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Category: End Hunger
Self-driving delivery vehicles plus self-flying drones? Now there’s an Amazon patent for that BY ALAN BOYLE on December 24, 2019 at 12:10 pm
For a long time, Amazon has been looking into applications for self-driving vehicles — and testing fleets of self-flying drones for making package deliveries. So it only makes sense that the Seattle-based online retailing giant would meld those vehicles for a warehouse-to-doorstep delivery system virtually untouched by human hands.
In a patent published today, Amazon inventors Hilliard Bruce Siegel and Ethan Evans describe a system that has autonomous ground vehicles transport packages to a customer’s neighborhood — perhaps even the street in front of the customer’s door — and coordinate the doorstep delivery with a drone.
Both types of robo-carriers would be in contact wirelessly with a central computer network that would manage the operation. The ground vehicle could be directed to head over to a fulfillment center, pick up shipments and plot a course for deliveries. Drones could flit back and forth to drop off packages and charge up at the vehicle.
Various diagrams show how the drones could pick up packages from a vehicle in the street, then fly over to drop off deliveries on doorsteps, designated drop zones and upper-floor balconies. Some diagrams show big delivery truck as the base of operations, while other show a smaller delivery robot like the ones that are being tested north of Seattle.
The drones could be owned or operated by an entity that’s distinct from the ground-vehicle service — for example, by the managers of the apartment building that’s being serviced. You could have different companies put in charge of deliveries in different neighborhoods. The important thing is that everything’s coordinated through a central network.
Such a combination system would solve several challenges: For example, the battery-powered drones wouldn’t have to use as much juice as they would if they were flying directly from a fulfillment center to make a delivery. There’d be less noise, and less need to fly over other people’s property.
For ground vehicles, the system not only bridges the “last mile” of a delivery route — it addresses the last 100 feet. Siegel and Evans, who are veterans in the patent business, say that’s becoming increasingly important.
“Over time, an increasing frequency and volume of deliveries of items from e-commerce and mail-order companies has resulted in an increased need for faster and more efficient delivery methods,” they write.
There’s one more twist to the application: It cites a GeekWire story about Google’s patent for using drones to pick up shipments and fly them to a mobile dropbox.
The application was filed back in 2016, and there’s no guarantee that Amazon will develop an all-autonomous delivery system like the one described. But the description does provide an indication of what Amazon has been thinking about as it builds out its own end-to-end delivery system.
For what it’s worth, Amazon has been investing what’s thought to be hundreds of millions of dollars with transportation startups such as Rivian and Aurora. Amazon plans to buy 100,000 all-electric Rivian vans for its delivery fleet. And recentlypublished patent applications indicate that both Rivian and Aurora are putting a lot of effort into making their vehicles autonomous, even under challenging conditions.
The big question is, what took so long for someone to get the patent for this idea? We’ve reached out to Amazon for comment, and will update this item with anything substantial we hear.
GeekWire aerospace and science editor Alan Boyle is an award-winning science writer and veteran space reporter. Formerly of NBCNews.com, he is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made a Big Difference.” Follow him via CosmicLog.com, on Twitter @b0yle, and on Facebook and MeWe.
Happy Holidays from Sacramento California!
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Chipman Relocations and Logistics/ Sacramento run by industry veteran Ed Melton (916-563-7472, emelton@chipmanrelo.com) has taken his team to entirely different level.
Warehouse management – on demand
Model room installation
Room in a box experts
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Investing in Real Estate 101 (The Beginning) — The Frugal Samurai
“Hey TheFrugalSamurai, I’m keen to purchase this property but don’t know if I should do it – what are your thoughts?” This message popped up on my private messages one morning. YIPPEE KI-YAY was my first thought, finally through the mist of obscurity I’ve become someone of repute, of unquestionable character, a subject matter expert, […]
via Investing in Real Estate 101 (The Beginning) — The Frugal Samurai
Who should I call for my next Corporate Move in Sacramento?
It’s a no brainer!
@edmelton
Proposed State Budget Increases Fail to Address Critical Issues in Higher Education
by Taylor Myers
Policy and Research Analysis
On January 10, 2018, Governor Brown released his final budget proposal, a $131.7 billion spending plan for the next fiscal year. The proposal earmarks $18.5 billion in General Fund appropriations for higher education. Following its release, California Competes published an initial analysis of the new budget which highlighted an expansion of investments in full-time student success and innovations targeted at the millions of workers who lack a college credential. While there are many reasons to be optimistic about the proposal, as a policy blueprint, it fails to address several critical issues for improving student access and success across the state:
1. Investing in college completion is critical to promote degree attainment and close the degree gap.
California needs 2.4 million more credentials and degrees by 2025 to remain economically competitive and closing this gap requires every segment to significantly increase degree attainment. The state has historically been inconsistent with imposing enrollment goals on CSU and UC, and has never imposed a strict completion or attainment goal on the segments. This year is no different—the Governor’s budget does not include any enrollment growth or completion rate expectations for either the UC or CSU.
2. Strong policies to support on-time completion and transfer should support the cost of non-tuition expenses while students attend full-time.
Research suggests that full time students who work between five and ten hours per week are less likely to see their academic performance impaired by their jobs than students who work more than 20 hours per week. However, many students need to work longer hours to cover living expenses. Incentive programs that seek to increase full-time attendance, like the proposed consolidated grant for full-time Community College students, should consider the difficult decisions students face when deciding between academics and work. The California College Promise may address this challenge for students who are eligible for regional college promise programs; regions may use their local programs to support students for a second year of full-time attendance, or to cover non-tuition costs. For students who do not qualify for the California College Promise, or who are not additionally covered by a regional college promise program, a solution has yet to be offered.
3. California’s competitive economy depends on increasing degree attainment, which can’t happen without statewide cross-segmental coordination and aligned data practices.
This spending plan doesn’t address the need for statewide, cross-segmental coordination of higher education systems. Several legislative attempts to create one have been introduced, including the current measure AB 1936, authored by Assembly Members Low and Eggman. Over the last several months, policymakers have shown interest in revisiting the Master Plan for Higher Education and in considering more aligned goals for the state’s public higher education segments. But despite demonstrated enthusiasm from policymakers, the budget does not address the need for statewide coordination.
Nor does it include any impactful provisions for data collection and sharing – it leaves institutions to continue to serve as gatekeepers and stewards of information on student and programmatic outcomes. Currently, state policymakers and researchers have no way of efficiently and robustly evaluating the impacts of the state’s higher education investments. California desperately needs a statewide longitudinal data system to evaluate the impacts of the myriad of programs receiving funds from the state.
As they continue to refine the state’s 2018-2019 higher education budget, policymakers should consider the efficacy of the policy changes proposed in the current budget in the absence of the critical components discussed above. Addressing the needs of California’s diverse student population and ensuring equity in educational attainment and economic opportunities requires significant investment from the state in meaningful segmental or institutional goals, stronger higher education finance policies, intentional cross-segmental coordination, and a robust longitudinal student data system.
42 million Americans struggle to find their next meal.
When most people think about hunger, they think of a starving child in a third-world country. Or perhaps they think of a long line of homeless people waiting outside an inner-city soup kitchen.
The truth is: hunger is a HUGE problem everywhere in the United States, but it’s not always easy to see. In a country known for its wealth and prosperity, 42 million Americans struggle to find their next meal.
The face of hunger has changed. No longer is it just the homeless man on the street reaching out for a helping hand, but every day millions of people are struggling to feed their families. No one is a stranger to the economic hardships of today.
Hunger is all around us. Hunger is not limited to a single demographic or geographic region of the country. It is not a problem only affecting the homeless or the poorest of the poor. Hunger is everywhere, and the numbers are staggering.
As the economy continues to put a strain on our wallets, people are being forced to make extremely difficult decisions. What does hunger look like, you might ask?
It is your father-in-law who just got laid off and now struggles to pay his mortgage and put food on the table.
It is your elderly neighbor who must choose between buying groceries and heating her home.
It is your child’s classmate who goes to school each day without lunch and is too embarrassed to ask for help.
Adults who suffer from hunger live shorter, less healthy, and less happy lives. They are more likely to be obese, more prone to mental illness, and more susceptible to deadly diseases. Hunger is terrible for adults, but it’s so much worse for children.
Hunger and malnourishment go hand-in-hand, and kids who miss out on essential nutrients during their critical years of growth will be dramatically disadvantaged for the remainder of their lives. 1 in 6 American children go to bed hungry each night.
According to the Food Research and Action Center, hungry children have compromised immune systems and are two to four times as likely as nourished children to develop health problems—ranging from the relatively minor to potentially fatal. Childhood hunger also impairs cognitive development. Kids who don’t have enough to eat do worse academically, do worse socially, and risk becoming so impacted—even by only temporary food insecurity—that recovery becomes impossible.
Most people tend to think about hunger during the holiday season. We see a ton of food drives occur right around Thanksgiving. But what happens during the rest of the year? Food insecurity is a year-round issue affecting millions of families and individuals across the country.
The summer months are the most difficult time for our nation’s food banks. During the school year, hungry children get the majority of their daily calories from free or reduced price school lunches. When school is out of session, those calories must come from somewhere else. There are summer meal programs, but over 13 million children face a greater risk of hunger during the summer because those programs are difficult to access and underfunded.
Thankfully, the summer is also the busiest season for the moving industry, so Move For Hunger has a great opportunity to fill the shelves of our communities’ food banks. Move For Hunger works to rescue food from people’s homes that would otherwise be thrown away and get it to local food banks where it’s needed.
Want to make a difference?
Click here to Get Involved in our fight against hunger.
Share an infographic from our Visualize Hunger collection on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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Review - She Bets Her Life
A True Story of Gambling Addiction
by Mary Sojourner
Seal Press, 2010
Review by Justin Tillinghast
Oct 19th 2010 (Volume 14, Issue 42)
In Mary Sojourner's She Bets Her Life: A True Story of Gambling Addiction, the author examines the underserved but fastest growing group of compulsive gamblers: the addicted female. While weaving the author's biography along with research on the brain's physiology, She Bets Her Life can be read like a novel. The book has a far higher utility when used as a reference guide. Chapters devoted to brain chemistry, the tactics of the gambling industry and the pain an addict suffers from gambling withdrawal can be read multiple times.
Because the author's goal is to explore women and gambling, I need to state two facts. First, my name is Justin and I am a compulsive gambler. Second, I am a middle-aged man. Since the critics of Gamblers Anonymous (GA) claim of gender bias is so pervasive the GA Wikipedia entry explores the problem, I hoped Sojourner would help me understand the different needs of women who attend my GA meetings.
When Sojourner decides to surrender to her powerlessness over gambling (the first time), she states, "The migraines began to trigger panic attacks….I needed to find a gambling addicts support group-preferably one that was all women." Maddeningly, Sojourner does not explain why she needs a single-sex group. The comment just lays there. Discovering Sojourner was the first woman-specific mental-health counselor in Rochester, New York may provide an answer, albeit incomplete.
Since a miniscule, yet growing, percentage of compulsive gamblers are women, most women will not have the luxury of finding an all-female group. Fortunate for her, Sojourner finds such a group called the Desert Hot Springs Scheherazade's Sisters in Flagstaff, Arizona. When her career moves Sojourner to Bend, Oregon, she speaks positively about her new GA group which presumably includes men. Not much enlightenment is given about the interaction of her unisex group. Did the all female Arizona group do the heavy lifting, while the Oregon group provided maintenance? What could women learn from the Oregon group to help them use GA to stop gambling?
The beginning and the bulk of She Bets Her Life is spent with the Scheherazade's Sisters, a motley crew of lovable women with diseased minds and damaged souls confounded with a compulsive gambling problem. Scheherazade, a character in One Thousand and One Nights, is an odd literary reference to base a self-help group since she saved her life by telling a story that lasted one thousand nights. Most addicts have done too much talking and rationalizing. Addicts should listen to people with prolonged abstinence.
Like Sojourner, Delfina works in the mental health field as a substance abuse counselor who is haunted by witnessing childhood trauma. Candace grew up in rural Georgia, followed a "professional" gambler to Las Vegas and hustled men out of money and their marriages. In a stunning admission, Candace's conniving resulted in one woman's suicide. A native of Vietnam, K Sui pawns intricate family heirlooms to continue to gamble. Barb steals money from the PTA and remains in the penal system. Later, a college student named Tiffany drops out of school and sells her body to cover gambling debts. Sojourner paints each of these woman and the remaining Sisters so completely the reader becomes an honorary member of the group.
The only Sister whose picture is incomplete is Sojourner herself. As a child, Sojourner had a mother who suffered from psychosis. Despite being in her mid-sixties, the picture she paints of a little girl not having a responsive parent is riveting. While the reason Sojourner became a compulsive gambler is clear, the author fails to explain why she considers herself a problem gambler. Despite claiming she blew half of her monthly living expenses on slot machines and having only $40 in her pocket and $25 in a savings account and worrying about the rent being covered, Sojourner never admits to as much as bouncing a rent check or paying a utility bill late. This level of denial is common among those addicts just entering rooms not someone confident enough to write a book.
Although Sojourner goes on slot machine binges that affect her health as a diabetic and cause her to drive in dangerous situations, she gives too little insight into how her family is affected by her problem. Her grandchildren live far away. Without the financial loss caused by gambling, couldn't she visit her extended family?
The real value of the book is when Sojourner researches compulsive gambling topics that intrigue her. Like many addicts, taking an interest in a topic means a full bore effort. The saying may be trite but to an addict, "One is too many and a thousand is never enough." Even the most veteran of GA rooms can learn from the chapter devoted to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that regulates mood. Having a damaged brain, compulsive gamblers cannot process dopamine properly. Even when losing, gambling releases a flood of the feel good transmitter.
When Sojourner tackles the casino industry, her observations border on chilling. Nothing about the gambling industry is an accident. The goal of the slot machine owners are to take the player down to extinction. Reading the word "extinction" again and again chills the soul. The slot machines are designed to trap the player into a pernicious maze of winning and losing, of reward and punishment that even B.F. Skinner would applaud the effort.
Possibly the most misunderstood aspect of compulsive gambling is the pain of withdrawal. When gambling, no drug is ingested and no drink is consumed. The lay person may wonder how quitting can cause physical pain. But initial abstinence does hurt. Although the chapter on withdrawal is illuminating, Sojourner promotes the Victoria, Canada, GA website as a learning tool. The information on the website is so complete I almost forgot Sojourner's writing on withdrawal. The remainder of the book on recidivism offers little that could not be culled from GA literature.
She Bets Her Life is an engaging read about one woman's struggle with compulsive gambling. Sojourner provides research that any gambler could use. When she tells her own story, the results seem incomplete. I once heard a member of Alcoholics Anonymous say, "It takes a year of abstinence for the brain to heal completely from just one relapse drink." I wonder how more powerful and honest the book may have been if Sojourner had a longer period of abstinence. I hope she writes a follow-up book five years from now.
© 2010 Justin Tillinghast
Justin Tillinghast holds degrees in economics and political science from Bucknell University. After spending fifteen years in Washington, DC working as a Congressional Aide and stand-up comedian, he works for the Census Bureau in Horseheads, New York.
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On this day in entertainment
metrowebukmetroFriday 23 Feb 2007 10:00 am
Happy Birthday Dakota!
1965: British actor and comedian Stan Laurel dies aged 74, eight years after the death of his long-time comedy partner, Oliver Hardy.
Laurel and Hardy made more than 100 films during their three decades working together. After Hardy’s death, Laurel vowed never to perform again but continued to write comedy sketches until his death.
1972: Elvis and Priscilla Presley split up.
1978: Rock group Fleetwood Mac win the Grammy for Best Album for Rumours.
The album was the group’s 12th offering, but only their second since singer Stevie Nicks joined in 1975.
1997: Schindler’s List becomes the first film ever to be shown on an American network without breaks.
Ford Motor Company, which sponsored the broadcast on NBC, showed one commercial before and one after the film.
2002: Singer LeAnn Rimes marries dancer Dean Sheremet. The couple met when they performed at the Academy Of Country Music Awards in Nashville the year before.
2006: The billionth song was downloaded from the iTunes Music Store.
Birthdays: Peter Fonda, actor, 67; Veronica Webb, American supermodel and actress, 42; Melinda Messenger, TV presenter, 36; Kelly Macdonald, actress, 32; Dakota Fanning, actress, 13.
Dakota FanningLeAnn RimesMelinda MessengerNashvilleOliver HardyPeter FondaPriscilla PresleyStan LaurelStevie Nicks
Dancing on Ice: Gemma Collins gives future contestants confidence after bullying row
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Tony Caunter
EastEnders : Christmas Day 2001: Part 1 & Part 2 – 2001
source, two, three Adam Woodyatt, Alex Ferns, Ann Mitchell, Barbara Windsor, Brooke Kinsella, Casey Anne Rothery, Charlie Brooks, Dean Gaffney, Derek Martin, Doug Allen, Edward Savage, Elaine Lordan, Gary Beadle, Gavin Richards, Hannah Waterman, Jack Ryder, James Alexandrou, Jessie Wallace, John Bardon, Joseph Shade, June Brown, Kacey Ainsworth, Laila Morse, Letitia Dean, Lucy Benjamin, Lucy Speed, Michelle Ryan, Natalie Cassidy, Nicholas R. Bailey, Pam St. Clement, Perry Fenwick, Ricky Groves, Rudolph Walker, Shaun Williamson, Steve McFadden, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Tracy Brabin, Wendy Richard
Tagged Adam Woodyatt, Alex Ferns, Ann Mitchell, Barbara Windsor, Brooke Kinsella, Casey Anne Rothery, Charlie Brooks, Dean Gaffney, Derek Martin, Doug Allen, Edward Savage, Elaine Lordan, Gary Beadle, Gavin Richards, Hannah Waterman, Jack Ryder, James Alexandrou, Jessie Wallace, John Bardon, Joseph Shade, June Brown, Kacey Ainsworth, Laila Morse, Letitia Dean, Lucy Benjamin, Lucy Speed, Michelle Ryan, Natalie Cassidy, Nicholas R. Bailey, Pam St. Clement, Perry Fenwick, Ricky Groves, Rudolph Walker, Shaun Williamson, Steve McFadden, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Tracy Brabin, Wendy Richard
source, two, three Adam Woodyatt, Barbara Windsor, Casey Anne Rothery, Charlie Brooks, Dean Gaffney, Derek Martin, Edward Savage, Elaine Lordan, Frankie Fitzgerald, Gavin Richards, Gemma McCluskie, Hannah Waterman, Jack Ryder, James Alexandrou, Jessie Wallace, John Altman, John Bardon, Joseph Shade, June Brown, Kacey Ainsworth, Laila Morse, Lucy Benjamin, Lucy Speed, Michael Greco, Michelle Ryan, Natalie Cassidy, Pam St. Clement, Perry Fenwick, Richard Vanstone, Ricky Groves, Shaun Williamson, Steve McFadden, Sylvester Williams, Tamzin Outhwaite, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
Tagged Adam Woodyatt, Barbara Windsor, Casey Anne Rothery, Charlie Brooks, Dean Gaffney, Derek Martin, Edward Savage, Elaine Lordan, Frankie Fitzgerald, Gavin Richards, Gemma McCluskie, Hannah Waterman, Jack Ryder, James Alexandrou, Jessie Wallace, John Altman, John Bardon, Joseph Shade, June Brown, Kacey Ainsworth, Laila Morse, Lucy Benjamin, Lucy Speed, Michael Greco, Michelle Ryan, Natalie Cassidy, Pam St. Clement, Perry Fenwick, Richard Vanstone, Ricky Groves, Shaun Williamson, Steve McFadden, Sylvester Williams, Tamzin Outhwaite, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
EastEnders : Episode dated 25 December 1997 – 1997
source, two Adam Woodyatt, Alex Stevens, Andrew Lynford, Barbara Windsor, Casey Anne Rothery, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Gavin Richards, Gemma Bissix, Gillian Taylforth, Joe Absolom, June Brown, Leslie Schofield, Mark Homer, Martine McCutcheon, Melanie Clark Pullen, Michelle Collins, Pam St. Clement, Patsy Palmer, Paul Bradley, Paul Moriarty, Richard Driscoll, Roberta Taylor, Ross Kemp, Russell Floyd, Sean Gleeson, Shaun Williamson, Sid Owen, Steve McFadden, Stuart Stevens, Tilly Vosburgh, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
Tagged Adam Woodyatt, Alex Stevens, Andrew Lynford, Barbara Windsor, Casey Anne Rothery, Daniela Denby-Ashe, Gavin Richards, Gemma Bissix, Gillian Taylforth, Joe Absolom, June Brown, Leslie Schofield, Mark Homer, Martine McCutcheon, Melanie Clark Pullen, Michelle Collins, Pam St. Clement, Patsy Palmer, Paul Bradley, Paul Moriarty, Richard Driscoll, Roberta Taylor, Ross Kemp, Russell Floyd, Sean Gleeson, Shaun Williamson, Sid Owen, Steve McFadden, Stuart Stevens, Tilly Vosburgh, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
source, two, three Adam Woodyatt, Barbara Windsor, Carly Hillman, Casey Anne Rothery, Charlie Brooks, Craig Fairbrass, Danniella Westbrook, Edward Savage, Gavin Richards, Gillian Taylforth, Jack Ryder, Jake Kyprianou, James Alexandrou, Jamie Jarvis, John Bardon, Joseph Shade, June Brown, Leila Birch, Leslie Schofield, Louise Jameson, Lucy Benjamin, Lucy Speed, Marc Bannerman, Michael Greco, Mike Reid, Morgan Whittle, Pam St. Clement, Race Davies, Roberta Taylor, Shaun Williamson, Sid Owen, Steve McFadden, Tamzin Outhwaite, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
Tagged Adam Woodyatt, Barbara Windsor, Carly Hillman, Casey Anne Rothery, Charlie Brooks, Craig Fairbrass, Danniella Westbrook, Edward Savage, Gavin Richards, Gillian Taylforth, Jack Ryder, Jake Kyprianou, James Alexandrou, Jamie Jarvis, John Bardon, Joseph Shade, June Brown, Leila Birch, Leslie Schofield, Louise Jameson, Lucy Benjamin, Lucy Speed, Marc Bannerman, Michael Greco, Mike Reid, Morgan Whittle, Pam St. Clement, Race Davies, Roberta Taylor, Shaun Williamson, Sid Owen, Steve McFadden, Tamzin Outhwaite, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
source, two, three Adam Woodyatt, Barbara Keogh, Barbara Windsor, Campbell Morrison, Caroline Paterson, Casey Anne Rothery, Christian Simpson, Dean Gaffney, Des Coleman, Desune Coleman, Gerard Bentall, Jack Ryder, Jake Kyprianou, James Alexandrou, June Brown, Leila Birch, Leslie Schofield, Louise Jameson, Marc Bannerman, Martine McCutcheon, Melanie Clark Pullen, Michael Greco, Mike Reid, Natalie Cassidy, Pam St. Clement, Patsy Palmer, Richard Driscoll, Richard Elis, Ross Kemp, Sarah Flind, Sean Gleeson, Shaun Williamson, Sid Owen, Steve McFadden, Tamzin Outhwaite, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
Tagged Adam Woodyatt, Barbara Keogh, Barbara Windsor, Campbell Morrison, Caroline Paterson, Casey Anne Rothery, Christian Simpson, Dean Gaffney, Des Coleman, Desune Coleman, Gerard Bentall, Jack Ryder, Jake Kyprianou, James Alexandrou, June Brown, Leila Birch, Leslie Schofield, Louise Jameson, Marc Bannerman, Martine McCutcheon, Melanie Clark Pullen, Michael Greco, Mike Reid, Natalie Cassidy, Pam St. Clement, Patsy Palmer, Richard Driscoll, Richard Elis, Ross Kemp, Sarah Flind, Sean Gleeson, Shaun Williamson, Sid Owen, Steve McFadden, Tamzin Outhwaite, Todd Carty, Tony Caunter, Wendy Richard
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For his directorial debut, Andy Serkis brings to life the inspiring true love story between Robin and Diana Cavendish (Academy Award® nominee Andrew Garfield, Golden Globe winner Claire Foy), an adventurous couple who refuse to give up in the face of devastating odds. When Robin is given only a few months to live, Diana plots a daring escape from the hospital and they seek a full and passionate life together — raising their young son, traveling and devoting their lives to helping others. Breathe is a heartwarming celebration of love and human possibility.
Jonathan Cavendish
William Nicholson
Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy, Tom Hollander, Hugh Bonneville
© 2017 Bleecker Street Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Critics Consensus: Strong performances from Breathe's well-matched leads help add an edge to a biopic that takes a decidedly heartwarming approach to its real-life story.
Flick Feast
Katie Smith-Wong
Endearing, inspirational and beautifully shot, Breathe is an emotional journey that highlights pow...
Movies and Shakers
Linda and Al Lerner
This is a tearjerker, but it shows how little moments can be transformed into adventures.
Isolated Nation
Rhys Tarling
Everybody else is a haze of very British window-dressing and they play their parts without fuss or...
Serkis controls the tone well, and knows how to manage the talent of the two protagonists. [Full R...
We Are Movie Geeks
Cate Marquis
Breathe is an inspirational, romantic crowd-pleaser of a film about a couple who refused to accept...
One Room With A View
Louise Burrell
A stunning debut from Serkis, Breathe is an old-fashioned love story that will sweep you off your...
Paula Fleri-Soler
Thanks to the sterling performances drawn by Serkis, especially from his two leads, characters are...
Slashfilm
Marshall Shaffer
With just the slightest shift of his glance or the quiver of his lip, Garfield conveys as much as...
What I Watched Tonight
Matt Hudson
It may not reach the heights of The Theory of Everything, but Breathe delivers a sweeping, uplifti...
Debbie Lynn Elias
BREATHE makes you want to do more than just breathe. It makes you want to live.
Feel-good romance tackles serious themes, disability rights.
Parents need to know that Breathe -- Andy Serkis' directorial debut -- is based on the true story of Robin Cavendish (Andrew Garfield), who became paralyzed after contracting polio in the late 1950s. Some blood is spilled as part of his medical condition (enough to upset young/particularly sensitive kids), a married couple cuddles (and, it's implied, gets up to some intimate touching), there are a couple of swear words, and adults drink in social situations. But overall this is an uplifting, feel-good true story of someone with severe disabilities who not only survives but perseveres and thrives with the help of his empathetic friends and courageous wife (Claire Foy). It does bring up the topic of assisted suicide, taking a stance that not all viewers will agree with.
Genre:Drama
The Magnificent Ambersons
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken
A Walk in the Clouds
The Man Without A Face
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
The Break-Up
American Wrestler: The Wizard
The Song of Bernadette
JT LeRoy
When Did You Last See Your Father?
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Social Impact Project for ICT or Media Expert to Mentor and Develop Curriculum
ICT or Media Expert to Mentor and Develop Curriculum
Placing Test Orders for Our Students and Give us Feedback
We are a non-profit organisation enabling young adults in impoverished rural areas of Eastern Africa to work and to live a life full of opportunity while remaining in their home area. The students are equipped with IT and media skills and are then encouraged to become entrepreneurs. Through selling digital services online they become self-sustaining and can even employ new cohorts of trainees. In 2015 we started off in Turkana county, North Kenya, where traditional sources of income are extremely limited due to infertile soil and poor infrastructure.
We are looking for professional volunteers who can spend between two and four months in one of the most remote areas of East‐Africa mentoring a team of young adults on their way to become entrepreneurs on the global digital market. Build up a relationship with bright African minds, and enable them to have a successful career, without having to leave their home region. It will be a live‐changing experience, for you and for our students!
providing digital job opportunities in remote Africa
Experience an innovative and unique approach to livelihood development in remote Africa.
Learn how an organisation with decentralized decision-making operates: we follow a Holacracy approach to management.
Improve your cultural sensitivity and understanding. You will struggle, for sure, but you will gain enormously.
Improve what you teach: Usually, our mentors report that they have learned a lot about the subjects themselves when helping our lions to understand it.
You, as a teaching volunteer, would receive full board and lodging.You live and work within our center in Lodwar, you will have your own bedroom and the house offers basic sanitary facilities as well as a kitchen and a chill-out lounge.
Lodwar is a small city (~50 000 inhabitants) located in the northwest of Kenya and west of Lake Turkana. Most of its population is still following traditional living habits in relatively poor conditions. At the same time, the city is the bustling center of the region with two nightclubs, many bars and restaurants. It is a 2-hour car drive away from the future ICT center.
From our NGO budget we are able to cater for breakfast and lunch during 6 days a week. Because our organisation doesnt cater for our students in the evenings nor on Sundays, volunteers and staff have to pay for the meals at these times. Usually, an average basic meal is around 1 USD, so that the monthly food cost would be around 30$.
Cold, filtered water is available unlimited and at all times.
As a volunteer, you might want to travel and do some sightseeing on the weekends. Lake Turkana, the world’s largest permanent alkaline desert lake located, is probably a must-see. The lake is also called the Jade Sea because of its azure-green color. The key attraction is “Central Island” with its three crater lakes – Crocodile Lake, Flamingo Lake and Tilapia Lake and an active volcano. You might even be able to spot some wild animals such as elephants, lions, giraffes or antelopes at the South Turkana National Reserve.
Learning Lions is a Non-profit working on Education, Graphic Design, Information Technology (IT).
Jan-M Veddeler
a team of bright African minds
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Methuen Police News
Serving the City of Methuen, Massachusetts and its 48,000 Residents
Chief’s Page
Methuen Police Officers Honored for Lifesaving Work
November 15, 2018 by Jordan Mayblum Leave a Comment
Officer Michael Robidoux, Chief Joseph Solomon and Officer Matthew St. Jean. (Courtesy Photo)
METHUEN — Mayor James P. Jajuga and Chief Joseph Solomon are pleased to announce that two officers have earned the Methuen Exchange Club Police Officer of the Year Award.
Officers Matthew St. Jean and Michael Robidoux were presented with the award at a ceremony on Tuesday, Nov. 13, which they earned as a result of their lifesaving actions responding to a call last spring.
On June 5, both officers were dispatched to a home on Linton Avenue, where a resident’s family reported that a man was choking. Upon arrival, officers found the man unresponsive in a chair in the kitchen, and Officer St. Jean immediately began administering the Heimlich maneuver while Officer Robidoux prepared a breathing assistance device.
The officers’ efforts proved successful, as the food stuck in the man’s throat became dislodged and he began to breathe on his own. He was subsequently transported to a nearby hospital and recovered fully from the incident.
“The quick and decisive actions of Officers Robidoux and St. Jean likely saved this man’s life,” Chief Solomon said. “I’m incredibly proud of the contribution they make each time they put on their uniforms, and I’m grateful that their work that day helped prevent a tragedy and allowed a resident to return home to his family.”
Officer St. Jean grew up in Lowell and subsequently attended UMass Lowell, where he met his wife, Erin. The two now live in Methuen with their two daughters. He began his law enforcement career in 2013 with the Massachusetts Department of Correction before graduating from the first class at the Methuen Police Academy. He serves the Methuen Police Department as a patrol officer and field training officer.
