. While many benefits of preceptorship programs for t h i s purpose are noted in the anecdotal l i t e r a t u r e on the subject, the research which has investigated the e f f e c t of preceptorship programs has found c o n f l i c t i n g r e s u l t s . More research i s needed to investigate the e f f e c t of preceptorship programs. It is recommended that this study be replicated with a larger sample siz e and that participants be followed over a longer time frame in order to determine whether changes in role t r a n s i t i o n of novice s t a f f nurses over time can be attributed to the 100 effects of the preceptorship program. In addition, future research could address: (1) Whether preceptorship programs, as opposed to tradit ional orientation programs, have any differences in terms of effects on job satisfaction, and retention of nurses. (2) Whether prior c l i n i c a l experience in the employing agency as part of their education program teaches neophytes the "back stage" rea l i ty and the day-to-day pol i t ics of the bureaucratic organizations in which novice nurses begin practice. (This data would be useful in determining whether this information can be deleted or condensed in orientation programs). (3) Whether differences in novice staff nurse outcomes correlate to level of preceptor competence. (4) Whether there are differences in effects of preceptorship programs when preceptors receive orientation to the preceptor role versus programs where preceptors do not receive preparation for the preceptor role. (5) Whether retention of nurses is increased when they begin professional practice in a place of employment where they received substantial c l i n i c a l experience during their preparatory education program. 101 ( 6 ) Whether orientation programs which focus on s k i l l mastery as opposed to social integration foster positive role transit ion. Clearly preceptorship programs are frequently used in nursing education programs and nursing practice settings. More study is needed to validate whether these programs are truly as effective as they have been declared to be. 102 REFERENCES Ahmadi, K. S., Speedling, E . J . , & Kuhn-Weissman, G. (1987). The newly hired hospital staff nurse's professionalism, satisfaction and alienation. 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Occupational Health Nursing, 32(8), 410-411. 108 Appendix A. 109 Preceptorship Program Schedule Monday 0800-0830 Welcome, Introduction, Meet Instructors 0830-0915 Charting R e s p o n s i b i l i t i e s and Accountability 0915-0930 " L i f t and Transfer Techniques" video 0930-1000 Break 1000-1030 Nursing Personnel P o l i c i e s 1030-1100 "Restraint/Non Restraint" video 1100-1200 Blood Glucose Monitoring 1200-1300 Lunch 1300-1600 C l i n i c a l Area- Complete: Poli c y and Procedure Module,Pharmacy Module, Pre-reading Material, Search and Find and L i f t i n g and Transferring Return Demonstration, Tuesday 0800-1200 1200-1300-1330-1345-1415-1445-1530-1300 1330 1345 1415 1445 1530 1600 Hospital Wide Orientation (by Employee Relations) Lunch Communications Systems Introduction to Competency Based Education Computers in Nursing Break Philosophy Overview of Nursing Div i s i o n Organization Wednesday 0800-0840 Education and Research 0840-0910 Quality Assurance, Standards and Protocals 0910-0930 Break 0930-1000 Pastoral Care 1000-1100 Infection Control 1100-1200 Respiratory Therapy 1200-1300 Lunch 1300-1600 Parenteral Therapy Thursday 0800-1100 Code Blue (General Areas) 1100-1200 Lunch 1200-1600 C l i n i c a l Area OR 0700-1100 C l i n i c a l Area 1100-1200 Lunch 1200-1500 Code Blue (General Areas) Appendix B. I l l Preceptor Development Program Purpose: This half day program is designed to assist participants (registered nurses who wi l l be acting as preceptors) to develop the knowledge, s k i l l s and attitudes necessary to effectively quide a new employee through orientation. Program Objectives: At the end of the program the participant w i l l be able to: 1. Describe the purposes and benefits of a preceptorship program for orientation. 2. Outline roles of the orientee, preceptor and head nurse or delegate in the Hospital Preceptorship Program. 3. Identify methods of assessing an orientee's learning needs. 4. Outline competency areas required of the orientees. 5. Develop teaching strategies to assist orientees to meet their learning needs and competencies. Give constructive feedback in performance or case study. response to an observed 112 Appendix C. Traditional Orientation Schedule Hospital (A) Tuesday 0800--0830 0830--0835 0835--0840 0840 -0900 0900--0930 0930 -0945 0945--1015 1015 -1040 1040- -1100 1100 -1120 1120- -1200 1200- -1230 1230 -1300 1300- -1530 Wednesday 0730 -0815 0815 -0900 0900 -0915 0915 -0930 0930 -1045 1045 -1145 1145 -1215 1215 -1245 1245 -1400 1400 -1415 1415 -1530 Thursday 1200 -1315 1315 -1530 Friday E: 0800 -0830 0830 -0900 0900 -1000 1000 -1100 1100 -1200 1200 -1315 1315 -1400 1400 -1415 1415 -1600 Introduction Pastoral Care Spir i tual Aspects Personnel Services Union Reps: HSA HEU BCNU Coffee Infection Control Fire Safety Disaster Plan Employee Health Services Lunch Nursing Department Philosophy & Objectives Nursing Personnel Information Back Care Program Computerized Medication System I.V. Therapy R.N.A.B.C. Coffee T.P.N. Unit Orientation (Complete seek and find, review unit orientation) Lunch Care of the Surgical Patient Charting Coffee Equipment Workshop Emergency Equipment Care of the Person with AIDS Summary and Evaluation Extended Orientation (For New Graduates) Introduction Coffee AIDS Update Registered Nurse and Charge Nurse Roles Lunch Processing Orders Physician Coverage Coffee Equipment Workshop 114 Appendix D. 115 Traditional Orientation Schedule Hospital (B) Tuesday 0800-1200 1200-1300 1300-1330 1300-1600 Wednesday 0800-0815 0830-0845 0845-0915 0915-0945 0945-1000 1000-1045 1045-1200 1200-1300 1300-1315 1315-1415 1430-1600 Thursday 0800-0900 0900-0930 0930-1000 1000-1015 1015-1030 1030-1045 1045-1200 1200-1300 Central Orientation (Welcome from Education Services and Administration, Slide tapes "Welcome to Hospital", "Fundamentals of Back Care", Fire Safety, Tour of Hospital, Union Reps, Benefits Presentation and Completion of Benefits Forms). Lunch Introduction to Acute Care Nursing Orientation Independent Study: Respiratory Therapy, Support Services Modules, Videotape- Oxygen Delivery Systems, Demonstration and Practice: Oxygen Delivery Systems C l i n i c a l Nurse Specialist Welcome from Nursing Department Video- "Chest Tubes" Demonstration/Practice "Pleurevac" Break Independent Study- Chest Tubes and Support Services Modules Demonstration & Return Demo "Accuchek II" Lunch Home Care Liaison Nurse Independent Study of Modules: Emergency Cart, Cardiac and Respiratory Arrest, and Catheterization Demonstration/Practice: Emergency Cart, Cardiac and Respiratory Arrest, and Catheterization Independent Study: Infection Control Multiple Choice Post Quiz: Emergency Cart, Cardiac and Respiratory Arrest, Support Services, Catheterization, Infection Control, Respiratory Therapy, Chest Tubes Review Quiz Tour (ICU, C .S .D . , Pharmacy) Break Lecture/Discussion Medicus System Independent Study- Medicus System Lunch 116 Traditional Orientation Schedule Hospital (B) Thursday (Con't) 1300-1600 Return Demonstrations: Chest Tubes, Catheterization, Respiratory Therapy 1300-1600 Independent Study: Medicus, Medications, Nursing Department, Pharmaceutical Math Questions Handout, I .V. Therapy and Direct I.V. Medications Fr iday 0800-0900 Demonstration/Practice I .V. Therapy, Direct I .V. Medications 0900-0915 Break 0915-1030 Independent Study: I .V. Therapy, Direct I .V. Medications 1030-1130 Multiple Choice Quiz- Medications, I .V. Therapy, and Direct I .V. Medications 1130-1200 Review Quiz 1200-1230 Lecture/Discussion Charting Legalities 1230-1300 Lunch 1300-1600 Independent Study: Patient Chart, Equipment, Return Demos: I.V. Therapy, Direct I .V. Medications Quiz- Medicus Evaluation Monday (a l l Day) Unit Orientation Tuesday 0800-1230 CPR Basic Level 1 (only i f cert i f icat ion necessary) or Unit Orientation 1300-1400 Transfer Techniques 1400-1530 Mock Arrest (Emergency Cart, Cardiac and Respiratory Arrest Appendix E. 118 Letter of Introduction The University of Bri t i sh Columbia School of Nursing Vancouver, Br i t i sh Columbia Dear Colleague: I am a graduate student in the University of Bri t i sh Columbia School of Nursing. For my thesis, I am conducting a study to examine the effect of orientation programs on the role transition of new graduates in their f irst-t ime employment as registered nurses. To date there has been limited research done which has investigated the effectiveness of orientation programs. In order for nursing departments to make decisions on particular types of programs and to just i fy expenditure, i t is important that their effectiveness be evaluated. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of two types of orientation programs. Your voluntary participation is requested to provide information regarding orientation. This information may be helpful in improving future orientation programs. Each participant wi l l be asked to complete two questionnaires at the start of orientation and again one month later. These include: a self-appraisal of nursing performance using Schwirian's Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance and a self-appraisal of role conception using Corwin's Nursing Role Conception Scale. Completion of these scales is estimated to take approximately 15 and 20 minutes respectively. F ina l ly , each participant wi l l be asked to complete a Demographic Data Sheet. Follow-up scales w i l l be mailed to participants with prepaid postal return envelopes. A l l information provided w i l l be used in confidence by this researcher. Individual responses wi l l be kept confidential and they wi l l not be shared with hospital personnel. In order to preserve the identity of participants in the study, each participant in the study wi l l be assigned a code number. Only code numbers, not names of participants, w i l l be appear on the completed questionnaires. A separate l i s t of study participants w i l l be kept by this researcher. A l l data w i l l be maintained in safekeeping by this researcher. The completed study wi l l not disclose the identity of individual participants. 119 Your participation in this study would be appreciated. Participation in this study is on a voluntary basis, and you are free to withdraw from the study at any time. There is no penalty associated should you choose not to participate in the study. If the questionnaires are completed i t w i l l be assumed that consent to participate in the study has been given. F ina l ly , whether or not you participate in this study wi l l not influence how you are evaluated by hospital personnel during your orientation period. This thesis study is being supervised by Dr. Sonia Acorn, Assistant Professor, University of Bri t i sh Columbia School of Nursing. Office phone number for Dr. Acorn i s : If you have any questions about the study please contact me at the University of Bri t i sh Columbia School of Nursing or at my home address: Bernadette MacDonald address Phone Sincerely; Bernadette MacDonald R.N. B.N. (MSN student) 120 Appendix F . 121 Demographic Data Sheet Please use a check mark to indicate which of the following categories apply to you. 1. Sex: male female 2. Type of program: orientation preceptorship 3. Basic Nursing Education: Diploma (two year program) Diploma (three year program) Baccalaureate program 4. Other post-secondary education (besides nursing) yes no i f yes please specify 5. Did you have c l i n i c a l experience in employing agency during your education program? yes no i f yes please specify number of weeks 6. Past experience working in a hospital:(does not include c l i n i c a l experience in question 4) none nurse's aide other (please specify) 7. Length of past experience working in a hospital: please specify number of months or years 8. Past work experience other than in a hospital yes no i f yes please specify , 9. Age: Code Number Appendix G. \ 123 SIX-DIMENSION SCALE OF NURSING PERFORMANCE (6-D SCALE) (Schwirian) P E R F O R M A N C E OF NURSING B E H A V I O R S Instructions; This section contains a list of act iv i t ies in which nurses engage with varying degrees of frequency and sk i l l . For these act iv i t ies that you do perform in your current job, please indicate how well you perform them by using numbers from the fol lowing key: 1 - Not very well 2 - Sat isfactor i ly 3 - Wel l 4 - Very wel l X - Not expected in my current job TC Teach a patient 's family members about the pat ient 's needs. P E Coordinate the plan of nursing care with the medical plan of care. L Give praise and recognit ion for achievement of those under your direct ion. TC Teach preventive health measures to patients and their fami l ies. TC Identify and use community resources in developing a plan of care for a patient and his family. P E Identify and include in nursing care plans anticipated changes in patient 's condit ion. PE Evaluate results of nursing care. IPR Promote the inclusion of the pat ient 's decisions and desires concerning his care. P E Develop a plan of nursing care for a patient. P E Initiate planning and evaluation of nursing care with others. C C Per form technical procedures: e.g., oral suctioning, tracheostomy care, intravenous therapy, catheter care, dressing changes, e tc . TC Adapt teaching methods and materials to the understanding of the part icular audience: e.g., age of patient, educational background, and sensory deprivations. P E Identify and include immediate patient needs in the plan of nursing care. TC Develop innovative methods and materials for teaching patients. Communicate a feeling of acceptance of each patient and a concern for the patient's welfare. Seek assistance when necessary. Help a patient communicate with others. Use mechanical devices: e.g., suction machines, Gomco, cardiac monitor, respirator, etc. Give emotional support to family of dying patient. Verbally communicate facts, ideas, and feelings to other health team members. Promote the patient's right to privacy. Contribute to an atmosphere of mutual trust, acceptance, and respect among other health team members. Delegate responsibility for care based on assessment of priorities of nursing care needs and the abilities and limitation of available health care personnel. Explain nursing procedures to a patient prior to performing them. Guide other health team members in planning for nursing care. Accept responsibility for the level of care provided by those under your direction. Perform appropriate measures in emergency situations. Promote the use of interdisciplinary resource persons. Use teaching aids and resource materials in teaching patients and their families. Perform nursing care required by crit ically ill patients. Encourage the family to participate in the care of the patient. Identify and use resources within your health care agency in developing a plan of care for a patient and his family. Use nursing procedures as opportunities for interaction with patients. Contribute to productive working relationships with other health team members. Help a patient meet his emotional needs. Contribute to the plan of nursing care for the patient. Recognize and meet the emotional needs of a dying patient. 125 TC Communicate facts, ideas, and professional opinions in writ ing to patients and their fami l ies. TC Plan for the integration of patient needs with family needs. C C Functions calmly and competently in emergency situations. L Remain in open to the suggestions of those under your direction and use them when appropriate. IPR Use opportunities for patient teaching when they arise. P E R F O R M A N C E OF P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T BEHAVIORS Instructions; Using the fol lowing key, please indicate on the line at the left of each i tem the number that best describes the frequency with which you engage in the following behaviors. 1- Seldom or never 2 - Occasional ly 3 - Frequently 4 - Consistent ly PD Use learning opportunities for on-going personal and professional growth. PD Display sel f -d i rect ion. PD Accept responsibi l i ty for own actions. PD Assume new responsibil i t ies within the l imit of capabi l i t ies. PD Maintain high standards of sel f-performance. PD Demonstrate sel f-conf idence. PD Display a generally posit ive att i tude. PD Demonstrate knowledge of the legal boundaries of nursing. PD Demonstrate knowledge of the ethics of nursing. PD Accept and use construct ive c r i t i c i sm. Key To Subscales: L - Leadership C C - C r i t i c a l Care TC - Teaching/Col laborat ion P E - Planning/Evaluat ion IPR - IPR/Communicat ions PD - Professional Development 126 Appendix H. 127 NURSING R O L E C O N C E P T I O N S C A L E INSTRUCTIONS This consists of a list of 22 hypothetic situations in which as nurse might find herself. You are asked to indicate both: A) the extent to which you think the situation should be the ideal nursing. B) the extent to which you have observed the situation in your hospital. Notice the two (2) questions must be answered for each situation. Consider the questions of what ought to be the case and what is really the case separately; try not to let your answer to one question influence your anwser to the other question. Give your opinions; there are no "wrong" answers. Indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with the statement by checking one of the alternative answers, ranging from: S T R O N G L Y A G R E E , A G R E E , U N D E C I D E D , D I S A G R E E , and S T R O N G L Y D I S A G R E E . S T R O N G L Y A G R E E indicates that you agree with the statement with almost no exceptions; A G R E E indicates that you agree with the statement with some exceptions. U N D E C I D E D indicates that you could either "agree" or "disagree" with the statement with about an equal number of exceptions in either case. D I S A G R E E indicates that you disagree with the statement with some exceptions. S T R O N G L Y D I S A G R E E indicates that you disagree with the statement with almost no exception. 128 Here is an example: Some graduate nurses in New York hospitals believe that doctors are more professional than nurses. A. On the basis of the facts graduate nurses should believe doctors are more professional. B. Graduate nurses at my hospital actually do believe that doctors are more professional. Suppose that, almost without exception, you agree that nurses she more professional. Then check (V) the first column (STRONGLY A Suppose that, with some exceptions, you disagree that nurses in y< that doctors are more professional. Then check (^ column four (C question B. Be sure you place a check mark {/) after both questions A and B. Bureaucratic Items 1. One graduate nurse, who is an otherwise excellent nurse except that she is frequently late for work, is not being considered for promotion, even though she seems to get the important work done. A. Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? B. Js_this the way things are at your hospital? STRONGLY AGREE AGREE UNDECIDED DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE >uld reg kGREE) 3ur hosp )ISAGR ard doc for que >ital do EE) aftt tors as stion A believe sr 2. A head nurse at one hospital insists that the rules be followed in detail at all times, even if some of them do seem impractical. A. Do you think this is the way head nurses and supervisors should act? B. _Is_this the way head nurses and supervisors at your hospital actually do act when the occasion arises? 3. A graduate staff nurse observes another graduate staff nurse, licensed practical nurse, or aide who has worked In the hospital for months violating a very important hospital rule or policy and mentions it to the head nurse or supervisor. A. Do you think that this is what graduate nurses should do? B. Is this what graduate nurses at your hospital actually do when the occasion arises? 129 4 . When a supervisor at one hospital considered a graduate for promotion, one of the most important factors is the length of experience on the job. A . Do you think this is what supervisors should regard as important? B. Js this what supervisors at your hospital actually do regard as important? STRONGLY AGREE AGREE UNDECIDED DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE 5 . In talking to acquaintances who aren't in nursing, a graduate nurse gives her opinions about things she disagrees with in the hospital . A . Do you think this is what graduate nurses should do? B. Js this what graduate nurses at your hospital actual ly do when the occasion arises? 6 . A graduate nurse is inf luenced mainly by the opinions of the hospital authorit ies and doctors when she considers what truly "good", nursing is. A . Do you think this is what graduate nurses should consider in forming their opinions? B. Is this what graduate nurses at your hospital actual ly do consider in forming their opinions? P R O F E S S I O N A L ITEMS 7 . One graduate nurses tr ies to put her standards and ideals about good nursing into pract ice even if hospital rules and procedures prohibit it. A . Do you think that this is what graduate nurses should do? B. Js this what graduate nurses at your hospital actually do when the occasion arises? 8 . One graduate nurse does not do anything which she is told to do unless she is sat isf ied that it is best for the welfare of the patient. A . Do you think that this is what graduate nurses should do? B. Js this what graduate nurses at your hospital actually do when the occasion arises? 130 9. A l l graduate nurses in a hospital are act ive members in professional nursing associations, attending most conferences and meetings of the associat ion. A . Oo you think this should be true of a l l nurses? B. _Is this true of nurses at your hospital? STRONGLY AGREE AGREE UNDECIDED • DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE 10. A l l graduate nurses in a hospital spend, on the average, at least six hours a week reading professional journals and taking refresher courses. A . Do you think this should be true of al l nurses? B. Is this true of nurses at your hospital? 11. Some nurses try to live up to what they think are the standards of their profession, even if other nurses on the ward or supervisors don't seem to like it. A . Do you think that this is what graduate nurses should do? B. Js this what graduate nurses at your hospital actual ly do when the occasion arises? 12. Some graduate nurses believe that they can get along very well without a lot of formal education, such as required for a B.S., M.S., or M.A. col lege degree. A . Do you think that this is what graduate nurses should bel ieve? B. _ this what graduate nurses at your hospital actual ly do believe? 13. A t some hospitals when a graduate nurse is considered for promotion, one of the most important factors considered by the supervisor is her knowledge of, and abil i ty to use, judgement about nursing care procedures. A . Dp you think this is what supervisors should regard as important? B. Is this what supervisors at your hospital actual ly do regard as important? 131 14. Some hospitals try to hire only graduate nurses who took their training in col leges and universit ies which are equipped to teach the basic theoret ical knowledge of nursing science. A . Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? B. Js this the way things are at your hospital? SERVICE ITEMS 15. A t one hospital graduate nurses spend more t ime at bedside nursing than any other nursing task. A . Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? B. Js this the way things are at your hospital? 16. Head nurses and doctors at one hospital al low the graduate nurse to tel l patients as much about their physical and emotional condit ion as the nurse thinks is best for the patient. A . Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? B. Js_this the way things are at your hospital? 17. A doctor orders a patient to sit up in a wheel chair twice a day, but a graduate nurse believes that he is not emotionally ready to sit up; the doctor respects her opinion and changes the t reatment. A . Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? B. Is this the way things are at your hospital? 18. Doctors and head nurses at the hospital respect and reward nurses who spend t ime talking with patients in an attempt to understand the host i l i t ies, fear, and doubts which may ef fect the pat ient 's recovery. A . Do you think this is what doctors and head nurses should regard as important? B. Js_this what doctors and head nurses at your hospital actually do regard as important? 132 19. A graduate nurse believes that a patient ought to be referred to a psychologist or a public health nurse and tr ies to convince the doctor of this, even though he is doubtful. A . Do you think this is what a graduate nurse should do? B. Js this what graduate nurses at your hospital actually do when the occasion arises? STRONGLY AGREE AGREE UNDECIDED DISAGREE STRONGLY DISAGREE 20. A t one hospital the nurse's abi l i ty to understand the psychological and social factors in the pat ient 's background is regarded as more important then her knowledge of such other nursing ski l ls as how to give enemas, IVs, or how to chart accurate ly . A . Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? B. Is this the way things are at your hospital? 21. Some graduate nurses believe that the professional nurses who should be rewarded most highly are the ones who regard nursing as a ca l l ing in which one's religious beliefs can be put into prac t ice . A . Do you think that is is what graduate nurses should bel ieve? B. Js this what graduate nurses at your hospital actually do bel ieve? 22. At some hospitals the graduate nurses who are most successful are the ones who are real ist ic and pract ica l about their jobs, rather than the ones who attempt to live according to ideal ist ic principles about serving humanity. A . Do you think this is the way it should be in nursing? _ B. Is this the way things are at your hospital? • Citation Scheme: APA APA (5th Edition) APA No DOI, No Issue BibTeX Chicago, Author, Date IEEE LexisNexis (Guide Lluelles, 7th Edition) Modern Language Association, With Url Turabian, Full Note Bibliography Citations by CSL (citeproc-js) Share link (DOI): Customize your widget with the following options, then copy and paste the code below into the HTML of your page to embed this item in your website. 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__label__wiki	0.763656	0.763656	Classical Pathology of Sympathetic Ophthalmia Presented in a Unique Case Shida Chen 1, Mary E Aronow 2, Charles Wang 3, Defen Shen 1, Chi-Chao Chan, 1 1 Immunopathology Section, Laboratory of Immunology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA 2 Clinical Branch, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA 3 Christiana Care Health System, Newark, DE, USA Identifiers and Pagination: First Page: 32 Last Page: 38 Publisher Id: TOOPHTJ-8-32 DOI: 10.2174/1874364101408010032 Received Date: 20/3/2014 Revision Received Date: 11/6/2014 Acceptance Date: 11/6/2014 Electronic publication date: 27/6/2014 Collection year: 2014 CrossRef Citations: Total Statistics: Full-Text HTML Views: 2617 Abstract HTML Views: 1323 PDF Downloads: 372 Total Views/Downloads: 4312 Unique Statistics: Full-Text HTML Views: 996 Abstract HTML Views: 764 © Chen et al.; Licensee Bentham Open. open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. Address correspondence to this author at the 10 Center Dr., 10N103, NIH/NEI, Bethesda, MD 20892-1857, USA; Tel: 301-496-0417; Fax: 301-402-8664; E-mail: chanc@nei.nih.gov The ocular pathology of sympathetic ophthalmia is demonstrated in a 10 year-old boy who sustained a penetrating left globe injury and subsequently developed sympathetic ophthalmia in the right eye two months later. Two and a half weeks following extensive surgical repair of the left ruptured globe, he developed endophthalmitis and was treated with oral and topical fortified antibiotics. One month after the initial injury, a progressive corneal ulcer of the left eye led to perforation and the need for emergent corneal transplantation. The surgical specimen revealed fungus, Scedosporium dehoogii. The boy received systemic and topical anti-fungal therapy. Two months following the penetrating globe injury of the left eye, a granulomatous uveitis developed in the right eye. Sympathetic ophthalmia was suspected and the patient began treatment with topical and oral corticosteroids. Given the concern of vision loss secondary to sympathetic ophthalmia in the right eye, as well as poor vision and hypotony in the injured eye, the left eye was enucleated. Microscopically, granulomatous inflammation with giant cells was noted within a cyclitic membrane which filled the anterior and posterior chamber of the left globe. Other classic features including Dalen-Fuchs nodules were identified. Small, choroidal, ill-defined granulomas and relative sparing of the choriocapillaris were present. Molecular analysis did not identify evidence of remaining fungal infection. The pathology findings were consistent with previously described features of sympathetic ophthalmia. The present case is unique in that co-existing fungal infection may have potentiated the risk for developing sympathetic ophthalmia in the fellow eye. Keywords: Infection, injury, pathology, sympathetic ophthalmia. Sympathetic ophthalmia, a disease known since the time of Hippocrates, is a rare, bilateral, granulomatous uveitis that follows penetrating ocular trauma or surgical insult to one eye and threatens sight in the fellow eye which develops inflammation. The injured eye is referred to as the exciting eye, while the fellow eye is called the sympathizing eye. Ocular surgical procedures that disrupt the integrity of the uveo-retinal tissues have lately been shown to be among the important risk factors for developing sympathetic ophthalmia, however penetrating ocular trauma also plays a central role in the incidence of the disease [1]. It has been suggested that co-existing infection may increase the immune response due to greater exposure of retinal antigens and ultimately trigger an autoimmune process that leads to sympathetic ophthalmia [2-4]. While there seems to be no overall gender or racial predilection, the higher incidence of ocular trauma in males and children may explain the higher incidence of sympathetic ophthalmia in these groups reported in some series [5, 6]. Due to the rare nature of this disease, our current understanding of the pathophysiologic mechanisms underlying sympathetic ophthalmia is limited. Herein, we describe the classic ocular histopathology of a patient with sympathetic ophthalmia secondary to penetrating globe injury. 2. CASE REPORT This study was approved by the National Eye Institute Institutional Review Board (IRB) for human subjects, and informed consent was obtained from the patient. A 10 year-old Mennonite boy sustained a traumatic perforation of the left globe due to a knife injury. He underwent extensive surgical repair including anterior chamber washout of 80% hyphema, lensectomy, vitrectomy for vitreous hemorrhage, and endolaser treatment for a posterior exiting wound in the infratemporal macula. Afterwards, he received intravitreal antibiotics including amikacin and vancomycin. Two weeks following the initial injury, he developed endophthalmitis. He underwent a vitreous and anterior chamber tap and was treated with intravitreal ceftazidime and vancomycin. He was also started on topical antibiotics including hourly besifloxacin and moxifloxacin. Cultures revealed rare fungal elements, but no bacteria. He was therefore started on topical hourly voriconazole and oral voriconazole 100 mg twice daily for 4 weeks. Due to concern for possible co-existing bacterial infection, oral doxycycline was added to his regimen. He developed a progressive corneal ulcer, and given the concern for Pseudomonas, standard topical antibiotics were switched to fortified topical hourly ceftazidime and vancomycin. One month after the injury, the corneal ulcer perforated, resulting in the need for emergent corneal transplantation in the left eye. The surgical specimen from the host cornea demonstrated fungal elements. DNA sequencing later revealed Scedosporium dehoogii. Seven weeks after injury, oral voriconazole was discontinued as there were no signs of residual infection. Two months following the penetrating globe injury of the left eye, granulomatous uveitis developed in the fellow, right eye. Sympathetic ophthalmia was suspected and the patient began treatment with topical prednisolone acetate 1% every 2 hours and oral prednisone (1.5 mg/kg/day) which was gradually tapered over the next 3.5 months. The vision in the left eye was light perception only. In the right eye, the keratic precipitates (KPs) on the endothelium and anterior lens capsule and cellular reaction in the anterior chamber did not respond to corticosteroid treatment. The vision in the right eye was 20/20. Ten weeks after the injury, enucleation of the left eye was performed given the concern for vision loss secondary to sympathetic ophthalmia in the right eye, as well as blindness and hypotony in the left eye. Routine histopathology and immunohistochemistry were performed on the enucleated left globe. Immunohisto-chemistry was carried out using the avidin-biotin-complex immunoperoxidase technique with the Betazoid DAB Chromogen Kit (Biocare medical, CA, USA). Primary antibodies included CD68 (macrophage and microglia), CD3 (T-lymphocyte), and CD20 (B-lymphocyte) (Dako North America, Inc., Carpinteria, CA, USA). Secondary antibody was biotinylated goat anti-mouse IgG (1:200; Vector Laboratories, CA, USA). Microdissection was performed manually on uncovered stained glass slides, which were from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue cut at 4-6µm. Tissue from an area of observed granulomatous inflam-mation in the region of the pupillary membrane and cyclitic membrane was microdissected for evaluation of fungal DNA. The microdissected tissue was immediately digested with Proteinase K buffer. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by gel electrophoresis was used to detect the amplification of fungal DNA. The oligonucleotide primers were synthesized by Integrated DNA Technologies, Inc. (IA, USA). Primers for 18S universal rDNA (Forward: 5-ATT GGA GGG CAA GTC TG-3; Reverse: 5-CCG ATC CCT AGT CGG CAT AG-3) and primers for Scedosporium dehoogii (MSDE1: 5- CGC CCG AAA GGA CGA CGG C-3; MSA2: 5-CTA CTC GAC TCG TCG AAG GAG C-3) were used. PCR amplification with 32P labeled primers was performed in a Peltier thermal cycler PTC 200 (M J research, Inc, Watertown, MA, USA) in a 10 µl-volume Eppendorf tube, containing 2 µl of extracted sample DNA, 1 µl of 10x Taq buffer, 1 unit of Taq DNA polymerase, 1 µl of MgCl2 (25 Mm), 2 µl of a four-deoxynucleoside triphosphate mix (10 mM each), and 2 µl of each primer (forward and reverse). The PCR amplification protocol was based on a previous publication with some modifications [7, 8]. For 18S universal rDNA primer: an initial five-minute denaturation at 95°C, followed by 45 cycles of 1 min denaturation at 95°C, 1 min annealing at 54.5°C, and 1 min extension at 72°C, final extension step was 5 min at 72°C. For Scedosporium dehoogii primers: 5 min denaturation at 95°C, followed by 35 cycles of 45 s denaturation at 94°C, 45 s annealing at 65°C, and 1 min extension at 72°C, final extension step was 10 min at 72°C. The amplification products were analyzed by 15% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in TBE buffer. Following gel electrophoresis and overnight autoradiography, the PCR products were visualized using a molecular imager (Bio-Rad Laboratories, CA, USA). Macroscopically, a large corneal transplant button with corneal sutures was noted (Fig. 1A). There was a thick, proliferative, fibrous membrane in the pupillary area. The retina was totally detached and formed a funnel configuration, admixed with subretinal hemorrhage (Fig. 1B). Microscopically, corneal scar tissue was noted circumferentially along the peripheral corneal margin (Fig. 2A, B). There were Bowman’s membrane fragments and thick, dense, fibrous tissue with inflammatory cells and small neovascular lumens present within the corneal scar (Fig. 2C). The anterior chamber was shallow and contained erythrocytes and lymphocytes. The anterior chamber angle was narrow with peripheral anterior synechiae present as well as a dense pupillary membrane (Fig. 2A). Posterior synechiae from the necrotic iris were also adherent to the cyclitic membrane. Granulomatous inflammation containing many CD68+ macrophages and some multi-nucleated giant cells surrounded by lymphocytes (CD3+ > CD20+ cells) was present within the pupillary membrane, the cyclitic membrane, and the anterior vitreous (Fig. 3). There were a few lens capsule fragments and lens cortex remnants within the peripheral cyclitic membrane (Fig. 4A, B). The retina was totally detached in a funnel-shaped configuration, and appeared relatively intact in many areas. Dalen-Fuchs nod-ules were noted beneath the RPE layer (Fig. 5A, B) and they were composed of predominantly macrophages/epithelioid cells. Small, ill-defined granulomas were also seen in the choroid, along with some CD68+ macrophages, a few CD3+ Fig. (1). Macroscopic photographs of the enucleated left eye. (A). There is a large corneal transplant button with corneal sutures. (B) There was a thick, proliferative, fibrous membrane in the pupillary area (dashed line). The retina was totally detached and formed a funnel configuration (blue arrow), admixed with hemorrhage (red arrow). Photomicrographs of the corneal surgical scar. (A) The anterior chamber angle was narrow with peripheral anterior synechiae, and a dense pupillary membrane. (B) Corneal scar tissue was noted circumferentially along the peripheral corneal margin (red arrow). (C) There were Bowman’s membrane fragments (yellow arrow) and thick, dense, fibrous tissue with inflammatory cells and small neovascular lumens (black arrow) present within the corneal scar. (hematoxylin & eosin, x25 (A & B), x100, (C)). Photomicrographs of granulomatous inflammation within the pupillary membrane and cyclitic membrane. (A and B) Granuloma in the cyclitic membrane with some multi-nucleated giant cells (black arrow). (C-F) The granulomas in the pupillary membrane contained many CD68+ macrophages surrounded by lymphocytes (CD3+ > CD20+ cells). (A-C, hematoxylin & eosin, x100 (A), x200 (B-C); D-F, immunohistochemistry staining, x200). Photomicrograph of lens capsule fragments and lens cortex. The lens remnants (black arrow) were located within the peripheral cyclitic membrane. (hematoxylin & eosin, x50). Photomicrograph of Dalen-Fuchs nodules. Dalen-Fuchs nodules (red circle) were composed of mainly macrophages/epithelioid cells. (hematoxylin & eosin, x200). Photomicrograph of the inflamed choroid. Small and ill-defined granulomas were composed of CD68+ macrophages, a few CD3+ T lymphocytes, and rare CD20+ B lymphocytes. (A: hematoxylin & eosin, x100; B-D: immunochemistry staining, x200). Photomicrographs of the retina and choroid. (A) The retinal architecture appeared to be relatively normal, and the choroid contained relatively normal choriocapillaris (red arrow) in some areas. (B) The choroid had focal and diffuse monocytic infiltration, and the choroidal vessels were congested in other areas. (hematoxylin & eosin, x100). PCR products of fungal DNA after gel electrophoresis. (A) Fungal DNA was not detected using an 18S primer set in this case. (B) Fungal DNA was not detected using a primer set specific for Scedosporium dehoogii in this case. 1, 2: DNA from the patient; P: positive; N: negative; bp: base pair. T lymphocytes, and rare CD20+ B lymphocytes (Fig. 6). The choroid had focal and diffuse monocytic infiltration, and the choroidal vessels were congested in some areas with overall relative sparing of the choriocapillaris (Fig. 7). No fungi were identified with Grocott-Gomori's methenamine silver stain (GMS). The tissues that demonstrated granulomatous inflammation were microdissected for PCR. However, no fungal DNA was detected using an 18S primer set or a primer set specific for Scedosporium dehoogii (Fig. 8). The present case describes a 10 year-old child who sustained a penetrating knife injury to his left eye and two weeks later developed fungal endophthalmitis. Approximately two months following the injury, the fellow, right eye developed a granulomatous uveitis, and sympathetic ophthalmia was suspected clinically. The patient subsequently underwent enucleation of the injured left eye. The histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of sympathetic ophthalmia. The histopathology of the patient’s eye demonstrated classic features of sympathetic ophthalmia. Widespread uveal granulomatous inflammation was present, which is a hallmark feature and is characterized by focal collection of macrophages and multi-nucleated giant cells surrounded by lymphocytes. Phacoanaphylaxis may also cause granulomatous inflammation and mimic sympathetic ophthalmia, however, phacoanaphylactic uveitis mainly involves the anterior segment with zonal granulomatous inflammation centered around the lens [3, 9]. In the present case, remnants of the lens capsule and cortex were observed, whereas they were not surrounded by intense inflammatory infiltration and did not induce phacoanaphylactic endophthalmitis. Dalen-Fuchs nodules are a classic feature of sympathetic ophthalmia, and are reported in 25%-35% of cases [10]. The Dalen-Fuchs nodules are predominantly located beneath the RPE layer, and are mainly composed of macrophages [11]. In some cases, when the disease is more advanced, these nodules may also contain depigmented RPE cells or lymphocytes [12, 13]. Previously described cases often report sparing of the retina and choriocapillaries, although one study demonstrated focal involvement of the choriocapillaris in 40% of cases [14]. In this same series, retinal detachment was observed in 50% of enucleated eyes, and this was associated with severe uveal inflammation [14]. Although, the exact etiology of sympathetic ophthalmia is not known, it has been hypothesized that altered tolerance to uveal and/or retinal antigens may be involved in the pathogenesis of this disease. One convincing theory suggests that the cell-mediated immune response to antigens from the retinal photoreceptor layer plays an integral role [15]. Implicated retinal antigens include: retinal soluble antigen (S-antigen) [16], rhodopsin [17], and interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein [18]. These antigens may induce a cell-mediated immune response. Lymphatics have also been suggested to play a role in the development of sympathetic ophthalmia [19, 20]. When ocular injury occurs, uveal tissue is exposed to conjunctival lymphatics, and antigens move to the regional lymph nodes, causing a cell-mediated immune response. In a rabbit model, subconjunctival injection of retinal S-antigen in one eye induced a bilateral sympathetic uveitis, however intraocular injection was ineffective in inducing sympathetic disease [20]. In early studies, it was suggested that a purulent eye infection such that occurs with penetrating ocular injury would destroy the uveal tissue and antigens to such an extent that this would prevent the development of sympathetic ophthalmia [10]. However, there are still a few case reports on the occurrence of sympathetic ophthalmia after endophthalmitis [2, 21]. Buller and associates reported a case of sympathetic ophthalmia following severe fungal keratitis, and hypothesize that chronic fungal infection allowed diffusion of intraocular microorganism antigens and proinflammatory mediators through a disturbed blood-retinal barrier to expose retinal antigens [2]. In one retrospective case series, 4 of 26 patients clinically diagnosed with sympathetic ophthalmia between 2002 and 2004, had concurrent bacterial endophthalmitis, which suggested that purulent endophthalmitis may not prevent the development of sympathetic ophthalmia [3]. The incidence of co-exiting endophthalmitis and sympathetic ophthalmia varies from 1% to 11% according to different studies [3, 10, 22]. One theory of pathogenesis suggests that co-exiting infection may increase the risk of development of sympathetic ophthalmia, because ocular infection provokes an immune response involving exposed retinal antigens and incites an autoimmune reaction [2, 3]. Experimental animal models have shown some evidence that bacterial products may function as an adjuvant entity which can enhance the uveitogenic potential of uveal and retinal antigens [23]. In our case, the GMS staining and fungal DNA detection studies using PCR in the enucleated eye were negative. This may be due to the fact that after one month of aggressive topical and oral anti-fungal treatment, and there were no signs of residual infection clinically. Until now, there have been two major modalities employed in the clinical management of sympathetic ophthalmia: surgery (which includes either enucleation or evisceration aimed at prevention) and corticosteroid or immunosuppressive agents for treatment once disease develops. In this case, the injured eye was enucleated as there was concern for further vision loss of the fellow, right eye and no significant clinical improvement after the initiation of topical and oral corticosteroid treatment. There is controversy about the exact time to perform the enucleating surgery for the injured eye. Prompt action is generally recommended, because sympathetic ophthalmia has been reported as early as 5 days after injury and early enucleation of the injured eye has been shown to improve the visual prognosis of the sympathizing eye [10], Others question the appropriateness of preventative enucleation based on the fact that the exciting eye may actually retain better vision than the sympathizing eye in the course of the disease. Histologic studies have shown no benefit from enucleation of the exciting eye [24]. While significant controversy still exists regarding evisceration and enucleation, improved surgical techniques have resulted in a recent trend favoring evisceration due to improved cosmetic outcomes [15]. Regarding the importance of concurrent infection, early diagnosis of co-existing mixed infectious and inflammatory processes is important, and the prompt initiation of aggressive antimicrobial treatment as well as systemic corticosteroids may improve the prognosis in such cases [3]. This report demonstrated classic histopathologic features of sympathetic ophthalmia, which occurred secondary to a penetrating globe injury and concurrent fungal infection. This case may improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of sympathetic ophthalmia. The authors declare no conflict of interest. Informed consent was provided from the patient. The NEI Intramural Program provided funding support. [1] Kilmartin DJ, Dick AD, Forrester JV. Prospective surveillance of sympathetic ophthalmia in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Br J Ophthalmol 2000; 84(3): 259-63. [2] Buller AJ, Doris JP, Bonshek R, Brahma AK, Jones NP. Sympathetic ophthalmia following severe fungal keratitis. Eye 2006; 20(11): 1306-7. [3] Rathinam SR, Rao NA. Sympathetic ophthalmia following postoperative bacterial endophthalmitis: a clinicopathologic study. Am J Ophthalmol 2006; 141(3): 498-507. [4] Sy-Ongkeko JM, Agahan AL, Lopez JS, Dy-Liacco JU. Sympathetic ophthalmia in an infected post-scleral buckling eye. Ann Acad Med Singap 2011; 40(3): 147-8. [5] Chan CC, Roberge RG, Whitcup SM, Nussenblatt RB. 32 cases of sympathetic ophthalmia: a retrospective study at the National Eye Institute, Bethesda, Md. from 1982 to 1992, Arch Ophthalmol 1995; 113(5): 597-600. [6] Albert DM, Diaz-Rohena R. A historical review of sympathetic ophthalmia and its epidemiology. Surv Ophthalmol 1989; 34(1): 1-14. [7] Kim E, Chidambaram JD, Srinivasan M , et al. Prospective comparison of microbial culture and polymerase chain reaction in the diagnosis of corneal ulcer. Am J Ophthalmol 2008; 146(5): 714-23, 723 e711. [8] Harun A, Blyth CC, Gilgado F, Middleton P, Chen SC, Meyer W. Development and validation of a multiplex PCR for detection of Scedosporium spp.in respiratory tract specimens from patients with cystic fibrosis. J Clin Microbiol 2011; 49(4): 1508-2. [9] Easom H, Zimmerman LE. Sympathetic ophthalmia and bilateral phacoanaphylaxis.a clinicopathologic correlation of the sympatho-genic and sympathizing eyes. Arch Ophthalmol 1964; 72: 9-15. [10] Lubin JR, Albert DM, Weinstein M. Sixty-five years of sympathetic ophthalmia.A clinicopathologic review of 105 cases 1913,1978 Ophthalmology 1980; 7(2): 109-21. [11] Chan CC, BenEzra D, Hsu SM, Palestine AG, Nussenblatt RB. Granulomas in sympathetic ophthalmia and sarcoidosis.Immunohistochemical study. Arch Ophthalmol 1985; 103(2): 198-202. [12] Reynard M, Riffenburgh RS, Minckler DS. Morphological variation of Dalen-Fuchs nodules in sympathetic ophthalmia. Br J Ophthalmol 1985; 69(3): 197-201. [13] Jakobiec FA, Marboe CC, Knowles DM , et al. Human sympathetic ophthalmia.An analysis of the inflammatory infiltrate by hybridoma-monoclonal antibdies immunochemistry, and correlative electron microscopy. Ophthalmology 1983; 90(1): 76-95. [14] Croxatto JO, Rao NA, McLean IW, Marak GE. A typical histopathologic features in sympathetic ophthalmia.A study of a hundred cases. Int Ophthalmol 1982; 4(3): 129-35. [15] Chu XK, Chan CC. Sympathetic ophthalmia: to the twenty-first century and beyond. J Ophthalmic Inflamm Infect 2013; 3(1): 49. [16] de Kozak Y, Sakai J, Thillaye B, Faure JP. S-antigen-induced experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis in rats. Current Eye Res 1981; 1(6): 327-7. [17] Schalken JJ, Winkens HJ, Van Vugt AH, De Grip WJ, Broekhuyse RM. Rhodopsin-induced experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis in monkeys. Br J Ophthalmol 1989; 73(3): 168-72. [18] Gery I, Wiggert B, Redmond TM , et al. Uveoretinitis and pinealitis induced by immunization with interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 1986; 27(8): 1296-300. [19] Chaithanyaa N, Devireddy SK, Kishore Kumar RV, Gali RS, Aneja V. Sympathetic ophthalmia: a review of literature. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol 2012; 113(2): 172-6. [20] Rao NA, Robin J, Hartmann D, Sweeney JA, Marak GE Jr. The role of the penetrating wound in the development of sympathetic ophthalmia experimental observations. Arch Ophthalmol 1983; 101(1): 102-4. [21] Blum-Hareuveni T, Rehany U, Rumelt S. Devastating endophthalmitis following penetrating ocular injury during night sleep from orthodontic headgear: case report and literature review. Graef Arch Clin Exp Opthalmol 2006; 244(2): 253-8. [22] Luo Y, Wang Z, Lin X, Hu S. Sympathetic ophthalmia caused by ocular penetration with endophthalmitis. Yan ke xue bao 2003; 19(2): 75-8. [23] Rao NA, Wong VG. Aetiology of sympathetic ophthalmitis. Trans Ophthalmol Soc UK 1981; 101(Pt 3)(3): 357-60. [24] Winter FC. Sympathetic uveitis; a clinical and pathologic study of the visual result. Am J Ophthalmol 1955; 39(3): 340-7. The Open Ophthalmology Journal Jorge Alio Department of Cornea and Refractive Surgery University Miguel Hernandez Biography of Jorge Alio Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology since 1986, Alicante University and Miguel Hernandez University, Spain. Founder and Scientific Director of Vissum Corporation. Author or editor of 89 books, 328 chapters, 500 articles in peer review journals and 36 patents. 95 national and international clinical and research awards. LXIII chair the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis and XLIX chair of the European Academy of Ophthalmology, past President of the ISRS/AAO and editorial board member of many peer review journals. The Hirsch factor (h-factor) of Dr Alio is 56 (Scopus). He is the creator and Director of the first online course in refractive surgery from the Miguel Hernandez University entitled Scientific Methodology in Refractive, Cataract and Cornea Surgery. Department of Cornea and Refractive Surgery, University Miguel Hernandez, Alicante, Spain Total Views/Downloads: 1,113,585 PDF Downloads: 113,048 Unique Views/Downloads: 101,515 The Spectrum of Microbial Keratitis: An Updated Review Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD): A Review on its Epidemiology and Risk Factors Recurrent Photoreceptor Loss with Spontaneous Recovery as a Presenting Sign of Syphilitic Outer Retinopathy Specific Dog Allergen Immunoglobulin G Antibodies in Patients with Allergic Conjunctivitis Anterior and Posterior Segment Manifestations of Pathological Myopia: A Clinical Study from Turkish Aegean Region The Open Ophthalmology Journal is an Open Access online journal, which publishes research articles, reviews, letters, case reports and guest-edited single topic issues in all areas of experimental and clinical research in ophthalmology. Bentham Open ensures speedy peer review process and accepted papers are published within 2 weeks of final acceptance. The Open Ophthalmology Journal is committed to ensuring high quality of research published. We believe that a dedicated and committed team of editors and reviewers make it possible to ensure the quality of the research papers. The overall standing of a journal is in a way, reflective of the quality of its Editor(s) and Editorial Board and its members. The Open Ophthalmology Journal is seeking energetic and qualified researchers to join its editorial board team as Editorial Board Members or reviewers. The essential criteria to become Editorial Board Members of The Open Ophthalmology Journal are as follows: Experience in experimental and clinical research in ophthalmology with an academic degree. At least 20 publication records of articles and /or books related to the field of experimental and clinical research in ophthalmology or in a specific research field.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1685
__label__wiki	0.816057	0.816057	Museum of Australian Democracy McIntosh Collection Oral histories on the topic 'australian council for overseas aid (acfoa)' Kate Moore Kate Moore was born in England and migrated to Canberra in 1968. From 1970 to 1977 she worked for World University Service and for the Australian Council for Overseas Aid. From 1977 to 1983 she was Executive Assistant to the National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party and from 1983 to 1987 N... Topics: Advisors, Affirmative action, AIDs, Ann Foreman, Annabel Crabb, Anti-apartheid movement, Apartheid, Assistants, Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA), Australian Journalists Association, Australian Labor Party, Australian National University, Beacon Hill, Bill Hayden, Bob Hawke, Bob McMullan, Bob Whan, Brendan O’Dwyer, British Labour Party, Cabinet Room, Canada, Canberra, Cape Town, Christianity, Churchill House, David Combe, Deborah Snow, Defence Department, Deniliquin, Denmark, Development issues, Development News Digest, Don Giles, Don Grimes, Education, Election campaign 1977, Election campaign 1983, Election campaigns, Factions, Family background, Feminism, French, Nuclear Tests, Gender issues, Geoff Evans, George Megalogenis, Germaine Greer, Glenda Johnson, Gough Whitlam, Graham Richardson, Health Ministry, Heather O’Connor, Hobart, Hostels, Hotel Acton, Hungary, International Women’s Conference, Mexico 1975, International Year of Women 1975, Ivanov Affair, Jill Whan, John Button, John Curtin House, John Dawkins, John Kerin, John Singleton, Journalists, Ken Bennett, Kent (UK), Kerry Sibraa, Laurie Oakes, Leningrad, Maidstone (UK), Malta, Margaret Connelly, Margaret Wilson, Marriage, Medicare, Michael Wooldridge, Michelle Grattan, Mick Young, Migration, Moscow, National Executive (ALP), National Organiser (ALP), National Secretariat (ALP), Neal Blewett, New Parliament House, New Zealand, New Zealand Labour Party, Nissen huts, Patricia Hewitt, Peter Staples, Peter Walsh, Preselection, Press Gallery, Provisional Parliament House, Question Time, Rosemary Crowley, Russia, Secretaries, Senior private secretaries, Shorthand, Socialist International, South Africa, SS Canberra (ship), St. Ives (Sydney), Stenographers, Susan Ryan, Sweden, Tahiti, Tahitian Socialist Party, Technology, Vietnam protest movement, Weston Creek, Willy Brandt, Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL), World University Service Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House 18 King George Terrace, Parkes, ACT 2600, Australia Manuka ACT 2603 Open daily 9am—5pm Enquiries: info@moadoph.gov.au If the museum is closed due to an emergency, call for new opening times: 1800 716 066 Zine lounge Objects and rooms Onsite schools programs Exploring democracy Documenting a democracy Defining democracy Australian democracy View our recruitment opportunities. View our copyright policy. View our privacy statement. View our ticketing terms and conditions. Questions about the website: website@moadoph.gov.au Old Parliament House is a Corporate Commonwealth Entity within the Communications and the Arts portfolio.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1688
__label__cc	0.721446	0.278554	The Evolutionary Biological Implications of Human Genetic Engineering R. Powell Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 37 (3):204-225 (2012) DOI 10.1093/jmp/jhq004 academic.oup.com (no proxy) The Future of Human Nature.Jurgen Habermas - 2004 - Philosophy 79 (309):483-486. Enhancement and the Ethics of Development.Allen Buchanan - 2008 - Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 18 (1):pp. 1-34. The History and Geography of Human Genes.L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paoli Menozzi, Alberto Piazza & C. Stephen Downes - 1996 - Bioessays 18 (1):84-85. The Difference Between Selection and Drift: A Reply to Millstein. [REVIEW]Robert N. Brandon - 2005 - Biology and Philosophy 20 (1):153-170. The Principle of Drift: Biology’s First Law.Robert N. Brandon - 2006 - Journal of Philosophy 103 (7):319-335. View all 13 references / Add more references Enhancing the Species: Genetic Engineering Technologies and Human Persistence.Chris Gyngell - 2012 - Philosophy and Technology 25 (4):495-512. An Empirically Informed Critique of Habermas’ Argument From Human Nature.Nicolae Morar - 2014 - Science and Engineering Ethics 21 (1):95-113. Why Should We Become Posthuman? The Beneficence Argument Questioned.Andrés Pablo Vaccari - 2019 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 44 (2):192-219. Evolution, Genetic Engineering, and Human Enhancement.Russell Powell, Guy Kahane & Julian Savulescu - 2012 - Philosophy and Technology 25 (4):439-458. The Future of Human Evolution.Russell Powell - 2012 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 63 (1):145-175. The Evolutionary Biological Implications of Human Genetic Engineering.Russell Powell - 2012 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 37 (1):22. Towards Evolvable Hardware the Evolutionary Engineering Approach.Eduardo Sanchez & Marco Tomassini - 1996 Enhancing Human Rights: How the Use of Human Rights Treaties to Prohibit Genetic Engineering Weakens Human Rights.Martin Gunderson - 2008 - Journal of Evolution and Technology 18 (1):27-34. What is Human: Considerations of a Genetic Definition of Human Beings.Terri Lynn Peterson - 2000 - Dissertation, University of Minnesota In Genes We Trust: Germline Engineering, Eugenics, and the Future of the Human Genome.Russell Powell - 2015 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 40 (6):669-695. Seeking Perfection: A Kantian Look at Human Genetic Engineering.Martin Gunderson - 2007 - Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics 28 (2):87-102. Selecting Children: The Ethics of Reproductive Genetic Engineering.S. Matthew Liao - 2008 - Philosophy Compass 3 (5):973-991. Genetic Engineering and the Autonomous Individual: Shyli Karin-Frank.Shyli Karin-Frank - 1987 - Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 22:213-229. The Scientific, Ethical and Political Aspects of Human Genetic Engineering.Patricia Ullman - 1986 - Dissertation, Purdue University Biological Views Of The Inexistence Of Human Races.Silviene Oliveira & Luzitano Ferreira - 2004 - Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics 14 (2):60-63. EVOLUTIONARY RISK OF HIGH HUME TECHNOLOGIES. Article 3. EVOLUTIONARY SEMANTICS AND BIOETHICS.V. T. Cheshko, L. V. Ivanitskaya & V. I. Glazko - 2016 - Integrative Annthropology (1):21-27. Biocentrism and Genetic Engineering.Andrew Dobson - 1995 - Environmental Values 4 (3):227-239. Splicing Life a Report on the Social and Ethical Issues of Genetic Engineering with Human Beings.United States - 1982 - President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Catholicism, the Human Form, and Genetic Engineering.James J. Delaney - 2010 - Proceedings of the American Catholic Philosophical Association 84:75-87.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1691
__label__wiki	0.957633	0.957633	You Can’t Put a Hashtag on Success: The Battle to Be Atlanta’s Hottest Dance by David Turner A six-second video can change one’s life. In 2013, Vine, the social media app, helped propel the minor California hits "Red Nose" and "Gas Pedal" by Sage the Gemini and "My Nigga" by YG into the Hot 100 as brief video views drove massive YouTube plays that led to radio play. On the other side of the country in Atlanta, Vine helped push a dance called the Nae Nae that not only shook up music from the city, but how artists take control of that music, and built on each others' momentum. The Nae Nae, a dance that involves jumping out with bended knees and waving one’s hand in the air, was created by a group of dancers called We Are Toonz—Tavin "Levi" Bing-Gardner, Kavin "K.B." Bing-Gardner, Calvin Lamar "Callamar" Glass and Christopher "Crash Bandit"—along with other performers that would create their own group FamousToMost. The dance gained popularity on Vine and Instagram where it would be matched with tracks like Young Thug’s "Stoner". "When we seen all of the social media going off on the Nae Nae, we had to make a song to take control and really let people know who made this," said Crash Bandit, observing the opportunity for success presented in front of them. "Drop That Nae Nae", their own song dedicated to the dance, put an official We Are Toonz stamp on the moment, as people uploaded videos featuring their music instead of another artist. "The Nae Nae was dying down and [FamousToMost] wanted to hit the fans with another dance craze. [Hasani] was doing this rock side to side, and I was like ‘Put your hand straight out like a steering wheel’," said FamousTo Most’s Pervis "PJ" Reynolds of the Nae Nae’s follow-up, the Whip Dance. The Nae Nae took off for We Are Toonz and even landed them a Coca-Cola commercial, so FamousToMost—PJ, Hasani Buchanan, Jalen "Bear" Ware and DeAndre "King Rari" Johnson—wanted to have a dance that was entirely their own. By the end of 2014 the Whip Dance reached into the NFL red zone celebrations, and the group was ready to push their song "#Whip". The YouTube title of the song even reads "‘#Whip’ Official Song for #WHIPDANCE", just to make sure there wasn’t any debate over who was to be credited. The rush for music to accompany the dance not only spoke to the groups’ efforts to retain spotlight, but also provided a way to distinguish themselves against up-and-comers ready to hop on this hashtag to success. In his video for "Nae Nae (Hold Up, Show Nuff)", the rapper TheyCallMeN8, who wasn’t affiliated with either We Are Toonz or FamousToMost, made sure to include a disclaimer that read: The Dance #NaeNae was created by the Atlanta bound group @Wearetoonz (NZ). TheyCallMeN8’s song ‘Hold Up Show Nuff’ was inspired by this dance. With that being said, turn up!!!!!!!!!!!! #clubillionaire. A song can reach millions of people in record time in 2015, and Silento’s "Watch Me" is proof—it was recorded in late December and hit the Hot 100 the first week of March. Though he does do his own dancing, "Watch Me", with its references to the Nae Nae, the Whip Dance and even a throwback to the "The Stanky Leg", is him innovating on others’ material. But his brief melodic mentions of these dance moves in the song appear as readymade Vine phrases perfect to be endlessly looped. Still just in high school, once Silento saw rising interest in his song he removed all his old music from the Internet to focus on the success of "Watch Me". "My main thing right now is to get everyone listening to my song," he said. He hopes to release more music eventually, but for now he’s a single song artist who saw an opportunity and took it. Once the views started to add up these artists knew a dance wasn’t enough to sustain real success; dances are ephemeral, and as we have seen, constantly mutating. The speed with which a dance can travel through social media can easily divorce it from its original creators before they ever have a chance to benefit from it, materially or otherwise. But even if a dance is properly credited and they have a song to pair with it, another artist with a more meme-able song can pave over the buzz they created and build something bigger, more quickly. Social media provided a rare moment in the spotlight, but what gave it to them can replace them with a fresher set of faces. Sage the Gemini FamousToMost Silento	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1699
__label__cc	0.548175	0.451825	Yes, There Is a Slippery Slope on Gay Marriage By La Shawn Barber 2009-06-04T03:14:57 People may scoff at such concerns and dismiss the slope. Not long ago, the very idea of marriage between two men seemed just as ludicrous and unlikely. Times have changed, as the court noted. It extended the right to marry to two people of the same sex, but expressly excluded polygamous and incestuous relationships: We emphasize that our conclusion that the constitutional right to marry properly must be interpreted to apply to gay individuals and gay couples does not mean that this constitutional right similarly must be understood to extend to polygamous or incestuous relationships. On what grounds? The court stated that its past "judicial decisions explain why our nation's culture has considered [polygamous or incestuous relationships] inimical to the mutually supportive and healthy family relationships promoted by the constitutional right to marry." Hasn't our nation's culture considered homosexual relationships in the past also to be "inimical to the mutually supportive and healthy family relationships promoted by the constitutional right to marry"? What's changed? Although the historic disparagement of and discrimination against gay individuals and gay couples clearly is no longer constitutionally permissible, the state continues to have a strong and adequate justification for refusing to officially sanction polygamous or incestuous relationships because of their potentially detrimental effect on a sound family environment. So a heterosexual marriage between two closely related individuals is "potentially detrimental" to a family, but marriage between two men is not? In what way? Why should marriage be limited to only two people? Once the "a man and a woman" limitation is done away with, how could a state prevent three people from marrying? What about the bisexual who wants to be married to a man and a woman or the NAMBLA freak who wants to marry a "consenting" minor? Isn't denying them "marriage" discrimination, an equal protection violation? The state's highest court affirmed a strict scrutiny standard for sexual orientation. Should you decide to sleep with someone of the same sex, face discrimination because of it, and sue in California, a court will consider your sex life equivalent to skin color! If a court can conclude that sexual orientation is a suspect classification, why can't it conclude the same about incestuous relationships? Dismiss it, if you must. Be offended, if you choose. Send hate mail, if you're inclined. But allowing two people of the same sex to declare themselves "married" renders the whole institution meaningless and opens the door to legally recognizing other "inimical" relationships. Perhaps 10 years from now, those cases will make headlines. https://pjmedia.com/blog/yes-there-is-a-slippery-slope-on-gay-marriage/	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1700
__label__wiki	0.561008	0.561008	Syrian musician Omar Souleyman's new album, To Syria, With Love, is set for release June 2 via Mad Decent. The follow up to 2015's Bahdeni Nami marks Souleyman's third full-length studio record. In support of the new release, Souleyman will tour the U.S. in May, playing select dates including New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Salt Lake City as well as festival performances at Form Arcosanti in Arizona and MoogFest in North Carolina. To Syria, With Love is a departure musically and lyrically from his previous material, with focus on more elaborate keyboard and techno elements. Completely setting politics aside, Souleyman consciously shares this personal ode to his native country with an emphasis on his emotional connection to the land and people but not without heartache in view of the nation's current state. "It's been six years I've been away, and I'm tired of looking for home and asking about my loved ones. My soul is wounded and it's like having dust in my eyes," Souleyman says. Label: MAD DECENT Genre: Reggae/World To Syria, With Love Artist: Omar Souleyman 1. Ya Boul Habari 2. Ya Bnayya 3. Es Samra 4. Aenta Lhabbeytak 5. Khayen 6. Mawal 7. Chobi	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1701
__label__wiki	0.831865	0.831865	Home > Corporate > The History of PM Training 1982: Project Management Training begins Project Management Training is set-up by local businessman, Sean Canavan. After working abroad for a number of years, in shipbuilding and off shore construction, Sean was inspired to create an organisation which ran training programmes based on the German apprenticeship model combining on the job and classroom learning. 1986: The National Garden Festival The National Garden Festival in Stoke-on-Trent is opened by the Queen in 1986. Involved in the setting up of the festival, Sean and his two children, Daniel and Nina, work on the souvenir shop and oatcake stand throughout the five-month celebration. Today, the site is known as Festival Park. 1988: Sir Stanley Matthews visits Project Management Training Stoke City legend Sir Stanley Matthews pays the apprentices at Project Management Training a visit. Over the next few years, he becomes a regular friend to the staff and learners, visiting frequently and posing for photos. 1989: First IT class at Project Management Training The first ever IT class at Project Management Training takes place in 1989. Since then, the company has seen more and more learners develop skills in the constantly evolving technology with IT apprenticeships at an all-time high. 1996: Homeworks launches A snap decision to get son, Daniel to respond to a radio appeal to help tidy an elderly tenant’s overgrown garden in Bentilee, led to the property maintenance division, Homeworks being created. Offering pre-employment work experience, 250 young people work on real projects every year. 2005: Create the ‘Swans’ at Trentham Gardens The coming in to land sculpture is unveiled at Trentham Gardens. PM Training’s first commission was the creation of five life-size steel swans, each with a wingspan of six feet. Used as part of an introduction to engineering, a number of apprentices were involved in the making of the sculpture. 2007: 25th anniversary of Project Management Training In 2007, Project Management Training celebrated its 25th anniversary. During the quarter of a century, more than 500 training places were delivered in North Staffordshire each year, 170 placements were arranged at companies including JCB and Trentham Leisure, and more than 5,000 young people were put into work. 2008: Project Management Training joins Aspire Housing Project Management Training joins Aspire Housing and becomes PM Training. Will Nixon becomes the new chief executive, while Sean Canavan retires after handing over the reigns. Aspire plans to expand PM Training’s reach across Newcastle-under-Lyme to ensure positive progression for young people across the whole of North Staffordshire. 2010: PM Training reaches 10,000th learner Celebrations were in full swing as Jess Wakefield was crowned PM Training’s 10,000th learner. The 17-year-old from Cross Heath, who embarked on a painting and decorating apprenticeship, was presented with an annual pass to WaterWorld by Mo Chaudry to mark her achievement. 2010: PM Training’s Jak Forester wins Apprentice of the Year PM Training engineering apprentice, Jak Forester, comes top of his category in the West Midlands Apprenticeship Award 2010. The sculptor and metalworker receives his award at a ceremony hosted by television presenter Suzanne Virdee in Birmingham. 2011: PM Training praised by Ofsted PM Training achieves a positive Ofsted report – assessed as ‘good’ overall, 90% of the company’s functions are rated either ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’. Ofsted inspector, Derek Spragg, said: “Practical training starts straight away and learners are well prepared for each stage. Support for learners by PM staff is outstanding.” 2011: PM Training opens new centre The Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Cllr Trevor Hambleton, officially opens PM Training’s new £500,000 centre at Brick Kiln Lane, Chesterton, on 8 December 2011. The centre features workshops, training areas, classrooms and offices and helps young people learn essential skills for the housing and construction sectors. 2013: Creates ‘The Hand of Recycling’ sculpture The steel sculpture resides on the Botteslow Street roundabout in Hanley, measuring two metres high. The project started as a way of both recycling scrap metal and giving learners a real-life taste of metal working. Over 18 months, every learner who came to Artworks added to the piece. 2014: Vince Cable visits PM Training Business Secretary Vince Cable visits PM Training to see young apprentices in action. Dr Cable said: “This is a brilliant institution. Unlike a lot of training organisations, it takes the young people who would otherwise be lost and helps get them ready for work and ready for apprenticeships.” 2014: PM Training win Social Enterprise UK award PM Training are honoured during a ceremony at LSO St Luke’s in central London, hosted by Social Enterprise UK. Recognising the achievements of social enterprises and supporters in 11 categories, the company won the Education, Training & Jobs Social Enterprise category, for providing work opportunities to 16-18 year olds. 2015: Sean Canavan receives Lifetime Achievement award Sean receives a Lifetime Achievement award from The Sentinel for his pioneering work across Staffordshire. Through the creation of PM Training in 1982, Sean has helped 11,000 young people into employment and created a legacy that continues to support employers and school leavers to this day. 2016: PM Training opens new gas and plumbing centre PM Training opens a new £100,000 on-site plumbing and heating centre in 2016. Launched to help fill the skills shortage in the construction industry, the centre boasts practical work areas and class rooms to deliver gas and plumbing apprenticeships to up to 32 young people at a time. 2016: Andy Wilkinson becomes PM Training ambassador Former Stoke City defender, Andy Wilkinson, is revealed as an ambassador of PM Training. He said: “The work they do here is brilliant. I was honoured to be asked to be ambassador and I believe if you work hard enough you can achieve anything. Hopefully I’m proof of that.” 2016: Creates ‘The Buzzard’ sculpture The 12ft steel buzzard sculpture, commissioned by the borough council was created by internationally renowned sculptor Andy Edwards and PM Training’s Artworks team. Installed on the Midway Roundabout on the A34 in Newcastle, apprentices helped to create the ground-breaking piece in under six weeks. 2016: PM Training becomes the place to go for apprenticeships For more than 30 years, PM Training has helped to train over 25,000 apprentices, doubled its workforce to a team of 120 dedicated employees – including around 30 NVQ assessors, and developed relationships with 1,000 businesses, making the company the largest provider of apprenticeships in North Staffordshire. 2016: PM Training raise £3,000 in memory of Sean Sean Canavan sadly died aged 69 in March 2016. Friends, family and former colleagues scale Ben Nevis to raise £3,000 in his memory. The group of climbers, including Sean’s son Daniel, present the proceeds to the Blurton Douglas Macmillan hospice on what would have been his 70th birthday. 2016: PM Training’s Lianne Birch-Barnett awarded BALI Best Student PM Training’s Lianne Birch-Barnett is presented with the national BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries) Best Student 2016 award for her dedication and amazing work at Carmountside crematorium in Stoke-on-Trent. The award came just as Lianne had completed her Level 2 NVQ in horticulture. 2017: The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Promoting Opportunity The we are aspire group receives the highest accolade, a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2017. The ‘Promoting Opportunity’ category is the first of its kind and Aspire Housing, PM Training and the Realise charity have all played their part in helping people to find homes and employment across Staffordshire. 2017: PM Training HQ renamed the Canavan Centre PM Training’s HQ becomes the Canavan Centre in honour of the pioneering mentor and businessman who set it up 35 years ago – Sean Canavan. Based on Sean’s signature, the sign is a fitting tribute to the man who helped 11,000 young people into employment. Find out more about PM Training	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1705
__label__wiki	0.601141	0.601141	Lawrence Titimur - 00:31:18 Lawrence Titimur Lawrence Titimur discusses the impact of the Matanguan Association. He describes the changes in PNG after self government. John Kaputin Matanguan self government Lawrence Titimur outlines his early schooling on Matupit Island and his father's involvement in politics. He describes how he moved school to Kamarere primary in Rabaul, a multi-racial school. Epineri Titimur Kamarere primary school Matupit Island Josephine Abaijah - 00:24:17 Josephine Abaijah Josephine Abaijah discusses her campaigning, and the reaction of Australians counting the votes who made a declaration in other seats but did several recounts because they could not believe a woman had won the seat even though she had a big margin. Josephine Abaijah states that she did not have contact at this time with others working for independence, but she recognised the needs of the people in rural areas who encouraged her to stand. She recalls that she thought she had no chance of being elected as a lot of women had stood but never been elected. She recalls that when she stood for Central Province she had no money for campaigning.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1706
__label__cc	0.656075	0.343925	Posts Tagged ‘agents provocateurs’ End of the Green Party US? Posted: February 19, 2017 in Joe Giambrone Tags: agents provocateurs, anarchists, Black Bloc, Green Party structures, gullibility, mocerators, property destruction, subversion, violence A real eye-opener over at a GP Facebook page. Anarchists are running the show despite a “key value” about “nonviolence.” You can demonstrate their incitement to violence against humans, with just a few well-chosen words. But, in wishy-washy hand-wringing style that’s okay there. It’s all okay. Now the Green Party itself is most certainly not okay. Anarchists are not Greens The Green page moderators lack judgment and awareness. The anti-Trump inauguration protests were reduced to these images of Black bloc assholes smashing things, all other messages drowned out and cut. That is what America saw, and it’s a good thing the Woman’s March happened the day after to reset the script and displace the negative Blitzkrieg. Greens, by associating themselves with those people are ensuring their defeat, demonization, and potentially even political repression as the nation lurches in a more fascistic direction. Anarchists espousing violence cannot be assimilated or tolerated. They are infiltrating the Party, and many have been paid agents provocateurs. If you’re going to do politics, especially in America, you need to know this and act on it swiftly. This is how you are discredited and defeated: I’m seriously about to quit the Greens altogether. Too clueless, too useless. -JG The FBI’s Undercover Scumbags Tags: agents, agents provocateurs, al qaeda, assets, domestic, fake, fbi, informents, manufactured, plots, synthetic, terrorism, threat, undercover, US Rapists, murderers, drug traffickers, terrorists: Welcome to the FBI’s undercover asset program. How much tax money can we pay you? Al Jazeera: Informants Odessa Bloodbath More Evidence Posted: May 15, 2014 in - Tags: agents provocateurs, conspiracy, crimes against humanity, criminals, false flag, fascist, government, Maidan, mass murder, massacre, Neo-Nazi, Odessa, provocation, Right Sector, Ukraine, Ultras, Union Hall, war crimes Bloodbath in Odessa Guided by Interim Rulers of Ukraine Ten days before the tragedy a secret meeting was held in Kiev, chaired by the incumbent president Olexander Turchinov, to prepare a special operation in Odessa. Present were minister of internal affairs Arsen Avakov, the head of the Ukrainian Security Service Valentin Nalivaychenko, and the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Andriy Parubiy. Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoiskiy, the Kiev-appointed head of regional administration of the Dnepropetrovsk region, was consulted in regard to the operation. Odessa Massacre Planned in Kiev Tags: agents provocateurs, atrocities, coup, Kiev, mass murder, massacre, Odessa, plan, planning, prosecutor, regime, revelations, Russia, strategy, Ukraine, war crimes Officer Apparently Instructing Odessa Agents Provocateurs [The Kiev coup regime strategy was apparently to use agents to instigate violence so that right-wing mobs will do the dirty work of attacking anti-Maidan protesters. This would avoid the direct use of the military against the protesters, thus not triggering a Russian response. ] Odessa Tragedy Planned by Authorities’ Representatives – Kiev Official KIEV, May 7 (RIA Novosti) – Last Friday’s massacre in Ukraine’s Odessa that left more than 40 people dead was a well-coordinated and planned operation with the participation of representatives of the authorities in Kiev, Ukraine’s acting Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitsky said Wednesday. “This action was not prepared at some internal level, it was a well-planned and coordinated action in which some authorities’ representatives have taken part,” Makhnitsky said. Makhnitsky promised to reveal the names of those who took part in the tragedy that occurred in Odessa. FBI HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN 17 TERROR NON-EVENTS Posted: April 21, 2013 in - Tags: agents provocateurs, entrapment, false flag, fbi, Muslim, provocateurs, setups, sting, target, terror, terrorism, video, Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5LDw7ppLK7w FBI Interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 Tags: agents provocateurs, bombers, boston bombing, Chechens, contact, control, fbi, stings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, terrorism, Tony Cartalucci, Wall Street Journal, Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva Wall Street Journal reports prior contact by FBI with the older brother suspected of setting off bombs at the 2013 Boston Marathon. Boston Bombing Suspects Were on FBI Radar for Years By Tony Cartalucci Why is the FBI admitting this? Because the interview was “at the request of the Russian government” and therefore known to outside parties: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed suspected marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of the Russian government, but didn’t find evidence of suspicious activity and closed the case, an FBI official said Friday.” If this plot wasn’t thickening up enough yet, now we have notifications by the Russian government to consider and inquire about. What did the Russians tell US intelligence? Why were they so interested in Tamerlan Tsarnaev that they would request FBI assistance? We know the two bombing suspect’s mother claims that FBI was in repeated contact with both her and had monitored the two sons for five or six years — directly contradicting the Wall Street Journal’s reported FBI statement that they “closed the case” implying that was the end of it: “Zubeidat K. Tsarnaeva, the mother of Boston bombing suspects Dzhokar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev … ”He was controlled by the FBI for five years,” she said.”They knew what my son was doing, they knew what sites on the Internet he was going [to], they used to come…and talk to me…they were telling me that he was a serious leader and they were afraid of him.” “They were talking to my son, and they called me officially and they told me that my son is an excellent boy and they have no problem with him,” she added. “At the same time, they were telling me that…he is getting information on really extremists…sites, so they were very, very afraid of him. So that’s why I think that this is a setup.” The history of FBI sting operations in terrorism cases snice the 9/11 attacks shows that in every single “foiled plot” there was FBI infiltration and the use of agents provocateurs to “control” the perpetrators and to monitor their activities and prompt them to take violent actions. That is not an aberration, but what the FBI does, routinely, as revealed at multiple trials. Is this the case of the plot that was for some reason not “foiled?” Agents Provocateurs: Police State Canada (2010) Posted: July 7, 2010 in Joe Giambrone Tags: agents provocateurs, G-20, G20, G8, Genoa, police brutality, Seattle, state sponsored terrorism, Toronto, violence “Provocation and police terror at the G20 summit in Toronto” “Ignorance is Strength” (Your) ignorance is (their) strength. Such is modern propaganda. Those looking at the ten second news blurbs of the protests in Toronto this week miss the story entirely. That would be most people, who are the targets of this staged propaganda. With dramatic footage of burning police cars, most people are comfortably ignorant and don’t bother to inquire as to the basic facts: Why were police cars abandoned for hours in the middle of the street? Who set them on fire? Why didn’t any of the thousands upon thousands of battle dressed cops stop the people from lighting them on fire? Why didn’t anyone call the fire department? Why were non-violent political demonstrators targeted for brutalization and arrest immediately after this event? This is an old scenario, a tired and repeated scenario. In 2007, three Canadian police officers were caught red-handed dressed up as “black block anarchists” holding rocks, and about to attempt to cause a riot. These agents provocateurs were taken away, and never charged or heard from again, despite the Quebec police admitting that they were indeed working for the police. Did you catch that? The Canadian authorities admitted in 2007 that they used undercover agents provocateurs who were attempting to cause a riot — state sponsored terror against peaceful political demonstrators. In a sane world, that would be big news, covered by all media until those responsible were brought down and charged with crimes. In a sane world. Agents provocateurs are a standard ingredient and they appear at all the major international economic summits. They have been spotted at Seattle in 1999 when rows of police stood by and did not intervene as supposed “black block anarchists” smashed a bunch of windows, thereby ushering in the crackdown against the large peaceful demonstrations, exactly as was done again this week in Toronto. Agents provocateurs have been spotted in Genoa in 2001 and in Greece, as well as a number of other incidents around the world. Also spotted at these major summits is the excessive police violence against demonstrators and violations of their civil liberties. As this practice has been admitted to by the Canadian government, we must ask what exactly happened this week in Toronto and who is responsible? The use of agents provocateurs is a direct attack on the people, an attack on one’s own population. It is highly dangerous and it corrupts the police force with brainwashing techniques designed to foster an “us vs. them” mentality. These police state measures, while effective, are immoral and one would hope patently illegal. Civil liberties are still supposed to carry some weight and the force of law. State terrorism against those who exercise the right of free speech should be punishable by long jail terms. Abuses of trust and power of this magnitude cannot go unchallenged, even if the corporate news whores refuse to cover the issue. DVD: “Z” Agents provocateurs are not a new phenomenon. A poignant film from 1969 entitled Z shows a plausible scenario where they are used in Paris, but their assault backfires. It’s a tense political drama, and worth a look.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1708
__label__cc	0.657931	0.342069	Center for Problem-Oriented Policing POP Center Problems Misuse and Abuse of 911 Page 1 Order Bound Copy Download PDF Guide The Problem of Misuse and Abuse of 911 Understanding Your Local Problem Responses to the Misuse and Abuse of 911 Related POP Projects Misuse and Abuse of 911 Guide No.19 (2002) by Rana Sampson PDF Guide This guide addresses the problem of misuse and abuse of 911. It begins by describing the problem and its scope. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem, and discusses potential responses to it. The equivalent U.K. emergency number is 999. There is little evaluative research on 911 misuse and abuse. The responses suggested are based on sound problem oriented policing principles, but as new phone technology poses additional challenges, some responses have yet to be tested. Thus, this guide is mainly intended to describe an urgent problem and encourage police agencies to analyze and address it. Misuse and abuse of 911 shares some similarities with the problems listed below, which require their own analysis and response. This guide does not address these problems: multiple 911 calls about the same incident, such as multiple calls about a traffic accident; and false burglar and fire alarm 911 calls (see the False Burglar Alarms guide in this series). Scope of the Problem For the purposes of this guide, 911 misuse and abuse is divided into two categories: unintentional and intentional calls. Each category contains different types of 911 misuse and abuse calls, as described below. While there are no national surveys detailing the full extent of 911 misuse and abuse, estimates from various organizations and agencies suggest the problem is widespread in the United States and elsewhere. Some of the particulars regarding the calls may vary depending on local circumstances. One reason for using these categories is that some police agencies already do so in classifying 911 misuse and abuse calls. A second reason is that it immediately identifies the purpose for the call; however, one must look further to determine if calls are a misuse or abuse of 911. Unintentional 911 Calls Unintentional calls occur when a person or phone inadvertently dials 911. This category includes phantom wireless calls, and misdials and hang-up calls. Phantom Wireless 911 Calls Phantom wireless calls are a documented problem in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, although other countries where wireless phones are extensively used probably also experience this problem since wireless systems are similar, despite location. Such calls occur for the following reasons: Automatic dialing: If a cell phone user inadvertently presses the 9 or 1 key on a phone preprogrammed to dial 911, the phone automatically dials 911, even without the user having to press "send." This often happens when a wireless phone is attached to a belt or in a pocket or purse, and the 9 or 1 is bumped. Most wireless users are unaware that their phones are preprogrammed to dial 911 and retail salespersons do not inform purchasers that their phones are susceptible to unintentional 911 dialing. Redialing or resending: If, after completing a 911 call, a wireless caller accidentally presses or bumps the "redial" or "send" key, the phone dials 911 again. (Note that landline users may also accidentally redial 911 this way.) Random dialing: Some older wireless phones dial 911 when the phone's batteries are low. When their batteries are low, some phones start randomly dialing numbers, eventually dialing 911. The call goes through without pressing the "send" button. The National Emergency Number Association reports that phantom wireless calls account for between 25 and 70 percent of all 911 calls in some U.S. communities. The California Highway Patrol (currently the handler of nearly all California wireless 911 calls) estimates that between 1.8 million and 3.6 million of the 6 million wireless 911 calls it receives annually are phantom. U.K. police estimate they receive 11,000 phantom wireless calls per day to their 999 emergency number. The wide data variations highlight the need for further research to pinpoint the scale of the problem. However, the problem is already serious enough to suggest that ignoring it could have severe ramifications for police and legitimate 911 callers. Of all the 911 misuse and abuse problems this guide addresses, phantom wireless calls will show the quickest increase, unless addressed. The U.S. 911 system handles 500,000 calls daily, or about 183 million annually.1 One in four calls are from wireless phones, a tenfold increase since 1991.2 In the next five years, the number of wireless 911 calls is expected to double from the current 46 million per year3 to 92 million annually, potentially exacerbating an already significant phantom call problem. As wireless carriers move into Enhanced 911, Phase II, 911 centers will be able to locate wireless callers. However, since so many wireless 911 calls are unintentional, implementing Phase II will be a less important lifesaving measure than addressing the current problem of phantom calls, since they prolong the time it takes for dispatchers to respond to other calls. 911 Misdials and Hang-Up Calls Misdials and hang-up calls are another 911 problem. Police suspect that many of these calls occur when callers misdial area codes similar to 911. Others result from misdialing of the international access number011. In addition, business Centrex and fax users sometimes dial 9 to get an outside line, when their phone systems do not require doing so, if the caller then dials a number starting with 1 and depresses 1 again by accident, the system dials 911 (thus 911 operators sometimes hear fax static on the line). In 2000, the Pinellas County, Florida, Emergency Communications Center received 20,646 misdials, accounting for 4 percent of all its 911 calls.In Loves Park, Illinois, 3 percent of the 911 calls received in 2000 resulted from area code, international access number and Centrex misdials. Such area codes include those for Wilmington, N.C. (910); Savannah, Ga. (912); Kansas City, Kan. (913); Westchester County, N.Y. (914); El Paso, Texas (915); Sacramento, Calif. (916); some parts of New York City (917); Tulsa, Okla. (918); and Raleigh, N.C. (919). The Pinellas County 911 coordinator collects data on all 911 calls and tracks year-to-year increases in different types of calls, such as misdials and hang-ups. It is suspected that many misdials end up as hang-up calls, once the callers realize their mistake. Agencies that have examined hang-up calls report that a majority are due to caller misdialing (rather than prank calls or hang-ups for other reasons). Many agencies instruct citizens not to hang up if they misdial 911. If a caller hangs up, many agencies conduct callbacks or dispatch officers to determine if a police or medical emergency exists. The number of 911 wireless misdials and hang-ups is impossible to pin down without caller ID, which would allow for callbacks to determine the cause. However, without significant improvements, wireless caller location information will tax the resources of many 911 centers, unless the phantom call problem is resolved. Intentional 911 Calls Callers sometimes deliberately, but inappropriately, dial 911. Such intentional calls fall under several distinct categories. Nonemergency 911 Calls Nonemergency calls often constitute a large portion of all 911 calls. Callers sometimes phone about an incidentalbeit not an emergencythat requires police attention (e.g., the caller's car was broken into the previous night, or the caller has been involved in a noninjury vehicle accident). Others call 911 to ask about non-police-related matters (e.g., the time of a football game, the directions to a local event, the exact time of day, or the time of garbage pick-ups). In addition, because wireless carriers do not charge for 911 calls, cell phone users sometimes call 911 and ask the dispatcher to transfer their call to a non-police number, to avoid paying for it. At least one police agency found that it was their own off-duty personnel who abused 911 in this way. For example, in 2000, 40 percent of the 911 calls in Jefferson County, Ky., were nonemergencies (Tangonan 2000). In Floyd County, Ind., nearly half the monthly 911 calls are nonemergencies (Tangonan 2000). In 2001, the San Diego Sheriff's Department reported that more than half of its 911 calls were frivolous (Ma 2001). Prank 911 Calls People sometimes call 911 to falsely claim an emergency or to deliberately hang up. Most agencies do not keep separate totals on the number of prank calls, so it is unclear how significant a problem this is in the United States. Some of these calls are referred to, in policing circles, as children "playing on the phone." These calls generally come from private homes or pay phonesparticularly pay phones easily accessible to teens and children (such as in or near malls, bowling alleys, or schools). In some of the more extreme cases, students falsely claim to have planted a bomb in a school. Doing so is a quick way to anonymously force the immediate evacuation of the school and cessation of classes. Some students use this tactic to avoid and postpone an academic test for which they are unprepared. For some of the same reasons, students sometimes pull school fire alarms. A subcategory of prank calls is diversionary calls. A caller dials 911 to send the police to a location where no emergency has occurred, diverting them away from the caller's criminal activity. During the 1990s, when open-air drug markets were at a peak in the United States, officers frequently noted such calls and their suspicions that drug dealers were behind them. There are only a few ways to determine if a call is diversionary: if the caller admits it; if someone informs on the caller; or if the dispatcher or police compare the caller's location with that of the alleged emergency, to determine if the caller could plausibly claim an emergency at the called in location. The difference between "playing on the phone" calls and diversionary calls lies in the motives behind them. Those who "play on the phone" (but do not immediately hang up) typically want to see the police respond, so they are unlikely to send the police to an area not visible to them. Diversionary callers want the opposite result. (Examples of police responses to both types of calls are provided later in this guide.) Exaggerated Emergency 911 Calls Sometimes 911 callers intentionally exaggerate the seriousness of an emergency to get a quicker police response (although it is unclear how extensive this problem is). For example, a caller may falsely report "shots fired" when calling about a dispute or assault. Such 911 misuse is difficult to prove because the caller might simply claim, for instance, that he or she heard shots but did not actually see a gun fired. In other words, the caller knows there is enough room for "caller error" that he or she cannot be charged (or prosecuted) for the exaggerated 911 call. Lonely Complainant 911 Calls Some 911 callers, over a series of months or years, repeatedly report an emergency, yet the police never find any evidence of one. The calls are not pranks, and they do not neatly fit into the exaggerated emergency category. They are typically made by the live-alone elderly or mentally ill. Some callers suffer from delusions, actually believing an emergency is occurring; others are often simply seeking company, perhaps not realizing the public expense of their calls and the accident-injury risks involved in officers responding to high priority dispatch calls. The fact that these callers commonly claim an intruder is in their yard or house perhaps suggests a rational manipulation of 911 and of police services. Free Bound Copies of the Problem Guides You may order free bound copies in any of three ways: Online: Department of Justice COPS Response Center Email: askCopsRC@usdoj.gov Allow several days for delivery. Email sent. Thank you. Send an e-mail with a link to this guide. Error sending email. Please review your enteries below. Separate multiple addresses with commas (,) Note: (200 character limit; no HTML) Please limit your note to 200 characters. Contents & Links Responses to the Problem of Misuse and Abuse of 911	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1711
__label__cc	0.607312	0.392688	> Downloads>Download Sets>Animals Animals There are 12 products. Download - Set - Animals in Love If you're wondering what to do for Valentine's Day, look no further than this fantastic Animals in Love set, packed full of quirky images which are perfect for making cards to sell or to give to your loved one this year. Download - Set - Perfect Pets Regular customers will have noticed that we're big fans of the animal illustrator Cecil Aldin here at Printable Heaven. Cecil Aldin (1870 - 1935) was a British artist and illustrator who was known best for his beautiful animal paintings although he also he also produced sports paintings, village and rural scenes. Download - Set - Louis Wain and Quirky Cats - Prints and Notecards This set is bursting full of images of quirky and anthropomorphic cats, great for cat-lovers everywhere. There's bound to be something here that catches the eye of a feline fancier! Louis Wain was a prolific cat artist who produced hundreds of pictures for children's books and postcards. Download - Set - Louis Wain and Quirky Cats - Motifs and Pyramage This set is bursting full of images of quirky and anthropomorphic cats, great for making cards for cat-lovers everywhere. Whether you're making them for friends and family or for sale on your craft fair stall, shop or school fair, there's bound to be something here that catches the eye of a feline fancier! Download - Set - A Dozen Dogs or So - Backgrounds, Cards, Tags & Notecards This set features A4 backgrounds, pre-printed card blanks and notecards that co-ordinate with the entire 'A Dozen Dogs or So' range beautifully. The set also includes Happy Birthday inserts for A5, A6 and 7 x 5 card blanks that can be used with this set or with any card blanks that fit them. Download - Set - A Dozen Dogs or So - Motifs, Prints & Postcards This set of gorgeous dogs has been taken from the book of the same name, A Dozen Dogs or So, written by Patrick R. Chalmers and illustrated by Cecil Aldin. We've used all 13 doggy pictures from the book (it's a dozen or so, remember!) to make this lovely set which is bound to be a hit for dog-lovers everywhere. Download - Set - A Dozen Dogs or So - Pyramage This set of gorgeous dogs has been taken from the book of the same name, A Dozen Dogs or So, written by Patrick R. Chalmers and illustrated by Cecil Aldin. The set features 39 sheets including standard pyramage, large pyramage and diamond pyramage. Print the sheets onto good quality white card for the best results. Download - Set - Out of Africa This gorgeous set contains 39 sheets to download and print featuring lovely wild animal illustrations straight from an African safari! Cute monkeys, fluffy lion cubs, great zebra and towering giraffes are all featured here as well as some other fab animals. Download - Set - Whiskers & Wagtail Introducing Whiskers and Wagtail - a gorgeous ginger tom and cheeky, lovable dog! This set contains 30 sheets that even includes printable card blanks to enable you to make fabulous cards that everyone is bound to love. Not only are there motifs and pyramage in this set but there is also fantastic DECOUPAGE that can be used alone or with the larger images. Download - Set - Pets Parade This pets set is stuffed full of fantastic images of pets and domestic animals (including horses which aren't really pets as such!). The set contains 40 images which include pyramage, motifs and 6 matching background sheets. The motif sheets include a strip of background that can be used in conjunction with the full-size backgrounds or on their own. Download - Set - Oliver Herford's Cats Oliver Herford (1863-1935) was a British born (but American) humourist writer and illustrator who is well known for his poems and quotes as well as for his artwork for books and magazines.The images used in this set are from his book 'The Kitten's Garden of Verses' which was first published in 1911. The pictures are very subtle and interesting - mainly... Download - Set - Cecil Aldin's Dogs Cecil Aldin (1870-1935) was a British painter and illustrator, best known for his paintings of dogs and rural life.He did much advertising work and illustrated many posters for brands such as Bovril, Colman's Mustard and Cadbury. Royal Doulton used many Aldin drawings on their ceramics until 1939.This set contains Cecil Aldin works in two very different...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1715
__label__cc	0.621749	0.378251	Tag Archives: Security bill 2014 Media and Kenyan opposition are playing in the terrorists league Posted by Profarms in Analysis, Guest Forum, Opinion, Politics Al Shabaab, Security bill 2014, uncensored media The media were vital for Al-Qaeda. Before his death, Osama bin Laden was obsessed with the media and was at one point described as “a publicity hound” who had “caught the disease of screens, flashes, fans and applause”. His successor, the Egyptian Al-Zawahiri, was once quoted as saying that “more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media”. A FORM OF THEATRE How is Al-Shabaab using the media? First, it is important to understand that terrorism is a form of theatre and cannot exist without an audience. It is not the magnitude of an attack that counts; it is the resulting publicity. We must understand that when a few citizens are slaughtered, the attack is a form of communication to the wider Kenyan public and possibly beyond. In this sense, therefore, the media become a critical platform through which the massage of terrorism is communicated to the audience. These attacks are political texts purposely aimed at influencing public opinion and re-organisation of government and policy. The sacking of the Internal Security Cabinet Secretary and the exit of the police chief are evidence that the Kenyan state has heard the terrorists’ message. CHOREOGRAPHED ATTACKS Second, the clearest sign that terrorists are beginning to “mediatise” attacks is the aspect of contagion. The attack on the quarry workers, in which the victims were made to lie down in a line, then shot in the head was choreographed to fit within the media frame that had been set up by the attack on the Makkah Bus, which had gained wide coverage. Al shabaab made sure that the bodies were well arranged for maximum “CNN,BBC and Al Jazera” photo effect! Audiences were treated to photographs and videos of the dead, which was previously rare in the Kenyan media. These gave the terrorists publicity and helped to spread the fear that gripped the nation. Terrorists also hope to gain other goals such as recognition of the group and their demands and the possibility of gaining a quasi-legitimate status. When the opposition and civil society groups call press conferences to demand the withdrawal of Kenyan troops from Somalia, they are not only playing into the hands of terrorists, whose intention is to divide our national psyche, they inadvertently give recognition to Al-Shabaab by implying that the group has legitimate grievances against the Kenyan state. The media contribute to public discourse by appropriating and fixing labels on persons and events. Labels often imply a moral evaluation and also embed a treatment option. While there is no doubt that Al-Shabaab has orchestrated the recent attacks in Mandera and other parts of the country,there is inconsistency in how they are characterised. Often, the attacks are labelled as the handiwork of “militants”, “terrorists”, or “criminals”. Some labels bestore recognition and quasi-legitimate status while others simply deny that privilege. While the Kenyan media remain pivotal, there is certainly a need for developing editorial policies on how to cover terrorism. Not much can be said of opposition which sounds like a mouth-piece for terrorist propaganda;the less said about the opposition antics of gaining political mileage from terrorist attacks instead of calling for unity and patriotism during these incidents,the better. Summary of Kenya’s weekly political news in a cartoon Posted by Profarms in Analysis, Humour, Kenya Local News, News, Opinion, Politics, Social Justice, Weekend Reloaded Cord's mass protest on security bill, Homabay senator by-election, Security bill 2014 Raila’s solution to challenges facing the Kenya Nation “We are the government-in-waiting,and this is how Jubilee government should be conducting the Nation’s affairs in order to move this country forward!”~Yours Truly,Raila Amollo Odinga	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1717
__label__cc	0.569763	0.430237	Translation Department of the Durham University Palawan win over Boracay in ‘world’s best island’ By: Cody Ingram On: June 1, 2019 On a prestigious awarding ceremony for Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards hailed at New York City on July 18, the province of Palawan was recognized as the Overall Top Island and Top Island in Asia for 2013 by top US travel magazine, Travel + Leisure. This recognition has solidified the strong presence of Philippine attractions in the tourism industry of Asia. Palawan is widely known as home to the Puerto Princesa Underground River, one of the new natural wonders of the world. Other wonderful destinations Palawan bested were Maui, Hawaii; Santorini, Greece; Prince Edward Island, Canada; Bali, Indonesia; Kauai, Hawaii; Sicily, Italy; Koh Samui, Thailand; and Galapagos Island, Ecuador. Further placing Philippine tourism in spotlight is the fact that Palawan isn’t the only local attraction recognized in the award ceremony. World-renowned Boracay Island has come in second for both categories. It was first place for the Top Island Award last year. Another award was given to Discovery Shores in Boracay Island as the Top Hotel Spa in Asia and Top Family Hotel in Asia. Travel + Leisure Magazine has been an authority for world tourism destinations for a long time now. Being included in its list of top places, and topping it, is certainly one big thing for the Philippines. It is a good gauge to measure the competitiveness of the local attractions – something which Palawan and Boracay Island have long proven strong. Palawan is majorly known for its pristine nature which takes every traveler by awe. Aside from the PPUR, El Nido is another splendid attraction. Snorkeling and swimming are the top two activities there. As for Boracay Island, it is known for its white sand beaches and wonderful nightlife. It has been a favorite spot for many tourists who are looking for an interesting tropical experience. Previous Post: Exactly Why Are These Last Minute Flights So Costly? Next Post: Here Are What You Need to Know Before Visiting Marseille The Definitive Manual to What to Do in Bangkok for 3 Days Finding How to Write a College Essay What You Need to Do About Things to Do in Japan Beginning in the Next 3 Minutes Here Are What You Need to Know Before Visiting Marseille	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1719
__label__cc	0.695334	0.304666	‘Whale Wars’ delayed by production issues For the past several years, June has brought us a new television season of “Whale Wars.” But this year the production has been delayed, and nobody seems to know when the show is likely to air. Whale Wars, of course, is the weekly documentary showing confrontations on the high seas, as Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tries to stop Japanese whaling in the Antarctic. As I reported in January (Water Ways, Jan. 4), Sea Shepherd hired its own film crew during this past whaling season (summer in the Antarctic, winter here). At the time, it seemed like the group did so to be able to control the filming. But in a new blog entry in The New Yorker, Raffi Khatchadourian suggests that it was the Animal Planet producers who got cold feet, given the Ninth Circuit Court injunction that prevented Sea Shepherd from getting within 500 feet of the Japanese ships. The U.S. affiliate of Sea Shepherd and Capt. Paul Watson himself withdrew from the anti-whaling campaign, leaving in charge the Australian affiliate, which is not subject to U.S. court jurisdiction. Brian Eley, senior communications manager for Discovery Channel, responded to my inquiry yesterday, saying it isn’t clear when Season 6 of “Whale Wars” will air. Footage was delayed this year “through no fault of anyone.” I asked whether it was a decision of Sea Shepherd or Animal Planet to have Sea Shepherd crew members do the filming. “Last year, Sea Shepherd said they were taking over the footage first,” Eley said. “We don’t want to contradict them, but certainly each side had reasons to go with the current deal. “I can honestly say,” he added, “I am not sure when the series will air, but it will.” Meanwhile, Sea Shepherd is preparing for its 10th campaign against the Japanese whalers, after touting much success in the last trip to the Antarctic. For details, check out the following news releases issued by Sea Shepherd, along with this video, which offers a preview of the dramatic footage we can expect to see if and when “Whale Wars – Season 6” comes to television. Sea Shepherd launches Operation Relentless, its 10th Antarctic whale defence campaign. Japan Confirms Sea Shepherd Success in the Southern Ocean June 11, 2013 Business and industry, Fishing interests, Marine mammals, OceansAnimal rights, Antarctic, Anti-whaling, Sea Shepherd, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Whale Wars, whaling, Whaling in Japan ← Navy easement could block industry on Hood Canal New method could reveal presence of human waste → 46 thoughts on “‘Whale Wars’ delayed by production issues” Exit 43 says: Hopefully it will go away and the Sea Shepherd group will be seen as the terrorist group that they are! When they are confronted by the whalers they are ‘appalled’ by the whalers actions, that are less than most anything that they have done to the whalers. It would be best if the Sea Shepherd ships were sunk at sea and the crew rescued by the whalers! That I would pay to see! They have crossed the line so many times and yet they are not held accountable for their actions! watsonsux says: Good I’m glad nobody wants anything to do with those sea Sheppard A holes. RobC says: I feel that the 2 above Commenters, are very short minded people. these japanese whalers are operating in protected areas of a whale sanctuary where japanese are killing endangered species. if the japanese continue to kill whales, this will lead to our future being put under threat. International laws are passed for a reason and therefore all countries should abide by them. You two really do need to start to know a lot more about YOUR environment before starting to comment on topics that you know nothing about… Closed minded? Why, because I disagree with eco-terrorist? The all out killing doesn’t happen as they try to say. The Japanese fleet IS whaling with in the international laws on the book, they have too much to loose if they don’t! What solid proof has been provided that the Japanese are not following the laws? What you see on TV is the Sea Shepard doing the law breaking! Perhaps you, RobC, need to open your mind to the law. The Sea Shepherd group, and you, just do not like what they are doing, so in their closed minded thinking, they are right, but the Sea Shepherd group are still breaking the law! And not to mention putting people in harms way! And funny that your last statement is more of one with a closed mind, as you do not know who I am, but nice try! TerryL says: RobC “these japanese whalers are operating in protected areas of a whale sanctuary” The Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary ONLY applies to commercial whaling. The International Whaling Commission (the organization that created the SOWS) acknowledges that Japan is conducting scientific research whaling under special permit, as is allowed under international treaty, NOT commercial whaling. “where japanese are killing endangered species.” Japan kills approximately 1 to 2 endangered fin whales a year. If you are concerned about killing endangered species, perhaps a better target would be Iceland, who hunts fin whale commercially. “if the japanese continue to kill whales, this will lead to our future being put under threat.” The limited number of whales that Japan hunts is no danger to the whales as a species and no danger to “our future” “International laws are passed for a reason and therefore all countries should abide by them.” Japan IS abiding by all relevant international laws and IWC regulations. They have the right, very specifically spelled out in international treaty, to do what they are doing. Now that’s ironic, since apparently YOU are the one that is lacking of knowledge on this topic. kujirakira says: “delayed” hehehehehe More like Animal Planet already knows they’ll be next for actively promoting and making a profit off of criminal activity. They want to distance themselves as much as possible. They didn’t even send a film crew down. One of the side-shows to the court proceedings is currently looking into who has donated and contributed significantly to SSCS. Financing criminals is illegal. Not that it’s stopped other AR groups like PETA, HSUS, and IFAW. The 6th Season of WW will air — on their youtube channel. And will then quickly be used as evidence against them in further court proceedings. Justice will be served. “You two really do need to start to know a lot more about YOUR environment” I’m sure that means you’ll turn your attention to the Vaquita, which actually is endangered in YOUR BACKYARD. Rather than demonizing Japanese for hunting the most numerous cetacean on the planet. You say “international laws” (there is no such thing) exist for a reason. But in fact IWC’s scientific committee has demonstrated time and again that anti-whaling motions are passed in complete contradiction to the scientific advice. The only reason they’re passed is because some people, such as yourself, believe it’s your right to force your culture on others. Animal Rights is nothing more than the 21st Century White Man’s Burden. Rudyard Kipling would be so proud. It’s a pity your countries don’t feel the same way about the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna. There, too, you completely disregard the scientific advice and keep the quotas at unsustainable levels. The kicker is that you then blame Japan b/c a percentage ends up there. And they’re bought largely because, Japan — unlike Europe — cut its quota of Pacific Bluefin by 60%. The Pacific Bluefin will surely recover at this point. But the Atlantic… probably screwed. Spain, Italy, and France’ subsidized fleets and their governments insistence on keeping quotas high has doomed them. Environmentalists, you are not. You’re merely Cultural Imperialists. Thanks TerryL, those are very good a true points. And RobC, what say you? Brad PHilips 3017170525 call me says: I am constantly amazed at anyone who defends murder. You people are hilarious! Unfortunately it’s not hilarious what the Japanese, as well as Iceland, Denmark, and whoever else are doing. I will try to make this as simple as sentence to understand for you complicated maniacs… The oceans are drying up and we need to conserve. Murder is Bad. You get that? Or is the concept still to difficult to grasp! Prowhalers says: All you people who disagree with Sea Shepherd are dicks and clearly know nothing about the issue. How many of you have done the facts with a open mind and actually weighed up the facts. I think if you did then you would see that there is no balance! It is fact the whalers are doing a activity which is not illegal by law for science but against the law by doing it in a whale sanctuary. Sea Shepherd is not breaking the law they are enforced by the UN world charter for nature. ghostmaster195 says: To all of you who commented that sea shepherd are criminals. They are not. Why? Cause they protect the living beings of the ocean. They were made and created by God. Our God said, never kill. They are killing living, breathing beings. The Japanese quota has been determined by many scientist that the quota is to high and are killing to many whales. But what are these scientific results of these whales? Where are the reports? It has not been shown anywhere in public. Most of these whales has been killed for profits. It has been even shown on CNN. You keep saying that the Sea Shepherds are criminals, but the Japanese are as well criminals cause they have violated the rules and endangered life one to many times and this last time it just wasn’t by ramming the 5,000 ton ship to a 500 ton ship but almost causing a spill of heavy fuel on Australia territory. What would had happened of that fuel would had spilled out? What would the Japanese say about that? Yes, Sea Shepherds has done some bad things but not criminal. The Japanese has by destroying a ship, ramming ships, killing whales for some unknown research and bringing heavy fuel under protected waters. Now, you tell me if by bringing heavy fuel in protected water is not illegal cause under Australia international law, it is illegal. Peaceloveoceans says: my my my…..I have to agree with the last comment here. The oceans have taken so much abuse and we are robbing it of it’s life. The Japanese doesn’t need to kill whales and dolphins for meat, they need to grasp the idea that we need to conserve the life in our oceans not take away from it. The SSCS are the only people taking direct action and enforcing the laws protecting these endangered speices. “I am constantly amazed at anyone who defends murder” I’m constantly amazed at anyone who defends assaulting other human beings over dietary preferences. Maybe I could understand it a smidgen if the animals in question were endangered, but since they are in fact at carrying capacity… it’s beyond the pale. BTW, eating meat isn’t murder. Statements like “the oceans are drying up” just demonstrate your ignorance, and that you are the kind of mindless fool that will repeat any catchphrase you come across. It’s a completely meaningless statement that only shows how divorced from reality you are; how easily manipulated you are; and how extremist you are. cdunagan says: I guess this blog entry and the comments that followed really stirred up some emotions. I’m not sure if it is worth continuing the debate at its present level of discourse. But I’ll keep the comments open for now if everyone tries to focus on the issues and avoid the insults. Does anybody want to discuss the role of the U.S., Australian and Japanese governments? Are the whale populations really endangered? Why do activists think it is worth putting human lives at risk? Are whales as important as humans? Do Japanese people really crave whale meat, and what is the cultural importance? Why do whalers need to travel to a distant area that other nations wish to protect? How much does this have to do with national pride? How are these issues ever going to be resolved? I’m probably wasting my time trying to change the level of discussion, but this is the most comments I’ve seen since our debate on climate change. The role of the governments should be to hold all accountable for their actions-If the whalers are indeed breaking the laws then they should be helpd accountable as should those who break one law to enforce another. I see NO reason for anyone to put another human being at risk of their life as the SSCS has done. Whales are important as are so many other lives, but we are higher on the food chain, that is just the way we have evolved. I believe whalers travel the distances that they do to get to the legal hunting ground I could not, nor would I ever be able to comment on the pride of the Japanese national pride, and I doubt that anyone on this thread have their understanding to do so! I hope that these issues can be resovled, but fanatics on either side can not be reasoned with. Colleen Smidt says: Thank you Exit43. Excellent post. I rarely ever post on this particular blog or any of nearly constant stream of whale related stories generated for the Sun. Whales as an issue does not really interest or appeal to me. Neither do spiders or clowns but we all have our individual interests and dislikes. I am occasionally fascinated by the extreme to which others are attached to the issue of whales and to what extent they will go to bully others into their way of thinking. The mechanics of a majority of environmental conversation can be rather interesting. Such as actual data being able to be conveyed in a reasonable manner to back up such a highly charged and emotional issue. I rarely agree with you on the issues Chris, but I would let the conversation roll unless Kitsap Sun policy posting lines are crossed. How the conversation progresses and plays out is actually part of the original point of actions and consequence being experienced by SSCS and the Animal Planet for their decisions from both supporters and detractors. Exit 43, I’d like to play devil’s advocate for a moment. The Japanese government has issued a permit for scientific research, which allows the taking of whales under a special exemption allowed by international agreement. Do you believe that the number of whales killed (hundreds each year) and the sampling methods used to select and collect the specimens constitute a legitimate scientific program? Leaving aside the tactics of Sea Shepherd, do you believe the Japanese government is engaged in commercial or scientific whaling, as envisioned by the International Whaling Commission? Using the best numbers that I could find 2010-11, they took 935 Minke, 50 Fin and 50 Humpbacks. Using even the lowest numbers from the IWC, as to their best guess as to the overall population, those numbers are 0.2-.03% of the population. I am not a scientist, so I am not one to judge their legitimatcy, and I am having a hard time finding an unbiased opinion either way. If you have one, I would live to read it. I believe that the Japanese are using the IWC rules to the fullest extent allowable. As to what the IWC envisioned, it is very murky from the begining, not to mention that it is a non-binding organization. They can only make reccomendations, if a country chooses not to sign the agreement, it does not have to follow it and have no enforcement capabilities. Yes the UN has signed onto many of their ‘rules’ but that is as close to international law as it has ever gotten. The Japanese government is a member of the International Whaling Commission and claims to adhere to its conventions. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you believe the “Japanese are using the IWC rules to the fullest extent allowable.” Japan has been criticized by the IWC’s scientific panel for its techniques in estimating whale populations and taking representative samples of whale tissue. Representatives of many governments have been frustrated by Japan’s actions to block initiatives at IWC meetings, so it is not hard for me to understand why animal-rights activists would be frustrated. I’m not saying that anyone, including the Japanese government, is right or wrong. My attempt is to get people to understand that there are many viewpoints, including some that are clearly misguided. Even people who break the law may have principles that can be challenged. Personally, I enjoy an argument in which a person acknowledges an opposing viewpoint while putting forth his own position. But is .2% worth the hype? I do not think it it is worth putting peoples live in danger. Yes Japan has been one of the members to minimize the rules put out. And worse yet is that the IWC has no enforcement power. Maybe the best way to slow them down is to go after the heavy fuel ban? Remember, Al Capone was brought down by a tax error. I appreciate your willingness to discuss this issue by laying the facts on the table. Putting people’s lives in danger is a serious issue that I cannot reconcile, but I believe it is still worthy of discussion. As for the .2%, I have not confirmed all the numbers, but Bill Campbell, Australia’s representative to the International Court of Justice, made an interesting point this week. Quoting from a story by Julian Drape of the Australia Associated Press: “Earlier Mr Campbell had argued that if every party to the convention killed as many whales as Japan wanted to each year, more than 83,000 minke whales would be harpooned annually. “That would be ‘catastrophic’ for the population and showed Japan’s view was ‘dangerous and untenable,’ he said.” For more on the court hearing, please check out my latest Water Ways entry: Japanese whaling on trial before UN court. I took the numbers from the IWC web site and even tried to use the smaller number of their population estimates. I was a little suprised that it was so low, so please double check. http://iwc.int/estimate#table As for Mr. Campbelle’s statement, ‘what ifs’ are not a suitable an argument. It is just as easy as for me to say ‘what if the numbers are so far off, because whales have the ability to hide, so only 1 out of 10 are actually counted!’ And I thank you for the frank discussion, also. I understand that some out there are very passionate on the subject and calmer heads don’t not always prevail. I like looking at the facts and they are not always pretty! I agree that “what ifs” are not legal arguments nor do they help to assess actual damage. But in terms of fairness and equity, Campbell may have a point. His argument is that the Japanese “scientific” whaling may be having more than a negligible effect on the population. He might argue that if the Japanese government were being honest, it would seek to have its quotas approved as normal commercial whaling. Then the sustainable harvest level could be established and shared by all nations interested in whaling. If selling whale meat is OK, then shouldn’t the opportunity be open to all? That would be a better plan, then it may have the same effect as the crab fishing, they almost fished themselves out of existance. Although it would not be as great of numbers, if you can find a market for it and it is worth the ‘better management’ as a food source, then go the commercial route, after all, there is no shortage of cows in the world! But, I think that it would be almost impossible with today’s ‘green thinking’, would they get approval for commercial permits. And what is the basis of the Japanese not being truthful? Do they not do research on the whales they harvest? Yes they stretch to bounds, but it is lawfull. Well, Exit 43, it looks like it is just you and me on this thread. If nobody else wishes to comment, this will probably be my last post here. I believe that Campbell’s objection to “scientific whaling” is that it is not scientific at all. That’s where the honesty comes in. The data may be collected, but are they really used? We’ll hear more from the Japanese whaling researchers in today’s court reports. As for the part about managing a sustainable level of harvest, there was an interesting article about a market-based approach in Nature (Jan. 11, 2012), from which I’ll share this one paragraph: “A whale-conservation market would be different. In such a system, ‘whale shares’ would be allocated in sustainable numbers to all member nations of the IWC, who would have the choice of exercising them, leaving them unused for a year or retiring them in perpetuity. The shares would be tradable in a carefully controlled global market, perhaps with the restriction that members could not trade whale products with non-members. The number of whales hunted would depend on who owned the shares. At one extreme (in which whalers purchase all the shares), whales would be harvested to the agreed sustainable level. At the other extreme (where conservationists purchase all the shares), all whales would be protected from harvest.” Instead of spending its money going to “war” in the Antarctic, Sea Shepherd could protect the whales by buying up the entire quota. Thanks to Lindsey Peavey for mentioning this in today’s entry in Southern Fried Science. Isiaj says: If you guys can watch the cove and then tell me that hunting dolphins or whales is OK, you then need to be herded into a jail cell and harpooned then shot until you are dead. Same thing they do to creatures probably more intelligent than some of the posters on here. You guys are all talking black and whites… laws and figures. The oceans are dying. Have some heart and actually get off your butts and do something to help, rather than verbally bash or sit on the fence and humm and haa over the whole situation. Our oceans are almost depleted of fish like blue fin tuna and other great predatory fish. When they go then sharks will follow and what will people eat in the way of seafood then? Baitfish? No I think whale will be back on international menus. People in Japan (including school children) are showing signs of mercury poisoning from eating whale and dolphin meat from over already over polluted oceans. I agree our oceans need to be saved, and the fact that Japan used $30+million from the TSUNAMI RELIEF to get their whaling program going again, while affected people in some cases are still homeless. This is bloody shameful and you guys need to support conservation for our great grandchildrens’ future. I can’t stand what big corporations have done to the planet already in the name of profit for people who already have more money than sense. In my unprofessional opinion the SSCS needs to be given arresting powers from the Australian government and ARMED Australian personnel to enforce the arrests… No more BS just board them, fine them and throw them in a detention center. Problem solved, SO whales saved, onto the next conservation mission. Isiaj, do you put as much effort into how relief prorams are run here? If you read (at least mine) most of the posts, their is a real dialog going on. When anyone comes on and just rants, it turns into white noise. Types of fish that are good on a dinner plate, will not go away, people will figure out a way to keep them around. Notice that there is no shortage of cows? Maybe bringing back whaling as a commercial endevor would save them. The rise in mercury of Japans population is from whale and dolphins? Where is that study? I do support conservation efforts, I will never support terrorist efforts. But I would guess that by your closing paragragh that your mind is already made up and live a very pure and big corporation free life! abbye says: @exit 43 I just donated $100,000 to Sea Shepard for your stupid comments. So in return your helped make my decision, therefore you helped support them. 🙂 Here we go again. I know this is a highly emotional issue, but let’s see if we can have some semblance of a conversation. Not quite sure how I deserved that comment, abbye, but if you have $100k to thow at them, all the power to you. If you are a local Kitsap county resident, there are at least 10 different local, usefull, non-profit groups that could have used your money, but what ever helps you sleep at night. Most of these comments are just bull and you know it. Research my foot (You know it goes to commercial use after the supposed “research”. And like it or not they’re in a sanctuary – NO WHALING. Don’t even get my started on the destruction to the Sea Shepeds. The only reason SS is seen as terrorists is JAPAN MADE THEM THAT OUT TO BE WAY. Pete Wimmer says: Brian, how is that? Because people disagree with what you take as the truth? And Mr Dunagan, has there been a final ruling on this? Pete Wimmer asks: “And Mr. Dunagan, has there been a final ruling on this?” The International Court of Justice is still in deliberations on the whaling case brought by Australia against Japan. chris. Exit43 says: I for one based my opinion of the Sea Shepard group as terrosist and not to mention that their ship’s captains are unsafe and put their crews in danger, by their own show on Animal Planet. After the airing I did some looking into what they are doing and that didn’t help their case much. By either case they should be arrested, and to say it is for the good of the whales, does not give them any right to do 85% of what they have filmed themselves as doing. First off, ICR has never had a quota for Humpbacks. Japan hasn’t hunted humpbacks since the 1960s. You will find this false claim made in just about every Whale Wars episode, so by “repetition of a lie” it’s become an accepted fact ala Goebbels: “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it, and you will even come to believe it yourself” I assume this lie is spread because Minke whales aren’t “special” enough, whereas Humpbacks are very well known. The ICJ ruling will make it abundantly clear that Japan is not breaking any “laws”. Nor have they stretched the “law”, as claimed here. If it wasn’t legitimate research – Japan could simply quit IWC and whale commercially — just as Norway and Iceland do. I find it most interesting that nobody has a problem when white Europeans engage in commercial whaling; while some conspiracy theory is invented to demonize Japanese engaging in research whaling. Japan has been acting with a great deal of restraint in this manner by working within the framework. As has been pointed out several times, they can leave IWC any time they like and do the same as Norway and Iceland. The author has claimed that the IWC Scientific Committee has criticized ICR’s methodology — but that is quite different than claiming it’s not science. That is, fundamentally, a scientific discussion. Nonetheless, I can find no report by the Scientific Committee to that effect. I can find minority reports filed by a handful of individuals that usually read more like editorials than scientific papers, but that is not the Scientific Committee nor is it a majority opinion. The Scientific Committee has reviewed JARPN and JARPA 2 times each. They will be conducting another review next year. All of these reports have confirmed that it is legitimate scientific research. The Scientific Committee has also approved of Japan’s scientific quota under Annex P every year. Approval under Annex P is not binding, but the Scientific Committee has denied proposals for scientific quotas put forth by other nations. Yet they have never denied JARPA or JARPN as not being scientific. As for the author’s claim that the Antarctic is protected — plenty of fishing goes on in the Antarctic by countries all over the world. Why should whaling be any different? The jingoistic claims that the Antarctic belongs to Australia and/or New Zealand are nothing more than the remnants of Western Imperialism and attempts at land grabs. I find it rather ironic that people are supporting Australia’s desire to exploit the pristine Antarctic (just as they’ve ravaged the Australian continent) while claiming that they’re Environmentalists. Anti-whaling has no basis in Environmentalism or Conservation. Rather, Conservation principles support returning to full commercial whaling under the Revised Management Program. Conservation is not Prohibitionist and supports sustainable activities, which scientists agree whaling would be. You can claim that I’m an extremist or that I “don’t accept your viewpoint”. But my opinions are based in the hard facts. I don’t accept your opinion because it’s clearly not based on the facts. Nor will I be compelled to accept a “middle” position merely for the sake of political correctness. The facts of the matter are that whaling is sustainable, Japan is engaged in legitimate research, Japan isn’t breaking any rules, Japan has no quota for humpbacks, etc. This position is only made to look extreme by using terrorists like SSCS to skew the debate. It says a lot that you have to defend terrorism in order to make yourself look reasonable. kujirakira , first you say your text is based on facts , where? Second, if I read your text, you are hiding. Can I remind you that thinking like this gave us all radio activity. And yeh you can defend whale eating, NOT research . For research you don’t need to kill all these whales. If it is no industry : stop it and use the money for the radioactive problems. But hey what happens there? Japan’s superior thinking process gave us a radioactive planet and was also trying to keep things quite no? Let’s face it .The problem is money ! Nothing more nothing less. And yes the USA will help japan. Why? did you see Who the USA needs to pay back? Japan is nr 2 in the list. The result: working people have to step in and say STOP. Why will we eat radioactive fish? Why will we eat oil fish? Who is poisoning our air and earth? All money ! I just hope the Netherlands are not afraid off japan. SharonOHara says: I remember the Spotted Owl fiasco that stopped an entire logging industry in the PNW. People and their survival took second place to one Spotted Owl. And how did that work out for the people and the Spotted Owl? Short term the families of the loggers went hungry. No group of people will willingly decimate their food supply. Take the long ago Plains Indians. They depended on their horses to hunt the buffalo and used every bit of the animals they killed for – food – clothing- foot ware – Tents – they needed the buffalo to survive. They roamed to spread their need of the wildlife and nature of this great nation so not to ‘overgraze’ any one area. They were in tune with their world – they lived in balance. Some tribes more than others. Along came the ‘white guys’ and without thought they slaughtered the buffalo and left the once great herds in stinking rotting piles of useless flesh. We are polluting our waterways and oceans. I stopped eating seafood years ago – other than an occasional tuna and wild salmon. So – what about the whale? I don’t believe any nation will wipe out a food source and industry nor should thrill seekers have the right to harass other nations merely doing what they have apparently done for centuries…IMHO. sscsNetherlands says: Lets just face it.. research? Seriously? Japan just loves a good whale snack. I don’t know what kind of research Japan is doing that takes so many whale lives. We surely don’t hear or see anything at all about their findings. It is simple to say that everyone has his or her oppinion about the killings. My oppinion though.. i’d love to see the whole Japanese fleet on the bottom of the ocean and for all i care… the whalers as well. Or we could just shoot you with a harpoon? For research purposes only of course. Oh but i gueSs THAT. . Is just a crruel thing to say huh.. Shoot ‘me or another human with a harpoon? I hadn’t realized Netherlands folks were mindlessly violent. What is the point of your comments? Beyond harpooning humans I mean. The following comment has relevance here because of the harpooning a human comment by sscsNetherlands and I hope you agree. Fact is the Netherlands people are known for many things – mindless violence threats not among them. As of September 2013, the fastest bike in the world race was won by a guy from Holland, Sebastriaan Bowier at Battle Mountain, Nev. Riding a recumbent bicycle he reached 128.9 kmh! Relevance to whales? Speed. Whales look like they’re moving pretty fast. It’s the way you take it Sharon. Fact is i wouldn’t hurt a fly. Fact is also that “by matter of speaking” killing a whale by shooting it with a harpoon is worth a discussion, yet as soon as you think about a harpoon being aimed on a human being it is an act of violence… Get the picture..? Killing these wonderful creatures in such a cruel way.. it breaks my heart and honestly.. if you are able to just watch that and then post a message about how normal and okay it is then what kind of heartless …….ahum.. are you? All i really want is for people to realise that killing whales is no matter how you put it an act of violence and in my eyes if you kill a whale you are a murderer. If someone shoots down one of your loved ones you’ll fight till your last breath to bring thst person to justice.. whales have loved ones, they are smart enough to realise their mother or daughter just got murdered.. but…….thats not at all violent.. just research.. well with all the respect.. and thats not much but defending these killers you are as cold as they are.. a good long look in the mirror might make you understand that defending a killer on itself is “violent” I wonder why i’m being so idiotic to even post anything as it already becomes clear it has no point. People will always have different opinions and thats fine really though things like this i can’t bring myself to try and see someone else his/her point of view. I can post a thousand messages about how horrible it is to kill whales and all i end up with is double the amount of messages back to how abnormal I am not being okay with the cruel killing of whales and a lot of frustration. And sharon.. one person does not represent a whole country? I’m not at all violent but sure in the Netherlands you’ll find people who are. And no matter what country you’ll find them everywhere! I mean for example all those people from different countries saying killing whales is fine makes it all to obvious violence is a plaque 🙂 go figure. SscsNetherlands – yes, whales are beautiful – I’ve never seen one harpooned. Nor do I want to. I’m a huge fan of Lolita, who has survived in captivity dispite the odds against it, about forty years. The height of cruelty would be to rip her away – again – from her humans and environment to return her to her home place to die a cold and lonely death in these polluted Puget Sound waterways. I rarely watch Animal Planet and will make a note of not watching the rouge thrill-seekers on it. I appreciate your comments and may one day stop eating meat of any kind. What you describe for the whale could be a description for a cow, chicken or pig. Yes, seriously. THE international organization that regulates whaling acknowledges that Japan is conducting scientific research whaling under special permit as is allowed under international treaty. Actually, according to polls only about 5% of Japanese eat whale meat. But regardless, that has NOTHING to do with whether or not they are conducting research whaling. So you admit your ignorance to an issue that seems to be of some importance to you? Why is that? You would think that if it was so important, that you would know everything there is to know about it. That’s because you CHOOSE not to look. The majority of information is publicly available. Opinions are one thing, but when you start ACTING on those opinions in a dangerous, and criminal way, then that goes beyond the line. No, it’s typical SSCS supporter behavior. Advocating violence, injury, or death for someone who doesn’t share your opinion. You seem to want others to accept YOUR opinions, but wish death on those that don’t share it. Hypocrite much? What other way can it be taken when you wish many people dead? Apparently YOU don’t “get the picture” Whales aren’t human. Nobody here has said that killing whales is “normal” nor “okay”. Now you are just making stuff up. (Another SSCS supporter behavior) Another “opinion” you expect others to accept. A whale can NOT be murdered. That is not an opinion, that is a FACT. “If someone shoots down one of your loved ones you’ll fight till your last breath to bring thst person to justice.. whales have loved ones,” Again, whales are NOT human. “they are smart enough to realise their mother or daughter just got murdered..” Says who? Who has interviewed the whales to get their impressions of what goes on during a hunt? And AGAIN, Whales can NOT be murdered. “but…….thats not at all violent..” Who has said that whaling isn’t violent? “just research..” Yes, according to THE international organization that regulates whaling. “well with all the respect.. and thats not much but defending these killers you are as cold as they are.. a good long look in the mirror might make you understand that defending a killer on itself is “violent”” So you are saying that every public defender that defends a person who commits murder is just as “violent” as the murder he is defending? That is ludicrous. People will always have different opinions and thats fine” Again with the hypocrisy. You say that other people’s opinions are “fine” but then you wish death on them. “really though things like this i can’t bring myself to try and see someone else his/her point of view.” How about seeing FACTS? But since you are a SSCS supporter you are insulated from factual information and logical discussions by the lies and misinformation that flows from the organization like a waterfall. Your having, or expressing, an opinion about killing whales is fine. (REALLY fine, not your hypocritical “fine”) but what is NOT “fine” is lies, misinformation, threats of, or advocating of violence and death to humans, just because you don’t agree with THEIR opinion. And yet so many SSCS supporters condemn the entire country of Japan for the activities of a few whalers. Again, hypocrisy. According to you, defending people who are “violent” is just as violent as they are, but actually advocating for the deaths of hundreds of people isn’t? Again, hypocrisy. And all those SSCS supporters, for example, advocating injury and death to Japanese, torpedoing ships, dropping atom bombs, harpooning people, feeding people to sharks, etc. isn’t a “plague”? D.C. says: Sharon claims it would be cruel to return Lolita to her home to “die a cold and lonely death in these polluted waters.” Contrast this to the facts: The waters of Biscayne Bay which flow into her tiny, dilapidated and illegal isolation tank are polluted. According to the NOAA: “The waters of Biscayne Bay are polluted by the Miami River discharge and the discharge of numerous sewer outfalls along the Bay front.” Moreover, Lolita has not had the company of another killer whale for decades. Talk about lonely! There are numerous scientific studies which illustrate the harmful, even fatal, effects of prolonged captivity on captured killer whales. Talk about cold and cruel! Killer whale culture and intelligence is unique in the animal kingdom, unlike cows, chickens and pigs which are not sentient beings like Lolita. So who is going to watch the 2 hour PR stunt on 12/13?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1722
__label__cc	0.586392	0.413608	Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog: Effects of treatment with sulindac David Walker, Irfan Siddique, Heather Anderson, Tom A. Gardiner, Desmond B. Archer, Andrew J M Boulton, Rayaz Malik The purpose of this study was to define pathological abnormalities in the peripheral nerve of a large animal model of long-duration type 1 diabetes and also to determine the effects of treatment with sulindac. Detailed morphometric studies were performed to define nerve fiber and endoneurial capillary pathology in 6 control dogs, 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin, and 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin and sulindac for 4 years. Myelinated fiber and regenerative cluster density showed a non-significant trend toward a reduction in diabetic compared to control animals, which was prevented by treatment with sulindac. Unmyelinated fiber density did not differ among groups. However, diabetic animals showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in axon diameter (p < 0.07), with a shift of the size frequency distribution towards larger axons, which was not prevented by treatment with sulindac. Endoneurial capillary density and luminal area showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in diabetic animals, which was prevented with sulindac treatment. Endoneurial capillary basement membrane area was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in diabetic animals, but was not prevented with sulindac treatment. We conclude that the type 1 diabetic dog demonstrates minor structural abnormalities in the nerve fibers and endoneurial capillaries of the sciatic nerve, and treatment with sulindac ameliorates some but not all of these abnormalities. Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System Nerve Fibers Peripheral Nerves Endoneurial capillary Nerve fiber Walker, D., Siddique, I., Anderson, H., Gardiner, T. A., Archer, D. B., Boulton, A. J. M., & Malik, R. (2001). Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog: Effects of treatment with sulindac. Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System, 6(4), 219-226. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1529-8027.2001.01023.x Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog : Effects of treatment with sulindac. / Walker, David; Siddique, Irfan; Anderson, Heather; Gardiner, Tom A.; Archer, Desmond B.; Boulton, Andrew J M; Malik, Rayaz. In: Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2001, p. 219-226. Walker, D, Siddique, I, Anderson, H, Gardiner, TA, Archer, DB, Boulton, AJM & Malik, R 2001, 'Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog: Effects of treatment with sulindac', Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 219-226. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1529-8027.2001.01023.x Walker D, Siddique I, Anderson H, Gardiner TA, Archer DB, Boulton AJM et al. Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog: Effects of treatment with sulindac. Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System. 2001;6(4):219-226. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1529-8027.2001.01023.x Walker, David ; Siddique, Irfan ; Anderson, Heather ; Gardiner, Tom A. ; Archer, Desmond B. ; Boulton, Andrew J M ; Malik, Rayaz. / Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog : Effects of treatment with sulindac. In: Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System. 2001 ; Vol. 6, No. 4. pp. 219-226. @article{21f73e1fbebc4b87864590becc42087a, title = "Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog: Effects of treatment with sulindac", abstract = "The purpose of this study was to define pathological abnormalities in the peripheral nerve of a large animal model of long-duration type 1 diabetes and also to determine the effects of treatment with sulindac. Detailed morphometric studies were performed to define nerve fiber and endoneurial capillary pathology in 6 control dogs, 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin, and 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin and sulindac for 4 years. Myelinated fiber and regenerative cluster density showed a non-significant trend toward a reduction in diabetic compared to control animals, which was prevented by treatment with sulindac. Unmyelinated fiber density did not differ among groups. However, diabetic animals showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in axon diameter (p < 0.07), with a shift of the size frequency distribution towards larger axons, which was not prevented by treatment with sulindac. Endoneurial capillary density and luminal area showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in diabetic animals, which was prevented with sulindac treatment. Endoneurial capillary basement membrane area was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in diabetic animals, but was not prevented with sulindac treatment. We conclude that the type 1 diabetic dog demonstrates minor structural abnormalities in the nerve fibers and endoneurial capillaries of the sciatic nerve, and treatment with sulindac ameliorates some but not all of these abnormalities.", keywords = "Endoneurial capillary, Morphometry, Nerve fiber, Neuropathy, Sulindac, Type 1 diabetes", author = "David Walker and Irfan Siddique and Heather Anderson and Gardiner, {Tom A.} and Archer, {Desmond B.} and Boulton, {Andrew J M} and Rayaz Malik", journal = "Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System", T1 - Nerve pathology in the type 1 diabetic dog T2 - Effects of treatment with sulindac AU - Walker, David AU - Siddique, Irfan AU - Anderson, Heather AU - Gardiner, Tom A. AU - Archer, Desmond B. AU - Boulton, Andrew J M AU - Malik, Rayaz N2 - The purpose of this study was to define pathological abnormalities in the peripheral nerve of a large animal model of long-duration type 1 diabetes and also to determine the effects of treatment with sulindac. Detailed morphometric studies were performed to define nerve fiber and endoneurial capillary pathology in 6 control dogs, 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin, and 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin and sulindac for 4 years. Myelinated fiber and regenerative cluster density showed a non-significant trend toward a reduction in diabetic compared to control animals, which was prevented by treatment with sulindac. Unmyelinated fiber density did not differ among groups. However, diabetic animals showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in axon diameter (p < 0.07), with a shift of the size frequency distribution towards larger axons, which was not prevented by treatment with sulindac. Endoneurial capillary density and luminal area showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in diabetic animals, which was prevented with sulindac treatment. Endoneurial capillary basement membrane area was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in diabetic animals, but was not prevented with sulindac treatment. We conclude that the type 1 diabetic dog demonstrates minor structural abnormalities in the nerve fibers and endoneurial capillaries of the sciatic nerve, and treatment with sulindac ameliorates some but not all of these abnormalities. AB - The purpose of this study was to define pathological abnormalities in the peripheral nerve of a large animal model of long-duration type 1 diabetes and also to determine the effects of treatment with sulindac. Detailed morphometric studies were performed to define nerve fiber and endoneurial capillary pathology in 6 control dogs, 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin, and 6 type 1 diabetic dogs treated with insulin and sulindac for 4 years. Myelinated fiber and regenerative cluster density showed a non-significant trend toward a reduction in diabetic compared to control animals, which was prevented by treatment with sulindac. Unmyelinated fiber density did not differ among groups. However, diabetic animals showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in axon diameter (p < 0.07), with a shift of the size frequency distribution towards larger axons, which was not prevented by treatment with sulindac. Endoneurial capillary density and luminal area showed a non-significant trend toward an increase in diabetic animals, which was prevented with sulindac treatment. Endoneurial capillary basement membrane area was significantly increased (p < 0.05) in diabetic animals, but was not prevented with sulindac treatment. We conclude that the type 1 diabetic dog demonstrates minor structural abnormalities in the nerve fibers and endoneurial capillaries of the sciatic nerve, and treatment with sulindac ameliorates some but not all of these abnormalities. KW - Endoneurial capillary KW - Morphometry KW - Nerve fiber KW - Neuropathy KW - Sulindac JO - Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System JF - Journal of the Peripheral Nervous System	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1729
__label__cc	0.616891	0.383109	Conviction 5.1 April 8, 2014 5.01wildbow Policemen surrounded me, flashlights sweeping over snow and tree until they fell on me. Haggard me, still bearing some small wounds from my previous outings. They had to have been following me in the dark. A dozen officers, some wearing different clothes, implying different rank or duties. Crime scene guys, maybe? A local police chief, on top of regular officers? I hadn’t seen the connections, but I hadn’t been looking for them. Not really. Could I run? Yeah. Could I run and actually get away? I couldn’t imagine doing it without hurting someone along the way. There were too many cases where I might get shot. And even if I did succeed, I couldn’t say for sure if whoever had tipped them off had given them my name, specifically. No use running if they could find me sleeping at home in a matter of hours. Fuuuuck. I slowly raised my hands over my head. “Turn to face the rocks!” “What do I do?” Evan asked me. I glanced at him, pursing my lips, and shook my head a little. Couldn’t talk to him, not without raising more questions. I heard the officers shuffling closer. The lights became brighter. “Place your arms straight behind your back.” “Yes sir,” I said. I spoke as clearly as I could, “Before I cooperate, I’d like to make it clear that I’m something of a specialized handyman by trade. I have one bladed tool at my left hip, and several small, sharp objects in my pockets. You may unwittingly hurt yourself if you aren’t careful. I can and will try to tell you what is where, given the chance, while you search my person.” “Hands behind your back, now.” I placed my arms straight behind me. “Was I understood?” “You were heard.” I felt cuffs settle in place around my wrists. They pulled off my gloves. “I am presently arresting you on suspicion of the first degree murder of one Evan Matthieu.” “You have the right to retain and instruct any counsel without delay. You also have the right to free and immediate legal advice from duty counsel, by making free telephone calls. We are presently outside of ordinary business hours, so the phone number you’d call would be…” He rattled off a telephone number. I was in the midst of trying to commit it to memory when another officer stooped down not far from where I’d been crouched, and saw the body. “Christ,” the man said. “Boy’s here.” “Do you understand?” the arresting officer asked me. “What was the number again?” I asked. “Anyone in the Toronto PD can and will provide it on request, at any time from this point onward. Do you understand this and everything else I told you?” “Yes,” I said. I understand this has to be Laird fucking with me. Third time is a charm, and Laird may have won this round. “Do you wish to call a lawyer?” “Then we will provide a phone and phone book to call a lawyer at the nearest opportunity, as there’s no cell service here. Is this understood?” “You also have the right to apply for legal assistance through Ontario’s legal aid program. Do you understand?” “Yeah,” I said. I felt like every question hammered a nail into this particular coffin. “I’m going to give you this formal warning. You need not say anything. You have nothing to gain from any promise or favor and nothing to fear from any threat whether or not you say anything. Anything you say can be used as evidence. Do you understand?” “I understand,” I said. “I’m going to search you. You said there were needles?” “No needles. At my left hip, there’s a decorated hatchet. The blade is uncovered and facing forward. If you raise my jacket and shirt, you’ll find it.” He did, withdrawing June. “One concealed weapon.” I bit my lip. Given a chance, I would have tried to argue the point, justify it… but speaking wouldn’t help me. He handed it to someone I couldn’t see. I heard the rustle of a bag. “In my right pocket, there’s a box-cutting knife with the blade retracted, and several loose hook cutting screws.” “Another concealed weapon,” he said. He took his time checking my pockets for the hook screws, pulling it inside out and letting one or two of the remaining ones fall into the snow. “Aside from the keys in my left pocket, I think that’s the only thing that could cut or stab you,” I said. Without a thank-you, he switched to a rougher form of frisking me. I bit my lip and stared up at the snow-covered branches above me, resisting the urge to flinch at or react to the rough contact. He relieved me of the pretty-much-empty jar of glamour, twine, a black magic marker, the locket that had been wound around my hand- He popped the locket open, and my heart nearly stopped. Between the gloom, with the flashlights being angled elsewhere, and the direction I was facing, I couldn’t see if the hair happened to fall out. Fuck it all. “If it’s alright, sir, I’d like to start walking him back,” the arresting officer said. “Get back to my car, where it’s warm, get him to the station so everyone can do what needs to be done here.” “Yeah,” an older man said. “Take some with you. Thomas? Max? Eyes on him, and on each other. Talk to the chief when you get back, I’ll phone in whatever we’ve got soon. Be good.” Be good? What happened when they were bad? They started me walking. Here and there, the ground dipped, but the snow didn’t, causing me to sink in to knee-depth. We forged on as a group, moving in a straight line. After the brighter flashlights, the woods seemed particularly dark. “Murdering a kid? That’s about as fucked as it gets,” one of the other officers said, after we were out of earshot. “There are other possibilities that are more fucked,” the arresting officer said. “But I’m not ruling that out, either.” I didn’t rise to the bait. I did, however, note Evan standing nearby. Eyes wide. The going got a little rougher, and I wasn’t talking, so they shifted focus towards moving forward and keeping a firm grip on me so I wouldn’t tip over. I saw Evan flicker. He stopped in his tracks. I moved on, and Evan remained in the forest. We were taking a much different route out than the one I’d taken in. We descended a steep hill, and reached a road where police cars were lined up. Very possibly parked in Evan’s neighborhood. They opened the car door, and I flinched at the contact of hand on head, as the officer pushed me down, simultaneously protecting my head from hitting the top of the car. I thought I could maybe see Evan standing at the top of the hill, watching me go. I’d been booked, everything entered in the database. Phone calls had been made made, my free legal counsel was en route. The room was smaller than those shown on television. A desk, like a broader version of a student’s desk, took up the majority of the long, narrow room. A beaten-up metal folding chair was in one corner. The other chairs looked far more comfortable, padded and all. I wasn’t surprised when they uncuffed me and indicated the metal chair, seating me so I faced the door. It was cramped, claustrophobic, which I assumed was the point. I could lean left, and my shoulder would touch the one-way mirror to my left. Lean right, and the front of the long desk would dig into my elbow. One officer sat to my right, the other situated across from me. I was cornered, quite literally, back and shoulders to walls, effectively surrounded. The mirror made it feel like there were more people to my left. I looked to confirm, and realized there were people in that room. Didn’t help the ‘surrounded’ feeling. It was the one that faced me that was apparently going to do the talking. He looked young, no older than thirty-five, maybe as young as thirty. He had dark, curly hair that was cut to an almost crew-cut length. He left the door open, standing by his chair as he took his time removing his jacket, shaking loose moisture from his gloves before putting them in his jacket pockets, and hanging it up on the back of the door. Standing over me. A broad shouldered, older guy, in better shape than I was. Not that I was in bad shape, fitness-wise, but he was in better shape. He shut the door, then took his seat, facing me head on. “I gotta ask, what the fuck happened to you?” he asked. I just dealt with an imp and a giant goblin beast thing. I wanted to make a crack, to say something like, ‘I got arrested and brought here’, but I didn’t want to be one of the idiots on TV who got reamed out by their lawyer for trying to be smart or help themselves. “Is it just poor quality of life?” he asked. “You said you were a specialized handyman, right?” “Right now, I’m nothing more than a guy waiting for his lawyer,” I said. “Fair enough,’ he said. “I can do most of the talking. I wonder what a ‘specialized handyman’ does. Something that involves screws, a fancy axe with wire around the handle. What else? See, I’m trying to put the pieces together, figure out who I’m going to be talking with for the next little while. You called one of the freebie lawyers, right? I guarantee you it’s going to be a while, he or she might even have to see someone else before they get around to you.” There was nowhere good to look. If I met his eyes, I felt belligerent. if I looked at the floor, I looked guilty. Looking left or right meant I was, indirectly or not, looking at the other cops. I shut my eyes, instead, shifting position until I could lean my head against the wall behind me. “Hey,” the officer said. “Hey!” Shouting just a bit louder than was necessary or expected. Sending me straight into that ‘fight or flight’ mode, where I was ready for danger, ready to react and move. He hadn’t moved. He was smiling, as if he was the friendliest guy in the world. “Now’s not the time for that,” he said. “Looks pretty fucking bad if you’re so relaxed you can fall asleep, with murder charges pending. Looks sociopathic.” My heart still pounded. I could bind goblinoid monsters, but people could still put me on edge. “What else am I supposed to do while I wait for my lawyer?” I asked. “You can chat with us,” he said. I gave him a look. “Or whatever,” he said. “Listen while we talk. Twiddle your thumbs. Think up a good story, if you need one. Do all three at the same time. But you don’t want to go to sleep when you’ve been accused of murdering and maybe doing worse to a damn kid.” The shift of topic, the reminder of Evan, it wasn’t helping. I was tired, I was on edge, and I didn’t have any ready answers. He kept forcing me to shift mental gears. Just like the cramped space was designed to make me feel the pressure. Problem was, this wasn’t a situation where piecing A, B, and C together relieved any of that pressure. He spoke, “I do some reno work myself, when I have time. But time’s hard to come by, you know?” When I didn’t answer, the other cop murmured, “Oh yeah, definitely.” The other cop was a bigger, balding guy, busy taking notes, a pen scribbling away on a pad of paper, constantly moving at the corner of my field of view. “I like working with my hands. Frees my mind to do other stuff,” the interrogator said. “I swear a lot, get frustrated, but I usually come away feeling accomplished, like I did a good job, and feeling refreshed. As if it’s meditation, but without the yoga bullshit, you know?” “Why are you hating on the yoga, Dunc? Maybe our guy here likes that stuff.” ‘Dunc’ shook his head, his eyes moving over me, head to toe. “Doesn’t strike me as the type. You’re not the type, are you, bud? Or maybe you’d do it to win over a girl, but you wouldn’t do it for yourself?” My mouth stayed shut. “Maybe he’s a fag,” the older guy chimed in. Short sentences that cut in, jerking my attention away, much as the constantly moving pen did. “Are you a fag, buddy?” the interrogator asked. “Do you prefer sausage to the taste of fish?” Rationalize it, Blake. Figure out why they’re doing what they’re doing. They wouldn’t stick these guys in a room with you if there wasn’t a very clear, concrete reason for every single action. They were nettling me. Obviously. If I were gay, I’d be hurt or annoyed at the use of ‘fag’. If I wasn’t, they’d be provoking me to defend my sexuality. Thing was, I was in the middle. I wanted to protest the use of ‘fag’ for the sake of my gay friends, for Joel, but not so much that I’d speak before my lawyer arrived. I was straight, but I wasn’t exactly practicing straight. I liked girls, I liked the way girls looked, but I didn’t actively pursue sex, didn’t invest a lot of my own identity in my sexuality. I was able to relax, get my bearings, knowing they were on the wrong track, the nettling wasn’t working- A hand settled on my knee. I jerked, pulled out of my thoughts, moving my leg to break contact, my hands bracing themselves against the mirror to one side, the desk to the other. The room was still for a few pounding heartbeats. “He didn’t like that,” the guy to my right said. Dunc moved his hand back to his lap. “Nope. I was just going to say, if you are gay, it’s cool. No judgement here.” “Say anything you want,” I said. “But say it without touching me, please.” “Kind of cocky, giving orders in your situation,” the guy behind the desk said. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” Dunc said. He smiled that ever-so-friendly smile of his. “Here, let me move closer, so I can hear you better.” He scooted his chair forward, until we were sitting with one of his feet planted between mine. Invading my personal space, making it impossible to move my legs the way I wanted to without bumping into his. I’d just given them an in. Stupid, stupid. A crack in my defenses, so to speak. “I’m not gay, in case you were worried,” Dunc said. He let the statement hang in the air. More bait. More stuff said to invite a response. “I’ve got a wife and kid. You?” he asked. “Anyone we could call?” “He didn’t say anything about dependents, when we were filling out the arrest sheet,” the other officer said. “I listened to it all, while you were talking to the captain.” Each time Dunc asked a question, it was left out there for a moment before the other guy formed a response. It made for a kind of stilted dialogue, one that someone might have itched to fill in. I had little doubt that if I started talking, I’d be rewarded with a very natural conversation. “Doesn’t sound good, then,” Dunc said. “A single guy, when you’ve got a dead kid in the woods? Our guys looked at the tracks in the snow, traced them back. You meandered a little, but you seemed to know where you were going. If you stopped and changed direction, well, it looks an awful lot like it was because you were looking for landmarks.” “Telling,” his partner said. “Doesn’t like being touched? That’s a story unto itself. Another point against the man, as far as I’m concerned. I wonder what the hatchet and knife were for.” “Twine too.” “Cut up the poor little dead kid, tie it all up with twine?” Dunc asked, leaning forward, further into my personal space. His gaze didn’t waver as his eyes locked with mine. Cold, accusatory. “I think that sort of fucked up speculation suggests an awful lot more about you than it does about me,” I said. He smirked, then leaned back. “You’re not joining in on the small talk, so I don’t have much else to do to while away the time except try to figure out what you did, what you were planning, and why.” “Speculations like why are you out walking out in the woods tonight? Woods a long way from home? Woods that just so happen to have a dead boy crammed in under some large rocks?” “Coincidence,” Dunc said. “Eh? Just random chance?” I needed a way out, and they weren’t giving me a chance to string thoughts together. I had… quite possibly less than twenty four hours to get the last demon bound and handed over to Conquest. I needed more time to talk to the astrologer, to get my ducks in a row so I could actually do something once the demon was captured and handed over. “They found blood on the hatchet. Five second test to do, not a good result,” Dunc said. “Yeah?” his partner said. “Captain said so,” Dunc said. He stood, which put his body a foot or so away from my face, and stretched. Well inside my personal space. Blatant, but it worked. It bothered me. More than a little. “Don’t fidget,” the cop to my right said, his voice low. “Doesn’t look good. Makes you look guilty.” I was bouncing my knee. I stopped. “You really need to calm down,” Dunc said. He sat down, shifting his seat. A jerky, sudden movement that prompted me to do the exact opposite of what he was recommending. Didn’t help that being told to calm down was one of the most enraging things that someone could tell you. Doubly so when that person was an asshole. “Still bugging me,” he said. He leaned closer, “Scars, marks, bleeding… how does a guy get injuries like that?” “Stand in front of the ‘out’ end of a wood chipper?” his partner suggested. “Tell you what,” Dunc said, looking at me. “I’m dying for a coffee. Tell me, even make something up, so long as you make it convincing enough to satisfy my curiosity, and I’ll go get my coffee, and I’ll get you anything you want out of the vending machine. Or out of the break room, if you’re in the mood for something warm.” He moved, sudden, in my space, and I flinched much as I had before, hand gripping table’s edge, so I wouldn’t hit him. But he was only standing, a sudden, forward movement, right when it had looked like he was settling in for a long sit. “Relax,” he said. “Jesus, I’d thought you’d ease up a bit after the first few times.” “PTSD?” his buddy asked. Keep your mouth fucking shut, Blake Thorburn, I told myself. “Might be, but as far as I’m concerned,” Dunc said, “He could be nervous because he’s worried about what’s going to happen to him. Hurting a kid? You’re in for absolute misery. A long, long sentence, nothing good for you in there, nothing good that comes after.” “Law says we need reasonable doubt,” the other guy said. “You know what that is? That’s where anyone who’s not an idiot would be able to say you did it. We’ve got that.” Dunc nodded, still standing so he loomed over me. “You think you’re playing this smart, but this doesn’t matter. It’s formality, rounding things out, answering some questions. TV, movies, they tell you all this stuff about how you’re supposed to play it, but they don’t touch on how it really goes. The reality is that your average cop isn’t a twenty-something actor with capped teeth. I’m about as good looking as they get.” Every smartass, sarcastic, petty part of me strained at the bit to throw in a remark in response to that. “Real cops? Real cops are mostly old men. Baby boomers, crammed into the real jobs, while the rest of us struggle to get by. I had to work my ass off, I had to be smart, get a proper education, get strings pulled, and I only barely squeezed in. You worked hard, maybe, and you weren’t so lucky. Was that it?” “This is where I’m supposed to tell you I’m one of the clever ones. That I’m one of your only shots at being listened to. But I’m not. If you want to be heard, get your story out there, then you’re going to have to work at it, even with me. Every moment you wait, all those old and stubborn sons of bitches in this building are going to be telling themselves one thing. They’re probably going to decide what the answer is, search out evidence that connect the dots, and things will start building momentum.” “You always hear about the people who go in for decades, when they’re completely innocent. Pattern’s the same,” his buddy said. “Cops want a conviction because of racism, or because the crime’s serious.” “Dead kid serious,” Dunc said. “Yeah… and you’ve got an overworked lawyer who’s not really making money, who’s too busy to show up for a few hours, who fucks up, or who just can’t argue whatever it is that needs to be argued. Guy goes in, and they don’t get out until it turns out the DNA tests were fucked up, or the Judge was a lunatic.” “Tragedy,” Dunc said. “You’re making it sound like your average cop is pretty shitty at their job,” I said. “Honestly?” Dunc asked. He leaned against the wall. “The average cop is pretty darn good. But average is average. You think about what average usually gets you, and then you figure that half the people out there are below that average. That’s anywhere. Even here. And you can be better than average, while still having a trend that isn’t so good. Like having an awful lot of good cops who are still guys. Guys with families, wives, girlfriends, kids, guys who just want to work and go home at the end of the day.” “I get what you’re saying,” his partner said. “Good guys, but you spend too many years on a job, you’ll start to take shortcuts, move things along…” “Human nature,” Dunc said. “You don’t look like the sort that puts an awful lot of stock in the inherent good of human beings.” Truth be told, I believed what he was saying. That people would be inclined to take shortcuts, that this sort of thing happened. I met his eyes, but I didn’t agree. “Swing and a miss, Dunc. I-” A knock on the window interrupted me, loud enough to make me jump. Right next to my ear, no less. It wasn’t so much the surprise that bothered me as being ganged up on. Two guys in the room was bad enough, but the reminder that the other guys in the building were poised to throw me off balance? It got to me. For a moment, I was back under that bridge, being attacked by a group, being thrashed, too many to protect myself against. Yet my answer didn’t change. I thought of the Knights. Of Maggie. Of Paige. Of Joel, Alexis, Tiffany, and my other friends. Hell, of Evan that tenacious little boy who’d held out as long as he had. They outweighed the bad. They’d helped me out. I did believe in the inherent goodness of humanity. “One second,” Dunc said. He had a smug half-smile on his face. They’d called him, and they’d timed it to interrupt at just the right moment. No doubt there was a procedure for interrogations, and putting me off balance was part of it. Dunc opened the door, blocking it with his body so I couldn’t see out. I only heard bits. Lawyer. Coffee. Behaim. As that last word was spoken, he looked over his shoulder at me. I looked, and I saw the connections that emanated from him. Nothing strange, nothing that suggested anything special. But, still, there was a connection, one that moved in the same direction one of my connections did. Right in the direction of Jacob’s Bell. A moment passed, and he returned to the room, a large mug in hand, something topped with foam. A latte. “Your lawyer’s here,” he said, stirring his latte. He took a seat, smiling. “Be just a second.” My lack of response this time was a wary one, not a sensible one. “If that’s the case, I’m going to pop out and get myself something to drink,” his partner said. “Sure, Max,” Dunc replied. I tracked the connections, saw the people moving. Reorganizing. I saw the focus drop away from Dunc and me both, from the other side of that mirror. I saw the sole remaining connection flicker and die. Something digital. There were the two of us in the room, and nobody was looking. Dunc picked up his latte and rested it on one knee, scooting back a little, respecting my space. I could see the foam. He’d drawn a rune into it, so it floated on top of his drink. I was reminded of the first time I’d seen a rune. In a coffee shop, no less. “Dunc… Behaim?” I asked. “Duncan Behaim,” he confirmed. “Officer Duncan Behaim, to be exact.” “Laird’s your dad?” “Uncle,” he said. “He’s my uncle. The family likes to have a few key people in spots around the town, to keep an eye on things. People who can fly under the local Lord’s radar, for the most part, keep an eye on important business.” “You know I didn’t do this,” I said, “don’t you?” He nodded. He smiled some, “I kind of wish they hadn’t let that slip. This next part would be far more effective if you were in the dark.” “What goal does this serve?” I ask. “Hurting me for the sake of hurting me?” “You’re a diabolist,” he said. “You’re a threat to the family, you went after Uncle Laird, you’re a threat to everything. I don’t even have to get you sent to jail. All I have to do, apparently, is keep you in custody for the next twenty-four hours. Anything else is extra.” “You hate me,” I said. “I don’t. Honestly. I do think you’re dangerous. I think you’re even the unwitting sort of dangerous, which you get when you have too much knowledge and not enough information.” “And if this goes sour? If you push me a step too far, and I say the wrong name a few too many times?” “Oh, I’m going to stay close. I can bend certain rules, ensure that nobody thinks too hard about my presence somewhere. If you start, then you prove we’re right, that you’re a monster that needs to be put down. I fill you with bullets, and then the family, our new allies included-” “The Duchamps.” “-The Duchamps… they all help to bend more rules, shift things to a satisfying conclusion. Altered memories, altered focus, a bit of rewriting and pressure in the right places. I walk away free and clear, having served my family and all of humanity.” “The extras I talked about? Putting you away for a long time? It’s sensible. It means things like what happened in Etobicoe don’t happen again.” “I bound that thing,” I said. “And you gave it away.” “There’s more going on than you understand.” “I know just about everything that’s gone on. I know that this is one situation where crippling you, reducing you to something smaller, it’s for the best. We already have officers talking to your friends, who may well not be your friends after this. They’re turning your apartment upside-down. Above all else, we’re going to keep you for the day. Your lawyer isn’t magical. When it counts, I can shift things one way or the next, and you’re not in a position to stop me.” “Cheating the system you serve,” I said. “Serving the system with a little cheating,” he said. “Nudges, but nudges are all we need.” “Nudges like the ones you used to keep me from noticing the eyes on me, or that you were a practitioner?” He smiled, but he didn’t answer my question. “A friendless, homeless diabolist is easier to keep track of. If we dismantle you, then your actions reach only so far. They’re easier to contain. This is doubly true if you’re forsworn, or you’ve upset the local Lord through an inability to carry out the tasks you were set. If you die, our family can deal with the next member of your family. If you don’t… if you’re reduced to a husk of a man in a cell, well, the family gets its peace and quiet until we do need you to die.” “How do you know everything?” “Simple,” he said. “I asked.” Asked. Asked who? I didn’t imagine he’d tell me. He shifted position, looking from latte to door. “The effect is weakening. Breaks plausibility if we delay them too long. Best I break the rune now. On your best behavior, diabolist.” He dropped the full latte into the trash can. Breaking the rune in the process, I supposed. A moment later, the door opened. “Mrs. Harris,” my lawyer introduced herself. I had the impression of a forty year old who looked fifty. Her hair was bleached platinum blonde, her roots showed. That aside, she looked more crisp than I’d expected of a free, crown-appointed lawyer. Not attractive, her face wrinkled by years of stress, but she wasn’t frumpy or rumpled. “Hi, Mrs. Harris, I’m Blake Thorburn,” I said. “I’ve got your file here,” she said. She took the chair that had been previously occupied by Duncan’s partner. “Given the severity of the charges arranged against you, may I very earnestly recommend a lawyer you’re actually paying?” “You can, but unless you’re giving me the cash to do it with,” I said, “I don’t really have the option… the only lawyers I could pay would be one I really don’t want to be in debt to.” I saw Duncan smile a bit. “Even with a murder charge?” “Even with,” I said. She twisted in her seat, looking at the two officers. “Give us some privacy?” Duncan smiled some, but he joined his partner and left. The door clicked shut. The recording device in the other room clicked off, very deliberately this time. Not a rune-induced flickering out. “Do you have property you could sell?” she asked. Did I? I had my bike. I couldn’t help but feel like selling it would be like giving up my last vestige of hope for a normal life, after all this was said and done. A faint, stupid, silly hope, but I couldn’t imagine a scenario where I put this whole Diabolist, Thorburn, Laird, Conquest, Demon thing to rest, and I didn’t have the opportunity to ride. “No,” I said. “I’m basically one step below a starving artist. I’m the guy who lives off the generosity of the artists.” “And a recently acquired property worth a considerable amount.” “Can’t sell it, can’t really do anything with it. If I could have, I would have already.” “I’m not going to be able to do a very good job for you,” she said. “This would actually be my first murder trial.” “I appreciate anything you can do, Mrs. Harris,” I said. “But quite frankly, I think I’m pretty damn screwed.” “Did you talk to them?” I shook my head. “Not really.” “Good,” she said. All that effort, and all I got was a ‘good’. She fished in her bag, then pulled out a notebook. “Blake Thorburn. They’re accusing you of murdering a little boy. What can you tell me?” I finally had a moment to think, and the thoughts weren’t coming together. “I… was told to go to that location, earlier. I did, except the police were told something else. They arrived at the same time.” “You think you were set up?” “I most definitely think so,” I said. “Why you?” “I can’t say for sure. What I can say is that I have custody of a property worth a surprising amount of money.” She nodded. “You think it was a family matter, then?” “I think it was a family, two families in particular, but I don’t think it was mine,” I said. The two cops entered the room. “Your superior officer, too?” Mrs. Harris asked. “I know he’s watching.” I turned my eyes to the mirror. An older man with peppery hair and a mustache entered our already cramped interrogation room. “My client alleges that Officer Behaim here has been influenced by an outside party, a Laird Behaim of the Jacob’s Bell Police Department?” “My uncle,” Duncan said. “This same Laird Behaim was apparently questioned recently about the circumstances surrounding the death of a Molly Walker?” “And it comes full circle,” Duncan said. “Your client’s cousin.” “You were aware of this?” the older man asked. “Not entirely.” “Whatever the justification or explanation, whether it’s true or not, I think it’s sensible to remove your Officer Behaim from this particular case.” The older man frowned. “Yes. Of course.” “And, further, my client is concerned because your officer threatened to shoot him, only moments before we entered the room. If we could check the recording device?” “If there’s any such threat-“ “Or sign of tampering,” I cut in. I saw Duncan roll his eyes. My lawyer gave me a sour look. “Yes, or sign of tampering, then we feel it would be best if Officer Behaim here were removed from the vicinity entirely.” “You want me removed from duty?” Duncan asked. “I’m a damn good interrogator-“ “From the building,” Mrs. Harris said. “Whether you’re removed from duty is up to your superior officer.” “Fair enough,” the older man said. “Borrow your pad?” Duncan asked his partner, as they left the room. Fuck. A rune? No. Probably something damning, though. This was all I could do to defuse the biggest threat. I didn’t expect we’d really be able to get rid of him, but… well, at least he wouldn’t be interfering or working magic mojo on me. He’d wanted to play it up, to get smug, lord it over me? I’d use it against him. I was left alone, door locked, while they all shifted to the neighboring room to look at the device. When they returned, Duncan Behaim wasn’t with them. No mention was made of him. But, I noted, his partner Max held the pad of paper. “Let’s get you on record about what happened,” the older man said. He looked to Duncan’s partner. “Max?” “What brought you to those woods tonight?” “I was told to go there earlier today.” “By?” “I don’t think I could give you a name if I wanted to,” I said. “And you went? No name, just a request, and you traveled halfway across the city to a very specific destination?” “Yes,” I said. There wasn’t really a better answer available. He glanced down at the sheet. “This evening, when you found the body, that was your first time seeing Evan Matthieu?” That one fucking moment’s hesitation probably felt ten times longer than it actually was. “That was the very first time I saw him in the flesh,” I said. “Have you seen him when it wasn’t in the flesh?” he asked. “I had no contact with him online,” I said. Deflect, deflect. “Or by phone.” “More specifically… yes or no?” “That’s a very odd question,” I said, buying time to think. “To be entirely blunt,” Max told me, “My partner wrote down the word ‘schizophrenic’ with a very large question mark. He’s noted the signs he believe point to this… disheveled appearance, question mark. Hoarding objects and tools, question mark. Self inflicted damage, question mark. Duncan Behaim has an uncanny knack for being right in his assessment of people. Do you see things, Mr. Thorburn?” “We all see things. It’s why we have eyes,” I said. “Don’t try to be clever,” my lawyer whispered to me. “I’ll try to be clearer. Do you see aliens?” “He wrote down all those questions, huh?” I asked. “Yes. Do you see aliens?” “Not as far as I’m aware,” I said. He was reading questions off the paper, and I knew what was coming next. I had to lay groundwork. “But I’m open minded to possibilities.” “Do you see ghosts, goblins, grumpkins or anything in that vein?” “I’m open minded to possibilities,” I said. “Try to be specific. Yes or no?” “He insisted on yes or no answers, didn’t he?” I asked. “I find it curious,” Mrs. Harris said, “That you’re relying so heavily on the input of an officer we asked to leave the area.” “He’s one of our best interrogators, if not the best,” the older man said. “I’m more curious that your client is so disconcerted by this line of questions.” “You’re implying that I’m crazy,” I said. “We’re implying nothing at this stage,” the older man said. “We’re only asking simple questions.” He indicated for Max to continue. “Yes or no, do you see goblins or anything in that general neighborhood?” “Do I… have to answer?” I asked. “You don’t have to do anything,” my lawyer said, “You have the right to not have to give testimony against yourself. But yes, it might be a very good idea to answer.” “In that case. I exercise my rights, and I don’t answer,” I said. I could see the change in expression on the officer’s faces. “Pursuant to section eleven,” Mrs. Harris said. There were nods. “Do you see goblins every day? Going about their business?” I sighed, leaning back. “I exercise my right to not self-incriminate.” “Do you see demons?” “I exercise my right to not self-incriminate.” “Do these goblins or demons ever tell you what to do?” Yes, Pauz had. “I exercise my right to not self-incriminate.” “Was it these goblins or demons, or something in that general neighborhood, that told you to seek out the boy in the woods?” That’s a pretty broad neighborhood. “I exercise my right to not self-incriminate.” This was going to keep going? I looked at my lawyer, but I only saw a note of pity. “Earlier, you said you were told to go to those woods. By someone or something without a name. Was this someone or something a person you can identify?” “I exercise my rights, section eleven.” He looked down at the page, as if reviewing the questions. After a pause, he asked, “Let me return to my earlier question. Did you have contact with Evan Mattheiu prior to that point we found you in the woods?” I could feel the tension in the air. “I exercise my rights not to self-incriminate.” Silence yawned on. I fidgeted. I didn’t care, at this point. I was brimming with a sick kind of nervousness. The sort of nervousness that went beyond the nervousness of ‘what if I get fucked/hurt/ruined’ and into the ‘when‘. I was the one driving nails into my own coffin, now. “Do you need to talk to your client?” the older man asked Mrs. Harris. “Yes, but… maybe in the morning, if you’ll accommodate me? I need time to prepare, and… yes.” “That works,” the older officer said. “You’ll be taken into custody,” Mrs. Harris said. “Nothing more should follow until I’m contacted first?” The officer nodded. “For now, stay put, say nothing more, and we’ll see what options we have. Unless you’d like to reconsider your options, as far as legal aid or who will represent you?” Mundane options wouldn’t get me anywhere better. Well, maybe a slightly better place. But my time and energy were better spent working outside the box. On that note, magical options for aid? It might well be sheer stubbornness at this point, but no. I knew what those lawyers would ask for, and somehow that bothered me more than if it were up in the air. They were planning something, trying to subvert me, and it seemed like too easy a road to take. I couldn’t play along. Even if it meant jail, or, worse, an asylum. “Why don’t you take him downstairs, Max?” the older officer asked. “By himself, so he’s safe, with supervision.” ‘Max’ reached for me, and instinctively Ieaned away from his hand. Which probably didn’t hurt the ‘crazy as fuck’ image. He remained stock still, not reacting to my flinch. “Turn around.” “Hands.” I gave him my hands. “I’m not going to touch you,” he said, “Since you don’t like that. But that’s only so long as you cooperate.” “I’ll cooperate,” I said. He indicated the door. The older man opened it. There were so many eyes on me, as I was guided out of the interrogation room. Duncan Behaim’s among them. Fuck, to put it lightly. I saw two adults, and a little boy. The adults stared at me with red, puffy eyes. The little boy broke away from the pair of them. He passed effortlessly through the people and objects in the way, before falling in step with me, walking just to my right. I glanced back at Duncan, and I saw him glance down at the little boy and raise eyebrows. Evan’s body, it seemed, was somewhere in the building. Somewhere close, in any event. Good. I needed all the help I could get. If there was even a chance at getting out of this, much less getting out of this with my life intact, it was a damn slim chance. I’d done everything right, near as I could figure, and I’d still been screwed. The natural answer was that I’d need to do something wrong to get out of this. Fuck that. With all sincerity, fuck that idea backwards and forwards. I was not going down that road. I’d need some more help than just Evan, if I was going to get out of this and seize that slim chance. ast Chapter Next Chapter ← Gathered Pages: 4 Conviction 5.2 → 308 thoughts on “Conviction 5.1” No Thurs chapter this week – I’m trying to alternate one on, one off, for the sake of my sanity, and there’s a special Wildbow-centric event later this week, which merits a small vacation-ish time anyways. On the chapter: still sort of writing outside my comfort zone some, and I do sort of approach writing with the mentality that it’s lame when a story doesn’t do the psychologist/legal/whatever stuff right, so I’m doing my best here. I expect the lawyers and cops are going to go nuts on me anyhow. Just thought to let you guys know about thurs, and thanks again for your support. /salute. Diabolist says: I enjoyed this chapter, and I’m glad you showed us Black Lamb’s Blood so we know the context of something wrong, as well as the importance of Blake avoiding the Godzilla threshold, unlike so many other diabolists. Sengachi says: Happy birthday! (If the Wildbow-centric event is, in fact, your birthday.) Otherwise, I simply wish you a happy day. Have a happy Wildbow-centric event ! Happy Wildbowday! May your plotting of grisly deaths for your main characters be pleasant and joyous! Stephen M (Ethesis) says: Been a while since I’ve handled criminal law but it was very authentic. Hmmm. Conviction. I can see this going down two (not mutually exclusive) paths. Conviction as in Blake is convicted of a crime. Conviction as in Blake now has a firm belief that pushes him forward. This may very well be the first major turning point in the story. Blake gains (or avoids) a new conviction, forcing/motivating him in his future endeavors. Whatever happens, I’m looking forward to this arc! Innominate says: The chapters so far have had double meanings sometimes, though that may be because it’s easy to interpret one-word titles in different ways. Bonds: family bonds, words becoming binding (practitioner oath), encounters with the bound Barbatorem. Damages: Blake unintentionally lies (damaging his practice), damages Laird’s reputation, Laird damages Blake’s chances at an alliance with Maggie. Breach: Blake breaches the Behaim/Duchamp gathering, the sanctuary of the house is breached. Collateral: Rose is kept by Conquest as collateral, Pauz affects Blake to spread “radiation”. Since the legal system is highly unlikely to hammer out a conviction in under 24 hours my guess is that it doesn’t refer to a legal conviction directly, just the possibility of one. Your hypothesis is probably also going to apply. However it could also mean that the Behaims and Duchamps come to strongly believe that Blake is an immediate diabolical threat. Oh, and wouldn’t it be interesting if there was some way to erase the troubles facing Blake? You know, retroactively alter memory and the world so that a certain meddlesome police officer never existed, thus removing much of the impetus behind his legal troubles. If only there was some entity Blake has to encounter in the next 24 hours that could make that happen… You also overlooked the legal sense of the word “damages”, meaning an amount owed to another party due to negligence or wrongdoing, which of course is quite relevant. ” If only there was some entity Blake has to encounter in the next 24 hours that could make that happen…” Except that Blake is far too nice to do that. FairyWerepyreWraith says: He shall call for the great ornament! Roger Willcocks says: “Hot Pursuit” Oops That last idea is tantalizing, but it goes against his silent oath at the end of the chapter. It’s a very poetic upping the ante – third failure and the Behaims lose exactly what Blake’s family did. However, it requires either bail or Conquest having the same mission after Blake’s release. It also is an internal step from “I want to get out, and I’ll gift property space to do it.” To be true, I’d love to see how a practitioner of time is affected by an other that deletes memories. Blake has personally decided “Fuck that. In theory, he hasn’t actually sworn an oath. If Duncan Behaim is willing to believe that Blake was manipulated by Laird to MAKE a diabolist – which seems likely, since Molly was killed and the more aggressive Blake was not… An oath not to go down that path could help seal it. mahasim says: I could practically feel the anxiety coming off Blake. I’m trying to figure out how Blake’s going to turn in his quest before the deadline. I guess I will start the typo thread: made made if I looked at the floor Etobicoe ??? place in Ontario, presumably correct Self inflicted usually Self-inflicted Mattheiu / Mathieu Ieaned (starts with a capital I) leaned Sheaman3773 says: Arc 5 (Conviction Missing a closing parenthesis. Yes, I did just point out a typo that wasn’t even in the chapter proper. Globus says: Also “ast chapter” in the end. Makes a nice bookend with that. ‘Max’ reached for me, and instinctively Ieaned away from his hand. –and I This chapter was great. This one’s still broke. From the context, seems that the police officer should have said “We need ‘beyond reasonable doubt’… that’s where anyone who’s not an idiot would say you did it.” since the police want to convict Blake Mian says: nah, that’s an intentional slip. They need probable cause. He just reframed it for a lay person. Done as part of pushing him to talk Yes, but he’s reframed it badly, and intentionally so. Etobicoe should be Etobicoke. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etobicoke Note – the “ke” is silent. “the only lawyers I could pay would be one I really don’t want to be in debt to.” Should be “the ones”. I think that there’s a comma missing after “Evan.” Formatting? ianfischer says: Single quote below should be a double quote: “Fair enough,’ he said. Possibly better without the second “out”: “out walking out in the woods” Should probably read “and I instinctively” below: “‘Max’ reached for me, and instinctively Ieaned away from his hand.” It should be ‘officer’s face’ or ‘officers’ faces.’ Or this is foreshadowing that one of the policemen is actually an Other with more than one face 😉 I found only one that you haven’t mentioned and that hasn’t been fixed. “‘Max’ reached for me, and instinctively Ieaned away from his hand.” –> I instinctively leaned away. and I instinctively Toronto P.D is Duncan’s workplace, it probabbly has more protections and he’ll get rid of Evan soon. Attacking Duncan’s rep here will be futile, suing the the police department while in custody is a no-go, police brutality gambit is even worse, no glamour to bluff his way out, legal proceedings will be dragged out over 24 hours, calling out the Big O for the 7th time…nah. Blake’s screwed. Conquest, I’m fairly certain, can just go ‘YANK’ and out Blake comes. But that means it’s torture time. But Rose is the one with the bondage connection, not Blake. I think it would take a bit more effort than that. Now if only Blake could figure out a way to reverse the connection so Rose be the one with their combined powers, free to get going with Conquest’s last quest while Blake’s comatose in the police station. Oh, that’s beautiful. It’s plausible scenario, noting it will be a showdown against ‘abstract’ demon, in ‘abstract’ realm? That would be awesome. I can also say that I can imagine this line from Rose at some point. “Blake’s the one who promised to never use a demon on you. I’m not so nice.” When did Blake promise such a thing? He made an offer at the council meeting, but nobody took it. This idea is beautiful. That would be sweet. This story has Blake on such a ragged edge. I’d like a little break from that — and the worry the police get from him in a coma. tatonka2000 says: That is a crazy cool idea, but I wouldn’t think Blake capable of either figuring out how to do this on his own or being selfless and trusting Rose that much. He’s been strongarming himself into trusting her by even making tons of promises which force him to follow that path, but he doesn’t seem to like trusting her at all. Perhaps, but there’s a connection between Blake and Rose, just as there is between Rose and Conquest. I see no reason why the two can’t work the same. Of course, we don’t want Conquest to need to take that option, but there you are. Conquest’s connection to Rose is specifically designed to “yank,” the connection ‘twixt the Thorburn’s is not. I see a whole host of reasons why the two wouldn’t work the same. Put another way, all you’ve stated here is “there is a connection.” This world is all about connections; Blake has one to Toronto, for instance, and Jacob’s bell, so could Conquest “yank” that? Great opening chapter. Supposing Blake is ultimately hurt by this attack, would this be Laird’s round 3 or Duncan’s round 1? Laird’s round three, all of the systems in this universe, like karma, others, and power, tend to be family central, so Duncan and Laird count as one, especially since Blake’s earlier attacks were against the Behaims in general, with Laird being the prime target. ghgh says: Remember in the one demon binding we’ve seen, how there were clauses to ensure that other inheritors that come after Blake would carry out the terms of the contract? I think Karma only passes down along the family line because that was part of some deal early in the family history. That and/or that when you fully ally yourself someone or some group or family, then maybe you share their karma. Note that the non-magical Thorburns don’t seem to have bad karma, only the inheritors that buy into the family practice. Also, I believe Fell wasn’t born into Conquest’s service so much as his father was forces to trick him into it. I’m not quite sure that the non-practitioner Thorburns are immune; I mean, look at how f-ed up they all are. Not that it requires bad karma, but it certainly would help things along. Though perhaps it’s the practitioner members that suffer the brunt of it? Not to mention: “Sufficient for the non-practitioners who stumble on ways to give themselves bad karma.” (2.04) So I would say that non-practitioners can suffer from bad karma, yes. Not to mention the students that Isadora mentors every so often. It has been indicated that non-practitioners are largely (but not completely) shielded from the effects of karma. Awakening opens a person up to the Other – including the ramifications of karma. So smug. Is the whole Behaim clan made of smug fuckers? ’cause it seems so. Anyways, chapter was nice but I wish Blake could go at least 3 paragraphs without being screwed in new and different ways. I know his family has a karmic debt the size of Alaska but it gets a little silly all the bad things that happen. I guess karma works in contrived ways. Also, we need an Evan/Dead boys detectives crossover. They’re on the case! hound md says: Anyways, chapter was nice but I wish Blake could go at least 3 paragraphs without being screwed in new and different ways. My feelings exactly. Yes, it would be nice to have a little while where Blake isn’t more fucked over. Of course then the moment we let our gaurd down he’d be even more fucked over than ever. suntzuanime says: The karmic debt is a nice all-purpose excuse for Wildbow’s sadistic tendencies toward his protagonists. In Worm it sometimes felt unfair, in Pact it’s just, welp, you should have known better than to have been born into the Thorburn family. Dudeman says: It’s not that contrived–most of the situations are engineered by people or sentient beings. In this case, Duncan Behaim, who in turn was maneuvered by Laird, caused the bad situation. People feel they should work against him and often have justifications for that feeling, (diabolist, has magical nukes, prosperity will increase with him gone, etc.) some of which probably contribute to that feeling on their own. That’s well within the bounds of reasonable influence explained by the karma system. For me, what I find hardest to believe is that Blake has managed to not die so far in his interactions with Others. I can understand that his interactions with people will largely be tamer (not trying to directly kill him) so they don’t get bad karma for being dishonorable, but his interactions with a lot of Others has been ridiculously dangerous. Then again, it’s a story, and oftentimes the stories worth telling (true or not) are about an extraordinary or unlikely sequence of events. My theory is that so far, Blake has been adventuring with a companion he met early on. This companion has helped to keep Blake alive so far. She will soon be eaten by the erasure demon. What we are reading now are the events after they have been retroactively changed to deal with the lack of companion connections. Jernik says: That’s an intriguing theory, what sort of evidence do you have for it? It’s pure speculation based on the facts that a) We know that there is a creature that erases all aspects of a person that Blake is supposed to face b) Blake has done an extremely effective job of not being horribly murdered c) the story is told as though it happened in the past. Sinfish says: The major problem is that they’re repeatedly trying to intimidate a man with an arsenal of nukes. How did his family accrue their karmic debt? By firing nukes off, repeatedly. The antagonists are, to be succinct, morons, every last one of them, and in no sensible reality would they have managed to accrue any meaningful power because they would have annoyed somebody and been squashed long since. They’re acting like they’re Saudi kings when they’re in fact local thugs. An idea: Blake knows runes for moving stuff, wind and unlocking things. Could he use these to go on a The Fugitive style escape? Blake: I didn’t kill that boy! Dunc: I don’t care! I can see that happening. I can’t guess whether he’d go to Conquest or to the erasing devil to escape the ensuing chase, though. ciss says: Wow! Great job with this chapter! I’m blown away! Tagg says: The day Blake finally gets to wipe those smug Behaim smirks off will be an incredible one, but at the moment things aren’t looking good. I don’t know which will be better, Blake eventually beating the Behaims, or when Elmo [censored] Caillou. efs says: Blake beating Behaims. Oscar the Grouch, once the story got going, was a non-entity. By the time Snuffleupagus told her off, Snuffleupagus didn;t even need to do anything anymore. Snuffleupagus was way beyond him. But oh, ooooh how the Behaims need to be smacked. Fair enough, but Barney the Dinosaur, by being so far above Tinky Winky, gives him such a glorious de-pantsing, and in a sense, violates a part of Tinky Winky’s very being. Please don’t spoiler Worm. It makes for a lot of comment editing for me, which is a really tiresome, laborious process. It’s not what I want to be doing with my spare time. My apologies, I really didn’t think that that would be to spoilerish, I respect the work you do and was trying to avoid spoilers Please don’t “patch” spoilers by replacing the character names with Snuffleupagus and so on — I’m working on a massive and ingenious Pact/Sesame Street/Barney/Teletubbies cross-over fanfic, and nearly panicked just now, thinking my secret manuscript had been stolen & published by someone else. I don’t want to spoiler myself, but the de-pantsing of Tinky Winky is pretty crucial indeed. But there’s no Elmo/Caillou hanky-panky; this is not that kind of fanfic! I must thank you for making this comment. I assumed Wildbow did the normal, boring censor thing to the spoilery comments. Had you not made this comment, I would have missed out on the funny. I love how you handled it. Here’s the number one thing you folks that haven’t read Worm need to no about it. Worm is awesome and you should read it. Go on, it’ll give you something to do inbetween the Pact updates. MrFrumpish says: I will be very happy if it tops Ernie killing Bert. [Wildbow here – don’t spoil! It wastes my time when I have to edit comments] Ummm. . . spoilers! Careful with the Worm spoilers. And I don’t want Laird and Sandra dead. I want them booted. By which I mean, I want them kicked out of being the heads of their families, and exiled. The younger generation tired of being dragged into messes and wars they start, and having to do what the elders tell them siding with Blake, and leaving them in disgrace. Ah yes, sorry about that. I just assume that anyone who is reading Pact has read Worm. I am tempted to post some spoilers so Wilbow will edit them,this was seriously a top laugh. Can he get in touch with Fell / Conquest? There might be some minor help there, especially if he points out that Duncan Behaim is a hidden practitioner who is screwing Conquest’s business. As a matter of fact, if blowing the deal with Conquest doesn’t immediately kill Blake, Duncan’s cover is gone anyway. What is Duncan going to say to the local lord he has deceived for years? So Evan’s body and ghost are both in the building. Which might be significant, but I don’t see how. Blake has given no evidence of knowing the familiar ritual. Can Blake get rid of the body? With no allies available? That would help, but too many people have seen it already, so habeas corpus is no longer his friend. At best, it would raise the question of the police’s competence. And Blake is being awfully stubborn about not using Mann, Levinn, and Lewis. I see his point – one more step on the road to damnation, but not using a free out is… hardcore about his beliefs. Oddball thought of the evening: can Blake make Evan visible for a while? That would shake things up a bit. There might be some minor help there, especially if he points out that Duncan Behaim is a hidden practitioner who is screwing Conquest’s business. I don’t think Duncan is hidden. It would be trivial for other practitioners to see the family connection, given that Blake can (he even has the surname Behaim). Also I think he’s been talking to Fell, and that’s how he knew where Blake was going to be. Blake has only met a handful of the big players in Toronto. There’s probably a Duchamp coven lying around as well. Which might be significant, but I don’t see how. You don’t see how Blake being locked up with an escape artist ghost/familiar-in-potentia is significant? ;P Not that he necessarily can escape physically (they know who he is, for one thing, and he has no tools), but the symbolism ought to work for escaping situations of any sort. habeas corpus is no longer his friend. Habeas corpus is the right to be brought before the court (i.e. to be present at your own trial). “Also I think he’s been talking to Fell, and that’s how he knew where Blake was going to be.” Good catch, and it just moved to the top of my list of possibilities because that would be such a major screw job for Blake: Blake: “Fell, Duncan Behaim is a local practitioner who has been hiding from Conquest and is screwing up Conquest’s plans.” Fell: “We know. I told him all about you.” “You don’t see how Blake being locked up with an escape artist ghost/familiar-in-potentia is significant?” If Blake can enact a familiar ritual or figure out another way for a non-poltergeist ghost to help. Without magical tools or any tools really. In the custody of a man who will definitely know what is going on and block it. Evan may be a good escape artist in potentia, but there’s a limit. Police cells and stations are very much designed to hold people in the way that open wilderness areas are not. I get you point about symbolism, and magic is all about it, but Duncan is not going to let things just happen. “Habeas corpus is the right to be brought before the court.” Oops. I was thinking of the requirement to produce the evidence against you. At this point, even if the body vanishes, too many people have seen it. Hmm… I wonder if soul!Evan could play puppeteer with his old carcass for a minute. Or long enough to let Blake out from obvious lack of charges. What if the abstract eats the body? That’s a good point, he can call Fell. Blake needs to start chanting: Deus ex Machina, Deus ex Machina, Deus ex Machina . . . And then a bigger fish was summoned to eat the Toronto Police Department. But then Blake will have to deal with Leviathan, and Scion won’t be any help because of Blake’s karmic debt. ShawnMorgan says: Evan possesses his own body, which may very well be reasonably well preserved. talks to his own parents and give a royal yelling at the Toronto PD. HE then tells them what happened truthfully and he then has a real go at Duncan because he knows what Duncan is up to and also has a go at the Toronto PD for failing in their duty to protect Evan blasting their rep and bring a lot of people into the knowing of the other stuff. Evan’s parents are shocked but upon knowing the truth thank Blake for his efforts on BEHALF of their son and they then also blasts Duncan who is now suffering disaster dominos. Since this would be Evan’sown doing and a result of Duncan’s the Karmic debt should accrue on the Behaims and then a lot of people suddenly know what laird is up to, maybe to the point of are opening the murder investigation. The title is Conviction, The question possibly is: Who’s? I’m ok with this up to the point where Evan breaks the masquerade. Can’t see any good coming from that. They probably checked for a pulse before bagging the body, but it’s probably best to leave them wondering what kind of freak hypothermia coma could cause it. Just leave the morgue and go to your parents while crying that you’re scared. No need for constructed arguments. But… it probably won’t happen like that. Too easy I guess ? If he still has the hair that gives a lot of options. Glamour a cop into looking like Blake. Glamour a Blake into looking like Cop. Burn Evan’s corpse. Glamour Evan into looking like an Evan. Hey, that’s an idea! Blake could use glamour to make Evan a real Faerie and hide the human corpse! It, and the jar of glamour-ink as well, was confiscated. The locket was taken from him and will not be given back until he gets out. The police officer opened the locket in the park, so the hair might be lost anyway. You’re assuming they didn’t get rid of the locket. Considering that it was one of Laird’s family who knows this kind of stuff and the fact that he probably used glamour in the past, that hair is gone. fs says: oh, hell. i am feeling so much hate towards the Behaims right now, I WANT Blake to sic not one demon on them but a whole choir.. At some point SOON we are going to need a histories chapter that mildly removes the pressure of wanting to kill them from between my eyes. i find it hard to believe such a chapter is possible, but on the other hand I believe in wildbow… this chapter was well done but downright painful to read. KJ;GHDFIHJFKDWG;LKHBJFDJ;VKGJKHG;J;KG BEHAIMS DIE. I like Blake, he’s a likeable protagonist but I don’t fully understand the hate towards the Behaims/Duchamps. It’s been made abundantly clear that a) this is a nasty world where you can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs and b) that diabolists are, in general, bad news and demons are SERIOUS bad news. The Behaims are motivated by a desire to protect and strengthen the family, and remove the danger represented by the Thorburns. Their means may be unpleasant but no more than anyone else’s and if the greater good is served by eliminating Blake then their actions are defensible. If the story were from Laird’s perspective he would be the likeable one and Blake would be a misguided kid in over his head and threatening to take everything down with him. I suspect that most of it comes from the way that all the Behaims we’ve seen have been smug and gloated. Like, a ton. That family has a gloating problem. I mean, I get that gloating and explaining to your enemy what you’re going to do before following through has tangible benefits in this setting, but the Behaims just take it way too far. Laird in particular I think is driven by more than just a desire to protect his family. He wants to be Lord of Jacob’s Bell. Remember that he’s the one that is driving the charge against the Thorburns. If ensuring the Thorburns don’t deal in diabolism is what he wants, then driving them into a corner is a rather obvious way to not do that. He even told Blake that it’s the natural instinct for someone cornered to lash out with whatever they can, so he knows the risks. He doesn’t care. He’s willing to murder innocent people to have his way. His dedication to his family is admirable, but he’s pretty lousy when it comes to anyone who gets in his way. You can bet that if he was a diabolist he’d likely become one of the unrepentant. Remember too that Laird has allowed Blake to live, while he got Molly killed. Laird /needs/ Blake to be a diabolist – a Thorburn who refuses to deal in demons even enough to be a scapegoat isn’t something he seems to want. That would be just fine… up until the point where Laird orchestrated the death of Molly Walker, bloodying the hands of another newbie practitioner (Maggie) to do so. Up until the point where Laird left Blake at the mercy of Padraic and co. Frankly, I could possibly forgive all of that, even up to the events of Breach… up until the point where he kicked Blake out of his house and allowed him to run to the lawyers for help. There are many, many more ways to “remove the danger represented by the Thorburns” than just killing them. None of this, zero-zip-nothing of it would have occurred if anyone had considered “Hm. This Molly doesn’t seem like the sort of Thorburn heir Rosalyn would have picked. Maybe we can turn her to the side of good.” And your perspective flip only works insofar as people don’t stop to ask “Why, then, is he leaving the kid in over his head?” We hate him because he’s not heroic. We get where he’s coming from, we really do. We’ve seen too much of diabolism to disagree. But he’s a smug, patronizing, two-faced bastard who follows the letter of the law while utterly ignoring its intent. And I refuse to believe that the “greater good” can possibly be served by the murder of an innocent, which Molly was, and which Blake was before Laird started meddling. There’s a mirror! Why don’t they look in the mirror? Normal people can’t see the lack of reflection. gamedesigngraphically says: Joel did in the apartment, opening scene That guy in the subway saw Rose, Andy could see Rose, Pretty much everyone can see Rose. Given that Rose is absent, there should be empty space where Blake’s reflection should be. If I remember right, the guy in the subway saw Blake and thought he was a woman. This was because his lack of magical defenses and state of being magically used-up led to Rose sorta bleeding through their connection and start sorta replacing him. The subway guy didn’t see Rose, he saw Blake wearing Rose’s aspect. Oh god. That’s hilarious. And I bet its on camera too. Oh god and they got asked to check the video for tampering. There gonna get that back. “Yup video is clearly tampered with. Blake isn’t actually IN this one.” Oh, that would just be delicious. If Duncan fixed the audio and not the video… Which is quite possible. I wonder if Blake’s reflection would have appeared if Rose had held up a mirror from her world. (Of course, she’s out of commission anyway. =/) Great chapter. And as usual, Blake’s fucked. He’ll probably have to swallow it up and call either Fell or the lawyers. At least Duncan pretty muched confirmed that Fell did not send the police. Oh, and it seems being a giant douchebag and abusing authority run in the Behaim family. Also, I’m a bit surprised Duncan wasn’t invited at the engagement/ritual party. Or maybe there were so many guests that Blake didn’t remember everyone’s face. nick012000 says: He could also call up the Eye of the Storm, and ask it to help him escape by burning down the police station. They’re both working for Conquest, after all. taulsn says: So easy to get out of, nothing would stick, basically an easy win. If Blake had the time, but he doesn’t so he is mostly screwed. He just needs to be less leery about blowing the supernatural in ways that can’t be covered up. The motion symbol alone, if he got the effect on camera, would convince the cops that something freaky is going on. Heck, he needs to get back into an interrogation room and point out his lack of reflection. Nope. The rational, the sane explanation for that is tampering. If you see it in person the sane explanation is hallucination and/or trickery. The cops will assume they are being played or are going crazy themselves. Now if Blake slaps that motion symbol on something and then slaughters the department with it they won’t know Blake is responsible. (Which will become justifiable in short order if they conspire to frame Blake.) Now the lawyer might be able to convince the cops they are going crazy with the lack of reflection. “Where’s my client?” “Behind you sitting down?” “Very funny, but I know how a mirror works.” “But, but? The reflection! Its gone! What did you do?” “No one is going to fall for this. Look if you aren’t lying you need to see a psychiatrist now.” Duncan Behaim had a rather more detailed and generalized answer than Laird. He may be acceptable. A possibly better response to the ‘ghosts and goblins’ question might be along the lines of: “I don’t want to say yes or no, and the reason involves people close to me and Laird Behaim. I would really appreciate if you could find someone unrelated to him to suggest questions.” Depending on the situation, it might be helpful to include “And even having been that explicit makes me a little afraid.” However, the knowledge required to know if that’s helpful or harmful is not something Blake could have gotten, and additionally there are more cases where it’s harmful. Still… If Blake can re-contextualize this as turning an attack by Laird back on him a third time, that’s going to be huge. Counterattacks and third attempts are both deeply enshrined in the local customs of Others and Practitioners, I suspect. Oh heyo: “I’m dying for a coffee. Tell me, even make something up, so long as you make it convincing enough to satisfy my curiosity, and I’ll go get my coffee, and I’ll get you anything you want out of the vending machine. Or out of the break room, if you’re in the mood for something warm.” Well this is a poorly thought through promise. If Blake satisfies his curiosity he is required to go get Blake ANYTHING he wants out of the vending machine. He needs to have his curiosity satisfied for that. He believes he knows too much for anything Blake says to be both A) Not harmful to Blake and B) Satisfy whatever curiosity he has that isn’t quashed beneath insistence that all Thorburns be made Diabolists and then locked away. IF Blake satisfies his curiosity. A rather big if, and a rather open-ended satisfaction. I notice he didn’t actually specify what he was curious about. “Bring me everything – including the flooring – from the break room.” Now that would be a great way to turn that back on Duncan. I expect people wouldn’t react well to Duncan redecorating Blake’s cell like that. RygelXVI says: Including the air inside the break room. But as funny as that would be, I would be more concerned about the very first part of what he said: “I’m dying for a coffee”. WARNING: SARCASM DETECTED, ACTIVATING ORBITAL FRIENDSHIP CANNON! Yeah, Duncan strikes me as sort of a shit practitioner. He’s: Lied, and made a idiotic promise. Those are newbie mistakes. That’s not sarcasm, it’s hyperbole, which I’m guessing is more acceptable by the universe since it’s at least errs on the side of being true. It is possible that by the justification that, right this moment, Duncan is not immortal, anything involving “I’m dying” without details still counts. Technically. Except that the extra detail is there, he is dying FOR coffee. Not of lack of nutrients which could be gained by consuming coffee. But dying FOR coffee. He must surely now dedicate his life to the service of Coffee. He’s required to get Blake anything Blake wants out of the break room. “Boy it sure would warm my soul if your cashed paycheck were given to me.” What else might be in that break room? Um, strictly speaking, at the time Duncan ins in there? “Bring me your still beating heart in your hand and give it to me” pidgey says: Very satisfying chapter to me. I wasn’t expecting a police scene to be all that interesting at this point, but in the end I was really impressed. I dunno why, but Blake feels a lot more natural to me when he’s flinching from personal contact rather than thinking clearly. More likeable too. Loved the last couple lines. I wish Duncan would, as a cop, be actually slightly concerned with what actually happened to Evan. Or does he already know? Both he and Laird seem not to be very concerned with actually doing their jobs when it comes to practitioners. I hope Blake gets a chance to open up a little with his lawyer. I mean, obviously not completely open, but enough that she can sympathize with him and will actually try to advocate for him. Duncan knows exactly what happened to Evan, I’m sure. If you know that Blake didn’t kill Evan, and you know about the Hyena, the rest follows. Hm. I wonder if Duncan is getting his info directly from Jeremy, or if there’s someone else he “just asked.” The way he said it makes it seem like, while that’s a way you could describe what he did, it’s not remotely the most accurate one. Wonder what Max thinks of all this? What with how his partner mysteriously knew where to find this guy, and it turns out he’s not exactly impartial. Is Max suspecting something less than savory is going on with his partner, and if so, is he willing to do anything about it since it apparently involves the murder of a child? At this point I think that Blake has probably sabotaged himself enough that he can say that he can see ghosts and was talking to Evan’s ghost to find him and they might believe he believes it. Also, I liked Blake deciding that, no, fuck you, cynicism, he believes in the inherent goodness of humanity and he’s going to do what’s right, not screw over the world for the sake of easy solutions. honestly i have to admit that the consistent threads of idealism woven through crapsacky worlds is by far and away my favorite thing about wildbow’s writing. Jeremy Young says: Holy cow. Oh holy cow. Screwed right into a corner. Well done sir! I don’t know how I’ll be able to wait till next time. I don’t know anything about real interrogations (I don’t imagine them like that), but what you had there got me angry by just reading, so definitely effective. Psycho Gecko says: Summon the lawyer demons and he’d be out of there faster than the Behaims and Duchamps could shake that stick up their collective ass. There’s literally no way they could win a case like this against him without using magic. While they’re at it, he can have his attorney call Duncan Behaim and Laird Behaim to the witness stand and ask them if they conspired to send him to jail on false charges. Of course, such questioning has a much greater impact if Canadian courts ask witnesses to swear to tell the truth and the whole truth. He has a right against self-incrimination. These officers, though, can be compelled to answer. Without resorting to magic they’re probably not just going to lose the case, but watch this backlash on them. Video is “tampered” with if you notice Blake not reflecting. Maybe even the video of ARRESTING Blake will show that fail. Plus the fact that once Duncan gets called to the stand its all over. “When you arrested Blake did you believe he killed Evan? So you kidnapped my client? Did you at any point tamper with the video? Did you threaten to shoot my client? Can you explain why Blake has no reflection in this video of you arresting him?” That or they can try to get him committed without too much scrutiny. From what I understand, the video will show Blake’s proper reflection, as normal people would. It would be too much of a liability and likely result in great accumulation of karmatic debt (i.e. lots of people figuring out something is wrong) if grandma Rose’s spell didn’t ensure normal people other than Blake would see his reflection, not something she would do. Nevertheless, if Duncan is called on the stand and swears to tell the whole truth, he’ll have serious problems. The same is true for Blake, however, if he doesn’t have the right to refuse to testify as the defendant. Duncan could always refuse to self-incriminate, whether he is a defendant or a witness. It could still be a lot of trouble though if there is evidence (as in: video being tampered), but if the theory that Blake shows as normal on video is correct, then there probably wouldn’t be enough to mak a case out of it. Not in Canada. The testimony can’t be “used against” him, but he’ll still look fucking insane. We’ve actually seen multiple normals witness the reflection of Rose. Notably Witch Hunter Robin and that one guy on the train. Pretty sure they are gonna have a bad time. Nice anime reference for Witch Hunter Andy, but it backfires when you remember that those witch hunters were actually witches themselves! More seriously, we don’t know what is strange about Witch Hunters, but we know that something is, or Blake would be able to see his connections, and he couldn’t. The subway guy could have been mundane, but might not have been. Even if that is the case–and somehow none of the police noticed Blake’s lack in the giant two-way mirror–we don’t know that it will not show up on video. More data is required! “You had several questions for my client asking if he believes in demons and goblins. Do you believe that demons and goblins exist, officer? Do you and your family have something personal against my client and his family, something that might drive your family to conspire to kill his cousin and arrest him on false charges?” I could easily see a judge not allowing those questions to be asked, given that Blake is explicitly being questioned regarding whether or not he’s schizophrenic. I haven’t experienced a police interrogation personally, but from everything I hear it’s really far, far better to just never talk to them until you have your lawyer present and up to speed. Even when you’re totally sure you’re innocent, and there are no goblins involved. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc for lots & lots of reasons why. And if you’re just going from a general policy of “I can’t talk at all without my lawyer present” then it’s much less difficult to suddenly switch to “I choose to exercise my right not to self-incriminate” when the questions suddenly start leading in a bad direction. Last time Laird & Blake spoke, Laird told Blake that “Goblins” refers to the group that does the dirty work for the person he hired to murder Blake’s sister, right? Mekraken says: What kind of oaths does a police officer in Canada have to swear when they sign up? If they swear to uphold Canadian laws.. that’s not exactly what Duncan is doing. Rafinius says: http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/source/regs/english/2010/elaws_src_regs_r10268_e.htm Someone smarter than me should analyze this for possible loopholes ect. Well, for starters, he has to uphold the Constitution of Canada. If Canada’s constitution is anything like the US’, just that would be a confusing and terrifying endeavor that you’d need to be a law student to properly do in its entirety. Just that makes me inclined to suspect that he bamboozled people into thinking that he took the oath instead. He needs to preserve the peace. Well, preemptively killing diabolists can certainly be seen as that, and his family connections mean that he can be disruptive and they can quiet it down so the peace is preserved. He needs to prevent offences. I’m not entirely certain what this means in legal terminology-he has to stop crimes? It can’t be that, if he’s taken the oath, because he’s currently framing an innocent man for murder. Discharge his other duties. Fairly straightforward, though I’d check just what the Toronto PD is required to do-I wouldn’t be surprised if there are regulations that nobody follows. He has to do all of this faithfully, impartially, and according to the law. Well right off the bat, he’s not faithfully doing his duty, he’s not doing it impartially, and last I checked framing people for murder was not following the law. In conclusion, I am fairly certain that he’s either forsworn or has taken no such oath. Interesting interpretations. I did want to point out, though, that he’s not framing Blake. That would require much more effort than he’s currently expending, for instance. Right now, he’s just not clearing Blake. Not-clearing != framing. I will be loyal to Her Majesty the Queen and to Canada… —No treason? Loyal enough to probably not break the oath. I will uphold the Constitution of Canada… —I am not going to wade through that, but it is probably general enough that he has little problem there. I will, to the best of my ability, preserve the peace, prevent offences… —In their mind, stopping a diabolist is preserving the peace and preventing offenses. … and discharge my other duties as (insert name of office) faithfully, impartially and according to law. —And here’s the rub. This doesn’t say the law of Canada, Ontario, or Toronto. So Duncan and Laird are serving karmic law, which makes it OK to shit on people with bad karma. But overall I agree with Glassware that their behavior comes perilously close to being forsworn, so chances are that they have fudged taking the oath. pookywb says: Fantastic catch on that distinction between Canadian and karmic law. ❤ They’re turning your apartment upside-down. Welp. And suddenly, that note to future heirs that otherwise seemed completely superfluous storywise, since Blake/Rose is the protagonist and certainly not going to die until the final arc, comes rushing into sudden relevance. SlussDogg says: Oooooo…. And there’s also the smashed bathroom mirror with the different pieces arranged on the walls. And the triangles in triangle made with tape on his floor. Nothing explicitly damning (haha) was written in the part of the note we saw. It maybe makes him look a little crazy, but he exercised his right not to self-incriminate when asked if demons were telling him what to do, so he already looks plenty crazy. And it establishes that he was worrying about Laird Behaim screwing with him before his nephew arrested him, making his story more plausible. Who knows what was written in the rest of the note, but presumably he maintained the same level of plausible deniability throughout. Good catch. Though that one would probably be put down as paranoia rather than schizophrenia. paranoid schizophrenic you mean? 😉 Well, there’s one option that doesn’t involve demons for Blake to get out of this little predicament: calling up the Eye of the Storm. It works for Conquest, and since Blake’s working for Conquest, too, it makes sense for him to call it up and ask it to help spring him from the police. Probably by burning the police station down. Dues says: Or if you really want to mess with the police, you call Evan to the stand. After all if Evan is a familiar with enough juice from Blake to look like a living person… On the next episode of Magical Cliffhanger: The Series: Blake and Rose get cordially invited to a wedding…at Walder Frey’s. Next, they are tasked with hunting down a mighty white whale. Then, he’s given a special mission: escort a pyrophobic woman named Joan through England. Will he survive? Yes, but then we’ll have another cliffhanger, only on the next…Magical Cliffhanger: The Series. PS: The fourth episode after this, whatever you do, don’t forget t-! Blake gets stuck out of his house by the Behaims. Blake goes to Toronto. Behaim ally arranges for Blake to be outed to the ruler of Toronto and have to capture entities for said ruler. Behaim arrests Blake, thinks he’s bad because he sealed one of those entities and gave it away to the ruler of Toronto. Behaims, one question: when you’re wiping your ass and you accidentally get some shit on your hand, just how hard do you kick your own ass for daring to get shit on your hand? And more importantly, Behaims, I’ve always wondered…what does being a cunt feel like? Fuck the Behaims. Fuck the Duchamps. Fuck Conquest. Fuck Dionysus. And most importantly… http://imgur.com/gallery/5pf8YRU Somehow I knew it would be that picture even before I clicked. There’s maybe one royal I respect, and that’s the Funky Pharaoh, Amasis. He’s at his best when teamed up with his slithery, snake-like friend, Ophidian. youtube.com/watch?v=14URlH6_1Zs dpara says: Yeah, I don’t understand why they keep bullying the dragon.. I mean is it the Behaims that have bad karma?^^ Okay. I have this strange feeling that Blake will be an ULTRA badass this arc… Couldn’t blake have simply replied “I don’t see goblins”? Since I don’t think a police interrogation cell is a likely place to see a goblin or a demon, even though he wouldn’t have technically been answering the questions they were asking he would not have been lying. How about answering that one with “I can’t see anything that your Officer Behaim cannot.” Blake should review his pigeon strategy. Remember – Behaim is sometimes using magic to not make anyone question his presence so much, and insisted on yes or no answers. Yeah, Blake was definitely trying being clever, but the problem with clever statements is that they only work when either people are not actively looking out for them (say, Blake when he first met Laird) or when it would be a breach of protocol/diplomacy/trust/whatever to ask for a more blunt statement. Dunc’s coworker clearly lerned his lesson about sticking to the letter of what Dunc says: apparently it generally brings results. I feel like he honestly should have just refused to answer from the very beginning. If you answer some questions and not others, of course it gives people the impression that you’re hiding stuff on THOSE questions. Just refuse to talk entirely, Blake. Haven’t you seen cop dramas? That’s usually only until your lawyer shows up, and then you answer when they say you can. And she did say he should. But yeah, I get what you mean. He did stop answering once they asked a second question implying that he was crazy. He could totally spin that, once he’s calm and rested enough to think straight. Owesome says: Man. Wildbow must love Blake or something, he keeps fucking him so much. Also, I’m pretty sure “burning the police station down” causes more problems than it fixes. So… how much work is it to set up a famulus ritual? Blake is in desperate need of non-evil power, Evan is the most easily accessible, and there’s no way Chekov’s Request from last time (“How would you like to be my familiar?”) isn’t going to get any followup. Evan might be able to get Conquest to agree to AlsoSprachOdin’s idea of letting Rose fix the demon problem, or he could tamper with the evidence, or somehow convince his family to vouch for Blake’s innocence, or get Blake his glamour back so he can transform and run away, or something else still. Evan, as a familiar who can short-range ghost-teleport through walls, would be tremendously useful in this situation. Evan possesses his own dead body… Dimensional says: Hmm. This strikes me as a particularly vulnerable move to make by the belhams. I mean yes they can probably delay Blake for 24 hours. which may get him to lose power by being forsworn. – Except Blake only promised to strive to complete the tasks. as long as he does that he loses nothing. On the other hand – Blake is now in the legal system. – what would happen if his lawyer was to depose the investigating officer – Duncan, and ask him the same questions he had his partner ask Blake. or more specifically, when did you begin to investigate Blake Thorburn and why?, were you contacted by you uncle prior to investigating Mr Thorburn, are you aware of any reason that your uncle might have to wish Mr Thorburn ill. Are you aware of any attempts by you uncle to harm or inconvinence mr Throburn? This has the possibility or rebounding in the Belhams Hard. homunq says: “I started investigating him on a tip from my uncle, who believes he’s responsible for several serious crimes in his town” – True. “You’re asking me to openly speculate about my uncle’s motives. I mean, pretty much anybody might have a motive to wish somebody else ill. And as I said, my uncle believes Mr. Thorburn is a dangerous criminal; does that count as a motive?” – All true. “He tipped me off, if that’s what you mean.” Basically, to get an experienced practitioner to the place where they can’t wriggle out of it probably requires asking yes-or-no questions or something similar. Not that it’s a bad idea, but it’s not actually simple to pull it off. “Do you believe [lawyer speak for the level of certainty for an arrest] Blake killed Evan. Yes or No?” “Did you tamper with the camera, yes or no?” Make everything a yes or no question. Leave no room to run. “Did you say [that threat with the gun] to my client?” “Have you ever seen a goblin?” “Did Laird Behaim order an attack on Molly?” Judges don’t particularly like tricky answers. And the lawyer can just drill down. “What crimes?” Followed by “Why the hell didn’t your uncle do something about it?” If this goes on to a court room battle this rebounds in their face. Not to mention Blake lacks a reflection and there is a very good chance of that showing up on one tape or another. The conclusion the courts make is falsified video. Not Blake being a vampire. Chiro says: Jesus, that cop deliberately triggering Blake’s PTSD made me so angry. One minor criticism: I found the layout of the room a little bit unclear. At one point you say Blake has a mirror to his right and a cop sitting to his left and I assumed the table was between him and Duncan, but then later it seems like it isn’t? It would be nice if Blake could make Duncan eat the karma of arresting him for “murder” of the boy he actually made an oath to and saved. All I can think of is send Evan to go /poltergeist on Duncan so Duncan has to push past Evan to get to Blake, but Evan is a very small, reactive spirit. Wait a minute, the antagonist captures the hero. He then forces a long, drawn out process to ensure the hero’s doom. Meanwhile, the hero’s kid sidekick is free and in the area. I’ve seen enough Adam West Batman to know how this is gonna end. Evan the Boy Wonder is going to help free Blake of his bondage, at which point the duo will force their way to safety. I find it interesting that Evan chooses, not to stay with whom the two whom I assume to be his parents, but to stay with Blake. I’m a little concerned that Dunc may try to destroy the little Other. I don’t want him to suceed in that. I like Evan. Main problem I see for Blake is that he still needs to run his choice of familiar by Mr. Beasley first. Something I suspect he is loath to do. “Until the end of the custodianship, you’ll need to run any major deals past Mr. Beasley (including the three major rituals.” Good catch. And yeah, that adds yet another difficulty to this already ridiculous situation. I don’t think it’s too much of a complication. Blake has a certain amount of time that the lawyers are on retainer for in regards to the property and his progress meeting the conditions he has to meet. He should still be able to call Mr. Beasley to talk to him about taking Evan as his familiar without incurring any debt since the firm has already been paid for such matters. Bahumat says: Ding ding. Good point! Blake, the proper answer is yes, because there are no aliens in the room. Blake, the proper answer is yes, because there are none of those things in the room. If they try to get clever, you say “Yes” when they ask you if you have ever seen goblins, then explain that you have seen them plenty of times on TV and in movies. Then, you ask your lawyer to object to the police asking you about creatures from mythology and fiction. Then, because Behaim will figure out a way to get more stupid questions asked, say that you have “Never seen any live creature in a storybook.” which is true because the pictures he’s seen haven’t been alive. And finally, refuse to answer any more stories about mythological crap. Right idea on that, but poor timing and bad lead up. However, Blake is a bit worked up, so it’s understandable that he didn’t think of these things. He might, however, be able to write these things down and explain that he was rather upset about being falsely arrested, and the insane behavior of the police asking him about Halloween costumes was shocking him so badly on top of that, he didn’t trust himself to say anything at all. sigh the answer was no, not yes. Humbly requesting author correction, for terrible text error completely changing the meaning of what I said. Blake shows he still hasn’t quite learned how this whole deception through truth thing works. “This evening, when you found the body, that was your first time seeing Evan Matthieu?” The correct deceptive yet truthful answer to this question is not “That was the very first time I saw him in the flesh” should be “I had no contact with Evan Matthieu before his death, I was not aware of his existence prior to today, and I am not in any way responsible for his death.” Heck, he could spin a rather sympathetic story if he was in a condition to weave the tale. “Ever been cold and alone, officer? Nobody there to help you? I know what that’s like. I was homeless for a while. My friends, they helped me. Got me out of the cold, made it so I wasn’t so alone anymore. Yesterday I tried to help a man named Dowght. He was off, mentally, and isolated. Hoarded animals. Maybe not right in the head? One of my friends had mental issues, so I’m sympathetic to that. Can you imagine how alone someone like him felt? I wanted to help him, and after a while in his house trying to rectify the situation as best I could he and his animals attacked me. I barely escaped with my life, and I had to use my axe to defend myself. Most of the blood belongs to the animals, some might be his though, and it’s also why I look so worse for wear. After I got away I called the authorities to have him picked up. Can you let me know if he’s ok? Anyways, today I read an article about Evan Matthieu’s disappearance. I can just imagine a little kid getting lost in a big park like that, not being able to find his way home. Cold, scared, alone. I wanted to help him, even if he was already dead. Maybe help him find some peace, yeah? I spent a good part of my day in the park, and one thing I found was a little treehouse. You know kids are smarter than many people think. Maybe after being lost a few days he sees an airplane heading for the airport, figures out which direction his house is in? So I leave the park for a little while, borrow the phone of someone I’m acquainted with to look up some more info on Evan. Check out a map to get my bearings. If you know the right direction to head in, chances are good you might find him. And I did. I did intend to notify the authorities I found him, but you already showed up.” Every last statement is true in a way, even if certain details are rearranged or missing. Of course, spinning that on the fly when you’re tired and worn out might be difficult. He can’t say he read an article about Evan, since he didn’t. He can mention he heard about missing persons (without mentionning who or where) since he talked with the KotB the day before, to achieve some reasonably similar reason to go there. I’m presuming he read an article of some sort. He performed two internet searches – one for a map, and one for information on Evan. Back in 4.02, when Conquest learned Blake was a Thorburn, he said, “You can stay here, safe from your enemies, and I will use your knowledge.” So does Conquest need to protect him from his enemies here? Also, assuming Blake gets released in 24 hours, will it really matter that he failed to bind the third entity? He only promised he’d do what he could, not that he’d succeed, and Conquest may have been taken over by Pauz by then, who promised not to explicitly or implicitly harm Blake. It does matter that he’d miss the deadline. He’d probably still have to bind the eraser demon, but his failure to do so within the previously agreed upon time would mean Conquest would demand more favors. Given the nature of the favors already being asked, do you think doing more of them would put Blake in a good position? No, but I was imagining by that time Pauz might have control over Conquest by then. And Pauz already made a big promise to not harm Blake. The thing is, there are so many ways this can fuck Blake it goes from not funny, to funny, and back around to not funny. Let’s see… Failure to uphold his agreement with Conquest- Duncan seems to think that just holding Blake for long enough will make him foresworn. Not to mention Blake really needs to be around for when Pauz binding breaks. He doesn’t want to leave Rose in that. Also Pauz is just an imp. Not on the level of Ornias by any stretch of the imagination. Conquest might be able to take him no problem. And then he’ll come for Blake. That’s why Blake wants to see the Astrologer. He’s trying to get help for it when he fights Conquest. Denying him the house. Remember there are a shit-ton of things relating to the property. This is why Blake can’t escape from jail to go do the sealing. If he’s a fugitive from justice, he really can’t ever return to the house, because of that, and because they’ll be waiting. And I would assume he’d loose all legal right to it. Destroying his reputation- It doesn’t take much. Something like killing a child. Even if you are aquited of the charges, there is always a stigma attached. Like was said, just how many of Blake’s friends are going to be his friends by tonight? Blake pretty much has to prove it’s a frame up in order to avoid a long, time consuming, and costly series of legal troubles, and his personal life being destroyed. Oh and now everyone is going to think he’s schizophrenic. Please feel free to add more ways this fucks Blake. Please feel free to add more. But the only way I see this round ending in a win for Blake is if he can turn it around so the Beiham’s get caught in the framejob. Anything less is too crippling for Blake for him to call it a win, and all but ensures the Beiham’s will have too much of an advantage. All cheer for the eraser demon! erasor demon! “Also Pauz is just an imp. Not on the level of Ornias by any stretch of the imagination. Conquest might be able to take him no problem. And then he’ll come for Blake.” I seriously doubt Conquest can take Pauz. Pauz agreed to be bound by a rather hostile diabolist, agreed to do no harm to said diabolist and all his friends (which keeps Rose safe BTW), simply so he could be handed over to Conquest. He gave away everything for that. And Conquest has shown zero understanding of demons. Something tells me Pauz knows what he is doing and Conquest doesn’t. Pauz wants to take the fight. Plus if the Barber is any indication, binding Pauz inside Conquest (that little domain of his IS Conquest to a degree) is probably the worst mistake he could make. The second this goes to court, Duncan gets deposed, someone looks at the interrogation tape, maybe even looking at the arrest tape, the lack of police searching the obvious location for Evan etc. this blows up in the police’s face. And that’s assuming Conquest doesn’t send Fell to collect his pet diabolist. Which he will. And suddenly all the connections the police had to Blake vanish and now the Behaims are the ones who suddenly got the location of the body. And then we got the revenge Conquest will inevitably take for this attempt to steal his diabolist. Eye of the Storm says hi. This has roughly a 100% chance of rebounding in the Behaims faces spectacularly. Though Pauz winning really isn’t something Blake wants either. And no way Blake would get a fair trial. Remember, Duchamps. They’d fuck with peoples heads, so all that evidence that makes it look like Duncan was acting oddly gets thrown out or something. Agreed. To draw an analogy to Worm, Conquest is like Crawler. He’s extremely powerful, but he has transparent goals (his goal is literally his name, assuming that isn’t a deception). When your enemies know exactly what they want, they can manipulate you into a disadvantageous situation. Look at how Jeremy screwed Blake over with Conquest. Jeremy doesn’t have corrupting radiation powers. Pauz is going to fuck Conquest up hard. At least, I hope. That would give Blake a powerful non-enemy (which is the best possible outcome for a Thorburn). And suddenly all the connections the police had to Blake vanish and now the Behaims are the ones who suddenly got the location of the body. I’m inclined not to underestimate Sandra Duchamp. We’re meant to believe that Laird is the big kahuna because he can manipulate time. I think Sandra is the one who’s going to be the real threat. 15 minutes and minimal effort was enough to deflect the police from what sounded like a small child directly begging for help from inside their house. Imagine what she can do when she wants to put somebody down? When she leverages an entire coven of enchantresses the fallout will make Pauz look like the mote he is, at least as far as the fucking-over-Blake metric goes. Okay, so just what the fuck does everyone have against Blake? Well we get a hint. Etobicoe. What happened in Etobicoe? See I think that with the Beiham’s and Duchamp’s there are two big motivators. Fear and Greed. The fear just about every practicioner shares. They are terrified of demons, and they think that maybe if they just get rid of all the Diabolist’s, no more demons. The flaw with that is there are demons already out there. And only a Diablolist can or will deal with them. But they are so terrified of the demons and what they can do, that anyone they even think might want to do anything with them they feel is a threat. Now for greed. Well that property in Jacob’s Bell is worth a lot. Controlling the growth of the town, even without factoring in magical shit… Lot’s of motivation there. And let’s face it, going off and working for Conquest, then handing over the bound demons to him… Yeah, that would look bad. Etobicoe. What happened in Etobicoe? Uh. It’s kind of obvious from context, even if you don’t remember the address from 4.4, since Blake indicates exactly what happened in Etobicoke in the very next line: That’s where C. Dowght, and Pauz, lived. changeling says: It’s third round with Laird! I was waiting for this. Also, awesome work! This is something about the story that has now become immensely frustrating for me: Why are all the magicians treating Blake like that?!! Diabolist this, diabolist that. It’s as if they actually want him to become the kind of person who feeds entire cities to demons. They’re practically forcing him to deal with demons. Ps, why exactly are demons so much worse than, say, goblins? Maker’s breath, if the practicioners in the town had just treated Molly Walker nicely, and helped her with her studies so that she wouldn’t even have to deal with demons beyond reading her grandmother’s books, this might all have ended without the horror and blood I think I can see coming./End rant. I think it’s partially because Blake seems like an easy target. Molly was dealt with easily. The hope is that they can defeat the novice threat before Thorburn becomes a major threat. Granny Rose was not a novice, and so, while she did have enemies, she wasn’t constantly attacked by everybody. Some goblins are as bad as demons. The problem is, those worse goblins ate the sort that diabolists deal with. Prejudice. We haven’t seen one of the really bad diabolists yet, but from what we know they are really, really bad. They are the stereotype for diabolists, unfortunately for Blake. Also, seven lifetimes of bad karma. Goblins are unpleasant and brutish, but the majority of them are manageable. They can’t enter cities in most circumstances and they don’t irradiate the area with goblin vibes that cause everyone around them to change and become twisted and Wrong. Even the Hyena didn’t do that. The lower tier ones cause trouble and pick on homeless people, but unless they’re being lead by some sort of more powerful goblin witch thing like in Maggie’s home town they aren’t really that much trouble. Demons on the other hand are not all that manageable. A mere imp like Pauz managed to kill around thirty hosts and who knows how many others, twisted every animal he could get his grubby little hands on and thus mucking up the local ecosystem, and taint anyone who got close to him. That’s bad enough on its own, but apparently he took something from each host, becoming stronger each time. Left alone he’d evolve into something powerful enough that it could make its own imps, starting the cycle again. All this from the demonic equivalent of Dickswizzle. That’s one of the main topics in black lambs blood. One of the main motivations/causes for people turning to diabolism is desperation, and those who try to go against them for the sake of their practice, are just perpetuating the problem. The main issue with demons is that, since all things require a price, their price is always something that makes humanity weaker on the whole. And that’s just when dealing with them- when left to their own devices, their goals are always something that mankind probably doesn’t want (like pauz wants to disrupt the natural order, and we’ve seen what that does to humans. The demon mentioned in BLB wanted to kill the gods, and …. well, just look at the three demonic things conquest wants blake to bind. They are things that are basically considered universally as “not good”) Sure, you can use goblins for good- they are just rudeness and violence personified. Destruction is sometimes a good thing. But there isn’t any plausible situation in which calling orianis can be used for good, since it strengthens demon-kind and hurts mankind, no matter what he/she/it is used for. So yeah, if every diabolist died, that would be one of the greatest things to happen to mankind since solomon stopped Others from making us into snacks on a constant basis. But trying to kill them just makes the problem bigger. No one said you had to be rational to be a practitioner. Or nice. Laird is neither. It doesn’t make Laird come across too well when he says right from the start that he hopes to use the Thorburns as a shield until their no longer convienent, and then hopes they all die with no trouble. No, the good guy thing would be to recognize that this kid has just inherited a hell of a mess. Then rather than fucking with him and telling him he should lay back, take it and die when you say so, offer to help him. Explain why it’s so dangerous. Offer the help of his resources and family if Blake stays away from the demons. Fufil the requirements of the will while helping Blake disarm, or if that can’t be done, at least make sure they never get launched. Do not treat him as though he is an enemy. Do not corner him and force him to fire the nukes in a desperate attempt to save himself and his family. Blake has The Barber bound in the house right now. Is that sort of thing something that the Duchamps can sense? They’re so great at connections, can they see the connection going from Blake off to the house and Grandma and The Barber? They have very good reasons to fear and hate Blake, in my opinion. “There is something else out there,” she said. “Back in the house. It’s not cooperating with him at this point in time.” Leon C. says: Honorable and good-hearted people cannot survive in a crapsack world. Taking the high road makes you the perfect target for one’s enemies. Eddard Stark learned that the hard way. So, how long until Blake shares his fate? Or will we have to endure “Deus Ex Machinas” along with the frustrating “Diabolus Ex Machinas” Wildbow seems to love so much? Don’t get me wrong, I believe Pact has the potential of becoming one of the best novels out there (nevermind the web serial format), but the author is really pushing it into a very dark point where the question has become “when will he die?” instead of “how will he survive?”. Readers cannot be expected to remain interested in a story if the author only provides tragedy after a tragedy and a protagonist that won’t let go of the Idiot Ball. I believe the author should start rewarding the readers with some meaningful victories (no matter how small) or focus more on the protagonist’s development so readers can actually believe that the protagonist is someone who could survive in such a dark world. I’m not saying the author is bad, au contraire, I think he has the potential of writing something great. But I believe he has to learn that, while conflict is good, meaningful conflict is better. Unless he wants his readers to utter the “eight deadly words”? Remember, a good tragedy works because the characters are given a chance to avoid a downer ending and yet they fail. But if you take away that chance by handing the protagonist the Idiot Ball then you run the risk of turning a potentially good story into a lenghty description of horrible things happening to someone. Eddard Stark died because he chose the high road no matter what his circumstances were. In this case taking the high road isn’t stupid for Blake. His options in this situation are pretty binary. If he takes the high road, it’s harder in the short term but the it’s likely better in the long term. If he takes the easy road out, calling the lawyers or even a demon, it’ll get him out of his immediate problem but he’ll have to pay a price that will likely affect him quite badly in the long term. Remember what last chapter pointed out – one of the main problems diabolists face is that they often fail to see past solving their short term problems, so they ultimately end up making things worse by taking the low, easy road. As far as victories go, they’re coming. He’s got a few rule of three potential victories coming up, and they’ll be big. Evan is the third ghost he’s tried to bring into his service, and that should hopefully net a familiar. Big win. Binding the eraser demon will be his third diabolic binding, so that should bring a big win. Then there’s the upcoming third attack on Laird’s reputation – wouldn’t be surprised if this situation ends up netting that. If these three big wins happen in quick succession, you get another rule of three going. If that works out then I imagine Blake will get a respite. I think you are off on a couple of points. Evan isn’t the third ghost that Blake tried to bind. Before success with LIAB, Blake spent all morning trying to bind ghosts. Also, Blake wants to make Evan his familiar. Does he need to bind the boy in order to do this? Secondly. . . I actually only disagree with that one point. Blake does have the opportunity for some big wins coming up. I know that, but what I mean is that Evan is the third one that was actually available, the third one he could actually really work with to accomplish something. (the maimed specter from earlier doesn’t count – it wasn’t available either, given its state) A binding isn’t needed to bring something into your service, so that part isn’t needed. Yeah, Blake definitely shouldn’t fire his demonic power for this. The lawyers will just make him intern for a couple days, so that won’t help with the Pauz corrupting Conquest issue. Firing Ornias (assuming Ms. Lewis will still pay the cost) will probably work too, but somehow I don’t think it will help save Toronto from demonic taint. Sure he’ll be out of jail, but in all honesty depending on how quick things move Blake will be out soon regardless. The second the lawyer pushes on things, it becomes very, very “clear” the police are seriously seriously shady. Notably Blake’s reflection being missing from videos (tampering) Duncin Doughnuts being unable to give straight answers to questions like “do you think Blake killed Evan?”, and why the police didn’t search the nearby woods for Evan. Yeah, sure we know there are all perfectly good explanations for this (except for Duncin Doughnuts not giving straight answers), but to the muggles? Sort of looks like a very bad frame job by the police who just happened to totally fuck up the search for Evan. Or if need be Blake can run a repelling rune and an opening rune and break out. There’s actually been a few victories recently. Binding Pauz was a bit of a mixed victory, but its there, and he definitely beat the hyena. Reconnecting with his friends, hanging out with whats-her-face, and meeting the cautiously-friendly knights are all generally positives as well. Going further back there’s other minor victories (June, infiltrating the party, etc) but they were more spread out. I expect that as Blake continues to grow and learn he is going to come out on top more and more often. 1)since when did Blake hold the idiot ball?or do you mean the “I do not want to screw the world”ball?The high road ,in this case,might be worse for his survival,but the low road is worse for everyone,such a road will just turn him into a selfish villain. 2)Eddark was incompetent as well as honourable and good hearted.Blake isn’t 3)I’d take being hurt over unjustly hurting others any day-the demons are not an aid,they are a trap. 4)I can only remember one case when Wilbow wrote a sorta kinda arguably deux ex machina (and even that one was a good and foreshadowed one).His characters are unplausibly competent and fast thinking?maybe,but no outside force or stroke of luck just up and saved them,ever. You know, I just figured out why I react differently to the Behaims than I do to a lot of Worm “heroes” who treated Taylor badly. And no there are no real spoilers here – I am talking about my reactions far more than actual events and no specific Worm people or events will be mentioned. I reacted to the asshole heroes in Worm either as if they were either crazy or misguided. Either group doesn’t deserve real hatred – the crazies need curing or locking up and the misguided need a reality check (sometimes one the size of a building, inserted as a suppository, but whatever). But here, it seems like the Behaims should know better and have made a conscious choice to be oblivious assholes. And my reaction to that is that they deserve a large measure of humility delivered in as painful and degrading a manner as possible. But karma doesn’t allow this! So I am in a position to wish various characters serious comeuppance when the current system makes that extraordinarily unlikely. Frustrating as hell. And yes, I know that the Behaims are technically the villains here, but most of the Worm villains were well into to “crazy” category for me. The options for crazy Worm villains included “kill” along with cure and lock up, but incredibly few inspired the “pick up a big stick, dip it in shit, and beat some sense into them” feeling I have for the Behaims. Yeah, agreed. I didn’t notice how similar they were until you pointed it out though haha Both are putting too much stock into titles, like villian and diabolist, assuming they are pure evil by definition, instead of looking at what they do. Taylor and Blake are both trying their hardest to do good things, despite those who believe themselves to be good trying to stop them. Except- behaims have no problem admitting that blake and his line are innocent and haven’t done any evil yet, but still can kill them and sleep soundly. At least the “heroes” would’ve stopped if they thought someone was really innocent. ereshkigala says: Blake is dumb. You answer the question being asked, not the question that person meant to ask. If more than one meaning is possible, decide to which meaning you answer to; (The ghost is a record of a person, not that person itself) (Present tense. Not one of them is in the room right now) (I only see goblins some days, not every day) (The goblins/demons I see every day? No – because I don’t see any of them every day) (The guy who told me does not live in the same geographical neighborhood as demons or goblins) “The ghost is a record of a person, not that person itself” In Evan’s case this isn’t true. His soul is still there, it wasn’t carried to the afterlife. He’s still Evan, just not in the best shape mentally since he’s dead. As far as answering “No” in the present tense, I wouldn’t be so certain that the universe would interpret it that way. At best it might be a borderline lie, at worst it’s an outright lie. He’s not an idiot, he’s just had his PTSD button rammed repeatedly over the course of the past few minutes and is under a lot of pressure. I’m in lieu with your point, even seemingly brilliant people (in real life) can end up doing stupid things if they were facing difficult situations where they have no solid experience with. The only people who could keep up their cool doing their shady business are only sort of people that have been doing it for generations (like mafia or of course Behaims, in this case), Blake is just collateral heir to Thorburn Lineage, how is he supposed to deal with people that have been doing it for god-knows-how-long? Frankly, it is more surprising to me, that Blake somehow still survive up to this point. If if were real life situation, the chance are pretty slim, slim as in hair thin slim. So, is Blake idiot? NO! Blake has come to the point he done something he never learned before in his life in the nick of time! Isn’t that the definition of being Genius? You have to clarify your answer out loud. We’ve seen, in the Wheel of Time novels, what happens when you’re allowed to clarify your answer in your head, and you can basically straight up lie. The universe doesn’t care what you say in your head, it cares about what you actually say. It depends, some of those might still be acceptable because the question was poorly framed (such as “do you see Goblins”). After answering “no” to those, Blake would have been able to just say that he refuses to answer irrelevant questions and not sound crazy. This next part would be far more effective if you were in the dark.” Actually I’m trying to think what ‘part’ Duncan Donuts meant by this, and I’m drawing a blank. he didn’t say “easier,” like not being forced to evade around someone who knows he can’t lie would be, but “more effective.” Could it even refer to a phase in the Corrupt Cop Keikaku still coming up in the future installments? sevenfoldrage says: Wow. Blake is a master criminal, at this point. Not every practitioner has been like that. The knights, Johannes, Maggie, Briar Girl, even the exiled faerie were all pretty nice to Blake. In fact, everyone who isnt a megalomaniac douchebag (ie not Lardo or Conquest) has treated him fairly. what do we think about dnd alignments? Lardo – lawful good Conquest – chaotic neutral Poos – chaotic evil Hyena – chaotic evil Maggie – chaotic neutral Fell – lawful neutral Briar Girl – true neutral Laird is lawful neutral, bordering on evil. He has too few qualms with murdering for his own personal gain to be good. I’d put Sandra Duchamp and Fell in this category as well, but not as leaning evil since their being jerks to Blake is actually more about the diabolism than personal gain. Conquest I don’t think fits on the D&D scale. He operates by blue and orange morality – he’s the incarnation of an idea and his motivation is based on advancing that idea. Pauz is chaotic evil to the point of being chaotic stupid due to his lack of long term planning. Hyena is just neutral evil. Maggie is probably true neutral, as is Briar Girl. Johannes is lawful evil. that they’re irredeemably terrible as a concept? But it is so much fun to play Chaotic Good in 4th edition and point out how a system i enjoyed playing in had screwed up the alignment concept even worse. It’s alos fun to debate ( for a short time) with people about why Good is not simply cognate with Non Lawful Good Ps Yes they became straitjackets alignments did. Yeah, terrible at concept, but who wouldn’t play it? It’s like someone hands you a pokeball (certainly the concept of pokeball is a lot more whimsical), but why would we miss the enthralling temporal fantasies to toss it to random cats or dogs? Lardo as LAWFUL GOOD? Conquest as CHAOTIC NEUTRAL? Absolutely not! Laird is the very DEFINITION of Lawful Evil – what few good aspects he has are devotion to law, order, and peace – but he serves those as things that support HIM first. His remaining actions are to his own gain at the expense of others, by corrupting others (He tricked Maggie into murdering an innocent girl, Molly.) As for Conquest… I think I would argue Lawful again, although somewhat less so. Still, he was willing to simply not care… until he saw a chance for personal gain. Again, I would say Evil. It says a lot about how intensely I despise attempting to corrupt laws and justice, that Laird, who corrupts the police, is even worse in my eyes than Conquest, who as far as we have seen simply operates separately from them. If it turns out Conquest has made it his life goal to take command of the police as personal thugs, I’ll be sure to revise my position on Conquest to all-consuming hatred. … And for that matter, if Laird could just dial back his DnD-level Eeeevil behavior – or if we found that we were mistaken all along! – I’ll give him another chance. But OH will Laird have to work for it. So in summary, Laird is about as far from Good as a mortal gets, and Conquest is probably neither Neutral (Conquest is quite willing to harm many for his gain) or Chaotic (he seems to be structured – although I’m less certain there.) You’ve got Pauz, Hyena, Maggie, Fell, and Briar Girl down as precisely as the chart gets, though. Laird is a classic example of Lawful Evil. He upholds only the letter of the law, while desecrating the spirit not even for the greater good of the community(which would make him Lawful Neutral bordering on Evil), but for his own purposes. Nope, Lawful evil implies he’s being Evil. Trust me, he’s an asshole without a doubt, but he’s not evil. He’s looking out for himself, which is human nature and he’s not to being particularly malicious. Blake is a legitimate threat in terms of karmic balance and he did hand over demons to Conquest despite his hands being tied. Even if he’s a nice person, he’s dangerous and looks can be deceiving. We’re on Blake’s side because we know him as the main character. “Good” and “Evil” are terrible labels, overall, but not even trying the better option of “get the newbie diabolist who only just learned about magic to swear not to actually become a diabolist/summon demons/voluntarily interact with demons unless it’s to kill them,” which would accomplish the goal of “Not bringing hell on earth” quite nicely without any additional killing. The problem with that possibility is that it cuts of his goal of “sell the damn Thorburn property so that our power can expand and I can become Lord here.” More explicitly, “Should this small southern nation cease to be a concern, everyone else profits, and the nukes being removed from the picture is only a small part of that. The other countries would be elevated to a new age… and the country who is most powerful will take the helm, quite possibly forever.” (1.04) That is what people mean, when they say that he is doing this out of his own self-interest. Evil people and entities can profess to have good goals. They can also claim, with various degrees of truthfulness, to have even worse enemies. That doesn’t make their actions less evil. Examples include: Scorpius from Farscape, the Operative from Serenity, Battra from Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, Triple H in the leadup to Daniel Bryan Vs. Triple H at Wrestlemania 30. (Like I could resist throwing some wrestling in there. Scorpius worked with the authoritarian Peacekeepers trying to unlock wormhole technology to use as a WMD against the Scarrans, an empire of even worse aliens. The Peacekeepers were bad, but the Scarrans were worse. Scorpius was also partially motivated by revenge for himself and his mother. The Operative wanted to maintain order and peace in the ‘verse on behalf of the Alliance, despite knowing that any peace he built would have no place for himself after all he had done. This was absolutely sincere, and had implications for the ending of the movie. Battra seeks to protect the earth, but in a certain gung-ho environmentalist fashion which includes destroying humanity. This puts him in opposition to Mothra, who wants to protect humanity, and a pissed-off Godzilla. He put aside his rivalry with Mothra and made Mothra promise to stop the giant meteor heading for earth, then helped Mothra stop Godzilla, dying in the process. Daniel Bryan was popular, but held back from the title, with some reality subtext. After the 2014 Royal Rumble debacle, the bookers realized they needed to give him a shot. This included a storyline where authority figures declared him too small to be a champion, with enemies like Triple H(aka Hunter Hearst Helmsley), saying it was a good business decision, and that it protected Bryan for the fans by keeping him from having to face the tougher opponents a champion would have to wrestle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cezEEPHRXHI One of the key things you need for good villains is they need to think that what they are doing is right. Obviously nobody is going to persue goals they thing are wrong. Scorpius, as stated wanted to stop an even worse force. The revenge factors in because it makes it personal, and keeps him from having a calm enough head to realize when he’s gone too far. The Operative was a utopia justifies the means sort. He wanted a better world. But, well turns out a world without sin ain’t pretty. Battra’s whole reason for existing is to protect the earth. And let’s face it Humans can be pretty damaging to the earth. As for the wrestling thing, that is born from the conciet that the fan’s won’t be interested in a “Vanilla Midget”. Thing is of course the die hard fans are very interested. And instead they either run the same matches with the same players (large part of why I haven’t watched wrestling the last few years, I got bored) and the higher ups tendency of pushing the new guys they think are good… Who are normally big muscular guys who can’t wrestle, can’t talk, and are just plain boring to watch. In Laird’s case, yes he has a justification. Diabolists work with Demons, and Demons make the world worse. But that might not be his actual motivation. His motivation may actually selfish, with his real goal being power for himself and his family. Sometimes it’s also the means that makes someone a villain more than the ends. Want world peace? Good, noble goal. Want world peace by killing half the planets population and reducing the rest to mindless automotons? Very very bad thing. While that generally adds substance to a villian, I wouldn’t say it’s key. That would imply that the truly immoral ones can’t be good villians. My counter example would be the Joker, who in many incarnations clearly knows what he is doing is wrong but just doesn’t care. It’s part of his charm. It’s hard to write these sorts of villains well, especially if they are human. I think the Pactverse, with it’s ghosts, goblins and demons has room for this sort of villain, though. I don’t think, from what we’ve seen so far, Laird is a villian. Sure he’s an antagonist, and we don’t like him because of how he treats Blake, but I wouldn’t call him evil. I don’t think goals like more power for yourself and your family, or neutering the potentially evil demon summoner before (literally) all Hell breaks loose are intrinsically evil. Blake himself is constantly fighting for more power and has done questionable things to prevent threats before they happen. From what we know of Diabolists and their track record, quickly wiping them out before they can do harm or cause Wrong seems to be the wisest course of action. Also, bear in mind that Laird has been basing his actions on predictions of worst case scenarios. As of this point in the story, I wouldn’t say Blake has really done anything to be considered a Hero. He’s just a decent guy who inherited a really bad situation. That being said, I look forward to the time when a Thorburn has a complete victory over Laird and his family. Even the Joker has his moments. He has been potrayed as believing that all the rules and morals of society are wrong, and in his view his way of doing things is correct. After all isn’t he happier, and doesn’t he enjoy himself more than most people? If he thought what he was doing was wrong to him, he wouldn’t enjoy it, and Joker sure does enjoy himself. They’re getting slightly better, possibly. They’ve been bringing in more indie guys like Brodie Lee and Chris Hero (though they let Hero go). I know they have El Generico there wrestling as Sami Zayn. Cut back on his moveset some to try and better match what they do, but I think they can have some awesome matches if they let him do what he can do. Same for Claudio Castagnoli, who goes by Antonio Cesaro there. He’s worked with a lot of smaller guys before. Plus, big as he is, he’s capable of reversing a hurricanrana into a powerbomb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_C4S1XOnTY That’s some Matrix shit right there. I hate to be the one to break this to you if you don’t know already, but they did do something pretty messed up at Wrestlemania 30, negadarkwing. The Undertaker’s Streak has been ended…by Brock Lesnar of all people. Cue the facepalm! Really? The Streak was the last real uncounquered mountain in Wrestling. Breaking it was something more signifigant than any title win, any royal rumble. Because it is something that just sort of happened, and nothing like it can ever happen again. Give it to a up and comer and you have a potential push that could make your next Hogan, Austin or Cena. But Lesner? He’s not an up and comer. He’s a name. He’s also the guy who jumped ship to something else, and then when he realized his career there was in decline came back to wrestling before everyone realized he was about to be a has-been. What a waste. If they wanted to have it broken by someone older, at least make it Kain. There’s decades of history there Yeah, I agree that it should have been used to push someone new. I hear Lesnar doesn’t even do a full schedule for them. At one point, before they handed him a mic, he was the next big thing. Now he’s just another big guy. Some people won a hell of a lot of money, though. I think I heard the odds were at 33 to 1, so some people got lucky on Lesnar. I would have preferred if they had an up and comer take him on for their first Wrestlemania. Play it off as the guy slowly realizing what he’s really in for as it approaches, getting nervous and scared. He’s desperate and cornered and then, amazingly, from that desperation comes a 1,2,3 in the middle of the ring. Why I’d prefer someone younger isn’t just because it’s an excellent opportunity for a push and plays well into the narrative, but because if they don’t have a Wrestlemania loss, they can continue the legacy of the Streak. In other wrestling news that you may find either sobering or hilarious, the Ultimate Warrior died April 8th. He was 54. Over the course of the days prior to his death, he was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, made an appearance at Wrestlemania, and appeared on Raw. An autopsy has been performed, but results have not yet been released. Some news sites claim it was a heart attack. Those who saw him in the days before his death note that he was in pain, was sweating a lot, and seemed weak. Load that spaceship with the rocket fuel, Warrior. Load it with the words. I heard about Ultimate Warrior. Both his dying and his hall of fame induction. Between Warrior, Bret Hart, and Macho Man Randy Savage, it seems like all the guys we thought were never going to be put in the hall of fame are in now. Getting back on topic, it occurs to me that Wildbow missed an oppoutunity to make a lot of money with Pact. Should have made it so Practicioners bind Others into cards. And then we have some serous childrens card games. Or as a non-fictional example, we can look at Soviet Union during the World War 2. They fought the Nazis and their agenda sounded very nice, but that didn’t make them into the good guys – not in the least. Wars of aggression, scorched earth tactics, forced labor, mass rapes, indirect genocide, excessive violence on a scale that makes Dresden bombings look justified… you get the picture. I tend not to count the Soviet Union as all that good like that. Stalin was an asshole more concerned with gaining personal power than with anything good, something noted even by Lenin when he wrote his testament to the 12th Congress and wanted Stalin removed as General Secretary. Stalin wanted to divide the spoils with Hitler and wound up looking weak after a failed invasion of Finland where they got their asses absolutely handed to them. Part of the reason they were so weak was because Stalin had been purging the military of soldiers and officers, losing top generals, air marshals, and admirals in the process. His attempt to play catchup during the Great Patriotic War involved sometimes shipping those political prisoners back from places like Kolyma straight to the front lines. He also had to wait on his more elite troops to get to the Western front because he’d had to handle an invasion by Japan, so you’d wonder why he was so eager to think he was safe. Reportedly, when Stalin found out for sure that the Germans were invading, he spent the next two days holed up in his quarters with his vodka. While his attempts to bolster heavy industry helped in some ways, it also left the Soviet Union short of smaller goods. Hard to fight a war without proper coats and shoes, although the war against Finland helped prepare them somewhat. Still, even after trying to revive then-taboo concepts of patriotism for Mother Russia and declaring it to be the Great Patriotic War, the Soviets had a morale problem that they solved with guns. They began to use a secondary line that would make a Warhammer 40k Commissar proud. The secondary line was in place to shoot anyone retreating or not advancing from the front line. Now, to be funny, I shall tell an old Soviet Union joke: “How do you know Adam and Eve were Soviet citizens?” “Because they had no clothes, one apple between the two of them, and were told they lived in paradise.” Also, regarding villains who know what they’re doing is wrong…hiya! The important thing to remember is that good and bad don’t really matter so much to some people. That’s part of why folks like the Joker, or even myself, can get into your head. Society says you’re worth working at a fast food place. Society says that you get in trouble if you fight back against bullies. Society says that a drunk, drugged-up teen who gets into a car accident, killing four people and hurting more, gets to go straight to rehab because his parents have money. Society says that a jobless DuPont family heir who diddled his three year old gets probation. Society says that you can shoot certain people in certain states and get no jail time, so long as you look the right way. Society says that they don’t care about science or education. Society says that Snooki gets to be a celebrity. Under those circumstances, I’m proud to be evil. Any hero who defends that is certainly no better a person than I am. …now, if only I wasn’t currently 4 inches tall… https://villainousintent.wordpress.com/ Perhaps I should say that it’s a case of not doing things that feel wrong. I mean most people will think something like “Oh wow, I’d be such a douche if I stole that candy from that baby.” A few would think “Man I sure could go for some candy now. Yoink!” And never feel even a little guilty about it. If you feel that stealing candy from a baby is wrong, Or it feels wrong to you when you do it, then you won’t do it. If society tells you it’s wrong, and you do it, but it doesn’t feel wrong to you, then you believe that societies rules are wrong, or don’t apply to you, or you just don’t care in the first place. Plus sometimes it’s the means that make you a villain more than the ends. Sir Fuente, you seem to think that Joker-esque Chaotic Evil villains are the only kind of evil. They aren’t. Dictators who use unjust laws and violence to protect their interests count as Evil, too. And don’t look at how Laird treats the Thorburns; look at how he treats Maggie, Briar Girl, his own coworkers… He’s a power-mad asshole towards everyone, not just diabolists. Looks like you’re calling me out. (Cue dramatic wind as I cry out to the heavens) OSATO!!!! But in all (kinda) seriousness, my points about Laird and the joker were separate. I mention the Joker as an example of a good villain who isn’t redeemed by having a good motivation or thinking what he does is the right thing to do. In many versions he knows what he is doing is evil and still does it for fun or chaos. The fact that this doesn’t automatically make him a badly written villain, however was basically my point IIRC. I mentioned Laird because, while he certainly is an antagonist and pretty jerkish, I wouldn’t say that he is evil. He uses force to try to protect his interest. Does that make him evil or a villain? As Maggie mentioned, she and Blake are terrorists. Does that make them evil? From the information we have so far, my conclusion is as follows: While Laird may be selfish and harsh in his dealing with threats, I would not proclaim him evil as of yet. In terms of morality, he may not even be worse than Blake. Also, as practitioners don’t lie, if he says that he does something to protect a community or to eliminate a horrible threat, he believes it on some level. It may not be the whole truth, or even the full motivation, but we cannot simply dismiss them as lies to characterize Laird as a power hungry monster. I’m starting to feel a little sick from somehow actually defending Laird. I really don’t like him, but I’d rather not attribute qualities to him that aren’t there. That being said, there is plenty of time for opportunities for Laird to prove me wrong and show himself, not just an enemy to Blake, but evil, a villian. (I perform a finishing move with a gun blade before sheathing/holstering it) Nobody. . . calls me out! (I put on a cowboy hat and walk into the sunset) Maybe the term antagonist is better than villain in this case. Of course not every villain needs to be like the Joker. Look at Ras Al Ghoul. Nothing like the joker. And an antagonist can be an antagonist because he is a very moral man. Look at the fugitive. Rose: “Good, bad… I’m the gal with the nukes.” I’d say Conquest fits under Neutral Evil best. NE covers “evil for its own sake”, and Conquest takes, destroys, and subjugates all for the sake of taking, destroying, and subjugating. Combined with the fact that he has elements of both law and chaos and NE becomes a near-perfect fit. “They’re turning your apartment upside-down. Above all else, we’re going to keep you for the day.” Is anyone else concerned about that first statement being a lie (unless the Toronto police are a lot more hardcore than I’m assuming), and the second being perilously close to a promise? While using a rune to escape from jail would leave Blake on the lam and pretty well scuppered, it seems like it could serve as a “fuck you” of last resort that would get Duncan forsworn. Breaking a promise doesn’t get you forsworn. Its not an oath. Duncan is heavily demonstrating his absolute shit abilities as a practitioner. He’s lied repeatedly. He’s made multiple promises that he might not be able to keep. (If you satisfy my curiosity I’ll get you ANYTHING, and the we’ll keep you.) Those are newbie mistakes, and by newbie mistakes I mean you did way worse than newbie Blake did. What’s the difference between a promise and an oath? Aren’t they effectively the same? effectively, yes, but karma pays more attention to the spirit of a deal than the lettering. In that sense- a promise (not technical deffinitions, but the spirit of a promise) is more along the lines of blake saying “I’ll show you later”- as in- he says what he means to do. An oath would be like him swearing to help evan, The difference being this: Promise: “I plan on doing this, and I will do this” Oath: “This is GOING to happen. No matter what stands in the way, it is an inevitability.” If you read far enough in Worm, Alexandria basically outlines this very thing. He didn’t say he’d get Blake anything, he said he’d get Blake anything from the vending machine or from the break room if Blake is in the mood for something warm (your officer’s beating heart is warm, so get that for me the next time you’re in the breakroom). It would be rather difficult for Duncan to deliver on that promise… leaving him clearly foresworn. “Tell me, even make something up, so long as you make it convincing enough to satisfy my curiosity, and I’ll go get my coffee, and I’ll get you anything you want out of the vending machine. Or out of the break room, if you’re in the mood for something warm.” Notice the clause there: “so long as you make it convincing enough to satisfy my curiosity.” Other people have already pointed out how large of a loophole that leaves Duncan. It’s not a lie, it’s a common colloquialism. I just thought of something. Blake knows how to tug on people’s connections. Everywhere has spirits, connections form at the sole dictates of what people recognize. He knows, from Fell, that tugging on said connections bugs people. Hmm, I’m not entirely sure he wants to go this way. Dunc could retaliate in kind. True. But Blake could get Evan to chant Duncan’s name, calling him to the precinct. The point is to get under Duncan’s skin so he makes a mistake. And unlike Blake, Duncan has some mobility at the moment. Practitioners can break or manipulate that link – Ms. Lewis showed Blake how. The only reason Fell didn’t when Blake used it is he was commanded not to. Also, until Evan is protected some way, drawing attention to him is a bad idea. Duncan would be quite happy to dispel that ghost if he knew how important it was to Blake. alienmanbeast says: Great chapter. I really hate Ducan; hell, I hate all the Bucains. I really just want Blake to stick his hatchet into one of them. The hatchet that is in a cold evidence room, and is probably realizing “I’m not warm. Therefore, Blake isn’t here. Therefore, HE BROKE HIS PROMISE ARGHBLARGH!!!!!”? Because it might not survive this chapter intact. On the bright side, Duncan’s probably going to get caught in the crossfire, so bonus. I think that Blake should get together with the Behaims and bury the hatchet. In Laird, preferably. They won’t let him, sadly. By any definition of the term “bury the hatchet.” You’re telling me. Poor guy’s gotta be blue down there. Can’t even go out on a date without satyrs wanting to gang bang his new ladyfriend. Poor guy needs to bury his hatchet in something other than animals soon. senjiukanuba says: Damn, I hate the fact that Blake doesn’t use Duncan’s inability to lie to get him to say a few words. “Yes or no, do you think I killed that boy?” or “Yes or no, did you threaten to kill me just two minutes ago?”