Officer Robidoux grew up in Methuen and attended Methuen High School before earning an associate’s degree from Northern Essex Community College. He has been a reserve officer with the Methuen Police Department since 2015, and graduated from the Methuen Police Academy in February.
“These officers relied on their extensive training and acted quickly to assist a person in serious danger, so I want to congratulate them both on this well-deserved award,” Mayor Jajuga said. “Their experience is proof that our first responders face unexpected circumstances each and every day, and their preparedness and determination to assist those in need makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”
Filed Under: #Methuen, From the Chief, Press Releases Tagged With: exchange club, Methuen, Methuen police, Methuen Police Department
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Исполнители: Sammy Davis Jr., With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra и еще 2, Sammy Davis Jr., With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra
You're My Girl
— Sammy Davis Jr. & The Sy Oliver Orchestra, Sammy Davis, Jr. With The Sy Oliver Orchestra
Get Out of Town
— Sammy Davis, Jr. With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra, Sammy Davis, Jr. With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra
These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You)
— Sammy Davis, Jr. With Morty Steven's Orchestra, Sammy Davis, Jr. With Morty Steven's Orchestra
When Your Lover Has Gone
Love (Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere)
— Sammy Davis Jr and Carmen McRae with Jack Pleis's Orchestra
ЛейблBeat Repeat
Исполнители: Sammy Davis, Jr. With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra, Sammy Davis, Jr. With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra
The evening breeze Caressed the trees, tenderly The trembling trees Embraced the breeze‚ tenderly
The evening breeze Caressed the trees, tenderly The trembling trees Embraced the breeze‚ tenderly Then you and I Came wandering by And lost in a sigh Were we The shore was kissed By sea and mist‚ tenderly I can’t forget How two hearts met‚ breathlessly Your arms opened wide And closed me inside You took my lips You took my love, so tenderly
Sammy Davis Jr., With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra, Sammy Davis Jr., With Joseph Gershenson's Orchestra
Jr., Sammy Davis Jr., Sammy Davis
2012 JazzSellers
Milestones of a Legend: Sammy Davis Jr., Vol. 1
Sammy Davis Jr., Sy Oliver
All My Succes
Sammy Davis Jr : My Best Songs
Tous les tubes
Best of Sammy Davis Jr
The Best Music On Air, Vol. 11
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Music Lessons in Fort Shaw Montana USA
Dylan Dwyer
Missoula MT 59801
Saxophone, Woodwinds, Classical, Ensemble, Group Lessons, Improvisation, Jazz, Theory, Music Teacher
Missoula, MT, United States
Grayce Jones
High River AB T1V
Piano, Voice, Classical, Early Childhood, Musical Theatre, Theory, Music Teacher
High River, AB, Canada
Over 35 years teaching experience. Voice, Piano and Theory. . Classes are upbeat and goal oriented. Preparation for Festivals,Exams,Recitals. RCM, Pop, Music Theatre. Beginner piano program-all ages. Hands together first lesson, from 4 1/2 to 85,
Dani Strong
Cranbrook BC V1C
Voice, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Piano, Bass Guitar, Songwriting, Composition, Pop, Rock, Folk, Accompaniment, Music Lessons
Cranbrook, BC, Canada
Listening to, learning and creating music is powerful outlet that many times is left undiscovered. My ultimate goal in teaching music, is to find out why my students love music, and to then fuel and grow that passion.
Lorne D. Pankratz
Calgary AB T2L
Piano, Theory, Accompaniment, Pop, Music History, Choral, Songwriting, Music Lessons
T2L
Students will be encouraged to enhance their learning experiences by playing with passion, creating musical successes, having a solid theoretical grounding, and being creative.
Dr. Sarah Korneisel Jaegers
Richland WA 99354
Clarinet, Saxophone, Classical, Theory, Group Lessons, Music History, Contemporary, Music Teacher
Richland, WA, United States
Each student has a unique voice to contribute to the world of music. I instill in my students a deeper love and understanding of music, guide them toward the achievement of their aspirations, and aid them in discovering their own distinctive voice.
Lethbridge Music Academy
Lethbridge AB T1K
Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Electric Guitar, Piano, Voice, Accompaniment, Contemporary, Pop, Songwriting, Music Lessons
Lethbridge, AB, Canada
Lethbridge Music Academy is dedicated to teaching anyone of any age and skill level to love music, and play the songs they enjoy! Teachers are flexible and patient, making us a great choice for the music education of you or your kids!
Jordan Paige
Boise ID 83702
Harp, Piano, Keyboard, Ukulele, Voice, Classical, Pop, Rock, Early Childhood, Pedagogy, Theory, Music Teacher
Boise, ID, United States
The basis of my teaching philosophy is that any student can establish a love and appreciation of music through guided practice, developing their skills and creativity, and having fun.
Rachel Scuka
Kelowna BC V1X
Piano, Violin, Accompaniment, Classical, Ensemble, Spirituals, Suzuki, Theory, Music Lessons
Kelowna, BC, Canada
I am performance-oriented, energetic, enthusiastic and have a great passion for music and its composers from any time, including our own. I have studied both in Canada in the Royal Conservatory program and in the USA.
Kuna ID 83634
Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Classical, Composition, Jazz, Music History, Pop, Theory, Music Lessons
Kuna, ID, United States
SAM KREITZER specializes in piano performance, technique, music theory, improvisation, music history, & composition. Sam is an exceptional musician who can play & compose in any genre. SAM also offers guitar lessons at his home studio.
Beau Niebergall
Calgary AB T2N
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Pop, Rock, Songwriting, Music Teacher
T2N
Teaching students of all ages to learn to play the Piano or Guitar.
Tracy Ficquet
Idaho Falls ID 83401
Flute, Piano, Violin, Classical, Music Teacher
Idaho Falls, ID, United States
Hi! I'm Tracy. I am a violin teacher and performer. I tailor my lessons to bring the best out of each student. I teach all ages including adults, teenagers, and kids aged 4+. All levels are accepted, from beginner to advanced.
Jane Heska
Okotoks AB T1S
Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Theory, Music Teacher
Okotoks, AB, Canada
With over 30 years of teaching experience, my students range from young beginners to adults, learning for their own enjoyment or preparing for exams. Making learning to play fun, and enjoyable, is my style of teaching.
Ali Morrison
Cochrane AB T4C
Cochrane, AB, Canada
Former Sr. Examiner RCM, returned from EU. Performed, recorded, Adjudicated at Music Festivals, Presented Masterclasses, Teacher's Training Workshops at post-Secondary Arts Institutes in Can, UK, US, Peru, NZ, Ireland. Students major award winners.
Rebecca Squire
Canmore AB T1W
Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Early Childhood, Theory, Music Lessons
Canmore, AB, Canada
Grade 8 and Level 2 Theory certified through Conservatory Canada with 19 years of piano paying experience. Currently studying toward my grade 9/10 piano and level 3/4 theory. In-home private lessons or will travel to you.
Naomi Koch
Voice, Classical, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Opera, Music Teacher
My studio encourages a love of singing and performing. I teach a wholistic vocal technique. I offer as many opportunities for the students to fully embrace the art of singing which I believe contributes to the development of their whole person.
Noel Wentworth
Kelowna Central BC V1Y
Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Electric Guitar, Piano, Voice, Classical, Contemporary, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Theory, Music Lessons
Noel Wentworth owns and operates the Wentworth Music Education Centre in Kelowna where they offer Drums, Vocal, Piano, Guitar, Bass, Saxophone, Violin, Trumpet, Cello, Ukulele, Mandolin, Banjo, Theory and more
Briana LeClaire
Meridian ID 83642
Cello, Classical, Ensemble, Theory, Music Lessons
Meridian, ID, United States
"That lady helped me love and understand music," is what I want today's students saying about me 30 years from now. I have high expectations and definite ideas about how to improve, but ultimately I want to empower strong, capable musicians.
Bryce L E Gorman
Lethbridge AB T1H
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Bass, Bass Guitar, Pop, Rock, Songwriting, Improvisation, Theory, Group Lessons, Music Lessons
I will personally take you through the process of becoming the guitar player you want to be. Unlike other teachers that will only show you what to do, I will coach you through the entire process and do it with you!
Fred Wenger
Great Falls MT 59404
Trombone, Voice, Tuba, Trumpet, French Horn, Clarinet, Choral, Composition, Conducting, Ensemble, Improvisation, Jazz, Music Teacher
Great Falls, MT, United States
I am Principal Trombone with the Great Falls Symphony, lead player in TBone Rare--a Professional Trombone Quartet, a member of the Butte (MT) Big Band and a regular substitute with the Helena (MT) Symphony. I have taught Band for 40 years.
Jeffrey Popiel
Saskatoon SK S7L
Accordion, Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Tuba, Ukulele, Voice, Accompaniment, Composition, Folk, Group Lessons, Songwriting, Music Lessons
People often prefer different learning styles, and I am keen to assist. I like to introduce new concepts that keep my students both engaged and challenged, while paying attention to what serves the student most in terms of interest.
Edward John Allen
Drums, Contemporary, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Music Teacher
I teach a wide range of styles including Rock, Pop, Jazz, Latin etc. and I can also help you master the drum beats to your favourite tracks, read music, refine your technique and generally enjoy yourself behind your kit!
Kristin Flores
Airdrie AB T4B
Violin, Composition, Early Childhood, Suzuki, Theory, Music Lessons
Airdrie, AB, Canada
I teach both private and group Suzuki violin lessons and this year I am bringing back the Suzuki Early Childhood Music Education Program - Music with Your Baby! I also teach composition and theory classes.
Melanie Henry
Nampa ID 83686
Piano, Viola, Violin, Ensemble, Classical, Music Lessons
Nampa, ID, United States
I have 24 years teaching experience and a BA in music. My students participate in NFMC festivals and studio recitals. I believe that music making should be a fun and rewarding experience for all ages.
Barbara Levorson
Swift Current SK S9H
Piano, Classical, Theory, Composition, Early Childhood, Group Lessons, Music Teacher
Swift Current, SK, Canada
I teach private piano lessons for children aged 6+ and adults - lessons cover practical, aural and theory music instruction. I offer group piano lessons for children aged 4-8, with a parent. I also teach toddlers ages 1-4 in general music classes.
Mileeyae Kwon
Pocatello ID 83204
Piano, Voice, Choral, Classical, Conducting, Group Lessons, Musical Theatre, Opera, Music Teacher
Pocatello, ID, United States
I have Doctoral degree in voice from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I can teach from early childhood to adults, beginner to advanced level of singing and piano.Also, I am able to provide private or group lessons.
Ana Lete
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Classical, Folk, Improvisation, Jazz, Songwriting, Theory, Music Teacher
I teach private guitar lessons for all ages that focus on note reading, guitar technique, and music fundamentals. My guitar lessons are fun and rewarding. I'm extremely patient and great with kids! I look forward to talking to you soon! :)
Calgary Guitar Lessons
Calgary AB T2A
Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Contemporary, Folk, Improvisation, Pop, Rock, Songwriting, Music Teacher
Learn how to play your favorite songs or improve your current guitar skills. I'm an experienced guitar teacher in Calgary, I've taught hundreds of people to play guitar - and I can help you play your favorite music quickly and easily too.
Oisin Smith-Coburn
Bozeman MT 59718
Saxophone, Clarinet, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Jazz, Improvisation, Group Lessons, Theory, Pop, Rock, Music Teacher
Bozeman, MT, United States
I create ongoing lesson plans to keep track of student progress and focus on weak areas in playing across an extended time frame. I cater my lessons to the individual and always try to keep things engaging and enjoyable!
Calgary AB T2M
Viola, Violin, Classical, Early Childhood, Improvisation, Music History, Pedagogy, Theory, Music Lessons
Daniel has taught hundreds of students of all ages; lessons are fun, personalized, engaging, and emphasize practice strategies and attaining goals. Past students have ranged from absolute beginners to prizewinners in the Canadian Music Competition.
Wendy Bickford
Clarinet, Classical, Contemporary, Ensemble, Group Lessons, Opera, Music Teacher
Billings, MT, United States
Tailored lesson plans for each individual. A fun, encouraging environment.
Jetske Kingma
Duchess AB T0J
Viola, Violin, Cello, Classical, Early Childhood, Ensemble, Group Lessons, Music Teacher
T0J
Brooks, AB, Canada
I follow the teachings of Methode Letourneau, developed by my late instructor M. Claude Letourneau. The method teaches violin using a holistic approach. The repertoire is a mix of classical and folk melodies.
Kathy Bartel
Winfield BC V4V
Keyboard, Piano, Classical, Composition, Contemporary, Music History, Pedagogy, Theory, Music Lessons
Lake Country, BC, Canada
I am a new teacher to Lake Country. For 25 yrs I have taught both private & MUSIC FOR YOUNG CHILDREN in Maple Ridge working with hundreds of children ages 3 & up. I have completed my ARTC diploma (RCM) & I am member of BC Registered Music Teachers.
Shaunah Coad
Red Deer AB T4P
Piano, Classical, Pop, Theory, Music Teacher
Red Deer, AB, Canada
Offering Piano &Theory Lessons! I have 30 years of experience teaching classical and pop and I am accepting new students for the fall. Please contact me on my cell at 403-820-8880 or message me on FB 😊
Danika Starrharrt
Flute, Piano, Ukulele, Violin, Voice, Woodwinds, Composition, Early Childhood, Group Lessons, Improvisation, Songwriting, Theory, Music Lessons
I teach to each individual's unique learning style, whether a visual, kinesthetic or audio learner. I have 15 years experience teaching all ages & levels, and whatever instrument you study, we'll work on theory, technical mastery & creativity.
Natalia Lauk
Keyboard, Piano, Accompaniment, Classical, Early Childhood, Pedagogy, Theory, Music Teacher
Natalia Lauk Paino Studio mission is to offer affordable private piano lesssons in Pocatello for all ages and levels. I approach each student individually in order to better unlock their potential.
Christina Nolan
Castlegar BC V1N
Voice, Classical, Contemporary, Jazz, Musical Theatre, Opera, Pedagogy, Music Lessons
Castlegar, BC, Canada
Singers from all different backgrounds, ages and abilities seek out Christina’s teaching for her skills at combining traditional voice pedagogy with understandable explanations applied to music they like to sing - in a positive, encouraging setting.
Colleen McElroy
Flute, Piccolo, Classical, Ensemble, Music Lessons
I teach flute students of all ages and levels, from beginner to advanced. If you want to improve your flute skills for an audition, a performance, or just to increase your own enjoyment of the flute, I can help you!
Isabelle Lebeuf-Taylor
Violin, Classical, Theory, Music Lessons
I have many years of teaching experience, ranging from starting children, youth, and adults on the violin, and teaching intermediate or advanced players. My methods include the Alexander Technique, Suzuki, Rhoda's ABC's, and the RCM's. Français aussi
Janna Engell
Harp, Classical, Contemporary, Ensemble, Folk, Pop, Theory, Music Teacher
Have you always dreamed of playing the harp? Harp is fun and surprisingly easy! Janna has played harp for over seventeen years, and taught for twelve. Theory and composition are integrated into lessons. Rental harps available.
Portia Densley
Logan UT 84341
Violin, Suzuki, Music Teacher
Logan, UT, United States
I've been playing the violin for over 15 years, and I've been trained in teaching the Suzuki method. I believe that learning to play an instrument teaches any individual about a unique kind of beauty and discipline.
Quinn Henrickson
Camrose AB T4V
Piano, Voice, Classical, Contemporary, Folk, Group Lessons, Musical Theatre, Opera, Music Teacher
Camrose, AB, Canada
I am offering private voice lessons for all ages and abilities in Camrose Alberta. I have studied singing for eighteen years focusing in classical and oprea for the last eleven of those years.
Alvin Kong
Moscow ID 83843
Piano, Classical, Music History, Pedagogy, Pop, Theory, Music Teacher
Moscow, ID, United States
My teaching focuses on developing an all-rounded musician that combines elements of piano technique, artistry and musicality, theory and history, and ear training.
Lisa Stellmach
Violin, Viola, Suzuki, Classical, Folk, Spirituals, Music Lessons
The Suzuki method is used for the majority of my teaching, with supplemental material used to teach note reading and music theory.
Mariah Empey
Piano, Violin, Classical, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Music Teacher
I am a violin & piano teacher in Calgary offering private lessons.I have 20 years of musical experience.All ages and skill levels are welcome.Lessons are customized according to the individual.I service S.E. N.E. and S.W Calgary.Please contact.
Rhonda Pigott
Piano, Violin, Classical, Composition, Contemporary, Folk, Songwriting, Theory, Music Teacher
A fun innovative piano studio for students of all ages and abilities.
Carolyn Van Gaalen
Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Improvisation, Jazz, Pop, Theory, Music Lessons
My desire is to foster a love of music through a positive and encouraging learning environment. I work towards this using ideas learned through my many years of experience teaching classroom and private music lessons.
Alex Olesen
Acoustic Guitar, Drums, Electric Bass, Electric Guitar, Keyboard, Piano, Classical, Pop, Rock, Theory, Music Lessons
I like to have fun with my students so that they see learning music is fun, while also inspiring them to be life long musicians
Chantelle Ko
Violin, Classical, Ensemble, Theory, Music History, Group Lessons, Music Teacher
I'm passionate about helping students achieve their goals in violin and theory. I've taught all ages. I understand everyone has different learning styles and I adapt my lessons according to the individuals needs. My website: www.chantelleko.com
Christel Humfrey
Voice, Classical, Musical Theatre, Opera, Music Teacher
I believe that the enjoyment of music is as important as learning technique and I strive to find a balance of both in my lessons. I teach classical RCM and Musical Theatre. Yearly recitals included. Exams and festivals optional.
Kara Moore
Kananaskis Country AB T0L
Piano, Classical, Composition, Early Childhood, Improvisation, Pop, Theory, Music Lessons
Turner Valley, AB, Canada
Where creativity takes wings. Book your free trial today! Spots limited.
Dara Fensky
Red Deer AB T4N
Piano, Accompaniment, Classical, Music History, Theory, Music Teacher
Piano Melodies Studio offers private piano lessons specializing in classical music based off the RCM system. Theory lesson are taught both privately or in group classes. Students have lots of performance opportunities including two studio recitals.
Raymond Hansen
Lacombe AB T4L
Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Cello, Classical, Folk, Rock, Pop, Composition, Ensemble, Music Lessons
Lacombe, AB, Canada
I teach Classical guitar technique to all guitar players. I encourage all players to compete at local and provincial music festivals. I teach beginner Cello through suzuki method books.
Candice M Palmberg
Hayden ID 83835
Flute, Piccolo, Classical, Ensemble, Pedagogy, Music Lessons
Hayden, ID, United States
As performer and teacher, Candice shares her life long passion for music and flute playing! Her students consistently develop a love, appreciation, and deep joy in music, challenging themselves to reach their maximum potential.
Peter Fielding
Brass, Trombone, Tuba, Classical, Composition, Contemporary, Music History, Pedagogy, Theory, Music Teacher
Low brass musician and music theorist. Previously taught at Mahidol University(Thailand), Oberlin College, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Frost School of Music (U of Miami), University of Missouri-Columbia, Music Branch of the Canadian Forces.
Rachel Berg
Voice, Keyboard, Piano, Flute, Piccolo, Classical, Musical Theatre, Opera, Music Lessons
I teach students ages 5 and up. Each lesson is designed to fit each student’s abilities and needs. I have a Master of Music in Performance and Literature (Voice) and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance.
Sara Enger
Fort Shaw MT 59443
Voice, Piano, Pedagogy, Music Lessons
Catherine McGrath
Nelson BC V1L
Accordion, Banjo, Keyboard, Mandolin, Piano, Ukulele, Classical, Contemporary, Folk, Improvisation, Songwriting, Theory, Music Lessons
V1L
Brittany Christian
Ulm MT 59485
Piano, Classical, Early Childhood, Music History, Pedagogy, Spirituals, Theory, Music Lessons
Claire Rosen
Becca A Taylor
Piano, Keyboard, Accompaniment, Classical, Ensemble, Group Lessons, Pop, Theory, Music Lessons
Joan Gilmore
Calgary AB T3J
Virginia Stene Raines
French Horn, Piano, Trombone, Trumpet, Tuba, Voice, Choral, Classical, Early Childhood, Suzuki, Music Lessons
Yolanda Kakoschke
Wetaskiwin AB T9A
Piano, Classical, Theory, Music Teacher
Sonia Geller
Calgary AB T2W
Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Pop, Music Lessons
Steven Klevsky
Calgary AB T2X
Acoustic Guitar, Classical Guitar, Electric Guitar, Piano, Violin, Classical, Contemporary, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Theory, Music Teacher
Wendy Puttick
Kelowna BC V1W
Piano, Classical, Early Childhood, Group Lessons, Theory, Music Lessons
V1W
Shelly Fullerton
Voice, Classical, Contemporary, Folk, Musical Theatre, Pedagogy, Pop, Music Lessons
Sophia J Weston
Therese Bertrand
Moses Lake WA 98837
French Horn, Piano, Voice, Choral, Classical, Ensemble, Group Lessons, Suzuki, Theory, Music Lessons
CHEN-PO JENNY JEN
Keyboard, Piano, Voice, Accompaniment, Classical, Ensemble, Pedagogy, Pop, Theory, Music Lessons
Ana Eves
Regina SK S4V
Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Jazz, Pop, Rock, Spirituals, Music Lessons
West Kelowna BC V4T
Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums, Electric Guitar, Piano, Voice, Accompaniment, Contemporary, Folk, Opera, Pop, Rock, Music Teacher
V4T
Heidi Schnarr
Stevensville MT 59870
Keyboard, Piano, Voice, Accompaniment, Classical, Conducting, Early Childhood, Pop, Music Lessons
Lynette Graff
Flute, Piano, Early Childhood, Group Lessons, Pedagogy, Music Teacher
Michelle Willford
Rigby ID 83442
Piano, Classical, Contemporary, Theory, Music Teacher
Vanessa Lai
Piano, Theory, Classical, Music Teacher
Melanie Janine Kerbs
Twin Falls ID 83301
Classical Guitar, Keyboard, Piano, Ukulele, Viola, Violin, Classical, Ensemble, Rock, Songwriting, Suzuki, Theory, Music Teacher
Brenna Hartmann
Violin, Classical, Ensemble, Folk, Pop, Theory, Music Lessons
Pamela J Harder
Vauxhall AB T0K
Acoustic Guitar, Drums, Keyboard, Piano, Violin, Voice, Composition, Group Lessons, Pop, Rock, Songwriting, Theory, Music Teacher
Christy Marsteller
Jackson WY 83002
Acoustic Guitar, Piano, Contemporary, Early Childhood, Ensemble, Group Lessons, Pop, Music Lessons
Sun River (MT), Simms (MT), Vaughn (MT), Fairfield (MT), Power (MT) .
Postal Code(s) associated with Fort Shaw, MT: 59443 .
Music Teachers in Fort Shaw Montana USA
The above search is a free service maintained by DoReMiWORLD.com for the benefit of private music teachers, as well as music students and their parents. Our goal is to help you locate a private music instructor, for example, a private piano teacher, a private violin teacher, a private voice coach, an online music teacher or another music education specialist who may offer private music lessons or online lessons to music students in Fort Shaw Montana.
Private music instruction is considered to be the best way to learn to play a musical instrument. Use this directory to find a private music teacher offering music lessons in your local area (Fort Shaw MT) or online lessons around the world. At the moment, our directory is limited to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, United States, and New Zealand. This music teachers directory classifies private music instructors by instrument, such as private piano teachers (for private piano lessons), private voice teachers (for private voice lessons), private violin teachers (for private violin lessons), etc. Please use the above search function to find a private music teacher near you.
We welcome the following types of instructors in our Fort Shaw Montana directory: Bagpipes Coaches, Ukulele Instructors, Bass Guitar Tutors, Violin Coaches, Brass Tutors, Piano Professionals, Trombone Coaches, Woodwinds Teachers, Drums Coaches, Electric Bass Teachers, Flute Teachers, Saxophone Professionals, Tuba Instructors, Acoustic Guitar Coaches, English Horn Instructors, Harpsichord Tutors, Recorder Tutors, Viola Educators, Banjo Tutors, Clarinet Tutors, Cello Teachers, Lute Teachers, Classical Guitar Instructors, Viola Da Gamba Educators, Bass Professionals, Organ Teachers, Mandolin Educators, Double Bass Professionals, French Horn Professionals, Harp Educators, Accordion Instructors, Trumpet Teachers, Keyboard Educators, Electric Guitar Coaches, Dulcimer Educators, Oboe Instructors, Percussion Educators, Piccolo Coaches, Voice Instructors, Bassoon Professionals .
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Why This Ex-Colt Believes Andrew Luck’s Injury Could Be Career-Ending
by on Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 1:44PM
There’s a chance Andrew Luck could miss the rest of the 2017 season. But he’ll still come back in 2018, right?
D’Qwell Jackson isn’t so sure.
The former Indianapolis Colts linebacker — whose name you might recognize from a certain deflated ball scandal — was asked during a recent appearance on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football” when he thought Luck would return from his shoulder injury.
Colts fans won’t like Jackson’s answer.
D'Qwell Jackson doesn't think Andrew Luck will be back. Yikes. #Colts (via GMFB) pic.twitter.com/6Q28jLVgRA
— NFL Mocks Crew (@NFLMocks) October 28, 2017
“I don’t think we are (going to see Luck again). I don’t think we are,” Jackson said. “If you take a step back — if you look at most guy’s injuries around the league, if they (have) been out for eight, nine, ten months, you’re talking career-ending injuries. No one’s mentioned that.”
Of course, Jackson isn’t a doctor and is totally speculating here; many believe Luck will return to action at some point, even if it’s longer than expected. That said, it is concerning that the QB’s timetable keeps getting pushed back after offseason shoulder surgery.
Former New England Patriots quarterback Jacoby Brissett has been decent as a starter in Luck’s absence, but Indy had better hope Jackson’s speculation is inaccurate.
Thumbnail photo via Brian Spurlock/USA TODAY Sports Images
Have a question for Darren Hartwell? Send it to him via Twitter at @darren_hartwell.
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The Neverfail News
StorageCraft Partners with Artisan Infrastructure
by Zac Blankenship / Wednesday, 06 April 2011 / Published in
Partnership allows MSPs and VARs to offer cloud backup, disaster recovery and migration services to their customers
AUSTIN, TX — April 6, 2011 — StorageCraft Technology Corporation, a provider of innovative backup, disaster recovery solutions, and Artisan Infrastructure, the wholesale Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider, have partnered to give managed service providers (MSPs) and value-added resellers (VARs) the opportunity to offer cloud-based services based on StorageCraft® ShadowProtect® technology.
This allows MSPs and VARs the ability to remotely test, evaluate and monitor the award-winning ShadowProtect line of backup and disaster recovery software safely and securely within Cornerstone, Artisan’s virtual Private Data Center platform (vPDC), before purchasing it.
To illustrate the benefits and value of the partnership within the channel, StorageCraft and Artisan will host a joint solution webinar for the channel. Joint webinars will take place on Wednesday, April 20th, and on Friday, April 22nd, at 1:00 p.m. CDT. Visit the Artisan Infrastructure Partner Webinar Seriespage to register.
“Our partnership enables our channel partners to create end-to-end solutions, providing a broader choice of flexible and affordable cloud backup services for customers. MSPs and VARs get real-time, hands-on experience of remotely deploying ShadowProtect’s cloud-based backup and recovery services from Cornerstone,” said Curt James, vice president of marketing and business development at StorageCraft.
ShadowProtect is pre-installed and publicly available via Artisan Infrastructure’s solution ecosystem, making it deployable in less than a few minutes. Its technology delivers quick and reliable cloud backup and disaster recovery, while Artisan’s Cornerstone vPDC enables solution providers to retain complete autonomy to deploy and manage their own cloud solutions.
“Our relationship with StorageCraft provides additional value to our channel partners by allowing choice and flexibility in how they deliver data protection services. It also ensures that our partners achieve the highest margins while maintaining complete control of their customers, strengthening their bottom line,” said Steve Williams, vice president of business development for Artisan Infrastructure.
“As an established MSP, MyITpros needs to own a completely reliable, cost-effective way to deploy an enterprise class backup and disaster recovery solution. Artisan’s wholesale cloud infrastructure and StorageCraft ShadowProtect empower us to do just that,” said Bill McCharen, IT director for MyITPros.
About StorageCraft Technology Corporation
StorageCraft Technology Corporation provides innovative backup, disaster recovery, system migration and data protection solutions for servers, desktops and laptops. StorageCraft delivers software products that reduce downtime, improve security and stability for systems and data and lower the total cost of ownership for servers, desktops and laptops. www.storagecraft.com
About Neverfail (formerly Artisan Infrastructure)
Neverfail delivers continuously available clouds through a single pane-of-glass SaaS platform. This platform is the industry’s first secure, comprehensive, multi-tenant, multi-cloud management solution for BC/DR solutions, solution catalogs, cloud service billing, service orchestration, monitoring, cloud workspaces and unified communications. Neverfail serves a global partnership of managed service providers, systems integrators, telecommunication providers, data center operators, independent software vendors, governments, healthcare institutions and enterprises exclusively through the channel. Neverfail provides solutions across the globe and operates data centers in the United States and Europe. Neverfail is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in Melville, Chicago, Denver, Kansas City, Portland, Edinburgh, Scotland and Cluj, Romania. For more information on Neverfail solutions, contact the company at 512-600-4300 or visit their website at www.neverfail.staging.wpengine.com. You can follow Neverfail on Twitter at twitter.com/neverfail.
About Zac Blankenship
Easy Disaster Recovery Tiering
White Board Magic
Learn More About Neverfail
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The New England Ball Project
Site Search Tool
Add & Correct
6 Brothers Myth
Sarah Pierpont1
F, #26901, b. 22 June 1770, d. 11 November 1772
Display family
Pedigree to immigrant Alling Ball of New Haven CT
Sarah Pierpont was born on 22 June 1770.2 She was the daughter of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 Sarah Pierpont died on 11 November 1772 at age 2.1
[S234] George Brown, "The Descendants of William and Elizabeth Tuttle," database made available on-line courtesy of George Brown, http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=gmb633&id=I08720, database put on-line 21 February 2009.
[S220] Scott L Robinson, "Robinson Roots," database made available on-line courtesy of Scott L. Robinson, http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=REG&db=srobin0789&id=I00434, database put on-line 27 July 2013.
F, #26902, b. 28 February 1773, d. 3 March 1773
Sarah Pierpont was born on 28 February 1773 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2 She was the daughter of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 Sarah Pierpont died on 3 March 1773 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2
[S141] Margaret Scheffler, "Banfill-Buck-Hawkins-Pike-Perrine," database made available on-line courtesy of Margaret Scheffler, http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=mscheffler&id=I23551, database put on-line 28 May 2008.