. I’d totally use that to my advantage. “Yes or no, are you after me because your family in Jacobs Bell wants me to?” Duncan is the one in a position of power here. All he has to do, is not answer the murder suspect’s questions. Unlike with Blake, he wouldn’t even be viewed negatively for doing so. You would have to give a reason to do it. Have the lawyer say “Okay, lets work this out. Now my client has accused the Duncan of some things. I would still be negligent if I ignored it. If you could just sign these statements we can get you working out the best way to handle this.” “Okay, well I have this nice recording of you refusing to say that you didn’t tamper with a video, or threaten my client, or that you don’t believe in Goblins”. Calling it now: The hair fell out of the locket, and will continue to grow with the power of the glamour that Blake has been feeding it. Eventually, it’ll consume a large part of the forest. Blake will establish that as his Demense. Since the hair was given to him by the faerie’s agreement, he still owns that power, and will use the hair to protect the area from anyone who challenges his claim… not that the local ghosts are aware enough to do so, though a few might lash out because he gets too close. Blake then uses his power over the area to give the forgotten their memories back or allow them to be remembered, at least while they’re in the area Blake has not been feeding glamour to the hair, but rather he’s been feeding it with attention. Glamour needs the right kind of attention to grow. The middle of a park that isn’t visited much does not seem like a place the hair would get attention, so it wouldn’t grow. Also, if this did work the local ghosts couldn’t be a problem since they’ve flickered out of existence already – Blake observed this. The Hyena’s ghost victims were not stable enough to stick around without a connection to it. Deadwalker says: there’s at least 3 glamour starved faerie in the area, i wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out they have a way to feel its presence. it does belong to Blake though, so they may not be able to take outside of combat. Those faerie probably have left – they aren’t stuck anymore. Lots of the Others in the area wondered off. Too bad it doesn’t seem like any of the others in the park seem to feel they owe Blake for saving them. Naw, see, that would be a favorable way for things to pan out, and that’s one of the nastiest ways that karma can strike at you. “Things start to fall apart, and the pieces fall down in the least convenient arragements[sic] for you.” 2.04 I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the faeries in question return at some point and Blake calls in what might be a rather big owed favor, but I don’t think most of the surviving Others are in much of a position to help him right now. They’ve had less than a day to being healing up, after all, and faeries will need to go somewhere that isn’t as boring as an isolated park if they’re going to do that. So Evan agrees to become his familiar, which means Evan basically comes back to life, as least as far as the Muggles can tell. You know how the medical term is that people aren’t really dead until they’re warm and dead? Well, Evan wasn’t warm yet, was he. So Evan becomes the familiar, appears to come back to life, there’s no reason for Blake to be kept in jail any longer, apologies, apologies, you can go now. I don’t think becoming a familiar is going to make his corpse start moving again. He’ll be able to become a flesh and blood animal, but I think his main form will still be that of an incorporeal ghost. Even if the Muggles perceive Evan as being alive, you’ve still got a child who disappeared months prior, and someone who apparently knew exactly where the cryogenically preserved body was. If I’m the police, I’m immediately thinking “kidnapper.” Evan could protest to the contrary, but the suspicion of Stockholm syndrome after a prolonged captivity means the police would still be liable to hold Blake for 24 hours–especially with Duncan and his enchantress allies pulling strings. You know, with all this effort the Duchamps and Beliams are putting into breaking Blake…eventually he’s going to snap. I mean he’s going through all of this, all of it being because of them, and all this suffering, and it’s only been two weeks in story time. Gathered Pages 4 warned about ganging up on the Diabolist, and a lesser man would have already broken out the Barber… I am pretty sure that’s the point-remember how Duncan said if Blake summons demons he’ll just cut to the chase and fill him with bullets. They want him to try something so they can justify killing him. Except he wasn’t in the room at the end. By the time he could get there it would have been over since the demon would have been down. I don’t know how likely it is for a chronomancer to be too late when it comes to stopping something from happening in a place where he works and he’s had ample time to prepare. Damocles says: I think he needs his lawyer to ask Duncan the following questions in front of a judge: Do you believe my client is guilty? Are you aware of any secret conspiricacy against my client? Are you trying to frame my client for murder? Do you know how Evan really died? Have you ever threatened to kill my client? Case thrown out. Getting this to happen inside 24 hours might eb a struggle though…. That second question should be “Are you aware of any conspiracy, secret or otherwise, against my client?” since he can always rationalize that “I didn’t know the conspiracy was supposed to be secret.” And the deadline is much less than 24 hours, because he needs to get to that factory, bind the eraser demon, then get back to Conquest in time for the fireworks to start. So, the demon lawyers have told Blake their price for the next favor he asks of them. Blake knows this, but we the readers don’t know the price. Is that correct? Can someone confirm? I could be wrong, but according to my understanding, the price for the next favor is “an errand” for the firm. It could be something as simple as driving Lady Incest to the airport, or more terrifying than bringing Lady Incest 37.5 virgins. All we know is that it is an errand, IIRC. Thanks. You’re right. In 4.01, the driver that took Blake to Toronto called it an internship. it probably wont be something too bad, since they are still trying to reel him in. Figures. They always treat interns crappy. “Go pick up my dry cleaning, Blake. Go fetch me a cup of coffee, Blake. Go catch me a goblin, Blake. Blake, weren’t you supposed to get me that devil for my weekly sales presentation?” So I have this theory on how Dunc and Laird manage to be policement while still apparently not obeying their oath. When comes the time to swear the oath, they stop time at the end of every sentence for everyone but them, add a few words that nobody who isn’t a practitionner or other can possibly hear, and then carry on. No lie told: “I will uphold the Constitution of Canada (except when doing so goes again my interests or I just don’t feel like it). I will, to the best of my ability, preserve the peace, prevent offences (that are not in my best interest) and discharge (some of) my other duties as faithfully, impartially and according to law (and my best interest).” Im still not sure how the oath/lie thing works. If you say something you think is true, but turned out later to be false, was that a lie? If so when does it become a lie? If you have your own unique definition for things (like ‘evil’) can you use your own definition without lying? If you make an oath, does it have to be to someone? If it is to someone, do they have to hear it, and are they responsible for calling you out on breaking it, or will the ambient spirits realise? These matters haven’t fully been explained to the readers. We get tidbits now and then, but it’s vague so there’s quite a bit of speculation. I’m sure it will be made more clear later on. Statements of belief should be quite safe so long as they are given honestly – “I think X” or “I believe Y” are statements about you and if true are lies. Stating something you believe as a true fact (like “X is true”) may come back to bite you if it turns out to be false, but it’s probably even more borderline than sarcasm as long as you were being honest in spirit. As far as statements of action go, that’s another matter. “I am going to do Z” will probably net you bad karma if you fail to do Z, but trying and failing is probably less of a karmic loss than not trying at all. As such, it’s safer to say “I intend to do Z”, but you probably wouldn’t get the same karmic gain since that statement is weaker. A true oath or promise is even stronger than a statement. “I swear/promise to do Z” has more weight. The karmic gains and penalties would be weighted accordingly. Again, making an earnest attempt but failing probably won’t get you forsworn. Ignoring it apparently gets bad karma, and outright breaking the vow will get you forsworn. As far as who you promise to, I think you can promise to anyone, even if only to yourself. As Ms. Lewis said, someone is always listening. Apparently though having more listeners adds more weight to things though, based on their comments about sarcasm. illlogicmedia says: Ok, normally I’m not into this type of superstitious genre. However, Wildbow, you have really done something special here. I am beyond intrigued, finally caught up and I can’t wait for more. Keep up the most excellent work. Meister says: Ah, Blakey boy needs to learn an important politician’s trick: Never answer the question you were asked, and only give answers you have prepared in advance. Q: “Do you see aliens?” A: “You mean little green men from Mars? I don’t even recall actually seeing those even on TV or in the movies now that I think about it. Oh no wait, Mars Attacks! Yeah, that was actually kinda fun.” Q: “Do you see ghosts, grumpkins, or goblins?” A: “You know, I don’t actually know what a grumpkin is? I’ve heard the term but only in passing. Funny, that.” Q: “And ghosts or goblins?” A: “I played Ghosts ‘N Goblins. That game is awesome, but just so sadistically hard.” Q: “Do you hear demonic voices, or think you are being told to do things you shouldn’t by non-human entities?” A: “You should see my mother, she’s a horrible back-seat driver. Hoo, boy, That lady might scare the devil his own self if she was in a mood. Slashem says: This is what I was thinking, but I think the police officers were probably expecting that. Agreed. Any police officer with a decent amount of experience talking to suspects has seen more lies, verbal evasions and diversions, and self-delusion than is good for anyone’s positive view of humanity. And they generally know it when they see it and do not appreciate those tactics. Actually, the police’s reputed ability to discern lies has been refuted in every study done on the subject (that I know of). The one that I remember best put a set of police officers vs a set of random college students in picking up lies from career criminals. The college students picked them out better, not because they were necessarily any better, intrinsically, but b/c the police were blinded by their own hype. That said, the police explicitly were restricting him to yes or no questions, so of course they wouldn’t accept these kinds of answers. Wait, what? That was…like, the single least expected thing the police would be coming to arrest him for. I mean, what evidence could there be? That is an entirely understandable reaction. Isn’t that basically what you just said you didn’t want to be? Definitely what you said you didn’t want to be just a dozen (?) paragraphs ago. If I was Blake, I’d interject that each time they said something makes me look guilty makes me that much more certain that they’re just bluffing about the whole guilty-looking thing. After all, what else would you expect? It’s the impication’s variant of beating a confession out of a suspect. Sure, it’s smart-alec, but it shows intelligence more than uncooperativeness, and it might get them to lighten up on you, which would help. …Well, here’s where I’d call their bluff if I was Blake. Ask how they would have evidence. Maybe something like: “What? I have an axe with blood on it, and was wandering in the woods? The blood’s mine–hard to work with blades without bleeding on them–and since I haven’t heard about missing kids in the news recently, I’m guessing he went missing long enough ago that the blood wouldn’t still be on it. You can’t have any direct proof that I actually killed Evan, because I didn’t. You’re bluffing, and I’m not buying it. If you have proof, prove it.” You guys suck at convincing people you have evidence. Vestige, huh? …Trying to decide if there’s something in this statement, or if I’m just reading too much into a coincidence of wording. I can’t help but feel sorry for Mrs. Harris right now. Blake has to talk in circles around big parts of the issue. Very much so. Poor Blake. At this point…I’d have strongly considered if the karmic consequences of lying would be worth it. Especially since Evan-the-kid and Evan-the-ghost are conceivably different entities. No. He does not. A simple “No” is perfectly true in this situation, Blake. …At least he’s being consistent. Hm…if Evan manifested in the interrogation room, would the karmic consequences be worth the officers possibly knowing that Blake isn’t (completely) crazy? One thing that occurred to me in reading this is, what happens when Practitioners have to testify in court? They swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Seems like a perfect recipe to break the masquerade. Oh, hey, this is the most recent chapter. I hadn’t realized that. And there’s a new one tomorrow! Couple corrections. First, the blood on the axe is not his. Most of it belongs to the animals tainted by Pauz and some to Dowght. Second, he probably has heard something about missing kids on the news – he searched the internet for information about Evan, so he likely read a news article about it. Oh. My bad. Still, if he admits to having been in that neighborhood, he’s got a decent excuse (after all, the rampaging wild animals probably didn’t go unnoticed), at the cost of being suspicious. Still, it’s not the kind of suspicion that would tie him to murdering a kid as much as make everyone think he was crazy. Alright. Rephrase it so he hasn’t heard about missing kids from recent news. There. The news isn’t recent, so it’s true. Or he can say that he remembers reading about it from an article in last fall’s newspaper or whatever. Still true, even if he read it only hours ago. RAG says: I just realize the last name is Thorburn. Maybe the family has some Norse connections? It explains why they're all blonde. But then why are they in Canada? The I realized Thorburn. Burn, fire. Loki is the god of fire, and has historically threatened to burn Thor. The Thorburn family is somehow related to Loki. At some point an ancestor fought Thor, and was forced to leave. Thus resulting in the going to Canada. Also, the reason Blake is as good as he is at glamour is because of a throwback from Loki. Also, the family has been able to bind demons as it has because they have the favor of the god of liars...lawyers. LegacySC says: This looks like a good place to start (commenting). Well, first off, at the Last Chapter Next Chapter thing at the bottom of the story says Ast Chapter Next Chapter instead, so you may wanna change it. aimlesspasserby says: And that explains the baby thing. I thought it was a Canadian thing, lol, I feel pretty stupid for not realizing Joel was gay -afterall, he was the one who said it. Squirrelloid says: Blake really needs to play ~1h of World of Warcraft or something every night, so he can honestly say he sees and talks to goblins, ghosts, etc… and follow up with saying he plays WoW. Ya know,Laird is a villain,no question aboutit,but Duncan might just be misguided by his patriarch,unlike Lardo,he hasn’t been shown being petty for pettiness sake. On other news:the way I think,in most settings,would make me OP,seeing all the mysteries,outsmarting everyone,trying to use diplomacy effectively….in Wilbow’s world,it would make me dead,due to it being not enough.That said,had I kept my calm,as Blake did,in this situation,I would say : “I feel insulted that you ask me questions thought by a guy who is part of a family that wants to get rid of me for no other freason that the fact that I belong to the wrong family.I feel that ,to make my displeasure at what I see as a subversion of the justice system shown,it would be better to refuse to answer any questions that I realise that indirectly come from him,at least for now. Leave a Reply to Enjou Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1732
__label__wiki	0.726189	0.726189	Egypt’s “gay wedding” furor: A ship of fools Posted on 10 September 2014 by scottlong1980 Hand in hand: Detail from the famous video In Egypt any man can harass, brutalize, and rape a woman. It happens all the time. The State will ignore it for as long as possible; the media will say she asked for it. Just try a harmless expression of mutual, consensual desire, though. They’ll hound you to within an inch of your life. Let’s start with the video. It came out of nowhere, but by Saturday morning it was everywhere. That day — it was August 30 — I spent with some young, impeccably liberal Egyptians. They kept staring with stunned fixation at their smartphones, repeatedly hitting “play,” watching it go viral, wondering what was going to happen to the men. The YouTube comments could have told you what was coming: “They’re outside of prisons; they should worship God within them,” one outraged viewer wrote. That night I met with some of the men in the clip. One of them kept breaking uncontrollably into tears. They were trying to report the invasion of privacy, get YouTube to take it down. No use: By next day, it was on the website of Youm7 — the tabloid that’s been carrying on a homophobic campaign for months — and on TV. You think you are just a private person, contained in the fences of your skin; then suddenly you find you’ve escaped yourself, become a common spectacle and possession, a fetish cupped in the palms of everybody’s hands. No doubt this is why politicians and movie stars are so vacuous, stripped of self; but imagine sitting in ordinary obscurity and abruptly discovering you’re now an infinitely duplicable, circulating flash of light. “Mirrors and copulation are both abominable,” Borges wrote — it was one of the aphorisms of his invented world of Tlon — “because they multiply mankind.” But that was before the Internet. Yesterday, some of those accused of being in the video went on trial. They face years in prison. The whole fiasco reminds many Egyptians of another moral panic that crushed innumerable lives: the Queen Boat show trial of 52 men, back in 2001. I won’t link to the video here; the men have been exposed enough. It lasts little more than a minute; it shows some kind of party on one of the boats that cruise the Cairo Nile. (You can buy a ride individually or rent the felucca for a group.) The cameraphone tilts and pans past some celebrating people; there’s a cake, and two seem to exchange rings. When it went viral, it was instantly dubbed “Egypt’s First Gay Wedding.” Mohamed Sobhi attempts to keep gay marriage from spreading to him Some of the men I talked to asserted the whole thing was a joke. One of the alleged grooms called the popular talk-show of Tamer Amin to say as much — that he had a girlfriend and was just “playing around with rings.” If it was a marriage between men, then in a sense it was intrinsically unserious, since the law doesn’t recognize that. Nor does the law punish playing at marriage. The furor kept mounting though. Amin, on his show, called for retribution. (Tamer Amin is eager to anathematize people he thinks are gay, but equally happy to excuse rape. When a Cairo University student was sexually assaulted earlier this year, Amin told viewers that “She was dressed like a prostitute … The sexually repressed boys couldn’t control themselves … I blame her for dressing like this, and her parents for letting her leave the house in that dress.”) Mohamed Sobhi, an actor notorious for his paranoid rants against Jews, demanded the State “respond’ to the “the spread of the phenomenon of gay marriage.” And the banned Muslim Brotherhood, the dictator’s most feared opposition, berated the regime that overthrew it, for going soft on perversion. A former MP for the Brotherhood’s own Freedom and Justice Party warned that “For the first time in Egypt, we hear of gay marriage. The coup leaders embrace the Western agenda of demolition and decay of religion, and Egypt is converted into a brothel.” She added that the “authority of the coup” lay behind the wedding. We will find you: Major General Magdy Moussa (from Vetogate.com) The supposed ceremony thus became a political crime. The State took up the challenge: it started arresting people. Last Wednesday, September 3, police picked up at least 13 people in the streets around Ramsis Station, and interrogated them about the video. The next night, they seized an unknown number as they were leaving a club downtown — I’ve heard figures as high as 26. Most were released, but somebody pointed an incriminating finger. On Saturday, the media announced that men from the film had been arrested, by police directed by Major General Magdy Moussa. (The exact number is still not clear. Most news reports say seven people were arrested; Al-Mogaz says two more are being sought; Youm7 claims ten are involved, and even after a confused hearing Tuesday, where the lawyers were denied access to court papers, it’s impossible to verify a figure.) [NOTE: The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights has now confirmed eight defendants have been arrested.] Youm7 showed grainy video of people being hauled to jail. The full names of nine victims, some presumably still at large, appeared in the press. We will hurt you when we find you: Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat The charges against the men aren’t clear, but they reportedly included incitement to “debuachery” (fugur, the legal term in Egyptian law for homosexual acts), and “publication of indecent photographs.” The images showed “the purpose was the celebration of attachment to one another, in scenes deemed shameful to the maximum degree.” Egypt’s Prosecutor General, Hisham Barakat, personally intervened in the case to show its seriousness, ordering quick action. Egypt’s Forensic Medical Authority conducted anal examinations on the arrested men — an intrusive, abusive, torturous and medically worthless procedure. They found no evidence of homosexual conduct. That didn’t stop a court, on September 9, from ordering the men jailed for another 15 days so the furor can continue. Dr Hisham Abdel-Hamid of the Forensic Medical Authority, who said the “bride” had turned out “normal” I spoke to one of the men trawled up in the police nets last Wednesday night: picked up at 3:30 AM on a street near Ramsis Station. This is his story: I was standing with a friend — he had tight jeans, that was probably why they thought we were gay. Suddenly a policeman came out of nowhere and grabbed us. We were thrown into a microbus nearby. I tried to scream and the policemen told us to shut up. There were about 13 of us crammed in there, all picked up in various places. In the past, Cairo police often looked for gays by riding in a microbus with an informer, who pointed out victims passing in the street. Almost a third of the Queen Boat defendants were arrested that way (not on the boat!) This time, the microbus took them to the Mugamma, the huge Stalinist building in Tahrir Square, a symbol of State bureaucracy. There police broke the men into groups for interrogation. One man “scampered off by a different door” — possibly he was the informer. The Mugamma looms above Tahrir Square, guarded by soldiers, during the Egyptian revolution, January 2011: by Joseph Hill My group was me, my friend, and another man I didn’t know. We were taken up to the 12th floor, the “Adab” [morals] division. At first the police were very aggressive with us. They beat us with sticks, and called us many names. Then the boss came in to question us. The boss was very civil. He said for months they had been arresting gays as a way of stopping the spread of AIDS, because these men were having sex without condoms. This is false. So far as we know, no evidence that anyone transmitted HIV through barebacking has been presented in any cases so far. The manipulation of public-health rhetoric is a bit strange coming from a government that claims it can cure AIDS by turning it into sausages. But now, he said, there is this video. He said we have a new president, and Sisi is determined not to let this kind of thing happen, and will not let the Muslim Brotherhood get any benefit from it. I told him I didn’t know anything about the people in the video. All the same, they took our phones and made backups of all the information on them. We were kept there for six hours, till after 10 AM. After the boss left the other policemen came back and made fun of us, calling us female names and asking if we were carrying condoms. My friend and I were set free; they held on to the third guy who was with us, because they said there was a theft charge against him. I don’t know what happened to the others. The information on the phones — particularly if passwords were stored on them — could help the police open the victims’ Facebook and other social-media accounts. Plenty more could be rounded up that way. Don’t blame Sisi: Cairenes light candles during a blackout. Photo by Islam Farouk for Al-Masry al-Youm. This whole uproar raises several issues. First: why now? The men I spoke to told me the video was made last October. One theory, seized on by the press, is that someone released it now to get revenge on a participant. It’s not implausible, though, that the authorities somehow obtained it earlier, and have been waiting for the moment when it might prove useful. There is plenty to distract people from in Egypt these days. Rolling power outages afflict the country; September 4 was promptly dubbed “Black Thursday” because the blackouts were so severe. Meanwhile, no sooner did Sisi win his rigged Presidential election than he announced massive cuts to fuel subsidies, pushing up prices for many basic goods. In such straitened circumstances, the spectre of “gay marriage” has long-proven value as a distraction. In Morocco in 2007, a YouTube video allegedly showing such a ceremony provoked riots — and jail terms for participants — in the town of Ksar el Kbir. In Kenya in 2010, similar stories stirred up vigilante violence in Mombasa. In Egypt itself, the first, sensational press reports in the famous Queen Boat case said a same-sex wedding was taking place on the raided vessel; some months before that, the press had pounced on unproven rumors of a marriage in the Delta town of Zagazig. “Gay marriage” has become a perfect encapsulation of cultural powerlessness before the imperial West. Second, of course, the video leaked amid a months-long campaign of arrests and vilification of people accused of homosexual conduct or of dissident gender expression. Transgender people in particular have been rounded up in clubs and on the streets, and seized in private homes. These arrests continue. In early August, police arrested a woman and two men in Rehab City, a gated community on Cairo’s outskirts, and charged the latter with homosexual conduct. I’m reliably told the cops stopped one of the men at a checkpoint, on his motorcycle; finding him suspicious, they went to his home, and found the conclusive evidence — condoms. (So much for the officers’ concern for public health.) Later that month, “security forces” arrested ten people in what they called a “prostitution ring” in Giza, in western Cairo. They included, it seems, a trans woman, whose photo was singled out to appear in El-Watan. (Only the eyes were imperfectly blacked out; obscuring the face was done by me.) Arrested August 26 in Giza: Victim of moral panic But it’s not just alleged gays and trans people who are victims of the atmosphere of repression. The police presence in downtown Cairo is formidable now. Just under three weeks ago ago, cops raided a host of sidewalk cafes, forcing them to shutter because they had tables on, well, the sidewalk. (I recall when Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved similarly against street life in Istanbul’s bustling Beyoglu district, Western conservatives condemned it as creeping Islamic totalitarianism. When Sisi does it, nobody bothers.) The next day, they cracked down on street vendors. Grim, barred trucks from Central Security palisaded the avenues, filling up with hapless men whose crime was hawking scarves and jeans in the passageways off Qasr el-Nil. There is a general campaign of social control going on, and a general rehabilitation of the reputation — and power — of the police. Homosexuality is simply another convenient bogeyman. Its particular convenience, though, is that it unites several things Sisi despises: “Western” influence (as in those marriages), abnormal gender roles, and the youth culture and revolutionary decadence symbolized by the downtown world. Attacking “debauchery” allows him to set the State firmly against all those debilitating forces. Third: the fact that the latest arrests came after criticism by the Muslim Brotherhood shows where Sisi senses his greatest vulnerabilities. Having overthrown the conservatives, he needs to prove his moral credentials. It’s significant that no comparable wave of repression happened under the Brotherhood itself: they had no credentials to prove. (It’s also significant that this panic has burgeoned during the week the government sentenced several Brotherhood leaders to decades in prison.) Sisi’s Minister of Religious Endowments — who more or less controls all the country’s official mosques — explained the official line elegantly to the media last week. Every Egyptian should reject “all anomalies” such as homosexuality, “because in the end they only serve the forces of extremism and terrorism, which claim to be the protectors of religion and morality.” Homosexuality causes Islamism: Mokhtar Gumaa, Minister of Religious Endowments Finally, what all this produces is fear, comprehensive and immobilizing. No one can guess what will come next, how far the crackdown will go. There are vague stories the State has planned a massive trial of alleged homosexuals for later this month, or next month; no one knows whether this mini-Queen-Boat is enough for them. Cairo Scene, a English webzine for the privileged party set, has claimed the police are already arresting gay men over Grindr; no one has been able to confirm a single case, but the rumor only adds to the terror. My sensible colleagues are pruning their phone lists, taking down photos from Facebook, and waiting — waiting for what, nobody can tell. Even I have drawn up a list, for friends, of things to do if I’m arrested; when insouciant I behave that way, you know something is wrong. A full-fledged moral panic is spreading in Egypt. It even has a song — by an Egyptian band, proclaiming that something must be done to stop the she-men with skinny jeans: The panic infects political discourse, turning everything to triviality. The contrast between the indifference accorded real and terrible stories of violence against women, and the seriousness with which a mock wedding is reviled, remains ominous. The men on the boat may have been careless or presumptuous, but the whole country increasingly resembles a ship of fools. The absurdity isn’t innocuous, though. The point of moral panics is that they can always find new victims. This entry was posted in Gender Identity, Human Rights, LGBT Rights, Politics, Religion, Sexual Rights and tagged Cairo, Egypt, forensic anal exams, fugur, gay wedding, homosexuality, LGBT, Muslim Brotherhood, Queen Boat, same-sex marriage, Sisi, trial by scottlong1980. Bookmark the permalink. 17 thoughts on “Egypt’s “gay wedding” furor: A ship of fools” Pingback: EGYPT: Egypt’s “gay wedding” furor: A ship of fools \| Tahrir-ICN Pingback: Political tactics underlie Egypt’s ‘gay wedding’ arrests \| 76 CRIMES Pingback: » Ajam’s Juma Reading List #15 Ajam Media Collective Pingback: Egypt: Tweet and blog against homophobic brutality, September 24 and 25 \| a paper bird Pingback: Egyptian, Jamaican activists seek international outcry \| 76 CRIMES Pingback: Two trials, two travesties \| a paper bird Pingback: Egypt: 8 imprisoned on anti-gay charges, 23 for protest \| 76 CRIMES Pingback: Dozens arrested for “perversion” in a huge raid in Cairo \| a paper bird Pingback: Egyptian Police Arrest, Humiliate ‘Gay’ Men at Cairo Bathhouse \| Gay-News.net Pingback: Egyptian Government Raids Hammam and Arrests Dozens of Men on Charges of "Perversion" Pingback: BullShnit: Egyptian homophobia’s Swiss defenders \| a paper bird Pingback: Morocco's Most Popular Transgender Woman velyarahmap on 6 February 2015 at 02:10 said: maksudnya apa sih? 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__label__wiki	0.500904	0.500904	Posts Tagged ‘third-division football’ Stan’s Fans Posted in Biology, Crime, Football, History, Soccer, tagged Awaydays, Birkenhead, crime in Liverpool, criminality, Dr Who convention, Dzuh Roh Voz, Football Factory series, football hooliganism, football hooligans, Halifax, heroin, heroin addiction, hierarchy, hoolie lit, hooligans, Irish Catholic, John King, Kevin Sampson, late '70s, late 1970s, late seventies, Lime Street Station, Liverpool, Liverpool slang, Liverpudlian, Liverpudlian slang, Odgie, old third division, psychopathy, Scouse, Scouse slang, Scouser, Scousers, sex and violence, soccer hooliganism, soccer hooligans, Stanley knife, Stanley knives, Stanleys, status, The Football Factory, the Mersey, The Pack, the Wirral, the Yankee Bar, third-division football, Tranmere fans, Tranmere Rovers, violence on March 10, 2014\| Leave a Comment » Awaydays, Kevin Sampson (Vintage 1998) If you’re going to try a fictional entry in the hoolie lit genre, try this one. My interest was partly voyeuristic and I skimmed for the good bits rather than reading properly, but it deserves some of the hype given to John King’s weak and poorly written Football Factory series. Sampson is a much more intelligent and skilful writer. A lot of people will assume he’s cashing in on King, but his book was written before King’s became popular. The sex and violence in Awaydays are much more realistic: you’d definitely like to partake of the former and avoid being on the receiving end of the latter. But dishing it out is pleasurable: violence is addictive because of its chemical effect on the brain. The narrator’s best friend, an Ezra-Pound-loving thug-eccentric called Elvis, tries more conventional pleasure-chemicals too, like heroin. That’s part of how Awaydays has more anthropological and linguistic interest than King’s books, being about obscure Tranmere Rovers and provincial Liverpool rather than world-famous Chelsea and London. Not that “Dzuh Roh Voz!” are Liverpudlian. They’re from Birkenhead, across the Mersey from the strange and dangerous city of Liverpool, but the rest of the country is right to lump them in with the Scousers. There’s a nastiness and criminality, even a psychopathy, about Liverpool that Tranmere fans in this book share, as the narrator reveals right at the beginning: “Tranmere are the only team in the Third who go away by train and we’re the only ones who use Stanleys – as Chesterfield and all the other knobheads now know.” A Stanley knife is a razor blade set in a metal handle. It’s difficult to kill with one, but easy to slash and scar. That’s why they were popular with some football hooligans. The narrator of the book doesn’t use one, but plenty in his crew do, to put the knobheads in their place. Awaydays is actually a study of hierarchy and status, because those are very important things to human beings. Violence is one way of establishing who’s above who. So are music and fashion, in this case those of the late 1970s: Joy Division and sovereign rings. Sampson captures the period and setting well and although his attempts at humour and quirkiness can seem a little contrived – the Dr Who convention gatecrashed by Tranmere in Halifax, for example – they’re something else that separate him from King. So does the ending of the book. Capturing the period and setting well isn’t necessarily a good thing, because both are bleak and unpleasant, and the narrator eventually decides to get out. He realizes the futility of what he’s been doing and the viciousness of it will be brought home after his last away trip. He’s intelligent, middle-class-ish and from a suburb, so he has never really fitted in and trouble starts when he finds he’s being fitted up. That’s why he never gets to face the big boys Tranmere have drawn at home in the F.A. Cup after winning both on and off the pitch at Halifax. But his confrères try their best to get an early taste of what’s in store: The journey back is a merry one. By the time we draw in at Lime Street, we’ve hyped ourselves up into a mob of fervent Scouse-haters and everyone’s up for storming the Yankee Bar. We’ll never have a better crew or a better opportunity so it’s a deadly let-down when a hundred-odd of us walk into Liverpool’s legendary stronghold and find it packed out with Christmas revellers and drunken old girls singing rebel songs. There’s one or two heads in the back who cannot work out who the fuck we are. They know we’re nothing to do with The Road End and the Yankee isn’t the sort of place you’d expect Everton to go socially. Eventually one of them comes over, horrible kite on him, nasty, narrow eyes and a bit of a scar on his temple. He starts trying to pal up to us, asking what the game was like. Marty pushes his way over. “We’re Tranmere. That’s what you want to know, isn’t it, you Odgie cunt.” “Tranmere.” He just repeats the word, mulling it over quietly amused, then pulls a wincing face. He’s cool. Not remotely flustered by the odds of a hundred and seventeen to five. Ugly, but cool. Batesy, with commendable valour and utter stupidity, stands up. “You’ve just met The Pack, lar!” Suddenly it’s my turn to wince. I glance at Elvis. All of a sudden our steely, streetwise little crew sounds like a bunch of drama students playing at being football thugs. Why do we have to have a name anyway? The Scouse lad smiles to himself. “Well. We’ll be seeing youse then, The Pack.” He walks back to his mates. Moments later a big laugh goes up. (pp. 114-5) Status, you see. But why do Liverpool have more than Tranmere and Tranmere more than Halifax? It’s as trivial as demographics: cities generate more violence and have more young men to practice it. That isn’t all there is to it, however, and you can catch the fringes of Liverpool’s unique nastiness here. Perhaps there’s something genetic at work, reflecting the Irish Catholic influence. Whatever it is, Sampson has seen it and can get it down on paper.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1736
__label__cc	0.714757	0.285243	Difference between revisions of "United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)" HarrySmythe (Talk \| contribs) \| <br/> = Instructions for Pulling Raw Data = #Go to [http://unctadstat.unctad.org/ http://unctadstat.unctad.org/] #Navigate to the data center page #In the data center bring up the series you wish to collect. #Click “Economy” and then check all the boxes using the top left check mark #Click show table #Download the csv version of the data; the excel version of this data is excel 3 Version locked and cannot be used = References  = UNCTAD is a permanent intergovernmental body established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1964. UNCTAD monitors international trade patterns, and aims to help developing economies access the benefits of the globalized economy more fairly and effectively. The statistics division of UNCTAD publishes data on various topics such as international trade, investment patterns in goods and services, economic trends, foreign direct investment, external finance resources, populations and labor force, commodities etc.[1] 1 Data source and availability 2 Series available 3 Series used in EconDash 4 Series used in IFs 5 Instructions for Pulling Raw Data Data source and availability Data from UNCTAD and the related metadata is available here- http://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/Index.html This data is compiled in accordance with the UNCTAD statistics handbook that is published annually.[2] Data is published by UNCTAD annually. Commodity price data is released on a monthly basis. The trade matrix is updated twice a year, in May and September and trade indicator data is updated in June and October. The FDI data is updated every July. All data is presented in current US dollars.[3] The export and import data published by UNCTAD are not symmetrical in all cases. This is because of the following reasons, Time of recording: It takes time to transport the goods. If the goods were shipped in December and arrived in January, the exports will be recorded in last year and imports will be in current year. Valuation: Imports are normally valued by adding insurance and freight to the value of the goods, but exports are not (only value of the goods). Therefore, normally, imports are always higher than exports Coverage, inclusion / exclusion of certain goods: Countries have different treatment on the inclusion and exclusion of goods (even though there is an international recommendation for this). Partner country attribution: The known exports destination at the time of exportation may not be where the goods go finally. The famous example is trade among Canada - USA - Mexico. The final destination of Mexican exports are sometimes unknown, so recording USA as destination, may be misleading, if the final destination is Canada (or vice-versa). However, Canada would record imports from Mexico as the country of origin.[4] In certain cases the FDI data is negative. This is because data on FDI flows are presented on net basis (capital transactions' credits less debits between direct investors and their foreign affiliates). Net decreases in assets or net increases in liabilities are recorded as credits (positive), while net increases in assets or net decreases in liabilities are recorded as debits (negative). Hence, FDI flows with a negative sign indicate that at least one of the three components of FDI is negative and not offset by positive amounts of the remaining components. These are called reverse investment or disinvestment.[5] Series available Sr. no Notes[6] Trade trends data This series includes trade data for goods and service trade. Compiled in accordance with guidelines in BPM6[7] Merchandise trade matrix Bilateral trade data for goods by actor and trading partner Service trade data Exports and imports by service category, value, shares and growth Goods and services trade balance indicators Trade balance is defined as the difference between exports f.o.b. and imports f.o.b. expressed in millions of dollars. Normalized trade balance of goods and services is defined as the trade balance (total exports less total imports) divided by the total trade (exports plus imports). Most favored nation (MFN) and effectively applied import tariff rates on non-agricultural and non-fuel products, annual, 1988 - 2014 This series presents MFN (Most Favored Nation) and effectively applied import tariff rates for major categories of non-agricultural and non-fuel products by individual country (as market economy) and economic grouping (as origin), expressed in various aggregation measure Total and per capita This is only the current account component of the BoP. This series includes real and nominal exchange rates This series includes the latest Consumer Price index Foreign Direct Investments This series includes both Inward and Outward FDI Migrant's remittances Personal remittances in millions of dollars Total and Urban population Labor force and agricultural labor force Free market commodity prices annual The weights used in the construction of the indices represent the relative values of commodity exports from developing countries for the period 1999-2001. Share of ICT goods as a % of total trade This table contains the two Core Indicators on International trade defined by the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development. The first of these Core Indicators is the share of ICT goods imports as a percentage of total imports, while the second Core Indicator is the share of ICT goods exports as a percentage of total exports, for every economy for which this information is available in the UN COMTRADE database. For information on the Partnership, please consult: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Pages/intlcoop/partnership/default.aspx. For each economy and for both trade flows, the table provides the associated Core Indicator, as well as the value in absolute ($) term of the ICT trade flow ICT producing sector core indicators, annual, This table contains statistics on two core indicators of the ICT producing sector: the proportion (%) of total business sector workforce involved in the ICT sector, and value added in the ICT sector as a percentage of total business sector value added Values and shares of creative goods in trade (export and import) This table presents exports and imports of creative goods by individual country, geographical region and economic grouping, expressed in millions of dollars and broken down by individual trading partner or trading group. Furthermore, data are presented also as percentage of world (both as economy and trading partner), total products, and region. Concentration index of creative goods This table provides information on concentration indices of exports and imports of creative goods. Values and shares of creative services in trade (export and import) International trade in related services: Royalties and license fees) In the context of trade in services related to creative economy, this table presents exports and imports of royalties and license fees (including their sub-components), for individual countries, expressed in millions of dollars and as percentages of a country's total services trade. International trade in related services: Computer and information, annual, In the context of trade in services related to creative economy, this table presents exports and imports of computer and information services (including their sub-components), for individual countries, expressed in millions of dollars and as percentages of a country's total services trade. Merchant fleet by flag of registration and type of ship annual This table shows statistics on the international maritime transport. It contains data on the size of the world merchant fleet by flag of registration and by type of ship. Data are presented in thousands of dead-weight tons (DWT). The table presents also, for each region or country 1) its share in the world fleet, and 2) the share of a ship-type in its fleet. From 2011 onwards, the figures on numbers of ships are also available, as well as the data in gross tonnage (GT). Ship scrapping This table shows estimates of the merchant fleet demolished between 1 January and 31 December of a given year. World seaborne trade This table shows data on the world seaborne trade by types of cargo, by country groups and by regions. Data are presented in millions of tons. Series used in EconDash Series used in IFs DataDict 720 Last IFs Update UsedInPreprocessor SeriesXFDIInwardFlows Economic Foreign direct investment, inward flows UNCTAD STAT website 2011/12 No SeriesXFDIInwardStock Economic Foreign direct investment, inward stock UNCTAD STAT website 2011/12 No SeriesXFDIOutwardFlows Economic Foreign direct investment, outward flows UNCTAD STAT website 2011/12 No SeriesXFDIOutwardStock Economic Foreign direct investment, outward stock UNCTAD STAT website 2011/12 No Instructions for Pulling Raw Data Go to http://unctadstat.unctad.org/ Navigate to the data center page In the data center bring up the series you wish to collect. Click “Economy” and then check all the boxes using the top left check mark Click show table Download the csv version of the data; the excel version of this data is excel 3 Version locked and cannot be used ↑ Refer to “About UNCTAD” <http://unctad.org/en/Pages/statistics.aspx> ↑ UNCTAD statistics handbook is available here://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.aspx?publicationid=1414 ↑ Refer to UNCTAD FAQ <http://unctadstat.unctad.org/EN/Documentation.html> ↑ Refer to UNCTAD statistics handbook, data descriptions ↑ Refer to UNCTAD statistics handbook, data definitions ↑ This column describes definitions and content of various datasets. These definitions are available at the UNCTAD data center metadata page. ↑ BPM6 here refers to the Balance of payments and International Investment Position manual 6th edition issued by the IMF. Retrieved from "http://pardee.du.edu/w/index.php?title=United_Nations_Conference_on_Trade_and_Development_(UNCTAD)&oldid=1456"	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1737
__label__cc	0.670172	0.329828	Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence Hiroyuki Miyachi, Akihiko Azuma, Erika Hioki, Shigeo Iwasaki, Yoshiro Kobayashi, Yuichi Hashimoto Regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimide analogs (FPP-33 and PPS-33) of TNF-α production is specific to cell type and to inducer, i.e., (i) the compounds enhance TPA-induced TNF-α production by human leukemia HL-60 cells, while they inhibit TPA-induced TNF-α production by another human leukemia cell line, THP-1, and (ii) the compounds inhibit TNF-α production by both HL-60 and THP-1 cells when the cells are stimulated with okadaic acid (OA). The structure-activity relationships of these compounds are similar in the four assay systems (TPA/HL-60, TPA/THP-1, OA/HL-60, and OA/THP-1). However, optically active analogs, (S)- and (R)-α-methylthalidomides, show distinct bidirectional regulatory effects on TNF-α production, i.e., only the (S)-form shows TNF-α production-enhancing activity in the TPA/HL-60 assay system, while the (R)-form shows much more potent TNF-α production-inhibiting activity than the (S)-form in the other assay systems. https://doi.org/10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374 Published - Sep 13 1996 Okadaic Acid Helper-Inducer T-Lymphocytes HL-60 Cells Miyachi, H., Azuma, A., Hioki, E., Iwasaki, S., Kobayashi, Y., & Hashimoto, Y. (1996). Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 226(2), 439-444. https://doi.org/10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374 Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence. / Miyachi, Hiroyuki; Azuma, Akihiko; Hioki, Erika; Iwasaki, Shigeo; Kobayashi, Yoshiro; Hashimoto, Yuichi. Miyachi, H, Azuma, A, Hioki, E, Iwasaki, S, Kobayashi, Y & Hashimoto, Y 1996, 'Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence', Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, vol. 226, no. 2, pp. 439-444. https://doi.org/10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374 Miyachi H, Azuma A, Hioki E, Iwasaki S, Kobayashi Y, Hashimoto Y. Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 1996 Sep 13;226(2):439-444. https://doi.org/10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374 Miyachi, Hiroyuki ; Azuma, Akihiko ; Hioki, Erika ; Iwasaki, Shigeo ; Kobayashi, Yoshiro ; Hashimoto, Yuichi. / Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence. In: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. 1996 ; Vol. 226, No. 2. pp. 439-444. @article{4f5513385b714827b617006cefcd64aa, title = "Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence", abstract = "Regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimide analogs (FPP-33 and PPS-33) of TNF-α production is specific to cell type and to inducer, i.e., (i) the compounds enhance TPA-induced TNF-α production by human leukemia HL-60 cells, while they inhibit TPA-induced TNF-α production by another human leukemia cell line, THP-1, and (ii) the compounds inhibit TNF-α production by both HL-60 and THP-1 cells when the cells are stimulated with okadaic acid (OA). The structure-activity relationships of these compounds are similar in the four assay systems (TPA/HL-60, TPA/THP-1, OA/HL-60, and OA/THP-1). However, optically active analogs, (S)- and (R)-α-methylthalidomides, show distinct bidirectional regulatory effects on TNF-α production, i.e., only the (S)-form shows TNF-α production-enhancing activity in the TPA/HL-60 assay system, while the (R)-form shows much more potent TNF-α production-inhibiting activity than the (S)-form in the other assay systems.", author = "Hiroyuki Miyachi and Akihiko Azuma and Erika Hioki and Shigeo Iwasaki and Yoshiro Kobayashi and Yuichi Hashimoto", doi = "10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374", T1 - Cell type-/inducer-specific bidirectional regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimides of tumor necrosis factor-alpha production and its enantio-dependence AU - Miyachi, Hiroyuki AU - Azuma, Akihiko AU - Hioki, Erika AU - Iwasaki, Shigeo AU - Kobayashi, Yoshiro AU - Hashimoto, Yuichi N2 - Regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimide analogs (FPP-33 and PPS-33) of TNF-α production is specific to cell type and to inducer, i.e., (i) the compounds enhance TPA-induced TNF-α production by human leukemia HL-60 cells, while they inhibit TPA-induced TNF-α production by another human leukemia cell line, THP-1, and (ii) the compounds inhibit TNF-α production by both HL-60 and THP-1 cells when the cells are stimulated with okadaic acid (OA). The structure-activity relationships of these compounds are similar in the four assay systems (TPA/HL-60, TPA/THP-1, OA/HL-60, and OA/THP-1). However, optically active analogs, (S)- and (R)-α-methylthalidomides, show distinct bidirectional regulatory effects on TNF-α production, i.e., only the (S)-form shows TNF-α production-enhancing activity in the TPA/HL-60 assay system, while the (R)-form shows much more potent TNF-α production-inhibiting activity than the (S)-form in the other assay systems. AB - Regulation by thalidomide and phenylphthalimide analogs (FPP-33 and PPS-33) of TNF-α production is specific to cell type and to inducer, i.e., (i) the compounds enhance TPA-induced TNF-α production by human leukemia HL-60 cells, while they inhibit TPA-induced TNF-α production by another human leukemia cell line, THP-1, and (ii) the compounds inhibit TNF-α production by both HL-60 and THP-1 cells when the cells are stimulated with okadaic acid (OA). The structure-activity relationships of these compounds are similar in the four assay systems (TPA/HL-60, TPA/THP-1, OA/HL-60, and OA/THP-1). However, optically active analogs, (S)- and (R)-α-methylthalidomides, show distinct bidirectional regulatory effects on TNF-α production, i.e., only the (S)-form shows TNF-α production-enhancing activity in the TPA/HL-60 assay system, while the (R)-form shows much more potent TNF-α production-inhibiting activity than the (S)-form in the other assay systems. U2 - 10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374 DO - 10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374 10.1006/bbrc.1996.1374	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1739
__label__wiki	0.547256	0.547256	ROC President statements International Olympic movement news Russian Olympic movement news Russian sports Federations news Events with ROC support Congratulations and awards PyeongChang-2018 news Buenos Aires-2018 news ROC projects About Buenos Aires 2018 Olympic Articles Olympic Charter EOC Articles of Association Public commissions ROC strategy Honourable presidents Honourable vice-presidents Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports RUSADA Nina Moser: “I’m taking time out. I will work within reason” In an interview with the ROC Information Service the honored coach of Russia Nina Moser shared her impression about the past World Figure Skating Championships and, first of all, about the sports couples competition. Two duets from her group took part in the World Figure Skating Championships in Milan. Eugenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov took second place, Natalia Zabiyako and Alexander Enbert were fourth. Nina Mikhailovna did not go to Italy, because she was recovering from a surgery. – I am very glad with the result of Tarasova and Morozov, despite some mistakes, said Nina Moser. The season was difficult and exhausting. The guys took part in ten tournaments, including the Olympic Games. Therefore, I was somewhat worried about their performance at the World Championships. But they coped with their task with dignity. I am also happy for Zabiyako/Enbert. Last year, at the World Championships in Helsinki, they were only 12th, and now fought for a place on the podium. – If Alena Savchenko will complete her sports career, which is quite possible, will Tarasova/Morozov become a potential leader for the next four year period? – It is a complex issue. The Chinese duo Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, the world champions of 2017, who were second at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, did not cometo Milan. There are enough rivals. For example, a French couple Vanessa James/Morgan Cipres, who took third place this time. Everything will depend on further work. Tarasova and Morozov have opportunities to become leaders, but it is not possible for sure. It is a sport. – Zagitova, was meant to be a champion, but alas… – She couldn’t handle herself. After all, the result is determined by skating. It is a problem for athletes when everybody says ‘Go and win’, because they think that medal is in their pocket and it is necessary to win, and the wrong mindset. – Were you amazed by the world record Savchenko and Massot? – Why? The guys gave an amazing skate? They performed the most difficult program, showing clean skate. – We are talking about the performance, which resulted in record scores. – This pair proved itself at the Olympic Games. Their two final performances in this season were just great. – But is not the gap between them and our duo too great, 20 points? – At the beginning of the season our guys defeated Savchenko and Massot (at the Nebelhorn Trophy tournament). We should not compare the scores. Everyone skates at their strength at a given moment. In addition, there are different judges at different tournaments, and therefore different points for components. But anyway, Savchenko and Massot deserved a victory, as well as all gold medals owners. They all skated great. These are real champions. – You touched upon the problem of judging… – No. I only said that at the tournament, the judges may have a certain impression of some program or music. But if the athletes perform well, it will be appreciated. – Tatyana Tarasova said on television that ice dancers Alexandra Stepanova and Ivan Bukin were condemned. Do you agree? – Tatyana Anatolyevna spills emotions at each tournament and holds half a country in a negative suspense. – Your skaters Ksenia Stolbova and Fedor Klimov, who missed both the Olympic Games and the World Championships, decided to stay for another season. They got angry at the fate? – I haven’t talked to them yet. I was distracted by health problems. – I hope, there is no more health problems now? – Thank God, it is ok now, but I am not ready to discuss further plans, because I am still thinking. I will certainly stay in figure skating to some extent. This is my profession, I live with it. But after last season definitely need a break. I am running out of health and nerves. I need a break. And then over time, probably, I will return to this fight. When? It is necessary to continue at maximum strength. So now I’m taking a time out. This means that I will not be around, in my coaching room on a day in and day out basis. I will recuse myself from active work, at least for a while. I’ll work, but within reason. I will give advice, help and recover. Then we’ll see.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1742
__label__wiki	0.933355	0.933355	One World Actors Centre Art Knows No Boundaries AUTUMN 2019 Training Courses One World Productions and Events 2012-19 The Blue Box: Memories Of The Children of War ANTIGONE: AN ARABIAN TRAGEDY (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015) Welcome to Season 2019-20 September 1, 2016 October 28, 2019 \| OneWorldActorsCentre One World Shakespeare Company 2019 Founder and CEO Alison Shan Price MBE, 35 years resident in the Middle East was awarded an MBE in Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11’s New Year’s Honours List, 2017, for services to Dramatic Arts in Kuwait and the Gulf Region, the Middle East, spanning over 20 years of developing the Arts in the Middle East. In June 2001, as the Representative for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in Kuwait, with the patronage of HM Ambassador Mr Richard Muir, Alison introduced accredited UK Performance & Communication Examinations into Kuwait. Alison founded the One World Shakespeare Festival in 2012 and in 2015, began adapting for stage original books and directing bilingual productions under the National Council of Culture Arts and Letters of Kuwait, hosted by Dar al Athar Cultural Centre, which have won acclaim on the world stage at the Edinburgh Festivals in 2016 & 2017. (Please open the shows’ pages for descriptions and names of the creative teams). Sponsorship of the development of multicultural artists and refugee art programmes and charities is of paramount importance with many ex-students progressing to international drama schools and positions in the global entertainment industry. She is a patron of The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Her award for International Drama was presented for the first time in 2018 in UK and Kuwait. Congratulations to Dr Diana Sfeir for her one-woman acclaimed and continuing production in Lebanon. Diana is an Associate Artist of One World Actors Centre and the Arabic language director/ designer of our shows. In 2015, she took a leading role of the Arabic Antigone in ‘Antigone-an Arabian Tragedy’ and The Mother in ‘The Blue Box-Memories of Children of War’ at the Edinburgh Festival 2015/16. An international actress having worked in Paris and Cannes, we are privileged to have her as a member of our Ceative Team. Congratulations to director Hamad al Jenaie ( Woman in Black , Sweeney Todd) for the resounding success of ‘Shakespeare in the Park’ in March, to celebrate 120 Years of Friendship between Kuwait & Great Britain in association the British Embassy of Kuwait. Hamad is an Associate Artist of One World Actors Centre and Artist director of ‘The Woman in Black’ , ‘Antigone’ in Arabic for NCCAL and ‘Sweeney Todd’. Hamad holds Gold Medals in Musical Theatre and Acting from LAMDA. It is a privilege to have Hamad as a member of our Creative Team. Wishing all LAMDA Examination candidates every success in LAMDA Performance and Communication examinations in May. April 27, 2016 September 2, 2016 \| OneWorldActorsCentre The Blue Box: Memories Of The Children Of War based on stories from the book The Blue Box received a standing ovation at the World Premiere at DAI Cultural Centre in Kuwait in April 2016 and a coveted 5- star rating at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016, for its heartfelt portrayal of the stories of children affected by war. The bilingual English-Arabic production premiered under the patronage of H.E. Sheikha Paula al Sabah and Sheikha Yasmine al Sabah at Dar Noor Kuwait in November 2015. In April 2016 it received its World Premiere at DAI Yarmouk Cultural Centre under the National Council of Culture, Arts and Letters in April 2016 to sell-out audiences. With a cast of forty of our multicultural actors, the production explored different perspectives and stories of children affected by war, as told in the blue box. In August 2016 it received its International Premiere at The Edinburgh Festival Fringe produced by Eleni Price. A Game of Hide and Seek Based on the book by Syrian- French teenager Emma Abdullah and current issues and adapted for stage by Director Alison Shan Price, the production was accompanied by original music and songs by Harriet Petherick Bushman and Arabic script by Dr Diana Sfeir. Costumes were designed by Abdala al Awadhi of Kuwait with a backdrop by UN award winning photographer Islam Mardini of Aleppo, Syria. We give gracious thanks to our sponsors, without whom the production would not have been possible: Alghanim Industries (Platinum) The Dar Al Athar Al Islamiyyah (White Gold) JAMM Art Advisory and Dar Noor (Gold) Al Abjar Holdings (Bronze) Ian & Friends (Pearl) CEE Kuwait (Media) TAQA Kuwait and Bayt Lothan Cultural Centre ANTIGONE: AN ARABIAN TRAGEDY FASCINATES AT THE EDINBURGH FRINGE June 3, 2015 May 5, 2016 \| OneWorldActorsCentre ANTIGONE: AN ARABIAN TRAGEDY completed its international run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on 15th August 2015 after a week at Greenside Venues Nicholson Square, Edinburgh. It ‘fascinated’ audience members and received a 4-star review from premiere online reviewer Broadway Baby. Spanning 2000 years, the production revolved around how the story of Antigone is universally repeated throughout the ages to the same climatic result. For ‘when your name is Antigone, there is only one part you can play, and she must play hers through to the end.’ The production was bilingual English/Arabic and starred Diana Sfeir as the modern Arabian Antigone with Eleni Rebecca as her shadowy celtic counterpart. Both actresses were accompanied by Hamad Al Jenaie and Brian McLaughlin as Creon, Yousef Al Nasser and Ali Naser as Haemon, Frank Cannizzo as Cpt. Jonas and Nour Bizri as Ismene. Directed by One World CEO Alison Shan Price, It was featured as one of AlWaleed Centre ‘Top Picks’ of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival due to its representation of Arabian Culture and is currently long-listed of the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award 2015. Inquiring About Edinburgh Fringe Festival Upcoming Productions Training Programmes Follow Us on Instagram for the latest updates:	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1747
__label__wiki	0.865304	0.865304	Home › Berkowitz Quotes & Sayings Berkowitz Quotes & Sayings Enjoy reading and share 59 famous quotes about Berkowitz with everyone. If you make it sound too much like a synth, it will just sound like a guitar part played on a synth. — Daisy Berkowitz It's hard to get lice out of your head, and there's no easy cure for shaking off campaign-based thinking, either. — David Berkowitz In this hole lives the wicked king. — David Berkowitz My handbag turned into a diaper bag for the chronically ill. — Tracey Berkowitz There are two hedges I know of; one is cash and the other is knowledge. — Bruce Berkowitz He mistook my frustration for anger towards him, which seemed to be typical for us lately. The longer the distance between a correct diagnosis, the greater the silence we shared. — Tracey Berkowitz It all begins with the initial tone coming from the cabinet, but EQ at the board is very important. — Daisy Berkowitz There are kids out there that are into Iron Maiden and others who are strictly into industrial music, but they come for the same reason; they all like us and they different things out of the band's music. — Daisy Berkowitz Effective education is not adding a program or a set of programs to a school. Rather, it is a transformation of the culture and life of the school. — David Berkowitz But the exposure we got by doing the stint with Nine Inch Nails brought us a lot of attention. — Daisy Berkowitz Mr. Berkowitz clicks open his black American Tourister rolling suitcase. Inside, his tools: a microscope, an old canister with the faded label "vegetable flakes," and various instruments that look like my mother's sewing kit after a genetic mutation. He spreads them out on my living room table. Mr. Berkowitz reminds me of an Orthodox CSI. God's wardrobe detective. He — A. J. Jacobs Nobody seems to play Yamaha electrics, but it's the best guitar I own. — Daisy Berkowitz Real-time marketing is already too late. Brands should focus on sparking conversation, not constantly reacting. — David Berkowitz It was clear that most of my insecurities originated from my need to have things be "perfect." I wasn't sure what bothered me more; the fact that I had no control over the changes of my body and hair or that this horrible situation was only happening to me. — Tracey Berkowitz The trick in life is not to die. The trick in investing is not to lose. — Bruce Berkowitz The people and the news media used to call me 'The Son of Sam,' but God has given me a new name, 'The Son of Hope,' because now my life is about hope. — David Berkowitz I'd played in about four or five bands before we started up, only a couple of which did club dates. — Daisy Berkowitz We were like psychedelic folk combined with Sonic Youth's noise. — Daisy Berkowitz Hello from the gutters of NYC, which is filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine,and blood. Hello from the sewers of NYC which swallow up these delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. — David Berkowitz It was a good chance for us to play for people who would never have heard us otherwise. — Daisy Berkowitz It's like tabloid news programs that talk about how horrible something is, while at the same time they're glorifying it as their top story. — Daisy Berkowitz I have about nine guitars in all, so obviously I'm into collecting. — Daisy Berkowitz Well, I didn't really grow up playing or listening to metal, like many of the kids I went to school with. I only got into it in my late teens, so when Marilyn Manson formed, it was at a time when I was still excited about approaching music from that angle. — Daisy Berkowitz In some cases the intelligence community could subsidize commercial and academic sources to ensure specialized or additional expertise for surge situations. The key challenge in these cases is that, although experts in academia and the media are likely to be eager to assist the government, they may be reluctant to have direct association with intelligence organizations. U.S. intelligence will need mechanisms that keep these experts at arm's length. One alternative could be to work through agencies such at the State Department and National Security Council, or private organizations such as the National Science Foundation. Moreover, these buffer mechanisms will need to be real, and not just a cover story. A few stories about how such-and-such organization is a 'front for U.S. intelligence' will ensure not only that the organization will lose its access to experts, but that the experts themselves will be less likely to offer their services to the government in the future. — Bruce D. Berkowitz What you hear about the band is always going to be more disturbing than any particular song. — Daisy Berkowitz From the reign of Emperor Constantine to the present, the Christian notion that sexual love brings spiritual death has been the cornerstone of Western sex law. — David Berkowitz It's a different way of looking at the world. Your life isn't about rights. It's about responsibilities. Mr Bill Berkowitz — A. J. Jacobs I even have a Harmony Rocket and a Stratocaster with a scalloped neck back in Florida. — Daisy Berkowitz Micing it from two different angles in front of the speaker sounds huge, and it's so simple. — Daisy Berkowitz From the earliest times, female domestic servants have been viewed as snacks for the sexual appetites of their masters. — Eric Berkowitz The girls call me ugly and they bother me the most. — David Berkowitz I have several children who I'm turning into killers. Wait till they grow up. — David Berkowitz I just saw metal as another tool for me to use. — Daisy Berkowitz Who we are is really defined by the work we put out. — David Berkowitz I'm happy with the way everyone presents themselves onstage. — Daisy Berkowitz A 'possessed' dog in the neighborhood won't let me stop killing until he gets his fill of blood. — David Berkowitz I'm not interested in meeting management today ... I'm more interested in finding out how a person has behaved in the past. — Bruce Berkowitz It's great, because different groups of kids can laugh at each other and still enjoy the show. — Daisy Berkowitz The demons were protecting me. I had nothing to fear from the police. — David Berkowitz We're non-diversified. We focus. Why not buy more of your best idea rather than your 60th best idea? How many companies can I really know well over time and focus on, on a daily basis? — Bruce Berkowitz I didn't want to hurt them, I only wanted to kill them. — David Berkowitz We're approaching things quite differently this time, but it will still sound like Marilyn Manson. — Daisy Berkowitz Each member of the band has varied influences, and the same diversity is reflected in our fanbase. — Daisy Berkowitz Trent likes to record guitars direct, whereas I've always preferred playing through an amplifier. — Daisy Berkowitz We must realize that we have a choice. We are responsible for our own good time ... When you do something you are proud of, dwell on it a little, praise yourself for it, relish the experience, take it in. — David Berkowitz I was literally singing to myself on my way home, after the killing. The tension, the desire to kill a woman had built up in such explosive proportions that when I finally pulled the trigger, all the pressures, all the tensions, all the hatred, had just vanished, dissipated, but only for a short time. — David Berkowitz Hello from the gutters of New York City, which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine, and blood. — David Berkowitz I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam. I love to hunt. — David Berkowitz Sudden death and bloodshed appealed to me. — David Berkowitz I always had a fetish for murder and death. — David Berkowitz We're playing the same songs, the same way, that we have for years. — Daisy Berkowitz We'll only be playing four new songs live, but all the material for the next album is basically finished. — Daisy Berkowitz When companies start measuring success by clicks that doesn't compute to us, the only thing that computes to us is cash. — Bruce Berkowitz Society has to take the glory out of guns. Young people have no business carrying a gun. I would love to speak bluntly to those gangbanging teens and wanna-bes and tell them prison is nothing like what you think. If you're packing a gun, you're making a big mistake, and you'll regret it. — David Berkowitz CES, at its core, isn't a show about electronics. It's a show about time. — David Berkowitz I wasn't going to rob her, or touch her. I was just going to kill her. — David Berkowitz There will be some tracks on the next album which that will consist of mostly noise and feedback, whereas others may just have guitar parts and samples. — Daisy Berkowitz Experimenting with different sounds is great, but when it comes down to it, you're still playing a guitar. — Daisy Berkowitz I'm open to getting more equipment, but I really won't have time to look into that until after the tour. — Daisy Berkowitz Only people have incomes and they derive them through the market from the resources they own, whether these be in the form of corporate stock, or of bonds, or of land, or of their personal capacity." Author: Milton Friedman Akilah Shabazz Quotes Alberto A. Arcia Quotes Darren Cummings Quotes David Wolfe Quotes Ethan Mordden Quotes J.W. Thompson Quotes Keb' Mo' Quotes Larry Bakersfield Quotes Maureen Stanton Quotes Robyn Oyeniyi Quotes Scott Pelley Quotes Susan Reinhardt Quotes Theodore J. Hoover Quotes Toni Robinson Quotes Valerie Azlynn Quotes Quotes About Blind Ambition Quotes About Listen To Your Heart Not Head Black Adam Great Quotes C Wright Mills White Collar Quotes Cat Power Love Quotes Either With Me Or Against Me Quotes Great Put Down Quotes Grove Street Quotes Little Boy Sayings And Quotes Love For The Country Quotes My Dearest Sister Quotes Sun Ray Quotes Where Can I Buy Inspirational Quotes William H Johnson Quotes You're Driving Me Crazy Quotes	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1750
__label__cc	0.609892	0.390108	Tag Archives: What About Love Harmonious debut album from Sara Lugo German songstress Sara Lugo made a strong impression on Naptali’s debut album Long Journey put out last year. And the tune And They Cry is also featured on Sara Lugo’s own debut album What About Love, an eclectic album filled with airy jazz arrangements, one drop riddims and R&B and hip-hop beats. Sara Lugo has a pure and effortless voice with a delicate phrasing. It is a jazzier Alaine or a reggaefied Erykah Badu. She is an excellent and versatile singer. Just listen when she reaches the high notes in Maybe or when she takes on a singjay approach in One of These Days, a tune with a piano hook reminiscent of hip-hop classic Still D.R.E. The album has been overseen, and is mostly produced, by German mastermind Umberto Echo and the musicianship is excellent. It is handled with love and affection. This is an infectious and harmonious album to keep you company on warm summer nights. Tagged as German reggae artists, Lutan Fyah, Naptali, Oneness Records, Sara Lugo, What About Love	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1757
__label__cc	0.597897	0.402103	1-62 First Battle Site [7] 2-62 Johnson's Island [13] 3-62 Erie Proving Ground [4] 4-62 Camp Perry [7] 5-62 First Ship-To-Shore Radio Broadcast [11] 6-62 The Keeper's House [17] 7-62 Israel Harrington and Elmore [8] 8-62 Gibraltar Island [12] 9-62 South Bass Island Light [9] 10-62 Ottawa County Courthouse [7] 11-62 Lake Erie - A Feature of Ohio's Water Resources [15] 12-62 Magee Marsh Wildlife Area - A Feature of the Great Black Swamp [6] 13-62 Joseph De Rivera St. Jurgo, 1813-1889 [13] 14-62 Jay Cooke Mansion [8] 15-62 Lakeside - "The Chautauqua of Lake Erie" [12] 16-62 World's Shortest Airline [14] 17-62 The Lakeside Volunteer Fire Protective Association/ The Fire of October 20, 1929 [5] 18-62 The Light / The Keepers of the Light [4] 19-62 Railroad Importance to Camp Perry [7] Aeronautics Port Clinton Home / Ottawa County / 16-62 World's Shortest Airline [14] World's Shortest Airline In 1936, Milton Hersberger, an early barnstormer and accomplished aviator, purchased the first Ford Tri-Motor to be used for air service to the nearby Lake Erie Islands. Affectionately known as the "Tin Goose," the legendary all-metal Ford Tri-Motor was a true workhorse that played a vital role in hauling passengers, mail, and cargo to and from the islands. Pushing a top speed of 85 mph, the complete 17 mile roundtrip from Port Clinton consisted of 12 take-offs and landings and took less than 45 minutes. The airline earned its reputation as "The Shortest Airline in the World" averaging a trip of less than 10 minutes between each stop. Aeronautics, Transportation EAA "Tin Goose" Chapter 1247 and The Ohio Historical Society Erie Ottawa Regional Airport, 3255 E State Rd In a small open area just behind the first main building on the W side of the airport	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1759
__label__wiki	0.723347	0.723347	RENCI acquired a Dodeca 2360 camera system from Immersive Media in Portland, OR, to capture 360-degree high definition video. The camera system recreates physical spaces in cyberspace using an 11-camera, geo-referenced imagery system that shoots high-resolution video in full 360 degrees. The system collects huge amounts of data: 1 million pixels per second, or 1 gigabyte per minute. The system is being tested for its usefulness in rapidly assessing disaster situations, documenting historical and cultural landmarks, documenting campus buildings and walkways to assess safety and assessing coastal storm damage. In summer 2009, the camera system captured 360-degree HD video of the entire North Carolina coastline when it was attached to the bottom of a helicopter, which then flew along the coastline. The footage shows the state’s emergency management division where the most dense coastal developments are located and where the coast is most vulnerable to storm surge and floods. It also serves as a “before” snapshot should a severe storm hit the coast requiring damage assessment. Additional test cases for the camera have included documenting storm damage from a Nor’easter in November 2009 and filming Cape Hatteras Lighthouse and the grounds of Cape Hatteras National Seashore from atop the lighthouse. Michael Stealey, Lisa Stillwell, Ken Galluppi, project leaders Kevin Gamiel Immersive Media Co., Portland, OR North Carolina Emergency Management Association State of North Carolina Division of Emergency Mananagement Home > Research > Immersive Media	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1760
__label__cc	0.621376	0.378624	©2014 Robert Lee Murphy Pushing his eye closer to the crack in the attic floor, Will Braddock tried to get a better view. He’d grown too big to fit easily into this crawl space he used to squirm into as a small child whenever he’d wanted to spy on his parents in the kitchen below. Those two old men down there were talking about him. What was that they were saying about blacksmith apprenticeship and guardianship custody transfer? Will didn’t like what he was hearing. Judge Sampson sat at the table directly beneath Will. “I put the legal papers in the evening mail,” the judge said. “I’m sending them to Corcoran in care of my old friend General Grenville Dodge, the Union Pacific’s chief engineer.” “Do you really have to get the boy’s uncle involved?” Reverend Kincaid sat opposite the judge. “Can’t you just issue a court order?” “I’ll assign temporary custody to Klaus Nagel, Reverend, but as the boy’s only living relative, Sean Corcoran needs to relinquish any claim as guardian before I make the apprenticeship final.” The judge pulled a cigar from a pocket and lit it from a candle burning on the table. Smoke wafted up through the crack. Will pinched his nose to stave off a sneeze. Moving to avoid the pungent aroma, the rickety boards creaked and a shower of dust floated downward. He froze. “What’s that?” The judge looked up. “Aw, just a rat, Judge.” “Yeah, guess so.” The judge rose and took half a dozen steps away from the table to stand in the doorway looking at the open coffin in the parlor. “Too bad Annabelle died from consumption.” “Hard to survive here on the Mississippi with congested lungs,” the reverend said. “Have to give her credit for trying to keep the farm going,” the judge said. “But, to what purpose? The mortgage is in arrears, and even if he had the money, a fourteen-year-old can’t hold title to property in Iowa. The farm goes to auction next week. Under the circumstances, this apprenticeship plan seems to be the best we can do for the boy.” “Like I say, the Lord always provides an answer to our prayers. He’ll make a fine blacksmith. He’s taller than the other boys his age, and he’s developed a strong physique working on the farm. But . . . what if Corcoran won’t relinquish custody?” “He will. Corcoran’s a bachelor. Works as a surveyor for Dodge on the transcontinental railroad. The Union Pacific’s tracklaying is approaching the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. That’s Indian country . . . no place for a boy.” “How long will it take for Corcoran to return your documents?” “Two . . . three months.” “I hope not that long. Klaus won’t be happy with a temporary arrangement.” Judge Sampson stepped back into Will’s view. “After Annabelle’s funeral tomorrow, I’ll have the sheriff turn the boy over to Nagel.” “I’m going home now, Reverend. Good night.” “I’ll walk you out, Judge.” The men’s steps receded through the house. Will eased out of the narrow space, back into the loft bedroom. He stretched out on the narrow cot. A blacksmith apprentice may be the answer to the reverend’s prayers—but not his. After his father was killed at the Battle of Atlanta, Will had helped his mother work the farm. Raising skimpy crops, milking their old cow, and gathering eggs from six chickens did little more than provide subsistence living. Will supplemented their meager diet with squirrels and rabbits he shot with his father’s old musket. But his mother had pushed herself too hard. When she contracted tuberculosis, she had no strength to fight it. He stared at the ceiling. His mother used to scold him for lying on his cot wearing his dirty boots. A tear trickled down his cheek—she would never scold him again. He squeezed his eyes. No time to cry—must concentrate. Can’t stay here and be forced into a blacksmith apprenticeship. Not that he didn’t like horses—but he wanted to ride them across windswept prairies and through forested mountains—not nail horseshoes onto hooves in the dark confines of a barn. Will listened to the rumble of snoring from below. Reverend Kincaid had planned to hold vigil for his mother throughout the night. Obviously, he’d fallen asleep. Morning’s first light glowed at the attic window. If Will didn’t act now, it would be too late. He sat up. The cot’s leather strapping supporting the mattress squeaked. He paused. The reverend snored on. Boots would make too much noise. Taking them off, he wiggled his toes through holes in his socks. His mother hadn’t gotten around to mending them. Oh well, they’d have to do. He tied the laces together and hung the boots around his neck. Descending the loft’s ladder, he stopped at the bottom. The snoring continued. He tiptoed to the parlor doorway. Half a dozen candles illuminated his mother’s body, stretched out in the pine-board casket. She would’ve thought it wasteful to burn so many candles. The reverend’s wife had clothed his mother in her only good dress, the one she wore to church. It was the black mourning dress she’d worn to his father’s funeral—now she would wear it to her own. Her hands lay folded across her slender body. She’d lost weight the past three years. The neighbor ladies called her skinny, but to Will she was the most beautiful mother in Burlington. He was proud to go to church holding her arm tucked under his. A stammering gargle interrupted Reverend Kincaid’s snoring. The preacher sat before the fireplace, his head hanging over the back of a rocking chair. After a snort and a throat clearing, the snoring resumed its regular cadence. The family musket hung above the fireplace. To retrieve it, Will would have to climb over the preacher. It wasn’t worth the risk. He’d make do with his father’s pistol. He approached the coffin. His mother looked so pale in her final sleep. He didn’t realize he was crying until a tear dropped to her face and slid down her cheek. Will brushed the wetness from her cold skin. “Sorry, Mama,” he whispered, “I can’t go to your funeral. They want to make me an apprentice under old man Nagel’s custody. I can’t let them do that, Mama.” He laid a hand over hers. “You always said if I got an education, I’d amount to something. I know I didn’t do well in school, but I don’t think you meant for me to be a blacksmith.” A quick glance confirmed Reverend Kincaid still slumbered. “Mama, I’m going out west to find Uncle Sean. I have to talk him out of signing those papers. I’ll ask Uncle Sean to help me get a job on the railroad. That’ll make you proud of me.” He squeezed his mother’s hand, then tiptoed into the kitchen. From the cupboard, where his mother kept it, he took down his father’s old Army Colt .44-caliber revolver and placed it and two black leather belt pouches on the table. The larger pouch contained lead bullets, each encased in a paper wrapping filled with black powder. The smaller pouch held the percussion caps that provided the initial spark to fire the pistol. On the top shelf, he located the ceramic canister in which his mother hid the cash she got from selling eggs and milk. He withdrew a handful of coins and one paper banknote. Slipping the bill into the bottom of the smaller pouch, he concealed it beneath the handful of percussion caps, and dropped the coins into his pants pocket. At the back door, on a row of wall pegs, hung his father’s old Army haversack and canteen. He packed the revolver, the pouches, and the canteen into the sack and slung it over his shoulder. He reached to take his cap from its peg, but stopped. Beside his cap hung his father’s faded black officer’s hat. The gold braid had long since been stripped off the brim. His mother had worn the old slouch hat when she ran to the barn on rainy days. He squared his father’s hat on his head. It fit. “Goodbye, Mama. I love you. Wish me luck.” He stepped onto the back stoop while looking one last time toward the parlor. “Ow!” He’d stubbed his toe against a milk pail he’d forgotten to return to the barn. The pail toppled off the stoop, clanging to the ground. “What’s going on?” The noise had awakened the reverend. “Who’s out there?” “Dang it!” Will didn’t stop to put on his boots, but jumped off the stoop and raced in his stocking feet to the barn. “Sorry for cussing, Mama. Couldn’t help myself.” He sidled into the stall beside the old Belgian gelding. “Morning, Chester.” Slipping a bridle over the plow horse’s head, he led him outside. The Braddocks didn’t own a saddle. He’d ride bareback, just as he did when taking Chester to pasture. Will grabbed the horse’s mane and swung onto his back. “Stop!” The reverend shouted from the back stoop. Will kicked the old horse hard—something he’d never done. “Come back here! Where do you think you’re going?” “Run, Chester, run!” 2 Responses to Book 1–Eagle Talons, Chapter 1 Suzy Fisher says: This is sooo good! I’m thinking there’s a memory of our Mama there as I read about Will’s. You do us all proud with your expressive writing. I’m ready for chapter 2! Much love dear author~ Suzy Robert Lee Murphy says: If other readers haven’t figured this out, Suzy Fisher is one of my sisters. Thanks for the comment, Suzy.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1765
__label__cc	0.653796	0.346204	Bricasti M7 V1 and V2 Author Topic: Bricasti M7 V1 and V2 (Read 26209 times) leonardo valvassori Re: Bricasti M7 V1 and V2 wwittman wrote on Wed, 13 January 2010 03:38 Leonardo Valvassori wrote on Tue, 12 January 2010 11:00 ... and will change your opinion on digital reverberation... I think it's safe to say the EMT 250 already sort of did that around 1977 Now, if I could purchase one for the price of the one in question, what do you think I would go with? We both know don't we? Still, all these things are tools and I use the best of what ever it is I gots and work to make it work for the music. Really;--I almost hate gear actually. Instruments and microphones are another story though. compasspnt wrote on Mon, 11 January 2010 23:24 But comparing it to PCM 70-96/300 is not doing it any favours. Of course it would be better than those. The new PCM 96 is no slouch. Have you heard one? A PCM 70 and PCM 91, well.....those are very metallic and hard to mix to my ear. This box is not a 250, nor does it pretend to be, nor does it replace it. But it does do something that no other box I have worked with does (I have not worked with, though I have been on records that used a 250 and a 480) in that it becomes a partner in music. It doesn't sound like added reverb, at the right amount, it just sounds like you put that instrument in that room. It does small rooms, tight rooms, wood rooms, and halls very very very well. I am eagerly anticipating V2. I like it better than the TC 6000, 4000, Yardstick, and Altiverb. tom hambleton C.A.S. minister of fancy noises ministry of fancy noises JGauthier I am changing my tune- I would now rather have 2 Bricasti M7s... And sold my Lexicon 300 to fund the purchase of a second. Im keeping the PCM70s though. But damn, what a box. People say the TC stuff does great early reflections. I'd be interested to hear a 4000 in conjunction with the M7... Ryan Slowey Just FYI for anyone who has a convolution plug-in and can't afford the hardware version..... I'm sure it's no comparison to the actual unit, but I downloaded some Bricasti IR's for my TL Space plug-in, and they sound fantastic. With the exception of a plate preset that I made, I've pretty much stopped using all the other IR's altogether. The subtlety and realism are the first things I noticed. They lack all the weird artifacts that I find myself filtering out of other IR's, and blend well enough, that you can use more reverb, before it starts to sound bad. Before importing them, I was spending way too much time tweaking the presets to get usable sounds. Now, with the Bricasti IR's, I'm finding the one that works, and moving on. Very little, if any tweaking. The tiled rooms are my favorite so far, and I'm using the "large wooden room" on the song I'm currently mixing. I'm going to give "studio B" a try ASAP. I downloaded them here. My music: http://maggotbrainny.bandcamp.com Tim Halligan I just tried one... I may have to sell a kidney. "Don't forget, we are all engaged in a battle to the death against mediocrity." - J. Whynot "You can tune a room only with a bulldozer." - Andy Peters I just finished coding the middev and midnam files for the Bricasti M7 and sent them to Casey. They will allow the Bricasti to show patch names in Protools just like a softsynth. They ONLY work properly with V2. Im sure Bricasti will make them avaliable to all for their V2 release. The big benefits Im excited about are the sysex dump which will allow snapshot sysex automation and the patch names. If you have the M7 as a send in protools, this is for you! Casey was nice enough to add the patch recall feature via midi program changes as he had only implemented the sysex dump for V2 originally. Now all banks will respond as the register bank does to program and bank change messages. The patch names in protools is one of my FAVORITE features because you see the entire bank at once. You cant do that on the unit... Helps get you out of the same ol presets! So other than continuous control/automation of parameters (for now) the M7 will function as a plug in. With snapshot not continuous automation- which Im fine with since I never automate verb parameters that way anyway! Cant wait to hear V2! RMoore M7 vs EMT 140 plate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=menNsfbxuIM People's Republic of Ryan http://www.myspace.com/twilightcircus http://www.youtube.com/user/Ryonik By the end of today, another day is gone forever. You will never get it back. We must never let up for a second. Work harder at every single thing - Terry Manning You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take - Wayne Gretzky RMoore wrote on Thu, 25 February 2010 03:21 The funny thing about that video is its a promo for the M7 yet the EMT absolutely sounds better... Regardless of what he says. But I 100% agree with him that the clarity on the M7 is quite nice and lost in the video. I used stereo EMTs for years and nothing sounds as sweet as a real plate... Noise and all! But you lose that midrange and gain a nice clarity with an M7. But I think its pushing it to say the M7 is better than a real plate... Different yes, better nope. Im a fanboy at this point, I admit it... But Im not insane. Well slightly insane waiting for the M7m remote 1 package to get here... Can't wait! By monday! JGauthier wrote on Fri, 26 February 2010 02:53 Even over laptop speakers I can certainly hear it. I still really like this box though. Geoff Emerick de Fake I recently had the opportunity to compare a PCM96, an M7, a Yardstick 2402 along with my M3000, my natural echo chamber and several plug-ins. Since I had two excellent offers for the 96 and the M7 (40% off list), I really wanted one of these to persuade me to adopt her. But the Yardstick is so convincingly natural and blends so well in the mix, I have set my mind on it. I'm still unsure about which version I'll choose; the digital-only makes sense, but may not be that easy to resell in case of bad fortune. The Analog + digital version is going to be displayed at Frankfurt Pro Light & Sound at the end of the month. The 96 and the M7 are fine, but they don't bring me something radically different than the M3000, except maybe these modulated tails that are the essence of the Lex sound, but for me, it makes me think of putting a Leslie on the reverb return ; I don't have any serious use for them, except maybe for the occasional customer who wants the C Geoff Emerick de Fake wrote on Tue, 02 March 2010 22:55 As to which one is best between M7 and 96, due to their almost incestuous parentage, I reckon they can be made to sound so close that I wouldn't base any purchase decision on it... You reckon? You had all of those units and didn't see for yourself? Then you say you base this off their incestuous relationship? NOT listening? We have a 96 and 3 M7s here. You absolutely cannot make a 96 sound like an M7. If you think so, you may want to listen again. EVERY person who has shot them out in studio A has picked the 96 out with EASE. Blind. Every one... You may prefer the quantec but I seriously question your ability to hear if you say you made them sound the same. You can not LIKE the M7 but most of what you say is 100% hogwash... You need to back it up. Its the "I reckon"... Either you did or didn't. You dont "reckon" anything when spending that kind of money... I call shennanigans. I have a Yardstick 2402 and I have an M7. I used to love the Yardtsick. But now that I have an M7, I think it trumps it by a lot. I won't sell my Yardstick, but in the comparisons, the Yardstick to my ears does a very nice Church and Chapel and Catehdral, but that's it. And there is a tinge of chorus and phase to the sound that make it a bit more "processed" sounding, but certainly usable in a lot of things. The M7 to my ear is far more natural sounding, especially in small rooms (where the Yardstick is practically useless). The Bricasti Halls also very very good, especially the Boston Hall and the Big and Clear. I would by another M7 before another Yardstick. JGauthier wrote on Wed, 03 March 2010 14:05 Maybe a language problem there: I managed to make the 96 and the M7 sounding similar enough to me. Then you say you base this off their incestuous relationship? NOT listening? Did I say I didn't listen? We have a 96 and 3 M7s here. You absolutely cannot make a 96 sound like an M7. You may try a little harder If you think so, you may want to listen again. EVERY person who has shot them out in studio A has picked the 96 out with EASE. Blind. Every one... ... I believe I could do the same between two different programs of a same unit. ... I know what I heard. ... You can not LIKE the M7 You seem to think I have a hidden agenda of bashing the M7, which you answer like you have some hidden agenda of defending it as a valiant knight... so childish... The fact that you've got three of them may explain... but most of what you say is 100% hogwash... That's what I like here on this forum. There's a couple of guys, if you don't agree with them, they start calling you names and behaving like real gentlemen... minister wrote on Wed, 03 March 2010 16:42 ...the Yardstick to my ears does a very nice Church and Chapel and Catehdral, but that's it. And there is a tinge of chorus and phase to the sound that make it a bit more "processed" sounding, but certainly usable in a lot of things. This is very strange, as it's the fluidity and absence of whirling effects on reverb tails that convinced me in the Yardstick. I wouldn't know what to do with two pieces of the same reverb...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1767
__label__wiki	0.703586	0.703586	Tavey Capps Expired Tavey Capps Environmental Sustainability Director Office of the Executive Vice President Institution has reduced its total number of reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee compared to a baseline. Institution has fewer than 5 reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases annually per 100 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees. This credit includes employees of contractors working on-site for whom the institution is liable for workplace safety, for example workers for whom the institution is mandated to report injuries and disease cases by a health and safety authority such as the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) or the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS). Injuries and disease cases include OSHA/CCOHS-reportable fatal and non-fatal injuries (or the equivalent) arising out of or in the course of work and cases of diseases arising from a work-related injury or the work situation or activity (e.g. exposure to harmful chemicals, stress, ergonomic issues). See Sampling and Data Standards, below, for further guidance on reporting injuries and disease cases. Institutions earn the maximum of 1 point available for Part 1 for having no reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases in the performance year. Incremental points are awarded based on the reduction achieved from a baseline. For example, an institution that reduced its total number of reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases per full-time equivalent (FTE) employee by 50 percent compared to a baseline would earn 0.5 points (half of the points available for Part 1). STARS awards only positive points; points will not be deducted if the total number of reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases per FTE employee increased rather than decreased during the time period. Points earned are calculated according to the formula below. Please note that users do not have to calculate the number of points earned themselves; points earned will be calculated automatically when the data listed under Section E: Reporting Fields is entered in the online Reporting Tool. Points Earned = 1 x { [ (A/B) – (C/D) ] / (A/B) } A = Number of reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases, baseline year B = Full-time equivalent of employees, baseline year (annualized FTE) C= Number of reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases, performance year D= Full-time equivalent of employees, performance year (annualized FTE) Institutions earn the maximum of 1 point available for Part 2 for having no reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases in the performance year. Incremental points are awarded based on the institution’s performance between the minimum performance threshold of 5 reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases per 100 FTE employees and the performance target of 0 reportable injuries and disease cases. For example, an institution that had 2.5 reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases per 100 FTE employees in the performance year would earn 0.5 points (half of the points available for Part 2). Points earned for Part 2 are calculated according to the formula below. Please note that users do not have to calculate the number of points earned themselves; points earned will be calculated automatically when the data listed under Section E: Reporting Fields is entered in the online Reporting Tool. Points Earned = 1 x { [ 0.05 – (A / B) ] / 0.05 } A = Number of reportable workplace injuries and occupational disease cases, performance year B = Full-time equivalent of employees, performance year (annualized FTE) Performance Year Report the most recent data available from the three years prior to the anticipated date of submission. Institutions may use the most recent single year for which data is available or an average from throughout the period. Institutions may choose the annual start and end dates that work best with the data they have (e.g. fiscal or calendar year), as long as data are reported from a consecutive 12-month (or 3-year) period. Report annualized FTE employees from the same time period as that from which workplace health and safety data are drawn (e.g. the consecutive 12-month or 3-year period that most closely overlaps with the injuries and disease cases performance period). Institutions may use an average from throughout the period or a snapshot at a single representative point during the period (e.g. the fall figures reported to IPEDS by U.S. institutions). Baseline Year Report data from the baseline year, which may be: Any year from 2005 to the present A baseline year, 1990 to 2004, that the institution has adopted as part of its sustainability plans or policies or in the context of other reporting obligations Recommended best practices for defining a baseline include: Using the average of three consecutive years to reduce the impact of outliers Ensuring that baseline and performance year data are valid and reliable (e.g. that the data were gathered in the same manner) Institutions without valid and reliable historical data should use performance year data for both the baseline and performance year. Following this approach, an institution would not be able to claim points during its first STARS submission, but would be able to use its newly established baseline for subsequent submissions. Institutions may choose the start and end dates that work best with the data they have (e.g. fiscal or calendar year), as long as data are reported from a consecutive 12-month (or 3-year) period. Report annualized FTE employees from the same period as that from which workplace health and safety data are drawn (e.g. the consecutive 12-month or 3-year period that most closely overlaps with the injuries and disease cases baseline period). U.S. and Canadian institutions should report the total number of fatal and non-fatal injuries and occupational disease cases as reported to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS), respectively. Other institutions should report data as generally required by the health and safety authority with jurisdiction over the institution. Minor (first-aid level) injuries should be excluded to the extent feasible.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1768
__label__cc	0.675643	0.324357	Differentiated access management: The case of haulier operations in intermodal freight transportation Purpose The purpose of this study is to design a framework for differentiated access management in intermodal transportation that makes evaluation of the efficiency of access management possible. Design/methodology/approach Based on a literature study and empirical data collection (semi-structured interviews with haulier operators, port operators and terminal operators), the term access management is defined and described from a road haulage perspective. Methods for improving access management are discussed. Findings This study has defined an access management framework has been defined and contains a ranking scale with seven levels: from 0 (no access management) to 6 (excellent access management). In addition, the empirical findings show that trucks have the worse developed access management compared to train and vessels. Research limitations/implications The access management framework helps decision makers with two particular tasks: firstly, identifying their own level of access management, and secondly, describing how to improve it. Improved access management allows decision makers to prioritise resources and make better decisions. Original/value The defined framework will give researchers and decision makers indications of the levels of access management a certain access management method has. With the identified potential effects of four existing methods (in use by industry), this framework can help decisions makers to improve their access management. haulier operations intermodal freight transportation operational effects real-time interaction Stefan Jacobsson Per-Olof Arnäs Gunnar Stefansson NOFOMA 2016 - Proceedings Of The 28th Annual Nordic Logistics Research Network Conference, pp. 161-176 Informations- och kommunikationsteknik	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1773
__label__wiki	0.818809	0.818809	Silicon Valley Diversity The sound of disparity: Data directed Silicon Valley diversity choir By Sinduja Rangarajan and Jim Briggs / April 14, 2018 Reveal’s Jim Briggs with the choir at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland. Credit: Byard Duncan/Reveal We wanted to use sound to tell the story of racial and gender disparities in the San Francisco Bay Area’s tech sector. The result, featured in this episode of Reveal, is the Silicon Valley diversity choir. The historic First Unitarian Church of Oakland in California agreed to host our experiment, and we invited Reveal fans and friends to lend their voices to investigative reporting for an evening. https://www.revealnews.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AlGoofin1.mp4 Reveal host Al Letson plays along with the Silicon Valley diversity choir at First Unitarian Church of Oakland. Credit: Byard Duncan/Reveal Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting obtained never-before-released diversity data for 177 large tech companies headquartered in the Bay Area. Perhaps it won’t surprise many listeners that people of color and women are underrepresented in Silicon Valley, but the scale of the diversity is stark. For example, in 2016, 73.2 percent of all executives and senior managers in these 177 large tech companies were white, 21 percent were Asian, 3 percent were Latino and 1.4 percent were black, according to data obtained by Reveal. To get this data, Reveal collaborated with professor Donald Tomaskovic-Devey and his team at the Center for Employment Equity at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Companies are required to provide information about their racial and gender representation through annual EEO-1 reports sent to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The government won’t release those records to the public. So Tomaskovic-Devey and his team took criteria we provided and compiled anonymized data. That information allowed us to calculate percentages for the largest race and gender groups across job categories at the largest Silicon Valley tech companies. The data and percentages are can be found here. As we have several times before at Reveal, we decided that music would help us convey statistical facts in an emotionally engaging way. For each data point we wanted to illustrate, we divided our 43 singers – 20 male voices and 23 female voices – into proportional groups so the volume and number of voices would match the data. Screenshot of Sinduja Rangarajan’s spreadsheet used to calculate numbers to divide the singers into different groups. Credit: Sinduja Rangarajan/Reveal For example, since 73 percent of all executives in these large tech companies were white, 73 percent of the 43 singers sang “white executives.” Then 21 percent of the 43 singers sang “Asian executives,” and so on. For black executives, 1.4 percent of 43 is less than one person, but we had a single person sing “black executives” to represent people from that racial group in those positions. Katharine Mieszkowski, the lead producer for the episode, helped assemble the choir and figure out the logistics for managing the group. Fernando Arruda, our associate sound designer and engineer, recorded the sound for the evening. Reveal’s Jim Briggs (at left) with the choir at the First Unitarian Church of Oakland.Credit: Byard Duncan/Reveal To divide up the choir without putting volunteers in an awkward position of choosing which race their voices would represent, we handed out numbers on paper to each singer as they arrived, then called for a certain number of singers for each cue. (For example: “One through 31, you’re ‘white executives.’ ”) We didn’t divide up the choir based on the singers’ actual racial identity. For each example, we assigned each group a note, which we then stacked into a chord. Knowing that we usually had four groups to represent, we decided to use the largest group as the “tonic” or root of a classic seven chord. Each tone that we stacked on top represented a new (increasingly smaller) group. We decided to feature the “lone voices” first, then add each group, smallest to largest. Our hope is that listeners can hear just how outnumbered minority groups often are. Our data also showed gender disparities. We found that 79 percent of all executives were men, and 21 percent were women. We wanted to take advantage of all the male voices who were in the choir. We recalibrated our scale so that all 20 male voices represented the 79 percent male executives and, accordingly, recalibrated our scale so that five women from the 23 female singers sang “female executives.” This gave us a powerful way to use the choir to present the gender disparity data. Then we zoomed in on the racial makeup within female executives: 70 percent were white. We divided the 23 women into groups to represent different racial groups again. We also found that minority groups made up a smaller and smaller share of employees as they moved up the ladder from professionals to managers to executives. This is especially true for Asian women, who made up 12 percent of the professional workforce, 8 percent of the managerial workforce and 4 percent of executives. To represent this dropoff in representation among Asian women, all the women choir singers sang first to represent professionals. Then a portion dropped off, then another portion dropped off with only handful of singers left as executives. More details on the music Recording always means making some choices and dealing with variables that can affect the listener’s perception: how close the singers are to the microphones; varying loudness among individual singers; and even performance energy at different times during the session. We also happened to be in a creaky church building set next to a freeway. Regardless of those tough-to-fix sound concerns, the disparities in the data were so pronounced we were able to easily hear the differences. Conducting a choir of mostly strangers proved to be far easier than we anticipated. We can’t say enough about how game the singers were for this project. Not only did they show up for free (we did provide pizza and Girl Scout cookies), they powered through three hours of work. And by the end, they were actively collaborating with us to help come up with the best approach for each sonification. We also wanted to have the choir singing some songs they’d be familiar with, and added other fun elements to the show, including the “Mission Impossible” theme and the Otis Redding/Aretha Franklin soul anthem “Respect.” We decided to use “Respect” because it reflects the focus of this story. More details on the data All companies in the United States with more 100 employees have to report the demographic breakdown of their employees by race, gender and job category to the EEOC. This data is very useful to analyze disparities in companies, but it is notoriously difficult to get. The EEOC does not disclose this data to the public or journalists. In 2017, Reveal asked 211 large technology companies to release their diversity data. Only a couple dozen companies said yes, but it’s still the largest collection of published EEO-1 reports to date. The researchers at the Center for Employment Equity were able to take Reveal’s list of 211 companies and run it through their databases. They found 178 matches of companies that submitted their EEO-1 reports to the EEOC in 2016 and gave us the anonymized numbers of who works in Silicon Valley by race, gender and job category. (Reveal excluded Clover Health from our analysis because they told us they had submitted erroneous data to the EEOC, thus reducing our final number of companies to 177.) Other than the 23 companies who have publicly released their data, Reveal does not know the identities of the companies, except that they are among the 211 companies we sought data from. We have posted the data used in the sonifications on Github, along with a data dictionary. Sinduja Rangarajan can be reached at srangarajan@revealnews.org, and Jim Briggs can be reached at jbriggs@revealnews.org. Follow them on Twitter: @cynduja and @jimbriggs3. By Sinduja Rangarajan and Jim Briggs Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting April 14, 2018 By Sinduja Rangarajan and Jim Briggs / April 14, 2018	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1777
__label__wiki	0.851843	0.851843	Skip to ContentSkip to Radioplayer Workers at African aid program linked to alleged cult sue for back pay Workers for DAPP Malawi say a cult-like organization called the Teachers Group demanded that staff members attend indoctrination sessions. US foreign aid follows complex path to Teachers Group’s coffers This list of people, organizations and relationships maps the flow of U.S. money from a U.S.-based foreign aid contractor to a Swiss partnership controlled by an alleged cult. On second thought: UNESCO rescinds prize for scrutinized aid group UNESCO has rescinded its international education prize and cut all ties with an organization that coordinates U.S. aid programs in Africa after consultation with UNICEF and the British government, which both severed relationships following allegations of fraud. USDA said it didn’t know charity had problems. Documents show otherwise When Reveal disclosed that the U.S. government had allocated at least $133 million to a charity linked to an alleged cult, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service maintained that it had no indication the money was misused. But records withheld by the agency until Reveal sued for them show otherwise. UNICEF cuts off funding to nonprofit linked to alleged cult UNICEF has cut its ties with DAPP Malawi, an organization that coordinates U.S. humanitarian programs, following an investigation by Reveal showing that the group diverted money intended to alleviate hunger and disease. Make a tax-deductible donation. Our investigative journalism depends on financial support from readers like you. Subscribe to our podcast. Get our weekly podcast, hosted by Al Letson and co-produced with PRX. An anonymous tip or document can open the door to more reporting.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1778
__label__cc	0.54749	0.45251	Create AR 'My Tamagotchi Forever' App is Coming in 2018 2017-12-01/Industry Kristen De Vera 90s kids will definitely remember Tamagotchis, those virtual pets that lived in a small egg-shaped toy. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Tamagotchis after its US release in 1997, and they became one of the most popular toys of the 90s and 2000s. To celebrate its anniversary, Bandai Namco recently released a smaller version of the Tamagotchi and created a mobile app version of the toy which will be released some time in 2018. The ‘My Tamagotchi Forever’ app is like a modernized version of the Tamagotchi toy. You’ll reunite with all of your favorite characters but they won’t look like their typical black and white, pixelated forms. Everything is vibrant and colorful. The characters aren’t 2D anymore but in 3D form that makes them cuter than before. In the app you can still interact the same way as you do with your pets on the classic Tamagotchi. You can give your pet a bath, feed them and put them to bed. What’s great is that there’s an arcade where you can play games when you don’t feel like playing with your pet and you can even make new friends while you explore Tamatown. Bandai Namco is even giving fans the chance to create their own Tamagotchi character. All you have to do is register on their website and they’ll randomly pick a fan. The fan will then work with Bandai to create their character which will be added to the app for everyone to play with. I got my own Tamagotchi in 2005 when they released Version 2 and it quickly became my favorite toy. I’m excited for the release of ‘My Tamagotchi Forever’ so I can relive my childhood! The official release of ‘My Tamagotchi Forever’ will come in 2018, so keep an eye out! Photos by MMO Culture and My Tamagotchi Forever There is a Website that Helps... Say Goodbye to Lines at Amazon... Discover Endless Ideas with P... Region: International Select 中国大陆 Mr.RAVVAR Kivisense Kivicube HOME NEWS USECASE TUTORIALS ABOUT Email：ar@ravvar.cn Copyright © 2020 RAVVAR Technology Co. Ltd.（深圳前海睿孚科技有限公司）	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1782
__label__wiki	0.841015	0.841015	F. A. Hayek Program Affiliated Scholars Overview & Call for Proposals Community & Crisis Freedom & Flourishing Work & Dependency PPE Workshop Tweets by @PeterBoettke Peter J. Boettke Director, F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Vice President for Advanced Study BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, Mercatus Center at George Mason University University Professor of Economics and Philosophy, George Mason University Peter Boettke is Vice President for Advanced Study, Director of the F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, as well as the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, and a University Professor of Economics and Philosophy at George Mason University. He specializes in Austrian economics, economic history, institutional analysis, public choice, and social change. Boettke has authored and coauthored 11 books, including his most recent, Living Economics, and is editor of the Review of Austrian Economics, series editor of the New Thinking in Political Economy book series, and coeditor of the Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society. Boettke is a former Fulbright Fellow at the University of Economics in Prague, a National Fellow at Stanford University, and Hayek Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. He has held visiting academic positions at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and the Stockholm School of Economics, among other institutions. Before joining the faculty at George Mason University, Boettke taught economics at New York University. Boettke’s work has earned him numerous awards, including a doctorate honoris causa in social sciences from Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala and an honorary doctorate from Alexandru Iona Cuza in Romania. Boettke received his PhD in economics from George Mason University. For a current list of publications, view Peter's personal website. Institutional Analysis Mercatus Original Podcast Hayek Program Podcast "Humanomics" Book Panel What Is Still Wrong with the Austrian School of Economics? Advances in Austrian Economics What is Right About Austrian Economics? "Why and How Do Social Relations Matter for Economic Lives?" with Viviana Zelizer Peter Boettke and Sandra Peart on Leadership, Economic Thought, and Archival Research Ostrom's Tensions Tensions in Political Economy 'Black Wave' Book Panel Peter Boettke and Bruce Caldwell on History of Economic Thought Democracy by Discussion, Not Debate Peter J. Boettke, Scott King Public Governance and the Classical-Liberal Perspective Peter J. Boettke, Paul Dragos Aligica, Vlad Tarko Economic Policy of a Free Society Review of Austrian Economics The Austrian School of Economics: A View from London Peter J. Boettke, Rosolino A. Candela The Market Process Advanced Studies in Political Economy Ludwig von Mises: The Man and His Economics Peter J. Boettke, Frédéric Sautet Liberty Fund \| The Collected Works of Israel M. Kirzner The Austrian School of Economics George Mason University Department of Economics Research Paper Series Reflections on Ethics, Freedom, Welfare Economics, Policy, and the Legacy of Austrian Economics F. A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy and Social Philosophy Comparative Economic Systems Paul Dragos Aligica, Peter J. Boettke Buchanan's Tensions Exploring the Political Economy and Social Philosophy of F. A. Hayek Rowman & Littlefield, International The Essence of Entrepreneurship and the Nature and Significance of Market Process Marginal cost > marginal benefit; no content produced in this category. The Road to Serfdom at 75 Years Young The American Institute for Economic Research Long-Form Essay A Living Bibliography of Works on Hayek Nobel Laureate Thaler Pushes Priors of a Stubborn Discipline Peter J. Boettke, Stefanie Haeffele An Invitation to Inquiry The Vienna Circle Daring to Be Different The Education Industry Needs to Be Disrupted by an Uber Stefanie Haeffele, Peter J. Boettke A Humane Nobel Economist: Angus Deaton Shows Us How to Be Healthy, Wealthy and Wise Mercatus Disaster Recovery Research Remembering James Buchanan (1919-2013) 'F.A. Hayek: Economics, Political Economy, and Social Philosophy' Book Panel 'An Invitation to Inquiry' with Peter Boettke Private Governance Book Panel Reflections on the Hayek Program with Peter Boettke and Chris Coyne Mercatus Events WTF?! Book Panel Peter J. Boettke, Peter Leeson, Boris Gershman, Steven Pfaff James Buchanan Hall, D100 George Mason University, Fairfax Campus James M. Buchanan and Liberal Political Economy: A Rational Reconstruction Richard Wagner, Peter J. Boettke, Ross B. Emmett, Karen Vaughn George Mason University Buchanan Hall (formerly Mason Hall) D100 4600 Roberts Rd Fairfax, VA 22030 Escape from Democracy: The Role of Experts and the Public in Economic Policy Peter J. Boettke, David M. Levy (Author), Sandra J. Peart (Author), Roger Congleton, Roger Koppl Mason Hall room D180 George Mason University Fairfax, Virginia Faces of Moderation: The Art of Balance in an Age of Extremes Book Panel Peter J. Boettke, Aurelian Craiutu, Joshua Cherniss, Karol Soltan George Mason University, Fairfax Campus Mason Hall D180 Fairfax, VA 22030 Hayek’s Modern Family: Classical Liberalism and the Evolution of Social Institutions Book Panel Steven Horwitz, Peter J. Boettke, Bobbi Herzberg, Jayme Lemke George Mason University, Fairfax Campus, D180 Mason Hall 4400 University Dr, Fairfax, VA 22030 Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster Book Panel Virgil Storr, Peter J. Boettke, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Daniel Aldrich, Lori Peek George Mason University, Fairfax Campus, D180 Mason Hall Christopher Coyne Book Panel: Doing Bad by Doing Good Christopher Coyne, Peter J. Boettke, Robert Higgs Johnson Center Cinema 4400 University Drive Fairfax, VA 22030 A Panel Discussion: Dr. Israel M. Kirzner’s contributions to Market Process Theory and Entrepreneurship Studies. Mason Inn 4352 Mason Pond Drive Fairfax, VA Social Change Project Lawrence White's Clash of Economic Ideas: A Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Book Discussion and Reception Lawrence H. White, Peter J. Boettke George Mason University - The Mason Inn 4352 Mason Pond Drive Fairfax, VA 22030 Room: The Ballroom APEE International Conference Peter Leeson, Peter J. Boettke Caesar's Palace Las Vegas Las Vegas, Nevada Sign Up for the Latest from the F. A. Hayek Program This monthly newsletter updates readers on the latest research (including books, articles, and working papers) by F. A. Hayek Program scholars as well as news and upcoming Hayek Program events. Edited Series © Copyright 2020 Mercatus Center at George Mason University, 3434 Washington Blvd, 4th Floor, Arlington, VA 22201 Toll-free Phone: (800) 815-5711 - Local Phone: (703) 993-4930 - Fax: (703) 993-4935 - Media: (703) 993-4881	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1788
__label__cc	0.616432	0.383568	Home ▶ Vol 20, No 1 (2014) ▶ Calitz Children and adolescents treated for post-traumatic stress disorder at the Free State Psychiatric Complex F J W Calitz, N J de Jongh, A Horn, M L Nel, G Joubert South African Journal of Psychiatry \| Vol 20, No 1 \| a441 \| DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v20i1.441 \| © 2014 F J W Calitz, N J de Jongh, A Horn, M L Nel, G Joubert \| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0 Submitted: 07 March 2013 \| Published: 30 April 2014 F J W Calitz, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, South Africa N J de Jongh, MB ChB student, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, South Africa A Horn, MB ChB student, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, South Africa M L Nel, MB ChB student, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, South Africa G Joubert, Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, South Africa Background. Children and adolescents can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after exposure to a range of traumatic events, including domestic, political or community violence, violent crime, physical and sexual abuse, hijacking, witnessing a violent crime and motor vehicle accidents. This is particularly critical given the substantial challenge that PTSD poses to the healthy physical, cognitive and emotional development of children and adolescents. Methods. The clinical records of 1 229 children (age 2 - 11 years) and adolescents (age 12 - 18 years) treated at the Child Mental Health Unit of the Free State Psychiatric Complex (FSPC) were screened for the diagnosis of PTSD and analysed for the purpose of this study. Results. Forty-nine (4.0%) of the children and adolescents treated at the unit were diagnosed with PTSD, of whom most were female (63.3%). Approximately 22% of the participants had comorbid major depressive disorder. The main traumatic event in both groups was witnessing the death of a close relative (32.7%), followed by sexual assault (25%), rape (25%) and physical attack (10.2%). Associated stressors identified included problems at school (55.1%), isolation (39%), fear or anxiety (37%), problematic family relationships (29%), emotional (27%) and physical (23%) abuse, and lack of social support (23%). Most of the participants (59.2%) received psychotherapy. Conclusions. Children and adolescents referred to the FSPC are also exposed to traumatic events which lead to the development of PTSD. The Free State is a sprawling province with remote areas where specialist services and facilities are limited. It is therefore recommended that preventive programmes, training opportunities and consultation services are implemented to identify and treat children and adolescents with PTSD. Schools with limited access to psychological services and large classrooms, impeding the diagnosis and treatment of PTSD specifically, face similar challenges. Reinforcement of professional services and the upgrading of facilities will decrease the burden on the Child Mental Health Unit, but will require collaborative efforts from role players such as the National Departments of Health and Education. PTSD; post-traumatic stress disorder; children; adolescents; Total article views: 1256 1. Cinsiyet ve Yaş Farklılıklarının Ergenlerin Depresyon, Anksiyete Bozukluğu, Kendine Zarar Verme, Psikoz, Travma Sonrası Stres Bozukluğu, Alkol-Uyuşturucu Bağımlılığı ve Dikkat Eksikliği Hiperaktivite Bozukluğu İle İlişkili Sorunlara Etkisi Selen Özakar Akça, Filiz Selen, Emre Demir, Tahir Demir Dicle Tıp Dergisi first page: 255 year: 2018 doi: 10.5798/dicletip.457235	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1797
__label__cc	0.614591	0.385409	Report of Expert Committee on Uttarakhand Flood Disaster & Role of HEPs: Welcome recommendations: Disasters · Floods · Uttarakhand April 29, 2014 May 1, 2014 SANDRP Drop 23 projects, do cumulative assessments & improve governance In a significant development on role of hydropower projects in Uttarakhand flood disaster of June 2013, the Expert Body (EB) headed by Dr Ravi Chopra has recommended that at least 23 hydropower projects should be dropped, that hydropower projects played significant role in the Uttarakhand disaster and that there is urgent need to improve the environment governance of hydropower projects. The Report “Assessment of Environmental Degradation and Impact of Hydroelectric Projects During The June 2013 Disaster in Uttarakhand” dated April 2014 has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on April 16, 2014 and was made public following hearing in the Supreme Court on April 28, 2014. The committee was appointed by a reluctant Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in October 2013, following the Supreme Court’s suo motto order of August 13 2013. Damaged Vishnuprayag Dam in Uttarakhand floods of June 2013: Source: MATU Jansangathan Uttarakhand floods of June 2013[1],[2]: The committee report endorses the stand taken in a letter[3] that was written to MoEF on July 20, 2013, endorsed by over 20 individuals and groups including from Uttarakhand on the role of existing and under construction hydropower projects in the Uttarakhand floods of June 2013. MoEF did not take any action on this letter, but it was Supreme Court order next month that pushed MoEF to take necessary action. SC order of Aug 13, 2013[4]: On Aug 13, 2013, while disposing off the petition on Srinagar HEP in Uttarakhand, the Supreme Court, suo motto, made an order that asked, MoEF and Uttarakhand governments not to provide any further clearances to any more hydropower projects anywhere in Uttarakhand till further orders. Both MoEF and Uttarakhand governments have been violating this order. However, one of the fall outs of this order was formulation of Expert Body appointed by MoEF more than two months latter, through an order on Oct 15, 2013, whose report now is available in public domain. Limited TOR[5]: The Supreme Court order of Aug 13, 2013 pertained to whole of Uttarakhand, as was the disaster of June 2013. However, the MoEF order and subsequently CWC tried to restrict the field of work of the committee to Alaknanda and Bhagirathi sub basins rather than whole of Uttarakhand. Problematic constitution: The constitution of the Expert body was also problematic from a number of aspects. There was clear conflict of interest with respect to some of the members like Dr BP Das, former member and Vice Chair of the MoEF’s Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley Projects, as explained below. The committee also included chairman of Central Water Commission and Central Electricity Authority, which unfortunately act like lobbies for hydropower projects. These persons were in the committee to bring in respective expertise, but in stead used their presence in the committee to discredit evidence which suggested clear role of hydropower projects, some members also advocated for more hydropower projects, in stead of adhering to the mandate given by the Supreme Court, thus raising the issue of contempt of court. In what follows we have given some useful recommendations and conclusions of the EB, followed by some weak recommendations and conclusions of the EB report, based on a quick reading of the report (we got the over 200 page report only on April 29, 2014), following by some remarks on role of vice chair, CWC, CEA, MoEF and our conclusion. Map of Mandakini Valley, epicenter of Uttarakhand floods of June 2013 (Source: EB report) On 24 projects recommended to be dropped by WII “After considerable discussions and analysis, the Expert Body concluded that of the 24 proposed Hydropower Projects (HEPs) that Wildlife Institute of India (WII) recommended for Review, 23 HEPs would have significant irreversible impacts on biodiversity values.” “The EB recommends that for the 23 proposed HEPs out of the 24 identified by WII (other than the Kotli Bhel 1A project) that would have irreversible impacts on the biodiversity of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi Basins, the HEPs that fall in any of the following conditions should not be approved for construction. (a) Proposed HEPs that fall inside wildlife Protected Areas such National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries (b) Proposed HEPs that fall within the Gangotri Eco-sensitive Zone (c) Proposed HEPs that fall above 2,500m that encompass critical wildlife habitats, high biological diversity, movement corridors, and fragile in nature due to unpredictable glacial and paraglacial activities. (d) Proposed HEPs that fall within 10 km from the boundary of Protected Areas and have not obtained clearance from the National Board for Wildlife.” It would have been in fitness of things if EB had exclusively asked for stoppage of work on all these 23 projects with immediate effect. On Kotli Bhel 1A The EB has, we believe, erroneously concluded, over ruling the conclusion of WII and expert review initiated by EB, “that the Kotli Bhel 1A project might not significantly worsen the condition of the river Bhagirathi between Koteshwar and Devprayag – already part of a highly fragmented zone”. However, EB has asked for “due modifications to its design and operations so that an adequate stretch of the river downstream of the Koteshwar dam just above KB-IA can be maintained in a free flowing state”. This means the project work should stop and it should reapply for clearances after doing the suggested modifications in credible way. Restoration: “The river bed profiles at Phata-Byung, Singoli-Bhatwari, Vishnuprayag and Srinagar HEPs have changed significantly. This requires a fresh analysis of the project hydrology and redesigning them if necessary. All projects must undertake river restoration works after prior clearance from MoEF. It was noticed that project developers were engaged in projects’ restoration only. MoEF needs to conduct a formal review of the environmental damages at all the HEPs in Uttarakhand and prepare guidelines for restoration. Till then none of the projects should begin power production.” HEPs above 2 MW need EC “All projects > 2 MW, shall require prior Environmental Clearances (EC) from MoEF”. “A multidisciplinary expert body should be constituted with members of proven expertise and experience to review every year the progress/performance of each HEP and its compliance with the sanction conditions. This body will also review the technicalities of disaster preparedness before each monsoon season and examine the impact of monsoon storm and floods on the performance of all the project components. The environmental health of the river will be a critical area for comprehensive examination.” No projects above winter snow line “Learning from the June 2013 event, the EB believes that the enhanced sediment availability from and in paraglacial zones could be a serious problem for the longevity of the existing, under construction and proposed HEPs in Uttarakhand. Therefore the EB recommends that the terrain above the MCT in general and above the winter snow line in particular (~2200-2500 m) should be kept free from hydropower interventions in Uttarakhand.” SIA should be carried out for all river systems in Uttarakhand “The WII study has already identified 24 proposed HEPs in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins as likely to cause irreversible impacts. But comprehensive research studies of other basins in Uttarakhand are lacking at this stage… Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) be carried out in other major river basins of Uttarakhand such as the Yamuna and Kali basins.” Distance between projects in a cascade “Scientific studies by subject experts should be conducted for establishing baseline data on river parameters, diversity and populations of floral and faunal species in different rivers of Uttarakhand at different elevation zones. Such studies should be used for deciding upon the minimum distances between two consecutive HEPs. Until such scientific studies are completed, no new HEPs (in S&I stage) should be cleared on the rivers of Uttarakhand within a distance that may later be revoked. Minimum distances for projects in the clearance stage should be significantly revised upward from the current consideration of 1 km.” SANDRP Map of Bumper to Bumper hydropower projects in Alaknanda basin in Uttarakhand National Himalayan Policy “Since the Himalaya are our vital source of growth and abundance, a National Himalayan Policy needs to be urgently created and implemented.” “Therefore, the EB strongly recommends that a detailed study of the impacts of hydropower projects in terms of deforestation/tunneling/ blasting/reservoir formation on the hydrogeology of the area should be carried out.” A study on the role of large artificial reservoirs on local climate change and precipitation patterns with special reference to the Tehri dam reservoir.” Sediment transportation studies “Recent studies have highlighted serious concern about the Indian deltas, which are shrinking due to changes in river courses. The Ganga-Brahmaputra delta is also noted in this category. This seems to be a major issue in near future therefore we recommend that the studies should be carried out regarding the impacts on sediment transportation due to projects existing on Himalayan rivers.” Cultural impacts of HEPs “Therefore EB recommends that the Ministry of Culture along with the local representatives and spiritual leaders should undertake a comprehensive study of the cultural impacts of HEPs in the spiritually rich state of Uttarakhand.” “The river bed profiles at Phata-Byung, Singoli-Bhatwari, Vishnuprayag and Srinagar HEPs have changed significantly. This requires a fresh analysis of the project hydrology and redesigning them if necessary.” “River Regulation Zone (R.R.Z.) guidelines should be issued immediately by the Ministry of Environment & Forests and should be executed accordingly.” Muck Management: “The existing practices of muck management are inadequate to protect the terrain and the people from an eventuality like the June 2013 flood. Therefore, a serious revisit is required towards evolving technically better and ecologically sustainable methods for muck disposal and rehabilitation in Uttarakhand.” Environmental Flows: “Till such time as a decision is taken on the EFlows recommendations of the IITs-consortium, the EB recommends EFlows of 50% during the lean season and 30% during the remaining non-monsoon months. Sustaining the integrity of Uttarakhand’s rivers and their eco-systems is not negotiable.” Eco-Sensitive Zones: “It is recommended that legislation be enacted to (i) protect small but significant rivers (as done in Himachal Pradesh and also recommended by the IMG for Uttarakhand) as pristine rivers and (ii) designate Eco-Sensitive Zones for all rivers of Uttarakhand.” Community based CA and CAT “Community-based CA and CAT plan execution must be done by the State Forest Department within the construction period of the project.” This is to be monitored by a committee that includes two representatives from local communities, a renowned environmentalist, among others. Forests and Biodiversity Conservation: “Community based CAT programmes have to be systemically implemented for ensuring sustenance of the plantations. This requires training of forest officials to work with the communities through their Van Panchayats.” “It was brought to the notice of the EB that clearances to start work had been granted recently to the Lakhwar (300 MW) and Vyasi (120 MW) projects. This is in violation of the spirit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s order of August 13, 2013. It is also noticed that these projects were approved more than 25 years ago. Consequently they do not have any EIA/EMP/DMP studies that are mandatory today. Without conducting cumulative impact assessments and disaster management studies of the Yamuna and Kali basins no such projects should be allowed at the risk of fragile ecology, biodiversity and lives of people living in and around the project sites.”[6] SOME WEAK RECOMMENDATIONS OF EB “The EB recommends that MoEF strengthens its personnel and procedures for post-sanction monitoring of environmental conditionalities. The MoEF should develop a programme for research studies by reputed organizations on the impacts of HEPs on river water quality (and flows). Pre-construction and post operation long term impacts monitoring studies are required.” Geology & Social Issues: “Given the massive scale of construction of HEPs in Uttarakhand it may be worthwhile to set up a formal institution or mechanism for investigating and redressing complaints about damages to social infrastructure. The functioning of such an institution can be funded by a small cess imposed on the developers. It is also suggested that to minimize complaints of bias, investigations should be carried out by joint committees of subject experts and the community.” Disaster Management: “Disaster preparedness is critical because all of Uttarakhand lies either in seismic Zone IV or V. These areas are most vulnerable to strong earthquakes. Disaster Management Plans (DMPs) are critical parts of EIA Reports. They need to be carefully reviewed and approved by local communities in the probable zone of influence.” “It is necessary to establish an independent authority which may commission EIA Reports…” CONCLUSIONS OF EB: On Role of Dams in Uttarakhand disaster: In Chapter 3 (p 10) chairman of EB notes, “Thus THDC’s inundation analysis results could not be substantiated by the ground survey in Haridwar city.” “In September 2010, to retain flood inflows in the face of water levels rising beyond the permitted FRL the (Tehri) dam authorities had to seek the permission of the Supreme Court. It led to inundation of the upstream town of Chinyalisaur and later after draw down fresh landslide zones were created around the reservoir rim.” “Geo-chemical analysis of sediment samples taken from various locations along the river stretch in Srinagar, however, indicated a significant contribution — varying from 47% near the barrage to about 23% much further downstream (Fig. 3.19, pg 101, Main Report) — from muck eroded from muck disposal sites 6 and 9 located on the concave right bank and consequently experienced an intense current of the order of 7m/sec. This raises a question that if there was heavy to very heavy rainfall from the glacial reaches of the Alaknanda valley, leading to numerous landslides along the banks, then why was massive damage observed only downstream of the Vishnuprayag and Srinagar HEPs? A detailed investigation is warranted in order to arrive at a scientifically viable explanation.” “Otters appear to be nearing extinction in the Ganga, Alaknanda sub-basins.” It is good to see that the EB has effectively rejected the critique of the WII report presented by Dr. Sabyasachi Dasgupta, HNB Garhwal University and consultant to UJVNL, following an independent review of the WII report by Prof. Brij Gopal, an eminent ecological scientist who had worked extensively on river ecosystems. Prof Brij Gopal, while finding some limitations in WII methodology, concluded: “he agreed with WII’s findings that the 24 proposed hydropower projects would impact the biodiversity of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins significantly. Based on his own analysis, Prof Gopal recommended that several more projects be dropped.” SOME WEAK CONCLUSIONS: “A ground survey of the inundation analysis carried out by THDC on the basis of which it claimed to have saved Haridwar from drowning raised doubts about the accuracy of the computer generated inundation maps. It is therefore not clear how much of Haridwar would have been affected if the Tehri dam had not been there. The problem at Haridwar, as at other towns and habitations along river banks, is that there has been wide spread encroachment and construction inside the river’s regime. Therefore it is imperative to set up river regulation zones where encroachments are forbidden. (Unscientific sand mining on river beds adds to the problem.)” “There is some doubt about whether the Vishnuprayag project authorities were able to properly manage the opening and closing of the gates.” Role of Dr B P Das: Dr B P Das has for close to a decade been member or vice chair or officiating chair of the Expert Appraisal Committee of MoEF on River Valley project and has in the process been involved in appraising and deciding on clearances for a no of projects and their impacts in Uttarakhand. Hence he was not likely to be in a position to take an independent view on Uttarakhand hydropower projects as there was a conflict of interest involved with respect to his earlier decisions. His biased views were also known through his article in The Hindu earlier. This got reflected in the alternate view on page 27 of chapter 3 and page 16-17 of Chapter 4 of the report authored by Dr Das. In Chapter 3 box, Dr Das’s abiding faith in the project developer could be seen. In Chapter 4 box Dr Das himself mentions that EAC has yet to take a view on WII report, but the he himself is a responsible party for EAC not having taken a view on WII report. Role of CWC, CEA chairpersons: CWC (Central Water Commission, India’s premier technical body on water resources development under Union Ministry of Water Resources) and CEA (Central Electricity Authority, India’s premier technical body on power sector are largely known to act as lobbies for hydropower projects, in stead of the independent technical and regulatory body that they are expected to work as. In view of that, inclusion of chairperson of CWC and CEA in this committee was wrong step on the part of MoEF. We learn from a letter written by two eminent members of the committee, namely Dr Shekhar Pathak and Dr Hemant Dhyani on March 27, 2014, that indeed the chairpersons of CWC and CEA did not really participate in the way they were required to, and rather functioned in violation of the Supreme Court order. Scanned version of last part of the letter of 27.03.2014 from Dr Shekhar Pathak and Dr Hemant Dhyani, members of EB Role of MoEF: One had expected that the EB would take a critical view of the functioning of the MoEF around HEPs and contribution of MoEF’s failures in increasing the disaster proportions. Unfortunately we are disappointed in this. Possibly, with the committee having been appointed by MoEF and member secretary of the committee being MoEF official this was a difficult ask. However, not being able to take a critical stand on the role of MoEF (and other institutions like CWC, CEA, state environment department, state disaster management department etc) imposes a limitation on the EB report and provides a free reign to guilty party. The consequences of this became apparent when on April 28, 2014, during the Supreme Court hearing, we are told, the MoEF presented erroneous picture that there are two reports of the committee, one by 10 members(wrongly called activists) another by Vice Chair B P Das, with CWC and CEA chair persons, when at best the note from these three persons can be considered dissent note, that too in violation of SC orders. We hope the Supreme Court will take strong view of this misleading picture presented by MoEF and reprimand the responsible officials to ensure that this does not happen again. View of the Committee working through its minutes Minutes of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th meeting are available on the MoEF, Lucknow regional office website. Perusal of the minutes shed light of the functioning of the committee, and the biases of some specific members. Some highlights from the minutes: THDC, Tehri and Muck Disposal Sites: Site visit reports of various members, including Dr. Amit Gupta, Dy Director of MoEF presented that THDC is managing active and non active muck disposal sites ‘poorly’. The sites do not have proper retaining wall, slop or plantations. THDC hid drift tunnel of Koteshwar dam: Member Hemant Dhyani exposed that THDC officials did not accept the presence of a huge drift tunnel of Koteshwar Project near Payal Gaon, which was suffering from severe subsidence. Only when the local people, including the tunnel construction workers insisted that there is a tunnel that the THDC officials accept this fact! In the 3rd meeting, the Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand told the committee that projects with EC or FC should not be closed or stopped. Note here that this suggestion is unacceptable when the SC itself has asked the committee to investigate the role of projects in the flood damages. To top this, Additional Chief Secretary unilaterally asserted that HEP did not have any role in the mishap. He emphasised every Environmental CLearance needs an EIA. This indicates his poor knowledge about the quality of EIAs which has been accepted by most experts. He further stressed that a umber of FC cases were peding before the MoEF. Moef official YK Singh Chauhan rebutted this claim. In the 4th Meeting, Dr. B.P. Das, Co Chair of the committee categorized June event as a rare natural calamity and attributed the losses only to road construction ( Incidentally, many roads are being built for hydel projects, and do not even allow access to local communities.) Dr. Ravi Chopra, Chairperson highlighted the poor data management of THDC. He highlighted that THDC could not provide HFL data, rainfall data, inlet level from Maneri Bhali II and outlet level sought by the committee members. Conclusion: In spite of certain weaknesses, most of the recommendations of the committee need to be immediately implemented and till they are implemented in letter and spirit, the Supreme Court should order a status quo on any further hydropower projects. The EB headed by Dr Ravi Chopra should be congratulated for this report in spite of difficult circumstances under which the committee operated. Þ We also hope the Supreme Court would ask MoEF to order stoppage of work on Lakhwar and Vyasi projects that has been started recently, violating the Supreme Court order in letter and spirit, and also as pointed out by the EB. Þ The work on 24 hydropower projects that was part of explicit TOR of the committee should be ordered to stop immediately. The EB should have made this explicit recommendation, but even if they have not done that, it is implicit in its recommendation. Þ The Supreme Court should ask MoEF to provide a time bound action plan on implementation of the various recommendations of the EB. The SC an also possibly appoint EB (minus Dr Das, CWC and CEA persons) to oversee the implementation of the action plan and continue to provide independent feedback on adequacy of such implementation. Þ The Lessons from Uttarakhand are relevant for all Himalayan states of India from Kashmir to all the North East states and we hope Supreme Court to ask the follow up committee to ensure that these lessons are taken note of and necessary steps flowing there from are implemented in these Himalayan states. These will also provide guidance to our Himalayan neighbouring countries. Þ The failure of environmental governance is one of the clearest stark message from this episode and we hope MoEF will put its house in order in this respect, revamping its entire environmental governance. Himanshu Thakkar (ht.sandrp@gmail.com) END NOTES: [1] https://sandrp.wordpress.com/?s=Uttarakhand [2] https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/uttarakhand-flood-ravage-and-the-dams-short-film-english/ [3] https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/uttarakhand-disaster-moef-should-suspect-clearances-to-hydropower-projects-and-institute-enquiry-in-the-role-of-heps/ [4] https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/uttarakhand-flood-disaster-supreme-courts-directions-on-uttarakhand-hydropower-projects/ [5] https://sandrp.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/expert-committee-following-sc-order-of-13-aug-13-on-uttarakhand-needs-full-mandate-and-trimming-down/ [6] By Dr. Hemant Dhyani, Member, EB [7] Reuters report on this issue: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/04/29/india-flood-idINL6N0NL0VC20140429 [8] The section “View of the Committee working through its minutes” has been put together by SANDRP colleague Parineeta Dandekar. I am also thankful to her for other useful suggestions from her. central water commission Dams EAC Hydropower projects MoEF rivers Previous Post Why is Gujarat neglecting Safety of Sardar Sarovar Dam? Next Post Do large dams deliver deception and delusion? Oxford University Research says: they do! 15 thoughts on “Report of Expert Committee on Uttarakhand Flood Disaster & Role of HEPs: Welcome recommendations:” manoj misra says: excellent analysis. HOPEFULLY the SC shows the same kind of resolve in getting the report implemented (including putting an immediate halt to Lakhwar and Vyasi projects on Yamuna) and disciplining the delinquent officials, that it showed while suo moto directing the MoEF to set up the EB. V.K. Joshi says: In 1894 when a spur of mountain fell across Birehi Ganga, a temporary dam was formed, which burst as per the calculations of the British Geologist of GSI TH Holland on 26 Aug 1895. The then govt took Holland’s warning seriously and relocated the entire vulnerable population from Gohna to Haridwar, established a telegraph link between Gohna and Haridwar, with instructions to the engineer to holler in case something goes wrong. None, except five of a family died-as they could not resist the temptation of re-entering their house to salvage some more items on the night between 25th/26 Aug. Those days there was no dam in this region. The tragedy would have been colossal had the population not been evacuated in time. What happened at Kedarnath and neighboring areas was terrible, but had the govt paid slightest heed to the warnings of the IMD the tragedy would have not been that gruesome. If you go in to the history of landslides of this region, you find that hacking of forests, blocking of drains has been more behind the landslides than the dams. I am not in favor of large dams as such, but squarely blaming the dams for the tragedy is not justified i feel. No point blaming each other. What is important now that the housing rules in habitats of Uttarakhand should be truthfully implemented. All vulnerable slopes be identified and the advice of geologists heeded to. If the experts feel that dams are harming the mountains, then there is no reason to construct them. But the government on the other hand should activate the experts to suggest viable alternative, non-polluting sources of power. Uttarakhand is a major source of hydropower, alas, now alternatives have to be searched and implemented. As an ex geologist of GSI I wish to say that projects in Uttarakhand did not come on the whims and fancies of politicians. They came up after years and years of meticulous surveys. sandrp says: Thanks, Joshi sir, Yes, the projects certainly contributed hugely to the proportions of Uttarakhand disaster. Unfortunately the EIA and even most of other basic appraisal studies have remained shoddy, non professional, incomplete and worse. Prof Valdiya has been warning on these issues, but his warnings are not heeded. The construction activity related to dams have accentuated the disaster potential of the area hugely. The illegalities in the construction and operation of the projects have worsened the situation. A K Agrawal says: Excellent Analysis. Most of the person, who have an experience with dams, land slide, Geo-technical issues and hydro-meteorology etc. will agree with Mr. Joshi. Noni says: Mr. joshu, Thanks for your lenthy and informative comment but one is you must agree that the so called long and meticulous surveys that you have mentioned are all but jokes. The EIA and EMP reports regarding all these projects are all but farce. I know this as I worked with one of the most reputed consultancy who are into the preparation of these reports. All they do is copy paste and change settings and when one build large infrastructures depending on such reports the results are not hard to visualize. sad but true! An excellent and quick analysis. It seems that the EB report could have a huge impact on Uttarakhand–or at least the two main river basins in question–but it is unclear exactly what power the SC has in this, especially given past issues from the court that seem to be ignored. And with the elections now suggesting a change in policies that probably will not favor stronger environmental governance, what do you think the likely next steps will be following this report? As someone not in India, but who is following this issue, I’m curious how one can obtain an electronic copy (or print even) of this EB report, and if it will be posted online somewhere (MoEF website, SC website, SANDRP website)? Also, you mentioned the meeting notes from the Lucknow regional office being posted on their website. The closest I could find is here: http://www.moefrolko.org/expertbody.htm, but many of the links do not work, and I am not sure if these are even the same as what you refer to. Could you provide a link to those reports you mentioned. Finally, this is a small note, but the caption on one of the images is wrong. It reads “Map of Mandakini Valley, epicenter of Uttarakhand floods of June 2014 (Source: EB report).” It should be June 2013, a minor detail. Thanks very much for posting this excellent analysis and insights into the politics and development of this important issue. Thanks, Chris, Great to know you are following this issue. The report is not available in public domain, but should be on MoEF website soon. I have soft copy, pl send me an email at ht.sandrp@gmail.com and I will send you ten chapters. Thanks for the correction in photo caption, have done the change. The SC has tremendous powers if they decide to put the MoEF house in order and put in place credible court monitored mechanism for this. The new government wont have too many options in that case. The next steps entirely depends on how the SC decides to take this forward. The Lucknow office link of MoEF is correct, but they may have removed the minutes, we have it, we can send them to you if you want. Pingback: Uttarakhand Flood Disaster Made Worse By Existing Hydropower Projects, Expert Commission Says \| Circle of Blue WaterNews Deepak Jugran says: We support Hydro projects in Uttarakhand as 6000 people died from floods, but nearly 60,000 people die from hunger in Uttarakhand. It is better to die with floods than hunger Thanks, but there is no evidence to show that hydropower projects in Uttarakhand have saved 60 000 people die from hunger and that we do not have better alternatives to achieve that objective. Era says: Please let us listen your better alternatives. What you have alternatives for hydro-power, which is renewable energy resource. Yes, please don’t provide such an alternative measures like austerity measures in electric consumption or to live a life like ascetic. I am from a rural background and better understand the meaning of these sophisticated preachings. For Uttarakhand, if Uttarakhand were to 1. Get all the power produced in the state (it is not getting most of it); 2. develop more micro hydro; 3. developer decentralised solar power projects 4. Reduced T&D losses; 5. Use biomass where appropriate; 6. Improve end use efficiency; 7. discourage unnecessary power intensive activities; there will be more than the electricity that the state needs. dr.ms.iqbal malik says: Pingback: Nepal earthquake and the danger of building large dams in the seismically unstable Himalayas \| C O U N T E R V I E W . O R G Balbir Dharmwan says: Hydro Electric Power ( HEP) are not at all responsible for Kedarnath disaster. It has happened due to LAKE burst above Kedarnath. Please don’t held responsible to these HEP’s of Mandakini valley and Alaknanda valley. For these disasters human population , vehicular population are responsible . We have only one natural source which can check the brain drain or stop Palayan. If there will be HEP then some youth will get employment. After all every body need electricity. Ask to those who are apposing , can they live without electricity ?? certainly not. These people are not well wisher of Uttarakhandies. Leave a Reply to V.K. Joshi Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1799
__label__wiki	0.889994	0.889994	Business » Finance A Look at France's Heated Debate over Pensions Riot police officers secure an area during a demonstration in Paris, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2019 (Source:AP Photo/Thibault Camus) The planned overhaul of the French pensions system aims to streamline a complicated patchwork of provisions, but workers argue it will require them to work longer and will reduce their income. The heated debate over the changes to the retirement system are laid bare in the nationwide strike and protests taking place Thursday. The popular discontent will test the resolve of the government of President Emmanuel Macron, who says it remains determined to pass the reform next year. Here's a look at the planned measures, and why they are generating debate. THE CURRENT PENSION SYSTEM All French retirees receive a state pension. The average pension this year stands at 1,400 euros per month ($1,500 per month) once taxes are deducted. But that average masks differences across 42 different pension systems. The easy bit: Employees in the private sector are part of the general pension system. They account for about 7 out of 10 workers. The more complicated bit: many professions have a special pension scheme. Some people, like rail workers and air crews, are allowed to take early retirement. Others, like lawyers and doctors, pay less tax. Civil servants - who number over 5 million - also have a separate pension scheme. Over the last three decades, governments have made changes but each reform has been met with massive demonstrations. None of the changes managed to simplify the system. MACRON'S GRAND PLAN Macron wants to replace the current way of doing things with a unified scheme, so that all workers have the same pension rights. He promises that would make the system simpler and fairer - and also financially sustainable in the long-term, since it is projected to be in a deficit in coming years. Labor unions say most workers would lose money with the new system due to a change in the calculation of pensions. People who qualify for special provisions fear the loss of benefits. The government has promised the legal retirement age of 62 won't change, but new financial conditions will encourage some people to work longer. Macron's government said some specific measures would be maintained, such as allowing military and police officers and people with physically demanding jobs to retire early. The changes would not apply to current pensioners. The government has opened talks with unions, business associations and professional organizations. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is expected to provide details and make new proposals next week and plans to present the bill in parliament early next year. The government had initially said the changes will only apply to people born after 1963, starting in 2025. But in response to union concerns, Philippe recently said the start date may be delayed to avoid a "brutal transition." The government's plans will largely depend on the protests, since the strikes are expected to last for days, even weeks. Hard-left unions are calling on Macron to abandon the reform altogether. Enter to win a prize pack celebrating Dua Lipa's "Don't Start Now!" Thousands Mark Christmas in West Bank Town of Bethlehem Dates, Venues Announced for FilmOut San Diego's 21st Annual LGBT Film Festival	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1800
__label__wiki	0.750869	0.750869	Category Archives: Regina Islas Stogner Report on Chinedu Okobi In-Custody Death. This is a work in progress. There were Six San Mateo County Sheriff Employees not Five. It’s illegal for a civilian to participate in the takedown of Chinedu Okobi. Everybody in Law Enforcement knows that. CSO Joseph Gonzales is a civilian. Nicole Basurto, A very good and concerned Citizen, Witness not found by Sheriff Office. She called in.“Thought it was odd the Deputies did not try to arrest Decedent Okobi when he was on the ground.”She was fairly certain that he died at the scene.” “A male deputy hit Okobi 3-4 times with a closed fist, seemed directed to his head.” San Mateo County Deputy Coroner Heather Diaz #21 “I have determined the manner of Death to be Homicide.” San Mateo County Sheriff IT Technician Johnson Hang was unable to download Deputy Wang & Sergeant Weidner’s MAV Video from patrol cars at the crime scene. Why? Menlo Park Police Officer Joshua Russell unable to download his witness interviews he tried twice, Vie-Vu software owned by Axon. San Mateo County Criminalist II Anthony Delmonico: District Attorney’s office requesting the Forensic Investigation of an “In-Custody Death.” Caption in D.A.’s video at the 7:22 mark “ A deputy attempts to subdue Okobi with Pepper Spray, but mistakenly hits his fellow deputies and Sergeant.” Steve Wagstaffe does not identify the sprayer as Deputy Wang, Why? His Expert Jeffrey Martin says it was Deputy Wang. There is only one Deputy it could be and that is Wang. There is one other possibility and that might be why Wagstaffe chose not to identify Wang as the sprayer of Pepper Spray. “At the t 7:18 mark Civilian CSO Joseph Gonzales’s right hand can clearly be seen unholstering and discharging pepper spray.” He then puts it back in his belt and backs away. Sergeant Weidner calls it a Crime Scene at 11:31 mark. Why is arresting a suspect a Crime Scene? Sergeant Weidner 13:26 Mark on cellphone “Dude’s alive that’s all you need to know, We’re good.” Sergeant Weidner 10/03/2018 says Okobi was Pepper Sprayed changes story. Why? 14:35 mark says: “He’s been tasered several times and Peppered Sprayed.” 15:03 mark says: “ He’s been tased twice and Pepper Sprayed.” Weidner Statement to Jamie Draper on 10/04/2018 prepared 10/12/2018 “He was told later it was Deputy Wang who deployed the pepper spray at that point in the struggle; however he did not see him do it.” Sergeant Weidner speculated the pepper spray was possibly directed upward at the subject’s face while he was in a somewhat prone position on the ground which caused the spray to miss the subject completely and instead strike Deputy Watt, Deputy Lorenzatti and Sergeant Weidner. D.J. Wozniak President of the Deputy Sheriff Association, the Union calls Sgt. Weiner at the Crime Scene audio goes silent. 22:10 mark. Why is he calling Weidner? Deputy De Martini to Jamie Draper (Sincere report) “He said he felt a Pulse but said due to the fact he had just been struggling with Okobi he was no longer certain if he felt Okobi’s pulse or his own.” Also said “ I kind of raised up his head a little bit.” Deputy Watt to Jamie Draper (Sincere report.) “Said he was speaking to Decedent Okobi, telling him to relax and breath, But he did not recall Okobi ever saying anything in response. San Mateo County District Attorney Office Video and Reports San Mateo County District Attorney Office Press Conference March 1, 2019 March 1, 2019 San Mateo County District Attorney held a Press Conference. The members of the Public were not included. 8:20 mark Steve Wagstaffe tells the reporters that the “Cause of Death was Cardiac Arrest.” 47:40 mark, KQED Reporter Julie Small asked “Do you know the manner of death?” Wagstaffe says “The Coroner of this County Labeled it a Homicide.” He went on to say Homicide occurring during interaction with that individual.” Had Reporter Small of KQED not asked that question Steve Wagstaffe was not going to mention Homicide I, Michael G. Stogner Co-owner of San Mateo County News.Com asked Steve Wagstaffe @ 37:39 mark. “After Mr. Okobi stopped breathing, You mentioned in your presentation somebody said get him in a seated position, can you identify which deputy said that? Wagstaffe said, “It was Sgt Weidner, “He actually uses the words Positional Aphysixation watch for that, But he was breathing and he had a pulse.” Q. By putting him in a seated position, Did his head not go forward and stop his breathing?” Note: Seated Position @ 10:27 mark Wagstaffe said “It did not.””The belief was Not, that it did not occur.” “Because they continued to check for the breathing.” check head position at 10:27 mark it did go forward Mr. Wagstaffe. Wagstaffe said, “But he was breathing and he had a pulse at the time.” “He actual uttered some words.” No Caption at time with words allegedly uttered Wagstaffe said, “It was a couple of minutes, several minutes after he was turned over to the AMR people.” “Deputies are out of the picture then it’s over to the medical people.” The video does not support Steve Wagstaffe’s statement. Video shows AMR #37 Suzanne Holman @17:55 mark giving Sternum Rub, Checking for a Pulse, and tilting head back. If a Reasonable Person takes the meaning of several minutes to mean 3 minutes that would take you to the 20:55 mark. Wagstaffe said, He was still breathing when the Sheriff Deputies turned him over to the ARM people.” Question, What time was Okobi turned over to the AMR people? Question, Who from the FOUR AMR people is District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe talking about? Here are the AMR people, Suzanne Holman #37, Forrest Uhland #37, Patrick Pham #94 & Ferdinand Retanubun #94 According to Daly City Police Officer Joshua McQuade who interviewed S. Holman on 10/04/2018 AMR #37 Suzanne Holman “She said she did not touch the decedent.” AMR #37: Forrest Uhland “Did not render any medical aid to decedent Okobi personally.” AMR #94 Ferdinand Retanubun said “His unit was assigned to treat the injured deputy who was bleeding from the face (Deputy Wang) AMR #94 Partick Pham said he was assigned to attend to two (2) Sheriff’s Deputies whom he described as an Asian deputy with abrasions to his face, (Deputy Joshua Wang) and a bald deputy who had been exposed to pepper spray (Deputy Bryan Watt). Wagstaffe said, “You can hear the AMR people say to him, Check the pulse make sure he is still breathing.” That sentence makes no sense at all. A Reasonable Person would have to ask, Who is Wagstaffe calling Him? He can’t be talking about Chinedu Okobi, He has been dead since 9:10 mark. Wagstaffe said, “You don’t see them taking out their nightsticks.” -5:27 mark Deputy Wang & Deputy Watt both brought out their Batons. In the DA’s Video at the 10:57 Mark you will see Deputy DeMartini Tampering with Evidence by picking up a Taser and Extended Baton and putting them in CSO’s Sheriff Pick Up Truck. By Michael G. Stogner Filed under #Blacklivesmatter, #SanMateoCountyNews, 911, AMR, Associated Press, Attorney Generals Office, AXON, Board of Supervisors, Body Camera Video, Carlos G. Bolanos, Carole Groom, Charles Stone, Chinedu Okobi, Chris Hunter, Citizen Journalist, Citizens Oversight Committee, City of Millbrae, Community Service Officer Joseph Gonzales, Criminal Enforcement Task Force, CSO Joseph Gonzales, D.J. Wozniak, Dave Canepa, Dave Pine, David Burruto, David Silberman, DDA Albert Serrato, Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti, Deputy Bryan Watt, Deputy John DeMartini, Deputy Joshua Wang, Don Horsley, Evidence Tampering, Google, Grand Jury, Jody L. Williams, John Beiers, John Burris, John Warren, Kevin Mullins, Mark Simon, Marshall Wilson, Menlo Park Police Department, Michael G. Stogner, Michelle Durand, Mike Callagy, Millbrae City Manager Tom Williams, NAACP, Positional Asphyxia, Prosecutorial Misconduct, R.E.A.C.T. Task Force, Regina Islas, Sabrina Brennan, San Mateo County District Attorney Office, San Mateo County Firefighters, San Mateo County Manager, San Mateo County Sheriff Office, Senator Jerry Hill, Sergeant David Weidner, Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos, Silicon Valley, SMC, SMCSO PIO Rosemerry Blankswade, Steve Wagstaffe, Tax Payer's Advocate, Therese Dyer, Those Who Matter, Warren Slocum, Whistleblowers, Yahoo SMC’s Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle (TASER) Forum. The real topic of Excessive & Unnecessary Use of Force was not broached. February 11, 2019 San Mateo County Supervisor’s Committee on Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle (TASER) Forum. Supervisors Don Horsley, Warren Slocum, Dave Pine, Dave Canepa, Carole Groom thought that this would satisfy the Good and Concerned Citizens of San Mateo County and would be a lot easier than actually Supervising Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos that they Illegally Appointed on July 12, 2016, and District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe who is refusing to release the videos and audio recordings which contain stupid statements by the 5 deputies “do you want water.” Ginny Kraus (holding up sign) has said from day one “This will NOT go away.” She means it. This is just a small sample of the citizens that have been showing up consistently for 132 days requesting/demanding honesty from the Elected Officials of San Mateo County. They understand that accidents happen, sometimes in custody deaths occur by accident, It’s what was done right after a death that makes the difference. How many seconds after Chinedu stopped breathing was CPR administered and by who and for how long? This information is what the recordings will provide to the public. D.A. Steve Wagstaffe is refusing to release those recordings. J.R. Stone KRON video 58 second mark Chindeu V. Okobi was Murdered by 5 San Mateo County Sheriff Deputies on October 3, 2018 on El Camino Real, Millbrae, California. All 5 Deputies failed to handcuff him when he was tased. Instead one officer backed away, another raised an extended baton, not one got on the ground to handcuff him before he composed himself and got up to save his own life and run away. He did not accomplish that as they continued to torture him to death, after passing according to Ebele they grabbed him like a bag of garbage sat him which caused his head to lean forward closing his airway which assured his death. No CRP given. So many great people attended the meeting several who have lost relatives to excessive and unnecessary force which is protected in San Mateo County. I would like to thank the majority of Sheriff Deputies who ignored their Union President D.J. Wozniak’s call to arms to show up in force to intimate the public. I saw very few of the deputies there. DSA President call to arms 2/11/2019 Committee on Taser Meeting Video Filed under #Blacklivesmatter, #SanMateo, #SanMateoCountyNews, #SMCJUSTICE, 911, Bill Silverfarb, Board of Supervisors, Carlos G. Bolanos, Chinedu Okobi, City of Millbrae, Dave Canepa, Dave Pine, David Burruto, David Silberman, Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti, Deputy Bryan Watt, Deputy John DeMartini, Deputy Joshua Wang, Don Horsley, Errol Chang R.I.P., Excessive & Unnecessary Use of Force, Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, Grand Jury, John Beiers, John Burris, John Warren, Judicial Misconduct, Kevin Mullins, Marshall Wilson, Michael G. Stogner, Michelle Durand, Mike Callagy, NAACP, Ordinance 04430, Organized Crime, Positional Asphyxia, Prosecutorial Misconduct, R.E.A.C.T. Task Force, Ramsey Saad R.I.P., Regina Islas, RICO, Robert Foucrault, Sabrina Brennan, San Mateo County Clerk to Supervisors, San Mateo County District Attorney Office, San Mateo County Grand Jury, San Mateo County Manager, San Mateo County News, Senator Jerry Hill, Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos, Silicon Valley, SMC, SMCSO Sgt. Weidner, Steve Wagstaffe, Those Who Matter, Victim's Advocate, Warren Slocum, Whistleblowers, Yanira Serrano Garcia R.I.P. SMCSO DSA President D.J. Wozniak can’t say Chinedu V. Okobi’s name. Chinedu Valentine Okobi EXCESSIVE & UNNECESSARY USE OF FORCE Chinedu V. Okobi was murdered October 3, 2018 on El Camino Real in Millbrae by 5 San Mateo County Sheriff Deputies. One of them Sgt. David Weidner not represented DSA. He is upset that 40 residents came and spoke at the December 4, 2018 Board of Supervisor meeting and used the M word Murder. Public Comment BOS Meeting December 4, 2018 starts at 8:50 minute mark He is upset that the Supervisors formed a Committee on Tasers to meet Feb. 11, 2019 6-8PM in the Supervisors meeting room 1st floor of the 400 County Center Building. He is not the only one upset at the Supervisors, this Committee and subject matter is not at all important to the murder of Chinedu. EXCESSIVE & UNNECESSARY USE OF FORCE is the only topic that is important. That is what Steve Wagstaffe, Carlos G. Bolanos, Carole Groom, Dave Pine, Don Horsley, Warren Slocum, David Canepa are all distracting the public with the Committee dog and pony show. If this “Committee on Tasers” Charade sounds familiar it should 2008 the BOS did a similar performance. Ethics committee in works By Michelle Durand Elected county officials suspected of wrongdoing or unbecoming conduct can be investigated by a five-member ethics committee with the authority to recommend their removal, according to an ordinance unanimously endorsed yesterday by the Board of Supervisors. The board created the independent citizens review panel on Tuesday after revisiting an earlier proposal by supervisors Jerry Hill and Adrienne Tissier. At its July 22 meeting, the board cautiously backed the idea but asked for some fine-tuning of language to avoid the panel embarking on what Supervisor Mark Church characterized as a “witch hunt” against officials. The approved proposal defines “serious official misconduct” based on an existing San Bernadino ordinance and allows the board to determine an allegation is unfounded before calling together the review panel. The passed ordinance also suspends the panel’s investigation when necessary as not to conflict with any criminal proceedings. Although having such a review panel will help the county deal with questionable situations if needed, the goal is to never have them arise, Hill said. The ordinance, which still requires a second reading to become official, also can’t retroactively address the matter which sparked its formation — the April 2007 detention of Sheriff Greg Munks and Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos in an undercover brothel sting in Las Vegas. The pair were in town for a law enforcement race and told police they mistakenly went to the raided home because they thought it was a legitimate massage parlor. Neither was charged with a crime and the supervisors said they had no discipline authority. Approximately a year later, Hill revisited the issue of official oversight for elected county officials. Hill and Tissier suggested an independent ethics committee as an alternative to less viable oversight ideas such as letting the Board of Supervisors remove fellow elected officials. Not even a county charter amendment gives the board authority to remove an elected official and the state constitution doesn’t allow the board to discipline an official to any less degree. While the committee itself can’t take action, its independent nature removes the politics from the process and can spark into action the grand jury, which does have the authority to recommend an official’s removal. The citizen’s review panel of individuals will include either retired judges, former county or city administrators, former grand juror foreperson, or former county counsels, city attorneys or district attorneys. Selection would be random and Brown Act — California’s open meeting law — requirements enforced. The San Bernadino County charter — the one most often referenced as a San Mateo County template — allows a four-fifths vote of the Board of Supervisors to remove any other county officer for “flagrant or repeated neglect of duties,” “misappropriation of public property,” “violation of any law related to the performance of the official’s duties” or “willful falsification of a relevant official statement or document.” While the ordinance has survived a legal challenge, it has never been used. Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 102. Here is D.J.’s recent email to the Union members. As you all know, the District Attorney has not yet announced if he will or will not prosecute 4 of our members for the death in custody in Millbrae last October. While I’m disappointed his decision has taken so long, we are confident our members did nothing wrong and are fully prepared to defend our members if any charges are filed. The DSA stands behind our members and the actions they took that day in Millbrae. I’m confident that if the DA’s office wanted to move forward with any charges, we would prevail in court. NOTE: I think every San Mateo County Sheriff Deputy knows the above statement by D.J. Wozniak sounds really good, but in reality look what D.J. has done for Sheriff Deputy Juan P. Lopez. While the DA’s office weighs its options, the NAACP and the National Black Lives Matter movement have taken a particular interest in the Sheriff’s Office. They have activated their base via social media and have inundated the Board of Supervisors with thousands of calls and emails asking them to remove Tasers from San Mateo County Law Enforcement. While I had hoped they would simply ignore these anti police activists, they have not. Unfortunately, Supervisor Pine and Groom have given these people an audience and formed a “taser committee” where they’ll will be looking into Tasers, policies surrounding them and researching deaths related to Tasers. This is baffling because the decision to deploy Tasers is not made by the Board of Supervisors, it is the decision of the Sheriff. The committee plans on holding a public meeting to “discuss Tasers”. The meeting is tenatively scheduled for February 11th at 1800 hours. Once the meeting date/ time is confirmed, I will be asking all DSA members try to attend the meeting. I’m not asking you to speak or participate in the conversation as I find it unlikely that any of activists attending are open to listening to anything we have to say. We simply don’t want the entire audience to be full of anti police activists and having normal rational people in the audience will be helpful. Here is what I have one in response to these events: I have had numerous conversations with Sheriff Bolanos on this issue and made it crystal clear that the DSA does not support removing Tasers from our members. The Sheriff has has told me that he supports that decision and believes in Tasers have their place in the use of force policies of the Sheriff’s Office. I have met with the board members individually. I have explained how valuable Tasers are to public safety. I have explained how high in the use of force continuum Tasers are and how restrictive our policy and procedures are regarding their use. I explained to them that the calls/emails they are receiving are not from people in San Mateo County. The people calling are part of the social media army of the Black Lives Matter organization and know nothing nothing about use of force issues and know nothing about Tasers and their use in law enforcement and most importantly, have no idea about the events in Millbrae resulting in the death in custody. Sheriff Bolanos has authorized me to create a “use of force” day for the County Manager, County Council and Board of Supervisors. Working with the training unit, we will give the BOS training on Tasers and run them through various scenarios, with and without Tasers so they can see their value in public safety. I ask that any of you who happen to have a conversation with Sheriff Bolanos, convey your appreciation for his stance on this issue and supporting the DSA. I will obviously keep you posted on any developments with this “Taser Committee”. Filed under #Blacklivesmatter, #MeToo, #SanMateo, #SanMateoCountyNews, #SMCJUSTICE, #TimesUp, 911, Bill Silverfarb, Board of Supervisors, Carole Groom, Chinedu Okobi, Chris Hunter, Citizens Oversight Committee, Criminal Enforcement Task Force, Dave Canepa, Dave Pine, David Burruto, David Silberman, Deputy Alyssa Lorenzatti, Deputy Bryan Watt, Deputy John DeMartini, Deputy Joshua Wang, DOJ, Don Horsley, electioneering, Errol Chang R.I.P., Hanson Bridgett LLP, Mark Olbert, Michael G. Stogner, Organized Crime, Positional Asphyxia, Prosecutorial Misconduct, Regina Islas, RICO, San Mateo County Sheriff Office, Sergeant David Weidner, Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos, SMC, Steve Wagstaffe, Tax Payer's Advocate, Those Who Matter, Victim's Advocate, Warren Slocum, Yanira Serrano Garcia R.I.P. San Mateo County Residents are the Winners. The Peninsula Progressives Announce Winners for Assembly Delegates, District 22 Self-Organized Slate Representing the People of District 22 of San Mateo County SAN MATEO, CA — February 1, 2019 — The San Mateo County Peninsula Progressives, a group of citizens who organized its own slate, announce the election win of all nine of their founding members to the California Democratic Party Delegates representing Assembly District 22. The winners include: Regina Islas, Victoria Sanchez De Alba, Adonica Shaw-Porter, Uma Krishnan, Dan Stegink, Ted McKinnon, You You Xue, Joe Little, and Mike Dunham. “We are unified Democrats, a self-organizing slate by the People and for the People to represent the District of San Mateo County,” said Dan Stegink, a Founding Member of the Peninsula Progressives. It was great to see people who were energized to turn out to vote and as we prepare for the 2020 Presidential, as well as for California state elections.” Diverse representation, especially women, in leadership positions, is needed to accurately reflect the demographics of San Mateo County; as well as in state, and federal offices. It is vital now, because the Democratic Party will be selecting a new Chairperson and endorsing the next State Senator for the district. The Progressives platform is based on the needs and wants of the many people in the community to build an inclusive, equitable, representative and just society for all Californians. And, we look forward to serving, listening, and learning more about what our communities need in order to bring these needs and visions into reality, including: Representation and Justice for all; Medicare for All; Women’s and LGBTQI Rights Unbridged; Remove Corporate Money from Elections; California Green New Deal; Affordable Housing and Renter Protections and *Law Enforcement Oversight. The Peninsula Progressives won 9-5 over the Assemblymember Kevin Mullin and State Senator Jerry Hill slate. We extend hearty congratulations to our fellow delegates: Harini Krishnan, Supervisor Carole Groom, San Mateo City Council Member Rick Bonilla and Foster City Mayor Sam Hindi for their election as delegates and to Chelsea Bonini for her election to the Executive Board. The Peninsula Progressives appreciate the welcome of Senator Hill and Assemblymember Mullin. “We are excited to be working together to resolve critical issues facing our communities and the upcoming election of a new Democratic Party Chair and the endorsement of a new State Senator,” said Regina Islas, a Founding Member. Most importantly, we want to thank each and every voter and supporter who gave their time, effort and interest on Saturday, Jan. 26 to make this slate a reality, we are humbled and proud to serve you! The Progressives welcomes inquiries at: penprogressives@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Peninsula-Progressives-2217190631676730/ About The Peninsula Progressives: Representation & Justice for ALL CALIFORNIANS; Green New Deal; Med4All; Affordable Housing Renters Rights and Law Enforcement Oversight. Notice the photo Mark Simon uses for his article. Our Flag at half mast, Why? Political Climate with Mark Simon: Peninsula Democratic Party elections expose left-wing divide Published on January 29, 2019 in Featured/Headline/PoliticalClimate by Mark Simon There was good news and some not-so-good news from the Peninsula Democratic Party this past weekend. The good news is the massive turnouts at two caucuses to elect regional representatives to the California Democratic Party. The caucuses are held in each of the state’s Assembly districts and turnout Saturday in the 22nd (represented by Kevin Mullin) and in the 24th (represented by Marc Berman) was huge with well over 600 attendees at each event. This is a dramatic improvement over prior caucuses, where turnout was a couple of dozen or so. Clearly, Peninsula Democrats are energized by the success of the 2018 congressional races, by the policies and conduct of the current president and by the prospect of winning the White House and the U.S. Senate in 2020. The not-so-good news is that the party is split between self-described progressives and “establishment” Democrats, reflecting a national divide that could undermine the Democrats’ chances of winning in 2020. And, because this is the Democratic Party, there is even a split among the progressives, although it can get a little confusing because every Democrat running for these delegate slots seemed to self-describe as a progressive. And speaking of self-description, the party doesn’t divide delegates into male and female candidates. They divide themselves “self-identified female” and “other than self-identified female.” Sometimes a thing just speaks for itself. In the 22nd District caucus, a slate of Peninsula Progressives essentially took the lunch money of a slate backed by Mullin and state Senator Jerry Hill. The Progressive slate won 9-5 over the Mullin/Hill slate, despite the very high-profile presence of both legislators at the caucus. Some of this is a function of fundamental politics – the Progressive slate, said to have been organized by political activist and county Harbor Commissioner Sabrina Brennan, worked harder to get more of their voters to the caucus. Still, it’s a slap at the influence of two well-established Peninsula politicians. The Mullin/Hill slate was heavily populated by other elected officials and three of the five lost – Burlingame Councilwoman Emily Beach, Belmont Councilman Charles Stone and San Bruno Mayor Rico Medina. In the 24th, the fight was between two Progressive slates and while they each won their share, it does not bode well for Democratic unity that the left wing of the party is competing with itself. ANY NUMBER OF ANGRY PEOPLE: If there is a message in the defeat of an establishment slate, it might be further reflected in a 12-8 vote Friday by San Mateo County Cities Selection Committee to put Millbrae Councilwoman Gina Papan on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and oust Redwood City Councilwoman Alicia Aguirre. One of the factors driving Papan’s victory was concern – more like anger and distrust — that the region is moving swiftly to establish housing construction quotas that are aimed, quite particularly, at San Mateo County. Papan positioned herself as someone who would be appropriately aggressive in fighting that effort, and her selection is another example of an insurgent victory over the local status quo. AN OPEN FIELD: The 24th Assembly District caucus was a nice win for former Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, who is running for Hill’s Senate seat. She was the top vote-getter among the “self-identified female” candidates, showing she still can carry the day among Santa Clara County progressives. Lieber was a Mountain View councilwoman before winning an Assembly seat in 2002. She ran against Hill for the open Senate seat in 2012, and he won by a 2-1 margin. But Lieber outpolled Hill by 8 points in the Santa Clara County portion of the district. The Senate candidates will report their 2018 fundraising totals at the end of the week, and it is expected that public interest entrepreneur Josh Becker will report a total in excess of $300,000, well ahead of his three opponents – Lieber, Redwood City Councilwoman Shelly Masur and Burlingame Councilman Michael Brownrigg. You can expect they will say it is too early to assume anyone has taken command of the race, and that is the problem for the four candidates. Rumors are quite active that another candidate could get into the race and change everything. The names that are being offered – not by these individuals, but by those who want them to run – are Mullin, who represents half the Senate district, former Assemblyman Rich Gordon, now president and CEO of the California Forestry Association (and, by all accounts, quite happy to be out of Sacramento), and San Mateo Mayor Diane Papan. Contact Mark Simon at mark.simon24@yahoo.com. It’s about time the residents of San Mateo County woke up. Jerry Hill, Kevin Mullin, Charles Stone, Mark Simon all members of TEAM “Those Who Matter” Did more than simply endorse the Yes on Measure W campaign and all except Simon endorsed Carlos G. Bolanos for Sheriff in the last election. Not one of them is in favor of Law Enforcement Oversight. That’s telling and their Silence on the Murder by Sheriff Deputies of Chinedu V. Okobi October 3, 2018 in Millbrae should cause the residents to pay attention. Filed under #SanMateo, #SanMateoCountyNews, #SMCJUSTICE, Adonica Shaw Porter, Bill Silverfarb, Carole Groom, Charles Stone, Chinedu Okobi, Chris Hunter, City of Millbrae, Dan Stegink, Dave Canepa, David Burruto, David Silberman, Don Horsley, Hanson Bridgett LLP, Jim Hartnett, Joe Little, Kevin Mullins, Mark Simon, Marshall Wilson, Michael G. Stogner, Mike Dunham, Positional Asphyxia, Regina Islas, Sabrina Brennan, Senator Jerry Hill, Sheriff Carlos G. Bolanos, SMC Measure W 2018, Ted McKinnon, Those Who Matter, Uma Krishnan, Victim's Advocate, Victoria Sanchez De Alba, Warren Slocum, You You Xue San Mateo County News Official Facebook Page Former San Mateo Police Officer Noah Winchester Sentenced to 81years to life. SMCDA Inspector Gregory Giguiere got it right. 6 Involved Parties Okobi Homicide. Are SMCDA Inspectors William Massey and John Warren on Administrative Leave during this Alleged Internal Investigation? San Mateo County’s former District Attorney James P. Fox has Died. 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__label__wiki	0.735089	0.735089	From Canada to New Mexico, STL USA’s Ben Williams cycles for cancer research charity STL USA team From Canada to New Mexico,… STL’s very own Ben Williams cycled from Canada to New Mexico raising funds for Cancer research a charity close to his heart. When Ben Williams, Safety Technology USA’s training director and head of GWO training, walked into the office and said he wanted to take 6 weeks off work to go cycling he received a few quizzical looks from his colleagues. But, after he’d explained he was taking on Tour Divide Ultra-Cycling Challenge and that he was doing it in aid of vital cancer research, the company quickly mobilised efforts to help him on his way. The Tour Divide Ultra-Cycling Challenge which is described as “the world’s longest and toughest off-pavement cycle route” climbs nearly 200,000 feet – the equivalent of summiting Mount Everest from sea-level seven times. Along the route Ben endured the off-road trails and passes of the Rocky Mountains, gruelling hill climbs, stretches of barren desert and extreme heat as well as the daily physical and mental challenges associated with ultra-mountain biking of this type. Solo and unsupported with just a tent, bike and GPS this complex route inhabited by locals such as grizzly bears and mountain lions, adding another dimension to the daily challenge. Undeterred Ben made the most of this fantastic opportunity. “What made the whole thing so amazing was the people I met along the way. If it wasn’t for the American people and their kindness the challenge would have been a whole lot harder.” Ben decided to take part when someone truly dear and amazing to him suffered pain and discomfort on a level he could not comprehend. As a tribute he wanted to put himself through pain and discomfort for about a month to raise funds to continue research and help prevent others from experiencing the same level of pain. Lynne Eagles, Cancer Research UK’s local fundraising manager for Wales, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Ben has decided to attempt such an incredible and gruelling challenge to raise vital funds for Cancer Research UK. “Ben had an amazing experience and we can’t thank him enough for his support. We want to wish him the very best for his journey. Cancer Research UK has made enormous progress in the fight against cancer. However, we have only been able to do this thanks to the dedication and commitment of our volunteers and supporters, without whom we would not be able to fund our research.” Ben was invited to speak by Cancer research about his epic ride at a recent event. For those who have felt inspired by Ben’s challenge, why not sign up to a cycling challenge of your own? Maybe start with something a little more easy to manage though!! Category: STL USA teamBy STL USA team November 14, 2018 PreviousPrevious post:Wind energy USA news roundup NovemberNextNext post:Launching our USA website Welcome to our new VP Sales & Marketing Ben Dickens Great feedback on GWO training from STL Preview San Diego AWEA Wind Project O&M and Safety Conference	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1809
__label__wiki	0.650852	0.650852	Anston PC – Police called after more trouble! Posted on April 30, 2013 by Rik Last night there was a special meeting of Anston parish council, an electors meeting. As usual, there were many fine examples of bad behaviour. This was tolerated by the Chairman, Dominic Beck. The real fireworks erupted once the meeting was closed however, when a clearly agitated Mr Brindley, made a bee line from across the room and squared up to parish councillor Thornton. Mr Brindley waved a rolled up newspaper at Mr Thornton’s face and was reported to have been visibly shaking with anger when Mr Brindley repeatedly stated “you need sorting!” This was accompanied by attempted physical intimidation, Mr Brindley was by now very agitated indeed and actually struck Mr Thornton three times across his cheek! When attempting to strike for a fourth time, Mr Thornton pushed Mr Brindley back, with his open right hand to prevent further physical assault upon his person, this was then followed by an accusation that Mr Thornton had assaulted him and the police were called! The rest of this sorry tale will be told once the police have completed their investigations. You simply couldn’t make it up! See also LoveDinnington’s live tweet session – @LoveDinnington This entry was posted in Anston parish council and tagged Anston Parish Council, Dominic Beck, Labour, Labour Party, Mr Brindley, Mr Thornton by Rik. Bookmark the permalink. 22 thoughts on “Anston PC – Police called after more trouble!” Graham Wilson on April 30, 2013 at 12:43 pm said: All we need is the concluding drumbeat from Eastenders lol hill billy on April 30, 2013 at 10:19 pm said: Why is love dinnington so concerned about anston, does the Mr Thornton fan club stretch as far as dinnington, of course it does that’s why at the last meeting where only anston residents could speak and vote he wasn’t backed on any of the issues he put forward. lovedinnington on May 1, 2013 at 5:15 pm said: We are actually a campaign for people who love Dinnington, Anston and Laughton Common, the name has to be fairly snappy though so sorry if it confused you. I don’t think any of our number are Stuart’s fan club, we try and report things as we see them and remain neutral in politics. Feel free to wind your neck back in. S Thornton on May 1, 2013 at 11:38 am said: Dear hil billy, If you read the title correctly,it also mentions Anston and other areas. Re your comments about Anston Resedents, it was quite evident from those persons who attended, that the Labour Party had been round the village and “whipped in” all their supporters. They were at least 10 plus people I have never seen before at any meetings I have attended in the village. The Labour “crew” became evident when the proposal was put for the Parish Council to consult with the Public on the purchase of land, (according to a labour supporter, up Rackford road) The same people voted everytime with the Labour Parish Cllrs present. Talking of Cllrs, Cllr Dalton, who lives in Dinnington, and therefore is not allowed to speak or vote, was clearly seen and heared, to be giving instructions to the Parish Council “contractors”, who were heckling me. Last year it was Cllr St John from Dinnington who interupted “our Village Meeting” this year it was Cllr Dalton trying to influence the heckling of those who are actually trying to do something for our Community. The Public in Anston are waking up to the fact that the Labour Party Members from outside Anston are interfering in our Village. Ask yourself this, who was it who “overwhelmingly” voted to increase your Parish Council Tax. It was a great joy to see so many people from Anston turn out to the “Village Meeting” When I started this last year, only about 20 or so attended, this year the number doubled, next year I hope more will attend, the more that attend the better balanced view we will recieve. Everyone is welcome, regardless of Politics or no politics. It just a pity that the Labour Parish Councillors feel the need to bus people in to push “outsiders” policy on our community I have identified myself, would you like to say who you really are.. . firtleberry on May 1, 2013 at 12:52 pm said: It would seem to me that Hil Billy is quite an apt tag for this person. I was sat at the side of Dalton and heard her quite distinctly feeding the two hecklers with information on what to say to cause the most disruption, as a Anston Parish councillor and a Borough councillor she should be ashamed of her actions. It was obvious from the beginning that the Labour party had made a deliberate effort to pack the meeting, and to set up councillor Thornton. It was made even more obvious when Beck the Shouter, the so called chairman refused to deal with the disruptive people and concentrated on berating councillor Thornton. It is obvious also what the Parish council think about the public when those of us who attend council meetings in order to scrutinise how the council is conducting our business are attacked as anoraks and sad people who have nothing better to do. These verbal attacks are made by labour party parish councillors, who much prefer to do things behind closed doors, ie purchasing land. It is also interesting to note that Anston parish council is becoming an embarrassment to the local Labour party. I am no member of any fan club, unlike I suspect Hil Billy is, what happens at Anston or Dinnington affects us all in our area. It would appear that tribalism for our Billy is the order of the day, as far as I am concerned I live in the Rotherham area and I am entitled to travel freely and attend any meeting I choose to. Love Dinnington is a site for the whole area and beyond perhaps our Billy you should visit it sometime. I would defend anyone’s right to be treated with respect in a democratic society this does not make me a member of councillor Thorntons “fan club”. and yes I do come from Dinnington The two hecklers who just happen to get paid by the Parish? LOL Colin Tawn on May 1, 2013 at 3:41 pm said: Even more puzzling is why Cllr. Dalton was at the meeting-apart from making bullets for others to fire. She is a not an Anston resident and IMV should not have been at the meeting. The best moment for me was when I got Chairman Beck to say on the record that RMBC can overule the democratic views of Anston residents concerning building on greenbelt land. So know we know what a sham Anston PC is. Not having a go at Colin here but can’t get all get over this “outsiders” rubbish? Dinno and Anston are joined at the hip and although they have their own character no reasonable person would deny that what happens in one affects the other. People from each village should be welcomes and allowed to speak at both councils in my view. @lovedinnington. I agree with your comment in general that Dinnington and Anston are ‘joined at the hip’ but the meeting on Monday evening was for the residents of Anston. Cllr.Dalton does not live in Anston and judging by her recent comments at Anston PC meetings she does not do her homework concerning the LDP and her contributions at the meetings are mostly vague generalities. I have suggested before that i-love-dinnington and save-our-greenbelt should act in concert and try to gather as much support as possible. If I post erroneous information I’m very willing to correct it, in the same way I’m also willing to defend my corner and not take offence at other members posts (Libel laws permitting). Hilary Estrada-Haigh on May 1, 2013 at 3:44 pm said: During the meeting Joyce Brindley (one of our illustrious councillors!) was denegrating Stuart Thornton’s 25 year service in her Majesty’s Armed Forces. Why does she have to continually spit out poison and what did the ineffective Dominic Beck do? The usual – zilch. Have you seen the news today Joyce Brindley, 3 more of our brave boys killed. In the words of another attendee “What has your husband ever done for England?” I saw Bill Brindley threatening Stuart Thornton with – he was going to sort him out and “I will blacken your name across Rotherham.” He was very close up and agressive, shaking and puce in the face. If he is not up to winning a verbal argument with Stuart Thornton he should accept defeat and not seek to cause a physical argument. What a disgraceful display from both Brindleys. chris on May 1, 2013 at 6:43 pm said: how do you put up with all the opposition from the Labour councillors, Stuart, who will not be opposed in any shape or form? Why is the Standards Board not acting, is this anything to do with the Chairman, Dominic. Beck also sitting on the Standards Board, a conflict of interests or what? Anston PC has too many Labour councillors who think they own the world, join the real world and grow up. Valerie Sheldon-Ennis on May 1, 2013 at 11:18 pm said: It was me who said to Joyce Brindley If it wasn’t for people like Stuart Thornton you might not be sitting where you are and I said What has your husband done for England. My son was in the army and like Stuart Thornton was sent to dangerous places. How dare Joyce Brindley sit there curling her lip, smirking and belittling a man who has served his country. She is an absolute disgrace. Wasn’t it her who struck Stuart Thornton in council meetings. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE ABOUT THIS PARISH COUNCIL AND SOON. Dear Hill Billy, I have looked at my notes for the Meeting you refer to and have deduced that your post is in effect not factualy correct. The first proposal I put forward was to stop people from outside the Parish interfering in OUR meeting. This proposal was “overwhelmingly” voted for by those present, including yourself. Own Goal I think, Silly Billy. Anonymous on May 2, 2013 at 10:26 pm said: There was only one silly billy and that was the councillor who struck a member of the public lol 🙂 hill billy on May 3, 2013 at 11:50 am said: Only silly billy was the councillor who hit a member of the public lol 🙂 moonshine on May 2, 2013 at 10:17 pm said: what a shame anston folk have minds of ther owen voters dragged in wake up green belt will be built on new school will go up and some one will sit in thorntons chair it must be hard at the moment for agony ant haigh coffin maker on May 2, 2013 at 11:27 pm said: well its sad Hilary Estrada-Haigh on May 4, 2013 at 9:52 am said: Same old, same old, comments hiding behind anonymity have no credence. Too much moonshine! There are two sides to every story. I am not allowed to make any further comments about this incedent. I attended this meeting as a member of the public and not as a Parish Councillor, which is well known by those who are posting the comments. I can state that I have made a formal complaint against Mr Brindley and Mr Brindley has made a complaint against myself. This incedent is now under investigation by the Police. When its finished I intend to publish all details if permitted to do so, to expose what really happend. Notice that people will still not state thier real names,and have now started to verbaly attack my friends, sad people. Colin Tawn on May 4, 2013 at 10:44 pm said: Many moons ago,in another life I used to attend Dinnington Village(as it was then) council meetings. Not once did I ever witness verbal or physical abuse between councillors or members of the public, as a matter of fact disturbances at paish council meetings was unheard of and It saddens me that in the 21st century certain disruptive individuals (you know who you are) think they have the monopoly on truth and wisdom. I have bad news for you, you don’t. Healthy debate is both good and necessary in a democracy but abuse of any kind is the lowest form of behaviour and reflects very badly on those who are guilty of it. Councillors are elected to SERVE their parish, not act as spokespersons for their respective political parties and denigrate others who disagree with them. It will be payback time for the voters of Anston next year and it is too late for you to make amends now. Apologies for typo. Should read ”disturbances at parish council meetings’ news paper dont think so a 4 paper yes now going to now going to rmbc standards think so as well lost is head no council member can come back from this mr thornton you whant the public to vote for you wake up and give up your seat Leave a Reply to lovedinnington Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1815
__label__cc	0.678663	0.321337	During the last few days Rotherham citizens and voters have seen two sessions of questioning of Joyce Thacker and Martin Kimber by Parliamentary Committees. Shaun Wrights questioning by the HASC, yesterdays Council Meeting and today’s Police and Crime panel, that ended with the passing of a no confidence motion in Shaun Wright. I have listened to it all very carefully and have given this matter some intense analysis. My conclusions are these: No one comes out of this with any credit, those who have been involved since the 2005 seminar in particular, have much to answer for. Their total lack of even curiosity, not one made any inquiries as to progress. They share the blame, for what has happened since, their silence continued the cover-up! Labour are still not paying sufficient attention to Rotherham and it’s own role in this awful saga, that resulted in the most horrendous abuse and exploitation of many and the death of a vulnerable young person. The death would not have occurred, if the Council and the individual Councillors had not simply turned a blind eye to the activities of the self-imposed Pakistani community leaders and acted, they have had numerous opportunities yet failed the people of our Town There has now been a catastrophic loss of confidence in the Labour Party itself. A predicament of their own making, that can only be changed if they show the victims that the Labour Party is now on their side instead of acting in the interests of the criminals. It will take a lot more than they have demonstrated so far in their response to rebuild any trust. Mahroof and various family members and Azzizum Akhtar, have got in front of the television cameras recently, to trot out the Hussain spin, that they knew nothing. It just makes me sick to my stomach, that they should only come out with lies! Part of the abuse and being an integral part of the cover-up would cover it I would say. Why have the Labour Party not acted? Could it have anything to do with the fact that Mahroof is litigious and has form for suing the Party, perhaps? There are now more investigations proposed to get more lessons from this sorry mess than you can shake a stick at! I have been mortified by these revelations. No one can be anything other than deeply moved, as the truth is finally coming to light. I have refrained from adding my personal thoughts until I could make them dispassionately. I have come to the inescapable conclusion that the current Labour Group is not fit for purpose and they should resign forthwith to seek a fresh mandate! Oliver Cromwell words, cannot be bettered: You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately… Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go! Oliver Cromwell’s address to the Rump Parliament (20 April 1653) This entry was posted in Abuse of power, Biraderi, Child Protection, Child Sexual Abuse, Common Purpose, Corruption, Councillor Greed and tagged child sexual exploitation, Emma Hoddinott, Gerald Smith, hidden child sex scandal, Jahangir Akhtar, Joyce Thacker, Labour Chicanery, Labour Party, Mahroof Hussain, Martin Kimber, Paul Lakin, RMBC, Roger Stone, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, Rotherham Politics, Rotherham’s Disgrace, Scum Labour, Shaun the Sheep, Shaun Wright, SY Police & Crime Commissioner by Rik. Bookmark the permalink. 