Polly Pierpont1
F, #26903, b. 13 February 1776, d. 20 September 1776
Polly Pierpont was born on 13 February 1776 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT; twin of Hannah.2 She was the daughter of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 Polly Pierpont died on 20 September 1776 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2
F, #26904, b. 3 April 1774, d. 12 February 1788
Sarah Pierpont was born on 3 April 1774 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2 She was the daughter of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 Sarah Pierpont died on 12 February 1788 at age 13.1
Henry Pierpont1
M, #26905, b. 18 January 1785, d. 8 August 1790
Henry Pierpont was born on 18 January 1785 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2 He was the son of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 Henry Pierpont died on 8 August 1790 at age 5.1
Henry Herrick1
M, #26906, b. 5 March 1803
Henry Herrick was born on 5 March 1803.1 He was the son of Claudius Herrick and Hannah Pierpont.1
John Pierpont Herrick1
M, #26907, b. 16 February 1805
John Pierpont Herrick was born on 16 February 1805.1 He was the son of Claudius Herrick and Hannah Pierpont.1
Sarah Maria Herrick1
F, #26908, b. 5 March 1809
Sarah Maria Herrick was born on 5 March 1809.1 She was the daughter of Claudius Herrick and Hannah Pierpont.1
Henry Edward O'Brien1
M, #26909, b. 15 October 1797
Henry Edward O'Brien was born on 15 October 1797.1 He was the son of Edward T. O'Brien and Mary Pierpont.1
Eliza Mary O'Brien1
Eliza Mary O'Brien was born on 25 November 1799.1 She was the daughter of Edward T. O'Brien and Mary Pierpont.1
Mary Ann Foster1
F, #26911, b. 24 October 1806
Mary Ann Foster was born on 24 October 1806.1 She was the daughter of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont.1
James Newell Foster1
M, #26912, b. 16 August 1811
James Newell Foster was born on 16 August 1811.1 He was the son of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont.1
Eleazer Kingsbury Foster1
M, #26913, b. 20 May 1813
Eleazer Kingsbury Foster was born on 20 May 1813.1 He was the son of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont.1 Eleazer Kingsbury Foster married Mary Codrington on 2 January 1832.1
Children of Eleazer Kingsbury Foster and Mary Codrington
William Edward Foster1
John Pierpont Foster1
Mary Foster1 b. c 1843, d. 12 Dec 1864
Mary Codrington1
Mary Codrington married Eleazer Kingsbury Foster, son of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont, on 2 January 1832.1
Children of Mary Codrington and Eleazer Kingsbury Foster
William Edward Foster was the son of Eleazer Kingsbury Foster and Mary Codrington.1
Eleazer Kingsbury Foster was the son of Eleazer Kingsbury Foster and Mary Codrington.1
John Pierpont Foster was the son of Eleazer Kingsbury Foster and Mary Codrington.1
Mary Foster1
F, #26918, b. circa 1843, d. 12 December 1864
Mary Foster was born circa 1843.1 She was the daughter of Eleazer Kingsbury Foster and Mary Codrington.1 Mary Foster died on 12 December 1864.1
Harriet Smith Foster1
Harriet Smith Foster was born on 4 March 1815.1 She was the daughter of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont.1
Caroline Hooker Foster1
F, #26920, b. 8 April 1817
Caroline Hooker Foster was born on 8 April 1817.1 She was the daughter of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont.1
Edwards William Foster1
M, #26921, b. 28 March 1819, d. 9 August 1828
Edwards William Foster was born on 28 March 1819.1 He was the son of Eleazer Foster and Mary Pierpont.1 Edwards William Foster died on 9 August 1828 at age 9.1
John Pierpont1
M, #26922, b. 8 August 1780, d. 12 April 1836
John Pierpont was born on 8 August 1780 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2 He was the son of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 John Pierpont died on 12 April 1836 at age 55.2
Nathan Pierpont1
M, #26923, b. 18 October 1782, d. 12 January 1803
Nathan Pierpont was born on 18 October 1782 at New Haven, New Haven Co., CT.2 He was the son of John Pierpont and Sarah Beers.1 Nathan Pierpont died on 12 January 1803 at age 20.2
Mary Gordon Waller1
F, #26924, b. 7 November 1815, d. 9 January 1896
Pedigree to immigrant Mary Ball of New Haven CT
Mary Gordon Waller was born on 7 November 1815 at Ossining, Westchester Co., NY.1 She was the daughter of Henry Waller and Melinda Gordon.1 Mary Gordon Waller married Isaac Brinckerhoff at Harlem, New York Co., NY.1 Mary Gordon Waller died on 9 January 1896 at age 80.1
Children of Mary Gordon Waller and Isaac Brinckerhoff
Henry Gordon Waller Brinckerhoff+1 b. 22 May 1845, d. 7 Sep 1909
Sophie Gordon Brinckerhoff1 b. 3 Sep 1849
Alexander Gordon Brinckerhoff1 b. 23 Aug 1856
Eveline Gordon Brinckerhoff1 b. 17 Jun 1860, d. c 1862
[S406] Carol Menges, "Ripples and Waves," database made available on-line courtesy of Carol Menges, http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=seajae&id=I8351, database put on-line 1 September 2008.
Elias Shipman1
Elias Shipman married Sarah (????)1
Child of Elias Shipman and Sarah (????)
Charles Kilby Shipman+1 b. 30 Dec 1790, d. 22 Dec 1851
[S237] Leonard Abram Bradley, compiler, History of the Ball Family - Genealogy of the New Haven Branch; Allen Ball and Some of His Descendants 1638-1864 (New York: privately printed, 1916).
All right, title, and interest in and to original content included in the New England Ball Project is owned by David G. Ball unless a publisher or copyright owner is specified as the source of data.
Compiler: David G. Ball, (click on name to send email) North Vancouver, BC, Canada (site last updated 10 January 2020)
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BGFN MAGAZINE >> News >> Events >> Fashion Fairs and Trade Shows 2017 in Europe and USA
Fashion Fairs and Trade Shows 2017 in Europe and USA
We are going to present you the fairs that are coming during the next year. You will see the dates, the places and a brief description of the fair so you could choose which of them to visit. We will separate the fairs in two groups - Menswear Trade Fairs and Textile Trade Fairs.
Menswear Trade Fairs:
Pitti Immagine Uomo - from 10th to 13th January 2017, Florence, Italy:
The Pitti Immagine mission is to produce fairs and events that present fashion as a positive productive force, as an esthetic and cultural aspect of life. nt, architecture, design and music; it is a witness to modernity and a carrier of traditions Each fair and each event presents the most recent, innovative and complete picture of high-end Italian and international production. Our events present fashion in terms of global lifestyle, in a striking setting for building relations among different classes, generations and cultures; they are a choir of different languages and voices.We at Pitti Immagine realize that fashion has the ability to bring together other products and industries. Fashion is a multidisciplinary world that encompasses art, entertainment, architecture, design and music; it is a witness to modernity and a carrier of traditions. Website:www.pittimmagine.com
Panorama Berlin - from 17th to 19th January 2017, Berlin, Germany:
The name says it all here: as an overview of the most important trends and tendencies of the coming season, Panorama Berlin presents a contemporary and relevant selection of women’s and men’s collections, shoes, accessories and lifestyle articles by market leading brands. ver since the premiere of Panorama Berlin in January 2013, the new fashion trade fair has enhanced the offerings of Berlin Fashion Week with a select portfolio of top international fashion brands with business relevance. Thanks to the new brand mix and strong focus on visitor services, Panorama Berlin was able to establish itself quickly and is today one of the three leading trade shows of Berlin Fashion Week.
Website:www.panorama-berlin.com
Bubble London - from 29th to 30th January 2017, London, UK:
Bubble London is a premium children’s trade show, visited by buyers and members of the press. Held at the Business Design Centre, Islington, each event plays host to a unique, edited line-up of kid’s fashion, accessories, gifts and homeware brands.
Website:www.bubblelondon.com
Couture Fashion Week - from 10th -12th February 2017, New York, USA:
Couture Fashion Week, founded in 2005 by Andres Aquino, presents a series of couture and luxury fashion shows in New York City, Cannes and other selected cities. Featuring:
*Fine designers from around the world presenting exquisite garments and accessories
*World class entertainment
*Exhibits of art and luxury products and services
*Parties and receptions.
Website:www.couturefashionweek.com
Moda UK - from 19th to 21th February 2017, Birmingham, UK:
Moda UK is a fashion trade show held twice a year, offering a diverse product range covering beachwear, women's wear, menswear, footwear and accessories for mainstream, lifestyle and casual wear retail requirements. Moda UK also includes a seminar programme for trade visitors and a catwalk show presenting an overview of the seasons' trends. Every edition of Moda UK gathers the leader fashion retailer names and the most relevant labels.
Website:www.moda-uk.co.uk/
Jacket Required - from 19th to 21th February 2017, London, UK:
Jacket Required premium menswear show is a trade only event, open exclusively to buyers and members of the press. Hosting an inspiring, carefully edited international line-up of contemporary casualwear across apparel, footwear, accessories and lifestyle product over two floors at The Old Truman Brewery, London.
Website:www.jacket-required.com
Fashion World Tokyo - from 5th to 7th April, 2017, Tokyo, Japan:
FASHION WORLD TOKYO is Japan’s largest fashion trade show and held twice a year in April and November. The show gathers all kinds of fashion wear, bags, shoes, fashion accessories, fashion jewellery, men’s fashion, textile and OEM/ODM products. In the next edition held in [NOVEMBER] 2016, 860* exhibitors & 28,000* visitors will gather from all over the world. It will become the best place for importers, wholesalers, retailers and manufacturer to place orders and meet business partners.
Website:www.fashion-tokyo.jp
Textile Trade Fairs:
The London Textile Fair - from 11th to 12th January 2017, London, UK:
The London Textile Fair was established in 2007 by John Kelley at a small club in Marylebone. At this first fair we had 25 exhibitors set out in two rooms with just tables, chairs, sign and rails. The style and concept has been so successful that it has been continued until today with over 400 exhibitors at the July 2016 exhibition.
Website:thelondontextilefair.co.uk
Interfiliere - from 21th to 23th January 2017, Paris, France:
Eurovet is the undisputed world leader for intimates and swimwear, with international events in Paris, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Las Vegas. It is also the most important reference for sourcing textiles and fashion for the fast fashion movement in Europe, and number one in France for sports textiles and equipment trade shows. Eurovet benefits from the combined expertise of its two shareholders: the influential French F?d?ration de la Maille et de la Lingerie, and Comexposium, a leading organiser for both professional and public trade shows.
Website:www.interfiliere.com
Texworld USA - from 23th to 25th January 2017, New York, USA:
Building on the success of Innovation Asia, Lenzing and Messe Frankfurt, Inc. have partnered to produce Texworld USA, a dynamic industry event bringing together apparel textile suppliers and buyers. Based on the highly successful trade fair, Texworld in Paris, Texworld USA is the prime opportunity for fabric manufacturers to connect with the top buyers in the US market and beyond. This international business platform offers a wide array of fabrics of high creativity and an excellent price / quality relationship. A product range covering the entire fabric spectrum comprised of all the qualities available in market will be showcased at Texworld USA. Discover textiles of innovative structures, material mixes and surprising color palettes.
Website:www.texworldusa.us.messefrankfurt.com
Mrket Show - from 23th to 25th January 2017, New York, USA:
MRket is a global fashion trade show representing the best collections in men’s clothing, sportswear footwear and accessories from the United States, Canada and abroad. MRket is the only show in North America to spotlight international groups such as Made In Italy and UK Design as well as curated brands sections: Vanguards Gallery and Modern Prep. The best men’s stores in North America and over 47 countries attend MRket because it is a serious writing, networking and press event.
Website:www.mrketshow.com
Milano Unica - from 2nd to 3th February 2017, Milan, Italy:
Milano Unica was established in 2005 out of the fusion between Ideabiella, Ideacomo, Moda In, Prato Expo and Shirt Avenue, world-renowned trade fairs that have represented Italian and European fabrics and accessories for 30 years. Today, they have all become an essential part of UNICA, while preserving their particular character: from prestigious menswear fabrics to exclusive women’s collections, from avant-garde textiles and accessories to modern and classic shirting fabrics… all products necessary to create an entire collection. Unica is UNIQUE The Milan tradeshow, featuring well-known Italian and European brands, takes place twice a year: in February for S/S collections and in September for F/W collections. A team of professionals is specialised in rendering the Fair environment more user-friendly, while meeting the highest standards. Various services are focused on quality, trends, comfort, new initiatives for young people and the celebration of Italian culinary and cultural traditions.
Website:www.milanounica.it
Premiere Vision Paris - from 7th to 9th February 2017, Paris, France:
Six complementary shows, brought together in one place, where the entire fashion industry meets. Premi?re Vision Paris is an essential business hub, where 60,000 industry professionals from over 120 countries come together to share ideas, do business, work and build their new collections. The show is also exceptionally inspiring, thanks to forward-looking fashion information that is vital to developing successful collections: 16 fashion areas, 2 colour ranges, 3 trend tastings seminars, Leather Fashion breakfasts, on line fashion information, a daily newspaper, 2 inspirational films. More than 1900 exhibitors from 57 countries present collections developed in close synergy with the needs of the fashion market and the timing of the apparel industry. A broad and complementary offer, guaranteeing visitors will find a rich array of products to match all needs, in a range of suitable prices.
Website:www.premierevision.com
Styl - from 18th to 20th February 2017, Brno, Czech Republic:
STYL and KABOInternational Fashion Footwear and Leatherwear Fairs are the only place where supply and demand of the fashion industry from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other Central and Eastern European countries concentrates. It offers exhibitors a unique opportunity to present their new collections in the attractive and exclusive environment of its modern halls. The Fashion Fairs, which take place twice a year in February and August, preserve their contractual intentions as a meeting place for professionals and traders from the textile, clothing and leather industries.
Website:www.bvv.cz
Balkan Textile - from 9th to 11th March 2017, Belgrade, Serbia:
Balkan Textile 2015 is the best way for the exporters to find importers, local producers and major retailers who are driving demand and therefore expand their sales channels in Serbia, a lucrative platform and an unmissable chance for its privileged participants where top products, equipment and machinery in textile sector will be showcased by exhibitors from different countries to an audience of successful, aspirant entrepreneurs who have the motivation and capital to invest in new business ventures. The fair offers its exclusive participants the most cost-effective and efficient way of gaining market share in the country where supply and demand will be brought together under one roof for the exporter companies to seize the opportunities in Serbia and increase their export volume.
Website:www.balkantekstila.com
Tags:fair, menswear, fashion, textile, materials, Premiere Vision, Milano Unica, Interfiliere, 2017, Balkan Textile, StylTexworld USA, The London Textile Fair, Mrket Show, Fashion World Tokyo, Bubble London, Jacket Required, Couture Fashion Week, Moda UK, Panorama Berlin, Pitti Immagine Uomo
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BGFN MAGAZINE >> News >> Accessories >> YKK launch The Excella Fin Zipper
YKK launch The Excella Fin Zipper
YKK’s latest creation, the Excella® Fin zipper, part of the revered Excella® range, introduces an innovative finguard structure of the zipper extends the teeth to the tape, to protect it from friction and rip. The zipper is enhanced with an improved dynamic shape and multifunctional purpose. The newly designed teeth are a size 75, adding crucial support to top quality, ideal for use within all garments, shoes, accessories and luggage.
The zipper teeth are available in 20 different platings and more than 600 tape colours.
YKK is synonymous with innovation and technology and can be seen on many of the world’s leading fashion and accessory products.
About YKK:
YKK Italy S.p.A. is the Italian sister Company of YKK Group, a global leader in fastening accessories. Founded in 1968, it has its headquarters in Pero (MI), and various production units located throughout the Italian territory.
The plant in Prarolo (VC) is specialized in the production of zippers, the plant operating in Ascoli Piceno (YKK® Mediterraneo) produces sliders, galvanic finishes, small metal parts and snap buttons. YKK always uses the most advanced technology that, along with a precise and balanced management of all the activities, allows all group companies to reach customer satisfaction without compromising the respect and protection of environmental standards.
Tags:YKK, zipper, accessory, sewing, colours, fashion, product, Excella, innovation, purpose, shape, quality, luggage, Italy, brand
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news.cuna.org/articles/107712-james-technology-both-a-valuable-tool-and-incredible-distraction
James: Technology Both a Valuable Tool and ‘Incredible Distraction’
The omnipresence of social media makes it harder than ever for CU professionals to use their time effectively.
Many years ago, the average adult attention span was seven minutes. Today it’s nine seconds
Productivity expert, leadership mentor, and motivational speaker Neen James cites this startling fact as an example of how new technology has changed how we learn, think, and work.
James, who’ll address CUNA Experience Learning Live! in Las Vegas Oct. 25-28, doesn’t discount the many ways new technologies benefit our society.
She cautions, however, that technology can also dramatically affect productivity for leaders, trainers—and the entire credit union.
James says the ability of technology—social media in particular—to divert our attention is the biggest threat to achieving productivity. She says we all need to pay closer attention to each other and our members.
“It used to be that people would go to the credit union, do their work, and go home—almost like an on-off switch,” James explains. “Now, people are connected 24/7, and while social media is a fabulous tool, it’s also a big distraction.”
The omnipresence of social media in modern life—coupled with our shortened attention spans—makes it harder than ever for credit union professionals to stay focused and use their time effectively.
James says distractions have become so pervasive that, in training sessions she has sat in on, even the trainers were checking Facebook during instruction.
“Technology has changed the pace at which we work,” James says. “Time frames have shortened and expectations have increased,” a phenomena which makes staying focused more important than ever.
James places the duty of establishing a responsible technology culture on credit union leaders. “One of the jobs leaders face is to role model productive behavior and not be connected to their devices or email all the time.”
A supplement, not a replacement
Training is another area where James believes technology might be unproductive if not well facilitated by professionals.
She says trainers’ must be able to combine technology with a personal approach to appeal to all learning styles. Some people prefer conversation, others prefer role playing, and some enjoy online learning modules.
“I always ask trainers to investigate before they start, to understand how their students learn,” she says. “Are they visual learners, kinesthetic learners, audio learners, experiential learners?”
James says trainers need to develop their instruction around participants’ learning styles instead of relying solely on one form of learning, such as a seminar, online courses, or group work. Most audiences require a combination of all delivery styles.
If students are inclined towards online training, James says these programs are a great value add and will increase learning if access to live facilitators can be provided.
“You’ll never be able to replace face-to-face learning,” James asserts. “Learning is about more than just content. People learn through the experiences, the stories, the body language, the signs and the networking with others. All of those different cues are important.”
This human interaction, James says, is a fundamental component of learning. In her view, computer-based training doesn’t provide the personal dynamic between teacher and student that facilitates great learning. But it is an efficient tool, especially for remote locations or for programs that require compliance and consistency.
Because people spend so much time at their computers, online training can feel less individualized than face-to-face instruction. Facilitators need to be aware of this to ensure it is a strong compliment rather than the only delivery method.
“In my experience, people who are learning online might check boxes rather than really engage with the material,” James explains. “People occasionally put off completing online programs until their bosses force them to do it—and then they just rush through it!”
In this case, training is just another task rather than another learning opportunity.
James doesn’t deny the positive attributes of technology. She says online learning is powerful and productive because it reduces costs and time commitments.
Ultimately, James advocates a measured approach, one that effectively uses new technology without allowing it to become a productivity-killing distractions. For her, it all comes down to one key issue:
“What we really need right now is discipline,” she says. “People simply need to get into a habit of setting priorities and meeting them.”
James will discuss “The Super-Productive Leader” at CUNA Experience Learning Live!, which runs Oct. 25-28 in Las Vegas.
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Future Defence leaders graduate from Australian Command and Staff College
More than 160 future Defence leaders graduated from the Australian Command and Staff Course - Joint (ACSC(J)) today in a ceremony attended by the Chief of the Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin AC, the Secretary of the Department of Defence Dennis Richardson AO and senior Australian National University (ANU) representatives.
ACSC(J) marks one of the most important transitions in an officer’s career. It prepares Major-equivalent personnel to be commanding officers or key staff to senior leaders in the increasingly complex contemporary and future security environments.
Commander Australian Defence College, Major General Simone Wilkie AM said ACSC(J) builds the capacity for leaders to be innovative thinkers, able to operate in dynamic civil-military environments, with multiple government and non-government stakeholders..
“The course prepares officers to work outside their specialisation,” MAJGEN Wilkie said.
“They are challenged by world class lecturers and are exposed to a broad cross section of perspectives from other course members which includes a sizeable international contingent.”
ACSC(J) is a crucial element of the Australian Defence College’s career-long officer development pathway - Joint Professional Military Education (JPME). ACSC(J) is delivered in partnership with ANU. Most of the 168 course members were awarded qualifications from both the Australian Defence College and ANU.
ACSC(J) is an 11-month intensive course which includes strategic policy, leadership and ethics, joint operations, single service studies and capability development components. The class of 2014 included members from 26 countries and three Australian Public Servants.
“I congratulate today’s graduates on your achievements this year and wish you well for your future careers,” MAJGEN Wilkie said.
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Home Entertainment Gaming
Ninja gets his own Fortnite skin, and new update adds Sidegrading – CNET
Play as the Fortnite pro himself.
As Fortnite chapter 2 season 1 continues, developer Epic Games on Wednesday added another update to the game to change how the new upgrade stations work. There’s also a new skin coming of the one and only, Ninja.
Update v11.40 includes the option called sidegrading. Upgrade stations found on the island will now offer a better weapon in exchange for a certain number of materials. For example, players with an assault rifle can visit a station to get the more powerful heavy assault rifle, which makes its return in the update. Sidegrading is only available in non-competitive playlists.
Fortnite pro Tyler “Ninja” Blevins also had his own news for the game Wednesday. In a livestream on Mixer, he revealed his own skin in the game. The surprise, however, was spoiled a few minutes earlier by multiple Fortnite data miners.
Ninja is the first Fortnite player to receive a skin based on his appearance in the game. The new outfit, Ninja’s Edge Back Bling, Ninja Style Emote and Dual Katanas Pickaxe will be available for purchase in the Fortnite Item shop Jan. 16-19 as part of Epic’s Icon Series, which will have more collaborations with creators.
Chapter 2 season 1 rundown
For starters, there’s a new map in the game, and it’s bigger than in the previous chapter. There are 13 new locations for players to visit, but the map is grayed out until a player actually travels to that area.
Boats are now found around the island. To reach them, players can now swim in the water. The previous island didn’t have very deep water so players would simply run through lakes and rivers slowly. Swimming lets players make their way through bodies of water at a fairly quick pace, and players can float in the water while shooting certain weapons.
Players can also fish. Not only will this offer a bit of peace of mind, but the fish caught can also provide health and shield bonuses.
Apparently, there is a “Slurp Fish” which you an use to gain health or shields.
Also, another fish called “Flopper” not sure if you find this while fishing, or while swimming, or maybe both 👀 pic.twitter.com/U8UdBrViVq
— VastBlast – Fortnite Leaks (@VastBlastt) October 15, 2019
Upgrade machines are found in parts of the map, letting players trade in a certain amount of materials to improve their weapons. For example, a player can make a green weapon into a more powerful blue weapon and so on.
There are also new team dynamics in Fortnite chapter 2. Players can now carry teammates who’ve been downed, meaning they’ve had their health reduced to zero and crawl on the ground until they’re revived or eliminated. However, a dying player can also be picked up by another team — some are having fun grabbing up downed opponents and running away with them.
There is also a new Bandage Bazooka letting players heal each other from a distance. Teams can also celebrate together with new team emotes.
Haystacks and dumpsters are now something to keep an eye on. These hideouts are spots for players to get the jump on others, giving a bit of stealth to the game. Those who want a loud approach can find explosive barrels and gas tanks to make some noise and do damage.
Watch out for haystacks.
The default characters also had an outfit and graphical upgrade.
Fortnite Chapter 2 also has a new Battle Pass and things are made a little easier this time around. During a match, players will earn badges for surviving longer than other players, gathering materials and eliminating other players. A Battle Pass costs 950 V-bucks, or approximately $9.50, but subscribers can earn 1,500 V-bucks throughout the season that could pay for the next season pass.
Fortnite is available on PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PC, and Android and iOS devices.
Update v11.10
The first major update for Forthite Chapter 2 season 1 was more about content than game changes. To be more specific, it’s Halloween time.
Fight the Storm King during Fortnitemares.
For the third time, Epic celebrates the spooky season with the return of Fortnitemares. This time around, players can face off against the Storm King in a new mode and complete a set of challenges to unlock new in-game cosmetics.
Released on Nov. 20, this update wasn’t much of an update. In fact, aside from a few weapon adjustments and bug fixes, there is hardly anything added to the game. Daily Challenges have now returned allowing players to gain more experience points in order to reach higher tiers to unlock more cosmetics.
Originally published Oct. 15 and updated as new information is revealed.
source: cnet.com
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Weight loss diet: One drink can help burn fat fast – how much should you have?
Health January 17, 2020
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Co-addiction of meth and opioids hinders treatment
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Designed switch allows unprecedented control over cells
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Controlling cell functions with a designed switch
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Category Archives: Community Health Councils
What does the CHC offer us in Wales? They dont exist any longer in England.
Do we get an advantage from their existence? What do they cost?
Are they structured correctly – the CEO is appointed by the WG and may not feel able to speak out.
Honest and pragmatic solutions to Social Care are ignored – by all parties. ( And the media )
Ever since Mrs May tried to sell what the press deemed a “dementia tax”, all the parties have conspired to duck the hard truths of social care, and its linkage with medical care. the one is means tested, and the other is free. They should both be handled in the same way in order to avoid perverse incentives to classify in order to exclude. so either they are both free ( impossibly expensive ) or they are both means tested. The pragmatic solution…
David Aaronovitch opines in the Times 4th December 2019: ‘NHS for sale’ nonsense ignores a real crisis – Labour and the Tories are happy to keep distracting us from the fact that neither has grasped the nettle of social care
At what point does the repeated appearance of the surreal mean that it becomes the new real? Answer: when Donald Trump hits town.
In London for the Nato summit, the US president was taxed with the non-issue that has dominated election discourse for a week. Was the NHS on the table? Trump decided to interpret the question as though he was being asked whether he would like to buy the whole of the NHS, ship it back to America and re-erect it in the Arizona desert. “Never even thought about it,” he replied. Americans already had “private plans that they absolutely love. We wouldn’t want it even if you handed it to us on a silver platter; we want nothing to do with it.”
But Trump’s absurdity was really only a twist on the absurdity of our own discussion. The Corbyn slogan “Not for Sale!” gives the impression of the potential hiving off of A&E wards to predatory Yankees who will find some way of charging us ten bucks a swab and 20 for a suture.
All we actually have, despite the 450 pages of documents brandished by Labour last week, is the US side of preliminary trade talks in which they say they’d like to discuss drug prices and patents and British civil servants not responding.
The Conservative manifesto shut off any such possibility by slapping down a couple of red lines: “When we are negotiating trade deals,” it said, “the price the NHS pays for drugs will not be on the table. The services the NHS provides will not be on the table.”
Fine. But it means, of course, that something else will be. Back in the summer when this matter came up Theresa May (remember her? Prime minister for a bit. Strong and stable.) stated the bleeding obvious in saying “the point about making trade deals is that, of course, both sides negotiate.” We set red lines, they set red lines. We say no to X, they say, then give us Y. That, and not the NHS being crated up for dispatch to the New World, is the issue.
This, of course, is just one element of Labour’s charge, going back to the days when Andy Burnham claimed the Tories were “privatising” the NHS. Nearly six years ago the shadow health secretary, serving in the catastrophic Ed Miliband team and deprived of the right to promise limitless billions for the NHS, began accusing the Conservatives of having “a privatisation agenda” that would mean the end of universal healthcare, free at the point of use.
If that was so, the Conservatives have manifestly failed. Not only has the basis of the service survived unchanged but, according to the independent health charity The King’s Fund, the share of revenue spent on services delivered by the private sector has stayed more or less static over the past few years. Not, incidentally, that people would be too bothered if it rose. As The King’s Fund puts it, “provided that patients receive care that is timely and free at the point of use, our view is that the provider of a service is less important than the quality and efficiency of the care they deliver.”
Amen. But these days not even Tories dare express such a view, leading to some pitiful denials of past opinions by Conservative spokesmen. Yet this sensible belief, once held by Labour but alas no longer, also turns out to be the conclusion reached by the substantial majority of our 100-voters panel after having the expenditure of the NHS explained to them.
So instead of any sensible discussion about how to improve healthcare in England, all we’ve had in this terrible election is the fraudulent “for sale” row and a bidding war. £20.5 billion in real terms plays £26 billion plays £7 billion per annum. 6,000 more doctors, 50,000 more nurses, 27 million more appointments and on it goes.
The figures are made to stand alone and no one gets to find out what they mean in the context of the real world. We have an ageing population. We need to shift resources into helping the population to age more healthily and to look after those who need care. That takes more money, more carers and new forms of delivery.
But the parties’ bidding war fails to take account even of the impact of their own policies on the requirements of the NHS. The Nuffield Trust think tank published a report this week on how, with NHS job vacancies at over 100,000 and social care worker vacancies at 122,000 and rising, both Conservative and Labour immigration policies to end freedom of movement from the EU are likely to exacerbate chronic staff shortages.
That’s just one. In addition Labour has promised a 5 per cent pay increase for all NHS staff in 2020 and “year on year above inflation increases” after that. This may help ease the recruitment problem a little, of course, but at huge additional cost.
And as if that wasn’t enough Labour has stated its ambition of moving workers, including all of those in the public sector, to a statutory four-day week. When the shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, attempted to exempt NHS staff from this promise he was effectively repudiated by John McDonnell.
There is a word for having a policy to significantly reduce staff hours at a time of chronic staff shortage. And it isn’t “clever”.
But above all Labour’s concentration of fire on the Conservatives over the false “NHS for Sale” controversy means that it fails to make the true accusation which should really damage the Tories.
For two decades the problem of inadequate social care has grown, and over time become a fug enveloping almost everything we might want to do to make our society that bit better. For almost the whole of the last decade the Conservatives have been in government.
Three years ago the Tories promised a green paper in the summer of 2018. Then in the autumn of 2018. Then April this year. Then as soon as possible.
And here in December 2019, in the manifesto of the great “Just Get It Done” Johnson, is his proposal on arguably the third biggest issue facing the country: “We will build a cross-party consensus to bring forward an answer that solves the problem”. And that is pretty much that.
Now ask yourself these two questions whenever the two prime ministerial candidates declaim on the subject of leadership: first, why have the Tories so cravenly dodged this issue? And then, why has Labour been so happy to let them do it?
Dementia Tax & Theresa May | The King’s Fund
What is the “dementia tax”? – Full Fact
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Community Health Councils, Patient representatives, Perverse Incentives, Political Representatives and activists, Stories in the Media, Trust Board Directors on December 5, 2019 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
Even London and the Home Counties are feeling the squeeze… as standards and staff numbers fall re revert to the pre-NHS divide.
Just some of the pain felt in the rural shires is now feeding into London and suburbia. Standards of staffing and clinical diagnosis and speed are all falling. The blame is long term political neglect and denial from an elected elite who always felt they had access to the best – in London. No longer… it is impossible to report on all GP surgery closures as there are so many. The reality is that private services for ambulance, GP, A&E etc will follow… Bevan wanted the same high standards for the miners as the bankers – instead the standards are falling, but as before we had a health service, the bankers can afford the private option.
Owen Sheppard for MyLondon reports 7th September 2019: West London overspends by £112m!!
Beth Duffell and Emma Pengelly report for Surry Live on the planned closure of 3 surgeries in
Guildford: What’s happening to Surreys GP surgeries?
GP surgeries across Surrey are facing an uncertain future, with two confirmed closures and a third possibly following suit, which are set to put pressure on those nearby.
Patients say they are worried about the pressures on neighbouring services following the announcement of closures of surgeries in Staines and Guildford.
In Burpham, a petition has been launched to save the Burpham New Inn surgery which is also facing closure.
So why are surgeries closing?
The Guildford and Waverley Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has cited problems with leases and premises, which have led to the closures of two practices in the area.
In Staines, the Staines Thameside Medical Practice shut on Saturday (August 31) following a decision by the doctors to end their contract with the NHS to provide GP services. This was reportedly due to personal reasons.
Patients will lose the St Nicolas branch surgery in Bury Fields, Guildford, which will close at the end of October following issues with the premises and its lease.
Guildford and Waverley CCG has confirmed the surgery will close on October 24. All services will instead be provided by the main surgery at Guildford Rivers Practice in Hurst Farm, Milford.
One St Nicolas patient, who did not wish to be named, said: “I am very upset about the closure of St Nicolas Surgery, it came as a shock.
“[I believe] this was pre-planned since last year but without telling patients previously. I have not received a letter as yet about the closure.
“I think it’s been about a year that all the telephone calls to St Nicolas Surgery have been re-directed to the general practice in Milford.
“The closure of St Nicolas Surgery will put extra pressure on other GP surgeries in Guildford as patients who are ill, disabled, elderly or who don’t drive won’t be able to get to Milford.”
The CCG has said it will work with the practice to ensure that despite the changes, patients will continue to receive high quality care.
A spokesman said: “The CCG received an application from Guildford Rivers Practice that proposed the closure of its branch surgery, St Nicolas Surgery, due to issues with the premises and the lease which was proposed to have had a negative impact on the service offered to patients.
“Following a period of engagement with patients and neighbouring GP practices, the application to close the branch has now been approved by Guildford and Waverley’s Primary Care Commissioning Committee (PCCC).”
The spokesman added: “Registered patients of Guildford Rivers Practice will remain so, following the branch closure, with GPs from St Nicholas Surgery transferring to the main site and continuing to offer appointments to patients.
“Any patients who require home visits will continue to receive these in the usual way.
“The practice is committed to providing the best service for patients by operating solely from the Guildford Rivers Practice main site and the CCG will work with the practice to ensure patients continue to receive safe and high quality care moving forward.”
The news comes as patients await the decision on the future of Burpham’s New Inn surgery. A decision was set to be made on August 28 but this has been delayed.
A spokesman for Guildford and Waverley CCG said: “The PCCC has been re-arranged to ensure every option put to the CCG is fully explored, before a final decision is made.
“The committee has been rescheduled for September 13.”
In a letter to patients sent on July 31, the CCG said it was likely the New Inn Surgery in London Road would have to close later in 2019 due to problems securing a long-term home.
The letter said the surgery’s lease was expiring and no other suitable alternative sites have been found.
Patients launched a petition to save the surgery, which has been signed by 282 people to date.
Around 4,500 patients have had to re-register with another GP surgery after Staines Thameside Medical Practice closed its doors on Saturday (August 31).
Other GP surgeries in the area are accepting new patients despite some having recently had their lists capped.
Two Staines councillors are concerned about the additional pressure on those surgeries.
Councillor Jan Doerfel, Green Party member for Staines, said: “Expecting other GP practices to absorb the additional 4,500 patients is likely to result in longer waiting times for all those affected and additional travel for those that had to enrol with those practices. This is not acceptable.”
Councillor Veena Siva, Labour member for the ward, said: “Yet another GP surgery closes. Smaller practices are closing due to underfunding and insufficient GPs which means they can no longer be run safely and sustainably.”
She added: “As it stands, it is unfortunately no surprise that there was no interest from GPs to take over the surgery when in doing so all they would face is under-resourcing, enormous pressure and stress.”
NHS North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was responsible for supporting patients as they switched to a different GP service.
St David’s Family Practice Doctor Jagit Rai works at one of the surgeries receiving patients from Staines Thameside and is a governing body member at NHS North West CCG.
Doctor Rai said: “The closure of this practice does not relate to funding or staff shortages. The CCG was disappointed to receive notification from GPs at Staines Thameside of their decision to end their contract with the NHS to run the surgery.
“They made this decision due to a change in personal circumstances that could not have been predicted or planned for. The CCG asked neighbouring practices about the option to take over the running of Staines Thameside and reviewed their capacity to take on new patients.
“The surgeries decided the best way to care for Staines Thameside patients is at their practices where they can benefit from an established team and range of services.”
It’s slightly brighter news for the residents in Chiddingfold, where a new surgery is being built after the former building was destroyed by a fire.
Chiddingfold Surgery in Ridgley Road was gutted on January 7, 2019.
Plans were submitted in March to Waverley Borough Council for the complete rebuild.
The surgery has relocated to Cedar ward at Milford Hospital, where full doctor and nurse surgeries are in place. Expanded opening hours are available for patients at Dunsfold surgery.
Update : Diane Taylor in the Guardian 8th September 2019: London GPs told to restrict specialist referrals under new NHS …The New “Rationing Plan”. Plans for new cuts sent same day Boris Johnson reinforced NHS spending commitments..
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Community Health Councils, Consultants, General Practitioners, NHS managers, Patient representatives, Political Representatives and activists, Post Code Lottery, Rationing, Stories in the Media on September 8, 2019 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
How can the NHS offer fulfilling, lifelong careers? The managers have no idea why doctors quitting in droves…. Exit interviews?
The exit interview is a rare event in the 4 health services. The BMJ opinion from Wilson and Simpkin is honest and powerful, but their drawing attention to the absent “exit interviews” now needs attention, and from a completely independent HR company. None of the staff will trust the “in house” services. Yes, its got that bad, and its going to get worse. Life expectancy has peaked already and went down this last year….
The BMJ offers some advice on workforce retention: How can the NHS offer fulfilling, lifelong careers? BMJ 2019;364:l1100
With morale and retention among UK doctors declining, The BMJ hosted a discussion at last week’s Nuffield Trust health policy summit, asking what the NHS can do to support clinicians throughout their careers. Abi Rimmer reports
“Enabling people to pursue their other interests is one key thing,” said Rakhee Shah, paediatric registrar and research associate at the Association for Young People’s Health, kicking off discussions. She highlighted the importance of giving clinicians more control over their working lives.
Ronny Cheung, consultant paediatrician at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, took this further, saying that it was also important to give clinicians control over their everyday workload. He said that his trust, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, had been “trying to make time and space for teams to come together.”
“It’s about regaining control,” he said, “and investing in people to allow them to do that.” This not only made staff feel more valued but also helped to remind them what they enjoyed about their work. “It has a multiplying effect,” he said.
Claire Lemer, consultant at Evelina London Children’s Hospital, highlighted the importance of food for staff. She described a successful initiative at her hospital that encouraged the executive team to provide food for clinical and administrative staff……
……The demise of the firm structure of working in hospitals had reduced support for clinicians, said Morrow….
…The panel also discussed how the intensity of clinical work affects clinicians’ ability to maintain a long term career in the NHS. Lemer said that, in some specialties, “the pressure and intensity of work is so extreme that it’s not sustainable for a whole career.”…
…Cheung also warned that the rigidity of medical training pathways was denying doctors the flexibility they needed, as they were forced to choose a specialty so early in their career.
“If we squeeze people into these pathways we shouldn’t be surprised if people break free, and we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re developing a workforce that isn’t particularly happy,” he said.
The NHS is failing to look after its staff and patients, expert warns
Abi Rimmer, The BMJ
Is being a doctor bad for your health?
Anne Gulland, The BMJ
Opinion from Hannah Wilson and Arabella Simpkin is honest and ends with the paragraph: (This was not available in the on-line edition)
Quitting in Droves – Hannah Wilson and Arabella Simpkin P 473 of the BMJ
Surprisingly, while there is little literature that discusses both the quantity of doctors that leave the NHS and the factors that may drive them, there is no literature discussing the attributes and characteristics of doctors that leave. To understand what is driving the flight, we must first ask who are the doctors that quit? Surprisingly exit interviews are rarely held. Yet this is critical information to develop interventions and strategies to stem the leak.
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Community Health Councils, Medical Education, Patient representatives, Political Representatives and activists, Professionals, Stories in the Media on March 22, 2019 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
Missed appointments are a distraction. In the factory model there has to be a disincentive for poor quality (and to make a claim).
Recent news on missed appointments may be confusing the public. GPs are pleased to have a little reflective and organisational and administrative time when a patients does not attend. They may already be late, and then the time is merely used to catch up. In GP land, before GPs were excused from “emergencies”, all patients had to be seen before you went home. Not so today. In Hospital land, consultants have limited numbers, and GPs have followed suite. The least popular careers in the 4 health services are, guess what, emergency medicine. Victims of a career in A&E have to contend with long and difficult shifts, overdemand, and under capacity. The mopping up which GPs used to do has moved to A&E, and with less experienced doctors seeing the patients. Missed appointments are a distraction. In any factory model ( mutual insurance system ) there has to be a disincentive for poor quality ( and to make a claim) .. Once we ration overtly, and probably introduce co-payments, morale in all areas will improve, recruitment will be better, and the “reality” of life will sink in to the public as a whole. Phil Collins in the Times opines that “..The factory model of healthcare is no longer appropriate in a nation made healthier by the success of the first seven decades of public healthcare.” But even he shies clear of the need for autonomy, responsibility for self, and for sticks as well as carrots to encourage good health. If missed appointments cost millions, most Drs don’t really care. It’s a distraction, a side issue. Politicians have yet to arrive for their reality appointment… (see below)
BBC News 2nd January: Missed GP appointments ‘cost NHS England £216m’
July 2nd in the Times: Attlee ‘would be shocked by abuse of NHS’ – “The prime minister who created the NHS would be horrified that patients are abusing it by missing appointments”, his granddaughter has said.
Jo Roundell Greene, the granddaughter of Clement Attlee, said that when the health service was created people were “so grateful”, but some now took the system for granted.
We have to shut hospitals to save the nhs – Phil Collins opines in the Times 4th Jan 2019… “…Public Health England, the government’s health agency, has been highlighting the threat from diabetes which, on current trends, could take up a fifth of the whole NHS budget by 2035.”
The Times letters to the Editor 2nd and 4th Jan 2018: Missed hospital appointments and the NHS
Sir, I challenge the supposition of the chief nursing officer for England that missed clinic appointments are so costly (“Timewasting patients are costing NHS £1bn a year”, Jan 2).
When, some years ago, we looked into the problem in my orthopaedic and fracture clinics, we found that most non-attenders had recovered, or no longer needed our treatment. Most were judged to have been given precautionary appointments by less experienced junior doctors.
In some areas patients are now sent mobile phone text reminders of their appointment, with plans to supplement this with a similar email policy. This and better supervision and training of young doctors should resolve the problem for most cases.
Reappointments need be sent only to those unable to decide for themselves, such as children, or the few deemed at serious risk should they miss their checkup.
Paul Moynagh
(Retired orthopaedic consultant surgeon)
Sir, The chief nursing officer tells us that patients who fail to attend their hospital outpatient appointments are costing the NHS nearly £1 billion annually. This is almost certainly nonsense. In almost all of my 25 years as an NHS consultant in ear, nose and throat surgery (which has a heavy outpatient workload), we would evaluate the missed appointments rate regularly and increase the planned numbers per clinic accordingly. This is standard practice across the service.
Prof Antony Narula
Wargrave, Berks
Sir, I feel we are not made sufficiently aware of the costs of NHS services we use. If the cost of each medication were printed on the package we may be persuaded to use it carefully.
I was horrified to be told by the pharmacist that my bottle of medicine cost £300. I now make sure that I don’t waste a single drop.
Elizabeth Bass
Shepton Mallet, Somerset
and on 4th Jan:
Sir, I cannot understand how missed appointments are costing the NHS £216 million (report, Jan 2). The so-called cost of an appointment is a notional figure; if the appointment does not happen, it costs nothing at worst and saves money at best. If a patient fails to show, not only can an overworked GP catch their breath (or catch up, because they will almost certainly have got behind) but they won’t have to do expensive tests or prescribe expensive drugs. So this £216 million is fake accounting.
What might be interesting is why appointments are missed. The patients may have got better; their mother-in-law may have been admitted to hospital as an emergency; or there was no one to take them to the surgery.
Dr Andrew Bamji
Rye, E Sussex
Sir, In my experience missed appointments can be due (in part at least) to the NHS’s own systems. For example, my wife was called by her consultant’s secretary to ask why she had not attended an appointment; she replied that she had not been given an appointment (the letter, which had a second-class stamp, arrived the next morning).
My daughter has had a number of similar experiences: once the letter dropped through the letterbox 30 minutes before the appointment was due. After another appointment she was called by a secretary at the hospital, who asked why she had failed to attend. My daughter replied that she had, in fact, attended. She was then asked to relate, in detail, what the doctor had said to her.
Malcolm Hayes
Southam, Warwickshire
[PDF] failure to attend appointment leaflet – NHS
[PDF] to turn up for an appointment – don’t be a DNA – NHS
[PDF] Missed appointments cost the NHS millions
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Community Health Councils, Patient representatives, Political Representatives and activists, Rationing, Stories in the Media, Trust Board Directors on January 4, 2019 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
Can the NHS be saved? Only with different local and global thinking, and changing the “rules of the game”.
All of us in the caring professions know the answer to this question, and indeed that there is no “N”HS any longer. The Guardian knows the answer….. Iain Robertson Steel, a retired medical director acknowledges the problem (But suggests no answer/solutions), but on 26th April in the Western Telegraph I suggested a “fourth option” for people in Pembrokeshire. This last is only for local needs, and a letter suggesting a global rethinking was in the Western Mail 25th Jan 2018 is at the bottom of this post. What can save the 4 health services is not clever reorganisations, but an honest debate on overt rationing, and making it clear to everyone what is not available free, for them. ( Changing the rules of the game )
Can the NHS be saved? The Guardian – Dennis Campbell –
…the Guardian’s health policy editor Denis Campbell spent a day in King’s College hospital in London. He found staff and patients who are devoted to the NHS but who can also clearly see what is needed in order to sustain the service for future generations.
A long-term plan designed to secure the future of NHS England has been delayed once again by Brexit. But as Britain’s health service heads into its annual winter beds crisis, the Guardian’s Denis Campbell visits King’s College hospital in London to find out what staff and patients need for the future – and how much it will cost.
“The Welsh NHS and social care is a shambles and no longer sustainable or fit for purpose.” Dr Iain Robertson Steel in the Western Telegraph 7th December.
Health service needs to be remodelled Western Mail 25th January 2018
From the perspective of west Wales there is no British health service.
I do not have access or choice to anywhere outside my own rural trust (Hywel Dda) unless the service needed is not available here. Even a second opinion has to be within the same trust.
There are four, and possibly five health services if Manchester is included. The WHO has said it will no longer report on an “NHS”.
The lack of choice, the covert rationing, and the unequal access to tertiary centres, primary care, and palliative care threaten to bring on civil unrest.
A Welsh mutual of three million people cannot offer the same quality of healthcare as one of 60 million. Even if the Welsh Government has tax-raising powers, there are not enough taxable earners to rise above the decline.
We seem to have forgotten the power and improved health outcomes in large mutuals. Since the UK’s health service has to be refashioned, now seems a good time to unify again, and re-establish the same rights across the country.
Increasing taxation to pour more into a holed bucket should not appeal to most taxpayers.
We need a new health insurance system (the original NHS was insurance based) and the caring professions will remain cynical until what replaces “in place of fear”, avoids bringing it back.
Dr Roger Burns
Pembrokeshire GP urges a “fourth option”. Western Telegraph 26th April 2018
The finances are in such a mess, that local post code and unexpected rationing is everywhere… The “Rules of the game” need to be changed…..
Changing the rules of the game
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Community Health Councils, Consultants, Dentists, General Practitioners, Guest, Junior Doctors, Midwives, NHS managers, Nurses, Paramedics, Patient representatives, Political Representatives and activists, Professionals, Rationing, Stories in the Media, Trust Board Directors on December 26, 2018 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
Social Care is means tested, so why not health? More funds for cancer care is appropriate, but in Wales it could go on free prescriptions.
Kat Lay in the Times reports 15th June 2018: NHS (England) must use extra funds to fight cancer
Social Care is means tested, so why not health? More funds for cancer care is appropriate, but in Wales it could go on free prescriptions. If the people have a choice they will choose local, ahead of improved outcomes and travelling. As the population ages, and more people survive cancer, we will need more radiotherapy and oncology services. The shortage of Radiologists and Oncologists is so severe that the potential for improvement is threatened.
The NHS will be expected to improve cancer survival rates and put a greater focus on maternity safety under a multimillion-pound funding package due to be announced within days.
Theresa May appeared poised to set plans to boost the NHS budget by more than 3 per cent after intensive meetings yesterday between No 10, the Treasury and the health team.
At a conference of health service managers in Manchester, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, said: “We need to make sure we unite the NHS and British people with a small set of bold ambitions as to how we want to transform our system. To get our cancer survival rate to the best in Europe; to transform our maternity safety so it is as good as Sweden; to truly integrate health and social care; to make sure we have waiting time standards for mental health that are as strong and powerful as the standard for physical health.”
He was still having “difficult” discussions with Mrs May and the Treasury over the precise details of a long-term funding plan, but an announcement is expected soon. NHS leaders say they need funding increases of 4 per cent a year, in line with assessments by think tanks. The Treasury is thought to be reluctant to provide that much.
Brexiteers want rises in health service spending to be funded by the so-called Brexit dividend — money available after Brexit that would have gone to the EU. They worry, however, that Philip Hammond, the chancellor, will suggest funding it through tax rises.
NHS sources fear that a “big picture” announcement could amount to a fudge because it will not spell out the exact funding increases on offer. That would mean health chiefs including Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, waiting until November for the details.
There is also likely to be disappointment at a decision to keep social care funding, which is delivered through councils and is the subject of a forthcoming green paper, separate.
A report from the Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-wing think tank, has called for social care to be free of charge for people with substantial needs as part of a new long-term health funding settlement. Social care is currently means tested. Making it free would bring the care system into line with the NHS, where healthcare is free at the point of need.
Cancer patients given new drugs that won’t help them. GPs needed in oncology clinics…
Advanced directives needed. Choice in death and dying. Lord Darzi warns of “draconian rationing”. GPs need to be involved at the interface of oncology and palliative care.
Rationed – Start of cheaper technique for breast cancer is delayed in UK despite adoption elsewhere. GP commissioners should be demanding intra-operative radiotherapy.
Cancer drugs fund is illogical. More money should be spent on radiology and radiotherapy.
Cancer chief quits amid radiotherapy shortfall
Artifical Intelligence is no threat to doctors, but it’s potential needs to be managed. A shortage of Radiologists is more bad news for the future.
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Commissioning, Community Health Councils, Patient representatives, Political Representatives and activists, Rationing, Stories in the Media on June 15, 2018 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
So, you did not think there was post code rationing of cancer care?
Kat Lay reports 12th March 2018 in the Times: “UK behind on cancer guidelines” (she means treatments)
It may be very sensible to refuse treatments for which there is a poor return, and serious side effects. The spending of state money has to be rationed, but NHSreality maintains that this should be overt, and universal for the low volume high cost treatments. Aneurin Bevan talked about In Place of Fear ( A Free Health Service 1952 Chapter 5 In Place of Fear ) but we are doing our best to bring back fear. There are four British health café systems, each rationing differently. In each we pay up under the same tax rules. The UK is also behind on introduction of new drugs – for good reason. Mark Littlewood doesn’t believe is deserves the taxpayer funding it gets! The Times also explains why and how more people are having to pay for cancer treatments which are excluded. Sarah Kate-Templeton reports on the current private income from treating cancers privately in 2017: £360m
British cancer guidance is less likely to recommend innovative drug treatments for patients than versions used in other parts of Europe, a study has found.
Researchers at King’s College London evaluated clinical practice guidelines issued by different national bodies, finding that UK examples were more likely to focus on surgery, and slower to pick up on new research.
Their study comes after several high-profile cases where patients have had to travel abroad for treatment.
The Home Office is considering allowing a medical cannabis trial to treat Alfie Dingley, a six-year-old boy with epilepsy, who travelled to the Netherlands to take a cannabis-based medication last September. Jessica Rich, one of two sisters with Batten disease, a genetic disorder that kills sufferers before they reach their teens, has to fly to Germany for treatment with a drug that Nice will not fund and Ashya King, now eight, was taken to the Czech Republic by his parents for proton therapy on a brain tumour, against the recommendation of doctors in Southampton in 2014. Earlier this month his family announced that scans showed he was free of cancer.
The study, published in Esmo Open BMJ, found recommendations in continental Europe tended to focus on the use of new chemotherapy agents or targeted treatment, while UK guidelines tended to focus on surgery, screening or radiotherapy.
Mark Baker, director of the centre for guidelines at Nice, insisted the research was “poorly undertaken” and misrepresented its guidance .
This entry was posted in A Personal View, Community Health Councils, Political Representatives and activists, Post Code Lottery, Rationing, Stories in the Media on March 12, 2018 by Roger Burns - retired GP.
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Home News Towers of power
Towers of power
How we can turn wastelands between burb buildings into villages
That's the thing about time: it only moves forward. So does the city - and sometimes not very elegantly. No amount of collective good taste, for example, will ever remove the mid-century concrete insults that dot the landscape.
And the fact that much of this brutalist form - the Gardiner Expressway, 50s and 60s suburban apartment blocks - is also unsustainable means our immediate instinct is likely to be to tear them down.
How sustainable would that be, though? It would be interesting to see how much rubble could be recycled. The foundation of a section of New York's FDR Drive, for instance, is mostly rubble from bombed British buildings carried as ballast in wartime ships.
But much of our Modernist superstructure would be hard to simply take apart; and a war against deprecated architecture would turn into a war against heritage - and the poor.
Even decades ago, urban sprawl was on the minds of planners. Back then, Steeles was the greenbelt. The strategy to keep it that way was construction of "satellite" towns (such as the centrally planned and developed Don Mills) and the high-rises still bringing a bit of Siberia to the GTA.
"Driving down the 401 recently, I thought, 'We really do live in Moscow,'" says Graeme Stewart, principal at E.R.A. Architects. "The image we try to give is a downtown with streetcars, when that's a really small part of the city."
By Stewart's reckoning, Toronto has the second-highest number of high-rises in North America, next to NYC. Most are concrete towers in the north end. In his time, 1960s smart-building guru Buckminster Fuller lauded us for it. They were cachet destinations then, symbols of sophisticated urban living. Now those neighbourhoods stand neglected.
The American experience, opines Stewart, associates tower blocks with slums. But more rational planning has prevailed elsewhere over "tower in the park" ideas. "If we look to Europe," he tells me, "these have often been quite well integrated."
This is the point he brought to City Hall May 28, presenting to the executive a strategy for rehabilitating suburban apartment behemoths into benign ecological sites. As it turns out, the towers' simple, standard and sturdy form would make them easy to retrofit by giving them a second skin of thermal cladding, under which infrastructure for stormwater and waste management, geothermal energy and district heating could run.
"This is the middle of the GTA, and this could be as sustainable as it gets," said Stewart. "These buildings could be completely off the grid." But their potential for self-sustenance goes beyond energy.
By overlaying a map of high-rise colonies with data from the TTC and the United Way's Poverty By Postal Code study, Stewart illustrated the high correlation between post-war tower blocks and poverty, and a negative correlation with transit connectivity. What were once exclusive places are now destinations for the excluded.
But those dense buildings in North York, Etobicoke and Scarborough have great potential; what often makes them wastelands - the flat expanses surrounding them - could make them a new model of urbanism.
Inspired by projects in Europe, Stewart calls for the city to relax the zoning of those areas for infill development of shops, community centres, even agriculture and animal husbandry - essentially reviving and rejuvenating the satellite town model as a means not only to green the areas but also to allow them cultural and economic expression.
"Currently, all of this is prohibited," he said. "They're classified as 'stable neighbourhoods.' It's kind of funny. They treat these neighbourhoods as they would Forest Hill."
Stewart stressed that if the zoning is relaxed, it will have to be with strings attached: developers creating this new retail/mixed infill would need to funnel a certain amount of the revenue directly back into the towers and sustainable community projects. One that leaps to mind is the Transit City light rail plan proposed in part to run, among other routes, along Finch, Sheppard and Jane, right through or near most of the larger tower colonies.
"We'll have to move from market-led, reactive city building to city-led, proactive city building," said Planning Committee chair Brian Ashton. "It won't just happen because it's a great idea."
First step? A real budget for the planning department. And a willingness on the part of the city to really poke its nose into development; to make it mandatory, for instance, that commercial development be prioritized, and that it be accessible, in size and price, to local, independent merchants.
Developers will bemoan their lost profits. And in response, planners will have to play the world's smallest city-planning violin.
Could the discussion of the burbs lay the groundwork for the future rehabilitation of downtown towers such as St. James Town or Parkdale's West Lodge, or the revamp of low-density suburbs, I wonder. Stewart thinks so.
And it's not long before the mind wanders to, say, embattled cousin the Gardiner. I know I'm supposed to see it as a "barrier to the waterfront," but personally I love the texture, the sense of levels, it gives to the city - and I can't help imagining what an amazing bike highway it would make.
Thinking of those towers as gifts inspires hope for a great challenge: how we will adapt to the concrete manifestations of poor choices made by generations past, like someone in later life adapting to injuries incurred in youthful folly. It's an experiment in accommodation with time - in how we as a city can learn to live joyfully with regret.
news@nowtoronto.com
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Low Size-Complexity Inductive Logic Programming: The East-West Challenge Considered as a Problem in Cost-Sensitive Classification
View accepted manuscript: Low Size-Complexity Inductive Logic Programming: The East-West Challenge Considered as a Problem in Cost-Sensitive Classification (PDF, 519 KB)
Search for: Turney, Peter1
Proceedings of the Fifth International Inductive Logic Programming Workshop (ILP-95), September 4-6, 1995., Leuven, Belgium
The Inductive Logic Programming community has considered proof-complexity and model-complexity, but, until recently, size-complexity has received little attention. Recently a challenge was issued "to the international computing community" to discover low size-complexity Prolog programs for classifying trains. The challenge was based on a problem first proposed by Ryszard Michalski, 20 years ago. We interpreted the challenge as a problem in cost-sensitive classification and we applied a recently developed cost-sensitive classifier to the competition. Our algorithm was relatively successful (we won a prize). This paper presents our algorithm and analyzes the results of the competition.
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Midweek Preview: 10th-13th September
Tue 10th September 2019 | Match Previews | By David Brindle
With games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, there's plenty of football action for you to feast upon ahead of the weekend.
TUESDAY--
That begins with three Premier Division games on Tuesday, as Congleton Town and Padiham clash with the teams within a point of each other in the table.
Charnock Richard will be out for revenge when they face Irlam, unbeaten so far, who ended their FA Cup run in a game that ended 4-0.
Barnoldswick Town, four wins in six, travel to Skelmersdale United after they beat New Mills 5-2 last time out.
Steeton can move off the bottom with a win when they face Holker Old Boys who have failed to win a game in their last six.
Prestwich Heys will hope to carry their good form, five wins and unbeaten in their last six, into their clash against an AFC Blackpool side that have won their last two games.
FC Oswestry Town have the chance to take pole position in the South when they travel to a winless-so-far New Mills side.
West Didsbury & Chorlton are in the top four and could go top if Oswestry fail to win when they host Abbey Hulton United who have recorded five wins in their last six.
Sniffing around the top four spots are Wythenshawe Amateurs, unbeaten in their last four games, and their next task will be Cheadle Town who have picked up just one point so far this term.
After seven straight defeats, Ellesmere Rangers are bottom of the division and next up for them is Alsager Town away, with Alsager's last game a 2-1 win in the FA Vase just over a week ago.
WEDNESDAY--
Another replay for Northwich Victoria after a 0-0 draw away at Lancaster City, and they'll clash again at Wincham Park on Wednesday evening.
Burscough were eliminated from the FA Vase by Emley in their last showing, and after failing to win any of their last six they travel to Avro, who have endured a similarly poor start winning just one of their games so far this season.
AFC Darwen have slipped away slightly from the peak of the division, but they have a chance to claw back some ground when they host second-place Lower Breck, who themselves having the chance to regain the lead with a win.
Shelley are on the fringes of the promotion places with games in hand, and their next match will be against Bacup Borough - heading into the game on the back of consecutive losses after back-to-back wins.
A monster clash as Vauxhall Motors, first on goal difference, travel to Stone Old Alleynians - the team occupying third.
Motors suffered defeat when they faced second-place Oswestry a couple of games ago, and lost 6-2 to Lower Breck last time. Jamie Cullerton's Alleynians are yet to lost a league game but have drawn twice.
FRIDAY--
FA VASE 2ND QUALIFYING ROUND
Two FA Vase fixtures on Friday evening, including Skelmersdale United hosting Wythenshawe Town after they defeated New Mills and Goole AFC respectively in the last round.
Emley's reward for beating Burscough after a replay in the first qualifying round is a home clash against Winterton Rangers.
More Match Previews News
PREVIEW: NWCFL Premier Division, First Division North & First Division South
Tom Besford looks ahead to a weekend full of action.
PREVIEW: The Buildbase FA Vase 4th Round Proper
Longridge Town and Vauxhall Motors fly the flag for the NWCFL in the Buildbase FA Vase on Saturday
PREVIEW: NWCFL First Division South
A look at this coming Saturday's NWCFL First Division South action
Tue 10th September 2019 | Match Previews
By David Brindle
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Meaning of Number 7
Number 7 is the number of perfection, security, safety and rest.
Seven contains the number three of the heavens and soul with the number four of the earth and body.
The Pythagoreans called the number 7 “the Septad”.
The seven colors of the rainbow.
Isaac Newton identified the seven colors of the rainbow as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet.
There are seven days in a week.
There are seven notes to the diatonic scale.
There are seven letters in the Roman numeral system.
Seven circles form the symbol called “The Seed of Life”.
The Seed of Life symbolizes the six days of creation.
The central circle symbolizes the day of rest.
Libra is the seventh astrological sign in the Zodiac. (September 22 – October 24)
Number seven is the number of Neptune.
Number seven is lucky for Cancer and Pisces.
In the Tarot, seven is the card of the Chariot.
The Chariot is symbolic of the need to focus. Reversed it signifies inabilities to see things through.
September means “the seventh month” in Latin.
The British fifty pence (50p) coin is a heptagon (seven sided).
Nitrogen (N) has the atomic number 7.