23 thoughts on “Just Go!” Byeck on September 11, 2014 at 5:15 pm said: Who nominated, who seconded and who supported Wright for Commissioner? Does anyone have names? Tomorrow's another Day on September 11, 2014 at 10:35 pm said: He was endorsed by the Labour Party and Leaders of South Yorkshire councils also added weight to his nomination. Despite a poor turn out at the ballot box he was installed as SYPCC. Yes, he was endorsed by Labour, but we now have a scramble among party members to call for his head, so, what names are on his nomination papers and are these the same people who now want to hang him out to dry? If anyone has names, let’s be having them. REMA Member on September 11, 2014 at 8:11 pm said: Azzizum Akhtar is a decent, level headed young man who like everyone else is appalled with what has happened, he works for the BME voluntary sector and does an excellent job. He does an an excellent job Roger Stone interviewed him for the job hint hint hint Time for a change on September 11, 2014 at 8:48 pm said: THAT SAYS IT ALL Isn’t REMA the organisation all these names that have been bettered around are part of at some point. I have been told that these councillors and community leader since the whole incidents were having meeting together, so did someone know anything and what did they do? I read in a newspaper article that one of these community leaders that is associated with REMA said that the mosques and Imams knew about this so did this person. What did they all do if they knew about it? Independent public enquiry with and about everyone and everything will shed a lot of light. What doe’s REMA stand for and who doe’s it represent,and who funds it and where are you based Google would have told you: http://www.rema-online.org.uk/ REMA Member, I’m not sure what this has to do with the topic of this particular thread. But now you are here: There was some discussion in RMBC Council meeting yesterday regarding a fairly large grant that REMA had recently got from some non-RMBC body. Can you say what the amount was and the name of the grant-giving bod, and was it “restricted funds” ? Rob Sanderson on September 11, 2014 at 8:43 pm said: From the same Cromwell speech “…ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government.” and “Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.” apt or not? Wright’s demeanour and comments at both the Select Committee and the meeting today demonstrate quite clearly he is not in the least contrite. On ‘Calendar’ and ‘Look North’ he said ‘everyone involved in the CSE saga has shared responsibility’ (aka “Not me Guv”) Stone and Kimber have resigned because they share responsibility so why is’nt Wright resigning? He is the best advert and best reason for voters to dump Labour Cllrs.and candidates next May. dave4dinnington on September 11, 2014 at 9:49 pm said: Regular reader I was at the meeting the grant was, wait for it £500,000 that was the figure discussed yesterday. A regular reader on September 11, 2014 at 10:48 pm said: Thanks, that’s the figure I thought I heard on the webcast, I just couldn’t/still can’t believe it. Who was the provider of the grant and what is it for? That didn’t come out – as far as I could hear. It’s just unbelievable.They have no track record for handling such amounts. http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends65/0001140365_AC_20130331_E_C.pdf Cj aka Elderofzyklons Blog on September 11, 2014 at 10:21 pm said: Reblogged this on ElderofZyklon's Blog!. S Thornton on September 11, 2014 at 10:42 pm said: Collective responsibility ?. There are Cllrs who are flying under the radar and should be exposed for what they are. In particular two Cllrs who serve on Anston Parish Council, Cllr St John and Cllr Burton (who is also an RMBC Cllr). Today I happened to pass Cllr Burton at the post office, I said to her, ” I see you did not say what your role was in the CSE”, she stopped and said, “what, your walking away from me” I stopped and I repeated what I had said again. At this she said “neither did Cavan”, I replied, Yes he did, he did it in front of everyone on film” (meaning the video pod cast) at this she shook her head and again said “no he didn’t”. I then walked into the Post Office. Why do I mention this, well, Cllr Burton sat on the Scrutiny Panel during the relevant period, yet states adamantly that she knew nothing. Rather than act contrite and admit some responsibility, her only response was to try to push and deflect the blame elsewhere (to Cllr Vines) shameful , its time to go, Cllr Burton. On the subject of Cllr St John, (who boasts regularly of his RMBC membership and of the time he was Mayor) this Cllr was a RMBC Cllr throughout the late 90s and up to 2011. He was on a Children`s Scrutiny sub Committee in 2004, and attended the 2005 seminar. I would find his pleas of “not me Guv” extremely hard to believe. This Cllr now sits on Anston Parish Council, so its time he stood up and stated quite clearly what he knew, and if he does not, then the message to him is the same as Cllr Burton, Time to go. Agree, the same applies to Amy Rushforth, Kevin Barron’s daughter. She is flying well under the radar just like others on the same scrutiny panel. Let’s not forget the failure of this panel to hold the officers to account and oversee things properly was slated in the Jay report! dave4dinnington on September 12, 2014 at 2:11 am said: Regular Reader the person who gave the half million was Shukat Ali, probably spelt the first name wrong. Was it in his capacity as a Councillor or as a Manager at RMAARI (which is simply a department within the small charity Rotherham Diversity Forum – as far as I can see). ? I find it incredible in every way. dean andrews on September 12, 2014 at 10:20 am said: fully agree with you in parti cular your ref to clr burton. has anyone else also noticed that the last five minutes of webcast in which clr burton was speaking on cse have for some strange reason been deleted All the webcast including clr burtons unconvincing effort was shown in the live webcast so much for the council leaders promises regarding open honest and always available information Sally Kate Taylor on September 12, 2014 at 8:33 pm said: Rik I agree with your thread whole heartedly. However, I would add I have no confidence in ANY of the councillors of whatever hue who served during the period until they ALL explain what they knew or didn’t know. It’s a sad day when I have to come to that conclusion; but I am afraid I did so well before the Jay report. maltbyblogger on September 13, 2014 at 12:38 pm said: Reblogged this on maltbyblogger and commented: Have we yet had any statement/comment from Amy Rushforth, Christine Beaumont or any of the other inadequate “representatives” about the whole situation in the Jay Report ? Before we know it, the same old cronies will be back on the “new” cabinet and carrying on in the same way. Some may have changed party, but that just shows utter contempt of the public. Hope they can somehow realise that the public in general holds them in even more contempt. #DISGRACE #RMBC #SHAMEONTHEM http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04k0rz8/select-committees-home-affairs-committee	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1817
__label__wiki	0.68175	0.68175	Topic Apps, infrastructure and operations SubTopic Applications Data storage management Business continuity and disaster recovery Small-business infrastructure and operations Mekhala Roy News and Features Writer Intel keynote misses the mark on Meltdown and Spectre... – SearchSecurity CES 2015: How Intel aims to power the tech revolution – ComputerWeekly.com McAfee brand killed off by Intel – MicroscopeUK Computer Weekly – 30 August 2016: Get protected –ComputerWeekly.com Computer Weekly – 27 February 2018: How IT is taking UPS to new heights –ComputerWeekly.com LAS VEGAS — According to Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, if you want to see the makings of the next data revolution, all you need to do is look up. “Look up” at drones, that is, Krzanich told the audience during his keynote at the InterDrone conference in Las Vegas. Drones possess the ability to capture precise data for industries like agriculture, construction and infrastructure inspection, even in the most demanding situations and environments. As such, unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs (the industry’s preferred term for drones) are one of the most important technologies of the data age, Krzanich said. Intel has a special interest in the future role of UAVs in business. As the chip maker shifts from a PC-centric to a data-centric company, it sees drones as becoming a critical component in the quest to extract real, actionable value from data. “But the future of drones is more about what you can do with that data and what that data means, and the insights it has [rather] than the actual flight itself, and that’s an important shift we all need to start thinking about,” Krzanich stressed. Drone-based data revolution An important first step in this drone-based data revolution is making the collection of all this new data easy and seamless, he said. Once the drones collect the data, AI technologies will play an important part in propelling the drone-based data revolution, Krzanich told the audience. Data is transforming every industry and providing opportunities, but it is the application of AI drives new business insights. That is true for UAVs, as well. Otherwise, they are just a very complex, smart and expensive toy, Krzanich warned. “When you bring those drones together with insights from big data and AI, the whole world will begin to change,” he proclaimed. Intel Insight platform Krzanich unveiled the Intel Insight Platform — Intel’s vision for expediting the path from data to insights — during his keynote. The platform, which is optimized for large data sets, is a cloud based system that allows customers to produce and generate data, push it to the cloud and analyze it and generate reports, he explained. “As we continue to grow this database, just like every other AI engine, it will become smarter, become more capable and it will have more applications,” he touted. The automation capabilities are integral to the evolution of UAVs, Krzanich said. For example, in the near future drones could become a vital part of disaster response, so making them more automated and intelligent will be very important, he said. “The future of drones is about making the drones easier to use, more intelligent, [and] driving the capability to the edge, simplifying the workload, automating the workload,” Krzanich said. “The industry needs to think one-touch and then analytics — that’s the real engine that will drive the value out of these devices as it is applied to all of the data that these systems are collecting.”	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1823
__label__cc	0.663398	0.336602	Weddings at Harrow School As an event caterer in London, it was music to our ears to find out recently that we’re going to be one of the accredited suppliers to Harrow School. This stunning venue is like no other and is set in a remarkable 250 acres of land in North West London. With over 400 years of history, multiple spaces and four venues that boast a civil wedding license, it is the perfect location for couples looking for somewhere really special and unique to get married. If you are looking for wedding catering in London, then look no further than Seasoned; we know just how special this venue is and we can really tailor our packages to ensure you have the most perfect day. The venue can accommodate between five and 550 guests across eight reception spaces. Guests could start in the Grand War Memorial building followed by a civil ceremony in the famous Speech Room. From there, guests could make their way through the grounds to The Shepherd Churchill Hall. The private lawn terrace in front of the Hall boasts panoramic views of London and the school’s landscaped gardens, making this the ideal spot for your guests to enjoy drinks and canapés. Guests can be seated in the school’s most exclusive space and could sit down to a sample menu of: Hot smoked salmon with horseradish cream, citrus cured salmon tartare, salmon & beetroot gravlax with a gazpacho sorbet Slow-roasted lamb rump with truffled fondant, tarragon pea cream, carrot purée & summer greens Jaffa cake on a chocolate rubble line with hedgerow blackberries & a raspberry powder dusting Tea, coffee and petits fours After dinner, guests can dance the night away in the room, heading out to the private lawns for a firework display to really end the most perfect day in style. hello@seasonedevents.co.uk	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1825
__label__wiki	0.859904	0.859904	COMMUNITY Review This is a preview, so will contain only light spoilers. COMMUNITY, formerly of NBC, finally gets its sixth season as foretold in the prophetic hashtag #sixseasonsandamovie this week on Yahoo Screen. Two episodes premiere on the online video service, “LAdders” and “Lawnmower Maintenance & Postnatal Care.” A number of things have changed for the sitcom, but essentially, it’s still the same show fans know and love. What I mean by that is, while some the cast has rotated out, leaving voids in the theme song and our hearts, the setting is still the same old Greendale. Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) may have departed, but her sandwich shop lives on, and her absence is adequately explained in the first episode back. Hickey (Jonathan Banks) and Duncan (John Oliver) get less of a firm send-off, but the latter especially has always drifted in and out of the series, so while neither appears or is mentioned in this first week, there’s always the chance they could show up later, and the sharp-eyed will see a hint of that for one. These three, along with Pierce and Troy, are replaced with a couple of new faces. “Ladders” introduces viewers to Frankie Dart (Paget Brewster, Criminal Minds), a new administrator that The Dean (Jim Rash) hires to work with the Save Greendale Committee. Frankie is, at first glance, an older, less quirky version of Annie (Alison Brie), but she’s also a bit more than that. COMMUNITY is bizarre and that’s its strength, but having a level-headed person who is not opposed to the oddness strikes a new dynamic in the cast. I’m a little sad Brewster doesn’t reprise her previous role on the show, but glad she returns, and being honest, Frankie is probably more interesting in the long-run than her techie. The second addition, Elroy Patashnik (Keith David, Enlisted, Platoon), doesn’t show up until “Lawnmower,” but feels more like a traditional COMMUNITY role. Elroy is a weird genius, which seems a perfect fit to the gang. He brings life experience and plugs a generational hole, while at the same time coming in as a newbie who is open to possibilities. I’m not sure yet exactly what his role will be this season, as his first appearance is more as a guest star than a central lead, but I look forward to finding out. Lest one wonder what Yahoo has done different with COMMUNITY than NBC, I’m not sure any of the changes made are because of the new platform. If anything, the budget seems increased, with more exteriors and new sets than we’re used to seeing. The same recurring players are glimpsed in multiple scenes. The offbeat sense of humor is present, with some inexplicable and ridiculous plot points and jokes. Abed (Danny Pudi) still thinks of the world as a television show. Change is a major theme, though, and I think that’s because of necessity. With so many of the original group gone and some cast members no longer being students, there will be a different vibe. Greendale has barely hung on, and while the Save Greendale Committee has done much to ensure the institution’s future, it does feel like we’re building towards a major conclusion. I’m not anxious to see a beloved favorite like this series end, but should these thirteen episodes tee up a movie with much finality, I won’t complain, as long as everyone returns for the end. TV Review : LIVING WITH YOURSELF As mentioned, there is a lot of weirdness, as usual. The second half hour reveals a major conspiracy happening right under one of our main character’s noses these past six years. It’s quite a secret, but one that proves COMMUNITY has not lost its touch, tying things together and shifting perspective. It’s this sort of thing that makes me comfortable in saying I expect COMMUNITY season six to be every bit as good as season five, even remaining a little more somber and grounded than the first few years. Oh, and the stinger of the premiere is not yet released, even to press, so I’m guessing they’ll be something really good there. COMMUNITY launches its first two episodes of season six this Tuesday exclusively on Yahoo Screen. Community Yahoo Screen Jerome Wetzel CHIEF TELEVISION CRITIC \| Creator of and writer for It's All Been Done Radio Hour live show and podcast. A voracious reader wanting to tell stories of his own, Jerome began writing around the age of 8 and hasn’t stopped, both original works and television reviews. Lives in central Ohio. Favorite current shows include The Walking Dead, Jessica Jones, Flaked, Outlander, and Archer. Jerome Wetzel March 16, 2015 Box Office Results For The Weekend Of March 15th 2015 JANE THE VIRGIN Scoop: Interviews With the Cast at PaleyFest COMMUNITY Season 6 Poster COMMUNITY Season 5 DVD Contest Season 6 Of COMMUNITY To Air On Yahoo Screen COMMUNITY Season 5 Episode 3 Basic Intergluteal Numismatics Photos COMMUNITY Season 5 Episode 2 Introduction To Teaching Photos COMMUNITY Season 5 Episode 1 Repilot Photos	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1826
__label__wiki	0.533944	0.533944	Tschabalala Self: Telling A Tale Through The Body Tschabalala Self abstracts the feminine form in order to bring a new persepctive to its contemporary meaning. J.P. Hill • THE SPECTATOR Nicole Golba, Sports and Opinion Editor Three entirely new, free exhibits have opened just three blocks from Seattle University’s campus at the famous Frye Art Museum. The new exhibits, which opened Jan. 26th and run through Apr. 28, illustrate unique depictions of a wide assortment of contemporary content. One of these is titled Tschabalala Self, a self-titled exhibit named after the artist. Her name a tonguetwister to say the least, but she offers a notable exhibition nonetheless. As I walked into the Frye Museum for the second time since moving to Seattle, I was surprised by the sheer number of families, curious individuals, and older couples that loitered around the entrance. The price of the museum, or lack thereof, seemed to throw some visitors off—it’s not everyday you can explore a museum in Seattle free of charge. As I continued through the museum, I was immediately taken aback by the vibrant yellow walls that signaled my arrival at the first of three new exhibits. The words “Tschabalala Self” written boldly in black caught my attention and to the right stood a single, rectangular piece of contemporary art. As I looked for more background information to give me some perspective, I could not help but take another glance at the wall; the use of springtime hues ranging from pink, orange, red, and the occasional blue truly made the piece come alive. The next thing I noticed would have to be the fabrics used. Normally, when art comes to mind I envision pen on paper. However, Self’s work brings together much more than the simple duo. Through painting, drawing, sculpture, and video, characters are not just established but come alive before viewers’ eyes. But how did Self come to create such unique works and why? Upon further inspection and after asking a few museum docents for insight not provided by the pamphlet, I learned that Self lives and works in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. After receiving her BA from Bard College in 2012 and her MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2015, Self began to create the works she so frequently envisioned. In this particular piece, exaggerated physical autonomy and unexpected positions portray acts of defiance through ordinary pleasures. As such, the individuals created by Self are seen leaping, dancing, touching themselves, coupling, and contorting their bodies according to their own desires. The specific physicality of the characters further reflects her contemporary cultural attitude on both race and gender. By creating unique, somewhat unruly individuals, Self declares both agency and respect for one’s own autonomy. And walking through the exhibit, I could see others as well as myself showing a deeper appreciation and respect for statements like Self’s. Wandering further into the depths of Frye Art Museum meant discovering more of Self’s impressive pieces. From leopard print felt to slideshows depicting bodies rapidly changing from one position to the next as fast as the blink of an eye, nothing was for certain. As I watched the reactions of those around me, some seemed intrigued by such characters. Others didn’t seem to understand—they stood in a state of bewilderment as the pictures flashed before them again and again. As I later learned, the purpose of the avatar display was not to entertain or confuse viewers but more so to celebrate the complexities of black life and culture. In its entirety, Self’s first solo museum exhibition in the United States did not disappoint myself nor those around me. The lively, radiant colors and imagery depicted through avatar-like characters captivated its audience and proved worthy of attention. Upon inquiry, I could not find a single person who was disappointed in the exhibition— some appeared confused but intrigued nonetheless. The Frye Museum, consisting of a wide variety of modern exhibitions requiring utmost attention and interpretation from audiences of all ages and backgrounds, proves notable. Not only is it free to all visitors, but the modern space provides new exhibitions frequently. Located a mere three blocks from campus, students should take advantage of such an interesting opportunity to experience the enlightening qualities of art for themselves. The editor may be reached at “Little Women”: Sixth Time’s the Charm “Chicken of the Sea”: A Multigenerational Collaboration Everything That’s Wrong With Joe Goldberg in “You” Season Two “Mrs.Doubtfire” at the 5th is Undoubtedly Entertaining “Shout Sister Shout” Breaks New Ground at The Seattle Rep	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1827
__label__cc	0.56335	0.43665	UK trial reveals new al Qaeda strategy to hit West By Paul Cruickshank The trial of three Birmingham men convicted Thursday of plotting to launch a "catastrophic" suicide bombing attack in the United Kingdom revealed that al Qaeda has developed a new strategy to target the West. The new strategy involves a teacher-training approach in which a select few Western operatives are taught bombmaking and other aspects of terrorist tradecraft in the tribal areas of Pakistan and are then instructed to return back to the West to "spread the knowledge" to a larger body of Islamist extremists keen on launching attacks. The new approach is a response to the growing toll of drone strikes which have made travel to the tribal areas increasingly perilous for Western recruits and significantly diminished al Qaeda's ability to orchestrate terrorist plots from the region. The trial revealed that terrorist groups in Pakistan are actively dissuading Western militants from making the trip. Two of those convicted Thursday - Irfan Naseer and Irfan Khalid - received 40 days of terrorist training in the tribal areas of Pakistan in the spring of 2011, mostly inside houses in the valleys of Waziristan. In conversations bugged by British police, the plotters described being handled by al Qaeda operatives and having attended a training camp run by Harakat al Mujahideen, a Pakistani terrorist group closely affiliated with al Qaeda. The recordings revealed that like other Western militants before them, they were provided detailed instruction in the tricky and potentially hazardous methods to make bombs out of substances readily available in the West, and practiced detonating them. Their instructors included Arabs and Pakistanis. They also were taught how to put poisons in face creams. And their teachers emphasized they should put nails inside their bombs, to act as razor-sharp shrapnel. Naseer, a pharmacy major and the plot's alleged ringleader, was heard recalling how one of their trainers had said the July 7, 2005, London bombers had missed an opportunity to kill more people by failing to put nails in their devices. Naseer commented on how they were given so much information that they had accumulated 30-40 pages of notes. They were told the smaller the cell they recruited the better, illustrating al Qaeda's move away from spectacular attacks on the 9/11 scale toward smaller strikes that have a better chance of getting through. In the recordings played in court, Naseer said his cell should keep the numbers launching the attack in the United Kingdom to around half a dozen. The recordings, however, indicated the cell's plans grew increasingly ambitious with talk of launching an attack bigger than the 2005 London bombings. The need for less ambitious attacks was previously stressed by two senior American al Qaeda operatives: al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and Adnan Shukrijumah, an operative believed to be still at large in Pakistan. An internal al Qaeda strategy document, authored in around 2009, and recovered in 2011 from a Berlin operative, had called for a greater emphasis on low-cost low-tech attacks by Western militants, whom it said should be quickly trained in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Teaching Westerners to teach back home In Pakistan, Naseer and Khalid's al Qaeda handlers had a new "command" for them: go back and teach others. Naseer is heard talking with an associate, keen on traveling to Pakistan, that he and Khalid wanted to stay in the United Kingdom to participate in the plot. "AQ's main aim is... the knowledge that they give us, [they] want more and more people [to] have [the knowledge] in Europe. So they can start whacking [attacking] there, yeah, do you understand? Analysts say that if al Qaeda manages to put into practice their new teacher training model, it will raise alarm bells with Western security services because it would reduce the need for Western militants to travel overseas for terrorist training. "This seems to be a product of al Qaeda's desperation to try to get an attack through, but it's a potentially scary development," Raffaello Pantucci, a senior fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, who closely followed the trial, told CNN. While Islamists militants have access to many bombmaking recipes online, analysts say they often contain potentially fatal errors and have been seen by militants as a poor substitute to hands-on training by an instructor schooled in the art of bombmaking. Security services fear the presence of such instructors on Western soil could be a game changer. Message from al Qaeda: Stay Put The Birmingham case revealed that al Qaeda had begun actively dissuading recruits from going to Pakistan. "They told me don't send anyone [more to us]," plot ringleader Naseer said in one of the recordings. In a June 2011 video "You are Only Responsible for Yourself," released around the same time the Birmingham duo trained in Pakistan, al Qaeda's leadership in Pakistan had urged Western militants to stay home to launch attacks. Khalid, in one conversation recorded by British police, pointed out that Inspire magazine - the online English publication of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen - had the same advice: "we don't want people to be traveling cos it's getting risky." In 2011 Samir Khan, an American member of the group, urged followers to launch attacks in the West rather than travellng to Yemen. Naseer and Khalid painted a dim picture of the tribal areas of Pakistan in their attempt to stop their associate from traveling there. "[Waziristan] hasn't got no more camps now... the brothers used to be in the mountains [but] the drones just get them straight away, they just bomb the camps, so ... they taught us inside houses," Naseer is heard telling the associate in the recordings played in court. He described how he had had to cower for several hours in 100-degree heat when a drone circled above. "That day was bad ... it's a nasty situation to be in, man," chipped in Khalid. Khalid described how the drones restricted movement for fighters in the region: "They were restricted to one place most of the time: One place to eat, sleep, go to toilet and do everything." Terror training on UK soil Naseer and Khalid implemented the new al Qaeda strategy when they returned to the United Kingdom. Just days before their arrest on September 18, 2011, Naseer provided Ashik Ali, the third Birmingham man convicted Thursday, with hands-on instruction in how to make explosives. According to expert witnesses consulted in the trial, Naseer had acquired the correct knowledge to teach recruits how to make viable bombs. The recordings suggested their planned attacks were still months away. In one of the bugged conversations, Naseer is heard suggesting that the restrictions on training in Pakistan meant it was just as effective training recruits in the West. "[In the tribal areas] you get bit of an experience in fighting - but you know the rest of the stuff that could be taught - they taught us in a room." At one point, Naseer warned Ali that if he hit or rubbed the explosives in a certain way it could explode and potentially kill him; just one of the many lessons he passed on from his training in Waziristan. In the days before their arrest, Naseer experimented and tinkered with potential bombmaking chemicals in a Birmingham apartment, including the chemicals inside sports injury cold packs. The recordings revealed that his instructors in Pakistan had taught him that ammonium nitrate- – a potentially high powered explosive - could be extracted from such packs, demonstrating al Qaeda's continued inventiveness. Pantucci told CNN the Birmingham case illustrated that despite intensified drone strikes in Pakistan, Western militants were still finding ways to connect with al Qaeda in the region, providing the terrorist groups opportunities to attack the West. He said al Qaeda's new emphasis on training Westerners to in turn provide terrorist instruction in the West reflected the group's looser control over plots than just a few years ago. Unlike the 7/7 bombers, and other recent terrorist conspiracies like a plot to attack Manchester in 2009, the Birmingham plotters do not appear to have been in touch with their handlers in Pakistan after returning to the United Kingdom. Pantucci says the pressures on al Qaeda have resulted in a shift toward a new model of "fire and forget." The March 2012 Toulouse terrorist shootings provided further evidence of looser control by al Qaeda of terrorist plots in the West. The perpetrator of the attack - Mohammed Merah - was encouraged by the group to return to France to launch an attack during a short stay in the tribal areas of Pakistan in September 2011 but planned every aspect of the operation himself, including which targets to strike. Post by: CNN Terrorism Analyst Paul Cruickshank Filed under: Al Qaeda • Terrorism Irmgard Schlicker Shopping forward to examining far more. Fantastic weblog publish.Thanks All over again. Awesome. http://www.redfishblueclouds3333.com/333jjdkkk3 what can i do to get pregnant Magnificent put up, very informative. I wonder why the other specialists of this sector do not understand this. You should continue your writing. I am sure, you have a great readers' base already!\|What's Going down i'm new to this, I stumbled upon this I have found It absolutely helpful and it has aided me out loads. I'm hoping to contribute & aid other customers like its helped me. Great job. Ainoa Castro Enhorabuena por tu ortografia. Un beso! Hi there, simply became alert to your blog via Google, and located that it's really informative. I am going to watch out for brussels. I will appreciate if you happen to proceed this in future. Numerous folks might be benefited out of your writing. Cheers! At this point these gentlemen, their crime is walking while being Muslim. Government keep entrapping Muslim youngsters who dont know better. But the inadequate stupid ones who think they are "big and bad gangsters" do stupid things and get tagled up. Unfortunately, the smart terrorists get away and the clueless government sit and let them carry out a 7/7. What a stupid world we live in. Milicentiband Unbelievable! There is no point debating the obvious conclusion that Muslim surveillance needs to be beefed up, not just in the UK but all across the western world. Bangash Sorry as usual CNN does not allow me to express my views about the subject topic which is against the freedom of expression. I totally agree, Bangash. I too have had some of my comments blocked here for posting against these obscene wars that we're currently in. Then again, some right-wing fool trolls here for the same reason for my posts that do get in here! At any rate, everyone should have the right to express their opinion on the subject, especially without being mimicked by some right-wing, warmongering nutjob! Where can we learn how to make and diffuse bombs? If I knew it I might think of blowing myself up when they are all gathered for, well, for God knows what reason they have for getting together! Read Qran. It has real useful answers to the specific questions you just mentioned. These people only know killing , rape, robbery, and destruction. Truncate them. People need to lift up humanity, not abuse it. George Patton-2 Thanks rds, for talking about Pres. Obama and 90% of our Congress. Our foreign policy bears that out. Before we can change anything, we need to break the power of the M.I.C. in Washington, not truncate it like you said. True rds, Washington id riddled with corruption these days!!! CNN it is not fair to block my comments on this topic which mighy have given help in understanding the ground realities behind such inhuman operations. I totally agree, Bangash. CNN should not be blocking any posts that do not support these useless and unnecessary wars overseas as I do not, myself!!! Bangash/George Patton-2 - Totally agree. CNN is giving you a subtle hint to go to Al Jazeera and spew your message of peace there. Muzzys are very ugly people.. both inside and out... Nice hairdo's! Business on top, party on bottom. No, you do not understand, you silly infidel. Al Qaeda did not hire them because of their hairy good looks. Al Qaeda does not even require you to attach two passport size photographs in its application form like the infidel US army does. Al Qaeda application form asks only for your underpants size - larger the better - to fit more explosives. If you fill out XXL, you are instantly hired with a promotion and many perks. Once in a life time all muslims must travel to Pakistan...... and receive 40 days of terrorist training. Yes. It is a very good deal. Pakistan provides all inclusive resort like facility in their terrorists training camps. You are referring to their 39 nights, 40 days Deluxe Package. They have many other packages too. You just have to pay one way air fair. After the training, Pakistanis give you a free suicide vest instead of wasting money on return fair, which is so unnecessary. It is a very good deal for all Jihadis. Veritas Lavinga Is Al Qaeda as strong as portrayed in Showtime's highly acclaimed TV series; Homeland, or are they truly a shadow of their former self as the US national media and the Official US Government would have us believe? The one thing for sure that will tell us, is if a 9/11 scale attack happens again in our lifetimes perpetrated by the Al Qaeda terrorist network. That aside, we still don't know how World Trade Center 7 actually collapsed without resistance in less than 7 seconds. The truth right now is paramount. @Veritas Lavinga - Yes, the truth right now is paramount. The truth of this story is that these two losers failed their mission and they will spend the rest of their useless lives in a prison. Everyday, one of them will drop his soap in the shower. While he is picking it up, the other one will be tempted do something that Qran forbids. That is the truth. And it is paramount. Quince Edwards ESQ And they really want us all to think Bin Laden is really dead? Not this time fellas Hasbar This is what I have been saying for years (and what I said to an earlier comment): Western nations should bar all travel from Middle East (and SE Asia, Africa) into their countries. Isolate the swine, embargo them to the point they go back to trading goats and pimping sheep. Middle East countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Kuwait) who claim to be against such acts, could easily infiltrate the vermin's lairs and eradicate the world of these sick people. Their silence and pacifistic approach only enables the terrorists. Further, in combat and imprisonment, these dregs of the world should not be afforded the kindness shown a dog. Guantanamo is a palace and should reflect more a Turkish prison (see Midnight Express) where the rats are treated like the vile beast they are. Westerners cannot continue to fight them with kindness. When Westerners are more ruthless than the terrorists, then the terrorism will stop. When Israel is attacked, they determine who is the culprit and not only address the matter with him/her, but also with the culprit's family. When Westerners and our so-called allies in the Middle East (i.e., Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, etc) do the same, and even escalate it to addressing the matter with whole villages, we can eradicate the world of these sick swine (same tack must be undertaken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa (Somalia, Lybia, Mali, . . .) etc). @Quince - Of course not, Bin Laden is alive. Bin Laden has taken Malala as his youngest wife. It is a perfect wedding as prescribed in Qran. In this matrimony, Malala found security from terrorists by marrying a terrorist, and Bin Laden found gratification. They are expecting their first child now. Ameen. Aldewacs2 Half measures just haven't worked. Perhaps we need a simpler deterrent program they understand: for every innocent Westerner killed with their terrorist bombs, the West wipes out a million from the region they hail from and that supports them. That should make a dent in their ranks. These pictures are proof that good looks are not a prerequisite for being in Al Qaeda. They're not al Qaeda. They're tea party patriots and they're on their way to the nascar track. Muslims...My kind of people. Let them kill limeys... Gregory Faith We're watching you....... Poison in face cream? Isn't that what the Joker tried in the first Batman movie? Leave a Reply to TDz	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1830
__label__cc	0.604157	0.395843	AboutShopMusicEvents/ShowsHealing SessionsBlogConnect Soulshine: Sunflower & Tiger's Eye Earth Allies Series, Part 2. Each article in Jordann’s Earth Allies series will elaborate on a combination of an herb and a stone that share similar healing properties and work synergistically together. One day this month, a young girl approached me and shared, “I need a stone for strength.” How appropriate, I thought, for we are in the eighth month of the year, and when we turn to the Tarot, the eighth card of the major arcana is none other but Strength. This card corresponds to the astrological sign of Leo-- the brave and heart-strong. In a moment, I reached into a box of stones and pulled out for her the chatoyant Tiger’s Eye. “This,” I explained as I placed it in her hand, “is a stone for courage. Can I ask you something?” She nodded coyly in response. “Where does your courage come from?” “I’m not sure,” she replied quizzically with shoulders shrugged, “where?” “Well, the word for heart in French is coeur, which is how we get the word cour-age. So courage comes from here,” I expressed, placing my hand on my heart. “I see it that this stone gives strength that comes from the heart, which I think is the best kind.” The twinkle in her eye let me know that it was precisely that type of strength she was after, rather than the type of strength that might let her become the next Hercules. After all, I believe it is the gift of late-summer to bestow us with such courage, infusing us with the power of the Sun as it begins its slow descent and leaves us to face darker days. Indeed, two earth allies in particular-- one stone, one plant-- help tremendously in letting our inner suns shine year-round: Tiger’s Eye and Sunflower. In this post, I’ll share the healing properties of these earth allies and suggest ways you can work with them in your day to day. First off, Tiger’s Eye hails mostly from South Africa and Western Australia where it forms in abundance, so it can easily be found as a healing stone to work with. Many people seem first attracted to this stone before any others. It’s beauty lures one in-- with an iridescent shine also known as ‘chatoyancy’-- which forms as fine, dense fibers morph over time into quartz crystal. Not only is it attractive to the eye, but the energy of this stone tends to be strong and physically palpable. It conducts a lot of heat when held-- hinting at its solar vibration, and the silver stripes of hematite often found within cause the stone to feel very grounding and empowering. Working with Tiger’s Eye, indeed, can help us ground our dreams-- which may be lofty castles in the air-- into reality, and it imbues us with confidence and courage to be successful in our pursuits. If ever we feel shut down due to our own worries or our circumstances, Tiger’s Eye helps us tap into our unique, creative energy and radiate it out into the world-- just as the stone itself beautifully shines. For these reasons, Tiger’s Eye is a great choice for a ‘worry stone’ to be kept in the pocket and held onto in times of stress, high-anxiety, and uncertainty. You can also wear it as jewelry if that’s easier for you to keep track of. The stone’s radiant energy can diffuse negativity, so I also find it quite protective. If the Tiger’s Eye is exposed to a lot of heavy energy from you or your environment, however, be sure to clean it. This can be done by laying it on a bed of salt overnight. I also particularly like to work with Tiger’s Eye as the center stone for a crystal grid created to generate success in one’s pursuits, for it seems especially aligned with the self-confidence that’s essential for manifestation. For this purpose, I would seek a Tiger’s Eye pyramid or generator, though other shapes will do if those are unavailable to you. Oftentimes, I find children especially fond of Tiger’s Eye, and the same goes for Sunflowers. This is the young intuition at its best, for both these allies imbue a sense of confidence that these young people need to get through the maze of learning and growing in the world at large. After all, as we now turn our focus to the golden sunflower, how do you feel when catching a glimpse of them? It’s almost difficult to not feel brighter and uplifted, for these flowers infuse us with a sunny disposition so that our souls may shine. Sunflowers are actually native to North America, being used extensively by Native Americans for food, medicine, dye, and fiber for building and textiles. The commercialization of the flowers didn’t begin, however, until the plant made its way to Russia, where they continue to be grown abundantly for their golden oil. Interestingly, Russians also cultivated Sunflowers in areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster as a means to extract radiation from the soil. Not only is growing the plant detoxifying for the earth, but in Ayurvedic medicine, the oil of Sunflower is used to extract toxins from the gums when used as a mouthwash. How I see it is that it’s as if the radiance of this flower can shine through and break up heavy, dense energy on a physical level and also on spiritual and emotional levels. If ever we’re getting in our own way, unconfident in our abilities or even in a social situation where we feel isolated or unsure, we can call in Sunflower for support. For this, I especially like to use the Sunflower essence. Flower Essences are remedies that harness the vibration of flowers, which work to heal us emotionally and energetically, and with them, we can experience the healing strength of flowers year-round. Sunflower Essence is particularly indicated for helping us find a balanced way to feel confident and shine. It’s helpful to recognize that there is a spectrum when it comes to such self-confidence, where on one end there can be self-aggrandizing arrogance and on the other end, self-effacing timidness. Both of these extremes indicate disconnection from one’s core sense of self. Sunflower comes in to help us find a middle ground where we can express our sun-like radiance in a way that can uplift and imbue warmth to all those who receive our light. The essence helps us to find our power and speak our needs clearly, allowing us to be compassionate and kind to ourselves and others. So now, as fields and gardens are still full of Sunflowers, take time to bring some into your environment or spend time amidst them. As they begin to wilt, you can save the petals and dry them for future use. I like to keep them around until wintertime and then make an herbal infusion by putting a handful of petals into a quart mason jar, pouring boiling water onto them, and letting them steep for about ten minutes. You can then add this bright, golden infusion into a bath, along with a few drops of flower essence, a splash of Sunflower oil, and a Tiger’s Eye stone. This is a perfect way to soak in the sun and healing warmth when you need it most. Apart from a bath, you can also use the petals as part of a crystal grid for manifestation, along with Tiger’s Eye as mentioned earlier. You may even use the Sunflower petals to charge up your Tiger’s Eye or other stones after cleansing them, or you might make a medicine pouch with Sunflower and Tiger’s Eye to carry around or give to a friend for courage and confidence. Follow your intuition and be guided to what works for you. It’s empowering to know that the Earth presents us with allies that allow our souls to shine throughout all the seasons; and in the meantime, may you now be free to bask in the summertime Sun. Earth Allies Crafted with by Tulsi	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1833
__label__wiki	0.542341	0.542341	The CBCDG uses cookies in order to safeguard its services. By continuing to browse this website, you agree to the use of cookies. More information can be found in our Privacy policy. CBCDG Currency $ GYD - Guyana Dollar AZN - Azerbaijan manat GYD - Guyana Dollar KGS - Kyrgyz som XPF - IEOM franc List of all countries (A-Z) List of all countries (A-Z)AfricaAntarcticaAsiaEuropeNorth AmericaOceaniaSouth America Official bank or department Bank of Guyana Joseph Lall jlall@bankofguyana.org.gy General information about the reproduction of banknotes: Reproduction in printed media: Reproduction in electronic media: General information about the reproduction of banknotes Unauthorised Duplication of Currency The Bank of Guyana is aware that individuals have been reproducing Guyana currency notes for various purposes.The Bank of Guyana is aware that individuals have been reproducing Guyana currency notes for various purposes. By virtue of Section 21 of the Bank of Guyana Act 1998 the Bank of Guyana has the sole right to produce notes and coins in Guyana. In the interest of safeguarding the integrity of the Guyanese currency, the Bank will not allow reproduction of currency notes, because these can be misrepresented as or easily confused with genuine currency notes. The Bank also wishes to bring to the attention of the public, the fact that the reproduction of a currency note or any part thereof purporting to be a currency note is an offence under Section 272 of the Criminal Law Offences Act Cap 8:01 punishable by a term of imprisonment. The engraving or making upon any plate, wood, stone or other material or ornament an impression which resembles or is apparently intended to resemble any part of a currency note of the Bank of Guyana, is an offence under Section 273 of the Criminal Law Offences Act. This section also makes the custody or possession of the devices used for making the impression and the actual custody or possession of any paper or material upon which the impression is made, an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment. The Public is therefore advised to desist from reproducing currency notes or any part thereof and to comply with provisions of the Criminal Law Offences Act, failing which, action will be taken to enforce these provisions. Reproduction in printed media Reproduction in electronic media The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group (CBCDG) is a group of 32 central banks and note printing authorities organized at the request of the Governors of the G10 central banks. Its mission is to investigate the common emerging threats to the security of banknotes, and to propose solutions for implementation by issuing authorities. List of currencies List of countries About CBCDG Privacy policy Contact Us	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1841
__label__cc	0.746104	0.253896	Tag Archives: Transformation Balance, Ego, Ethics and personal responsibility, Everyday experiences, Freedom, Healers/Healing, Kindness/Compassion, Knowledge, Life lessons, Life's Purpose, Meditation and reflection, Native American, Poetry, Self Improvement, Spiritual Journey, Strength/Courage, Suffering/pain, Teaching, Transformation, Tribal, Wisdom “Earth Teach Me to Remember” “Earth teach me stillness as the grasses are stilled with light. Earth teach me suffering as old stones suffer with memory. Earth teach me humility as blossoms are humble with beginning. Earth Teach me caring as the mother who secures her young. Earth teach me courage as the tree which stands alone. Earth teach me limitation as the ant which crawls on the ground. Earth teach me freedom as the eagle which soars in the sky. Earth teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall. Earth teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring. Earth teach me to forget myself as melted snow forgets its life. Earth teach me to remember kindness as dry fields weep in the rain. Ute, North American” Prayer from: http://nativeamerican.lostsoulsgenealogy.com/prayers.htm Shared by Moro Picture from: http://hot-wallpapers.net/92-wolf-wallpaper-31-wolf-free-computer-wallpapers.htm Butterflies and moths, Cultures, Dreams, Elena Harris, Enlightment, Everyday experiences, Guardian/Protector, Knowledge, Life lessons, Life's Purpose, Meditation and reflection, perpetual transformation, Power Animal, Self Improvement, Spirit guide, Spirit Guides or Power Animals, Spiritual Journey, Spirituality, Teaching, Totem Animal, Transformation, Wisdom “Butterfly Spirit Animal & Totem” “The butterfly is one of the most emblematic totem animals symbolizing personal transformation. If you see the butterfly as your totem or spirit animal, pay attention to the areas in your life or personality that are in need of profound change or transformation. Perhaps, this animal totem guides you to be sensitive to your personal cycles of expansion and growth, as well as the beauty of life’s continuous unfolding. An important message carried by the spirit of the butterfly is about the ability to go through important changes with grace and lightness. Butterfly Symbolism What is the meaning of the butterfly? This animal totem is primarily associated with symbolism of change and transformation. Powerful transformation, metamorphosis in your life, personality Moving through different life cycles Renewal, rebirth Lightness of being, playfulness Elevation from earthly matters, tuning into emotional or spiritual The world of the soul, the psyche A secondary meaning of the butterfly is about finding joy in life and lightness of being. Butterfly totem and transformation The butterfly is a symbol of powerful transformations. By analogy to the development of this animal, the meaning associated with the butterfly emphasizes the ability to move from one state, perspective, lifestyle to another. When the butterfly comes into your life as spirit guide, you may be going through or expect important changes in your life. More than changes in your environment, the transformation the butterfly totem points to are more internal: They could be related to your own perspective on a subject, aspects of your personality, or personal habits. Personal transformation is emblematic of the butterfly symbolism. Butterfly totem symbol of joy and lightness of being When the butterfly shows up in your life as a spirit animal or totem, it might indicate the need to look at a conflicting situation with more lightness and different perspective. This totem animal is symbolic of lightness of being and elevation from the heaviness of tensions. This power animal invites those who have a connection with it to bring joy and bliss into their lives. Butterflies often have bright colors. By extension, they are associated with aliveness and brightness. The message of this totem animal is to lighten up and add more color to your life. Perhaps it’s time to express yourself more fully and show your colorful personality. The Butterfly and the world of the Soul In many traditions around the world, the butterfly is a symbol of the soul or soul world. For example, in Chinese symbology, it can represent immortality. For the Japanese, a white butterfly symbolizes the soul the departed ones. In Ancient Greece, butterflies represent the psyche or soul, and its attribute of immortality. Calling the butterfly totem for support The butterfly is a powerful animal to call when you need support in times of transition, whether it’s at work, in a relationship, or when you’re doing inner work. Great ally during intense periods of personal transformation, it will add ease and lightness to the process. This power animal is a good inspiration for adding more color into your life and self-expression. Those who have the butterfly as a totem animal may be naturally inclined to express themselves openly, to reflect their colors into their environment.” By Elena Harris, SpiritAnimal.com Editor Look for more articles here on the same subjects. I hope to gather as many articles on various and same subjects from amazing websites and blogs as I can find in time. If there is nothing else at the moment, check back later. It just means I hadn’t gotten to it yet. 😀 Check out the website where this comes from and take the quiz… find out your spirit guide. :3 Original source: http://www.spiritanimal.info/butterfly-spirit-animal/ Stock Photo title: “Butterfly‘ by artist: shahar12 @ http://shahar12.deviantart.com/art/Butterfly-255298739 5 Elements, Alchemy, As above so below, Both sides of the Veil, earth (tu), Eastern Tradition, fire (huo), Greek discourse about the four elements, Interaction between the physical and spiritual realms, Macrocosm Microcosm, Meditation and reflection, metal (jin), Occult, Magic and Magick, perpetual transformation, Qi, re-creation, Self Improvement, Spirit of the Universe, Spiritual Journey, Spirituality, States of Qi, Taoism, Teaching, Transformation, water (shui), Western traditions, Wisdom, wood (mu), Wuxing (Wu-hsing), Yin and Yang, Zang-fu organs The Elements, an Eastern approach; What does it mean to you? An interesting topic is the difference between the Western traditions Elements and The Eastern Elements with their philosophies. In the Eastern Traditions, there are 5 elements that are from Taoism. Taoist cosmology is based on the beliefs of the School of Naturalists. In this spirit, the universe is seen as being in a constant process of re-creating itself, as everything that exists is a mere aspect of Qi, which, “condensed, becomes life; diluted, it is indefinite potential”(1). Qi is in a perpetual transformation between its condensed and diluted state. These two different states of Qii, on the other hand, are embodiment of the abstract entities of yin and yang, two complementary extremes that constantly play against and with each other and can not exist without the other. Human beings are seen as a microcosm of the universe, and for example comprise the Five Elements in form of the zang-fu organs. “Zang and fu consist of the 5 zang and 6 fu organs.”(2) As a consequence, it is believed that deeper understanding of the universe can be achieved by understanding oneself. (refer to original source-3)“Wuxing (Wu-hsing) The Chinese term wuxing (wu-hsing, “five processes” or “five phases”) refers to a fivefold conceptual scheme that is found throughout traditional Chinese thought. These five phases are wood (mu), fire (huo), earth (tu), metal (jin), and water (shui); they are regarded as dynamic, interdependent modes or aspects of the universe’s ongoing existence and development. Although this fivefold scheme resembles ancient Greek discourse about the four elements, these Chinese “phases” are seen as ever-changing material forces, while the Greek elements typically are regarded as unchanging building blocks of matter. Prior to the Han dynasty, wuxing functioned less as a school of thought and more as a way of describing natural processes hidden from ordinary view. During the period of the Han dynasty (202 B.C.E.-220 C.E.), wuxing thought became a distinct philosophical tradition (jia, “family” or “school”). Since that time, the wuxing system has been applied to the explanation of natural phenomena and extended to the description of aesthetic principles, historical events, political structures, and social norms, among other things. Cosmology, morality, and medicine remain the chief arenas of wuxing thought, but virtually every aspect of Chinese life has been touched by it. As such, wuxing has come to be inseparable from Chineseness itself and belongs to no single stream of classical Chinese philosophy.”(3) (refer to original source-4)”Wood Element Archetype: The Pioneer and Strategist/Directing It is yang/masculine in character. The predominant attributes are considered to be strength and flexibility, as with bamboo. It is also associated with qualities of generosity and idealism. One quality of the Wood element is leadership. It is the leader within us, that can take charge and determine a plan of action. The wood is one that seeks always to grow and expand. Wood heralds the beginning of life, springtime and buds, sensuality and fecundity. Wood type people are often aggressive or assertive, direct, and can have a strong temper and a lot of drive. They are usually outgoing and socially conscious and can be insensitive. The Wood element is associated with negative feelings of anger, and positive feelings of patience and altruism. Archetype: The Wizard and Socializer/Marketing Fire is yang/masculine in character, its direction is upward and its energy is expansive. In Chinese thought Fire is associated with the qualities of dynamism, strength and persistence; however, it is also connected to restlessness. The fire element provides, warmth, enthusiasm and creativity, however an excess of it can bring aggression, impatience and impulsive behavior. In the same way, fire provides heat and warmth, however an excess can also burn. Fire is the Element responsible for the passionate resonance when you are following your life’s calling. It is the joy and laughter associated with playfulness. Fire type people are charming, fun, mischievous, easily excitable, and change emotional states rapidly. They love change, bright colorsand environments that stimulate.The negative emotion is hate, while its positive emotion is joy. Archetype: The Mediator and Peacemaker/Human Resources Earth is a balance of both yin and yang, the feminine and masculine together. Its motion is inward and centering, and its energy is stabilizing and conserving. It is associated with the turn of each of the seasons and with damp. In Chinese thought Earth is associated with the qualities of patience, thoughtfulness, practicality, hard work and stability. The earth element is also nurturing and seeks to draw all things together with itself, in order to bring harmony, rootedness and stability. Other attributes of the earth element include ambition, stubbornness, responsibility and long-term planning. On the shadow side, the earth element can represent selfishness and self-centeredness. Earth type people are usually warm, kind and supportive. They can be overprotective and tend to merge with their environment, having difficulties with boundaries. The negative emotion of the Earth element is worry and its positive emotion is empathy. Metal Element Archetype: The Alchemist and Judge/Organizing Metal is yin/feminine in character, its motion is inwards and its energy is contracting.Metal represents the minerals, crystals, and gems of the world. The metal aspect is the diamond found within each one of us. It is similar to the Air Element found in western paradigms. The Metal Element is the breath of life. When you are connected to that experience, you know your own self-worth. You respect others and yourself; you are willing to give and receive acknowledgment for the magnificent being that you are. The qualities associated with metal are unyieldingness, rigidity, persistence, strength and determination. Metal type people like minimalism. They are organized, clean, and contained. They can be controlling, ambitious, forceful and set in their ways as metal is very strong; and they are self-reliant and prefer to handle their problems alone.The negative emotion associated with metal is grief, while the positive emotion is courage. Archetype: The Philosopher and Thinker/Innovation Water is yin/feminine in character, its energy is downward and its motion is stillness and conserving. In Chinese Taoist thought, water is representative of intelligence and wisdom, flexibility, softness and pliancy; however, an over-abundance of the element is said to cause difficulty in choosing something and sticking to it. In the same way, Water can be fluid and weak, but can also wield great power when it floods and overwhelms the land. When your Water Element is in balance, you use your resources of energy, time, contacts, and money wisely, neither hoarding nor squandering that which gives you life. Water is also the element of stillness and rest, taking time to rest and rejuvenate yourself. It is in the Water element that all great innovations and ideas are birthed. Water type people appear a bit reserved, yet are often very creative, sometimes even eccentric. They can appear cool and stoic, yet have the capacities to be still and deeply reflect. The negative emotion associated with water is fear, while the positive emotion is calmness.”(4) (1) http://www.roadtofortworth.com/YY_ref.pdf (Taoism- PDF) (2)Wuxing (Wu-hsing) ( http://www.iep.utm.edu/wuxing/ (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy; Peer reviewed academic resource; James Fieser, Ph.D., founder and general editor and Bradley Dowden, Ph.D., general editor) (3) http://zangfu-omtcm.blogspot.de/ (Zang Fu TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE) (4) http://www.innerjourneyseminars.com/the-five-elements.html (Michael Schiesser – Inner Journey Seminars) All pics from this blog are also from his original blog) Art 1: “Wu Xing and the Cycle of Creation” by artist: JP-Talma @ http://jp-talma.deviantart.com/art/Wu-Xing-and-the-Cycle-of-Creation-316548011 Art 2: Elementalby blacher @ http://blacher.deviantart.com/art/Elemental-156113544 Abby Willowroot, Everyday experiences, Healers/Healing, Kindness/Compassion, Knowledge, Life lessons, Life's Purpose, Meditation and reflection, Poetry, Self Improvement, Spiritual Journey, Spirituality, Strength/Courage, Transformation, Wisdom ‘Make Me Strong In Spirit’ Courageous in action Gentle of heart Let me act in wisdom Conquer my fear and doubt Discover my own hidden gifts Meet others with compassion Be a source of healing energies And face each day with hope and joy’ Abby Willowroot ~ © 1998 Art title: “Day 7” by artist: Golden-Whale @ http://golden-whale.deviantart.com/art/Day-7-270269163 Everyday experiences, Knowledge, Lao Tzu, Life lessons, Life's Purpose, Meditation and reflection, Quotes, Spirituality, Sycronistic Occurrences., Syncronistic Occurrences, Taoism, Teaching, Transformation, Wisdom “Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” -Lao Tzu Art title: ‘Dancing in the night’ by artist: Senderosolvidados @ http://www.graphix1.co.uk/2011/06/21/inspired-by-design-54/ Awakening, Charles de Lint, Everyday experiences, Life lessons, Life's Purpose, Magic, Meditation and reflection, Paganism, Pantheism, Quotes, Self Improvement, Spiritual Journey, Transformation, Wisdom “I want to be magic…” “I want to be magic. I want to touch the heart of the world and make it smile. I want to be a friend of elves and live in a tree. Or under a hill. I want to marry a moonbeam and hear the stars sing. I don’t want to pretend at magic anymore. I want to be magic.” ― Charles de Lint Art title: ‘Magic girl’ by artist: sakimichan @http://www.deviantart.com/art/Magic-girl-189699067	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1851
__label__cc	0.626238	0.373762	Kevin Spacey & Jimmy Fallon’s Barbershop Rendition of Jason Derulo’s ‘Talk Dirty’ [VIDEO] We've seen Jimmy Fallon bring guests on 'The Tonight Show' to do everything from lip sync battles to Broadway covers of rap songs and they have all been amazingly fun to watch. So when he brought out Kevin Spacey to do a barbershop quartet rendition of Jason Derulo's 'Talk Dirty,' we weren't surprised that actually sounded incredible. 'House of Cards' star Kevin Spacey stopped by 'The Tonight Show' this week and joined Fallon and the Ragtime Gals (comprised of Fallon and the show's writers) to put an old-time spin on Derulo's hit single 'Talk Dirty.' Hearing a risque song like that sung in a quartet fashion is something you don't see every day. We're pretty sure people didn't sing about a woman's "booty" back then so it's an interesting clash of styles that Spacey and Fallon are able to pull off. What's especially impressive is how they attack the chorus beat. Click on the video above to watch and listen to their rendition and also check our Jason Derulo performance of 'Talk Dirty' at PopCrush's studios. Jason Derulo Performs 'Talk Dirty' for PopCrush Next: Jason Derulo Talks Influences With PopCrush Source: Kevin Spacey & Jimmy Fallon’s Barbershop Rendition of Jason Derulo’s ‘Talk Dirty’ [VIDEO] Filed Under: Jimmy Fallon	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1852
__label__wiki	0.526062	0.526062	Sell code using dynamically linked Open Source GPL code? I am really confused. The GPL states that if you start with GPL code, and modify that code, that you must release your code with modifications free of charge also under a GPL. But what if you simply use the existing GPL code without modifications as a library? Can you then write software to interface with that code, unchanged, that is closed source? licensing gpl Martin Beckett JasonJason No. You can do that with LGPL code, but not with GPL code (usual disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer). – us2012 Feb 16 '13 at 18:10 (The wikipedia article on LGPL explains this quite well: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Lesser_General_Public_License . Fur further info, consult the FSF and GNU websites.) – us2012 Feb 16 '13 at 18:12 The GPL dictates that derivative works must be released under a GPL compatible license (if released). That said, there's some ambiguity as to what exactly constitutes a derivative work and technically there are ways to use GPL'ed code in proprietary projects without the project becoming "infected" (emphasis mine): Can I release a non-free program that's designed to load a GPL-covered plug-in? It depends on how the program invokes its plug-ins. For instance, if the program uses only simple fork and exec to invoke and communicate with plug-ins, then the plug-ins are separate programs, so the license of the plug-in makes no requirements about the main program. If the program dynamically links plug-ins, and they make function calls to each other and share data structures, we believe they form a single program, which must be treated as an extension of both the main program and the plug-ins. In order to use the GPL-covered plug-ins, the main program must be released under the GPL or a GPL-compatible free software license, and that the terms of the GPL must be followed when the main program is distributed for use with these plug-ins. If the program dynamically links plug-ins, but the communication between them is limited to invoking the ‘main’ function of the plug-in with some options and waiting for it to return, that is a borderline case. Using shared memory to communicate with complex data structures is pretty much equivalent to dynamic linking. See also the question I am writing free software that uses a non-free library. Personally, I'd contact the FSF with details of the project and ask for clarifications before using the GPL'ed code. If the FSF attests that you can't use the GPL'ed code, I'd then contact the original author of the code and ask them (really nicely) for a LGPL version of it. The chances are extremely slim, but you never know. yannisyannis You cannot use GPL code in proprietary software without making your proprietary code become "infected" by the GPL license. Your code would then become GPL code as well. It doesn't matter if you've modified the GPL code or not. If your code uses it, it too becomes GPL code. Thus, if you're building any kind of software where it's important that your code remain proprietary, then do not use GPL code. However, this isn't to say that corporate entities cannot make a profit using GPL code. If you focus on building solutions that help you provide better services to customers or that fill a need that requires your continual involvement in support of the software, then you can charge service fees. For instance, the Android operating system is open source, yet Google, Amazon, Verizon, AT&T, and other entities make money from it everyday because they bill for services rendered, not for selling the software. Also, this helps hardware companies like Motorola and Samsung sell their devices, as they use Android as well. Also, building on the "service" case and what Martin Beckett mentions in the comments, if the code you're using is something that will be used internally only and not distributed to the outside world, you can use GPL code without having to release it to the world. It's always your choice whether or not to release the product, but if you do release the product, you must release both binaries and code as per the terms of the GPL. jmort253jmort253 TO be clear it only becomes GPL if you distribute it. If you use it internally you can do what you want with it – Martin Beckett Feb 17 '13 at 5:18 @MartinBeckett - Thanks for bringing up that very valid point. I updated my answer. – jmort253 Feb 17 '13 at 5:43 I believe closed source proprietary software can link with GPL binary modules while not being "infected" by the GPL. How else can products like Oracle, DB2 or SAP legally run on Linux? They will all be linked to GPL shared system libraries. Think about all the proprietary Linux device drivers out there that link to the Linux kernel. David YeagerDavid Yeager The libraries are not licensed with GPL, but rather LGPL. But as you point out GPL is not contagious from OS to programs that run on that OS. – Robert Jørgensgaard Engdahl Aug 10 '16 at 19:39 Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged licensing gpl or ask your own question. Relicense BSD 2/3-clause code to GPL GPL Confusion! Can I sell a product with GPL covered components without making the source available? Is there a GPL-compatible software license for libraries which allows static linking, but requires redistribution of library source code? Can I use GPL, LGPL, MPL licensed packages with my application and make it closed source? Can I link to a GPL library from a closed source application? How does the GNU General Public License (GPL) conform to the Open Source Initiative's (OSI) Open Source Definition (OSD)? can I sell a software that uses a GPL library and another BSD licensed library? Open Source Licenses like GPL in Multiple Licenses models	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1863
__label__wiki	0.74495	0.74495	Olton & West Warwick HC's ladies gear up for promotion play-off; men's first XI thrash the champions Olton in action against Havant in Men's Conference West. Pictures by Manjit Narotra/MSN Images. Ben Tyler 2nd Apr, 2019 OLTON & West Warwick Hockey Club experienced a remarkable final weekend of the season, when the ladies side were forced into a play-off for promotion, and the men’s side thrashed the newly crowned champions. In the Investec Ladies Conference West, a trip to Exeter against ninth-placed Exe brought a stalemate, despite the hosts winning seven points all season and losing 8-1 to Olton in September. A win was enough to clinch automatic promotion to the new Division 1 next season, but inexplicably, the ladies were unable to score in a game they dominated. The 0-0 scoreline left them in seventh place, sending them into a promotion round-robin play-off against the other two seventh placed sides in the North and East conferences. A trip away to Leeds on Sunday is followed by a home tie against Horsham the following Sunday (April 14), where two of the three teams will be promoted. Olton will fancy their chances to qualify, going into the play-offs with more points amassed than their rivals over the course of the season, and having better rates in scoring and defensive terms. Meanwhile, Olton dismantled the Men’s Conference West champions Havant 8-3 – ensuring they become the only team to have done the double over them this season. The hosts initially went behind from a penalty corner, but responded through Tom Mallett at a penalty corner three minutes later. Chris Rawlings netted on 18 minutes, before Josh Green made it 3-1 going into half-time. Pete Jackson scored with a trademark drag flick at a penalty corner, Havant following suit to score from a similar goal. Olton then hit three quick-fire goals to take a commanding lead, Harry Sherlock netting two, and Martin Ebbage scoring the other. Havant pulled a goal back from a penalty corner, but Joe Paul’s 66th minute strike made it eight for Olton, and combined with the news that second-placed Oxford Hawks had suffered defeat, ensured Olton & WW finish the season as runners-up. Elsewhere, the ladies second and fourth-teams clinched promotion, as did the men’s fourth XI. Investec Ladies Conference West Men's Conference West Olton & West Warwick Olton & West Warwick HC Olton & West Warwick Hockey Club Submit Your SPORT Stories, Photos & Videos Popular Sport Moors will take “one game at a time”, says Flowers AFC silence FC Shush after seven-goal derby triumph Knowle miles a-Head in ten-goal cup rout – Solihull non-league latest International bow for rising Solihull star Cole Wycherley up for the number one challenge at Moors View and download all of the public notices in the Solihull Observer. Check out all of the latest reader travel offers to get your hands on some free gifts. Book your newspaper advert with our online advert creation tool. From plumbers, to restaurants, we can provide you with all the info you need. Olton & West Warw...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1867
__label__cc	0.59767	0.40233	Explore Search Results: tagged with Attention-deficit Hyperactivity disorder Contemplative Practices and Mental Training: Prospects for American Education (2012, Journal Article) Life Education Research Network (mlern), John Dunne, Jacquelynne S. Eccles, Adam Engle, Mark Greenberg, Patricia Jennings, Amishi Jha, Thupten Jinpa, Linda Lantieri, David Meyer, Robert W. Roeser, David Vago This article draws on research in neuroscience, cognitive science, developmental psychology, and education, as well as scholarship from contemplative traditions concerning the cultivation of positive development, to highlight a set of mental skills and socioemotional dispositions that are central to the aims of education in the 21st century. These include self-regulatory skills associated with emotion and attention, self-representations, and prosocial dispositions such as empathy and compassion. It should be possible to strengthen these positive qualities and dispositions through systematic contemplative practices, which induce plastic changes in brain function and structure, supporting prosocial behavior and academic success in young people. These putative beneficial consequences call for focused programmatic research to better characterize which forms and frequencies of practice are most effective for which types of children and adolescents. Results from such research may help refine training programs to maximize their effectiveness at different ages and to document the changes in neural function and structure that might be induced. Contemplative practice, Contemplative Practices and Mental Training: Prospects for American Education (Journal Article) emotion regulation, Vago lab, The contribution of mindfulness practice to a multicomponent behavioral sleep intervention following substance abuse treatment in adolescents: a treatment-development study (Journal Article) Willoughby B. Britton, Richard R. Bootzin, Jennifer C. Cousins, Brant P. Hasler, Tucker Peck, Shauna L. Shapiro Poor sleep is common in substance use disorders (SUDs) and is a risk factor for relapse. Within the context of a multicomponent, mindfulness-based sleep intervention that included mindfulness meditation (MM) for adolescent outpatients with SUDs (n = 55), this analysis assessed the contributions of MM practice intensity to gains in sleep quality and self-efficacy related to SUDs. Eighteen adolescents completed a 6-session study intervention and questionnaires on psychological distress, sleep quality, mindfulness practice, and substance use at baseline, 8, 20, and 60 weeks postentry. Program participation was associated with improvements in sleep and emotional distress, and reduced substance use. MM practice frequency correlated with increased sleep duration and improvement in self-efficacy about substance use. Increased sleep duration was associated with improvements in psychological distress, relapse resistance, and substance use-related problems. These findings suggest that sleep is an important therapeutic target in substance abusing adolescents and that MM may be a useful component to promote improved sleep. Adolescent Behavior, Britton lab, Recurrence, Self Efficacy, Sleep Disorders, Substance-Related Disorders, Cortical thickness analysis in autism with heat kernel smoothing (Journal Article) Moo K. Chung, Steven M. Robbins, Kim M. Dalton, Alan C. Evans We present a novel data smoothing and analysis framework for cortical thickness data defined on the brain cortical manifold. Gaussian kernel smoothing, which weights neighboring observations according to their 3D Euclidean distance, has been widely used in 3D brain images to increase the signal-to-noise ratio. When the observations lie on a convoluted brain surface, however, it is more natural to assign the weights based on the geodesic distance along the surface. We therefore develop a framework for geodesic distance-based kernel smoothing and statistical analysis on the cortical manifolds. As an illustration, we apply our methods in detecting the regions of abnormal cortical thickness in 16 high functioning autistic children via random field based multiple comparison correction that utilizes the new smoothing technique. Cortisol's effects on hippocampal activation in depressed patients are related to alterations in memory formation (Journal Article) Heather C. Abercrombie, Simone Kern, Clemens Kirschbaum Many investigators have hypothesized that brain response to cortisol is altered in depression. However, neural activation in response to exogenously manipulated cortisol elevations has not yet been directly examined in depressed humans. Animal research shows that glucocorticoids have robust effects on hippocampal function, and can either enhance or suppress neuroplastic events in the hippocampus depending on a number of factors. We hypothesized that depressed individuals would show 1) altered hippocampal response to exogenous administration of cortisol, and 2) altered effects of cortisol on learning. In a repeated-measures design, 19 unmedicated depressed and 41 healthy individuals completed two fMRI scans. Fifteen mg oral hydrocortisone (i.e., cortisol) or placebo (order randomized and double-blind) was administered 1 h prior to encoding of emotional and neutral words during fMRI scans. Data analysis examined the effects of cortisol administration on 1) brain activation during encoding, and 2) subsequent free recall for words. Cortisol affected subsequent recall performance in depressed but not healthy individuals. We found alterations in hippocampal response to cortisol in depressed women, but not in depressed men (who showed altered response to cortisol in other regions, including subgenual prefrontal cortex). In both depressed men and women, cortisol's effects on hippocampal function were positively correlated with its effects on recall performance assessed days later. Our data provide evidence that in depressed compared to healthy women, cortisol's effects on hippocampal function are altered. Our data also show that in both depressed men and women, cortisol's effects on emotional memory formation and hippocampal function are related. Double-Blind Method, Memory Disorders, Mental Recall, Neuropsychological Tests, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Statistics as Topic, Young adult, Coupling of theta activity and glucose metabolism in the human rostral anterior cingulate cortex: an EEG/PET study of normal and depressed subjects (Journal Article) In rodents, theta rhythm has been linked to the hippocampal formation, as well as other regions, including the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). To test the role of the ACC in theta rhythm, concurrent measurements of brain electrical activity (EEG) and glucose metabolism (PET) were performed in 29 subjects at baseline. EEG data were analyzed with a source localization technique that enabled voxelwise correlations of EEG and PET data. For theta, but not other bands, the rostral ACC (Brodmann areas 24/32) was the largest cluster with positive correlations between current density and glucose metabolism. Positive correlations were also found in right fronto-temporal regions. In control but not depressed subjects, theta within ACC and prefrontal/orbitofrontal regions was positively correlated. The results reveal a link between theta and cerebral metabolism in the ACC as well as disruption of functional connectivity within frontocingulate pathways in depression. Brain Chemistry, Fluorodeoxyglucose F18, Radiopharmaceuticals, Tomography, Emission-Computed Current Status of Programs Using Contemplative Techniques in K-12 Educational Settings: A Mapping Report (2005, Report) Deborah Schoeberlein, Theo Koffler Between June 2004 and April 2005, the Garrison Institute… mapped the current status of programs utilizing contemplative techniques with mainstream student populations in K-12 educational settings. The Mapping Project sought to identify similarities and differences in program pedagogy and methodology… Contemplation, for teacher training, Contemplative curricula, Emotional balance, Garrison Institute, K-12 education, K-12 Education and Contemplation, The cyclic AMP phenotype of fragile X and autism (Journal Article) Daniel J. Kelley, Anita Bhattacharyya, Garet P. Lahvis, Jerry C. P. Yin, Jim Malter, Cyclic AMP (cAMP) is a second messenger involved in many processes including mnemonic processing and anxiety. Memory deficits and anxiety are noted in the phenotype of fragile X (FX), the most common heritable cause of mental retardation and autism. Here we review reported observations of altered cAMP cascade function in FX and autism. Cyclic AMP is a potentially useful biochemical marker to distinguish autism comorbid with FX from autism per se and the cAMP cascade may be a viable therapeutic target for both FX and autism. Cyclic AMP, Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein, Fragile X Syndrome, Models, Biological, Depression: perspectives from affective neuroscience (2002, Journal Article) Diego Pizzagalli, Katherine Putnam Depression is a disorder of the representation and regulation of mood and emotion. The circuitry underlying the representation and regulation of normal emotion and mood is reviewed, including studies at the animal level, human lesion studies, and human brain imaging studies. This corpus of data is used to construct a model of the ways in which affect can become disordered in depression. Research on the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, hippocampus, and amygdala is reviewed and abnormalities in the structure and function of these different regions in depression is considered. The review concludes with proposals for the specific types of processing abnormalities that result from dysfunctions in different parts of this circuitry and offers suggestions for the major themes upon which future research in this area should be focused. Neurosciences, Differential engagement of anterior cingulate and adjacent medial frontal cortex in adept meditators and non-meditators (Journal Article) Britta K. Hölzel, Ulrich Ott, Hannes Hempel, Andrea Hackl, Katharina Wolf, Rudolf Stark, Dieter Vaitl This study investigated differences in brain activation during meditation between meditators and non-meditators. Fifteen Vipassana meditators (mean practice: 7.9 years, 2 h daily) and fifteen non-meditators, matched for sex, age, education, and handedness, participated in a block-design fMRI study that included mindfulness of breathing and mental arithmetic conditions. For the meditation condition (contrasted to arithmetic), meditators showed stronger activations in the rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex bilaterally, compared to controls. Greater rostral anterior cingulate cortex activation in meditators may reflect stronger processing of distracting events. The increased activation in the medial prefrontal cortex may reflect that meditators are stronger engaged in emotional processing. Anterior cingulate cortex, Attention regulation, Medial prefrontal cortex, Practitioner Context, Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings (Journal Article) Alberto Chiesa, Raffaella Calati, Alessandro Serretti Mindfulness meditation practices (MMPs) are a subgroup of meditation practices which are receiving growing attention. The present paper reviews current evidence about the effects of MMPs on objective measures of cognitive functions. Five databases were searched. Twenty three studies providing measures of attention, memory, executive functions and further miscellaneous measures of cognition were included. Fifteen were controlled or randomized controlled studies and 8 were case–control studies. Overall, reviewed studies suggested that early phases of mindfulness training, which are more concerned with the development of focused attention, could be associated with significant improvements in selective and executive attention whereas the following phases, which are characterized by an open monitoring of internal and external stimuli, could be mainly associated with improved unfocused sustained attention abilities. Additionally, MMPs could enhance working memory capacity and some executive functions. However, many of the included studies show methodological limitations and negative results have been reported as well, plausibly reflecting differences in study design, study duration and patients' populations. Accordingly, even though findings here reviewed provided preliminary evidence suggesting that MMPs could enhance cognitive functions, available evidence should be considered with caution and further high quality studies investigating more standardized mindfulness meditation programs are needed. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction / Cognitive Therapy, Psychotherapy and Contemplation, Cognition and Contemplation, Dopamine asymmetries predict orienting bias in healthy individuals (Journal Article) Heleen A. Slagter, Pseudoneglect is traditionally viewed as reflecting right hemisphere specialization for processing spatial information, resulting in orienting toward the contralateral, left, hemispace. Recent evidence suggests that healthy individuals differ from each other in both direction and magnitude of orienting bias, and moreover, the bias displayed by a person is consistent across time, suggesting that it may represent a trait of the individual. Animal studies reveal consistent orienting bias within an individual, which reflects asymmetry in dopaminergic brain systems. We measured basal D2-like receptor binding using positron emission tomography and the high-affinity ligand [F-18]fallypride, to test the hypothesis that asymmetry in dopaminergic neurotransmission in healthy humans modulates the orienting bias in humans. As predicted, we found that individual differences in the direction and magnitude of the orienting bias were strongly associated with the pattern of asymmetric binding of dopamine (DA) D2 receptors in the striatum, as well as clusters in the frontal and temporal cortex. These findings show for the first time that orienting bias reflects individual differences in the lateralization of DA systems in the healthy human brain. Benzamides, Corpus Striatum, Discrimination (Psychology), Fluorine Radioisotopes, Pyrrolidines, Receptors, Dopamine D2, Early neglect is associated with alterations in white matter integrity and cognitive functioning (Journal Article) Seth D. Pollak Cognitive deficits have been reported in children who experienced early neglect, especially children raised in institutionalized settings. Previous research suggests that early neglect may differentially affect the directional organization of white matter in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This may be one mechanism to explain cognitive deficits associated with neglect. To test this idea, properties of white matter and neurocognitive performance were assessed in children who suffered early neglect and those raised in typical environments (n = 63, Mage = 11.75 years). As predicted, prefrontal white matter microstructure was affected, consistent with more diffuse organization, in children that suffered early neglect and this was related to neurocognitive deficits. Such findings underscore how early adversity may affect the PFC and explain cognitive deficits associated with neglect. Child abuse, Cognition Disorders, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Leukoencephalopathies, Organ Size, Early stress is associated with alterations in the orbitofrontal cortex: a tensor-based morphometry investigation of brain structure and behavioral risk (Journal Article) Individuals who experience early adversity, such as child maltreatment, are at heightened risk for a broad array of social and health difficulties. However, little is known about how this behavioral risk is instantiated in the brain. Here we examine a neurobiological contribution to individual differences in human behavior using methodology appropriate for use with pediatric populations paired with an in-depth measure of social behavior. We show that alterations in the orbitofrontal cortex among individuals who experienced physical abuse are related to social difficulties. These data suggest a biological mechanism linking early social learning to later behavioral outcomes. Child Behavior Disorders, EEG alpha power and alpha power asymmetry in sleep and wakefulness (Journal Article) W. H. Obermeyer, B. Yun, I. Dolski, K. D. Kleist, S. M. Weber, Asymmetry of waking electroencephalography (EEG) alpha power in frontal regions has been correlated with waking emotional reactivity and the emotional content of dream reports. Little is known regarding alpha asymmetry during sleep. The present study was performed to compare alpha power and alpha power asymmetry in various brain regions across states of sleep and wakefulness. Waking and sleep EEG were recorded in a group of patients undergoing polysomnographic evaluation for possible sleep disorders. Alpha EEG asymmetry in frontal and temporal regions was significantly correlated in waking versus sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. These results suggest that patterns of frontal alpha asymmetry are stable across sleep and waking and may be related to emotional reactivity during dreaming. During sleep, alpha power was highest during slow-wave sleep and lowest during REM sleep. Implications of these data for understanding the functional significance of alpha power during waking and sleeping are considered. Polysomnography, Sleep Stages, wakefulness The Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training on Behavioral Problems and Attentional Functioning in Adolescents with ADHD (Journal Article) Eva van de Weijer-Bergsma, Anne R. Formsma, Esther I. de Bruin, Susan M. Bögels The effectiveness of an 8-week mindfulness training for adolescents aged 11–15 years with ADHD and parallel Mindful Parenting training for their parents was evaluated, using questionnaires as well as computerized attention tests. Adolescents (N = 10), their parents (N = 19) and tutors (N = 7) completed measurements before, immediately after, 8 weeks after and 16 weeks after training. Adolescents reported on their attention and behavioral problems and mindful awareness, and were administered two computerized sustained attention tasks. Parents as well as tutors reported on adolescents’ attention and behavioral problems and executive functioning. Parents further reported on their own parenting, parenting stress and mindful awareness. Both the mindfulness training for the adolescents and their parents was delivered in group format. First, after mindfulness training, adolescents’ attention and behavior problems reduced, while their executive functioning improved, as indicated by self-report measures as well as by father and teacher report. Second, improvements in adolescent’ actual performance on attention tests were found after mindfulness training. Moreover, fathers, but not mothers, reported reduced parenting stress. Mothers reported reduced overreactive parenting, whereas fathers reported an increase. No effect on mindful awareness of adolescents or parents was found. Effects of mindfulness training became stronger at 8-week follow-up, but waned at 16-week follow-up. Our study adds to the emerging body of evidence indicating that mindfulness training for adolescents with ADHD (and their parents) is an effective approach, but maintenance strategies need to be developed in order for this approach to be effective in the longer term. ADHD, Adolescence, Attention-deficit Hyperactivity disorder, Child and School Psychology, Sociology, general, adolescents, Parenting & Childcare and Contemplation The Effectiveness of a School-Based Mindfulness Training as a Program to Prevent Stress in Elementary School Children (Journal Article) George Langenberg, Rob Brandsma, Frans J. Oort, Studies on the effects of mindfulness interventions on mental health and behavioral problems in children show promising results, but are primarily conducted with selected samples of children. The few studies investigating school-based interventions used self-selected samples, provided training outside of the classroom, and did not report longer-term effects. The immediate and longer-term effects of a class-based mindfulness intervention for elementary school children were investigated as a primary prevention program (MindfulKids) to reduce stress and stress-related mental health and behavioral problems. Children (8–12 years) from three elementary schools participated. Classes were randomized to an immediate-intervention group (N = 95) or a waitlist-control group (N = 104), which received the intervention after a waitlist period. Twelve 30-min sessions were delivered in 6 weeks. At baseline, pretest, posttest, and follow-up, variables indicative of stress and metal well-being were assessed with children, variables indicative of mental health problems were assessed with parents, and teachers reported on class climate. Multilevel analysis revealed that there were no significant changes from baseline to pretest. Some primary prevention effects on stress and well-being were found directly after training and some became more apparent at follow-up. Effects on mental health problems also became apparent at follow-up. MindfulKids seems to have a primary preventive effect on stress, well-being, and behavior in schoolchildren, as reported by children and parents. Exploratory analysis revealed that children who ruminate more are affected differently by the intervention than children who ruminate less. It is concluded that mindfulness training can be incorporated in elementary schools at the class level, letting all children benefit from the intervention. Attention training, Cognitive Psychology, Elementary school, Psychology, general, Public Health, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction / Cognitive Therapy Effects of Level of Meditation Experience on Attentional Focus: Is the Efficiency of Executive or Orientation Networks Improved? (Journal Article) Davina Chan, Marjorie Woollacott The present investigation examined the contributions of specific attentional networks to long-term trait effects of meditation. It was hypothesized that meditation could improve the efficiency of executive processing (inhibits prepotent/incorrect responses) or orientational processing (orients to specific objects in the attentional field). Participants (50 meditators and 10 controls) were given the Stroop (measures executive attention) and Global-Local Letters (measures orientational attention) tasks. Results showed that meditation experience was associated with reduced interference on the Stroop task (p < 0.03), in contrast with a lack of effect on interference in the Global-Local Letters task. This suggests that meditation produces long-term increases in the efficiency of the executive attentional network (anterior cingulate/prefrontal cortex) but no effect on the orientation network (parietal systems). The amount of time participants spent meditating each day, rather than the total number of hours of meditative practice over their lifetime, was negatively correlated with interference on the Stroop task (r = −0.31, p < 0.005). Global-local letters task, Stroop task Effects of meditation on attention processes (2000, Journal Article) N. Jhansirani, P. V. K. Rao The effects of mindfulness-based attention on cold pressor pain in children (2013, Journal Article) M. Petter, C.T. Chambers, J MacLaren Chorney BACKGROUND: Typical interventions for acute pain in children attempt to reduce pain by directing attention away from pain. Conversely, mindfulness involves devoting attention to one’s experience in an accepting and nonjudgmental way. However, the effect that instructing children to mindfully devote attention to acute pain has on pain outcomes is unknown. OBJECTIVES: To examine whether mindful attention can help children attend to pain without increasing pain intensity or decreasing pain tolerance; to compare the effects of mindful attention with a well-established intervention designed to take attention away from pain (guided imagery); and to test whether baseline coping style or trait mindfulness alter the effects of these interventions. METHODS: A total of 82 children (10 to 14 years of age) completed measures of coping style and trait mindfulness. Participants then received either mindful attention or guided imagery instructions designed to direct attention toward or away from pain, respectively, before participating in a cold pressor task. RESULTS: The mindful attention group reported more awareness of the physical sensations of pain and thoughts about those sensations. Overall, there were no between-group differences in measures of pain intensity or pain tolerance during the cold pressor task, and no evidence of an interaction between baseline characteristics of the child and experimental condition. CONCLUSIONS: Mindful attention was successful in helping children focus attention on experimental pain without increasing pain intensity or decreasing tolerance compared with a well-established intervention for acute pain reduction. guided imagery,	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1871
__label__wiki	0.658779	0.658779	Iulia Linnea ( iulia_linnea) wrote in snapecase, Iulia Linnea iulia_linnea FIC: A Relative Feast (G) Title: A Relative Feast Type: Fic Age-Range Category: Two Characters: Severus, Tobias, Eileen, Lily Beta: Shog Note: 1195 words. Summary: Severus is hungry for more than affection. "—to find work. I might not find it, o' course, but needs must. You mind your mam," Da told him, almost kindly, as if, in the absence of anger, the man might remember what that was. Severus blinked and swallowed. "Best of luck, Da." With a grunt, Tobias left them. "Don't worry, Severus." "Because, er, he'll be back?" he asked. Eileen snorted and turned towards the kitchen. "Because it'll take that man weeks before he does come back." Following his mother, Severus asked, "What's for tea?" "There's just enough grease for a crust, and I've some nuts—and some eggs I've been hi—saving." Severus frowned at his mother's sudden reticence to speak her mind. She's actually going to miss him. "Why's Da going off to look for work now? What's so special about now?" "You're about to go to school. Your da," Eileen explained, as she brought out her hidden pie ingredients, "is under the impression that there are fees to be paid." "And even though I'm a freak—" Severus began. Eileen finished: "'No son o' mine is taking charity from posh mage-y types'." Severus smirked, but turned away so that his mam didn't see his expression. "He does care, in his way." "Let me help?" Severus asked, abruptly changing the subject. Eileen sighed. "I want two cups of flour, but there's only—" "One and a half, I see," said Severus, pouring it into a mixing bowl, the mixing bowl. "I've got the bacon grease and a little bit of butter." "And here's the apple cider vinegar." "Thanks, Mam." "You're welcome. Don't overmix." "Of course not!" "And don't take tones." I shouldn't take tones. Da can, but I shouldn't, Severus thought grumpily. As he began to cut the grease and butter into the flour with two knives, however, his mind began to wander. Hogwarts! It was almost time to go to Hogwarts—with Lily! He'd make such friends, not quite as good as Lily, of course, but such friends as would stick by him forever. And the things I'll learn! thought Severus, proud of what he'd already learned from his mam and eager to learn more. There are so many books in Hogwarts' library that Mam says— "Don't overmix!" "I'm not overmixing!" "And do not take that tone with me, boy!" Rolling his eyes, Severus said, thick and sweet as treacle, "I love you, dearest Mam. Don't be cross with me." Daring to look behind him, he saw his mother's mouth twitch before smoothing out into its characteristic flat line. "Don't overmix," Eileen said, without the weight of any particular tone. And that was affectionate; Severus smiled a bit and began sprinkling the flour and butter mixture, now so many small peas in the bowl, with the vinegar mixed with a bit of water. "I am now beginning to mix. I will not 'over'," intoned Severus. "Stop playing," Eileen told him, playfully swatting in his direction with her tea towel. "What's that you have there?" asked Severus, gesturing to his mother's left hand, which she was keeping in her apron pocket. Without warning, she cried, "Ham! It's a bit of ham!" Severus stopped mixing. "Where did you get ham?" "It's a secret." "It was Mrs James, wasn't it?" "Tabitha does share, doesn't she?" "And you're sometimes awfully vague, Mam." "Yes," said Eileen, "sometimes I am. Be grateful for the ham—and don't overmix." Severus didn't overmix, and soon, he and his mother sat down to a relative feast of ham, roasted carrots, stewed onions, and walnut pie. "Why 'on't 'ou 'ell 'e 'ere—" "Chew, swallow, and then speak," ordered Eileen. "Why won't you tell me where you got the ham?" "Because I don't want to." "Mam!" "Tone." "I'm not a child!" exclaimed Severus, almost upsetting his tea. "Ow!" "That's a hot cup. Be careful!" "As careful as you were when you sto—" Severus' unspoken "stole it" hung in the air as his throat closed. "Now that's a 'trick' you don't yet know, isn't it, boy? How dare you accuse me of stealing?" She was practically hissing, was his mother, and Severus was afraid. Shaking her head, Eileen ended the spell. "Severus, I—" Tears rolled down his cheeks, his flushed cheeks, and Severus could only breathe for a moment. For one long moment, he breathed in, and he breathed out, and then he said, placing his hands palm down on the table, "Don't make me hate you, too, Mam. I couldn't bear it." With that, Severus fled the house. "I think she does love you, and so does your father," Lily told him, one hand resting on his shoulder as she stared into his eyes with what Severus knew to be genuine kindness. "I think they both do. They just—" "Mean! Horrid! Awful!" "Severus, please." "I'm sorry, Lily, I am, but it's true! They're both mean." "And horrid?" "Yes," he agreed. "And awful," Severus and Lily said, together, before Lily took Severus' hands and drew him back down to the ground. "You made a pie? You can really bake? I've only ever baked scones before. Mum doesn't like it when we use the kitchen without her help." "But her 'help' ends up being everything?" Severus asked. "You're right. She's always doing everything for us, and . . . ." You should be glad, Severus thought, but did not say. "Lily—" "Oh, I know you think I'm spoiled." "No! I wasn't going to say that at all! I was going to say that at Hogwarts, you'll be able to do anything you want. No one will coddle you, or keep you from reading any book at all." "Really?" asked Lily. "It's the truth!" Severus said, his enthusiasm overpowering his ire at his parents. "I hope so, Sev." Severus flushed to hear Lily use her pet name for him, especially in such an effortlessly earnest and affectionate manner. "I truly do want to learn to be useful." "You're already perfect," Severus assured Lily, realising too late how he must sound. She beamed at him. "You're the best friend a girl could ever have!" Severus felt as though he floated home. He was going to Hogwarts. He was going there with a friend. And he was going to make so many more that it didn't matter if his parents were mean or horrid or awful. Because everything's going to be all right. I'll be with Lily. Allowing that good thought to steady him as he turned the knob and went in, Severus found a surprise awaiting him in the kitchen: an entire ham, well, less the bits he and his mam had already eaten. Next to it was a note, which read: I liberate. I do not steal. Eat what you like, but remember it's all the ham you'll see for some time. Your crust was good. I had two pieces of the pie after you left. It wasn't quite the bloom of happy heat that had warmed him on the way home, but knowing that his mother appreciated his cookery was close. It was a peace offering, and one that Severus intended to accept. "I love you, too, Mam." Tags: author: iulia_linnea, category: two, type: fic	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1877
__label__wiki	0.894016	0.894016	A Finding Aid to the Reuben Kadish Papers, , in the Archives of American Art Artwork by Kadish, work on Siquieros mural Triumph of Good Over Evil at University in Morelia, Mexico, (including photographs of Siquieros, Kadish, Philip Goldstein (Guston), and Jules Langsner) AAA.kadireub Kadish, Reuben, 1913-1992 7.9 Linear feet This collection, which measures 7.9 linear feet and dates from 1851 to 1995 (bulk 1913-1995), documents the life and career of muralist, sculptor, and educator Reuben Kadish. The papers contain biographical material, letters, personal business records, an exhibition file, notes, writings, artwork, printed material, photographs, and artifacts. The Reuben Kadish papers measure 7.9 linear feet and date from 1851 to 1995 with the bulk of the material dating from 1913 to 1995. The collection documents the life and career of muralist, sculptor, and educator Reuben Kadish and contains biographical material, letters, personal business records, an exhibition file, notes, writings, artwork, printed material, photographs, and artifacts. Biographical material, 1938-1992, includes résumés and personal identification items. Letters are from friends and colleagues including Herman Cherry, Philip Guston, Hilaire Hiler, Jules Langsner, Urban Neininger, Charles Pollock, and Jackson Pollock. One letter from the Leonard Stark family contains a small photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe. Personal business records, 1952-1995, consist of legal documents, including estate papers for Ida and Reuben Kadish, and financial records. The only specific exhibition file documents the 1990 exhibition Reuben Kadish: Works from 1930 to the Present at the New Jersey State Museum in 1990. Notes include unbound notes on mural painting, printmaking, sculpture, and other art-related topics, and handwritten translations by William H. Thomson of thirty classic texts by Homer, Horace, and Demosthenes. Writings, 1975-1992, consist of an autobiographical manuscript by Kadish, and typescripts concerning Kadish and other art-related topics by other authors including Dore Ashton, Herman Cherry, Howard Conant, and Judd Tully. Artwork, undated and 1981-1992, includes a hundred sketches and seventeen watercolors by Kadish, and a drawing for DIG (Archeology) by Barbara Kadish. Printed material relates primarily to exhibitions for Kadish and others but also includes a baseball program autographed by Darryl Strawberry. Photographs include prints of Kadish and other artists working on murals, and photographs picturing family and friends. The collection is arranged into ten series, based on type of material. Although acquired as a gift before the rest of the collection was loaned to the Archives of American Art in 1998, eight photographs are described in Series 9: Photographs, with those included in the 1998 loan. Each series is arranged chronologically, except Series 2: Letters and Series 6: Writings, which are arranged alphabetically according to the surname of the writer. Series 1: Biographical Material, 1938-1992 (box 1, 3 folders) Series 2: Letters, 1934-1995, undated (boxes 1-3, 2.5 linear ft.) Series 3: Personal Business Records, 1952-1995 (boxes 3-4, 37 folders) Series 4: Exhibition File, 1989-1991 (box 4, 1 folder) Series 5: Notes, 1851-1853, 1937-1992, undated (boxes 4-5, 35 folders) Series 6: Writings, 1963-1992, undated (box 5, 14 folders) Series 7: Artwork, 1981-1992, undated (box 5, sol 10, 8 folders) Series 8: Printed Material, 1934-1993, undated (boxes 5-7, 76 folders) Series 9: Photographs, 1913-1992, undated (boxes 7-9, sol 10, 2.0 linear ft.) Series 10: Artifacts, undated (box 9, 1 folder) Reuben Kadish was born in Chicago on January 29, 1913. His father and mother were from Latvia and the Ukraine respectively. In 1921, the family moved to East Los Angeles, California, where Kadish studied painting under Lorser Feitelson. During this time, he befriended Jackson Pollock and Philip Guston, who attended the Manual Arts High School. During a trip to New York City in 1930, Kadish was impressed with the modern art, especially the work of the Surrealists, which he saw there. Upon his return to Los Angeles the following year, Kadish attended the Otis Art School, the Stickney School of Art in Pasadena, and Los Angeles City College. He also shared a studio with Philip Guston. In 1933, Kadish, Guston and Jules Langsner were apprenticed to Mexican muralist, David Alfaro Siqueiros. Their most notable work being the mural "Triumph of Good Over Evil", at the University of Morelia in Mexico. During the next three years, the three young artists collaborated on painting murals in California and Mexico. After another visit to New York, Kadish was invited to San Francisco by Bill Gaskin to head the art division of the WPA project there, a position he occupied until 1940. From 1940, Kadish worked as a coppersmith and welder at the Bethlehem Steel Works in San Francisco until 1942, when he joined the Army as a member of the War Artist Unit, serving in India and Southeast Asia during World War II. In 1944, he rejoined his wife Barbara in the Bay Area, but they soon returned to New York City, where Kadish worked for Stanley William Hayter at Atelier 17. In the summer of 1945, the Kadish painted with Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in a shared Long Island house on Slow's Point in Amagansett. In 1946, the Kadishes moved to a dairy farm in Vernon, New Jersey, where they supported themselves by farming until 1957. A catastrophic fire in the studio destroyed most of Kadish's paintings in 1947, causing him to turn his interest to creating sculpture. After teaching art and design at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art in 1957, Kadish taught sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1958-1959. In 1960, he began his thirty-year teaching career at Cooper Union, which ended only a few months before his death on September 20, 1992 in Manhattan. Alternative Forms Available The bulk of the collection is available on microfilm reels 5655-5660 at the Archives of American Art offices and through interlibrary loan. Researchers should note that the arrangement of the material described in the container inventory does not reflect the arrangement of the collection on microfilm. The collection was processed by Jean Fitzgerald in 1999. Jean Fitzgerald The eight photographs on Reel 5660 were donated to the Archives of American Art in 1984 by Reuben Kadish. The other material on Reels 5655-5660 was lent for filming in 1998 by Morris and Ruth Kadish, brother and sister-in-law of Reuben Kadish, and executors of his estate, and subsequently donated to the Archives of American Art in 2002. The collection is open for research. Use requires an appointment. Microfilmed portion must be consulted on microfilm. Ownership and Literary Rights The Reuben Kadish papers are owned by the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Literary rights as possessed by the donor have been dedicated to public use for research, study, and scholarship. Reuben Kadish papers, 1851-1995, bulk 1913-1995. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Other resources relating to Reuben Kadish in the Archives of American Art include an oral history interview with Kadish, April 15, 1992. Drawings Type Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Sculptors -- New York (State) -- New York -- Interviews Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Muralists -- California Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Sculptors -- California Topic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Tully, Judd Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Siqueiros, David Alfaro Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Pollock, Jackson, 1912-1956 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Pollock, Charles C. Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Guston, Philip, 1913-1980 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Ashton, Dore Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Cherry, Herman Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Conant, Howard Somers, 1921- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid De Kooning, Willem, 1904- Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Hiler, Hilaire, 1898-1966 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Langsner, Jules, 1911-1967 Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid Neininger, Urban Personal Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid 750 9th Street, NW Victor Building, Suite 2200 https://www.aaa.si.edu/services/questions https://www.aaa.si.edu/	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1882
__label__cc	0.640305	0.359695	NavigationHomeSpecial peopleSpecial PlacesMy Thoughts Published on December 15th, 2019 \| by Ramona Sarac Vasile Vlasin’s incredible life lesson – a parent who had lost his child voluntarily teaches other parents how to save their children’s lives Vasile Vlasin (44 years old) had lost his son four years ago, after an apparently banal event – Luca had drowned with food. The pain of a parent who loses his child certainly can’t be described in any words, but what Vasile Vlasin and his wife did afterwards is an incredible lesson of altruism, humanity, dedication and care for the good of others. They trained themselves, bought necessary equipments and today have an association, “Lifesaving Parents” and teach voluntarily thousands of parents how to give first aid, so that other children can have the chance Luca, their beloved son, did not have. Through their association, over 16.000 people had been trained by now, humanitarian campaigns for many people in need were carried out, medical equipments for public hospitals were purchased and defibrillators were bought and placed in public places. In 2015, Luca, Vlasin family’s son, died after an apparently banal event – he had drowned with food. He was eating some almonds – a soft, sticky paste – and was staying on his back, so that his mother can change his clothes. He was crying and strongly aspired the pasta he was chewing – and everything his parents did afterwards was not enough. They ran with him to the local hospital very quickly – got there in 3,17 minutes – but doctors could not save his life. A medical equipment vital in such situation – a video bronchoscope – did not exist in the public hospital from Baia Mare, their native town. Luca was moved with a helicopter to another hospital after 6 hours, but it was already too late. “If the brain remains oxygen-free more than 5 minutes chances of survival are zero”, Vasile Vlasin explains. Luca had lived 49 more days connected to medical equipments, and in 11 november he died. Video bronchoscope instead of wreaths “The next day, we were going home and somewhere on our way we stopped. People who were with me were very agitated, and one of their main worries was related to wreaths, as if the multitude of flowers would’ve helped in any way”, Vasile Vlasin remembers. And he made an announcement – asked everyone who will come to the funeral not to buy wreaths, and to donate the money they would spend on flowers, so that a video bronchoscope for the public hospital can be bought. “I wanted other children to have the chance Luca did not have”, he says. Some of necessary amount of money was raised like this, the rest was donated. “People from everywhere started to write, and helped me raise the difference”, he says. The equipment cost 50.000 euro and was bought 2 months later – and the road of helping others and of being in public service was opened. Lifesaving Parents Because Vasile Vlasin was aware that the equipment was more than useful for those who get to the hospital in time. But what happens if you can’t do this? “For any kind of situations like this the basis does not consist in medical equipments. The basis is the witness, the person near the victim, he is the first to help”, he explains. And this is how Lifesaving Parents was created – to teach parents basic life support, what we can do until the ambulance arrives, having only two hands. “We are trying to teach others to be for their children what we couldn’t be for Luca”, Vasile Vlasin says. He trained himself, became basic life support instructor accredited by the European Resuscitation Council, bought necessary equipments and started teaching everywhere he was called, in Romania and abroad, for free. “We have six types of mannequins, defibrillator, patient simulator, so that those who participate can learn what they should do when life is in danger”, he says. Over 16.000 people graduated courses until now, in groups of 20, to be able to practice on mannequins. Over 600 course sessions, 3-4 hours for one session, days when he had three courses – nothing was too much thinking how much this could help. And the moments when parents write messages after months, to tell how they saved a child who had drowned, are the most beautiful gift he can get. Humanitarian campaigns and medical equipments Beyond this courses, he did so many good things, also. Another very important direction for Lifesaving Parents were the humanitarian campaigns, to raise necessary money for people who needed surgeries and treatments abroad. Over 50 children were helped until now, and not only children, all serious cases, of life and death. “We have on our Facebook group people who get involved every time something is needed, I need a place to stay in a city, a driver with his own car to take someone to Wien tomorrow, we get answers very quickly. All these wonderful people give me energy, power, motivation to move forward”, he says. Medical equipments for public hospitals were also bought and blood donations campaigns were organized. The last campaign consists of equipping public spaces with defibrillators – another way of saving lives if emergency medical aid is get on time. The chances for someone to be saved increase by 75%, in USA, for instance every block scale has a defibrillator. Thousands of people support his actions, especially humanitarian campaigns, other thousands were trained during the courses. Somehow, Luca’s death was not in vain – many others, children especially, adults also, have now other chances because of what he is doing. You can find out more about Vasile Vlasin and Lifesaving Parents on their website, HERE, and on their Facebook Page, HERE PHOTOS FROM PERSONAL ARCHIVE Do you know a very special person? Someone who has followed his dream, built it piece by piece, with passion, energy and lot of soul? An usual, simple person who did something in life, who you can identify with, who can be, for others, a source of inspiration? Tell me about that person and let’s tell the others his/her beautiful story. Write me at specialstories00@gmail.com, here, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Tags: first aid, parinti salvatori, saving parents, specialpeople, specialstories, specialstories00, vasile vlasin Ramona Sarac Ecaterina Diulescu – the story of handmade luxury knitwear that customers all over the world have fallen in love with → Mihai’s incredible life lesson – with am amputated leg, from fight for survival to his own prosperous business → Daniel and Angela, guardian angels for thousands of Romanian roma people in Norway → Doctor Livia Ognean, guardian angel of the babies of several hundred grams → The magic of December. The magic of love Daddy run, ruuuuuun. I’m just few years old, Daddy too... by Ramona Sarac The day heart starts wearing a pair of red shoes I don’t think there is a woman in the whole world who... by Ramona Sarac The country from my heart There’s a book I simply fell in love with, this summer... by Ramona Sarac A new beginning I left Romania 2 years ago, thinking that my story... by Ramona Sarac All the texts published on this site are the exclusive property of specialstories.eu and are protected by international copyright law. Citation is allowed only in limit of 500 letters and mandatory with active link to the original text. © 2019 SpecialStories	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1889
__label__wiki	0.851282	0.851282	NCWTS: Ten Cautions Slow Alpha Energy Solutions 250 at Martinsville 01 Apr 2017 Brett Winningham NASCAR Truck Series News The Alpha Energy Solutions 250 provided an action-packed day at Martinsville Speedway on Saturday. The 250 lap, 131.5-mile event at the half-mile Virginia oval saw 10 cautions over the course of the event. It wasn’t long before the field of 32-trucks slowed after receiving the green flag. On lap three, Bryce Napier went around in his No. 1 Chevrolet in turn one. The team quickly took the truck behind the wall and was done for the afternoon. Nobody received the free pass as the field went back green on lap eight. The second incident of the afternoon involved a pair of trucks in turn three. This would involve Joe Nemechek and Cody Coughlin. Both drivers continued as Wendell Chavous got the free pass. The field went back green three laps later. The end of stage one brought out the next yellow on lap 70. Chase Elliott, who led every lap of the race to this point, won this stage of the event. Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton, Christopher Bell, Brant Enfinger, Chase Briscoe, Timothy Peters, Noah Gragson, Ty Dillon and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top 10. The No. 16 of Ryan Truex received the beneficiary. The next yellow came at lap 92 for the No. 44 of Brandon Brown in turn four. Brown could continue in his Chevrolet to finish 27th on the leaderboard. The No. 92 of Regan Smith received the free pass as the field went back green on lap 96. Five laps later the two trucks of Noah Gragson and Chase Briscoe made contact in turn two to bring out the fifth yellow of the day. The two drivers could continue in their trucks with minimal damage. The No. 66 of Ross Chastain received the free pass under this yellow flag. John Hunter Nemechek developed a mechanical issue that caused him to move slow around the race track around lap 117. Nemechek, trying to get the truck to re-fire, eventually stopped on the track two laps later. Nemechek’s Chevrolet went behind the wall for a short period of time before returning onto the track. The No. 63 of Kyle Donahue received the lucky dog. The next yellow flag came out with three laps remaining before the end of stage two. It involved Brett Moffitt, eventual race winner Chase Elliott, and Ross Chastain in turn four. Johnny Sauter went on to win this stage of the race in his No. 21 Chevrolet. Matt Crafton, Chase Briscoe, Timothy Peters, Grant Enfinger, Justin Haley, Harrison Burton, Kaz Grala, Christopher Bell and Tyler Young rounded out the top 10. The No. 75 truck of Caleb Holman received the free pass. Eleven laps later the field slowed again for an incident involving Austin Hill, Kaz Grala, and Harrison Burton in turn four. All three trucks continued despite it being a multi-truck crash. Wendell Chavous, who received the free pass under the second caution period of the day, also got the free pass under the ninth stoppage. The final yellow of the day was displayed on lap 235 in turn one. It involved race leader Christopher Bell, Kyle Donahue, and Austin Cindric with 15 laps remaining. The incident put Bell third for the restart and could never catch Chase Elliott for the lead in the closing laps of the race. Bell went on to finish third behind second-place finisher Johnny Sauter. The race elapsed two hours, one minute and 38 seconds and had an average speed of 64.867. The margin of victory was 1.865 seconds and had three leaders for four lead changes. Brett Winningham Brett has been following the sport of NASCAR since the beginning of the 2006 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Since Brett was 13, he has had a passion of chasing a job in sports that not many get the opportunity of doing. He has been in the NASCAR media since the middle of the 2010 season. Since then, he has been a part of many racing podcast shows to improve his talents. You can find him on twitter @NASCAR_Brett. Latest from Brett Winningham NCS: NASCAR Unveils 2020 Short Track / Road Course Aero Package NGOTS: Stewart Friesen Wins Lucas Oil 150, Advances Into Round of 4 NKNPSW: Derek Kraus Scores NAPA / ENEOS 150 Pole NGOTS: Todd Gilliland Wins Thrilling NASCAR Hall of Fame 200 at Martinsville NGOTS, NXS: Ross Chastain Riding Wave of Confidence as Season Ends More in this category: « Annual Alpha Energy Solutions 250 Results from Martinsville Gragson Scores his First Top-Five Finish at Martinsville »	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1890
__label__wiki	0.777145	0.777145	HBS Global Research Center: California Research Center Dividend Policy at Linear Technology by Malcolm P. Baker, Alison Berkley Wagonfeld, Dividend Policy at Linear Technology ^ 204066 Malcolm P. Baker Alison Berkley Wagonfeld Taxation,Dividends,Cash management,Financial management In 1992, Linear Technology, a designer and manufacturer of analog semiconductors, initiated a dividend. The firm increased its dividend by approximately $0.01 per share each year thereafter. In fiscal year 2002, Linear experienced its first significant drop in sales since its 1986 initial public offering. Sales dropped by 47%, and profits fell by 54%. In the spring of 2003, CFO Paul Coghlan is deciding whether to recommend yet another increase in dividends to lift Linear's payout ratio to 33.1%, high by the standards of technology firms. Related Topics: Taxation, Dividends, Cash management, Financial management, Dividend Policy at Fuyao Glass By Hugh Thomas, Joyce L. Wang, Yuhui Wu, Dividend Policy at FPL Group, Inc. (A) By Craig F. Schreiber, Dividend Policy at SRF Limited: Buyback of Shares By Kulbir Singh, David J. Sharp, S. Ramanna Vishwanath, InsightSquared: Developing the Sales and Marketing Plan By Mark N. Roberge, Thomas R. Eisenmann, Frank V. Cespedes, Matrix Capital Management (A) By Malcolm P. Baker, David Lane,	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1895
__label__cc	0.623789	0.376211	Centurion Robbie A signiﬁcant event in the life of our Senior Past President approaches! by Paul Davies Iain William James Robertson, better known to us all as “Robbie”, was born on January 29th 1917 in the Perthshire town of Aberfeldy and in a few days time, God willing, should be the club’s first Centurion Past President. In the Spring of 1939 whilst studying for his ACIS at Herriott Watts Academy he answered the call by volunteering for the RAVR and entered the service on September 1st 1939. After sailing to Canada aboard the liner Queen Mary he was commissioned and trained as a navigator before returning on the Ile De France. Not exactly pleasure cruises, each being so crowded that the cooks had to serve eighteen sittings each day. Robbie was posted to Coastal Command and based at Kinloss for most of the war, covering the Atlantic and North Sea in a wide variety of aircraft ranging from Beaufighters to Lancasters. During his service there he met a kindred spirit in Squadron Leader Ron “Wally” Wallens DFC, a rugby club member from Stourbridge. After the war Robbie became a “Gentleman of the Excise” inspecting the records (and the products) of Scottish bonded warehouses and distilleries. During holidays spent in this area Wally introduced him to the delights of The Whittington, Fox, Unicorn, Turf etc. (you get the message). During a period of boredom up north he saw and successfully applied for the position of Senior Tax Officer for Stourbridge Area 2, only later finding that it covered the Lye and Cradley areas with only one brewery in it. On arriving in Stourbridge in 1955 he immediately joined the Golf Club and the Rugby Club before reporting in to the office. Although his playing days were over he became closely involved with the club giving players lifts to away matches and becoming Bar Secretary when the club decided to have it’s own bar. He held this post for many years before becoming the Club Cashier, closely checking and banking each week’s takings. When nearly 90 he eventually stood down and retired. Still a confirmed bachelor, Robbie continues to enjoy the company of the ladies - no worries there! An outstanding club servant fully deserving our best wishes for a great 100th birthday next week. Inset for the model picture: When Robbie retired as Bar Secretary a very handy man created this model to present to him. Note the detail of the Customs and Excise tie and mashie niblick. The full inscription reads “Presented to Robbie for appreciation of 20 years service as Bar Secretary to Stourbridge Rugby Football Club.” Posted by Stourbridge Rugby at 07:35 No comments: Labels: 100th birthday, centurion, Iain William James Robertson, past president, Robbie Stourbridge Girls at Sixways On Saturday 14th January 2017, a group from the Stourbridge RFC Girls Rugby squad attended a 'Pitch Up and Play' event at Worcester Warriors' Sixways Stadium. The day started with some training carousels delivered by Worcester Warriors coaches and a few of the Valkyries players before they went off for their own pre-match warm up. Each training carousel was intense, but fun and really showed the girls how to develop their skills and fitness. Training was followed by a short game, then lunch in the Sixways Premier Suite. The girls and their parents were then invited to watch the Worcester Valkyries vs Wasps Ladies game in the main Sixways stadium. It was a great game with the Valkyries running out 60-19 winners in the end. A big thank you from all of the Stourbridge Girls and their parents to Simon Northcott, who organised the day. The event did a great deal to inspire our girls and show them the opportunities that are available for them. Labels: North Midlands RFU Girls Rugby, Sixways, Stourbridge Girls Rugby, Stourbridge RFC Girls, Wasps Ladies, Worcester Valkyries, Worcester Warriors SRFC Chairman's View - the season so far... Here's the report from Robin Edwards of the Stourbridge Rugby season at the half-way point... It seems barely possible that we have reached the half way point of the season already but the calendar shows December is almost finished and a New Year is about to begin. Time for reflection and review of how our season is shaping up. These views are my personal commentary for our members’ information only and as such are an informal communication. Your new general committee elected at the 2016 AGM brought changes with some new faces appearing and responsibilities were allocated accordingly. Your new President - Nick Perry, Hon Secretary - Lisa Hill, with new husband Alex Hill, Commercial Director – Miles Edge, Communications Director - Mark Denison, Membership Secretary - David Wainwright, Head of Marketing - Louise Kelly, Rich Walker - M and J representative all joined with fourteen re-elected committee members. Your committee is representative across the whole club although we are always looking to co-opt more willing volunteers and we are very much aware that most of the hard work is done via subcommittees and their sub teams. The Lions and the M and J committees have continued to function as previously and both are represented on general committee. Each section determines the composition of their own committees. It is in everyone’s best interests to have a consistent approach to club development and a common purpose for the future. At the last AGM issues were raised about the way our constitution worked and these details are now being studied with the intention of making recommendations for amendment. We anticipate that proposed changes will be available for members’ consideration before the next AGM. We are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and active membership willing to encourage the committee with their advice and guidance. We realise that the club only functions as a result of the efforts of its members and we are aware of the need to engage as many volunteers as possible. If you feel you would like to assist in any way please come forward and get involved. The general committee is considering the prospect of nominating a volunteer coordinator for next season. During the year it has been made clear that several of our members have strongly held opinions about running the club. We encourage feedback and would be happy to hold a member’s discussion forum if this is of interest. There have been instances when some members have used social media to express their feelings about the club. Whilst this is a legitimate medium for social banter we do have a social media policy we would like our members to follow. In the first instance members may prefer to adopt a more direct approach and discuss face to face with the clubs officials. It is our intention to involve as many sponsors, supporters and members as possible in running the club and this season the President has adopted a policy of inviting members and sponsors from across the club to join him on the official representatives table at pre match lunches. The excellent support for our teams at home and away is envied by many clubs in our league and the players and officials appreciate the loyal and dedicated supporters who turn up in all weathers at grounds around the country. It is a great credit to our club to have supporters who are so amiable and well behaved. There is a theory that this may well be attributed to gin and tonic liberally applied in transit? Match day crowds at home are never as big as we would like however we are trying to grow the gate numbers with a number of initiatives. The increased gate after our bonfire night special offer was encouraging and we will look at ways to further introduce rugby to a wider audience. All are welcome at Stourton Park, please bring your friends and family down to watch. RFU Relationship We continue to enjoy a close liaison with the RFU and their assistance has been beneficial to the development of the club in many ways. The club is supporting the ‘Return to Rugby’ initiative that is designed to involve as many new and ‘lapsed’ players as possible in coming back to the game. We are encouraging the gazelles to play more often and are hopeful that through the local clubs networking there will be more fixtures played. There is the option to play under lights on a weekday evening if this proves to be attractive. O2 touch continues to be popular on Wednesday evenings and we receive support from the RFU for developing this aspect of the game. We intend to improve the administration of these sessions to allow all members and guests to fully enjoy the facilities. Our new floodlights have been installed and the RFU have part funded the costs of this essential facility. It is encouraging to see that the lights are now in use almost every evening. We are in discussions about the merits of an artificial grass pitch, more detail in facilities. Support for the mini and junior section is extensive providing the key messages that we want young rugby players to observe. Always worth repeating the message; Teamwork, Respect, Enjoyment, Discipline and Sportsmanship Our Game Management System (GMS) database still requires work and the scale of the task is daunting. The range of information contained in the database means that we need to check several different sources and keeping all the different feeds up to date is impractical. We are looking at the possibility of using a simpler database that we can build to talk to the GMS. Player payment capping Stability in any club is a major factor in achieving success on the field and the reality of the professional era is that at many levels teams can change drastically depending on the amount of financial support available and the movement of players between clubs has never been more pronounced. Whilst this situation provides opportunities for players to find the ideal level to display their talents it does little to assist stability. The semi professional game is the subject of much open discussion at the moment, opinions are plentiful and the RFU are already in the process of refining their original draft report about player payments. It seems inevitable that player payment capping of some sort will be introduced soon however the mechanisms for control, the set limits and the overall effect on the game are yet to be seen. It is likely that this will have some effect on SRFC however as yet we have insufficient detail to be able to comment. There are conflicting opinions amongst the expert commentators but all agree that whatever happens we want to encourage people to play rugby at all levels rather than tie the game down with red tape. England supporters have become accustomed to winning with the team unbeaten in fourteen outings including humbling Australia 3-0 on their home turf and winning a grand slam. Whatever secret formula Eddie Jones is using it has proven effective and the style of play has entertained and impressed crowds across the rugby world. International matches are usually won or lost on fine margins and there is no room for complacency even with this excellent record to brag about. We look forward to the mouthwatering prospect of the six nations. Hopefully we will receive our ticket allocation shortly. The unbeatable All Blacks fell to Ireland in Chicago, South Africa seem to be struggling to find any form and the rise of Argentina and Japan is impressive. It may be that the world order is gradually changing and with more rugby being played around the globe perhaps new teams will emerge to challenge the established giants. There has been much talk about the USA and with their potential resources surely they will have a say in future competitions? The dramatic growth of popularity of sevens as a specialist game is stunning. There is now a well established and thriving international sevens circuit drawing huge crowds across the globe. The Rio Olympics was a wonderful showcase for the sport and the level of thrills and skills on display certainly keeps the crowds entertained. The advancement of sevens as a spectator event can only be good for the game as a whole and we are looking to host our own sevens tournament in future. Local rugby scene In the Premiership [level 1] Wasps are joint leaders and playing some great rugby in front of massive crowds, their move to the Ricoh arena seems to have been a masterstroke. At the other end of the table Worcester are in a relegation fight with Bristol and will require all their best efforts to retain their premiership status. In the Championship Nottingham hold a mid table position and seem to be the only relatively local club for us to consider. Above us in National 1 [level 3] Birmingham Moseley are making their challenge to bounce back into the Championship from their hard earned 4th place and Coventry are a bit further adrift in 6th place. This looks to be a very competitive league with Macclesfield (promoted from our league last year) currently in the bottom slot. This may be an indicator of the huge step up required to survive in this league? In National league 2 North [level 4] SRFC is currently placed 4th with Caldy topping the table and Sale and Sedgley Park above us. We have played all three of these teams away from home and all were very narrow losses. We will welcome the return fixtures at Stourton Park and hope for better outcomes. Below us in National league 3 Midlands [level 5] Nuneaton are looking good atop the table with Bees in 3rd place and Old Halesonians in 5th anything could happen in the second half of the season. Towards the other end of the table Bridgnorth are in 11th and below them Lichfield in 12th. In Midlands 1 West [level 6] Newport Salop are topping the table, DK have recently hit a winning streak and have reached 5th place with Wolverhampton close behind in 6th place. In Midlands 2 West (north) [Level 7] Stourbridge Lions proudly top the table after an excellent first half of the season. Their closest rivals are Camp Hill and the second half of the season will prove interesting. Looking around other league tables there are a few surprises this year. Rugby Lions appear to be reborn, topping their league after many years in relative obscurity and conversely the fate of our close friends Bromsgrove looks to be perilous after 13 losses and 1 win in their campaigns so far in the South West. Rugby (Director - Neil Mitchell) All aspects of playing rugby are discussed and reported through the rugby sub committee that includes representation from the First Team, the Lions, the M and J s team coaches and club captains. It is through this subcommittee that any playing, coaching or management issues are raised and recommendations made. The class of 2016/17 emerged from the previous years squad with a few notable exceptions who have either moved on to other clubs or retired. Recruitment in the spring gave Mitch a longer lead-time than usual and as a result our first team squad was considerably strengthened with an array of talented new players. The size and depth of our squad was encouraging and in particular the abundance of front row players was recognised as providing a solid platform for the seasons campaign. Keeping the whole squad happy is a delicate process and it has been expedient to make suitable arrangements so that players have opportunities to play each week. The awkward/expensive transfer arrangements set by the RFU registration authority can make the internal squad selection difficult. On the field our First Team have performed well and have shown character and flair but results in key away games have been unkind and there have been a couple of close calls that could have gone our way. The league continues to provide good quality opposition every week and there are no easy games. The Director of Rugby provides expert review and comments from each game and in addition to the detailed analysis shared with the squad his programme notes are a must read for any keen member. The Lions, Hounds, Hoppers, Gazelles, Colts and all M and Js are all representatives of the club as soon as they pull a shirt on or wear the badge. It is a credit to the club that our behaviour and disciplinary record is excellent. All our coaches, team managers and spectators have a role to play in promoting and continuing this approach and sporting ethos. The seemingly ever-changing approach to academies continues to baffle most clubs and it is hoped that the latest revisions suggested will release players to actually participate in more competitive rugby. If the cascade system works well we could be working with players from Premiership and Championship squads as do several of the clubs in our league. This team is a fundamental part of the club and we are very pleased to see that we have talented players emerging at this age group. League games are played on a Sunday afternoon and spectator numbers are rising, however this could be to hear the Jevs sing? Credit must go to the coaches, in particular Sean Firth, with Andy Slater and Simon Blackadder who are providing great encouragement and support for these lads. Girls rugby is gaining popularity and a squad of over twenty girls regularly trains on Sunday mornings. This year we have been involved in pitch up and play events and there are plans to host an event of this kind at Stourton Park. MINI and JUNIOR RUGBY (Chairman - Richard Walker) Chairman Tom Skinner has recently handed over to Richard Walker working with James Ritchie to continue the good work with the M and Js. We thank Tom for his contribution to the committee work of the club and have been reassured that he and the family aren’t leaving us. Our youngsters show great attitude and have a genuine commitment to their teammates and their club. The coaches of every age group deserve recognition for their diligence, patience and enthusiasm and it is evident that the whole club is coming together. We have seen a couple of age groups struggle for numbers recently and when this happens it can be quite dispiriting to the players and families involved. We will endeavor to bolster any such groups affected in the future and if you are concerned about the lack of numbers in any age group please let Richard and James know. Rugby camps We host rugby camps during the school holidays, often led by Worcester Warriors and SRFC are now recognised as a partner club with the Warriors. The camps provide a good introduction to the game and have a range of expert coaches providing tuition. Coordinated coaching The coordination of players and coaches from all teams and age groups is being encouraged so that we can benefit from a combination of all the knowledge and experience in the club and build our collective capability. We encourage coaching exchanges throughout the club and have appointed Tom Harrison as coaching coordinator for the M and Js. Communications (Director - Mark Denison) Electronic news The regular production of ‘In Touch’ (our electronic newsletter) has proven to be very effective and is popular as a vital link for many of our hard to reach members. Keeping the editions interesting, informative and up to date is no mean feat and we must congratulate Mark and his contributors on their efforts. The Head of Marketing has been very successful taking bookings and overseeing arrangements for ‘external’ hire of our facilities. We host several different functions for business seminars, presentation meetings, training lectures, private parties, weddings and special social events. The flexibility of our facilities works in our favour and the choice of rooms available means that we can accommodate many different requirements. The development of this capability needs to be integrated within the rest of the facilities team. Hospitality Manager The management committee has been considering the need for a coordination role for some time and recently we have agreed a job description for a hospitality manager and advertised for applications. We place emphasis on customer care to enhance the experience for anyone using the club. Sponsors and members can reasonably expect to receive a bespoke service with their bookings and we need to make this as efficient and accessible as possible. Our website carries a lot of useful information details of our fixtures and results and a host of other details however all information has to be loaded and properly maintained. Keeping our unique information up to date is a considerable task that requires administrative controls and we are in the process of streamlining this effort to simplify input and updating. We hope to add archive information, old photographs and memorabilia as we compile more data. Press coverage of our matches is well organised and the match reports and photographs should also be available. Good to see that the rugby characters are still coming to Stourton Park and having both Austin Healey and Rob Andrew as guest speakers certainly entertained the respective events. Our extensive range of social events has proven very popular and whilst many ‘old favorites’ are going strong we have added further events to attract members and visitors to use the club facilities. We have reached the point where we need to have more input to arranging these events and this will be part of the remit of the hospitality manager. Forthcoming club events include: Ex Presidents lunch 6 Nations screenings Debenture Club Dinner MayBusiness Lunch May Ball Club Dinner Presidents and Ladies Evening Tea and Cakes The attraction for half time and post match genteel refreshment with the serving of tea and cakes in the Tower room has developed a loyal following. Whilst this is not everyone’s usual tipple it has proven popular with several regulars who also get the benefit of the best indoor viewing platform on inclement days. We are indebted to Jackie J-F and her lady bakers whose produce is much appreciated. Social media is becoming all-pervasive and is an essential communication tool for much of the population. Getting up to speed with the various elements of the SRFC presence and the way information is distributed has proven complex. Forming a policy for how we use the web site and other instances of electronic communications (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pitchero) has now been agreed and published. Please refer to the policy if in any doubt about what to post. Commercial (Director - Miles Edge) Last year we achieved significant improvement in our financial position because we reduced expenditure and increased income. Our finances have been boosted by a significant increase in sponsorship income, a reduction in overheads and outgoings and a better return on events that has allowed us to invest in improving our facilities, reducing our overdraft facility, paying down debts and ensuring prompt payments to our creditors. Also we have successfully launched interest bearing £5k bonds to assist with funding the planned capital projects. The detailed financial results from last season have already been published by the Hon Treasurer. (Chris Cook). Unfortunately the attempted FAGM was not quorate due to a lack of attendees and therefore we have rearranged the date to the 19th of January 2017. Miles Edge coordinates the commercial efforts with a large number of coopted members who have business ‘contacts’. There is a need to continue this development of our contact network and build a functioning business network. Any interested members who have potential sponsors they would like to introduce to the club are encouraged to do so by contacting the Commercial Director. In addition to retaining our current sponsors this year we have been able to introduce some new faces and they bring fresh opportunities and a wider sphere of influence. We are reaching out to a business audience by offering packages that encourage them to participate in more club events. The response has been very positive and we are working with various groups of sponsors to tailor events to their requirements. It is our intention to ‘network’ more effectively with our sponsors and provide them with a range of opportunities that will interest them and hopefully assist them in their business aspirations. Brokering introductions between sponsors demonstrates the advantage we offer through our connections. Whilst these arrangements cannot be hurried we are beginning to develop some reciprocal trading that should be attractive to sponsors. As the new membership secretary David Wainwright has carried out a thorough registration process that has hopefully included all our regular members. We are aware that there may still be people who use the club who may not have joined as members yet. In the New Year these people will not be able to play for any of our teams. If you are in doubt about your membership status please contact David Wainwright. Our allocation of tickets for each international game at TwIckenham is decided by the RFU and we provide all our members with the opportunity to apply for these tickets. In the event we are oversubscribed we organise a ballot to determine who will receive tickets. If you are interested in going to a match please fill in an application form. Facilities (Director - John Shaw) We have invested in the upgrading and maintenance of our facilities at Stourton Park and we are sure that these improvements will allow members and visitors to continue to enjoy their activities in comfort and safety. SRFC is known as a truly exceptional facility amongst the rugby fraternity and the efforts required to keep it in good order are extensive. John Shaw ably leads the Facilities sub committee and his diligence and methodical approach are hallmarks of his engineering background. Working with a small band of volunteers (the facilities sub committee and co-opts) several projects have been successfully completed. Many more are planned as and when funds become available and we are in the process of getting a condition survey together to prioritise the sequence of project works. Gathering information and considering options is essential to inform any debate around the future costs and potential benefits. In conjunction with the above we have contracted an independent company (Peninsula) to assist us with health and safety matters at the club and they are developing our approach to risk assessments and other vital considerations. General maintenance, repairs and replacements are necessary to keep the clubhouse in useable condition. It is an ongoing process that is part of the Directors responsibilities and we are considering how best to resource this in future. There has been much repair and replacement work carried out recently. This is a never-ending requirement and there is always more to do. We have tried hard to maintain the ‘five star’ standards that have been set however we are constantly aware of the need to refurbish and deal with the ongoing issues of wear and tear within our budgetary constraints. New floodlights operational The much anticipated new floodlights were successfully installed and operational from early September and this has made a difference to all training nights. We no longer have an excuse for dropping passes or hiding in dark corners as the lighting gives excellent conditions to conduct safer training sessions. We should thank the RFU for their assistance and also congratulate the contractors DSL. Members may also like to thank John Shaw and Norman Glover who saw this project through to completion. You may have noticed new gates and fencing appearing around the perimeter of the grounds. We need to ensure that our boundaries are correctly maintained at all times and that we are being responsible neighbours. We now have two new electrically operated garage doors, the old doors were damaged beyond economical repair. Entrance Sign After much preparatory work our new entrance signs are almost ready to be installed onto the new frame at the main entrance. Internally the old office equipment has been updated with new computers, a new telephone system has been installed (with ansaphone) and super fast broadband has finally arrived in Stourton. Special Event Catering (aka Shippo) continue to provide our catering although we have changed the arrangements in some aspects to provide pre-match dining at an affordable cost. The delicate matter of the whether we have a choice of sweets or an individual cheeseboard available is indelibly marked on my agenda for resolution. Bar sales are fickle and have much to do with the fixture list and the events we host. Whilst we saw the big increase in the volume of sales last year we have not seen the same pattern so far this year. We will continue to monitor the monthly figures. We have entered into an improved three-year deal with Marstons and they provide an extensive range of beverages from which we can select. We recently held a ‘wine selection meeting’ at which additional wines were chosen by vote of the members, we hope you will all enjoy the new choices. During the summer recess we unexpectedly become a brown field site when our esteemed colleague (Kill) Bill Harris mistook the grass killer for feed. In typically thorough fashion large areas were treated and we thought we would struggle to see enough grass to play on at the start if the season. However the elements were kind and the reseeding was so efficient that we now have better green sward than we have seen for many years. Perhaps this is something we should try more often? The repainting job to freshen up the common areas around the changing rooms has been completed at the same time as a deep clean of the main shower block. We now need to consider the replacement of aged benching and refurbishment of the players toilets. Both of these projects could have a knock on effect with any ground floor reorganization. The gym has been spruced up and we have recently added a running machine amongst the other pieces of functional torture equipment. New reception, office and kit shop Whilst all these features are still required the building structure has to be considered as a whole and if we are going to make changes we may as well include these requirements within a bigger overall scheme. Adding the office and shop to the front of the clubhouse would not address some of the other accommodation issues we face on the ground floor and as such may not be good value for money. Clubhouse heating We are aware that the current heating system is expensive to run and is not particularly effective, on cold winter days heating the main room is difficult. There has been considerable interest in this project and we are fortunate to have several members with expertise in the heating business. It is our intention to put a fully costed proposal together in the near future. Second exit We have planning approval and once sufficient funds are available we intend to build the ‘second exit’ which should make the entrance and exit to the club safer and easier. The new exit will be sited in the far corner of the roadside pitch and we will have to create a culvert structure to accommodate a tarmac road leading off the main carriageway. We also need to provide a ‘road’ surface to join up with the existing road that runs down between the first team and road pitches. Additional changing rooms There is still a need to increase our changing room capacity however the costs associated with extending the footprint of the clubhouse make this an expensive wish. Inevitably there are a limited number of ways the changing facilities can be extended and each one has major cost implications. We are looking at possibilities that we could use stand alone units in the rear car park however even this option would be costly. Balcony extension Outline plans exist that show the feasibility of extending the balcony towards the first team pitch. Whilst this would be a major structural project to provide an extended viewing platform it would also unlock the possibility of increasing the ground floor footprint allowing the club to expand and remodel changing rooms, gym, medical and referees area. The high cost of this project would make it a major capital expenditure and further investigation is needed before the scheme could be properly considered. Final thought... It’s your Club, help to make it as good as it can be... Labels: Chairman's Report, Robin Edwards, Stourbridge Rugby Welcome to 2017 at Stourton Park Happy New Year to you all from Stourbridge RFC. We've had a successful first half of the season for all of our league teams. Going into Christmas, the First XV reached 4th place in National 2 North (level 4), the Lions remained in 1st place in Midlands 2 West (North) (level 7) and the Colts sit in 4th place in North Midlands Colts League 2. There's some BIG games coming up at Stourton Park for the rest of the season - here's the list so you can plan your weekends to the end of the season! Saturday 7th January 2017 Stourbridge Lions vs Old Saltleians Stourbridge Colts vs Old Halesonians Stourbridge Lions vs Kidderminster Carolians North Midlands Shield Quarter Final Saturday 21st January Stourbridge First XV vs Leicester Lions Stourbridge Lions vs Shrewsbury Stourbridge First XV vs Sale FC Stourbridge Colts vs Walsall Saturday 18th February Stourbridge First XV vs Sedgley Park Tigers Saturday 4th March Stourbridge Lions vs Tamworth Stourbridge First XV vs Caldy Stourbridge Lions vs Camp Hill Saturday 1st April Stourbridge First XV vs Otley Saturday 8th April (KO 3:00pm) Stourbridge Lions vs Leek Saturday 22nd April Stourbridge First XV vs Tynedale All Stourbridge First XV games are in National 2 North and kick off at 3:00pm. Admission is £10 for non-members, £7 for members and children under 16 get FREE admission when accompanied by an adult. All Stourbridge Lions games are in Midlands 2 West (North) or North Midlands RFU Shield and kick off at 2:15pm unless otherwise indicated. Admission for these games is FREE for everyone. All Stourbridge Colts games are in North Midlands Colts League Two and kick off at 2:00pm on Sundays. Admission for these games is FREE for everyone. FREE Car Parking for all games!!! EVERYONE IS WELCOME, so please come down to Stourton Park and shout it out loud - #COMEONSTOUR!!!! Labels: fixtures 2017, Midlands 2 West North, nat2n, National 2 North, North Midlands RFU Colts League Two, Stourbridge Rugby Football Club, Stourton Park Stourbridge Rugby	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1897
__label__wiki	0.951778	0.951778	Your weekly streaming guide Criterion Channel Check out these picks … Action and Crime Featured Blu-ray reviews FilmStruck About Stream On Demand What to stream: ‘The Outsider’ and ‘The New Pope’ on HBO Now, ‘Troop Zero’ on Amazon, more ‘Grace and Frankie’ on Netflix ‘Inception’ – Christopher Nolan’s mind-heist on Netflix ‘No Blade of Grass’ – Surviving the end of the world on Criterion Channel ‘Little Men’ – Growing up on Hulu What to stream: ‘Dracula’ and ‘Giri/Haji’ on Netflix, Aladdin’ on Disney+, ‘Joker’ on VOD ‘Moon’ – Sam Rockwell’s great star turn on Netflix ‘A Boy and His Dog’ on Amazon Prime Video and Criterion Channel Tommy Lee Jones is ‘The Homesman’ – free on Hoopla What to stream: ‘Midsommar’ on Amazon, ‘Messiah’ begins and ‘Anne with an E’ ends on Netflix ‘Danny Collins’ on Amazon Prime and Kanopy What to stream: ‘Five Came Back’ on Netflix, ‘Fantastic Beasts’ on VOD !Featured, Amazon Prime, Documentary, Hulu, Netflix 03/31/2017 Sean Axmaker The three-part original documentary Five Came Back, based on the book by Mark Harris, explores how Hollywood filmmakers John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens documented World War II and how their experiences informed their lives and their work after the war “[T]he advantage the documentary has over the book is that it’s able to show off the films themselves, as well as a good deal of related footage that brings the war, and the filmmakers themselves, to life,” writes Todd McCarthy for Hollywood Reporter. “Director Laurent Bouzereau, who is best known for his innumerable “making of” documentaries, most notably those about Steven Spielberg films, is right at home with this sort of material and has uncovered a treasure trove of unfamiliar footage of wartime Hollywood.” Not rated. Queue it up! Netflix also has many of the wartime documentaries shown in the film, including John Ford’s The Battle of Midway (1942), William Wyler’s The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), and John Huston’s San Pietro (1945) and Let There Be Light (1946). Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand The “Harry Potter” spin-off / prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them sends British magic scholar New Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to 1920s New York, where he inadvertently releases a magical creatures into the human world. Katherine Waterston and Colin Farrell co-star (PG-13). 20th Century Women stars Annette Bening as a single mother of a teenage boy determined to give him good life lessons with the help of Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig, and Billy Crudup. Benning earned an Oscar nomination for her performance (R). Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver are Jesuit priests searching for their mentor in 17th century Japan in Silence, Martin Scorsese’s provocative drama of faith under fire, adapted from the novel by Shusaku Endo (R). Pablo Larrain’s Neruda, a historical thriller through the lens of mythmaking and storytelling, is available on some Cable On Demand systems (but not Xfinity, which is my system) and on SVOD through most services. Reviewed on Stream On Demand here. Also new: Patriots Day with Mark Wahlberg as a Boston cop at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing (R), A Monster Calls, a drama of loss and healing starring Felicity Jones (PG-13), the comedy Why Him? with James Franco and Bryan Cranston (R), and the thrillers The Blackcoat’s Daughter with Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka (R) and Voice from the Stone with Emilia Clarke and Marton Csokas (R). Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the Cold War-era spy thriller Despite the Falling Snow starring Rebecca Ferguson and Charles Dance (PG-13) and the comedy Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?… with Andrea Anders and Cloris Leachman (R). Rooney Mara and Jason Segel star in the science fiction thriller The Discovery, a dark drama about the scientific discovery of the afterlife and how that reverberates through the present life. It co-stars Robert Redford, Riley Keough, Jesse Plemons, and Mary Steenburgen (not rated). It premiered at Sundance earlier this year is also getting a limited theatrical release Also new: Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) starring Bill Murray (R). The new Netflix original series 13 Reasons Why, based on the young adult novel by Jay Asher, is a high school mystery around a teen suicide. 13 episodes now available, plus Beyond the Reasons, a discussion about the issues facing teenagers with the cast, producers, and mental professions. More streaming TV: Better Call Saul: Season 2, the Breaking Bad prequel, arrives as the third season begins on cable. In fact, a lot of TV shows arrived at the end of April, among them the first season of American crime drama Rosewood with Morris Chestnut, the first two seasons of the sitcom The Carmichael Show: Season 1-2 with Jerrod Carmichael and the medical drama The Night Shift. Also new: the debut seasons of sitcoms Life in Pieces and Cooper Barrett’s Guide to Surviving Life, romantic drama Chesapeake Shores from the Hallmark Channel, Finish crime drama Bordertown, and the animated American comedy also called Bordertown from Comedy Central. There’s the animated spy spoof Archer: Season 7 and the Canadian cult comedy Trailer Park Boys: Season 11 and for kids there’s Dinotrux: Season 4. Stand-up: Jo Koy: Live from Seattle The sentimental Swedish comedy A Man Called Ove (2015), about an ill-tempered widower befriended by outgoing new neighbors, was nominated for two Oscars (PG-13, with subtitles). From Finland comes Black Widows: Season 1, about the wives of career criminals who plot to kill their husbands. Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV (2000) joins the first three Toxic comedies from Troma (R). Amazon Prime / Hulu The werewolf horror film Skinwalkers (2006) stars Elias Koteas and Rhona Mitra caught between warring wolf packs (PG-13). (Amazon Prime and Hulu) The new original series Harlots, takes on the subject of sex workers through the story of warring brothels in 18th century London. Two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton and Downton Abbey actress Jessica Brown Findlay star. New episodes debut each Wednesday. Jeff Goldblum is back to battle the alien invasion in Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) and this time Liam Hemsworth is in the pilot’s seat (PG-13). Dwayne Johnson narrates and produces Rock and a Hard Place, a documentary about the Boot Camp program for juvenile offenders in Miami-Dade County (not rated). FilmStruck / Criterion Channel Ten Ingmar Bergman productions have been added to FilmStruck, including the six-hour TV mini-series version of Scenes from a Marriage (1973). Newly available on The Criterion Channel is Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and Kevin Macdonald’s documentary Touching the Void (2003). Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man (1980) is one of the great movies about movies and features one of Peter O’Toole’s most spellbinding performances (R). Reviewed on Stream On Demand here. The low-key comedy Lake Tahoe (Mexico, 2008) ambles along like a Mexican shaggy dog comedy in the Jim Jarmusch style (not rated, with subtitles) AcornTV The British mini-series comedy Asylum, starring Ben Miller as a political whistleblower stuck in an embassy where his presence drives everyone crazy, makes its American debut on Acorn. Jack Taylor: Set 3 features three new mysteries with Iain Glen as the former cop turned private investigator in Galway, Ireland. Don’t miss a single recommendation. Subscribe to Stream On Demand to receive notifications of new posts (your E-mail address will not be shared) and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Acorn, Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Five Came Back, HBO Go, HBO Now, Hulu, Netflix, Sundance Now, VOD ‘The Civil War’ – Ken Burns’s nonfiction epic on Netflix Hollywood goes to war – The documentaries of ‘Five Came Back’ on Netflix Sean Axmaker http://streamondemandathome.com Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. He writes the weekly newspaper column Stream On Demand and the companion website, and his work appears at RogerEbert.com, Turner Classic Movies online, The Film Noir Foundation, and Parallax View. ‘Intelligence: The Complete Series’ on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video What to stream: ‘Anne’ of Netflix for families and ‘I Love Dick’ on Amazon for grown-ups What to stream: Oscar winner ‘The Salesman’ on VOD, more ‘Sense8’ on Amazon, and new movies and TV for all What to stream: Hulu’s riveting ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ and ‘Dear White People’ on Netflix What to stream: ‘Iron Fist’ disappoints, ‘Julie’s Greenroom’ inspires on Netflix Follow Stream On Demand on Facebook Coming and Going on Netflix in January 2020 Coming to Amazon Prime Video in January 2020 Coming and Going on Hulu in January 2020 Coming and Going on Netflix in December 2019 Coming to Amazon Prime Video in December 2019 Blu-ray/DVD reviews Film Noir on Blu-ray: ‘Moonrise,’ ‘Gun Crazy,’ ‘No Orchids,’ and the restored ‘Man Who Cheated Himself’ Blu-ray Animation: Deluxe ‘Totoro’ and the complete ‘Batman’ Blu-ray: Orson Welles’ ‘The Magnificent Ambersons’ on Criterion Blu-ray: Universal Classic Monsters: Complete 30-Film Collection ‘Night of the Living Dead’ at 50 restored on Criterion disc and The Criterion Channel Blu-ray: ‘Dragon Inn’ / ‘Legend of the Mountain’ – King Hu on Criterion and Kino Criterion Blu-ray: Dietrich & Von Sternberg in Hollywood Blu-ray: ‘Curse of the Cat People’ from Shout! Factory Criterion Blu-ray: A Matter of Life and Death Cult Blu-ray: ‘Basket Case,’ ‘Ichi the Killer,’ ‘Macon County’ justice, and ‘The Hidden’ with Kyle Maclachlan Categories Select Category !Featured Academy Award Academy Award nominee Acorn Action / Crime adapted from the stage adventure African-American filmmakers Amazon Prime American Independent Cinema Animation Apple TV+ Arrow art and artists BAFTA winner based on a comic book based on a novel based on a true story Binge-able TV biographical Blu-ray Blu-ray review Blue Underground BritBox British TV BroadwayHD calendar Cannes winner caper CBS All Access Christmas Classic Cohen Comedy Crackle Criterion Criterion Channel Criterion Collecton Cult Movies Cult TV DC Universe Directed by Women Disney+ Documentary drama DVD DVD only Easter Eclipse Series Election Special Emmy Award Essential Viewing Facebook Watch family friendly Fandor fantasy film history Film Independent Spirit Awards film noir FilmStruck Flicker Alley Foreign Affairs Free gangsters giallo giant monsters Google Play Halloween Have You Seen…? HBO Max HBO Now high school historical Hollywood Classic Hoopla horror Hulu Kanopy Kid Stuff Kino Classics Kino Lorber Last chance LGBTQ LGBTQ literary adaptation live show martial arts MHz Milestone Milestone Video miniseries Mother’s Day movies about art movies about movies movies about theater music Music and musicians Mystery National Film Registry Netflix News Olive On Demand Peacock pre-code religion remake road movie Romance satire Science Fiction Scorpion Shakespeare Shout Factory TV Shout! Factory Showtime Anytime Shudder silent film socially aware cinema Spaghetti Cinema spies and espionage sports stage adaptation Starz Streaming Movies Streaming TV Summer movie Sundance Now Sundance Winner superheroes suspense SVOD Synapse thriller time travel Twilight Time Venice winner video Vimeo VOD war Warner Archive Watch This! Well Go western What to Stream Yahoo! Screen YouTube Red Tribeca Shortlist Shout! Factory TV Warner Archive Instant MHz Choice Comic-Con HQ Free Streams (some ad supported) The Paramount Vault (via YouTube) National Film Preservation Foundation Movies On Demand TV and Cable FX / FXX / FXM Run Stream On Demand in your newspaper Copyright © 2020 by Stream On Demand. Theme: DW Focus by DesignWall.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1898
__label__wiki	0.935544	0.935544	Street Buzz Post Malone, Billie Eilish, And Ariana Grande Were Spotify’s Most Streamed Artists Of The Year (Steve Granitz/WireImage)/(Sarah Morris/FilmMagic)/( John Shearer/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter) On Tuesday (December 3), Spotify answered an important question: Who were the most listened-to artists of the year? The streaming giant released its most-streamed data for 2019 and the results may, or may not, surprise you. Post Malone, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande were the… Street-Buzz (Steve Granitz/WireImage)/(Sarah Morris/FilmMagic)/( John Shearer/Getty Images for The Hollywood Reporter) On Tuesday (December 3), Spotify answered an important question: Who were the most listened-to artists of the year? The streaming giant released its most-streamed data for 2019 and the results may, or may not, surprise you. Post Malone, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande were the year’s most-streamed artists, with Ed Sheeran and Bad Bunny rounding out the top five. Posty, who dropped his third studio album Hollywood’s Bleeding in September, got a staggering 6.5 billion streams from fans around the world. It makes sense when you note how his hits, particularly “Circles” and “Enemies,” are complete and utter earworms. Billie came in a close second with 6 billion streams, fueled by the release of her debut album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?. The landmark LP, Spotify revealed, is also top-streamed release of 2019; its fifth single, “Bad Guy,” was the second-most streamed song of the year. Ari commanded the third-place spot off the back of a strong year, thanks to the release of Thank U, Next in February. One of the album’s singles, “7 Rings,” was the fourth most-streamed song of the year. There’s also some other interesting information to take in. Lil Nas X and Lizzo were two of 2019’s top breakout artists. Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes‘s “Señorita” was the top streamed song of the year, amassing more than one billion streams. And Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus‘s record-breaking “Old Town Road (Remix)” was the fifth most-streamed song of the year. Real Life. Real News. Real Voices Help us tell more of the stories that matter Become a founding member There’s even more to dig into, so check out the full list of Spotify’s most-streamed information right here. Find a playlist of the decade’s biggest songs, according to the service, below. Subscribe to the newsletter news We hate SPAM and promise to keep your email address safe Taylor Swift Headlining Glastonbury 2020 Taylor Swift to Receive 2020 GLAAD Vanguard Award Prince Philip Looks Like 98-Year-Old Man He Is as He Leaves Hospital for Christmas With Queen Elizabeth II Stormzy, Ed Sheeran & Burna Boy’s ‘Own It’ Is First U.K. No. 1 Single Of 2020 Sech’s Soulful Reggaetón Is Helping His Dreams Come True Pharrell’s Something In The Water 2020 Has Almost Every Artist You Can Think Of Stormzy Details New Album Heavy Is the Head Watch Burna Boy Perform “Collateral Damage” and “Anybody” on Fallon Stormzy Reveals Tracklist, Artwork & Release Date for New Album ‘Heavy Is The Head’ The Biggest Snubs and Surprises of the 2020 Grammy Nominations, From Lizzo to Lil Nas X Joe Alwyn says it’s ‘flattering’ when Taylor Swift writes songs about him Awkward! Here are the most cringeworthy celebrity moments of 2019 Ed Sheeran Recalls His 50-Pound Weight Loss Journey Post Malone, Drake & Billie Eilish Dominate Spotify’s 2019 Most-Streamed Artist List The director of ‘Cats’ explains Taylor Swift’s puzzling role in the movie and says to not expect any extra scenes with her to surface The Game Drops Final Album ‘Born 2 Rap’ Ft. Nipsey Hussle & 21 Savage Stormzy Announces 2020 World Tour End of the decade: How the 2010s changed my life Taylor Swift, Kanye West, Ed Sheeran And The Worst Songs Of 2019 Ed Sheeran Reveals How He Lost 50 Pounds and Opens Up About His Fitness Routine Pink Named Pollstar’s 2019 Artist of the Year Copyright © 2019, powered by WordPress.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1899
__label__cc	0.53264	0.46736	Global Impact Challenges Uncommon Partners Lab Exponential Guides Startup Customer Stories Enterprise Customer Stories SU Blog Exponential Enterprise Written by Paul Orlando Lessons From the Co-Founder of Hong Kong’s First Startup Accelerator November 15, 2019 \| Entrepreneurship, Views No location has a monopoly on innovation. However, out of simplicity and because of selective media awareness, we often focus on a small number of innovation hubs rather than look more broadly. That focus of attention has some downsides—one is that you might end up building something that doesn’t match your customers’ needs outside of the innovation hubs. Another downside is that it becomes easy to miss out on all the innovation happening outside of these locations. Years ago, when I co-founded Hong Kong’s first startup accelerator I used to notice a strange phenomenon. Some local Hong Kong startups would act as though they were somewhere else in the world. Most often they acted as though they were in Silicon Valley. (Or, they acted like they were in a movie version of Silicon Valley.) That is, their go-to model for business growth was to build a highly scalable service fueled by rounds of VC and with a revenue model that only worked at scale. The trouble was, the infrastructure to get that scale—investment, talent, culture, and customers—was lacking in Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a wealthy city, but investors typically looked to later-stage or more traditional investments. There was tech and business talent, but that talent was typically absorbed by large corporates. There was family and peer pressure to work in a “respectable” job. And while Hong Kong has a population similar to New York City, that is not enough to sustain a scalable company. Why Hong Kong startups looked to Silicon Valley So why did Hong Kong startups back then look to Silicon Valley? There were a couple of reasons for this, but the most interesting one to me was how the “movie version” of Silicon Valley startups influenced people’s actions on the other side of the world. Those Hong Kong startups were overly influenced by what they thought the tech hub reality was. That is, they read the major US tech publications and repeatedly saw examples of large funding rounds, what seemed like concept-stage companies progressing quickly to rapid growth, giving influential presentations to large audiences, and more. These founders were playing at running a startup based on what they thought it should look like, rather than actually figuring out how to run one and what their startup should be. At the same time, however, there were local startups that were conscious of their local reality. These companies took a different approach, for example using local expertise in areas where Hong Kong has historically been strong—logistics and shipping, mobile communications, finance, and manufacturing—developing products and then taking them to other markets. Those startups were the less noticeable ones—possibly even the less newsworthy ones—but they played to local strengths. Something like this also often holds true for people based in the large tech hubs. The innovation and startup-building patterns that work there might not be the best for them but there is pressure to conform. If they follow typical advice, they will go down a typical path. How to think more broadly about innovation How can you escape these limitations and think more broadly about innovation and what is happening around the world? Be aware of what the international innovation hubs are doing, but also look for innovation locally. Rather than apply the same formula internationally, learn about other locations. A good way to learn about what’s going on in another startup and venture community is still an old-school answer: visit. Before you go, reach out to people you can find online. People in startup communities tend to be generous with their time and want to make these connections. Outreach like that was my start to becoming involved in Hong Kong’s startup community years ago. With some prep work, it is possible to set up meetings in advance, possibly host (or at least join) events, and meet people. In my case, those early meetings influenced me greatly. While other international groups had come and gone after concluding that accelerators just didn’t work in Hong Kong, gaining local knowledge helped me do something different. I built that first startup accelerator in a way that was a fit for Hong Kong and our portfolio companies rather than a generic program. It is usually easier for people outside of the tech hubs to know something about life there than it will be for people in the large tech hubs to know about life elsewhere. That means you’ll have a different set of advantages if you go out and spend time in other locations. That knowledge will make you a stronger contributor wherever you are. About the Author / Paul Orlando Paul Orlando has led startup accelerators on three continents. He is Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California and runs USC’s on-campus Incubator for businesses founded by students, alumni and faculty. At USC he also teaches in the entrepreneurship department. Paul advises the Fortune 500 and funded startups on internal product innovation, rapid experimentation and growth. He has degrees from Cornell and Columbia, was a winner at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon, and enjoys writing about startups (https://startupsunplugged.com/blog) and unintended consequences (https://unintendedconsequenc.es). Trust in the Age of Digital Transformation: An Interview with Charles Green Essential Lessons for Founders: Scaling Your Startup with the Right People Singularity University and the Disaster Resilience Global Grand Challenge SU Faculty Finds: What We’re Buzzing About Get the Latest News and Views From SU Download the SU App © 2020 Singularity Education Group. All Rights Reserved. 2831 Mission College Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95054-1838, USA Singularity University, Singularity Hub, Singularity Summit, SU Labs, Singularity Labs, Exponential Medicine, Exponential Finance and all associated logos and design elements are trademarks and/or service marks of Singularity Education Group. Singularity University is not a degree granting institution.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1903
__label__wiki	0.802586	0.802586	For Libraries and Librarians Government and Heritage Library Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped GHL Classic Catalog GHL Search Everything Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped Holiday HoursThe Government and Heritage Library will be closed Jan. 18 - 20 for the Martin Luther King Holiday. Government and Heritage Library » Genealogy Research » Tennessee counties originally in North Carolina District of Washington On August 22, 1776, the inhabitants living along the Watauga, Holston, and Nolachucky Rivers petitioned the Council of Safety saying that since they “are within the Bounds of this State” they wanted to be officially annexed to North Carolina, and wanted to be allowed to set up courts and to elect their representatives in the General Assembly. This petition was favorably acted upon and their representatives took their seats in the Provincial Congress at Halifax on November 19, 1776. North Carolina ceded its western lands to the United States in 1789; Congress accepted the lands in 1790 and created the Territory South of the River Ohio. In 1796 Tennessee County gave its name to the new state of Tennessee. The new state thereupon divided the territory formerly occupied by Tennessee County into Montgomery and Robertson Counties. Counties by Date Year County Name Parent County 1777 Washington District of Washington 1779 Sullivan Washington 1783 Davidson Washington 1783 Greene Washington 1787 Hawkins Sullivan 1787 Sumner Davidson 1788 Tennessee Davidson Looking for records from one of these counties? Many extant records remain in the custody of the courthouse of the county in which they were created. Records of Tennessee County are filed with Montgomery County. The Tennessee State Library and Archives also holds many county records. GHL Site Menu Government & Heritage Library GHL Catalog State Library of North Carolina Addresses, Hours and Contact Information The State Library of North Carolina is a Division of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1908
__label__cc	0.749103	0.250897	Home » SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION AND CORRELATION » INTERVAL PREDICTION OF Y GIVEN A VALUE OF X INTERVAL PREDICTION OF Y GIVEN A VALUE OF X Stats Assignment Homework Help INTERVAL PREDICTION OF Y GIVEN A VALUE OF X Population values Y, given a value of X, are values of a random variable they are not constants like the parameters A and B, or a value of JLl’ given a value of X. We construct a prediction interval for values of a random variable. The formula for the standard error of predicting Y given X is . Thus we predict with 95 percent confidence that the number of gears made in 50 labor-hours will be between 30.1 and 43.5. Recall that in the previous example we estimated J-Ly more precisely; that is, we estimated with 95 percent confidence that the mean number of gears J-Ly made in 50 labor hours will be between 33.8 and 39.8. EXERCISE See the last exercise. Construct a 90 percent prediction interval for the cost of processing an order for four items. ANSWER $1.46:5 Y :5 $6.18. 1. Colette Chicness, manager of the Cross Roads Hotel, collected sample data on x, the number of people who made room reservations before arriving at the hotel, and y, the number of these people who registered at the hotel. The data are given in Table A. The computed regression equation is 9 = -1.0093 + 0.8514x. (a) Compute the standard error of estimate. (b) Compute the standard error of the slope. (c) At the 1 percent level of significance, test the hypothesis that the slope ot the population regression line is zero . 2. Arne Nielsen, owner of Nielsen’s Farms. collected data on the number of bags of fertilizer x applied to a section of corn-seeded land, and the corn yield y, in bushels, from the section. All land sections were of the same size. The data are shown in Table B. The regression equation is 9 = 23.7333 + 5.8857x. (a) Compute the standard error of estimate. (b) Compute the standard error of the slope. (c) At the 10 percent level of significance, test the hypothesis that the increase in yield per additional bag of fertilizer equals 5 bushels. 4. Joyce Laplace, an executive of Market Advice, Inc., wanted to deter . mine the relationship betweeny, the amount of money a family spends, and x, the amount of income the family receives. She expressed both x and y in thousands of dollars. For a sample of 12 families, Joyce computed the regression line 9 = 6.0785 + 0.6078x. She also computed l:x = 390, l:x2 = 13,400, and s, = 4.2243. (a) Perform a hypothesis test at the 1 percent level to determine whether spending and in comere related; that is, test the hypothesis that the slope of the population regression line equals zero. (b) Construct the 95 percent confidence interval estimate of the slope of the population regression line. (c) Construct the 95 percent prediction interval estimate for the amount spent by a family having an income of $40 thousand. (d) Construct the 95 percent confidence interval estimate for the mean amount spent by families whose income is $40 thousand. (e) At the 5 percent level, perform a hypothesis test to determine whether the increase in the amount· spell from an additional $1 thousand of income is greater than $0.5 thousand. . 5. Pat Beaumont, president of Beauty Products Company, recorded 12 observations on adverting expenditure x and sales y. Pat recorded both expenditures and sales in thousands of dollars. Each observation was for a 3-month period. The regression equation is y = 40 + 2.8x. Also, LX = 96, LX2 = 854, and the standard error of estimate is 2.4. (a) At the 5 percent level, test the hypothesis that the slope of the populationregression line is greater than 2. (b) What does the result of the test in (a) mean about the sales-advertising relationship? (c) Construct the 95 percent confidence interval estimate of the population slope. (d) Construct the 90 percent prediction interval estimate of sales for a 3-m nth period when advertising expenditure is 10 thousand dollars. (e) Construct the 90 percent confidence interval estimate of mean sales in 3-month periods when advertising expenditure is 10 thousand dollars. 6. R. C. Cory, Inc., a large mail-order company, has a staff of people who work on both inventory management and customer order filling. At the beginning of each working day it is necessasy to assign a certain number of these people to do order filling. For this purpose, a quick estimate of the number of orders in the early morning mail is needed. It was suggested that the estimate might be calculated from the weight of was selected and, for each day, a tabulation was made of the mail weight x, in hundreds of pounds, and the number of orders in the mail y, in thousands. Regre’ssioncalculation yielded LX = 210, LY = 530, LXY = 7225, LX2 = 2870, Ly2 = 18,190, a = 0.28948, b = 2.49624, and se = 0.263. (a) Construct the 95 percent prediction Interval estimate of the number of orders in the mail on a day when the weight of the mail is 15 hundred pounds. (b) Construct a 90 percent confidence interval estimate of the mean number of orders on days when the mail weighs 15 hundred pounds. (c) At the 5 percent level of significance, perform a test of the hypothesis that the slope of the regression line is less than 3. 7. In this problem, x is the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gas mileage (mpg) of a car in highway driving, and Y is mpg for the car in city driving. Calculations for 18 observations (cars) provided the following data: LX = 520, LY = 375, LXY = 11,250, LX2 = 15,680, and Ly2’= 8150. The regression line isy = 2.5337 + 0.6334x. The standard error r of estimate is 2.14 mpg. (a) At the 1 percent level of significance, test the hypothesis that the slope of the regression line isgreater than zero. (b) Construct a 99 percent confidence interval estimate o f the slope of the population regression line. (c) Construct the 95pe~d,.; prediction interval estimate of the city mpg for a car getting 30 mpg in highway driving. (d) Construct the 95 percent confidence interval estimate of mean city mpg for cars which get 30 mpg in highway driving. 8. In thrs problem, X is city mpg and Y is combined city and highway mpg. For 18 cars, LX = 375, LY = 435, LXY = 9430, LX2 = 8150, Ly2 = 10,920, Y = 1.4812 + 1.0889x, and s, = 0.678 mpg. (a) At the 5 percent level of significance, test the hypothesis that the slope of the population regression line is less than 1. (Hint: Be careful when you decide . Confidence Interval for the Population Constant Term SIMPLE LINER REGRESSION AND CORRELATION ESTIMATING EQUATIONS THE SAMPLE STANDARD ERROR OF ESTIMATE The Coefficient of Determination Posted on August 27, 2014 in SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION AND CORRELATION CORRELATION ANALYSIS More From ‘SIMPLE LINEAR REGRESSION AND CORRELATION’ Category: THE NORMAL REGRESSION MODEL REGRESSION AND CORRELATION CORRESPO’NDENCES CAUTIONS TO OBSERVE IN REGRESSION AND CORRELATION ANALYSES Relevancy of Historical Data	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1909
__label__wiki	0.763953	0.763953	Research ArticleMuscular Dystrophy Targeting latent TGFβ release in muscular dystrophy Ermelinda Ceco1, Sasha Bogdanovich2, Brandon Gardner3, Tamari Miller2, Adam DeJesus2, Judy U. Earley2, Michele Hadhazy2, Lucas R. Smith4, Elisabeth R. Barton4, Jeffery D. Molkentin5 and Elizabeth M. McNally2,6,* 1Committee on Cell Physiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. 2Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. 3Molecular Pathogenesis and Molecular Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. 4Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Dental Medicine, Pennsylvania Muscle Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. 5Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. 6Department of Human Genetics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. ↵*Corresponding author. E-mail: elizabeth.mcnally{at}northwestern.edu Science Translational Medicine 22 Oct 2014: Ermelinda Ceco Committee on Cell Physiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Sasha Bogdanovich Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Brandon Gardner Molecular Pathogenesis and Molecular Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Tamari Miller Adam DeJesus Judy U. Earley Michele Hadhazy Lucas R. Smith Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, School of Dental Medicine, Pennsylvania Muscle Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Elisabeth R. Barton Jeffery D. Molkentin Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Cincinnati, OH 45229, USA. Elizabeth M. McNally Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.Department of Human Genetics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. For correspondence: elizabeth.mcnally@northwestern.edu You are currently viewing the abstract. Log in to view the full text Latent transforming growth factor–β (TGFβ) binding proteins (LTBPs) bind to inactive TGFβ in the extracellular matrix. In mice, muscular dystrophy symptoms are intensified by a genetic polymorphism that changes the hinge region of LTBP, leading to increased proteolytic susceptibility and TGFβ release. We have found that the hinge region of human LTBP4 was also readily proteolysed and that proteolysis could be blocked by an antibody to the hinge region. Transgenic mice were generated to carry a bacterial artificial chromosome encoding the human LTBP4 gene. These transgenic mice displayed larger myofibers, increased damage after muscle injury, and enhanced TGFβ signaling. In the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the human LTBP4 transgene exacerbated muscular dystrophy symptoms and resulted in weaker muscles with an increased inflammatory infiltrate and greater LTBP4 cleavage in vivo. Blocking LTBP4 cleavage may be a therapeutic strategy to reduce TGFβ release and activity and decrease inflammation and muscle damage in muscular dystrophy. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science You are going to email the following Targeting latent TGFβ release in muscular dystrophy By Ermelinda Ceco, Sasha Bogdanovich, Brandon Gardner, Tamari Miller, Adam DeJesus, Judy U. Earley, Michele Hadhazy, Lucas R. Smith, Elisabeth R. Barton, Jeffery D. Molkentin, Elizabeth M. McNally Science Translational Medicine 22 Oct 2014 : 259ra144 Blocking cleavage of latent TGFβ binding protein 4, a modifier of muscular dystrophy in humans and mice, inhibits release of latent TGFβ and decreases pathology in muscular dystrophy.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1916
__label__cc	0.541192	0.458808	Infected abdominal aortic aneurysm caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae diagnosed using polymerase chain reaction Kyohei Hatori1, Satoshi Ohki1, Takao Miki1, Hanako Hirai1, Kiyomitsu Yasuhara1 & Tamiyuki Obayashi1 We report the case of a 55-year-old man who initially visited the emergency department of our hospital owing to fever, headache, and neck stiffness. He was diagnosed with meningitis because cerebrospinal fluid culture was positive for Streptococcus pneumoniae. After intravenous antibiotic treatment, the patient’s condition returned to normal. On hospital day 20, he complained of lumbar pain with abdominal distension. Because an abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan showed a small sacciform infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm, an infected aneurysm was suspected. However, cerebrospinal fluid and blood cultures were negative for S. pneumoniae. Seven days later, a second abdominal CT was performed that showed rapid expansion of the sacciform infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm. The patient was diagnosed with an infected abdominal aortic aneurysm and underwent surgery for resection of the aneurysm and in situ reconstruction with a rifampicin-soaked vascular prosthesis. Although blood and aneurysmal tissue cultures were negative for S. pneumoniae, the autolysin (lytA) gene, which is the target gene of S. pneumoniae, was detected in the abdominal aortic wall by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Therefore, appropriate molecular diagnostic techniques can be used for the rapid detection of pathogens. An accurate diagnosis can be used to direct postoperative antibiotic therapy. Despite recent improvements in surgical techniques and antibiotic therapy, severe aortic infection and a subsequent infected aortic aneurysm remains a lethal condition. Early diagnosis and surgical intervention and prolonged antibiotic therapy are essential for survival [1, 2]. Streptococcus pneumoniae aneurysms usually affect the aorta; however, bacterial cultures from blood and aneurysmal tissue may be difficult because of prior antibiotic therapy. We report the case of an infected abdominal aortic aneurysm following pneumococcal meningitis, which was managed by resection and revascularization with rifampicin-soaked vascular prosthesis. Although cultures from the cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and aneurysmal tissue tested negative for S. pneumoniae, S. pneumoniae DNA was detected from samples taken from the abdominal arterial wall by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). PCR is a unique technique to identify pathogens, even after antibiotic therapy was initiated. A 55-year-old man initially visited the emergency department of our hospital owing to a 3-day history of fever, headache, mild shoulder pain, and neck stiffness. The patient’s neck stiffness and shoulder pain worsened, and the patient had a depressed level of consciousness. Laboratory data on admission revealed a leukocyte count of 25,600/μl and an elevated C-reactive protein level of 28.3 mg/dl. Cerebrospinal fluid and blood cultures were positive for S. pneumoniae. As such, a diagnosis of meningitis was made. After intravenous antibiotic treatment (penicillin G benzathine, 4 million units i.v. every 4 h), the patient’s fever resolved, and his mental status returned to normal. On hospital day 20, he complained of low back pain and abdominal distension. Because an abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan showed a small sacciform infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (Fig. 1), an infected aneurysm was suspected. However, cerebrospinal fluid and blood cultures were negative for S. pneumoniae. Transthoracic echocardiography indicated no sign of endocarditis. Laboratory data revealed a leukocyte count of 15,200/μl and a C-reactive protein level of 2.51 mg/dl. Seven days later, a second abdominal CT was performed, which showed rapid expansion of the sacciform infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (Fig. 2). An infected abdominal aortic aneurysm was diagnosed, and the patient underwent surgery for resection of the aneurysm and debridement of tissue. We performed irrigation with copious amounts of saline solution and in situ reconstruction with a rifampicin-soaked bifurcated vascular prosthesis (Triplex 16 × 8 mm, [Terumo Corporation, Tokyo, Japan]). The patient’s omentum was atrophic, so we could not use the tissue for an omental flap around the graft. Pathologic examination of the aorta revealed thrombus formation and a calcified and inflamed aortic wall with neutrophil infiltration. Although cultures from the cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and aneurysmal tissue tested negative for S. pneumoniae, the autolysin (lytA) gene, which is the target gene of S. pneumoniae [3–6], was detected in abdominal arterial wall samples by using PCR (Fig. 3). PCR analysis accurately diagnosed the infected abdominal aortic aneurysm due to S. pneumoniae. Antibiotic agents (meropenem, 0.5 g i.v. every 12 h) were administered intravenously in the hospital for 4 weeks postoperatively until the patient demonstrated normal leukocyte and C-reactive protein levels. Thereafter, oral antibiotic (levofloxacin, 500 mg orally once per day) treatment was continued for 6 months. The patient’s postoperative course was uneventful, and he was discharged on postoperative day 40. No signs of recurrent infection have been observed for 2 years after the operation. Preoperative CT scan. Axial view showing a small sacciform infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (white arrow) Second preoperative CT scan, seven days after the first CT scan. Axial view showing rapid expansion of the sacciform infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysm (white arrow) PCR results using primers to the lytA gene. M molecular size marker, S1 DNA sample twofold dilution, S2 DNA sample fivefold dilution, P positive control (LytA gene), N negative control The natural progression of infectious aortitis is the rapid and unusual dilatation of an aneurysm [7]. Therefore, diagnosis must be done early because untreated infectious aortitis is associated with a high rate of aortic rupture and mortality [8]. Salmonella and Staphylococcus aureus represent the most frequent microbial agents in infectious aortitis [9], while S. pneumoniae is a rarer pathogen [10, 11]. S. pneumoniae-related aneurysms usually affect the aorta; however, bacterial cultures from blood and aneurysmal tissue may be difficult because of prior antibiotic therapy. Therefore, it is important to combine bacterial cultures with another microbiological method. The lytA gene, which encodes the autolysin protein, is one of the target genes for S. pneumoniae. Several studies using specimens of the cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and sputum have reported that the lytA gene constitutes the most sensitive and specific assay in several target genes for S. pneumoniae [3–6]. In our case, although cultures from the cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and aneurysmal tissue tested negative, lytA gene was detected using PCR in samples obtained from the abdominal arterial wall. Infected abdominal aortic aneurysm due to S. pneumoniae was accurately diagnosed. Dickinson et al. [12] reported that they made a diagnosis of multiple peripheral pneumococcal mycotic aneurysms by using the PCR technique. On the other hand, our case is the first to report that the lytA gene was detected in abdominal arterial wall. Our data suggest that appropriate molecular diagnostic techniques such as PCR can be used for the rapid detection of pathogens. Rapid and accurate diagnosis can be used to direct antibiotic therapy immediately after operations. In conclusion, we report a case of infected abdominal aortic aneurysm following pneumococcal meningitis. Although cultures from the cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and aneurysmal tissue tested negative for S. pneumoniae, the lytA gene was detected using PCR in samples obtained from the abdominal arterial wall. Appropriate molecular diagnostic techniques can be used for the rapid detection of pathogens. An accurate diagnosis can be used to direct postoperative antibiotic therapy. Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal. Deoxyribonucleotic acid LytA: Autolysin Müller BT, Wegener OR, Grabitz K, Pillny M, Thomas L, Sandmann W. Mycotic aneurysms of the thoracic and abdominal aorta and iliac arteries: experience with anatomic and extra-anatomic repair in 33 cases. J Vasc Surg. 2001;33:106–13. Hsu RB, Chen RJ, Wang SS, Chu SH. Infected aortic aneurysms: clinical outcome and risk factor analysis. J Vasc Surg. 2004;40:30–5. Abdeldaim G, Herrmann B, Mölling P, Holmberg H, Blomberg J, Olcén P, et al. Usefulness of real-time PCR for lytA, ply, and Spn9802 on plasma samples for the diagnosis of pneumococcal pneumonia. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2010;16:1135–41. Strålin K, Herrmann B, Abdeldaim G, Olcén P, Holmberg H, Mölling P. Comparison of sputum and nasopharyngeal aspirate samples and of the PCR gene targets lytA and Spn9802 for quantitative PCR for rapid detection of pneumococcal pneumonia. J Clin Microbiol. 2014;52:83–9. Carvalho MGS, Tondella ML, McCaustland K, Weidlich L, McGee L, Mayer LW, et al. Evaluation and improvement of real-time PCR assays targeting lytA, ply, and psaA genes for detection of pneumococcal DNA. J Clin Microbiol. 2007;45:2460–6. Greve T, Møllert JK. Accurcy of using the lytA gene to distinguish Streptococcus pneumonia from related species. J Med Microbiol. 2012;61:478–82. Macedo TA, Stanson AW, Oderich GS, Johnson CM, Panneton JM, Tie ML. Infected aortic aneurysms: imaging findings. Radiology. 2004;231:250–7. Gornik HL, Creager MA. Aortitis. Circulation. 2008;117:3039–51. Luo CY, Ko WC, Kan CD, Lin PY, Yang YJ. In situ reconstruction of septic aortic pseudoaneurysm due to Salmonella or Streptococcus microbial aortitis: long-term follow-up. J Vasc Surg. 2003;38:975–82. Brouwer RE, van Bockel JH, van Dissel JT. Streptococcus pneumoniae, an emerging pathogen in mycotic aneurysms? Neth J MED. 1998;52:16–21. Cartery C, Astudillo L, Deelchand A, Mouskovitch G, Sailler L, Bossavy JP, et al. Abdominal infectious aortitis caused by streptococcus pneumoniae: a case report and literature review. Ann Vasc Surg. 2011;25:266.e9–16. Dickinson KJ, Parry DJ, Sandoe JA, Gough MJ. Multiple peripheral pneumococcal mycotic aneurysms without aortic involvement: a unique case confirmed with the novel use of a molecular diagnostic technique. J Vasc Surg. 2007;45:1253–5. We would like to express our gratitude to Professor Kiyofumi Ohkusu for making substantial contributions to the acquisition of the PCR data. Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Isesaki Municipal Hospital, 12-1 Tsunatori-honmachi, Isesaki, Gunma, 372-0812, Japan Kyohei Hatori , Satoshi Ohki , Takao Miki , Hanako Hirai , Kiyomitsu Yasuhara & Tamiyuki Obayashi Search for Kyohei Hatori in: Search for Satoshi Ohki in: Search for Takao Miki in: Search for Hanako Hirai in: Search for Kiyomitsu Yasuhara in: Search for Tamiyuki Obayashi in: Correspondence to Kyohei Hatori. KH drafted the article. SO helped write the paper and gave the final approval of the article. KY, HH, TM, and TO participated in the revision of the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Hatori, K., Ohki, S., Miki, T. et al. Infected abdominal aortic aneurysm caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae diagnosed using polymerase chain reaction. surg case rep 1, 83 (2015) doi:10.1186/s40792-015-0085-6 Infected abdominal aortic aneurysm Streptococcus pneumoniae Rifampicin-soaked vascular prosthesis	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1928
__label__cc	0.569034	0.430966	A new home for Whatcom County’s performing arts! Sylvia Center for the Arts Sylvia Center is a new performing arts center in Bellingham, Washington. We provide affordable space for Whatcom County’s artists to rehearse, teach and perform, while also creating a central hub for arts audiences to discover and enjoy locally-created music, theater, and dance. Learn more about the center in this video for our 2018 capital campaign: With your support, our Kickstarter campaign raised over $70,000 from nearly 600 backers in spring 2018 to help us open our ground floor facilities: a 150-seat main stage venue, the Lucas Hicks Theater; a 65-seat studio theater/rehearsal space; our entry lobby, which doubles as art gallery, box office, and bar; a second gallery/hang space; and new accessible restrooms. We still have a lot of work ahead of us — your gift will help us continue construction and programming at the new arts center: donate today to help create a new home for locally-created performing arts in Whatcom County! Fri, January 17 @ 7:30 pm \| iDiOM Theater The Revolutionists, by Lauren Gunderson Our Lauren Gunderson reading series continues this weekend with a stage reading, directed by Rich Brown, of Lauren Gunderson’s “grand and dream-tweaked” feminist comedy The Revolutionists. More Info & Tickets Thu, January 23 @ 8:00 pm \| iDiOM Theater DAVIS, by Dinah Lankerovich The tragic death of Rutherford the cat unleashes a bizarre series of events in the life of his owner Nate, a struggling cartoonist. The world premiere of local playwright Dinah Lankerovich’s spiraling dark comedy. Serial Killers 2020 SERIAL KILLERS is an annual, five-weekend tournament of serial plays, with multiple teams competing for the audience’s mercy (and cash prizes). Participating teams all perform a new episode of their five-part serial play each weekend, and the audience “votes off” teams each weekend until the Week Five finale, when a winner is crowned! Sat, February 1 @ 6:00 pm \| Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth BE OUR GUEST: A Fundraiser for BAAY! Join us for a festive evening to benefit Bellingham Arts Academy for Youth, and support equal access to arts education in our community! Be the first to hear about upcoming events and the latest project developments. (100% secure, no spam, no B.S., unsubscribe anytime.) Copyright © 2020 Sylvia Center for the Arts 207 Prospect St, Bellingham, WA 98225	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1932
__label__wiki	0.892075	0.892075	Home » General » Militant Hideout Found in Afghan Capital Shows Security Woes Militant Hideout Found in Afghan Capital Shows Security Woes General February 2, 2018 Militant Hideout Found in Afghan Capital Shows Security Woes2018-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 The discovery of an Islamic State hideout filled with explosives and suicide vests in a poor Kabul neighborhood reflects the failure of Afghanistan’s corruption wracked government to protect the capital, analysts and residents said Friday. This week’s revelation that militants were operating in Kabul’s western Qala e Walid district follows a recent series of horrific attacks in the heavily guarded city that killed nearly 200 people and wounded hundreds more, including foreigners. Security forces were led to the safe house by an insurgent who was captured during an attack Monday by IS militants on a military academy in Kabul in which 11 soldiers died, according to an intelligence official. From behind the 10 foot green metal doors, the insurgents were plotting to use the explosives, weapons and suicide vests in three more large attacks in Kabul, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with his agency’s rules and did not elaborate on the plans. Khan Mohammed, a resident of Qala e Wahid, told the AP that locals rarely see a police patrol in the neighborhood and stay at home after dark because of marauding gangs of thieves. They say the government can’t provide security. “It is dangerous for all the people of Qala e Walid that Daesh was here, but they came here because it is an insecure area,” Mohammed said, using the Arabic acronym for the extremist group. “For Daesh, this was the perfect area because you can bring everything here from anywhere,” added Mohammed, whose home is across the lane from the IS hideout. ‘Failure of every institution’ Political analyst Haroon Mir blamed widespread corruption throughout the government and the security forces for their inability to prevent the recent deadly attacks in Kabul, which included a siege at a luxury hotel and a car bomb packed inside an ambulance. “It is the utter failure of the intelligence services. It is the utter failure of the security services. It is the utter failure of every institution,” Mir said. “You can’t blame it on lack of resources or lack of international support,” he said, adding that billions of dollars in international money flowing into Afghanistan in the past 16 years has been siphoned off by those in positions of power. That has left most Afghans feeling vulnerable. “There is no security in this country,” said Mohammad Hajan, an elderly man interviewed near the IS safe house. “In the morning, I wake up and I don’t know if I will be alive in the evening.” The streets that weave through Qala e Walid are rutted and ankle deep in mud. A wide open sewer runs the length of the lanes, clogged with garbage bags, mounds of trash and human waste. Foreigners are eyed with suspicion by some residents who refused to identify the IS safe house. There are whispers of possible IS sympathizers in the neighborhood. Other residents who are willing to talk say the dangerous men in their neighborhood come from many places because the security services are nonexistent. Zikarullah, a 15 year old who lives in a sunbaked mud and straw home opposite the IS hideout, said the three men and one woman who occupied the safe house had moved in about 25 days earlier. They had engaged freely with the neighbors, he said. “One of them asked me if I liked cricket and said he would buy me a new cricket ball and bat,” said Zikarullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name. The occupants were young, and the woman always wore an all enveloping burqa. Another neighbor, 16 year old Samsor, said the woman carried the explosives and weapons under her burqa. “The police told us this after they arrested them and they told us they were from Nangarhar,” Samsor said. Bribery, corruption Afghan security forces, aided by the U.S. led coalition, have been targeting suspected IS hideouts in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province, where the militants are believed to have established their most extensive bases. Increasingly, however, IS has gained in strength in northern Afghanistan, where ethnic Uzbeks have been recruited into their ranks. There are an estimated 5,000 IS fighters in northern Afghanistan between Sar e Pul province and eastern Badakhshan province, said Brian Glyn Williams, the author of Counter Jihad, The American Military Experience in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. He cited Afghanistan Vice President Rashid Dostum for the statistic. President Ashraf Ghani, who faces pressure over the security lapses, went on national television Friday to blame neighboring Pakistan for harboring Taliban militants. Pakistan routinely denies it is a hub for the Taliban. Ghani also said he has called for a review of security arrangements in Kabul. Corruption has poisoned Afghanistan’s security forces, said security analyst Waheed Mozhdah, noting that they can be bribed to “bring ammunition, explosives, everything inside Kabul. This is our big problem.” Mir, the political analyst, said terrorism is a new source of income for some of the poorest residents of Kabul. He said some can earn up to $4,000 to spirit a suicide bomber into the city. The deteriorating security can also be blamed on the protracted feud between Ghani and powerful warlords, including Dostum, who currently is in Turkey and prevented by the government from returning to Afghanistan. Ghani has fired the powerful Tajik warlord Atta Mohammed as governor of northern Balkh province, but he has refused to step down. “Our nation is very good,” said Hajan, the elderly resident of Qala e Wahid. “But our leaders are bad, and our government is weak.” https://syrianewsgazette.com/militant-hideout-found-in-afghan-capital-shows-security-woes/ 2018-02-02T00:00:00+00:00 syrianewsgazette.comGeneral The discovery of an Islamic State hideout filled with explosives and suicide vests in a poor Kabul neighborhood reflects the failure of Afghanistan's corruption wracked government to protect the capital, analysts and residents said Friday.This week's revelation that militants were operating in Kabul's western Qala e Walid district follows... UN: Millions of Syrian Children Subject to Brutality GENEVA - A report by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria presents a picture of the many violations and atrocities millions of children have been forced to endure... Deir Ezzor Tribes’ assembly affirms support to national unity and sovereignty Deir Ezzor, Participants in the Assembly of the Euphrates Valley Tribes and clans underlined on Thursday their commitment to the Syrian sovereignty and national stances, showing their support to... Damascus, Cuban Embassy in Damascus on Wednesday evening held a reception ceremony at the residence of the Ambassador marking the 61 anniversary of the victory of the Cuban ... Lavrov: Combating terrorism in Syria must continue till eradicating it completely Tashkent, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a speech delivered at the International Relations Institute in Uzbekistan that combating terrorism in Syria must continue till eradicating it :... Syria, Russia condemn US attacks, demand stopping Washington’s attempts to create tension hotbeds in Syria Moscow, Syria and Russia have renewed condemnation of the escalatory practices by the and the attacks launched by its forces in the region and its continued attempts to... « ‫الشراكة الاستراتيجية الجديدة لـ Confirmation.com تهدف إلى توسيع الخدمات في الشرق الأوسط سودا ستريم تطلق نهجا جديدا لتجنيد المواهب »	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1933
__label__wiki	0.57885	0.57885	Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects Sher Singh, Steven Shoei Lung Li Plastics are widely used in modern life, and their unbound chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates can leach out into the surrounding environment. BPA and PAEs have recently attracted the special attention of the scientific community, regulatory agencies and the general public because of their high production volume, widespread use of plastics, and endocrine-disrupting effects. In The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, BPA and five most frequently curated PAEs (DEHP/MEHP and DBP/BBP/MBP) were found to have 1932 and 484 interactions with genes/proteins, respectively. Five of their top ten toxicity networks were found to be involved in inflammation, and their top ten diseases included genital, prostatic, endomentrial, ovarian and breast diseases. BPA and PAEs were found to exhibit similar toxicogenomics and adverse effects on human health owning to their 89 common interacting genes/proteins. These 89 genes/proteins may serve as biomarkers to assay the toxicities of different chemicals leached out from the widely used plastics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035 Toxicogenetics Diethylhexyl Phthalate Ovarian Diseases Toxicogenomics Singh, S., & Li, S. S. L. (2012). Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects. Gene, 494(1), 85-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035 Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects. / Singh, Sher; Li, Steven Shoei Lung. In: Gene, Vol. 494, No. 1, 15.02.2012, p. 85-91. Singh, S & Li, SSL 2012, 'Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects', Gene, vol. 494, no. 1, pp. 85-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035 Singh S, Li SSL. Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects. Gene. 2012 Feb 15;494(1):85-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035 Singh, Sher ; Li, Steven Shoei Lung. / Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects. In: Gene. 2012 ; Vol. 494, No. 1. pp. 85-91. @article{de935a28e7e4411e98e54c790ecfa161, title = "Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects", abstract = "Plastics are widely used in modern life, and their unbound chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates can leach out into the surrounding environment. BPA and PAEs have recently attracted the special attention of the scientific community, regulatory agencies and the general public because of their high production volume, widespread use of plastics, and endocrine-disrupting effects. In The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, BPA and five most frequently curated PAEs (DEHP/MEHP and DBP/BBP/MBP) were found to have 1932 and 484 interactions with genes/proteins, respectively. Five of their top ten toxicity networks were found to be involved in inflammation, and their top ten diseases included genital, prostatic, endomentrial, ovarian and breast diseases. BPA and PAEs were found to exhibit similar toxicogenomics and adverse effects on human health owning to their 89 common interacting genes/proteins. These 89 genes/proteins may serve as biomarkers to assay the toxicities of different chemicals leached out from the widely used plastics.", keywords = "Bisphenol a, Diseases, Genes, Phthalates, Proteins, Toxicogenomics", author = "Sher Singh and Li, {Steven Shoei Lung}", doi = "10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035", journal = "Gene", T1 - Bisphenol A and phthalates exhibit similar toxicogenomics and health effects AU - Singh, Sher AU - Li, Steven Shoei Lung N2 - Plastics are widely used in modern life, and their unbound chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates can leach out into the surrounding environment. BPA and PAEs have recently attracted the special attention of the scientific community, regulatory agencies and the general public because of their high production volume, widespread use of plastics, and endocrine-disrupting effects. In The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, BPA and five most frequently curated PAEs (DEHP/MEHP and DBP/BBP/MBP) were found to have 1932 and 484 interactions with genes/proteins, respectively. Five of their top ten toxicity networks were found to be involved in inflammation, and their top ten diseases included genital, prostatic, endomentrial, ovarian and breast diseases. BPA and PAEs were found to exhibit similar toxicogenomics and adverse effects on human health owning to their 89 common interacting genes/proteins. These 89 genes/proteins may serve as biomarkers to assay the toxicities of different chemicals leached out from the widely used plastics. AB - Plastics are widely used in modern life, and their unbound chemicals bisphenol A and phthalates can leach out into the surrounding environment. BPA and PAEs have recently attracted the special attention of the scientific community, regulatory agencies and the general public because of their high production volume, widespread use of plastics, and endocrine-disrupting effects. In The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database, BPA and five most frequently curated PAEs (DEHP/MEHP and DBP/BBP/MBP) were found to have 1932 and 484 interactions with genes/proteins, respectively. Five of their top ten toxicity networks were found to be involved in inflammation, and their top ten diseases included genital, prostatic, endomentrial, ovarian and breast diseases. BPA and PAEs were found to exhibit similar toxicogenomics and adverse effects on human health owning to their 89 common interacting genes/proteins. These 89 genes/proteins may serve as biomarkers to assay the toxicities of different chemicals leached out from the widely used plastics. KW - Bisphenol a KW - Diseases KW - Genes KW - Phthalates KW - Proteins KW - Toxicogenomics U2 - 10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035 DO - 10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035 JO - Gene JF - Gene 10.1016/j.gene.2011.11.035	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1935
__label__cc	0.58463	0.41537	Eye gene acts as ‘partner in crime’ in leukaemia mystery case Emma Williams, a PhD student in Dr Tim Somervailles’s lab at the Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute, writes about the team’s latest discovery. It’s not just forensic teams that solve mysteries with science. Cancer researchers do too. Today, our team’s latest investigation has been published in the journal Cancer Cell – we’ve solved the mystery of why a gene involved in the development of the human eye may also play a role in an aggressive form of blood cancer. Emma working in the lab When we talk about genes ‘for’ particular organs we mean the bits of DNA that are switched on inside cells in that organ. These genes play a fundamental role in helping a cell specialise in doing a particular job. But we found a particular eye gene, called FOXC1, that is switched on in around one in five patients with a type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). And, being an ‘eye’ gene, you may have guessed that this is a bit strange. It turns out that FOXC1 acts as a ‘partner in crime’ with another, known leukaemia gene, called HOXA9. And our research has shown that together, these genes might be behind more aggressive cases of AML. So how do these two genes collude to make this particular type of blood cancer more aggressive? And, most importantly, how might this allow us to look for new ways of tackling the disease? Human instruction manual mix-up Finding FOXC1 in blood cells is an example of a gene being active in the wrong place at the wrong time. All of the cells in our body carry a genetic instruction manual to build an entire human being. The way cells gain an identity – for example as an eye cell or blood cell – is to only use certain chapters of their instruction manual. These chapters contain all the words that tell the cells what to do and how to behave. And these words are what we know as genes. The selection of chapters used by cells is very tightly controlled. And it’s very important that cells use the right chapters and genes at the right times. So you can imagine our surprise when we found that some leukaemia cells were reading from a chapter normally used to build solid organs, like the eye, bone and kidneys, as a foetus grows in the womb. This was our first clue. We already know that cancer can arise and spread due to identity mix-ups when cells use the wrong pages of their manual. For example, when ‘bone’ genes are switched on in breast cancer cells that have spread to the bone. Our next step was to investigate what FOXC1 is doing in leukaemia cells, and if it can contribute to how blood cancer develops. Our study focused on acute myeloid leukaemia, a cancer of blood cells which affects around 3000 people per year in the UK. This leukaemia gets its name because it develops quickly (hence ‘acute’) and comes from one of the two groups of blood cells, called myeloid cells. In normal blood production, blood stem cells specialise into all the different types of mature blood cells to help the blood work. For example, the myeloid group includes oxygen-carriers (red blood cells), blood-clotters (platelets) and some infection-fighters (white blood cells). In AML, this process of specialisation is faulty. The patient’s blood and bone marrow become overrun with immature, non-specialised cells we call ‘blast’ cells, causing symptoms like a drop in the number of red blood cells (anaemia) and susceptibility to infections. While a lot of progress has been made in treating some types of leukaemia, treatment for AML has developed very little in over 40 years. So Cancer Research UK scientists like us are trying to better understand the disease to find new drug targets. In particular, we want to find drugs that can restore the way cells develop and specialise, and make the blast cells healthy. Scientists and doctors are also keen to know why some patients’ AML is more aggressive than others, because these differences could have important implications for how the disease is treated. So where does FOXC1 come into this? Eye and leukaemia genes are ‘partners in crime’ The clue which kicked off our investigation was the discovery that FOXC1 is wrongly switched on in around one in five AML patients. Next, we dug deeper to figure out what effects the FOXC1 gene has when it is switched on in leukaemia cells. Two different blood cells: the top one is a non-specialised ‘blast’ cell with FOXC1 switched on. The bottom cell has FOXC1 switched off and specialises into an infection fighter. Credit: Tim Somerville We carried out experiments where we grew AML cells in the lab and stopped them from switching on the FOXC1 gene. Without FOXC1, the AML cells started to specialise like normal cells would, and in some cases they also stopped growing. We then showed that FOXC1 can also block blood cell specialisation when we artificially switched it on in normal, healthy blood stem cells. This told us that FOXC1 can play an important role in the blood cell specialisation block that is responsible for AML. But we also found that FOXC1 can’t cause leukaemia on its own. Instead, it needs a partner in crime – a known leukaemia-causing gene called HOXA9, which AML cells often produce large amounts of. HOXA9 helps to keep healthy blood stem cells ‘young’ and unspecialised, but too much of this gene is a key culprit in the AML specialisation block. Once we knew that FOXC1 and HOXA9 were linked, we were able to show that they act together to block blood cell specialisation, and speed up leukaemia progression in mice. This evidence suggests that high FOXC1 levels are associated with poorer survival in people with AML, and when we examined real patient data, we found this to be true. This has also been shown for some solid tumours, like breast and liver cancer. The next big question is whether we can turn these findings into a potential treatment to target these genes. Switching off genes in real patients is much harder than in cells grown in the lab, and because of the way that they work, targeting FOXC1 or HOXA9 with drugs is a challenge. This is because FOXC1 and HOXA9 are from a family of genes called transcription factors – molecules that help to read the genetic code in our DNA. They are infamous among scientists for being tricky to target with drugs. This is because – unlike the more well-known enzymes targeted with precision medicines – they don’t have an ‘engine’ we can easily disable with drugs. A key focus of our lab now is to figure out how FOXC1 is switched on when it shouldn’t be, and what other molecules are involved. We hope that our further detective work will reveal the identity of a more ‘druggable’ culprit. For now, this study could provide a new tool for doctors to predict which patients have more aggressive forms of the disease. This in turn would help make some decisions about treatment a little less of a mystery. Somerville, T., et al. (2015) Frequent Derepression of the Mesenchymal Transcription Factor Gene FOXC1 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Cancer Cell. DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2015.07.017 Biomarker research Cancer biology Cancer genes Cancer Research UK-funded research Leukaemia Research and trials Stem cells	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1937
__label__cc	0.526876	0.473124	NHL Lines NHL Grand Salami $120,000 Legendary Ancient Superstars Casino Bonus Contest 10 Nov, 2017 November 9, 2017 -- St. Johns, Antigua (Press Release) – This month at Intertops Casino there’s epic entertainment and legendary prizes as players compete against each other for $30,000 in weekly bonuses. Every week during the $120,000 Ancient Superstars bonus contest, 300 frequent players will win bonuses up to $500 each. The top 20 each week will be entered in a draw for a $1000 cash prize (with no wagering requirements). Intertops Casino players compete against each other for top weekly casino bonuses. They’re ranked on a Scoreboard according to their points. Players earn points playing on their desktop or laptop computers or in the mobile casino on their smartphones or tablets. Competition for the biggest money can be quite intense as players try to move up a few places on the Scoreboard and qualify for a bigger bonus. 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Chicago Bulls +7 Philadelphia 76ers -7 2 -110 Cleveland Cavaliers +8.5 Memphis Grizzlies -8.5 2 -110 Atlanta Hawks +8 San Antonio Spurs -8 2 -110	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1938
__label__wiki	0.793558	0.793558	Home→contract→Sports Lawyer Takes the Helm as Next Vanderbilt Athletics Director ← Time for a Reassessment of Assumption of Risk in Golf? Don’t Count on it. Southwestern Law School Blog Spotlights Sports Law Professor Jeff Birren → Sports Lawyer Takes the Helm as Next Vanderbilt Athletics Director Sports Law Expert Posted on February 1, 2019 by Holt Hackney February 1, 2019 Vanderbilt University has named Malcolm Turner as the university’s new vice chancellor for athletics and university affairs and athletics director. Turner, a member of the NBA’s senior leadership team and president of the NBA G League, will join the university on Feb. 1, 2019. He replaces David Williams, the current Vice Chancellor for Athletics and University Affairs and Athletics Director, who is retiring from the athletic department to focus on the Vanderbilt Law School’s commitment to a program devoted to sports law. “I set out to find a thought leader with the skill set and vision to manage the next stage of transformation for Vanderbilt Athletics, and that’s exactly what we found in Malcolm Turner,” Vanderbilt University Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos said. “Malcolm is a proven executive with deep expertise in multiple business disciplines including management, marketing and development across the sports landscape of teams, leagues, facilities and major events. He also carries a deep and personal commitment to education, evidenced by his own academic achievements and his extensive community service. His exceptional skills, combined with his passion for education and drive for excellence, will bring immense value not only to the Vanderbilt Commodores, but to the rest of the university and to the entire Nashville community.” Turner’s tenure as president of the NBA G League is hallmarked by growth, expansion and transformation. Under Turner’s leadership, the NBA G League has enjoyed unprecedented growth across all areas of its business and basketball operations — from record numbers of NBA G League alumni in the NBA, to a first-of-its-kind expanded entitlement partnership with Gatorade, to innovative new player contract types. A champion for NBA Two-Way Contracts (newly incorporated in the NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement) and NBA G League Select Contracts (newly announced as part of the G League’s recently launched professional path), Turner’s vision deepened the league’s commitment to player development. His hire drew the praise of David Stern, NBA Commissioner Emeritus and one of the most accomplished commissioners in the professional sports history. “Malcolm is an exceptionally talented executive and an all-around great person,” he said. “The NBA benefited tremendously from his leadership, acumen, and collaborative mindset — he’s one of a kind. He expanded the NBA’s development league in unprecedented ways to form the successful G League, and enhanced the league’s commitment to player, coach and staff development. I have no doubt he will bring that same commitment to excellence and impact to Vanderbilt’s Athletics Program.” Prior to joining the NBA, Turner worked at Wasserman Media Group, where he helped build the firm’s preeminent Consulting Division as its managing director, creating and managing sports, entertainment, venue and new product launch strategies for leading corporate brands and properties. He went on to help build a multinational footprint for this practice before launching Wasserman’s Golf Division as one of the leading golf management teams representing some of the game’s top personalities and brands. Prior to Wasserman, he served as senior vice president and a member of the leadership team of OnSport, a North Carolina-based sports and entertainment consulting firm (later acquired by Wasserman) that managed strategic initiatives for Fortune 100 brands across the NBA, NFL, MLB, NASCAR, Madison Square Garden, STAPLES Center and other marquee properties. The firm also represented the media rights for prominent rightsholders in the professional and college sports landscape. Turner graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and went on to earn joint J.D./.M.B.A. degrees from Harvard University. Posted in contract, crowd, facility, field, gender equity, intellectual property, legal, NCAA, security, title IX permalink Paul M. Anderson Expertise: Sports Law, Youth, High School, Collegiate and Recreational Sport, Legal Research, Civil Rights and Title IX, Facility Leasing and Agreements Director, National Sports Law Institute and Sports Law program and Professor, Marquette University Law School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) Scott A. Andresen, Esq. Expertise: Sports Law, Licensing and Sponsorships, Trademark and Copyright, Team/League Operations and Management, Corporation Formation Andresen & Associates, P.C. (Owner-Attorney); Northwestern University (Professor, Masters of Sports Administration Program) Robin Ammon, Ed.D. Expertise: Premise liability/risk management/crowd management Peter A. Carfagna Expertise: Sports Law, Sports Marketing, Sports Investments, Team and League Operations, Licensing and Sponsorship Agreements, Sports-Related Premises Liability, Intellectual Property, Risk Management, Corporate Formation Magis, LLC (Founder), Former Chief Legal Officer of IMG Group of Companies (1994-2005), Harvard Law School (Covington Burling Distinguished Visitor/Visiting Lecturer in Sports Law since 2006), Great Lakes Sports and Entertainment Law Academy — joint program between Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and Case Western Reserve School of Law (Co-Director since 2012) Walter Champion Expertise: Sports Ethics, Daily Fantasy Sports George Foreman Professor of Sports and Entertainment Law Texas Southern University School of Law Mark Conrad Expertise: intellectual property, contracts, ethics and governance Associate Professor, Legal and Ethical Studies, Schools of Business, Fordham University (New York); adjunct lecturer, Sports Law, Sports Management Program, Columbia University (New York) Eugene Egdorf, Esq. Expertise: Education, Wrongful Death, and Concussion Shrader & Associates L.L.P. Timothy Liam Epstein, Esq. Expertise: Disappointment Lawsuits, Multipliers and Similar Measures in High School Sports, Injuries on the Athletic Field, Sports Venue Construction, Sports Venue Liability. Adjuncts Professor of Law – Loyola University Chicago School of Law (Sports & Entertainment Law) Jeremy M. Evans, Esq. Expertise: Contract Drafting, Negotiations, Licensing, Intellectual Property, Trademarks, Copyrights, Administrative Hearings, Business Representation and Advice, Business Formation, and General Counsel Services. California Sports Lawyer Director, Center for Sports Law & Policy Thomas Jefferson School of Law Gabe Feldman Expertise: Antitrust, Labor and Employment, Intellectual Property, Sports Injuries, Contracts, Negotiation and Mediation. Associate Professor, Tulane Law School Director, Tulane Sports Law Program Associate Provost for NCAA Compliance, Tulane University Mediator and Arbitrator, MAPS Gil Fried & Assoc., LLC Expertise: crowd management, spectator safety, facility safety, dram shop, facility security Joshua A. Gordon Expertise: Sports Law, Sports Conflict, Negotiation, Sports Marketing, Mediation, Sports Business, Assessment, Sports Ombuds, Hazing and Bullying, Crises Management (541) 887-0724 (SCI) \| jgordon@sportsconflict.org (541) 346-1634 (UO) \| jgordon9@uoregon.edu Sports Conflict Institute Paul J. Greene, Esq. Expertise: Sports Arbitration and Litigation, Anti-Doping, Team Selection, Eligibility, SafeSport, Governance, Intellectual Property/Right of Publicity, Crisis Management, Sports Regulation Global Sports Advocates Jordan Kobritz, JD, CPA Expertise: Professional Sports, Sports Business, Sports Law. 928-925-1114 Former owner of Minor League Baseball teams. Investor in and Senior Advisor to Caribbean Baseball Initiative, LP, owner of two MiLB clubs Professor, Masters in Sport Management, SUNY Cortland Donna A. Lopiano, Ph.D. Expertise: Gender Equity, Athletics Program Management Sports Management Resources Michael Lysko Expertise: sports marketing, sponsorship, branding Douglas N. Masters, Esq. Expertise: Advertising and Promotions, Emerging Media, IP and Entertainment Litigation, Intellectual Property, Trademarks and Copyrights, Sports Loeb & Loeb LLP Steve McKelvey, J.D. Expertise: Ambush Marketing, Trademark Law, Right of Publicity, Sport Marketing & Sponsorship, Athlete Representation Associate Professor, Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst Merry Moiseichik, ReD, J.D. Expertise: playground, facility risk management Barbara Osborne, J.D. Expertise: Gender Discrimination, Title IX, Sexual Harassment, Sexual Orientation Discrimination, Student-Athlete Pregnancy; Legal Issues in College Sport John Pinkman Expertise: Comprehension of Current Standard of Care, Investigation of Historical Patterns of Player Management, and Extensive Product Knowledge and Appropriate Use Pinkman Baseball (founder). For more than 25 years Mr. Pinkman has enjoyed an excellent national reputation as an instructor, journalist, and public speaker. As a full-time teaching professional, Coach Pinkman brings recent hands-on experience to recreational and athletic expert witness responsibilities. Daniel A. Rascher, Ph.D. Expertise: sports economics, sports finance, antitrust economics, damages, valuation, sponsorship and endorsement breach, licensing, labor economics Partner, OSKR, LLC President, SportsEconomics, LLC Professor and Director of Academic Programs Sport Management Program B. David Ridpath, Ed.D. Expertise: American Intercollegiate Athletics including NCAA Governance, Rules, Regulations, Enforcement and Infractions, NCAA Investigations and penalty adjudication, Athletic Eligibility, Compliance issues. Associate Professor and Kahandas Nandola Professor of Sports Business Fulbright Scholar 2014-15 Adjunct Faculty, Universtat of Bayreuth, Germany William J. Robers, JD/MBA Expertise: Sports Liability Issues; Officiating Training, Evaluation, Discipline, and Mechanics for NCAA and High School Football; Sports Eligibility; Premises Liability; Sports Law; Sports Marketing; Sports Finance; Coaching Contracts; Licensing and Sponsorship Agreements; Intellectual Property; Risk Management; Entity Formation; Governance; Sports Injuries; Contracts; Employment; Teaching Sports Law; Mediator; Arbitrator. Shareholder, Sparks Willson Borges Brandt & Johnson, P.C. Andrew D. Schwarz Expertise: antitrust economics, sports economics, damages, class certification issues, statistical analysis, ADA analysis. Brian R. Socolow, Esq. Expertise: Rights of Publicity, Advertising and Promotions, Contracts, IP and Entertainment Litigation, Venue Liability John O. Spengler, PhD, JD Expertise: Supervision of recreation and sport activities, playgrounds and play space safety, spectator safety, emergency action planning William D. Squires Expertise: Expert witness for lawsuits involving sports and entertainment facilities and event management. The Right Stuff Consulting, Inc. Lecturer – School of Professional Studies, Columbia University Carla Varriale, Esq. Expertise: premises liability defense, assumption of risk/waivers, Sporting Venue Liability Havkins Rosenfeld Ritzert & Varriale, LLP Glenn M. Wong Expertise: Contracts, Torts, IP, Gender Equity, Agency, Athletics Program Management, NCAA Compliance, Enforcement and Infractions cases, and Damages glenn.wong@asu.edu Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1939
__label__wiki	0.943516	0.943516	Win more than Djokovic? Let's chill out – Zverev After winning the ATP Finals, Alexander Zverev played down suggestions he could be as successful as Novak Djokovic. Alexander Zverev laughed off suggestions he could match Novak Djokovic's career, saying it was too soon for such claims. Zverev, 21, clinched the biggest title of his career so far with a 6-4 6-3 win over Djokovic in the ATP Finals decider on Sunday. That marked his 10th ATP World Tour crown, a tally not yet close to matching that of Djokovic (72). Zverev hopes he can one day reach Djokovic's level, but said it was too soon to discuss that. "Oh, Jesus. Oh my God. God. I mean I won one of those, he won five," he told a news conference. "He's won, I don't know what, 148 more titles than me, so let's not go there for now. "I hope I can be great, but let's chill out for a little bit." Novak Djokovic has won the ATP Finals title four times in a row (2012-15). - Getty Images Zverev is still searching for his first grand slam title, with his run to the French Open quarter-finals this year his best result. Read: Classy Zverev revels in victory, hails defeated Djokovic The German expects the likes of Djokovic, 31, Roger Federer, 37, and Rafael Nadal, 32, to continue challenging at majors. "They're still going to be the guys to beat at the big tournaments. I will hope I'll do everything I can to get better, to compete always," Zverev said. "I feel like I'm doing that but I still have a lot of things to improve. Hopefully next year I'll be able to play better tennis than I did this year, even though it's been a good year." The world's biggest tennis stars unite in Rally for Relief Serena Williams wins first title since 2017 at Auckland Classic Stefanos Tsitsipas: I'm close to winning Grand Slams Stefanos Tsitsipas has a new phobia Stefanos Tsitsipas: Victory over Federer one of my best games this season 'This is bull****!' - Nadal rages as journalist questions marriage Novak Djokovic: Dominic Thiem was just phenomenal Stefanos Tsitsipas: I don't hate Daniil Medvedev! Rafael Nadal lacked "competitive spirit" in Alexander Zverev ATP Finals loss Important to do prior homework - Djokovic Alex De Minaur goes down to Jannik Sinner in Next-Gen ATP Finals Ashleigh Barty claims record prize for winning WTA Finals	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1940
__label__cc	0.594172	0.405828	Spring Vacations Summer Vacations City Vacations Country Vacations Travel Tips and Intel Best Travel Apps World's Best Awards A-List 2018 T+L Travel Guide App 4th of July Travel Thanksgiving Travel Christmas Travel Beer + Breweries Food Fairs Getaways from Chicago Getaways from Dallas Getaways from Houston Getaways from Los Angeles Getaways from NYC Getaways from San Francisco Getaways from Seattle Family Friendly Cruises Colleges + Universities Zoos + Aquariums Menu Travel + Leisure The Seattle and Tacoma Area The Seattle and Tacoma Area Travel Guide Categories Overview Hotels Restaurants Things To Do Tips and articles Free App Categories Overview Hotels Restaurants Things To Do Tips and articles This Woman Learned The Hard Way It's Not a Good Idea to Put an Octopus On Your Face There are a few right and wrong ways to interact with wild animals. Attempting to kiss an octopus on the face isn't one of them.While taking part in a... Read More ‘Twilight’ Fans Can Now Rent Bella Swan’s House on Airbnb There may be many reasons you want to go back to 2008. But if your sense of nostalgia is rooted in the fact that that was the year the first “Twilight”... Read More 5 Places to Have Your Next Family Reunion It can be tough to stay in touch with family — busy lives and hectic schedules can get in the way of seeing each other as much as we'd like. That’s why... Read More 10 Memorial Day Destinations for People Who Still Don’t Have Plans (Video) If you haven’t already planned your Memorial Day getaway, it’s not too late. You can still get out of town for a perfect weekend escape.Yelp has... Read More Seattle Airport Will Soon Allow People to Pick Up Their Friends and Family at the Gate Remember the days when you could wear your shoes through airport security, full body scanners were mere science fiction, and you could actually greet... Read More A Southwest Employee Was Arrested for Putting a Camera in an Airport Bathroom A Southwest Airlines employee was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of voyeurism after a camera was discovered inside a Seattle-Tacoma International... Read More These Are the Best Places to Order Delivery From, According to Yelp On those probably more frequent than you would like to admit nights when you opt to order delivery food rather than cook, you’re usually in one of two... Read More Where to Find the Best Ice Cream Across the U.S. This story originally appeared on Food and Wine. Whether it's a Good Humor bar or $10 sundae, Americans love ice cream — and fantastic parlors... Read More America is Getting a (Legal!) Ayahuasca Retreat Now that marijuana tourism is well and truly active in states like Colorado and Washington, the opening of the nation's first legal Ayahuasca... Read More Best Beach Weekend Getaways There’s a cape in Massachusetts with pristine beaches, gentle hiking trails, and seafood fresh from the docks. It’s never crowded, prettiest in summer,... Read More World's Most Romantic Hotels 2011 What’s more romantic than staying at a former 19th-century monastery with vibrant sofas, bleached wood floors, and a bamboo garden that doubles as an... Read More Best Thai Restaurants in the U.S. If you’ve eaten at a neighborhood Thai restaurant, you’re likely familiar with pick-your-protein Technicolor curries. Odds are you’ve tried papaya salad... Read More America's Best Small-Town Museums The first significant new museum of American art in nearly half a century debuted in 2011. But to view Crystal Bridges’ collection—from a Gilbert Stuart... Read More America's Most Beautiful Gardens Deep in the Bronx, there’s a place where the incessant hum of New York City disappears. A river flows along the edge of an old-growth forest, where... Read More America's Best Ramen It’s time to get one thing straight: those five-for-a-dollar sodium-bombed bricks of instant noodles may be manna for college kids but they ain’t ramen,... Read More See more tips & articles on The Seattle and Tacoma Area Related Areas More guides in The Seattle and Tacoma Area: Amanda Park Coupeville Quinault all of Seattle Subscribe today for just $1 an issue! Receive exclusive travel deals, insider tips, inspiration, breaking news updates, and more. Best Travel Agents Travel Sitemap Meredith Corporate Site Your California Privacy Rights \| California Do Not Sell © 2018 Meredith Corporation Travel & Leisure Group. All rights reserved. TravelandLeisure.com is part of the Travel & Leisure Group. Travel + Leisure is a trademark of Meredith Corporation Travel & Leisure Group, registered in the United States and other countries. Travel + Leisure may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1944
__label__cc	0.712886	0.287114	WALDEMAR THRANES GATE 86C INFO@STANDARDOSLO.NO WWW.STANDARDOSLO.NO TUESDAY TO FRIDAY: 12:00 - 17:00 GOUTAM GHOSH “.... ASCRIBING TO THEM BIRTH, ANIMATION, SENSE AND ACCIDENT ...” 27.02.2015-04.04.2015 / Preview: 27.02.2015 / 19.00-21.00 ABSTRACTION - MECHANISM - SYMBOLISM “....ascribing to them birth, animation, sense and accident...” I would like to talk about “accidents” in terms of chaos, noise and abstraction; when the phenomenon of abstraction gets associated with the collapse and decomposition of “matter”. The geological process might stand as being crucial in the decomposing of the earth - what we call death (samadhi), although throughout the entire process of death, it gets split as matter & pulse (spanda). It is a quantitative phenomenon that occurs in rhythms and cycles and can for example be measured in heartbeats per minute: it can also be located across the geography of the body. The task is simple but made complicated by the distracting and mercurial nature of the mind. The mind is a spinning vortex, a cacophony of nerves screaming out senses that are hungrily searching. It would be difficult to create an exhaustive list of manifestations, but they are all within the elemental spectrum. Often the first to appear is sound and later, spanda (matter & pulse) also crystallises into light. Somehow this entire phenomena of pulse has collapsed into methodical structures, systems and mechanisms, which have measured, calculated and assimilated into principles of formal logic that operate in the whole system. These principles of formal logic do not necessarily tie with mathematics, but it defiantly lies before us when mathematics takes it over. Natural philosophy began to explain the world as a system consisting of fixed rules that could be determined mathematically. Nature was shown not to be divinely inspired, as was taught by the church, but worked as fixed law in the book of “super nature”. However after the advent of enlightenment rationality, law, polity, economy and natural philosophy became a secular subject beyond the church. The entire process that was once one mass of knowledge became divided into religion, science and magic. The displayed works in this exhibition, film, drawings and paintings attempt to establish a link between the sacred and the secular, which departed at some historical juncture. Spectrography and Astrology/jyotish (study of light) are studying the same thing, but while spectrography is using an extroverted approach, jyotish’s approach is introverted. The spectrographer uses an instrument that separates light into a frequency spectrum and records the signal using a camera, whereas the jyotshi would first acknowledge the sensation of light then study how the perception of that would affect the behaviour of his body mind. – Goutam Ghosh & Kaustubh Dehlvi Das (Researching scholar on religious study at Centre for Social Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India) Goutam Ghosh (b. 1979, Nabadwip) lives and works in Santiniketan, India. He received his MA of Fine Arts from Oslo Academy of Fine Arts, Oslo, Norway, and from Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Baroda, Gujarat, India. This is his first solo exhibition. For further information please visit our webpage: www.standardoslo.no or contact Eivind Furnesvik at eivind@standardoslo.no or +47 917 07 429 / +47 22 60 13 10. STANDARD (OSLO) is open Tuesday-Friday: 12.00-17.00 / Saturday: 12.00-16.00. Sunday and Monday: Closed Next exhibition projects: Frieze Art Fair, New York Installation view, STANDARD (OLSO), Oslo SOGG/IV 2015-001/1 Yellow Cake Gouache on newsprint glued on cotton textile 95 x 123 cm / 37 x 48" Unique / SOGG/P 2015-004 The Greater Forgiveness Gouache on paper in plywood box frame / 34.5 x 30.2 x 3 cm / 13.6 x 11.9 x 1.2" 22 x 27 cm / 9 x 11" Unique / SOGG/D 2014-026 Leather Copper Gouache on paper in plywood box frame / 36 x 31.2 x 4.5 cm / 14.2 x 12.3 x 1.8" Scoop (Tool) Lime Stone Herb Lore Serving From Third Court 29 x 38 cm / 11 x 15" Gouache on paper in plywood box frame / 41.5 x 34 x 4.5 cm / 16.3 x 13.4 x 1.8" Primary field Trade Matter Gouache on newsprint glued on cotton textile in plywood box frame / 135 x 110 x 4.5 cm / 53.1 x 43.3 x 1.8" Probable area is 24 cm 16mm film, color, looped Edition: 1/3 + 1AP / SOGG/F 2015-011/1 SOGG/IV 2015-001/10 Gouache, cotton textile glued on plywood 122 x 122 cm / 48 x 48" Art Effects Oil painting on canvas Canvas without cardboard tube: 211 x 198 cm / 81 1/2 x 87 1/2 in Double Pigeon, Rabbit, Goat, etc	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1947
__label__cc	0.73381	0.26619	Online Doctorate of Education (EdD) Programs EdD vs. PhD Online Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) Programs Online Master of Science in Teaching Online Master of Education (ME) Programs MAT vs. ME Online Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) Online Speech Pathology Master's Programs (SLP) Online Midwifery Programs Online Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Programs Online Masters in Nursing (MSN) Programs Online Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Programs Online Doctorate in Occupational Therapy (OTD) Programs Online Physician Assistant (PA) Programs Online Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Programs Online Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) What is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)? 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Regardless of temporary economic conditions, hiring practices, budget cuts or any other factors that impact the education system, the need for teachers is timeless and universal. Society will always need educators, and in that respect, teaching is one career in which you can be confident you will always have a purpose. A teacher shortage occurs when there are not enough teachers in key subject areas, which has been partly caused by years of teacher layoffs during the Great Recession, a growing student population and fewer people entering teacher preparation programs, according to the Learning Policy Institute. The need for teachers is quite real. According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011, employment of teachers is expected to grow by 13% between 2008 and 2018. In 2008, there were about 3.5 million kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school teachers in the country, so we can expect almost another 500,000 to be hired by 2018. Also indicative of the high demand for teachers is the large volume of grants available for teachers. The specific needs of schools vary from district to district. Some areas, particularly in high-needs schools in the south and west, have higher needs for teachers. There is also a demand for teachers by subject, with certain academic areas needing teachers more than others. Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education is a great example of an area where there is a high demand for great teachers. Teacher Shortage information was provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher Shortage Areas Nationwide Listings for 2016–2017, and was determined by examining the most recent data about unfilled teaching positions; positions filled by teachers certified by irregular, provisional, temporary, or emergency certification; and teachers teaching in subject areas other than their area of preparation. Click on your state below to find out more information about teacher shortage areas: Alternative Careers in Education Shortage Areas Education careers outside the classroom are also in demand. Here are the states reporting shortages in non-teaching roles. Click to learn more about each career path: School Librarian School Behavior Analyst School Speech-Language Pathologist EXPAND YOUR EXPERTISE WITHOUT GIVING UP YOUR INCOME Teaching and Learning Strategies for Higher Education The 8-week Teaching and Learning Strategies for Higher Education online short course is delivered by Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, in association with HarvardX. Students in this course will engage deeply with the most relevant research on effective teaching methods in the higher education context, while refining their own practices, portfolio, and teaching philosophy. Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) Master of Arts in Counseling and Guidance Master of Social Work (MSW) Master of Science Program in Communicative Sciences and Disorders	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1949
__label__cc	0.724235	0.275765	Ngahere Ngā Ika, ngā Poraka me ngā Mokoweri Kōrero: Freshwater fish Shy species, seldom seen Evolution and characteristics Galaxiids: īnanga and kōkopu More galaxiids Bullies, smelt and grayling Torrentfish, lamprey and black flounder Whārangi 6. Torrentfish, lamprey and black flounder Torrentfish The little torrentfish (Cheimarrichthys fosteri) spends most of its life in flowing torrents. Its superbly adapted fins act as depressors, keeping it on the stream bed under swiftly flowing water. It may be a close relative of the marine blue cod. Like many New Zealand freshwater fish, torrentfish spend a part of their lives at sea, though it is uncertain how this happens. Nothing is known of their reproduction. What is known is that in spring, juveniles (around 2 centimetres long) can be found swimming into estuaries from the sea. Scientists suspect that they migrate to sea as newly hatched larvae. Lamprey are parasitic fishes, and New Zealand’s one species (Geotria australis) spends most of its life at sea. It attaches itself to larger marine fish with its sucking mouth, and rasps away its host’s flesh. Lamprey migrate into rivers in late winter and spring. When they first arrive they are bright silver, with a blue back that has two vivid, paler blue stripes. But they soon lose their brilliant colours, becoming dull, drab and brownish. They penetrate long distances up rivers and probably spawn in the headwaters of small bush streams. The larvae hatch, and spend a few years living in sandy or silty sediments of stream margins, before moving to sea for several years. Nothing is known of their breeding habits. Black flounder The black flounder (Rhombosolea retiaria) spends much of its life in either rivers or lowland lakes. It is notable for the bright brick-red spots on its back. It migrates to sea to spawn, probably during winter, though little is known about this. Small juveniles, around the size of a thumbnail, can be found making their way into the rivers over spring. Ki mua Tō muri mai: Whārangi 7. Hononga, rauemi nō waho Whai muri Bob McDowall, 'Freshwater fish - Torrentfish, lamprey and black flounder', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/freshwater-fish/page-6 (accessed 18 January 2020) He kōrero nā Bob McDowall, i tāngia i te 24 Sep 2007 Ngārara	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1956
__label__cc	0.516232	0.483768	UnNatural Music: John Lennon & Yoko Ono in Cambridge 1969 by Anthony Barnett Allardyce Book Posted on May 29, 2016 by tearsinthefence In the closing lines of this attractively produced little piece of history Anthony Barnett refers to Yoko Ono as Eiko and thereby brings back into focus another little fragment of history. Some eight years ago I received an email from Michael Rumaker, Black Mountaineer who had been taught by Olson in the 1950s, in which he commented upon my determination to locate and read his first novel, The Butterfly: ‘You mentioned you plan to read my Butterfly this weekend with an eye to comparing it to Douglas Woolf’s Wall to Wall. I’m glad I have the chance to warn you the comparison will not stand up. Butterfly was my first novel and as with all first novels is riddled with flaws, and in this case, excessive emotion and not as direct as I would have written it in a later time. That, despite its being highly autobiographical, and also perhaps its being of some historical interest, since the character of “Eiko” is actually Yoko Ono (no secret anymore since Albert Goldman wrote about that fact in his 1988 The Lives of John Lennon) and the character of “Alice” is actually Joyce Johnson, former girlfriend of Jack Kerouac who was with him when On the Road hit it big).’ When Barnett’s recent publication was reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement on May 20th J.C. opened his piece with a fine piece of tongue-in-cheekery: ‘There is something appealing about a music memoir that opens “I do not have to tell you how disgraceful John’s attitude was and Yoko’s is”. The author of UnNatural Music is the poet Anthony Barnett who produced the Natural Music concert in Cambridge in 1969…’ The tongue-in-cheekery is of course that Barnett does have to tell us and what he tells is clear and to the point. His historical reconstruction, a past that never simply gets swallowed up in a present, is immaculate and the whole book is presented in a style that over many years Anthony Barnett has made his own: a type of signature publishing dish. Buy a copy NOW! The historical reconstruction undertaken here is not simply about that concert in 1969; we enter into a spectral world of the past as the book opens with the words ‘For a while from 1965 I worked at Better Books, New Compton Street, round the corner from their Charing Cross Road shop. That section of New Compton Street no longer exists. A redevelopment covers it.’ We are immediately drawn into a world that will include Nothing Doing in London One, ‘which included a music score by John Tchicai’; the letterpress literary and arts loose-leaf folio review also included work by Samuel Beckett and Anne-Marie Albiach. In January 1968 Nothing Doing in London Two appeared with work by George Oppen as well as Yoko Ono’s ‘On Paper’. As Mr Barnett tells me the title page was ‘set in Castellar font, and the names in Plaintin font’. Needless to add that both are now collectors’ items! Rumaker’s novel opens in a hospital which conveys a haunting sense of the prophetic for Ken Kesey’s later masterpiece, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: ‘The low stucco buildings of the hospital with their harsh green windows and heavy wire screening stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see.’ Anthony Barnett’s magical reconstruction of long gone days comes off the page with similar focus. Ian Brinton 29th May 2016 Posted in Books, Memoir and tagged Anthony Barnett, George Oppen, Jack Kerouac, John Lennon, Michael Rumaker, Yoko Ono. Bookmark the permalink. Long Poem Magazine Issue 15, ed. Lucy Hamilton & Linda Black Sure Hope 1, ed. Joseph Persad In The Pavilion Hotel, 37 Leinster Gardens, London W2, Ken Edwards gave an interview on 15th February 1995 in which he talked about the world of poetry and the world of poetry magazines. Reality Studios had a ten-year lifespan and Edwards made it clear that he was interested in questioning the ‘basis of belief and acceptance of what writing is’. ‘So that is what I was trying to do in the magazine’. Ken Edwards also made it clear that he did not want the magazine ‘to have a dogmatic line on anything, because I do not feel I have one…The thing is when you edit a magazine, people do come to you with preconceived notions of what you are doing, like if you publish soandso’s poetry, therefore you support this line and therefore soandso must be an enemy. Unfortunately, poetry is riddled with this kind of factionalising.’ One year later Iain Sinclair’s anthology Conductors of Chaos appeared and his introduction emphasised those points in vivid language as he suggested that poets ‘are a quarrelsome bunch; dealing with them is like dipping an arm into a sack of vipers’. In terms of the publication of an anthology (and the same could be said of a magazine) they demand ‘Who else is involved’. This month two magazines have appeared and in their different ways they are exemplary in showing how the best can be achieved. Long Poem Magazine has been running for a few years now and it is produced with care and style. The editors, both poets in their own rights, were able to announce in the opening pages of this recently published issue that LPM has been awarded ‘an Arts Council grant to fund issues 15 and 16’. They also presented a clear sense of their own purposes as editors: ‘Since LPM’s inception, we have striven to publish an equal proportion of women to men, and to foster a sense of literary community and engagement across languages, cultures and countries—publishing translations from nine languages to date, with a tenth in the pipeline.’ The range of poetry is eclectic as work by the Russian of Anatoly Movshevich (translated by Peter Daniels) brushes shoulders with that of Philippe Jaccottet (translated by Ian Brinton) and the ‘Extracts from Uruk’s Anthem’ by Adnan al-Sayegh, translated by Jenny Lewis, are simply outstanding. I am reminded here of the published letter of Jeremy Prynne to Andrew George concerning the latter’s Penguin translation of The Epic of Gilgamesh in which he congratulated the translator on his ability to present ‘with great clarity and force… a poem of tremendous nobility and passion, evidently linked by many threads to the social structures of governance and adventure among men who still felt themselves close to the world of an elaborate pantheon of gods and supernatural agencies, but also displaying deep powers of psychological insight and human character and interaction’. To listen to Adnan al-Sayegh reading from his contribution to LPM at the launch was to be stilled for a moment, to be caught in a web of interwoven histories. Submissions can be sent via http://www.longpoemmagazine.org.uk Sure Hope 1 is a delight to read and its editorial note looks forward in the very best sense. As its title suggests it is here to stay for a while. ‘Sure Hope is a magazine of the arts, fairly convinced that writing, radically considered, remains an optimized framework for investigating the continued possibilities of hope, invisibility, equality, expansion, space, history, love…..It is hoped readers will enjoy what is presented, observing that these contents look out to broad horizons of conversation, life, and argument…’. The range of contributors is impressive as Ian Patterson and Anthony Barnett rub shoulders with Justin Katko and Sophie Seita; Lisa Jeschke & Lucy Beynon appear along with Ian Heames and Luke Roberts. From the migrant camps of Calais we can read Harry Soolia as he chalks up the ‘intelligent and deliberate manipulations of opinions / tintin’s tears dripping from the feed’. This new magazine is worth supporting and submissions can be sent to troposphereeditions@gmail.com Ian Brinton 23rd May 2016 Posted in Books, English Poetry, Literary Magazine, Translations and tagged Joseph Persad, Ken Edwards, Linda Black, Long Poem Magazine, Lucy Hamilton, Reality Studios, Sure Hope. Bookmark the permalink. Slant by Linda Black (Shearsman Books) Reading through the graceful poems, the delicate threads of line that constitute this collection, I am reminded of a little essay written by John Hall and published by Shearsman in Necessary Steps, edited by David Kennedy in 2007. Writing about ‘Occasions of Elegy’ Hall refers us to some roots: ‘The Oxford English Dictionary gives as the etymology for occasion: ‘ad. L. occasion-em falling (of things) towards (each other). It is not just the things that fall towards each other, though there is always, I would say, a sense of conjuncture or convergence that marks something as an ‘occasion’, even for those with their attention on the ‘everyday’. It is also that occasions are marked incidents that cause certain people to fall together.’ In the Dictionary the word ‘slant’ has of course plenty of references to the oblique (‘having an oblique or sloping position’) bringing to mind that occasional sense of one thing leaning towards another: movement and balance. The delicate threads of Black’s lines lean in such a way that stasis merges into movement: the gesture is that of thought becoming fixed for a moment, and it is recognizable in ‘Earth’s spread’: ‘—legend quickens outward inward to the fine grit sand sieved & airborne scuffs the surface into drills blows in three wishes bows out definition beaten by whether… O fragile web! The forward movement of civilized growth, that which in narrative terms creates ‘legend’, has a primeval thrust of life which is caught with the word ‘quickens’. The word itself has of course echoes of the Credo where the ‘quick’ and the ‘dead’ merge and in this present context it is promoted, propelled forward, with the gesture of ‘outward’ as if from a centre. With a leaning gesture forward there is also an awareness of what space has been left behind by the movement: the opposite of ‘outward’ is ‘inward’ and the ‘fine grit’ or ‘sieved sand’ is like the prehistoric substance from which the perilous slanting forward derives. The ‘fossils’ and ‘scavengers’ and ‘bones’ which appear in the poem’s second stanza are ‘far far lower’ than where we are now but they provide the essential backdrop for this surge of slanting forward. A central sequence of poems in Slant is ‘The Seven Lamps’ and as Carol Rumens says on the back cover ‘This work is a kind of translation, and Black finds enrichment for her own rhythms and vocabulary by re-grouping and personalising borrowings from the original texts’. In Ruskin’s fourth chapter of The Seven Lamps of Architecture he had presented an aphorism that could well be borne in mind when thinking about contemporary poetry: ‘But symmetry is not abstraction. Leaves may be carved in the most regular order, and yet be meanly imitative; or, on the other hand, they may be thrown wild and loose, and yet be highly architectural in their separate treatment.’ Ruskin went on to explain how his ideas differed from many architects since many of them ‘would insist on abstraction in all cases’ whilst he felt that a purely abstract manner ‘does not afford room for the perfection of beautiful form’ and that ‘its severity is wearisome after the eye has been long accustomed to it’. In Black’s poem (‘after Ruskin’) we find ‘Long low lines rise soon to be lifted & wildly broken’ And we are confronted with ‘pavement’ which ‘rises / & falls’ as ‘arches nod westward & sink not one / of like height’ The conclusion to this second stanza of ‘The Seven Lamps’, a remarkable poem, is central to Linda Black’s whole volume as she comments upon ‘These inclinations’ (note the pun on subjective desire): ‘the accidental leaning the curious incidence of distortion – differences’ The presentation of each poem, with italicised words leaning against the rest of the text, is part of the whole exquisite design and ‘A life of custom & accident’ is held in a delicate balance. Posted in Books, English Poetry and tagged Carol Rumens, David Kennedy, John Hall, John Ruskin, Linda Black. Bookmark the permalink. Give me your painting hand: W S Graham and Cornwall by David Whittaker (Wavestone Press) This beautifully designed book is an affectionate portrait of the poet, W.S. Graham’s life in or near Praa Sands, Carbis Bay, Mevagissey, Gunard’s Head, Zennor and Madron, Cornwall. Whittaker provides a broad impressionistic view of Graham’s life and career, makes excellent use of his correspondence, charts key publications in his poetics and poetry, and his connections with numerous artists in Fitzrovia and Cornwall. The monograph includes more than sixty photographs and portraits of Graham and others in Cornwall, includes his major poems on Cornish artists Alfred Wallis, Peter Lanyon, Roger Hilton and Bryan Winter, as well as a useful bibliography. Early on Whittaker quotes a 1981 letter to Gavin Saunders, where Graham acknowledges that his early poems are as good as his later poetry ‘with their own particular energies’. Graham’s sense that his poetry was producing a meta-language with sound and vision uppermost has deep connections with Dylan Thomas and the neo-Romantic and modernist artists of the St. Ives community. The St. Ives connection might be said to be their joint concern with objects and process. There is the related sense that they are also variously concerned with self and place. The second is that to some extent they are mostly living and working as exiles. Although Whittaker does not make the first connection explicit or pursue deeper links, he certainly acknowledges the second. He sees Graham’s connection with artists beginning with his work on the translation of an essay on Paul Klee by Polish artist, Jankel Adler for Horizon magazine in 1942. Adler’s art, particularly his stylized faces, can be seen in the sketches and doodles that decorate Graham’s letters. Graham first lived in gypsy caravans at some distance from the creative hubs of St. Ives working hard at his craft. From April 1945 Sven Berlin, a sculptor concerned with process, became an avid drinking partner and supplier of Benzedrine tablets, and commissioned a poem on Alfred Wallis for his Poetry London Editions book on the artist. The relationship between the two built around Wallis and the sea is clearly important to both figures. Graham used Berlin to get a copy of David Gascoyne’s Poems 1937-1942 and introduced him to Johnny Minton visiting from London, who in turn taught Berlin how to monotype. There was clearly a strong work ethic amongst the St. Ives community at this time, and the impact of Wallis as a fisherman and sailor resonated with both Graham. He was drawn to the process of journey and return, something that Wallis had done as part of his working life. Wallis’s paintings are significantly devoid of human figures. He was not painting his life as such. It is tempting to consider these early connections with the sea, its language and local idiolects, and ‘Unenglish’ landscape’ as the reason that Graham chose to settle permanently in Cornwall. This local material finds its way into his subsequent poetry. Graham worked on his poetics ‘Notes on a Poetry of Release’ first published in Poetry Scotland in July 1946, which Whittaker quotes extensively from: ‘The most difficult thing for me to remember is that a poem is made of words and not of the expanding heart, the overflowing soul, or the sensitive observer. A poem is made of words. It is words of a certain order, good or bad by the significance of its addition to life … Each word changes every time it is brought to life. Each single word uttered twice becomes a new word each time. You cannot twice bring the same word into sound … The poem is more than the poet’s intention. The poet does not write what he knows but what he does not know …’ About the poem, ‘The Nightfishing’, he wrote to Charles Causley that ‘Leonardo da Vinci has curious drawings in his notebooks of poured water and its currents and momentum and storms and driven tides and in a way I wanted to use those kinds of very physical phenomena in whatever real action was represented.’ Whittaker shows Graham living a materially meagre existence in remote Cornwall participating within a community of outsiders drawn to work individually on the edge of society. This community allowed access to intelligent explorers in the visual arts. Roger Hilton, for example, saw painting as a self-contained object with its own self-referential rules of coherence based on colour and form without external referents. Clearly Hilton’s approach has parallels with Graham’s poetics. Whittaker delineates Graham’s friendships with successive generations of St. Ives artists, from Berlin, Ben Nicholson, Peter Lanyon, Bryan Winter through to Tony O’Malley and Bill Featherston and his various love affairs with Elizabeth Smart, Nancy Wynne-Jones, Ruth Hilton to produce a handy overview of the some of the important relationships in his life. Graham, who was not a loner, nevertheless appears as a lone figure, as distinct as his poetry. This is a useful celebration of W.S. Graham in Cornwall. David Caddy 12th May 2016 Posted in Biography, Books, English Poetry and tagged Alfred Wallis, David Whittaker, Roger Hilton, Sven Berlin, W.S. Graham. Bookmark the permalink. Dianoia by Michael Heller (Nightboat Books) Posted on May 7, 2016 by tearsinthefence The Scottish philosopher Sir William Hamilton proposed the term dianoiology for that portion of logic which deals with dianoetic processes of the mind: the thinking through of ideas. For a writer this may well involve what Michael Heller refers to as the ‘breaking apart’ of ‘clods of what was named’ because after all language is the ‘hardest / of earths, each word narrowing…’. So many of these poems in Dianoia deal with stasis and movement and they are deeply moving testimony to an artist who has spent a lifetime trying to let stillness convey fluidity. In ‘Visiting Brigflatts with Ric’, written in memory of Ric Caddel, the opening lines plunge the reader into a memory: ‘Your car chugging up the pass into snow’s unseasonal bursts, all the while sun shining overhead, then a plunge down to Bunting’s grave, stone of Quaker plainness…’ The movement of that opening line followed by the unusual nature of the weather hardens out into ‘stone’ which in turn will become ‘austerity of row upon row.’ The picture we are given of Ric Caddel is of ‘an elm’s rooted trunk / or northern stone pillar’ but the metamorphosis of this poem’s language, the stasis of what is memorialised, is given fresh movement in the last line with ‘currents animating earth’. And there we have it! The poet at work! In ‘Lecture’, we move between an account of the German artist Max Beckmann’s painting ‘Tot’ and the Number 30 London bus being blown up in July 2005. We move between the Japanese poet Bashō who ‘travels along paths and byways’ producing ‘spontaneous evocations in poetic form, haiku, linked haiku’ and the American poet George Oppen who writes of a highway accident with ‘The wheels of the overturned wreck / Still spinning – ’. As Heller looks closely at the photographs of both the London bombing and of a bus blown up is Israel he notes ‘No need here to go into “visual” languages, semiotics, etc. We’re talking about what gets communicated across the special loneliness between you and me and I and it.’ Referring again to Bashō and his journal writings in Narrow Road to the North Heller gives us one aspect of the artist caught in a moment: ‘that impression of spontaneity is part of the art of it’. He quotes the short piece of Bashō which evokes the memory of the heroic death of Lord Sanemori, an ageing warrior who dyed his hair to disguise his age, and whose helmet was carried to the shrine that the Japanese poet has just passed: ‘I am awestruck To hear a cricket singing Underneath the dark cavity Of an old helmet.’ The living quality of stillness is central to Michael Heller’s art and in the opening page of ‘Lecture’ he focuses upon his own walking in which he is accompanied by all that makes him who he is. He walks with Bashō, ‘stopping at a shrine, experiencing awe and reverence, the surround of mountain peak and foliage, the pines he likened to solitary figures’. The image from the Japanese is part of who he is as he moves through a living world of gone things. Focusing on the July bombings in London he writes of the world of the here-and-now and how it impinges upon who we are: ‘The self. That’s what got me going here, the self alone against murderousness, the sudden “nearness” (I don’t know how else to put it) to random murder perpetrated by others against innocents.’ The Number 30 is the bus that often carried the poet from Islington to Bloomsbury, to the British Museum. ‘Had we arrived a day earlier…’. The sense of how we see ourselves in relation to the world around us is central to the vision: ‘…My sense that A can morph into B, tenuous nets of companionship, that we ride like they ride who elsewhere are killed.’ Heller writes that ‘We are exposed / to the possibility of unplanned ruin’ and he seems partly to echo Paul Auster’s comment at the opening of In the Country of Last Things: ‘When you live in the city, you learn to take nothing for granted. Close your eyes for a moment, turn around to look at something else, and the thing that was before you is suddenly gone. Nothing lasts, you see, not even the thoughts inside you. And you mustn’t waste your time looking for them. Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it.’ The bitterness of the narrator in this apocalyptic novel from 1987 is, however, far different from Michael Heller’s determination to make the moment live, to give stasis currency and it seems appropriate to conclude not only with that image of ‘currents animating earth’ but also with the short poem Ric Caddel wrote for John Riley, the Leeds poet who was murdered in 1978: ‘What in the world we see is what’s important. There the days seemed shorter and our hearts spun with the compass under trees, magnificent pointers out of galaxies. Continental drift, an appointment we were late for, an old friend missed.’ My review of The Poetry and Poetics of Michael Heller, ed. Curley & Kimmelman, has just appeared in the current issue of PN Review. Ian Brinton 7th May Posted in American Poetry, Books and tagged Bashō, George Oppen, John Riley, Michael Heller, Paul Auster, Ric Caddel. Bookmark the permalink. The Sleepwalkers by Will Stone (Shearsman Books) The detail of Medieval stained glass from Long Melford Church in Suffolk is disturbingly appropriate as I stare at what reminds me of John Webster’s famous lines concerning ‘A dead man’s skull beneath the roots of flowers’ from The White Devil. The stained glass head is more likely to be female but the principle remains: beneath the surface of humanity there is death. Or, as Zoe Brigley puts it on the back of this striking new collection of poems, ‘Bleak and beautiful, the poems elegize and bear witness, lamenting the emptiness at the heart of Western society.’ The sense of inevitability about man’s turning his back upon the light in order to indulge himself in darkness is there in the epigraph Will Stone uses for the second section of these poems: ‘Posterity will not be able to understand that we had to fall back into the same darkness after having known the light…’ The second poem in the section focuses upon a photograph in the ‘Karl Höcker Album’ which is owned by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. As Stone’s low-key and essential notes tell us: ‘This remarkable album of 116 photographs, discovered in 2006, had belonged to Höcker’, an SS officer at the camp. Whilst the photograph reveals a gathering of the important officers taking a well-earned break from duty at a rural retreat named Solahütte the poem also ‘refers to other images, notably one showing a line of young female SS auxiliary staff, known as Helferinnen, perched on a rustic balcony gleefully tucking into bowls of blueberries’: ‘Karl Höcker himself presides over the fun, egging the girls on for the camera. The second image shows them holding their bowls upside down with mock sadness; now all the delicious blueberries are gone. Meanwhile, thirty kilometres away, thousands of human beings are being gassed, shot, or, when numbers of arrivals exceed capacity, thrown alive into firepits. Höcker faced justice after the war, but denied any wrongdoing, even though witnesses testified to his presence on the ramp during Selections. He made the following statement in court: “I only learned about the events in Birkenau…in the course of the time I was there…and I had nothing to do with that. I had no ability to influence these events in any way…neither did I want them, not carry them out. I didn’t hurt anybody…and neither did anyone die at Auschwitz because of me.”’ The poem is powerful in the way it captures what Auden was to refer to as the great artists never being wrong about understanding how human suffering takes place ‘While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along’ (‘Musée des Beaux Arts’). In Will Stone’s vivid recreation of horror ‘Giggling typists and telephonists look flirtatiously on from a sunny glade. Some whistle, some wave, they are just doing what comes naturally, for they are young people with dreams riding their float through the carnival, lips stained with the blood of blueberries.’ What gives this image such power is the combination of the word ‘giggling’, a slightly uncontrollable form of laughter associated with childishness, with an awareness of the position they are adopting ‘flirtatiously’. The ordinariness of the scene is captured with a Larkinesque matter-of-fact quality since, after all, they are ‘just doing what comes naturally’. And there’s the rub! As the reader places these lines next to those carefully chosen words of Stone’s notes there is a deeply disturbing jolt. Ah yes, gassing people, shooting them, throwing them into fire-pits, ‘just doing what comes naturally’. Equally powerful is the first poem in this second section of The Sleepwalkers, ‘Reading Reck’ written in memory of Friedrich Reck-Malleczewen who was shot in Dachau in February 1945. Reck had met Hitler in 1920 and had noted that ‘There was a feeling of dismay, as when on a train you suddenly find you are sharing a compartment with a psychotic.’ Stone’s notes are again absolutely right in their precision and unfussiness. He quotes Reck, whose diary detailing life under a dictatorship was never unearthed by the Nazis, as describing a ‘feeling of oppression’ remaining after the young Hitler had preached at length: ‘It was not that an unclean body had been in the room, but something else: the unclean essence of a monstrosity.’ The poem focuses on Reck hiding his diary, like hiding his mind, ‘in the wood / glancing around him, a silhouette / with his hands in the earth, digging…’. We are given a picture of Reck ‘who found a fawn torn by a dog’ and who ‘cradled it as it died’ with, according to the diary, ‘tears in its eyes’. Walt Disney had released his film about a deer and loss / tears, Bambi, in 1942 and yet you will have to work out for yourselves whether the tears of sentimentality hinted at in Will Stone’s poem cast a glance at that world or the world of the later tears shed by a survivor from William Golding’s post-war landscape: ‘Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy’ In these wise and disturbing poems Will Stone compels us to stare unflinchingly at the skull beneath the skin. I shall be reviewing Stone’s translation of Stefan Zweig’s Messages from a Lost World (Pushkin Press) for The London Magazine. Ian Brinton 1st May 2016 Posted in Books, English Poetry and tagged John Webster, Stefan Zweig, Will Stone, William Golding, Zoe Brigley. Bookmark the permalink.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1957
__label__cc	0.590599	0.409401	Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9+ arrive on Vodafone Networks News Phones Promotional By Gareth / March 18, 2018 The NEW Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9+ are now available at Vodafone UK (www.vodafone.co.uk). Customers can pick up the Samsung Galaxy S9 with 16GB of data for the price of 4GB on a Red Extra 16GB plan, which also includes unlimited texts and unlimited minutes for £59 per month (£29 upfront cost). Customers can also choose the Samsung Galaxy S9+ on the same plan for £63 per month (£99 upfront cost). Alternatively, customers can opt for 32GB of data for the price of 8GB on a Red Entertainment 32GB plan which includes unlimited texts, unlimited minutes, 32GB of data and a choice of Sky Sports Mobile TV, Spotify Premium or a NOW TV Entertainment Pass which is £65 per month (£29 upfront cost) for the Samsung Galaxy S9 or £69 per month (£99 upfront cost) for the Samsung Galaxy S9+. Plus, any customer who opts for a Red Extra or Red Entertainment plan can also choose to include a Chat, Social, Music or VideoVodafone Pass – where customers can enjoy a selection of their favourite apps without running down their monthly data allowance for a small monthly fee. Furthermore, customers can take advantage of the Combo Pass which includes all four Passes for just £15 a month! What’s more, thanks to Vodafone Global Roaming all Vodafone customers can now take their home plan abroad – meaning they can use their UK data, minutes and texts in 50 roam-free destinations at no extra cost! Blurams launches the Advanced Smart Doorbell with Free AI Facial Recognition at CES 2020 Rog My Rig, Powered By Amd Episode One Is Available Now! Ankway Solar LED Lights Unboxing	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1958
__label__cc	0.634485	0.365515	Watch DJI reveal its new drone right here Brian Heater @bheater / 3 years DJI is promising “something huge” at this morning’s “Seize the Moment” event in New York City. More than likely, that big thing will come in a small package. The often secretive drone company has apparently been leaking like crazy ahead of today’s big reveal, and we’ve gotten more than few looks at the rumored Spark drone, which is set to make the recently released Mavic massive by comparison. The company hasn’t made anything official, but earlier this week, it did issue a video teaser that hinted at a device more focused on photos and videos than racing, as was suspected by some following the initial leaks. The company has also registered the Spark name, lending some credence to that aspect of the rumor. Knowing DJI, it will also have a number of other goodies up its sleeve. At the Mavic event back in September, it also showed off its first-person video goggles, which, at the very least, ought to be getting more face time here. We’ll have a team on the ground in NYC, posting news and videos from the event. But for those who’d like to watch whole thing unfold live, fixed propellers and all, DJI will be streaming the event for all to see, starting at 11:30AM ET/8:30AM PT.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1959
__label__wiki	0.619208	0.619208	This site uses cookies. By using our website, you agree to the use of cookies and other technologies as set out in the Privacy & Cookie policy. ENTER FOR FREE! For a Chance to Win €10,000 in Cash Entry is as easy as 1, 2, 3! Please Enter Your First Name Email Must Be in Proper Format: xxxxx@xxx.xxx Claim Free Entry You must agree to the terms and conditions to continue I agree with the Terms and Conditions. By entering, I agree to receive email communications from The Lottery Centre. Our exclusive sweepstakes draw is one of the many little ways we say thank you to all of our customers. This special prize straight from us is worth an incredible €10,000 and is the lucky winner’s to keep, independent of any of their lottery winnings from The Lottery Centre. What’s more, no additional purchase is required, as your entry into the draw is automatic. Think of it as a gift from our family to yours! Prize-Draw Rules: No purchase is necessary for the Sweepstakes-Prize Draw entry. To be eligible, follow the instructions in this offer. You will be entered in the first available draw on receipt of your entry. A new draw will be held every year on or about 31 December and the winner will be randomly selected from all eligible entries received prior to that date. You must be 18 years of age or older to qualify. The prize winner will be notified by telephone or letter within 30 days of the draw. To obtain the name of the Prize Draw Winner send a self-addressed envelope to: "The Lottery Centre Grand-Prize Winner's Name," International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited (IMME), PO Box 206, 8 Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM99 1YY. Please direct any other enquiries to this address at "ATTN: Customer-Service Department." The first prize is as stated herein. This Prize Draw is used in various other offers of International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited (IMME), also trading as The Lottery Centre. The first prize may be represented by cash, merchandise, or travel, depending on the promotion. Accordingly, it may be advertised using different graphic representations or featured prizes. Winners of travel or merchandise prizes may substitute a cash amount which will not exceed €10,000.00 or the equivalent amount in the winner’s preferred currency at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of drawing. The odds of winning vary depending upon the amount of entries received but will be the same for entrants who have purchased as for free entrants. Employees, agents, and contractors (and their family members) of International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited (IMME), also trading as The Lottery Centre, and its affiliated or associated companies are not eligible. Void where prohibited. The sponsor accepts no legal liability in the event of a dispute. Australian Lotto 6/45 Canadian Lotto 6/49 Australian Superdraw Australian Powerball British Lotto EuroMillions Superdraw French Lotto American Mega Millions Australian Oz Lotto Spanish Lotto American Powerball Summer Gordo Lottery Winners Wall 4 AU$ JACKPOT PRIZE Single Play Syndicate Play Choose a Way to Play Australian Lotto 6/45 Syndicate Play Select Your Shares Now! Enjoy our Syndicate option for convenient group play Play four weeks for a total of four draws Syndicates capped at 10 shares each and play 25 boards per draw Free Jackpot Tickets BONUS: Receive 50 jackpot-prize entries for the duration of your order† €10,000 Bonus Draw BONUS: Automatic entry into a €10,000 in-house bonus draw About Australian Lotto 6/45 Bonus Draw Australia's eminent 6/45 lottery is the oldest of its kind in Australia and still going strong—for good reason! 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Draw Days Every Saturday at 21:30 AEST/AEDT Record Jackpot AU$33 million Annual Prize Payout AU$1 billion Draw Format Six winning numbers and two bonus numbers are drawn from a field of 1-45 Why Play Minimum jackpot amount of AU$4 million All winnings in Australia are tax-free Smaller pool size—pick from 45 numbers instead of the more common 49 Win the jackpot without matching bonus numbers Prize Category Odds of Winning Average Prize Value Match 6 (Jackpot) 1 in 8,145,060 AU$1,048,042 Match 5 + Bonus Number 1 in 678,755 1 in 732 Match 2 + 2 Bonus Numbers Our exclusive, in-house bonus draw is one of the many little ways we say thank you to all of our customers. This special prize straight from us is worth an incredible €10,000 and is the lucky winner’s to keep, independent of any of their lottery winnings from The Lottery Centre (The Lottery Centre). What’s more, no additional purchase is required, as your entry into the draw is automatic. Think of it as a gift from our family to yours! Prize Draw Rules: No purchase is necessary for the Bonus-Prize Draw entry. To be eligible, follow the instructions in this offer. You will be entered in the first available draw on receipt of your entry. A new draw will be held every year on or about 31 December and the winner will be randomly selected from all eligible entries received prior to that date. You must be 18 years of age or older to qualify. The prize winner will be notified by telephone or letter within 30 days of the draw. To obtain the name of the Prize Draw Winner send a self-addressed envelope to: "The Lottery Centre Grand-Prize Winner's Name," International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited (IMME), PO Box 206, 8 Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM99 1YY. Please direct any other enquiries to this address at "ATTN: Customer-Service Department." The first prize is as stated herein. This Prize Draw is used in various other offers of International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited (IMME), also trading as The Lottery Centre. The first prize may be represented by cash, merchandise, or travel, depending on the promotion. Accordingly, it may be advertised using different graphic representations or featured prizes. Winners of travel or merchandise prizes may substitute a cash amount which will not exceed €10,000.00 or the equivalent amount in the winner’s preferred currency at the prevailing exchange rate at the time of drawing. The odds of winning vary depending upon the amount of entries received but will be the same for entrants who have purchased as for free entrants. Employees, agents, and contractors (and their family members) of International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited (IMME), also trading as The Lottery Centre, and its affiliated or associated companies are not eligible. Void where prohibited. The sponsor accepts no legal liability in the event of a dispute. † The Australian Lotto 6/45 Jackpot-Prize (Division One) Pool is eligible to win the first-place prize only. The Prize Pool will play 50 sets of pre-assigned lotto numbers. In order to win, the six main winning numbers in a draw must be matched. You will take part as a Prize Pool member in all draws of your Lotto 6/45 syndicate. The group of participants in the Prize Pool will vary based on response. Jackpot-prize (Division One) winners will be notified immediately and all participants are guaranteed their full part of the prize money according to the number of shares they hold. This Prize Pool may be used in various other offers of IMME or its affiliated companies. †† Based on a comparison of jackpot odds between 6/49 and 6/45 lotteries. The jackpot odds in 6/49 lotteries, for instance, are 1 in 13,983,816. The jackpot odds in the Australian Lotto 6/45 are 1 in 8,145,060. The difference in potential winning jackpot combinations is 13,169,256, which represents a reduction of about 42%. This means there are 42% fewer potential number combinations in the Australian Lotto 6/45, so it's easier to win the jackpot. Time Until Draw Closes: 00 Day(s) 12: 45: 12 Choose Number of Shares to Own About The Lottery Centre The Lottery Centre is an industry leader in online gaming, providing a one-stop location to play the world’s most lucrative lotteries. Government regulated and with executives having over 25 years of experience, we offer easy access to playing lotteries for people all over the world in a convenient, fun and secure environment. All winnings are paid out in lump sums with no commissions or surprise fees. Come win with us at The Lottery Centre! Official Lotteries Play American Mega Millions Play American Powerball Play Australian Lotto 6/45 Play Australian Oz Lotto Play Australian Powerball Play Australian Superdraw Play British Lotto Play Canadian Lotto 6/49 Play El Gordo Play El Niño Play Eurojackpot Play EuroMillions Play EuroMillions Superdraw Play French Lotto Play German Lotto Play Irish Lotto Play Spanish Lotto Australian Privacy Policy Lottery Feeds Copyright © 2017, International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited: The Lottery Centre. E.&O.E. PO Box 206, 8 Finch Road, Douglas, Isle of Man, IM99 1YY The Lottery Centre is owned and operated by International Multi-Media Entertainments Limited and is regulated by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission via a licence issued under the Online Gambling Regulation Act 2001 on 4 July 2014 (company number 128308C). All debts are enforceable in law on the Isle of Man. The Lottery Centre (International Multi-Media Entertainments Ltd.) strictly prohibits access and services to those under the legal age of 18. We encourage responsible gambling and if you feel that you have a problem with gambling please visit GamCare’s website for help and advice at www.gamcare.org.uk.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1963
__label__wiki	0.833062	0.833062	Jewelry History Madonna wearing a Nefertiti earring on the set of 'Desperately Seeking Susan' Photo Getty Earrings Are Key in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ And Madonna's iconic jewelry style is on full display in the 1985 film by Marion Fasel Believe it or not, the 1980s are back in style. The Spring ’18 runways were filled with neon colors, pouf skirts, power suits and mega shoulder pads. Logomania has taken hold once again. Scrunchies can be found in the up-dos of the ultra-trendy set. None of this, however, had given me a sense of nostalgia for the go-go decade. Then I was scrolling through The New York Times list of 100 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Video and there was Desperately Seeking Susan. Made in 1985, the year I arrived in the Big Apple, it instantly reminded me of so much that was fun and fashionable in downtown New York. It is also a five-star jewelry movie. Madonna wearing bead rosary and crucifix necklaces as well as the Nefertiti earring in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan.’ Photo Orion Pictures When Desperately Seeking Susan was made Madonna—who plays the title role—was at the dawn of her career. One of the film’s reviewers described the 27-year old singer as “one of the hottest personalities in music videos.” At that stage MTV was just a 4-year old channel and had transformed the music industry. Anyway, Madonna aka Susan is a charming grifter who kicks off the action in the first scene of the movie when she takes a pair of Egyptian style earrings from the guy she had been enjoying a few days with in Atlantic City. The seemingly petty crime becomes a big deal when someone, not the police, comes looking for the jewels that once belonged to Nefertiti and were originally stolen from a touring exhibit of the Cairo Museum’s ancient artifacts. Madonna putting one of the Nefertiti earrings wearing rubber bracelets and rosaries in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan.’ Photo Orion Pictures All of this is unbeknownst to Madonna, I mean Susan, who heads back to Manhattan and changes at the Port Authority bus station from her pink sheer top to her black sheer top for her foray down to the East Village. During the course of the switcheroo all of Madonna’s ‘80s style is on display. The show-your-lingerie trend she wears throughout the film became huge in real life. She wears a scrunchie of sorts. It’s kind of a scrunchie headband. The black rubber bracelets piled up her arm were worn by men and women alike in the city at the time. The plastic jewels popularity is impossible to overstate. Madonna also has on layers of rosary necklaces. For her final outfit flourish, she puts on not two but one of the Nefertiti earrings. Rosanna Arquette at the moment when she discovers the second Nefertiti earring in ‘Desperately Seeking Susan.’ Photo Orion Pictures Madonna’s classic ‘80s asymmetrical earring choice makes it possible for Rosanna Arquette who literally plays a desperate housewife from Fort Lee, New Jersey to find the piece of luggage Madonna has left in a locker at Port Authority. Despite the fact that her style is straight out of the suburbs, she knows it’s cool to wear just one earring and puts it on. From that point the farce ensues. The film is fabulous fun with an early Madonna soundtrack. While the style of the clothes are textbook ’80s, it has a classic screwball comedy spirit. I think the director Susan Seidelman was underlining that point by having one of the leading men, Dez played by Aidan Quinn, work as a projectionist at a movie theatre that ran old films. It’s the type of theatre that could be found all over Manhattan back in the day. Another delightful aspect of Desperately Seeking Susan is the cast of characters that includes Laurie Metcalf and John Turturro. And, of course, there is the classic movie way jewelry drives the plot and is key for the costumes. If you are struggling as I was to understand why the ‘80s are making a comeback, the movie is guaranteed to remind you, or introduce you, to some of the era’s charms. See The New Jewelry Filled Trailer For ‘Ocean’s 8’ 7 Romantic Comedies That Shine With Jewelry What’s Wrong With That Bed Full of Bling in Casino? Get a gem in your mailbox SIGN UP FOR THE ADVENTURINE NEWSLETTER @THEAdventurine The Eternal Appeal of Egyptian Revival Jewelry The Best Jewelry at the Critics’ Choice Awards Shop Jewelry and Art to Help Australia Jewelry Surprises at the 2020 Golden Globes J. Lo Wears Earrings from A. Rod on Red Carpet	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0001.json.gz/line1965

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