Number 7 is the international country calling code for Russia.
Lotus Seven was an open top, two-seater sports car.
The opposite sides of a dice always equal the number seven when added.
Do Not Say Seven
It is common superstition that saying the word “seven” is bad luck at a craps table. Players refer to the number seven as “it”. Some players may even refer to seven as “the devil”.
It is considered equally bad luck if the stickman gives a player dice with a total of seven face up.
According to an old superstition, breaking a mirror will bring you seven years of bad luck.
Seven is the number of dwarfs in the fairy tale, Snow White.
The seven dwarfs were named:
Bashful – Doc – Dopey – Grumpy – Happy – Sleepy – Sneezy.
Seventh President
Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States. 1829 – 1837.
Andrew Jackson supported slavery and Indian Removal. Around 45,000 American Indians were relocated.
He owned over a hundred slaves who worked hard on his cotton plantation.
Jackson opposed The Second Bank of the United States. He was the first President to invite the public to the White House in honor of his first inauguration.
Roy Sullivan (1912 –1983) was hit by lightning seven times and survived all of them. He was a U.S. park ranger in Virginia.
Birthday of Everyone
The seventh day of the Chinese New Year is known as “All Men’s Day” or the birthday of everyone!
The Secret Language of Birthdays
Seven Lucky Gods
In Japan there are Seven Lucky Gods. They have a ship called Takarabune, the Treasure Ship.
They arrive in town every New Year and give gifts to all worthy people.
Children will often receive red envelopes decorated with the Takarabune. Inside they find money gifts.
The names of the Lucky Gods are: Hotei – Jurojin – Fukurokuju – Bishamonten – Benzaiten – Daikokuten – Ebisu
The Festival of Seven Herbs (Nanakusa no sekku) is celebrated on January 7th of every year. The Japanese eat a seven-herb rice porridge for good health and longevity.
The Hindu Wedding
In Hindu weddings the bride and groom walk around the holy fire seven times during the wedding ceremony. A priest will read mantras as they are walking around the fire. After they have walked around the fire seven times, they take seven steps together. They say a vow for each of the seven steps.
The Red String
Some Kabbalists wear a red string tied around their wrist. Many believe it is an amulet that will protect them against the evil eye.
Others say the red string helps them strengthen their character by remembering the good qualities of the biblical matriarch, Rachel.
Long strands of red string are wrapped seven times around the tomb of Rachel before they are cut to make bracelets.
The tomb of Rachel is close to Bethlehem. Thousands of pilgrims visit the tomb every year. This picture is from 1910.
The Big Dipper/The Plough
The Cherokee peace flag had the seven stars of the Big Dipper as the motif. The stars were red on a white field.
On the Cherokee war flag the colors were the other way around; seven white stars on a red field.
There are seven Cherokee clans.
On the Cherokee flag the seal is surrounded by seven yellow seven-pointed stars. (The black star in the corner represents all those who died on the Trail of Tears.)
Beheaded within the Tower of London
Seven people have been beheaded privately on Tower Green within the walls of the Tower of London.
William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings -June 13, 1483
Anne Boleyn,2nd wife of King Henry VIII – May 19, 1536
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury -May 27, 1541
Catherine Howard,5th wife of King Henry VIII -February 13, 1542
Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law of Anne Boleyn- February13, 1542
Lady Jane Grey, the Nine Day Queen- February 12, 1554
Robert Devereux,2nd Earl of Essex – November 10, 1601
Seven Dials in London is an intersection of seven roads. Today one will find a shopping village at Seven Dials. The picture shows the Seven Dials Sundial Pillar.
Agatha Christie wrote a mystery novel called “The Seven Dials Mystery”.
Seven Sisters is a district of the London Borough of Haringey, North London. The name is originates from seven elms which were planted in a circle on an area known as Page Green.
The group was known as the Seven Sisters by 1732 Seven Sisters station is a National Rail and London Underground Victoria Line station.
The “Seven Sisters” of Moscow is a group skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style.
The Seven Sisters is a waterfall made up of seven separate streams in Geirangerfjord, Norway. The tallest one has a free fall that measures 250 meters.
The Seven Bridges of Köningsberg
The city of Königsberg in Germany (now named Kaliningrad in Russia) was on both sides of the Pregel River, which included two large islands which were linked together and the mainland by seven bridges.
The Seven Bridges of Königsberg is a famous historical mathematical problem.
The challenge presented was to find a walk through the city that would cross each bridge completely once and only once.
The islands could not be reached by any route other than the bridges.
Leonhard Euler (1701 -1783) was a Swiss mathematician and physicist. He set out to find a solution.
After taking on the challenge Euler concluded that the problem has no solution. The conclusion by Leonhard Euler in 1735 laid the foundations of graph theory.
Se7en (1995) is the title of an American crime film directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. It stars Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, R. Lee Ermey and Kevin Spacey.
The murders in the movie correspond to each of the seven deadly sins.
Se7en is the stage name of South Korean pop singer Choi Dong-Wook (born November 9, 1984). He has won many awards.
Lucky 7 (2003) is a TV film starring Patrick Dempsey and Kimberly Williams. It is about a woman whose dying mother predicts she will marry her seventh boyfriend.
USS Hope (AH-7) was a hospital ship (launched 30 August 1943) was nicknamed Lucky 7
There are seven continents – Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.
The tangram is a puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans.
The objective is to form a specific shape (given only a silhouette) using all seven pieces.
There are thousands of different tangram challenges for enthusiasts.
Seven Lucky Crazy Girls
In Las Vegas go seek out the Riviera Hotel and find the bronze statue of the Seven Vegas Showgirls lined up in a row with their derrières showing.
For good luck in this gambling city it has become popular to run each of their bottoms, which by the way stay shinny from all the rubbing.
The statue is named “No Ifs, Ands, Or…”. It weighs 1,540 pounds and was made by Michael Conine.
The Seven Valleys of the Bahá’i Faith
The Nine-Pointed Star is a symbol of the Bahá’i Faith.
The Seven Valleys, is a book written by the founder, Bahá’uillah (1817-1892). It describes the seven mystic stages of which a seeker must travel towards God. The Bahá’i Faith was founded in Persia.
Bahá’i teaches monotheism and claim to be a fulfillment of all prior religions. Today they have followers around the globe.
The Seven Valleys are:
1. The Valley of Search
2. The Valley of Love
3. The Valley of Knowledge
4. The Valley of Unity
5. The Valley of Contentment
6. The Valley of Wonderment
7 The Valley of Poverty and Absolute Nothingness
Bahá’i Temple in Panama
Maya died 7 Days after giving birth to Siddhartha
Maya was the birth mother of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. It is told she died of joy seven days after giving birth to Siddhartha and joined the gods.
Siddhartha was raised by his mother’s sister, Mahapajapati Gotami. Maya immediately went to the Buddhist heaven called Tavatimsa.
After Gautama received Enlightenment, he went to visit his mother in Tavatimsa. The name “Maya” means love in Sanskrit.
7 the best number ever! Cause my favourite singer’s name is se7en ^^ and his fans are called lucky 7
I too don’t understand I’m working on a book and now start to discover that seven appear so much. Let me give you some example 1 don’t want seven years studies as I look at the seven classes. 2 I exchange letters with seven people from seven cities 3 seven names with the seventh as seven 4 One of the seven with seven letters mailed me seven cards 5 Seven verses read seven times 6 Seven players scored seven goals 7 I finally studied seven years and made seven trips. I just don’t understand cause there are many many more. Any body to throw light on this?
Uzezi Ebinum
I was born 17/07..I am already feeling the blessings in my life and the ones ahead..
unnamed player
I think 7 is anagram of 2, but in (outside from core) our world, it is 3+4, which had indians for instance in their flags and their genetics. Flower home rose for example, have 7 sepals on the buds, because rose relates to the ancient kind of plants (she is manifest “3”(z) in our world, but our outside world is matrix (4) =7). She can’t exist here without that 4. But rose is something like metis in genetic, it is were “z,s” sometimes before, without sound “r”, which was transformed in “Z+r(r is oxygene, acids) – rose. Rosana is ancient plants i think.
Nitrogen (aZot) have 7 atoms because he relate to the our core “z,1”, but he inhabit at the atmosphere (in the matrix 4), he is did colds, winters for us, it is metals. So it is same formula (3+4=7). So i think in the beginning of times, the metal core was reacted with hot (hot is 2) and then after this reaction turned out in nitrogen, thats why 7=2 in some kind, and thats why he have exactly 7 atoms.
Now it stay clear, why our gods present in number 7, it is earthcore (3) that released in matrix (4)…. I think all three first numbers (123) present inside earthcore world.
But seven is weird number because his middle would be 4, it is strange…….
It is same 1(7) but without 2 (-), dead one, thats why 7 represent number of family, we create children and then after slowly dieing. Family – sloven. SEM’ya. Letter F is reduction of S – samily.
And thats why sign Libra stay seventh , because it is sign of real relations in edge of winter, or in start of spring, like doing all animals. I think only in winter we can trully beloved somebody……Thats why in that period exist the most beautiful peoples, it is right time for fetus i think……
In the past days, ursa major was staying rough at the middle of north pole may be. Ursa is mouse. Maybe there in that stars living our kins.
Rezvon
7 represents the Persian lucky number: My Dad died on the 7th.
9 represents September which is ITP Awareness month, plus my Nephew whom like my Dads only son’s birthday is 7-9.
21 represents the start of Spring and is the start of the Persian New Year. Nowruz and the day my Dad checked into the ER. The start of his journey to his New beginning! In Persian culture it is celebrated as New Life.
17 which my Dad spent 17 days in the hospital before passing.
I was born 7.7.73. When I add all numbers is 7. My first & last name adds to 7 too. Any comments?
It would be great to read some feedback, meaning?
Good luck to Everyone!!
Born 3-7-73 and I often see 3s, 7s or if no 7s, 3s and 4s.
Seeing 777 has happened quite a few times and it always makes me very happy 🙂
Significance of birthdate?
Thank you for your lovely tales of seven!
Alia, we have something in common. I think it is a good thing. Greetings to you. Bim
Gelene
I see number 7 all the time, in songs, books, radio, TV etc what does this mean?
Kevin Dorival
I like what you’ve written about the number 7. I’ve written a book, “7 Types of Queens, Kings Desire,” and I expressed how how powerful the number seven is. No, I’m not trying to have 7 wives, even though I am single. My goal is to inspire women from around the world to be the best woman possible. Also, I was born on February 7th! I’m blessed & fortunate! Thank God!!
Tony C. Saladino
I am interested to read that book. I am amazed that my own “queen” exhibits all the best traits of my other seven girlfriends, but seems to expand each trait sevenfold the best I had hoped possible. I am curious to find out if she has her expression in each of the seven fields you describe.
Vincent martin
I just want to know what do you if someone was born with a number seven on him because i was born with it so tell me please whats the meaning
If you are born with the number 7 on you, you are extremely fortunate and blessed. Count your blessings and be open to the opportunities that come your way. Play your cards right and your whole life must be a success. Enjoy your life – love, live and prosper!
Samuel Vann
birthdate 7/7/80
Is this significant?
I think that it is both arbitrary that we call that day, that number, aqnd that the very name of the date has a resonant frequency that harmonizes with the divine flow of ages. We are each a still point within which passing frequencies resonate.
I loved the way in which you have unveiled all the characteristics of this number. 7- the number denoting the seed of life, the colors of rainbow, the days in a week, lucky gods in Japan, you have explained all of them so beautifully, it’s like unveiling their characteristics one by one to make sure everyone understands them, and gets to know their importance. Just loved it!
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Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement
Charles A. Vinnik, Stanley W. Jacob
Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) has been in clinical use since the early 1960s. In 1967 the discovery that DMSO can greatly reduce ischemia in experimental pedicle flaps stimulated its use in plastic surgery by the authors since 1976. In 1987 its ability to soften collagen, thus permitting degrees of immediate intraoperative tissue expansion hitherto unknown, was applied clinically for the first time. Evolving use of topical 70% DMSO alone, in combination with intravenous DMSO, and intravenous DMSO alone with greater efficacy is discussed. Cases of intraoperative tissue expansion for large lesion excision and use in abdominoplasty to maximize skin resection are discussed. In breast reconstruction, maximal tissue expansion in minutes with immediate placement of large permanent prostheses ends the delay of reconstruction and problems of chronic tissue expander capsule formation and gives this technique a clear advantage over other reconstructive techniques.
Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
Tissue Expansion Devices
Prostheses and Implants
Preliminary report
Suction lipoplasty
Toxicity studies
Vinnik, C. A., & Jacob, S. W. (1991). Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 15(1), 327-337. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02273881
Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement. / Vinnik, Charles A.; Jacob, Stanley W.
In: Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Vol. 15, No. 1, 12.1991, p. 327-337.
Vinnik, CA & Jacob, SW 1991, 'Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement', Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 327-337. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02273881
Vinnik CA, Jacob SW. Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement. Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 1991 Dec;15(1):327-337. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02273881
Vinnik, Charles A. ; Jacob, Stanley W. / Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement. In: Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 1991 ; Vol. 15, No. 1. pp. 327-337.
@article{c73ff640e14043809276deebfe6567ca,
title = "Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement",
abstract = "Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) has been in clinical use since the early 1960s. In 1967 the discovery that DMSO can greatly reduce ischemia in experimental pedicle flaps stimulated its use in plastic surgery by the authors since 1976. In 1987 its ability to soften collagen, thus permitting degrees of immediate intraoperative tissue expansion hitherto unknown, was applied clinically for the first time. Evolving use of topical 70{\%} DMSO alone, in combination with intravenous DMSO, and intravenous DMSO alone with greater efficacy is discussed. Cases of intraoperative tissue expansion for large lesion excision and use in abdominoplasty to maximize skin resection are discussed. In breast reconstruction, maximal tissue expansion in minutes with immediate placement of large permanent prostheses ends the delay of reconstruction and problems of chronic tissue expander capsule formation and gives this technique a clear advantage over other reconstructive techniques.",
keywords = "Abdominoplasty, Breast reconstruction, Controversies, DMSO, Preliminary report, Suction lipoplasty, Tissue expansion, Toxicity studies",
author = "Vinnik, {Charles A.} and Jacob, {Stanley W.}",
journal = "Aesthetic Plastic Surgery",
T1 - Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) for human single-stage intraoperative tissue expansion and circulatory enhancement
AU - Vinnik, Charles A.
AU - Jacob, Stanley W.
N2 - Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) has been in clinical use since the early 1960s. In 1967 the discovery that DMSO can greatly reduce ischemia in experimental pedicle flaps stimulated its use in plastic surgery by the authors since 1976. In 1987 its ability to soften collagen, thus permitting degrees of immediate intraoperative tissue expansion hitherto unknown, was applied clinically for the first time. Evolving use of topical 70% DMSO alone, in combination with intravenous DMSO, and intravenous DMSO alone with greater efficacy is discussed. Cases of intraoperative tissue expansion for large lesion excision and use in abdominoplasty to maximize skin resection are discussed. In breast reconstruction, maximal tissue expansion in minutes with immediate placement of large permanent prostheses ends the delay of reconstruction and problems of chronic tissue expander capsule formation and gives this technique a clear advantage over other reconstructive techniques.
AB - Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) has been in clinical use since the early 1960s. In 1967 the discovery that DMSO can greatly reduce ischemia in experimental pedicle flaps stimulated its use in plastic surgery by the authors since 1976. In 1987 its ability to soften collagen, thus permitting degrees of immediate intraoperative tissue expansion hitherto unknown, was applied clinically for the first time. Evolving use of topical 70% DMSO alone, in combination with intravenous DMSO, and intravenous DMSO alone with greater efficacy is discussed. Cases of intraoperative tissue expansion for large lesion excision and use in abdominoplasty to maximize skin resection are discussed. In breast reconstruction, maximal tissue expansion in minutes with immediate placement of large permanent prostheses ends the delay of reconstruction and problems of chronic tissue expander capsule formation and gives this technique a clear advantage over other reconstructive techniques.
KW - Abdominoplasty
KW - Breast reconstruction
KW - Controversies
KW - DMSO
KW - Preliminary report
KW - Suction lipoplasty
KW - Tissue expansion
KW - Toxicity studies
JO - Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
JF - Aesthetic Plastic Surgery
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Oil Ends 2019 On A Bullish Note
Crude oil prices are about…
Strong demand for heavy-sweet crude…
How Important Is The Suriname Oil Discovery?
Guyana has been the offshore…
Russian Oil CEO: OPEC+ Cuts To Keep Oil Between $55 And $65
By Tsvetana Paraskova - Dec 10, 2019, 9:00 AM CST
The efforts of OPEC and its Russia-led non-OPEC allies to cut production further will be positive for oil prices, which will stay in the US$55-US$65 per barrel range in the first quarter, Alexander Dyukov, CEO at Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft, said on Tuesday.
Oil prices will be stable within that range, Dyukov told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Moscow, as carried by Russian news agency TASS.
Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of gas giant Gazprom, has budgeted an oil price at US$57 a barrel in its budget for 2020, Dyukov said.
Russian oil companies have long balked at continued production cuts, arguing that the cuts give more market share to U.S. shale and hinder Russian firms’ production expansion plans.
At last week’s OPEC+ meeting in Vienna, Russia agreed to deepen its own cuts by 70,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter, but it managed to have its condensate production out of the equation, thus showing that it actually complies with the cuts.
At the OPEC+ meeting, OPEC and its partners decided to deepen the cuts by 500,000 bpd in the first quarter, when demand is expected at its weakest for next year. This brings total production reductions at 1.7 million bpd—that is if rogue members fall in line with their quotas.
Considering the pledge from OPEC’s largest producer and de facto leader, Saudi Arabia, that it would continue to significantly overcomply with its share of the cuts, the total cuts could be as high as 2.1 million bpd, OPEC said.
“We concluded that in a period of lower demand it is reasonable to further cut production, so our total cut deepens to 300,000 bpd,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said at the meeting last week.
The Russian minister also noted the slowdown in U.S. shale growth, saying that the partners are monitoring the situation with the funding and finances of the U.S. shale patch.
OPEC Deal Could Send Oil To $70
These Secretive Oil Companies Control $3 Trillion In Wealth
Israel's Plan To Bypass The World's Most Critical Oil Chokepoint
Goldman Sachs Sees Higher Oil Prices In 2020
The OPEC+ Deal Was The First Step To $100 Oil
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A Sage for the Ages
“The Watch” A High Seas Adventure
Category Archives: Culture
Grammar Grossiosities
These are a few handy reminders of how to avoid appearing as though you are from Loma Linda or spend all day watching re-runs of the Khardasians. These are the words and phrases that should be shunned at all costs and is an easy way to elevate your communication skills and certainly make you seem more erudite.
Totally–What are you a Valley Girl? Even if you are drop it, totally. You can always try completely, entirely or how about dropping any adjective altogether. Next thing you’ll be describing someone as totally dead.
Just–You are almost always better off not using that word. Simply eliminate it. It should only be used when you definitely need to make a point of emphasis.
Really–Really, you are best advised to drop this one also under nearly ever circumstance. Again, this should be used when making an exclamatory remark and that should be a relatively rare event. I mean most events and circumstances don’t call for that “shouting” type lingo. You can always try truly or even verily if you are of the more formal bent.
So–So what? Gee whiz where in the world did this usage spring from? It is completely, totally unnecessary word. Silence before you begin your sentence if so much more elegant. So are we totally clear on that?
Hey–the TV reporters seem particularly determined to use this every time they are introduced but it has spread like an unwanted linguistic virus. It you feel compelled to make a greeting how about hello, how are you or if you wish to raise you level you could even use ahoy. After all that was the preferred greeting of Bell for the phone but surprise, surprise it never totally caught on with the public. The best advice is to start speaking without any lead in.
Like–Like, totally this is so juvenile and a waste of verbiage. Drop it. It will raise your IQ in the opinion of your listener 10 points automatically.
Lean in–What the devil is this supposed to mean? Try harder, fight harder? Don’t give up. Assert yourself? Exactly what is it you are leaning over or into? You can do better than that.
Good or Great question–I am worn out hearing that remark. Go straight to the response. If it is actually a great question if will be self-evident without note. If the questioner is bright enough to ask a good question they will be bright enough to not need needless and pointless praise. Hopefully they don’t need the “good job” all those helicopter moms give their 7 year olds for merely walking onto the soccer field.
Awesome–How many events or occurrences in life are awesome? My wedding, my children’s births and a hand full of athletic or business accomplishments fill out the resume for me and probably you. The word should only be used like a fine family heirloom and worn for special occasions only. Today suggesting a Big Mac is met with the “awesome” response, how demeaning to fine old word.
Here’s the thing–Oh, is it right there beside you? I was looking everywhere. Don’t use this expression. You’ll like totally appear smarter. It has the same linguistic value as clearing one’s throat before speaking.
Now for a few goodies for the knuckle -draggers out there that equate the sports pages with Samuel Johnson’s essays.
Physicality–What? Those sportscasters that use this are falling into the verbal pits. Are they talking about agility? Speed, Stamina, strength, sense of balance. We all know they sure are not referencing the IQ of those NFL players they are describing. I never met a physicality I liked. But I admire physical attributes. Oh,,,,,maybe that is what they are talking about.
Mentality–Well, first I need to observe that it is reassuring to know that there is anything mental whatsoever about those defensive ends pounding bodies into dust and start and end every sentence with “you know”. One can only assume, generously, that it is a reference to mental attitude, one’s mental mien or an attitude of determination and emotional resilience if face of some adversity. Can we take as a given that they are not referring to those folks as mental cases? Both of these last two are tragic examples of language being sucked into an abyss of the lowest common denominator of cultural linguistic abuse.
Body of work–How in the world did these sports guys every latch onto this tidbit. It has historically been used to discuss the career and works of artists. A cornerback for the Atlanta Falcons now has a body of work. Really, like I totally thought he was a grown man playing a game that would have no lasting impact on mankind. But I guess now I should think anew and realize that his play is the equivalent of da Vinci.
So, you can like close your books we have leaned in on proper grammar enough for now and I know, you know, that this was a totally awesome experience for you.
“Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please” Mark Twain. http://www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, family
Tagged as americana, culture, english language, english usage, grammar, language, media, newscasters, pop culture, pundits, sports, sportscasters
Its A Wonderful Life–1948.
This date was picked at random by our staff’s secret algorithm. Nothing magic about it but it was as good a year as any and at least a year that this feeble brain can still recall with a modicum of clarity.
This was the front of our drought that lasted until 1957. I can still recall the huge cracks in the ground everywhere. They were in our yard the playgrounds and parks. You could also discern the effects in the cotton field right behind our house. We moved that year to truly fancy digs on Savoy which was the southernmost street in Oak Cliff, a section of Dallas. It was brand new and Dad bought it with a V A loan which was a new program started after the War as part of the GI bill. It was a cookie cutter clapboard house with 2 bedrooms and one bath. For reasons only known to the developer of that day, there was a fake hearth in the living room with a small mantle. It was where we placed the gas heater with the false logs. The whole house probably had at best 1000 square feet but we had an ample backyard. There was no paved alley and behind the house was a large cotton field that ran all the way to Kiest park. The crop was skimpy due to the drought and the ground parched. Within a year the development began with more cookie cutter houses and the streets and side walks being poured. These homes were a notch above ours because they were all brick and not clapboard.
I was 6 but not yet in school because I had a September birthday and had to wait another year. Mom worked with me more than I wanted naturally on my colors, numbers, alphabet, shapes and I suppose a little reading. There were that first Christmas no TV antennae in the neighborhood. That started changing right away though. With just three years or so it was unusual to see a house without an antenna but there were still some. Radio was the major entertainment center of the day. Saturday mornings in particular were special because they had all the kids shows. Buster Brown was a favorite along with Archie and his friends. Mom would let me sit by the radio after breakfast until about noon or close to it for all those programs. Friday night early was also terrific. You had the Green Hornet, the Inner Sanctum, when they didn’t think it was too scary for me, the Lone Ranger and all the others. It required imagination and I suppose that was part of the allure of all of them. You got to imagine that Western landscape the way that fit your own image of it which in turn was no doubt influenced by the Westerns you had seen at the theatres.There was no multi-screen theatre. But there were local movie houses in just about ever commercial area of any size.
The nickel values of the time were many. You could get a Coke for a nickel. All the filing stations had those big red Coke machines that stood upright and many still had those that open from the top like a large freezer. There was nothing like that really cold Coke on a hot summer day if you could get your mom to spring for the nickel. You kids have probably never heard the expression “its your nickel”. It meant you had paid the nickel for the phone call so start talking and don’t waster the money. Yep, there were pay phones everywhere. Sometimes just on a street corner if it was a commercial neighborhood and at churches, schools, parks, and almost every retail store had one. One advantage of the pay phone was that you weren’t on a party line. In 1948 we were still gripped with tight regulation of the phone service and getting a phone was a real hassle with the bureaucracy, Federal of course. But it was allegedly for our own good, like it always is with Federal programs. Typical wait times were several years to get a private line. I distinctly remember we wanted one in 48 but didn’t finally get one until about 1953 or 1954. That was tall cotton living I can tell you.
You could ride the bus for a nickel and sometimes for only 2 cents, that was a Saturday only deal if I remember correctly. The adults had to pay 8 cents and a dime on weekdays. That also included the street car which were still running in 48 on a regular basis. I always preferred the street car because you could lean out the window a little and that was especially daring when you went over a bridge or viaduct because you couldn’t even see the tracks below and it was like flying through the air and was a big thrill. Mars, Hersey and Babe Ruths were available for that nickel and these were the full size ones and the popcorn was there for a nickel.
Don’t remember what I got for Christmas that year but I do recall getting out my Lionel train set and playing with that and the awful white flocked Christmas tree mom wanted. The train set was from a year or maybe two before. It was really wow. Must have cost mom and dad 10 bucks and was so heavy. It was made out of that old cast iron but had such great detail on the engine.
It was a hard year and a good year. The good made it easier to not notice the difficulties especially if you are only 6 and not having to pay the bills. We could have been rich maybe but it all worked out well with me. Can’t complain and in fact was so very blessed with my childhood. My parents were the best, can’t blame my faults and failures on them. Thanks Lord as I try to attain only a portion of their goodness.
“Ho Ho Ho’,,,Santa Claus, everlasting http://www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Economics, family
Tagged as 1948, family, family memories, god's blessing, memories, Nostalgia, old neighborhood, toy trains
Ghosts Of Elections Past
It is still more than a year to the next Presidential election but the headlines are already there with the latest in this upcoming contest. Even though the elections are only ever four years if you live long enough you endure or enjoy quite a few of those events. The memories may be colored in sepia and the sounds more like echos but the recall can still be vivid.
I was too young to have any memory of Roosevelt’s ’44 election but I do recall later hearing my Dad and his friends who were all in the War talking about the shock of his death because he was the only President they really remembered. His death was quickly forgotten though in the turmoil of winning the War. Berlin still had to fall and Iwo Jima and Okinawa were not yet done deals.
I do remember the newsreels at the movies about the ’48 election. Images of Truman on the back of the train speaking inevitably to the union group and then photos of the suave Dewey. I just remember thinking even then that Dewey didn’t look manly enough with that sissy skinny mustache. He was no Clark Gable. I don’t remember much reaction to the election afterward as all the adults were very much in the getting back to normal life after the War. Mostly everyone just wanted stability and a chance to resume doing anything routine.
I was young but I definitely liked Ike just as most of the country. He came across as that firm but fair grandfather and with a touch of the sage to him. Even as a youngster I found Truman’s screaming and ranting a bit too much. Besides Ike had led all those millions of men to victory and he knew how to lead. Those ’50’s were great years. Adlai Stevenson was the opponent both times. He was too prissy; supposedly a real intellectual but he also had a very sharp tongue with his opponents. He was too friendly with the Commies for the country. You have to take into account the threat of the Commies during those years. We really did have bomb drills at school regularly and the Commies continued to crush the Hungarians and foment wars and terror around the world. The Commie threat wasn’t an abstraction, it was palpable.
Those first televised debates in ’60 were interesting and frustrating. I didn’t like Kennedy from the git go. He was too cool and cute by half. Plus I resented him coming from a family with a corrupt history and born with that silver spoon in his mouth and then having the gall to say how the rest of those aspiring to do better for themselves had to pay more in taxes. (yes, I know it reduced them some later). I wasn’t wild about Nixon but he was a Navy man himself and I thought would do a better job of standing up to Khrushchev. I didn’t mind Jackie much but really got irritated with the liberal media treating her like some celebrity for just standing there and looking chic. By the way the election was stolen from Nixon by the crooked Democratic machine in Illinois, the Daleys. It was that close. Many wanted Nixon to sue as Gore did later to challenge the fraudulent results from Cook county but he refused saying it would be bad for the country to have the integrity of the election in question for months. That was the real profile in courage.
Then came the Goldwater/Johnson duel in ’64 with the famous mushroom cloud behind the little girl. I thought Goldwater was a very bright guy and that it was time for a Jew to come to the fore just as the Catholics had with Kennedy. Johnson was the epitome of the crooked politician. I was aware of the venality of the ’48 election were he had the dead vote for him down there in South Texas. When he and Ralph Yarborough were the Texas senators each of them never met a union boss with a bag of money they didn’t love and would obey. It was a nasty election with horrendous consequences. The Great Society has been a miserable and costly failure and resulted in even more powers being concentrated in Washington just as the Democrats wanted. For them it was a huge success and their corrupt reach expanded exponentially. Of course we got the Viet Nam war out of him after all the fear mongering he did against the alleged war hungry Goldwater. You have to at least appreciate the irony of it all.
Next up was Humphrey and the reborn Nixon. Humphrey definitely talked too much. You should not that I believe he still holds the Senate record for a filibuster. He was the guy to continue the Great Society programs and even expand them. Nixon was for the Silent Majority the did their jobs and wanted a decent society with much less government. I voted for George Wallace. Didn’t even like the guy and he was way too populist for me, but, but , but, he was totally anti-establishment man and especially against the Democratic view of running everything and everyone from DC. His campaign cost Nixon lots of votes and at least it sent a message. He did as promised and started the draw down in Viet Nam although I wish he had bombed and mined Haiphong harbor right away as long as we had guys on the ground fighting VC and North Vietnamese. I will discuss Watergate with you only if you have actually read the Watergate Transcripts in their entirety as I did and not just news accounts of those events and if you used you tube to listen to all the Watergate testimony before the Joint Committee and again not news accounts that are consistently skewed and often flat out wrong on the basic facts.
There never was any question about McGovern versus Nixon. He was too liberal even for a nation at the height of the Hippie movement. I always tipped my hat to him for being a bomber pilot during the War but otherwise found him liberal trite, if not lite.
Then we had Ford against Carter. Ford was a handsome man and a former All-American football player at Michigan. Carter was a peanut farmer with a hokey approach with pretensions of profound depth. He was the former but certainly lacked the latter. He was evil incarnate like Johnson but he was an embarrassment. He tried a one and done military action to get those hostages out of Iran but then wouldn’t follow through with any other efforts and his economic policies only lead to “stagflation”. Look it up that was the call sign for an economy during his era, that along with inflation off the charts. We took a home improvement loan then at 13 and a half percent that was floating in anticipation of it going higher.
Thankfully the good Lord took mercy on us and we got Reagan in the ’80 election. If you weren’t there you can’t begin to understand the breath of fresh air he was and the new sense of pride he brought it and hope that things would finally get better after two decades of slow but constant decline. That floating loan I took out for the house actually dropped under Reagan because inflation was at last tamed under his direction for the economy. Mondale never had a chance and for good reason in ’84. The detractors said he was not smart enough, well he won. Besides we’ll likely never have a President as bright as Jefferson again. He had a clear vision and direction and got the right people to move us in that way. The results surely speak for themselves.
Then we had Bush 41 in ’88 against Dukakis. The country was not in the mood for a return to traditional Democratic theories after seeing the results of trying things a different way and Dukakis was again to prissy and prim. Bush had been shot down by the Japs during the war and no one could challenge his courage or his devotion to the country. Dukakis was still singing the Democratic mantra of kissing up to the Commies and criticizing vehemently the whole Star Wars program and military build up under Reagan and Bush’s pledge to continue it. Reagan was right and Bush fulfilled the commitment to win the Cold War. Like Reagan said when asked how the Cold War would play out. He said–we win. The wall came down and the Soviets finally got the demise they deserved. along the way he faced Saddam and was resolute in Desert Storm. Only wish he hadn’t called of the dogs so soon.
Then there was Clinton who portrayed himself as a new Democrat with a more centrist approach. He was a chameleon who would adopt any ideology that got him power. The millennials and other youngster are ignorant completely about his election. Virtually none of them recall or know that he won without a majority of the vote. H. Ross Perot handed the elections to Clinton. Perot took 19% of the vote; Clinton barely got over 40% to sneak into the White House. All the shame and ignominy that Clinton brought to the Presidency can be laid at the doorstep of Perot. It was a time of despair for honorable people and even as the door was hitting his behind he added one last insulf with the Marc Rich pardon on his last day. Dole was a decent man and admired his tenacity after those awful wounds he survived from the War but he didn’t have the zip or personality to win.
“When liberty becomes license, dictatorship is near” Will Durant, American, philosopher, anthropologist and historian extraordinaire. http://www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Economics, government, history, Politics
Tagged as 2016 election, american politics, Ike, memories, Presidential election, Reagan
Today’s Worry From Yesterday’s View
We’ve just passed the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with all the usual alarms and horror stories from the many survivors of those events of war. At least this year I saw one article about one of the few surviving American POW’s who witnessed the Nagasaki bombing from miles away and what his perspective was. The article did correctly p0int out that the Japs had already issued orders to kill all remaining POW’s once the Allies launched the expected invasion of the Homeland Islands. The POW’s naturally were unaware of their impending death sentence and most had already reached the near end of their endurance due to the extreme cruelty and brutality of their captors. They were thrilled to learn within days that the Japs had surrendered and that they had a chance to live. They literally were given a ladder up at last from the depths of Hell.
I was very small at that time and don’t have a specific memory of the bombings or the end of the war. I don’t recall my dad or any of the other men coming home in a big parade. I do remember that dad was there and we moved to a new duplex from the old one and then a new baby brother. The War and its aftermath was the dominate event and topic of conversation for years. By the time I started school I knew we had used a really big bomb and that made the Japs surrender. I recall the adults when I listened to them really didn’t understand exactly how the bomb worked. It was an “atomic” bomb I knew from hearing them and that an atom was a really tiny thing you couldn’t even see.
It was a wonder to me that anything so small could make such a big bang. How did those miniscule bits mix around to make such a large whomp? As a small boy playing soldier I could understand rifles, cannons, hand grenades and regular bombs but the physics of the atomic bomb were beyond me. You could get a feel for the destruction regular bombs and artillery could do because the newsreels in the ’40’s after the War were often about the occupation of Germany, Austria and Japan and they would always show the unimaginable destruction of whole cities. Frankly, the newsreels of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t look any different than the cities like Berlin, Munich or Dresden.
When mom and dad had relatives or friends over to visit I was always watching for when the men would gather separate from the women folk and would immeditate ly stop whatever I was doing and slip in there and sit quietly somewhere so I could hear them talk. Sooner or later they always began swapping stories about the War. Virtually all of them were in the War. I guess the had some acquaintances that didn’t serve but I don’t remember a single one. They were in all services, Army, Navy, Air Corps and Marines. I wish I had those conversations on tape today. What a treasure trove that would be. All except one (with a minor wound) were still in the services in August of 1945. Without exception they expected to be soon shipped to Japan. Never heard one word of regret or sorrow for using the atomic bomb from one of them. They believed the Japs deserved it, earned it with their barbaric behavior and none of them were eager to face the prospects of death after four years of war. My dad could have been on one of those Navy ships off the coast of Japan facing the 5000 kamikaze planes (yes, 5000) that the Japs still had to deploy and planned to deploy against our invasion. I am sure glad my dad didn’t have to do that.
“These proceedings are closed” General MacArthur after the last signatures on the Japanese surrender documents. http://www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Economics, family, Foreign Affairs, history, military history, War
Tagged as 1940's, atomic bomb, childhood, Nagasaki, WWII, WWII vets
Watchman, How Goes The Night?
There is something especially admirable about one of those turn of phrases that carries both a secular and a deeper philosophical or religious meaning. The title is one example of this wisdom and intelligence or luck of the unknown author, and they are always unknown it seems.
On a purely secular level we’ve only had police or cops as we now know them for less than 200 years. The modern idea of cops comes from the movement of Robert Peel the British Prime Minister in the mid-19th century. Thus the term “Bobby” for the English cop on the beat. For most of Mankind’s journey personal security was provided by a handful of constables, sheriff’s or yes watchmen employed by the local King, Baron or other prominent person of the area. Mostly you were on your own when it came to security after the Sun set. Going back for centuries if you read the history you will see that those who could afford it had private guards (footmen for example) when out at night or they went about armed. Gentlemen carried swords not for decoration but to actually defend themselves and more often to discourage the potential robber or criminal from even attempting an assault.
The term Watchman was used for centuries in the cities. Ben Franklin referred to the Watchman when he was trying to organize a more formal police presence in Philadelphia in the 1730’s. That was as generic term that covered Constables or others hired by the local governor or mayor to light the street lamps and make a circuit along the major streets. So the title phrase today is more or less the equivalent of tuning into the 10 o’clock news to see if there is any danger out there. Two centuries ago you would have asked the Watchman on his rounds if there was anything nefarious afoot.
Of more profound and emotional content is the personal introspection and depth of the inquiry. Just as the phrase “whither thou goest”? That is very penetrating. Many of us much of the time might not really want to answer that question because an honest response would be adverse to our self-esteem. That query can apply to the immediacy of today or the panorama of our life path. It is indeed a good and happy man that can answer that poser with equanimity. Remember how Adam in the Garden of Eden didn’t want to answer God’s question about his original sin of the fruit and blamed everything on Eve or even God himself since He gave Adam the woman? Our strivings in life should be such that we can actually answer that question each day of our lives. Every day that you refuse to answer that query or are reluctant is a day you should try to correct on the morrow. Thankfully the good Lord allows us to redeem ourselves and that is available for a day or a lifetime. A good life is not about perfection but about perfection in effort to be noble, honest and decent.
Lead your life so that when you here that voice from within or from real but ethereal origin, calling to you–“Watchman, how goes the night”? You can reply–all is well.
“Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” Proverbs 27/6. http://www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Economics, family, history, religion
Tagged as American culture, bible wisdom, cops, culture, family, God's grace, police, proverbs, reddemption, self-esteem, wisdom
Our news cycles are a constant drumbeat of alleged omens of doom. Ebola, climate change, wars, earthquakes, urban decay and dying honeybees are only a few of dangers we face supposedly that will lead to our destruction or extinction. I have some good news. Homo sapiens is a tough dude. You think things are rough in our era of the early 21st century then you have no appreciation of the history of Man. The facts are that we have created many dangers to our existence over the millenia and Mother Nature has thrown the kitchen sink out us many times and yet here we are.
If you think ISIS is a terrible danger to our future then remember our ancestors managed to survive one way or another the Huns and Vandals destruction of the Roman Empire and what everyone would have defined as civilization at that time. The Great Plague of the 14th century wiped out anywhere from a fourth to a third of the population and left a devastated countryside. Many understandably believed that was the End Days of earth. But again we trudged forward. Each generation of Man without fail concludes that it is the most important of all ages and that if it fails significantly that all Mankind will tumble….such is vanity, all is vanity.
Was it 50 million or 100 million killed in the 20th century wars? But all was rebuilt and now we argue over the desserts on the table rather than the basic foodstuffs to sustain survival. despite the predictions of a Sartre or Bertrand Russel or Rachel Carson even more of us are here and living better, far better than anytime in recorded history.
Even if the worst predictions of climate change are accurate if will not be something that our progeny won’t be able to handle and survive. The coastlines have receded and waxed for a long time and our ancestors managed all those geographical difficulties; that is a truism or you and I wouldn’t be here today having a debate about climate. In historical perspective it was only a blink of the eye when we had our last Ice Age. Can you try to imagine what that did to our ancestors? The seas retreated dramatically. You could walk from Britain to the Continent on dry land.
The Ice sheets reached down to the Loire valley and to modern Manhattan and formed the Great Lakes. All those folks dependent on the seas for mussels and other sustenance had to relocate and then in another joke of Mother Nature everything reversed and the waters of the seas rose again dramatically and what was inland become coastline again. They had only primitive tools and their brains to survive such upheavals and yet they did. There were no canals, bulldozers, cranes and computer projections to aid them or any type of machine tools.
Next time you see some thugs on TV trying to demonstrate their toughness and give those intimidating stares do remember that they pale in resilience and courage to all our ancestors. Those past gene donors over the history of Man were the true tough guys. They figured it out whatever the challenge, improvised and fought tyranny in the end for us to enjoy the fruits of this century. The shame is to not live up to their same standard with the determination to control our own destiny whatever the circumstances of fate put in our way.
“Theirs but to do or die” Tennyson….www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Environment, Global Warming, history, Mother Nature
Tagged as climate change, evolution, Global Warming, history of man, ISIS, rising seas
Much Ado About Old Inequality
For months the liberal or socialist left has been trumpeting the alleged great cause of eliminating the alleged inequality in American economic life. Well, blow me over with a feather! You mean we don’t all make exactly the same amount of income? The fact that some do exceedingly well and others do much better seems to come as a great shock to our Left and they are determined to eradicate it by any means and all means.
Such disparity is as old as recorded history. The Bible in both the Old and New Testaments is filled with references to the rich and poor and the discrepancies between them. Just read Proverbs or Ecclesiastes or Mathew if you want a citation. Likewise ancient Greece is replete with similar concerns and conflicts to resolve the wealth gap. Indeed the ire of the middle class and the lower classes in Greece lead the Tyrants who ruled under law and the laws of Draco (our Draconian usage). You are reminded that the Tyrants, dictators, who came to power in roughly the 6th century did so to protect” and promote the middle classes and what they got was some redistribution and lots of dictatorship. Nothing has changed over the centuries. Stalin provided and quite even playing field but he also established all the rules of the game and lo to anyone who wished to march to a different drummer.
If people are allowed to have freedom to differ one from the other you will always have inequality. It is a truism that some can’t seem to abide because they want to be in charge of all the rules. Further there is nothing inconsistent with a society having great income inequality but at the same time being charitable and caring about their fellow man. The Bible is also filled with commands to aid the poor not only in wealth but in spirit. The French just before the Revolution had forgotten that part of the duality. Our goal should never be to eliminate inequality for that leads to a Dante’s inferno of mediocrity and brutal coercion; our goal should be to provide equality of lanes on the path to a better life restricted only by our own ambition and desires. Some will always choose to live by Walden’s pond and others will want to be a Wall Street Master of the Universe. Our society should allow and encourage both. For the slovenly and lazy I refer you to Proverbs and the lazy man who reaps no crops; he doesn’t need or deserve charity but chastisement.
Lastly, it was written that liberty and inequality are not associates but rather enemies. The former will in direct proportion lead to inequality and the lack of liberty will likewise lead to more equality of mediocrity or outright misery and oppression to maintain the equality balance. This was observed by Will Durant, American philosopher and anthropologist and certainly not any sort of right-winger. Read his twelve volumes sometime for your own edification and to agree or disagree with his comments on the civilization of Man.
“he that oppreseth the poor reproacheth his Maker, but he that horoureth him hath mercy on the poor”. Prvbs 14/31
http://www.olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Economics, government, history, religion
Tagged as american politics, bible wisdom, income inequaltify, inequality, tea party views, weath inequality
History And Settled Science
Most of you won’t remember or probably have never even heard of the “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson that was published in the ’60’s. Its main focus was on the use and alleged overuse of DDT for crop protection and general application for pest control for all manner of botanical life. She posited that DDT was deadly and had become so pervasive that our very existence was at risk or at a minimum all our children would have three legs. It covered all manner of other woes created by a modern industrial society and predicted our doom unless we retreated to more Eden-like life. Well, the Left took up the cause and DDT was indeed banned for decades based on her alleged science which was supposedly confirmed by the vast majority of scientists. Trouble was there wasn’t really any science behind her allegations and in recent years on the very back pages as opposed to her front page assertions of decades ago the error was acknowledged and further acknowledged that the poorest in the world suffered the most by lack of DDT to increase crop production.
Likewise it was settled science for decades from at least the ’70’s that all cholesterol was deadly. Every food manufacturer around went to great lengths to develop butter and all manner of food stuffs that were low in cholesterol or even free of it. We were all warned to cut out that steak and buttered potato. Again on the back pages recently you may have noticed that now we learn that in fact that was wrong. You can enjoy your eggs and bacon without undue worry it seems after all. The Left also adopted this theory and it was agreed by the “scientific community”.
Now its the turn of the vitamin supplements. We’ve been taught that science tells us we need all these special diets or pills to be healthy and that only the rich or 1% get access to those supplements. The height of the concern is very evident in the current Federal push of O to control diets in the schools. But did you notice in the last month that now research shows that too many of those supplements actually increases the risks of cancer?
The hard sciences are much more trustworthy when it comes to agreeing upon “settled science”. That would be fields such a physics or astronomy for example. Usually they will say they are still working on an issue and the implications for the future. They are not so prone to sweeping generalizations and projections about future human behavior.
Science and the scientific method are wonderful. But when politicians get involved be sure you truly believe they are acting on science and not ideology. Especially when there is an entire “industry” built around one particular view of an issue. Are they grants, professorships and lots of bureaucratic jobs dependent on one special view of an issue? If so be very careful. Examine the facts and take the rhetoric cautiously. This applies to any matter. I can recall when we were all going to die simply because we built some nuclear power plants. Many very famous scientists from around the globe predicted this as a scientific fact. Check on YouTube news clips from the ’60’s. Last I checked we are still here. The bigger worry you should have is how many of us will there be down the road but we’ll save that for another day.
“It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible non-conformist warmly acclaimed” Albert Einstein. olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Environment, Global Warming, government, history
Tagged as climate change, DDT, Global Warming, public health, Rachel Carson, settled science, socialist government
ISIS Strategy for Victory By The West
Saddle up and let’s go for a ride through the headlines and old times. Still the cheapest ride in town.
Many rightfully bemoan the lack of a comprehensive strategy to defeat the ISIS scourge. It doesn’t need to be that complicated from a grand/political view. The Commander in Chief (Lords knows we could use one) would issue orders to our military and such allies that will join with us to seek and destroy ISIS and all is cohorts and supporters. Defeat being defined as utter destruction of organized fighting capabilities of the enemy. Eisenhower’s orders when invading Europe in 1944 were that straightforward. In 1945 when Germany surrendered he simply advised the Combined Chiefs of Staff that the “mission of the Allied Expeditionary Forces was completed on May 8, 1945 at 02:40 hours”.
The bigger issue among the effete left is collateral damage and winning hearts and minds. As Twain said history doesn’t repeat itself but it does rhyme. The Nazis and Japs were pure evil and deserved to be destroyed root and branch which we accomplished and the world became a better place for it. We can’t eliminate every evil heart in the world but we can stop any organized mayhem and slaughter. Sure there will still be bad guys down the road but they would fall legitimately into the category of criminal activity rather than and organized assault on western civilization. Only the naive or ideologically bent would deny that this is a war to preserve our Western culture. Because the foes certainly are clear that that is their aim.
Don’t be sucked into the false argument that this would be a racially motivated war against those with dark skins. Several have made that argument before and try to give the impression that Allies were harsher against the Japs than we were the European Nazis. That is simply incorrect. Check the actual facts for yourself. We killed many more German, Italian, Hungarian and other assorted European Nazis than we did Jap soldiers. That is a fact. Many argue that we only used the A Bomb on the Japs and never would have on the Nazis. Again check that facts. We bombed the stuffing out of Germany and killed many more German civilians than we ever did in Japan even including the two A Bomb drops.
To be successful we need to not be squeamish about collateral damage. It will happen if you want to wage a military campaign that will succeed. War is nasty and messy business. It is not laser brain surgery. It is digging a big hole with pick and shovel. We killed with our bombing during the War tens of thousands of French, Czech, Danes, Dutch and Belgians and assorted others from North Africa to Berlin. As our troops advanced from the west into Germany we would destroy with artillery any village or town that put up any resistance. Those where there was no resistance were allowed to stand. No one stopped the fight for victory because of concern over collateral damage. This is not to say that many involved in the bombing and artillery salvos weren’t depressed or disturbed about the cost in human life and suffering but that was the price for victory. We should have an announced and public policy that any town, village or neighborhood that shelters or condones any ISIS or affiliate will face destruction. They outnumber that bad guys by huge amounts (or so the moderate Muslims always tell us) and don’t have to harbor them.
Any occupying army must have cooperation or at least fearful acquiescence from the local population. Yes, I admit the locals might be fearful but they need to have some courage too if they truly believe these are evil guys doing the Devil’s work. Going along to get along with ISIS is the same as supporting it. By refusing to resist at all the locals are in fact harboring the people who behead and burn those they perceive as infidels. The locals need to fear us more than the fear the Islamic radicals if that is what it takes.
The Allied military should move how, when and where the military commanders direct to complete their mission. Their mission is to destroy a fighting force, not to engage in any nation building project. The Allied countries should also not embark on any Marshall Plan as some have suggested. Let the Arab world and Mid East determine their own future and build it themselves with their own resources. We should likewise make is fundamentally clear that we will come back and do it all over again any time a similar threat arises. If the Muslims can behave like a civilized society they can peacefully participate fully in the community of man and practice their religion as they see fit. This is a war about evil actions not the religious thoughts of anyone. Like all wars of great enduring significance this is one of ideas and taking the higher moral ground as difficult and abhorrent as that may be. We don’t always get to choose the era in which we dwell.
“The moral forces are amongst the most important subjects in war. …”There is only one decisive victory; the last “. olcranky.wordpress.com
Filed under Culture, Foreign Affairs, Politics, War
Tagged as ISIS, Islamist terrorists, radical islam, war on terror
The Mouse In The House
Seems as though every family has a special word or phrase that they use as code to bring a smile to everyone’s face. Usually the phrase comes from some event that occurred during the routine of life but made everyone laugh a lot at what some family member did or said. It could be as simple as “I’ll have ketchup with that” or anything that recalls that silly or humorous event. Like when your brother asked for ketchup and then when he hit the bottle with his hand the top cap fell off and he got a bottle of ketchup in his lap. It passed down into family lore and simply repeating the phrase years later will make all the family smile and it will be used anything goes wrong, even without a ketchup bottle in sight.
I started using a phrase decades ago that didn’t recall a specific event but rather a circumstance. It started with my own children and then carried over to all my grandchildren. When our guys were little, say less than 10 and I would come home and here them running around the house doing their kid things I would often cry out “There’s a mouse in my house” or some variation of that phrase like “I hear a mouse in my house”. I did it because usually I would hear them long before I saw their little smiles with those small baby teeth gleaming through. I got lots of responses from “I am not a mouse” to “its me”. But playing that little game always meant a lot to me.
It meant so much that when the grandchildren came along I would do the same thing whether they were at my house or we had gone to visit the grandchildren at their homes. Papa more often than not would enter the abode with the sing-song cry about the mouse in the house. It constantly made my heart light and happy when I would get a response either verbally or see one of those smiling little faces peek around at me. They knew when they heard that phrase that old grand dad was there.
We still have several grand kids that are small enough that I can play the game with them but they now live pretty far away so the chances for it are much smaller than they used to be but I still look forward to being able to play that game every chance I get for the next few years. Won’t be very long and the youngest will all be teenagers . But heck I might continue to do it even then just to irritate them and make my own heart lighter. It was almost a daily thing for the longest time and when they all lived nearby it was certainly a regular feature of each visit. I liked it being my trademark intro and greeting.
If you have a mouse in the house cherish every moment of that time. The first puff of smoke from the campfire is thick and very visible but turn away for just seconds and then look back and it is gone. You are blessed and privileged to have a mouse in your house. Sometimes I can hear the sound of small running feet or the tiny screams and giggles of those mice I had in the house even though they are only the memories of times past but they still seem so real. The echos of those sounds resonate in the memory chamber with a clarity formed from the happiest of times. Your mouse is so special, may your have the wisdom to see that.
“Never take anything for granted” Ben Disraeli, British 19th century PM. olcranky.wordpress.com
Tagged as children, families, family, grand parents, grandkids
Iran Deal –False Choices
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Home » animalwithgirlsex » Sample application letter for medical technologist
Sample application letter for medical technologist
September 11, 2019 admin Off animalwithgirlsex,
Technologist medical letter application sample for. The state of things is too tragic to allow even of a smile. The penalties incurred by judges for its excessive or improper application were almost identical with those prescribed by Alfonso, and the limitation that it should not be allowed to endanger life or limb was only to be exceeded in the case of treason, when the utmost severity was permissible.[1497] In 1489 Ferdinand and Isabella had directed that no criminal case should be heard by less than three alcaldes or judges sitting together, and torture could not be employed without a formal decision signed unanimously by all three. This it is my present purpose to attempt, so far as it can be accomplished in the scope of an evening address. Uniformly courteous? If this is a correct analysis of the experience of the tickling which excites laughter, we seem to have in it at a very early age elements which are to be found, in a more fully developed form, in the later and more complex sorts of mirth, namely, relief from a serious and constrained attitude, a transition from a momentary apprehension induced by the presentation of the partially unknown, to a joyous sense of harmless make-believe. I leave it entirely to his determination, nor ever break my rest with considering which way he is likely to decide it, but receive whatever may come with equal indifference and security. At first we measure them from the ground, take in only the groups and masses, and are struck with the entire contrast to our former ignorance and inexperience. For this reason each group or class of languages must be studied sample application letter for medical technologist by itself, and its own peculiar developmental laws be ascertained by searching its history.[278] With reference to the growth of American languages, it was Humboldt’s view that they manifest the utmost refractoriness both to external influences and to internal modifications. Do they not quarrel with their neighbours, placard their opponents, supplant those on their own side of the question? And even outside the limits of such regulation, the personal sense of responsibility to the community that governs the actions of an honest merchant will prevent his attempting to satisfy certain wants that he believes would better remain unsatisfied. The word Approbation has but within these few years been appropriated to denote peculiarly any thing of this kind. Have we not, it may be asked, in the appreciation of what is funny or laughable a mode of sensibility pre-eminently erratic, knowing no law, and incapable therefore of being understood? In the ocean, therefore, whenever the temperature of the surface is lowered, condensation takes place, and the superficial water having its specific gravity increased, falls to the bottom, upon which lighter water rises immediately, and occupies its place. Those with the white side uppermost are the winning pieces. The composure of mind proper to a guest of royalty must have been slightly disturbed at the discovery that the robes began to move and undulate beneath him, till to his utter confusion {242} he felt himself projected into the middle of the tent among the embers. When we have read a book or poem so often that we can no longer find any amusement in reading it by ourselves, we can still take pleasure in reading it to a companion. That which any one has been long learning unwillingly, he unlearns with proportionable eagerness and haste. How can the impressions of light be propagated by the auditory nerve?’ Page 227. I could not help thinking of Parson Adams, of Booth and Amelia. This however must not be misunderstood. The sad thing is that altho the libraries have reformed, hysteresis is still getting in its deadly work. ] It must not be understood that all the Aztec writing is made up of phonetic symbols. Will it be pretended by any one, on whose brain the intricacies of metaphysics have not had the same effect as the reading of romances had on the renowned knight of La Mancha, that a piece of wood which I see a man cutting in pieces, and so is an object existing in my mind, is a part of myself in sample application letter for medical technologist the same sense as a leg or an arm? The stores and the factories are ahead of librarians in this respect, and we may as well admit it. Such considerations, however, although contributory, do not, of themselves, decide the question with which we are here concerned, namely, What is the real meaning and what the authority of “conscience,” or of that mental act which takes place in our minds when we call certain conduct “right” and certain conduct “wrong”? It is what it is; it does not pretend to be another thing. Without troubling themselves about the justice or injustice of the punishment, they have always been accustomed to look upon the gibbet as a lot very likely to fall to them. Charles Whittlesey, of Cleveland, analyzed eighty-seven measurements of Ohio earthworks by the method of even divisors and concluded that thirty inches was about the length, or was one of the multiples, of their metrical standard.[409] Moreover, fifty-seven per cent of all the lines were divisible without remainder by ten feet. Even greater troubles may, to the trained humorist, disclose amusing aspects or accompaniments, so that refreshment reaches us even while the blow still hurts. Lay control is thus not illogical, but is the outcome of a regular and very proper development. CHAPTER VI. There is in the first place the strong mechanical action of the nervous and muscular systems co-operating with the rational desire of my own relief, and forcing it it’s own way. He is busy and self-involved. M——’s conversation is as fine-cut as her features, and I like to sit in the room with that sort of coronet face. To introduce order and coherence into the mind’s conception of this seeming chaos of dissimilar and disjointed appearances, it was necessary to deduce all their qualities, operations, and laws of succession, from those of some particular things, with which it was perfectly acquainted and familiar, and along which its imagination could glide smoothly and easily, and without interruption. _Massinger_: Thou didst not borrow of Vice her indirect, Crooked, and abject means. Even when the order of society seems to require that we should oppose them, we can hardly bring ourselves to do it. Perhaps the number of such men vouchsafed to the world, has been too inconsiderable to enable us to form any correct comparative estimate between them and the rest of mankind, yet reason proclaims it true; and as far as medical statistics furnish us with facts, they all tend to confirm the truth. The genius of the barbaric institutions and of feudalism localized power. He who laughs at the same joke, and laughs along with me, cannot well deny the propriety of my laughter. The first takes it from _gugum_, a feather; _tin gugumah_, I embroider or cover with feathers. The great and ineradicable gravity of the philosopher has been sufficiently illustrated in his theoretic treatment of our subject. With their inevitable index they form a huge encyclopedia, absolutely up to date. _xeincayepe_, me killest thou. The conversation of authors is not so good as might be imagined: but, such as it is (and with rare exceptions) it is better than any other. Beneficent actions have in them another quality by which they appear not only to deserve approbation but recompense. For the same reason that we can’t all write plays like Shakespeare’s or compose Wagner’s operas. In this sense no one can so much as think of, much less love any one besides himself, for he can only think of his own thoughts. The politeness which may be traced in his manners, is evidently the result or remains of his old habits, as he is so absorbed in abstract speculations that all attention to himself or external objects is utterly excluded; he is always solitary, but it is like the solitariness of one whose intense studies allow him no time for fellowship or the exercise of social feelings, so much so, that notwithstanding a consciousness of kind and respectful treatment towards him, he scarcely yet seems to know the name of his attendant. Beware of the World, the Flesh and the Devil; the Devil calls to his victims in the guise of the flesh.” This idea is exploited for all it is worth in conjunction with the doctrine of original sin: the stock device of priestcraft to enhance the value of its own ministrations and sacraments. Devils in revenge and evil, Satans in deceit and delusion! You will not find among them any developed examples of either rhyme or alliteration; their dialects do not admit of fixed vocalic quantity, like the Latin; even accent and assonance, which are the more imperfect resources of the poetic art, are generally absent. You are afraid of pressing too hard upon them: but where you cannot differ openly and unreservedly, you cannot heartily agree. This somewhat cryptic statement may be understood to mean that trade unions have endeavored usually not to improve the methods and results of labor, nor to make its output larger sample application letter for medical technologist and more satisfactory, but rather to improve the condition of the laboring man; to make his life more comfortable and his task easier, to shorten hours and lessen output, and often, as a result, to make that output of lower grade. One error, in fact, of eccentricity in poetry is to seek for new human emotions to express: and in this search for novelty in the wrong place it discovers the perverse. Similarly when, after the consciousness of rule is developed, a child roguishly “tries it on” by pretending to disobey, we may regard the new outburst of the spirit of fun as a natural transition from an earlier variety, the laughing pretence of running away from mother or nurse. The ancient systems, which place virtue in propriety, seem chiefly to recommend the great, the awful, and the respectable virtues, the virtues of self-government and self-command; fortitude, magnanimity, independency upon fortune, the contempt of all outward accidents, of pain, poverty, exile and death. Every visible object which covers from the eye any other visible object, must appear at least as large as that other visible object. The consciousness that it is the object of such favourable regards, is the source of that inward tranquillity and self-satisfaction with which it is naturally attended, as the suspicion of the contrary gives occasion to the torments of vice. This vanity is preposterous, and carries its own punishment with it. I am what I am in spite of the future. The Empress Richardis, wife of Charles le Gros, accused in 887 of adultery with Bishop Liutward, offered to prove her innocence either by the judicial combat or the red-hot iron.[935] So when the Emperor St. They talk big of increasing the sum of human happiness, and yet in the mighty grasp and extension of their views, leave hardly any one source from which the smallest ray of satisfaction can be derived. (6) We may now touch on a group of laughable objects {99} which has a close kinship with more than one of the groups already illustrated, though it stands apart by right of well-marked peculiarities. Its development thus belongs to a comparatively late period of social evolution. As the criminal was not responsible to the state, but to the injured party, personal punishments were unknown, and the law made no attempt to decree them. So he is glad to take advantage of the scriptural idea of a gourd; not to enforce, but as a relief to his reflections; and points his conclusion with a puling sort of common-place, that a peasant, who dies a natural death, has no Coroner’s Inquest to sit upon him. When Sir Isaac Newton saw the apple fall, it was a very simple and common observation, but it suggested to his mind the law that holds the universe together. At the same time we shall expect the study of the laughter of savages to bring us more directly in touch with the social conditions which help to determine the directions of mirth. Evidently his readers are fonder of history than he is. We have not now a number of _dramatis person?_ affected by particular incidents and speaking according to their feelings, or as the occasion suggests, but each mounting the rostrum, and delivering his opinion on fate, fortune, and the entire consummation of things. CHAPTER IV. I do not think any one can feel much happier—a greater degree of heart’s ease—than I used to feel in reading Tristram Shandy, and Peregrine Pickle, and Tom Jones, and the Tatler, and Gil Blas of Santillane, and Werter, and Boccacio. In the same manner our first moral criticisms are exercised upon the characters and conduct of other people; and we are all very forward to observe how each of these affects us. Our physical pleasures (unless as they depend on imagination and opinion) undergo less alteration, and are even more lasting than any others. The human face is not one thing, as the vulgar suppose, nor does it remain always the same. We should abominate him even more than the tyrant who might be goaded on by the strong passions of jealousy, fear, and resentment, and upon that account be more excusable. of our profession, let us study how to elevate it and make it more effective, but let us not forget the book, without which it would have no existence. At Clark’s Works, Ohio, the embankments and mounds together contain about 3,000,000 cubic feet;[84] but as the embankment is three miles long, most of this is not in the mounds themselves. Her laughter was probably as purely self-initiated as anything in child-life can be. I will illustrate what they are by an example taken from the Hidatsa, a dialect of the Dakota. The debate was opened by Shaftesbury, who maintained its fitness, and was carried on by Warburton, Karnes and others. all these and similar dispositions are conducive to the preservation of the animals; but they are not at all acquired.’ If by _acquired_, be meant that these last acts do not arise out of certain impressions made on the senses by different objects, (such as the agreeable or disagreeable smell of food, &c.) this is by no means either clear or acknowledged on all hands. As long as men are dazzled by symbols and governed by emotions, and there is at present no sign of change in this respect, a strong hierarchy capable of evoking respect for its values alone can save a state from disintegration, anarchy and social decay; but only if that hierarchy is composed of the highest, noblest and most enlightened in the race can those values be the best possible, and can they continue to improve _pari passu_ with advancing civilization. We have sufficiently ample accounts of their notions, preserved by various early writers, especially by Father Sahagun, who took down the words of the priests in their own tongue, and at a date when their knowledge was not dimmed or distorted by Christian teaching. Yet it has been demonstrated, to the conviction of all mankind, that these pretended causes of those wonderful effects, not only do not actually exist, but are utterly impossible, and if they did exist, could produce no such effects as are ascribed to them. Mandeville. This connection shows itself, too, in the change in the vowel-quality when, as frequently happens, the laugh runs through a cadence of pitch from a higher to a lower note. It is refreshing to find that missionaries have so often succeeded in getting at the lighter moods of the heathen. A mighty lord is coming, see you give him honor; A potent lord approaches, to whom all must bow; I, the prophet, warn you, keep in mind my boding, Men of Itza, mark it, and await your lord. In this primitive code there are directions for the employment of conjurators, which show that the procedure was a settled and established form at that period.[70] So in the Frisian law, which, although compiled in the eighth century, still reveals pagan customs and the primitive condition of society, the practice of compurgation evidently forms the basis of judicial proceedings. If he has received a benefit, we readily enter into his gratitude, and have a very high sense of the merit of his benefactor. The obvious observation, therefore, which it naturally falls in our way to make, is, that our propensity to sympathize with sorrow must be very strong, and our inclination to sympathize with joy very weak. On the other hand, in the Mexican and probably in the Maya hieroglyphics, we find a method of writing which is intermediate between the two great classes I have mentioned, and which illustrates in a striking manner the phases through which both the Egyptian and Semitic alphabets passed somewhat before the dawn of history. The laughter-lover may at least console himself for the injury done him by this kind of imitation with the reflection that it is empty of joy, and even of the refreshing sensations which issue from the genuine laugh. . The kind of criticism that Goethe and Coleridge produced, in writing of Hamlet, is the most misleading kind possible. Let us earnestly pray that His blessing may be bestowed upon our humble endeavours, to the fulfilment of this or a superior design. A, though more remote from C, may yet be sample application letter for medical technologist more intimately connected with it than with B from several other causes, from the greater strength of the impression, from similarity, &c. They promise us that we shall all be in comfortable circumstances and will have to work only three hours a day. The relief and consolation of human misery depend altogether upon our compassion for the latter. I do not quarrel with those who pursue this form of pleasure, but they certainly have no business to be librarians or teachers, or artists or authors, or to engage in any occupation which in itself constitutes to the worker the fullness of life and its illumination. In a village not far from New York the receipts from bicycle fines at one time nearly paid the running expenses of the place. Falstaff is not only the roast Malmesbury ox with the pudding in his belly; he also “grows old,” and, finally, his nose is as sharp as a pen. The criticism on the Taensa Grammar published in the _American Antiquarian_ last March has led to a reply from M. This, then, is the primary and fundamental determinant of the character and quality of personality. At the date of the earliest inscriptions, most of the phonetics were monosyllabic; but in several instances, as _nefer_, above given, _neter_, which represents a banner, and by homophony, a god, and others, the full disyllabic name was preserved to the latest times. The rich man glories in his riches, because he feels that they naturally draw upon him the attention of the world, and that mankind are disposed to go along with him in all those agreeable emotions with which the advantages of his situation so readily inspire him. Who would not weep, if Atticus were he? From the elbow to the wrist of the same arm; _cemmat__zotzopatzli_, “a little arm measure,” from _ce_, a, one, _ma_ from _maitl_, arm or hand, _tzotzoca_, small, inferior, _patzoa_, to make small, to diminish. The latter was duly sent, but through some error the renewal was overlooked. In an opera, as the Music supports the effect of the scenery, so the scenery often serves to determine the character, and to explain the meaning of the Music; it ought to vary therefore as that character varies. N’est-ce pas oublier que le but de celui qui specule est de fixer ou de creer une notion—c’est-a-dire un _pouvoir_ et un _instrument de pouvoir_, cependant que le poete moderne essaie de produire en nous un _etat_ et de porter cet etat exceptionnel au point d’une jouissance parfaite…. In spite, however, of a certain illogical inconsistency in practice, it is virtually conceded as a right that a man should justify any conduct by the plea of “conscience,” even, in many cases, when it militates directly against the good of the State. It is well when such {322} self-scrutiny can be carried on without any risk of encountering forms of ugliness and of ill omen, which would make speedy end of the amusing exercise. Books are valuable property entrusted to his care. This very multiplicity, this excessive superfluity, is a burden and a drawback, and obscures the integration of the thought by attaching to it a quantity of needless qualifications.
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"Put me in Coach"
Do you remember when you were a kid living in the old Canal Zone and there were all kinds of organized sports? A person would start at a wee age of 5 with the PeeWee League and moved right on up through Fastlich Baseball to high school team sports.
The days were filled with every team sport from baseball, basketball, football, track, swimming and so on. A day didn't go by when we were not doing things in organized ball. As I think back now and still think today, we were really lucky to have had such great coaches. They were the best in the entire World.
They were both teacher and coach. They taught us the basics and encouraged us to always do our best. Under their tollage they seem to always make us reach even higher than we thought possible.
Besides the world of sports, there was always a moral lesson to the madness of coaching and getting a team ready for the next big game. If we thought we could and if we thought we couldn't… we were right. The coaches always stressed that we played as we practice so no slackers were allowed. If the coach felt you were skating then you earned the privilege of running wind sprints until the cows came home at night. That was a real bummer!
I can remember that live tackling drills was something I often threaded for the luck of the draw would square me off with a lineman out weighing me by 50 pounds or more. But I found that if I hit hard and often I was okay. It would hurt but only for a little while. Besides the saying that was on the BHS Boy's Locker room wall was apropos, "It is not the size of the dog in a fight that counts but the size of the fight in the dog." The coach could tell those players who played with lots of heart and with sheer abandonment of the love of the game that it was a great possibility they would see action come game night. Now this was music to the ears of those who were not yet first string.
The coaches were always saying that, if you aren't having any fun out here, then you are not playing up to your potential. So, you best get with the program or you would soon find something else to entertain your afternoons after school.
The head football coach was continually repeating, "Football is a collision sport that is 60 minutes long. I want some hard hitting for 60 minutes. So lets see some hustle out there."
When the game night arrived, we would all suit up and receive the last minute instructions. The locker room would smell like a Ben-gay factory and the atmosphere was as thick as pea soup! The butterflies would be fluttering in our stomachs while other had the runs. Then just before running out of the locker room and onto the field, the head coach would give us all a last word of encouragement. Then with the sound of the mud cleats vibrating on the cement floor we would all head for the playing field with the last cheer of "Lets go get them" ringing in our ears.
After the national anthem and the toss of the coin the whistle would sound and the bands would play, as the fans in the stands would roar as the football would be airborne and the game was underway. There would be a mad dash as players ran at each other like mad dogs. Soon the runner carrying the ball would be brought down with a beautiful open field tackle. The play-by-play announcer would run down the starting lineups for both teams.
Of course only 11 players of each team could be out on the field at anyone time. So, as it is often the case, some people had to warm the bench. The cheerleaders would be leading the cheers. If we were on defense it would be…"Push them back… push them back way back!" If we had the ball it would be…"We want a touchdown now…. Go Offense… B-A-L-B-O-A… Balboa… Go BULLDOGS!" That is how it went all night long for 60 minutes. It could be a seesaw battle or a regular blow out. Most coaches in the old Canal Zone were not into running up the score. If ahead the head coach tried to give all players an opportunity to show their stuff under game conditions. If behind the head coach might make a substitution just to see if changing the mix of players produced something positive and turned a loss into a win. In either case each player on the bench best keep focus and pay attention to what was going on in the field of play. You never knew when your number would be called and you would be rushed into the game.
Then of course there would always be someone… maybe even you who would ask the coach when there was a lull in the action, "Put me in coach." Now that took lots of chutzpah but a lot of the coaches liked that spunky attitude in a player. Besides all he could say was yes or no. So what did you have to lose? So, at a great risk… in the long run, as in life, we best be ready to ask the proverbial question, "Put me in Coach." In life it is best to be always ready to accept the rejection or the acceptance that comes with asking the question, "Put me in Coach."
Regardless of the outcome, it is best to be in the game of life then on the sidelines with life passing you by. So, the next time you feel you have warmed the bench long enough and feel you should be activated you should ask the proverbial question to the 'Head Coach of all Coaches,' "Put me in Coach."
Take care. God Bless you and yours.
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Metabolomic signature of mouse cerebral cortex following Toxoplasma gondii infection
Jun Ma1,
Jun-Jun He1,
Jun-Ling Hou1,
Chun-Xue Zhou2,
Fu-Kai Zhang1,
Hany M. Elsheikha3 &
Xing-Quan Zhu1
The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii infects and alters the neurotransmission in cerebral cortex and other brain regions, leading to neurobehavioral and neuropathologic changes in humans and animals. However, the molecules that contribute to these changes remain largely unknown.
We have investigated the impact of T. gondii infection on the overall metabolism of mouse cerebral cortex. Mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics and multivariate statistical analysis were employed to discover metabolomic signatures that discriminate between cerebral cortex of T. gondii-infected and uninfected control mice.
Our results identified 73, 67 and 276 differentially abundant metabolites, which were involved in 25, 37 and 64 pathways at 7, 14 and 21 days post-infection (dpi), respectively. Metabolites in the unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis pathway were upregulated as the infection progressed, indicating that T. gondii induces the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids to promote its own growth and survival. Some of the downregulated metabolites were related to pathways, such as steroid hormone biosynthesis and arachidonic acid metabolism. Nine metabolites were identified as T. gondii responsive metabolites, namely galactosylsphingosine, arachidonic acid, LysoSM(d18:1), l-palmitoylcarnitine, calcitetrol, 27-Deoxy-5b-cyprinol, l-homophenylalanine, oleic acid and ceramide (d18:1/16:0).
Our data provide novel insight into the dysregulation of the metabolism of the mouse cerebral cortex during T. gondii infection and have important implications for studies of T. gondii pathogenesis.
Toxoplasma gondii is a worldwide prevalent pathogen with global seropositivity rates that range from 0 to over 90% [1]. Toxoplasma gondii has an indirect, multistage life-cycle that involves tachyzoites, bradyzoites-containing cysts and oocysts. This parasite has an exceptionally wide range of intermediate hosts including almost all warm-blooded vertebrate animals and humans. Tachyzoites and bradyzoites occur in the tissues of the intermediate hosts. However, members of the family Felidae are the only animals that can serve as the definitive host of T. gondii, where gametogony occurs in their intestine, resulting in the formation and excretion of oocysts in the feces. Ingestion of infectious oocysts with contaminated food or water, or eating improperly cooked or raw meat containing tissue cysts are the two main routes of T. gondii infection in humans.
Toxoplasma gondii establishes a quiescent infection with little to no clinical disease in most immunocompetent individuals. However, this parasite is responsible for a range of devastating sequelae in immunocompromised patients and in developing fetuses if their mothers acquire infection during pregnancy [2, 3]. In recent years, the impact of T. gondii infection on brain neurochemistry and the subsequent neuropsychiatric consequences has received significant attention [4, 5]. Additionally, behavioral abnormalities have been observed in murine hosts in association with T. gondii infection [6, 7]. Disruption of glutamate metabolism, and glutamatergic and GABAergic signaling pathways in the brain are some of the mechanisms used by T. gondii to alter the behavior of infected hosts [5, 8]. Toxoplasma gondii parasites can also alter the regulation of other neuroactive substances, such as dopamine [9], quinolinic acid [10] and kynurenine [11].
Previous transcriptomics [12,13,14] and proteomics [15,16,17] studies have revealed some mechanisms by which T. gondii can alter gene expression and protein abundance in the brain of the affected hosts. Additionally, liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS)-based metabolomics analysis revealed altered metabolism of key molecules and regulatory pathways in the brain, spleen, liver, and serum of mice following T. gondii infection [18,19,20,21]. Given the complexity of brain structure and the wide spectrum of the neuropathological changes associated with T. gondii infection, it is of great interest to determine specific metabolic signature associated with T. gondii, particularly in key brain regions such as the cerebral cortex where T. gondii cysts are often found [22, 23].
Here, a LC–MS-based metabolomics approach was used to analyze the global metabolic alterations induced in the cerebral cortex of mice following T. gondii infection. Our findings reinforce previous findings [21] and provide new insights into T. gondii neuro-pathogenesis.
Animal infection and cerebral cortex collection
Mice were infected with T. gondii PRU strain (genotype II) to produce tissue cysts that were subsequently used for the infection experiments. A total of 36 female BALB/C mice, 3-weeks old, were purchased from Lanzhou University Laboratory Animal Center (Lanzhou, China). Mice were allocated into six groups with 6 mice per group: 7T (infected group at 7 dpi); 7C (control group at 7 dpi); 14T (infected group at 14 dpi); 14C (control group at 14 dpi); 21T (infected group at 21 dpi); and 21C (control group at 21 dpi). The mice in infected groups were challenged by oral gavage with 10 cysts of T. gondii PRU strain suspended in 0.5 ml PBS, whereas mice in the control groups were mock-treated with an equal volume of PBS only. All mice were provided non-medicated feed and water ad libitum throughout the experiment. At 7, 14 and 21 dpi, mice from each sampling time were humanely sacrificed by CO2 asphyxiation. Cerebral cortex of each mouse was dissected with scissors and forceps, and washed immediately with PBS to remove the blood. The isolated cerebral cortices were stored frozen at − 80 °C until use.
Detection of T. gondii infection in the cerebral cortex of mice
Equal parts of the collected cerebral cortices were used for DNA extraction. DNA of each cerebral cortex sample was extracted using a TIANamp Genomic DNA kit (TianGen, Beijing, China) according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Toxoplasma gondii infection was detected by PCR using primers that target the B1 gene (F: 5′-TGC ATA GGT TGC AGT CAC TG-3′ and R: 5′-TCT TTA AAG CGT TCG TGG TC-3′). The amplification conditions were: 95 °C for 5 min followed by 35 cycles of 95 °C for 10 s, 60 °C for 10 s and 72 °C for 20 s. A negative control template (PBS) was included in each PCR run to exclude the false positive results. Positive amplified fragments were submitted to the Genewiz company (Beijing, China) for sequencing in both directions.
Metabolite extraction
The frozen cerebral cortices were taken out of the − 80 °C freezer and kept at − 20 °C for 30 min, and then at 4 °C to defrost gradually. Approximately 25 mg of each defrosted tissue sample were used for metabolite extraction by mixing with 800 μl of H2O/MeOH (50:50% v/v) and lysis using TissueLyse bead-mill homogenizer (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). The cerebral cortex homogenates were centrifuged at 25,000×g for 20 min at 4 °C. Supernatants were transferred into new tubes and 50 μl of each supernatant were filtered using a SPE column (Strata TM-X 33 μm polymeric reversed phase column, Phenomenex, Torrance, CA, USA) for solid phase extraction, and the soluble metabolites were dissolved in acetonitrile. Approximately 20 μl from each sample were pooled together as a QC sample and used to assess the reproducibility and reliability of the LC–MS method. The extracted metabolites were stored at − 80 °C until use.
LC–MS/MS analysis
The soluble metabolomics (including hydrophobic molecules) of all samples were analyzed. All chromatographic separations were performed using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) system (Waters, Manchester, UK). An ACQUITY UPLC BEH C18 column (100 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 μm; Waters) was used for the reversed phase separation. The column oven was maintained at 50 °C. The flow rate was set at 0.4 ml/min and the mobile phase consisted of solvent A (water + 0.1% formic acid) and solvent B (acetonitrile + 0.1% formic acid). A gradient elution process was performed to elute metabolites as follows: 100% solvent A (water + 0.1% formic acid) for 0–2 min; 0–100% solvent B (acetonitrile + 0.1% formic acid) for ~ 11 min; 100% solvent B for 11–13 min; 100% solvent A for 13–15 min. The eluted metabolites were analyzed using a high-resolution tandem mass spectrometer, SYNAPT G2 XS QTOF (Waters). For both positive and negative ion modes, the capillary and sampling cone voltages were set at 2 kV and 40 V, respectively. The TOF mass range ranged from 50 to 1200 Da and the scan time was 0.2 s. For the MS/MS detection, all precursors were fragmented using 20–40 eV, and the scan time was 0.2 s. During the acquisition, the LE signal was acquired every 3 s to calibrate the mass accuracy. Centroid MSE (mean square error) mode was used for the collection of mass spectrometry data.
Metabolite identification and multivariate statistical analysis
The raw data were imported into the software Progenesis QI v. 2.2 for peak detection and alignment. The assigned modified metabolites were identified by searching the HMDB database (http://www.hmdb.ca/spectra/ms/search) using Progenesis QI. The molecular mass data (m/z) and retention time (min) were used to identify the metabolites. The putative metabolites were mapped to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG; http://www.genome.jp/kegg/) by matching the m/z of our samples with those from the database. The pre-processed data were imported to metaX, a R package software for statistical analysis. Student’s t-test was used to identify significantly different metabolites between infected and control mouse groups, and P < 0.05 was considered significant. P-values were adjusted for multiple testing using the Benjamini–Hochberg method at a false discovery rate threshold of 5%. The dataset was also subjected to unsupervised multivariate statistical analyses, including principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least-square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), using SIMCA v.13.0 software. Toxoplasma gondii responsive metabolites were identified using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis by calculating the area under the curve (AUC) using the pROC package in R. Cytoscape v.3.3 was used for visualization of relationship among metabolites and pathways.
Confirmation of infection
PCR coupled with sequencing analysis confirmed that all cerebral cortices collected from infected mice at 7, 14 and 21 dpi were T. gondii B1 gene positive (Additional file 1: Figure S1). No positive amplification products of T. gondii B1 gene were detected in cerebral cortices of mice in the control groups (Additional file 1: Figure S1). At 14 dpi, mice in infected groups showed clinical signs such as anorexia, hunched back and ruffled fur. None of these clinical signs were observed in the control mice at 14 dpi. At 21 dpi, mice in infected group seemed to regain their normal physical status.
Infection-related metabolic changes
A total of 3200 ions were detected in the negative electrospray ionization (ESI−) mode and 1436 metabolites were putatively identified, whereas 6198 ions were detected in the positive electrospray ionization (ESI+) mode with 3952 metabolites putatively identified. PLS-DA analysis was performed to identify the differences in the metabolic profile between infected and non-infected cerebral cortices. As shown in Fig. 1, in both positive and negative ion modes, the metabolites of infected and control cerebral cortices were clustered in separate groups. Additionally, as the infection developed at 14 and 21 dpi, the differences and separation between infected and non-infected cerebral cortices increased. This result indicates that the metabolic patterns of the infected cerebral cortices are distinct from those of non-infected cerebral cortices.
Unsupervised multivariate analysis of the global metabolic changes in the cerebral cortices of mice. Partial least squares projection to latent structures discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) score plots of the first two principal components (PC1 and PC2) showing the effect of infection on the metabolic profile of cerebral cortices at 7, 14 and 21 days post-infection (dpi). Distinct metabolic differences were observed between infected and control mouse groups particularly at 14 and 21 dpi. POS and NEG indicate positive ion mode and negative ion mode, respectively
Time-dependent variation in the differentially abundant metabolites
To identify the temporal differences between infected and non-infected cerebral cortices, the differences in the metabolites between T. gondii-infected groups and non-infected groups were analyzed at 7, 14 and 21 dpi. Dozens of differentially abundant metabolites exhibited altered levels in T. gondii-infected cerebral cortices. In the negative ionization mode, 64, 48 and 288 metabolites showed differential abundances at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively. Furthermore, 68, 54 and 229 metabolites were differentially abundant in the positive ionization mode. The volcano and heat map plots of these metabolites are shown in Fig. 2. The details of the differentially abundant metabolites that were mapped to KEGG pathways are shown in Additional file 2: Table S1. Our analysis revealed that 22, 21 and 92 differentially abundant metabolites were mapped to KEGG pathways at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively. Additionally, only 20, 10 and 80 differentially abundant metabolites were identified at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively (Fig. 3a). 1-Acyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine was the only differentially abundant metabolite that was altered at all three time points, where it was upregulated at 7 and 14 dpi, and downregulated at 21 dpi (Additional file 2: Table S1).
Metabolic differences in infected cerebral cortices at 7, 14 and 21 dpi. a Volcano plots of the differentially abundant metabolites. The log2 fold change is shown on the x-axis. Statistical significance displayed by − log10 (P-value) is shown from 0 to 4 on the y-axis. Metabolites having a fold change of > 1.5 and P < 0.05 (Student’s t-test) are represented by red dots. Metabolites that were not significantly changed are denoted by blue dots. Fold changes of the infected samples relative to the untreated control are based on the mean values of six biological replicates per group. b Heatmaps showing significantly dysregulated metabolites in the mouse cerebral cortex. Upregulated (red) or downregulated (green) metabolites (fold change > 1.5; P < 0.5) are indicated. POS and NEG indicate positive ion mode and negative ion mode, respectively
Venn diagrams showing the number of a common and unique differentially abundant metabolites between mouse groups and b metabolic pathways significantly affected following infection with T. gondii at 7, 14 and 21 dpi
Metabolic pathways affected by T. gondii
As shown in Fig. 3b, the differentially abundant metabolites were involved in 25, 37 and 64 pathways, of which 6, 5 and 25 were unique at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively. Twelve pathways were altered at all three sampling time points, namely metabolic pathways, biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, glycerophospholipid metabolism, choline metabolism in cancer, regulation of autophagy, retrograde endocannabinoid signaling, primary bile acid biosynthesis, steroid hormone biosynthesis, arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism, steroid biosynthesis and glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchor biosynthesis. Metabolites in the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids pathway was upregulated as the infection progresses (Fig. 4). Metabolites in six pathways were downregulated at 21 dpi (Table 1 and Fig. 5).
Differential regulation of the metabolites involved in the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids pathway at 7, 14 and 21 dpi. Red and green colors represent upregulated and downregulated metabolites, respectively
Table 1 Metabolic pathways involving differentially abundant metabolites in mouse cerebral cortex at 7, 14 and 21 days after T. gondii infection
Metabolic pathways associated with downregulated metabolites at 21 dpi. Red, green and yellow colors represent upregulated metabolites, downregulated metabolites and the related metabolic pathways, respectively. Abbreviations: PS, phosphatidylserine; PC, phosphatidylcholine; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; 13-OxoODE, (9Z,11E)-13-oxooctadeca-9,11-dienoic acid; 15-KETE, (5Z,8Z,11Z,13E)-15-oxoicosa-5,8,11,13-tetraenoic acid
Identification of T. gondii responsive metabolites
The results of ROC curve analysis revealed nine differentially abundant metabolites that had an AUC value > 0.8 and these were identified as T. gondii responsive metabolites: galactosylsphingosine, AA, LysoSM(d18:1), l-palmitoylcarnitine, calcitetrol, 27-Deoxy-5b-cyprinol, l-homophenylalanine, oleic acid and ceramide (d18:1/16:0) (Fig. 6). Among these, LysoSM (d18:1) was upregulated at 14 dpi; five metabolites (galactosylsphingosine, AA, l-palmitoylcarnitine, calcitetrol and 27-Deoxy-5b-cyprinol) exhibited differential abundance at 14 and 21 dpi, while the remaining three responsive metabolites [L-homophenylalanine, oleic acid and ceramide (d18:1/16:0)] showed differential abundance at 21 dpi. All these T. gondii responsive metabolites were upregulated (Additional file 2: Table S1).
Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showing T. gondii responsive metabolites. The x- and y-axes show false positive rate and true positive rate, respectively. Abbreviation: AUC, area under the curve
Previous research studies have indicated that T. gondii can alter host behavior through manipulation of signaling pathways in the brain [22, 24]. However, the metabolic pathways involved in this process are only partially understood. Given that dysfunction of cerebral cortex underpins the neurological changes seen during T. gondii infection [25], the present study was set to characterize the metabolic changes of mouse cerebral cortex following T. gondii infection using a LC-MS-based metabolomics approach.
Metabolic changes in cerebral cortex following T. gondii infection
The metabolic profiles of infected cerebral cortices were different from non-infected cerebral cortices. PLS-DA analysis revealed that metabolic differences between mouse groups became more evident as the infection progressed from 7 to 14 and 21 dpi. In the negative ionization mode, 64, 48 and 288 metabolites were differentially abundant at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively. Additionally, 68, 54 and 229 differentially abundant metabolites were detected in the positive ionization mode. Although many differentially abundant metabolites were observed in the present study, only 22, 21 and 92 differentially abundant metabolites were mapped to metabolic pathways in the KEGG database at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively (Fig. 3a). The differentially abundant metabolites were involved in 25, 37 and 64 pathways at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively (Fig. 3b). Although only one common differentially expressed metabolite was found at all sampling times (Fig. 3a), 12 pathways were commonly altered in all collected cerebral cortices at all time points after infection (Fig. 3b).
Time-dependent increase in the upregulated metabolites
Lipids play essential roles in the pathogenesis of T. gondii infection; parasite replication can be limited by fatty acid biosynthesis and availability [26]. Some fatty acid biosynthesis systems exist in the apicoplast and endoplasmic reticulum of T. gondii [27]. Toxoplasma gondii also requires acquisition of certain fatty acids from host cells. The host mitochondrial fusion can restrict T. gondii growth by limiting the uptake of fatty acids from the host cell [28]. In our study, the metabolites associated with biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acid pathway were upregulated in the infected samples. Previous studies showed that N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids reduce tissue responsiveness to cytokines, whereas n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids [29] and saturated fatty acids [30] enhance the tissue inflammatory response. Given the inflammatory role of AA [31]; the immune-regulatory activity of linoleic acid [32]; the ability of stearic acid and palmitic acid to enhance the nuclear translocation of NF-κB p65 and induction of proinflammatory response [33]; the anti-inflammatory activity of docosahexaenoic acid in humans [34]; the synergistic effect of docosapentaenoic acid on the antiinflammatory function of docosahexaenoic acid [35]; and the inversely proportional relationship of oleic acid with natural killer cell activity [36], which is essential for T. gondii eradication [35], it is tempting to speculate that unsaturated fatty acids contribute to the regulation of host immune responses to T. gondii infection.
Noteworthy in our study is the upregulation of the immune response mediators (n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as AA and linoleic acid) and immune response antagonist (n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as docosahexaenoic acid and docosapentaenoic acid) at 14 dpi. We also found that at 21 dpi the immune response mediators, including one upregulated n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (AA), two upregulated saturated fatty acids (stearic acid and palmitic acid) and one downregulated n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (linoleic acid), were observed in the infected cerebral cortices. Additionally, two inflammatory antagonists, n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (docosahexaenoic acid-n3) and monounsaturated fatty acid (oleic acid), were upregulated. Furthermore, both oleic acid (inflammatory antagonist) and AA (immune response mediator) were identified as T. gondii responsive metabolites in the mouse cerebral cortex. These differential changes in the metabolites involved in the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids in the cerebral cortex during T. gondii infection (Fig. 4) confirm previous studies [29, 30], suggesting immune-regulatory roles of unsaturated fatty acids during infection with this parasite. Interestingly, all these perturbed fatty acids are products of acyl-CoA thioesterase, indicating that acyl-CoA thioesterases play essential roles in mediating the interaction between T. gondii and mouse cerebral cortex.
Downregulated metabolites in cerebral cortex
Out of the 12 pathways that were detected in our study, six included downregulated metabolites at 21 dpi, involved in glycerophospholipid metabolism, choline metabolism in cancer, steroid hormone biosynthesis, AA metabolism, linoleic acid metabolism and steroid biosynthesis. Some of these pathways participate in the regulation of neurological functions such as glycerophospholipid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis and AA metabolism. The notion that T. gondii has a significant influence on the host behavior has been widely reported; however, the exact molecular mechanisms that link T. gondii infection to behavioral changes remain poorly defined. The membrane of neuronal cell is rich in glycerophospholipid, which is involved in the regulation of several molecular functions, such as generation of second messengers, apoptosis, antioxidant and membrane fusion, and regulation of enzyme activities [37]. Steroid hormone metabolites are barbiturate-like ligands of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor [38], which are expressed on the membrane of neurons and are downregulated by T. gondii. Alteration of AA metabolism has been implicated in neurological and psychiatric disorders [39]. In the present study, 21, 8, 5 and 11 metabolites involved in glycerophospholipid metabolism, steroid hormone biosynthesis, steroid biosynthesis and AA metabolism pathways, respectively, were downregulated at 21 dpi. The downregulation of metabolites in these neural activity-related pathways during latent infection may contribute to host behavioral changes.
It is worth noting that steroid hormone controls cytokine production of several immune cells [40]. Once metabolized by enzymes such as cyclooxygenases (COXs), lipoxygenases (LOs) and cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (CYPs), AA breaks down into several biologically active substances which activate host inflammatory response [41]. Although AA was identified as a T. gondii responsive metabolite and was upregulated in the present study, the metabolites of AA metabolism pathway were downregulated. This agrees with previous data showing that the enzymes of AA pathway are downregulated in mouse liver infected with T. gondii [42]. Furthermore, although steroid hormone biosynthesis pathway and AA metabolism pathway were upregulated in the murine liver and spleen during chronic T. gondii, the AA metabolism pathway was downregulated in the liver of acutely infected mice [18, 19].
In addition to AA, eight other T. gondii responsive metabolites were identified, namely galactosylsphingosine, LysoSM(d18:1), l-palmitoylcarnitine, calcitetrol, 27-Deoxy-5b-cyprinol, l-homophenylalanine, oleic acid and ceramide (Fig. 6). The accumulation of galactosylsphingosine (also known as psychosine) can result in oligodendroglial cell death and neural signaling dysfunction [43], which influences an animal’s behavior. Galactosylsphingosine was upregulated at 14 and 21 dpi (Additional file 2: Table S1). Whether the upregulation of galactosylsphingosine in mouse cerebral cortex contributes to T. gondii influence on mouse behavioral changes remains to be investigated. Calcitetrol (also known as 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3) participates in the regulation of Treg cells [44]. Ceramide and oleic acid were upregulated at 21 dpi. Oleic acid (a monounsaturated fatty acid) serves as an inflammatory antagonist. In contrast, ceramide activates NLRP3 inflammasome [45], which is required for the control of T. gondii in macrophages [46]. Although functions of 27-Deoxy-5b-cyprinol, l-palmitoylcarnitine and LysoSM(d18:1) in the nervous system or immune system have not been elucidated, they could play as yet unknown roles in mediating the interaction between T. gondii and the host cerebral cortex.
To our knowledge, this study provides the first comprehensive characterization of cerebral cortex metabolome following T. gondii infection in mice. We identified 73, 67 and 276 differentially abundant metabolites, which were involved in 25, 37 and 64 pathways at 7, 14 and 21 dpi, respectively. Differentially abundant metabolites related to biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acid pathway increased as the infection advances. Twelve perturbed pathways related to neural activity, such as biosynthesis pathways of steroid hormone and arachidonic acid metabolism, were detected in all cerebral cortices at 7, 14 and 21 dpi. Nine metabolites were identified as responsive to T. gondii infection. Further analysis of these metabolites will enable the identification of new factors involved in the pathogenesis of cerebral toxoplasmosis.
The datasets supporting the findings of this article are included within the paper. The metabolomics data have been deposited in the MetaboLights database (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights) with accession number MTBLS770.
AA:
GLT-1:
glutamate transporter 1
LC–MS:
liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry
SPF:
specific-pathogen-free
PBS:
phosphate-buffered saline
QC:
SPE:
UPLC:
MS/MS:
tandem mass spectrometry
HMDB:
The Human Metabolome Database
Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes
ESI−:
negative electrospray ionization
ESI+:
positive electrospray ionization
PLS-DA:
partial least squares-discriminant analysis
ROC:
receiver operating characteristic
AUC:
area under the curve
GPI:
glycosylphosphatidylinositol
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The authors are thankful for the technical assistance provided by BGI-Shenzhen, China.
This work received financial support from the International Science and Technology Cooperation Project of Gansu Provincial Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 17JR7WA031), the Elite Program of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (ASTIP) (Grant No. CAAS-ASTIP-2016-LVRI-03).
State Key Laboratory of Veterinary Etiological Biology, Key Laboratory of Veterinary Parasitology of Gansu Province, Lanzhou Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Lanzhou, 730046, Gansu, People’s Republic of China
Jun Ma
, Jun-Jun He
, Jun-Ling Hou
, Fu-Kai Zhang
& Xing-Quan Zhu
Department of Parasitology, Shandong University School of Basic Medicine, Jinan, 250012, Shandong, People’s Republic of China
Chun-Xue Zhou
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, LE12 5RD, UK
Hany M. Elsheikha
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HME and XQZ conceived and designed the study and critically revised the manuscript. JM performed the experiment, analyzed the metabolomics data and drafted the manuscript. JJH and CXZ helped in data analysis and manuscript revision. JLH and FKZ helped in study implementation. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Correspondence to Hany M. Elsheikha or Xing-Quan Zhu.
All mice were handled strictly in accordance with the Animal Ethics Procedures and Guidelines of the People’s Republic of China. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Animal Administration and Ethics Committee of Lanzhou Veterinary Study Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
13071_2019_3623_MOESM1_ESM.tif
Additional file 1: Figure S1. Agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR amplicons after amplification of T. gondii B1 gene DNA from cerebral cortices of T. gondii-infected and uninfected mice. Gels were stained with ethidium bromide and DNA was visualized under UV. Abbreviations: M, DL1000 DNA marker (TaKaRa, China); P, positive control; N, negative control.
13071_2019_3623_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
Additional file 2: Table S1. Differentially expressed metabolites that were mapped to the KEGG pathways.
Ma, J., He, J., Hou, J. et al. Metabolomic signature of mouse cerebral cortex following Toxoplasma gondii infection. Parasites Vectors 12, 373 (2019) doi:10.1186/s13071-019-3623-4
Toxoplasma gondii
Host-parasite interaction
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‘We Can Become An Entertainment Hub’: M. Night Shyamalan Fights To Attract More Filmmakers To Pennsylvania
By Natasha Brown October 31, 2019 at 6:32 pm
Filed Under:Local, Local TV, M. Night Shyamalan, Philadelphia News
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The battle over Pennsylvania’s film tax credit shifted from Harrisburg to Philadelphia on Thursday. Some of the biggest players in the film and tourism industry made their pitches to lawmakers.
Let's Make More Movies in Philly!!@MNightShyamalan makes his case on this #halloween2019 @NatashaCBS3 has the story on Eyewitness News! #TaxCredits @GPFO @pinkerina @DianeHeery pic.twitter.com/33rkhKwJfE
— Ukee Washington (@UkeeWashington) October 31, 2019
The Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee gathered at the Museum of the American Revolution to hear testimony from those in the film industry.
M. Night Shyamalan, a Philadelphia native who is committed to making his films in this region, loaned his voice to an issue very personal to him. He’s fighting to attract more filmmakers to the commonwealth.
Shyamalan, who’s behind recent mega-hits like “Glass,” gave compelling testimony during a hearing in front of Pennsylvania lawmakers in the city.
Shyamalan recounted a very personal moment with his nephew, an aspiring screenwriter to drive home how film tax credit caps are stifling the city’s film industry.
“He said, ‘What’s your advice?’ and I said, ‘Move to Atlanta.’ That’s my nephew and I was scared to have him move here because there wouldn’t be enough work here,” Shyamalan said.
Shyamalan and others in the industry are lobbying to have film tax credits either uncapped or increased to attract more opportunities for movies and TV productions as many are finding better opportunities in places like Atlanta and other cities.
“If they can raise the tax credit, I think the entertainment industry will grow tremendously in Pennsylvania,” the director said.
Shyamalan says giving filmmakers more incentives to create projects in Pennsylvania is a win-win for the commonwealth.
“More movies, more TV shows and we can become an entertainment hub,” Shyamalan said. “I think it’s a great industry for us. It’s very visible and it showcases Philadelphia in all different aspects — small towns, big cities and we can feel a lot of pride because of that.”
Right now, the film tax credit is capped at $70 million. Critics say that’s enough to lure TV and film productions. Meantime, Shyamalan and others in the film industry in Pennsylvania will be lobbying to have tax credit changes made during the governor’s next budget.
Natasha Brown
More from Natasha Brown
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Hatred of politics (and a complicated bereavement)
By Tad Tietze
29.Aug.13
If anything has marked this election campaign, it’s the detached way that much of the Left outside the ALP has treated Labor’s performance and the likelihood it will lose. In Overland on Wednesday, Michael Brull summed the feeling up well, arguing that, ‘For a leftist, what hope can there be for an election? Either the ALP will win, or the Coalition will. On leftist issues, the results will be disastrous.’ In another Overland post, Tom Clark argued that things have gotten so bad on the Labor side that it deserved to be thrown out of office.
These sentiments can be found not just among those who, like Brull, were scathing of Gillard on a range of issues and have continued to be under Rudd. The Greens, who were supportive of the previous PM’s achievements, now seem unwilling to wholeheartedly back the ALP against Abbott, instead campaigning on constraining him once he has already won. Even many fanatically partisan ALP backers under Gillard seem to have sunk into half-hearted support for their party, accepting the inevitability of defeat despite the relative closeness of the polls.
It is the reasons for this rapid shift from partisan frenzy to sullen resignation on the Left that I want to address. Few have openly acknowledged it, and when they have it has tended to be explained away in terms of Rudd’s great policy betrayals, especially on asylum, which make him no better than Abbott. Yet any honest accounting would acknowledge that Rudd’s policies are not qualitatively worse than Gillard’s, and that (as Brull points out) the ALP’s record has been awful – and awfully close to the Coalition’s – on very many issues for a long time now.
Something else must be going on.
The real problem for the Left is that we are seeing the eclipse of a century-long era institutionalisation of politics around a rigid Right/Left axis. Further, Rudd’s project of directly attacking the remnants of labourism (that is, the organised intervention of the trade union bureaucracy in official politics) has created a situation where the traditional reference points are no longer there to orient more radical political projects. Those political foundations – which found expression in distinctive ideologies, policies and organisational forms inside the working-class and social movements – have not only been hollowed out but, with Rudd’s return, are missing in action.
With labourism exhausted, the old Left–Right battles now no longer seem to have the same relevance. They become the object of a kind of complicated bereavement, in which the Gillard interregnum was merely a transitional phase of anger, denial and bargaining, all to no avail.
Three main reactions to this have started to crystallise on the Left, usually connected with one another. These are at best inadequate and at worst wrong responses, as I outline below: the Left can pose a real alternative only if it faces up to what is actually happening politically.
The first response has been to blame ordinary people for the mess. This has been clearest when it comes to asylum seekers, where much of the Left has characterised Rudd’s PNG deal as an electoral move in response to cruel/racist/alienated swinging voters. As I (and others) have pointed out, there is little evidence of the issue shifting voting intentions, or of Rudd believing it does. But such a belief tempts Leftists into posing themselves as morally superior to the bulk of voters, separating themselves from those who disagree with them and scolding them for their ignorance, as with the Greens’ ‘Not With My Vote’ campaign, which rails against everyone but the already converted.
The second response has seen a lapse into a kind of impotent nostalgia for when politics was ‘better’. In this version what is sought is some kind of revival of the old arrangement where bosses and workers each had their own party, their own representation, however imperfect. This kind of thinking has even led some Marxists to suggest that the ALP tradition they have spent years excoriating actually had a heroic element that is now lost:
The key problem is that, even though Labor in its early years was ostracised from the political establishment, it was from its very inception a party that saw social change as coming through parliament. This didn’t mean that it was never capable of resisting the pressure to accommodate to the big business interests and the media which dominate the parliamentary arena. But as the years went on and Labor governments were elected, it got itself into the disastrously compromising business of running Australian capitalism.
Given that labourism, from its very inception, acted to politically incorporate the working class into the capitalist state, such claims are revisionist to say the least. Australian labourism was not just a particularly conservative and un-ideological version of social democratic reformism; it championed the three key planks of the Australian ruling-class program for most of last century: economic protectionism, industrial arbitration and White Australia. Most importantly, such nostalgic reimagining cannot be translated into practice, simply because the material basis for labourism no longer exists.
The third response has been a retreat into a kind of movementism. Brull puts it thus: ‘In short, we must fight on non-election days too … We must fight, we must organise, and we must force change.’ A more conservative variant of this argument is that of the ACTU leadership, which unenthusiastically supports Labor’s re-election but seems keener to simply push on with its own campaigns around precarious work. A more radical version, on the other hand, counterposes ‘real politics’ that ‘is about struggle’ to ‘slogans worked out through focus groups’.
There is no question that the weakness of social resistance to the political establishment is a major problem for the Left. But there is no royal road to political success through the return of mass struggle. The last fifteen years has been punctuated by major struggles against governments, never more so than with Australia’s biggest-ever protests – against the Iraq War. Yet each time they dissolved with no clear left-wing political alternative coalescing (with the partial and contradictory exception of the Greens). What is missing in such conceptions is what kind of political alternative is needed to deal with the very specific circumstances where the old reference points have lost most of their social basis. The problem is not that the depressing state of affairs in Canberra is not ‘real politics’ but that this is what real politics is today.
Each of these three responses essentially clings to the old, decaying political order, whether through hopes for its rehabilitation, imagining a movementist space within its structures, or via moral elitism reminiscent of that which animated traditional social democracy. The result is a tendency to see the Left’s prospects as dismal, because the official Left’s decay is seen as proof of the limited possibilities for a more radical politics. And the crisis of official politics is therefore seen – paradoxically – as a negative rather than an opportunity.
It is here that understanding the contradictions of Ruddism is so crucial. Rudd grasped more than any other politician of his generation that official politics cannot be renovated on the same social basis as before. By using anti-politics – positioning himself as working over the heads of an exhausted political class, rejecting its ideological argy-bargy as part of an irrelevant ‘old politics’ – he was able to maintain unprecedented levels of popularity for three years, two of them as prime minister. In that time he saw off three Liberal leaders. It was only when he was convinced to drop his climate agenda as a matter of political expediency (by the very people who would soon overthrow him) that he started to look like just another member of the political class he had attacked.
Rudd’s return just two months ago revealed how much the ALP’s electoral survival depended on spurning its traditions, and the first weeks of his second prime ministership once again showed the political efficacy of his unique ability to trash the political order he presided over. Yet it seems that once the campaign started (earlier than Rudd seemed to want it to, apparently under pressure from a twitchy party machine) Rudd pulled back from continuing to drive that message home. I disagree with Guy Rundle that the problem was that anti-politics is hard to do from government; Rudd managed it just fine in 2007–09. But anti-politics is high-risk in an election campaign coming from behind, and Rudd fell into playing the part of post-politics technocrat rather than anti-politics avenger. Ironically Rudd’s timidity on this score has allowed Abbott’s claims that he is just another ALP politician to have some effect. It is telling that Rudd blames his own abandonment of emissions trading in 2010 on the Liberals and Greens rather than admitting it was a mistake he made under pressure from the recalcitrants in his own party.
The flipside of the crisis of politics is a detachment from, bitterness towards, and hatred of politicians and politics. Thus, if Rudd loses it will not be because Abbott’s outdated (if incoherent) right-wing agenda has found favour with large numbers of voters – but because Rudd has failed to carry through the political project he promised. Today people vote much more against, rather than for, politicians and governments. It is this that led to historically high levels of informal votes, abstention and non-enrolment in 2010. It lies behind why many young people have not enrolled this year, and why so many Australians (especially young people) report suspicion of democracy:
For the second year in a row, the annual Lowy Institute Poll has found that less than half of 18-29-year old Australians … choose the statement ‘Democracy is preferable to any other kind of government’ when presented with three options about forms of government and asked to say which one comes ‘closest to (their) own personal views about democracy’.
How this crisis of authority plays out at the top and bottom of society is the central dividing line in Australian politics today, more important than the ossified Right-Left divisions that Abbott seems intent on being the last committed practitioner of. The key division is between an insider political establishment and the millions of people who feel shut out of political life; to whom the old ideological fixations are a symptom of the problems they face, not a solution. For the Left outside the ALP to orient around those old divisions therefore makes little sense and risks dragging us into further debacles like the Greens’ alliance with Gillard, which served to prop up unpopular neoliberal governance rather than mobilise opposition to it, and saw many on the Left complaining that the government’s record was being ignored by an ungrateful electorate. It means recognising the progressive element in the popular hatred of politics and not being seduced by the idea that we need to return to a time where official politics had greater authority.
The Left’s lapse into a form of ‘plague on both their houses’ arguments is another phase of an unresolved grief reaction, in which a positive alternative cannot be imagined because there is not yet a coming to terms with the loss of the old institutions, let alone the possibilities of radical rupture that loss opens up. Whoever wins the election, the political order will remain unstable and open to challenge because of its weak social foundations. The question is whether we can take advantage of that reality or find ourselves stuck wishing it wasn’t happening.
Tad Tietze is a Sydney psychiatrist who co-runs the blog Left Flank. He’s written for Overland, Crikey and The Drum Opinion, as well as music reviews for Resident Advisor. He was co-editor (with Elizabeth Humphrys & Guy Rundle) of On Utøya: Anders Breivik, right terror, racism and Europe. He tweets as @Dr_Tad.
More by Tad Tietze
From rankandfilist on 29 August 2013 at 2.41 pm
So Brull isn’t enthusiastic enough about the PM’s genius … and that somehow means he doesn’t relate to the mistrust of official politics. If only he had been more appreciative of Rudd, he would have, somehow, related to this mood which manifests itself as ‘a detachment from, bitterness towards, and hatred of politicians and politics’.
You criticise everyone else for saying the result of the election isn’t important – and then you conclude that ‘whoever wins the election the political order will remain unstable’.
Brull is wrong for arguing ‘we must fight, we must organise, and we must force change.’ But you say there is ‘no question that the weakness of social resistance to the political establishment is a major problem for the Left.’
You insist that the left has failed to outline a new kind political alternative – but then you don’t outline one either.
It is really just a big troll, isn’t it!
From Dr_Tad on 29 August 2013 at 7.08 pm
I now feel suitably chastened regarding all that stuff you criticise but which I didn’t argue in my post. Thanks.
From Jeff Sparrow on 29 August 2013 at 4.57 pm
I wouldn’t have put it as snarkily as rankanfilist but I did have a somewhat similar response. In particular, I really don’t get what you are arguing about Rudd. As I’ve said in previous exchanges, I do find your characterisation of Rudd as the embodiment of anti-politics, such that he’s fundamentally different from all other politicians, quite unconvincing, cos most of the examples provided are of acts or statements that the majority of the population paid very little attention at all. To the journalists on the couch on Insiders, he no doubt seems like a bull in a china shop tearing down the foundation of politics but to most voters (largely indifferent to the battles inside the ALp), I suspect Rudd seems entirely akin to every other weightless politician, which is why his popularity has (as predicted) slumped so quickly.
But even accepting your thesis, what follows from it? You seem to be criticising both Michael and Tom for being insufficiently appreciative of Rudd, which seems quite odd. If the main division is, as you say, between insiders and outsiders, well, Michael’s attitude seems pretty well attuned with the popular sentiment. Certainly, it’s hard to see how the Left could capitalise on the hostility to politicians you describe by appearing enthusiastic about Ruddism.
As for struggle being insufficient, well, sure I agree with that. It’s necessary but not sufficient — and if some articles don’t stress the ‘not sufficient part’, that’s understandable, since they are mostly not putting forward a full program so much as pointing out the necessity for activism. (Which is how I read Michael.)
Finally, in terms of the political project that would turn this potential struggle into something more durable, I agree we need something new. But what? What form might this take? What arguments are central, for the tiny Left that now exists to make gains? Despite its polemical sharpness, your article doesn’t give much of a sense what you are arguing here. But I think that would make the basis of an interesting discussion.
I don’t think Rudd is the “embodiment of anti-politics”. Anti-politics is a political method or strategy that politicians (and not just Rudd) use. What is unusual about him is that he has used it successfully from a very powerful position (opposition leader and prime minister) and for extended periods of time. Far from arguing that Rudd is “fundamentally different from all other politicians”, I have spent some space in this post pointing to his inability/unwillingness to pursue the anti-politics consistently. I think there are a number of reasons for this, but I didn’t want to make an already long post longer by detailing them here.
The people on the couch on Insiders and most other MSM journalists have never come to grips with the sources of Rudd’s popularity, or why it collapsed, and nor have they really understood the decline of the social basis for labourism and the two-party political system. In fact they spend a lot of time making excuses for politicians as a group and the political system, and rarely canvass issues regarding the material structure of politics.
In large part this is because they refuse to accept the idea that 30 years of neoliberal governance has been anything other than a massive political success. Much of the Left in its own way tends to accept this idea also, making claims about the fundamental changes to social relations wrought by marketisation and commodification, or the deep ideological power of free market belief. So what you tend to see is a denial that there is a crisis of politics — it’s always a crisis of personalities, or problems with the media, or a policy problem, or a loss of meaning, or whatever. But the fundamental political structures that rule over us are portrayed as robust and for all intents and purposes eternal.
I’m not asking either Michael or Tom to be positive about Rudd, if that’s what you mean by being “appreciative”. It should be clear that I think he has failed the fulfil the promise of his return to the top job. But I do think we need to be attentive to why and how he has been able to play a role, however temporarily, in addressing and attacking the problems of the political establishment.
If we are to be honest about it, the radical Left has tended to write Rudd off — even in his first, wildly popular, three years — and wait for him to fall to earth. It was almost as if nothing needed to be explained. At the Keep Left conference we attended a few weeks ago the same problem emerged. Few could put their fingers on Rudd’s record. In much the same way, the British far Left made a lot of predictions that Blairism would be a right-wing flash in the pan, but in fact the Blairite project was incredibly successful against its opponents until the Iraq fiasco.
The Greens were completely at sea trying to find a way to break through in 2007-10 also. I know because I was heavily involved and the incomprehension about Rudd was astounding (at that time I was unclear and felt frustrated that I couldn’t come up with a convincing explanation).
The point I’m making is that if all we do is wait for the political class to fail we never try to understand why it is able to outmanoeuvre us the rest of the time. Building an alternative hegemonic politics (c.f. building defensive, piecemeal resistance to attacks from above) requires more than cynicism about the politicians or the state. It requires the ability to pose an alternative that turns the hatred of politics into a creative force, one that people can sense has the potential to liberate them from the shackles of the current set-up. Many people now disappointed with Rudd saw him as someone who could save the country for the interminable dog days of the Howard era (including the interminable exhaustion of the ALP).
A few people seem to want me to put some kind of formed alternative here. I don’t think that is the prerequisite for criticising the way that much of the Left clings to the old political order, and for how that blocks even starting to think about what a new project could look like, one that could shape social resistance in a progressive direction.
If we’re going to develop a radical anti-state politics then we’re going to have to understand how the enemy acts to govern and rule over us. That’s kind of all I’m saying (and have been saying). But most of the Left seems to think things are just going to go on much as before. In my view this reflects a worrying fatalism and passivity.
From Dave on 29 August 2013 at 5.48 pm
I’m also curious as to what the author thinks the Left should do at this point.
From A New Way? on 29 August 2013 at 6.26 pm
For mine, the leftist malaise you describe so well, which is where I sit too, is more one of bemusement than anything, and I’m quite happy to wait for something more transformative to come along. Political alternatives can’t simply be manufactured and remain genuine, I suspect, and latching onto Rudd in a positive way sure doesn’t cut it with me.
From The Piping Shrike on 29 August 2013 at 9.51 pm
I get wary of questions on what should be done when there is clearly no agreement on what the problem is in the first place. To me it just looks like evasion.
The Rudd phenomenon may be over, but his popularity (and indeed its decline) that has dominated Australian politics for the last seven years surely needs to be explained, especially as it cannot be within the normal left-right framework.
Otherwise describing what is happening now is left to such spurious explanations as power of the media or worse, strength of right wing ideology. These may be comforting reasons for those who think they’re immune, but would make what’s coming next inexplicable. And if you don’t understand what is happening, how would you know what to do?
From Tim on 29 August 2013 at 10.15 pm
there may be no agreement on what the problem is, but we clearly have a stated opinion on the nature of the problem (or problems), from someone who is obviously highly educated, politically astute, & has spent an apparently lengthy amount of time in analysing and deliberating on the problem.
as such, i too share a desire to see this kind of analysis & insight given some kind of greater significance, through some kind of discussion as to what kind of form positive, “alternative action” could be taken, & how it might be orgainised… by & with those of us this type of analysis (the proles?) is ultimately hoping & seeking to engage.
or do i simply see this a self perpetuating academic naval gazing of a very highly evolved order?
From Dave on 30 August 2013 at 6.54 am
What is this ‘Rudd phenomenon’ that exists to anyone outside the Canberra press gallery?
From Marc Newman on 29 August 2013 at 9.59 pm
A few things are referenced in the article which explicitly point to a difference in the positioning and activity of the left. Refugees, the election, etc. You can only write so much in one post, but the OP signposts a fair bit. More importantly, there are a few key ideas in the OP which I think would be fruitful for the left to discuss and investigate further. One is the much tighter conception of Laborism that is involved (and articulated further elsewhere in Tad’s recent stuff) – which I think has real explanatory power and quite superior to other accounts of the ALP I’ve encountered in terms of informing what you can do. The second is the crisis of politics in Australia, and its obverse the growth of the appeal of anti-politics (providing the basis of a specific account of Rudd’s odd role). The third being the significance of the absence of a strong left current *with something coherent to say about what is going on*. It follows that unless you have a body of people who see the value of and are engaged in the process of having something relevant to say about what is going on, it is completely irrelevant what organisation or activity you propose. Hence the starting point is a discussion about what is going on.
From peter on 29 August 2013 at 11.52 pm
Isn’t Rudd’s a specifically *Insider* anti-politics (vs ALP Labourism, for ‘A New Way’ vs old Left-Right factionalism)? As such it was always going to have rather limited appeal to the more general ‘anti-politics’ evidenced in the disengagement from politics by the young, abstention, non-enrolment, widespread cynicism etc. This sort of chronic disenchantment with politics seems to me much more fertile ground for a Beppe Grillo, or worse, than for either Rudd or the Left.
From Dr_Tad on 29 August 2013 at 11.57 pm
Rudd might be an insider in terms of his origins in the bureaucratic state elite, but he has long been an outsider to politics; distrusted and disliked by his own party. He actually had massive appeal to many who had disengaged from politics, including young people. And for a long time — as Piping Shrike notes, Rudd has dominated Australian politics for seven years.
From guy rundle on 30 August 2013 at 12.46 am
point form reply. not sure i said what you think i said, or not in that article anyway –
the question is what you think has gone, that yr mourning. some possibilities, not exclusive
1) the western working class, unified in interest and class character, large enough to demand and get a significant degree of social ownership of production? definitely gone, in Oz in classic form. quite aside from any false consciousness, divided in its interest by privileged position in global system, and against itself by personal capital investments – home ownership, super etc.
2) an expanded notion of the working class as all wage earners. too broad to sustain a single movement, and different forms of work/habitus form different worldviews/subjectivities eg labour/greens/pirates/socialist [n.b. socialist product not available in all areas]
3) a labourist programme of social ownership and management? disappears from the political imagination when a level of wages above subsistence is consistently delivered, and other alternatives – time trade off etc – have been deferred, for complex economic/cultural reasons.
4) a strong social democratic programme of social economic control, decommodification of areas of life, ends-steered decision – ie climate change – distributed social power etc?
The thumbnail sketch of why the politics you want has disappeared might be: sectional advantage in western societies and atomisation of social life in both western and developing societies ie theres no socialist movement in china either.
The possible answers: 1) it re-emerges quite suddenly in crisis situations, 2) marxism was as it turned out a theory of long durees and determinist system evolution not of decisive ntervention, and leninism gave an illusion of possibility that lasted for a century. politics in long interim periods will be stuff of mild reform. 3) nothing much was ever possible and a mixed social market system will only be transformed by tec change – robotics, 3d printing, ultra-automation – that destroys the value form of capitalism.
is yr bereavement in other words of a real person, or an imaginary one – a much beloved character in book, or an online connection which turns out to be a practical joke.
after all, the right/left thing didnt die. the right won and the left is now the politics of the minimum program. once that is accepted, left victories can be seen as quite substantial on their own terms, and laments in the manner of michael b a case of applying the wrong frame.
From Dr_Tad on 30 August 2013 at 9.56 am
Hi Guy. Will get back to you with a more detailed response later. Just quickly, the bit of your Crikey piece I was referring to was this:
“When Rudd returned he seemed to be willing to, as Tad Tietze has noted, try anti-politics again, present himself as the man of the people beyond all that palaver, the only guy who could keep the crazy Labor Party under control. That was abandoned early, probably because it can’t be sustained from government.”
From Jeff Sparrow on 30 August 2013 at 6.37 am
I don’t think this argument has the explanatory power that you guys think it does. Leaving aside Rudd’s first term for the moment (although it’s worth noting, given all this talk of anti-politics, that much of the Kevin 07 phenomenon was devoted to reassuring voters of continuity rather than change, with Rudd repeatedly identifying himself as a social and economic conservative devoted to not rocking the boat, in a way that scarcely sits with this notion of an anti-politician tearing down conventional structures), what is the mystery that needs to be solved about recent events? Because of the inability of neoliberal politicians to deliver reforms, there’s a general tendency for incumbents to become steadily more unpopular, even broadly despised, as we saw with Gillard. During that process, Rudd was positioned as the ‘road not taken’, simultaneously in the parliament (and in the public eye) but not held responsible for the failings of the government, and able to present himself as a nebulously-defined alternative that was illegitimately cut short by Gillard’s treachery. In that context, there was nothing particularly surprising about his popularity relative to Gillard.
Nor was there anything mysterious about the bounce he received once he returned. Abbott has never been popular, and, compared to the novelty of a revived Rudd, he appeared like the incumbent — the politician who had been in the job for ages and of whom voters were already heartily sick.
What happened then? Rudd set about neutralising all the issues identified as problem areas in the traditional Laborite way — that is, by rightwing lurches cooked up on the fly, much in the manner adopted by Gillard when she took over from him.
Entirely unsurprisingly, it’s worked about as well now as it did then, with the gloss slowly but steadily coming off Rudd’s polling and that of the party as a whole.
I agree that politics today is very unstable and anything might still happen but at present it looks very much like Labor’s heading for a devastating loss.
What about this is surprising?
What worries me about the ‘anti-politics’ thesis is that it takes the (correct) point that politicians can tap into the widespread cynicism and hostility to politics, and transforms it into the key to all mysteries. The polemical tone in Tad’s piece seems to suggest that accepting this argument is central to a revival of the Left’s fortunes, which is why, I think, so many people have pushed him to explain exactly what it is that the Left should be doing.
IMO, given the state the Left’s in now, I’m very suspicious of claims that an analysis of mainstream politics makes much difference, if only because it’s not a terrain on which the Left’s currently capable of contending. That is, even if this argument had any predictive powers (which I don’t think it does), what would then follow for a Left that’s entirely relegated to the fringe? I am not saying that understanding the shape of mainstream politics is not important, because obviously it is, just that one needs to have a realistic idea of what is possible from where we are at.
Yes, the Greens have suffered from the perception they’re no longer outside the tent and have become insider politicians in their own right. I agree totally with Tad about that.
But it’s not a particularly controversial argument, on the far Left at least.
Again, that’s why, I think, people have pushed Tad to outline what he thinks should be done differently. As I said, most people on the far Left are entirely on board with an outsider project — that was how I took Brull’s argument about the need for campaigning. The main difference here seems to be about what political shape into which such campaigning needs to cohere. But the argument about Rudd doesn’t provide much guidance, since it’s most unlikely that the far Left’s going to be able to mount any kind of electoral challenge any time soon.
So why then this polemical differentiation?
Marc says that the way forward involves the creation of ‘a strong ;eft current *with something coherent to say about what is going on*.’ But that’s the nub, isn’t it!
_Everyone_ is for a strong Left current — but the implication here seems to be that a strong explanation of the fortunes of Rudd versus Gillard will somehow generate it.
That seems like a fantasy to me. Obviously, having a coherent explanation of the political situation is better than not having a coherent explanation. But even if the account being put forward had the explanatory power that you guys think (which, obviously, is something of which I am scpetical) what exactly would happen then? How would it conjure a new Left into existence? Actually, the far Left has repeatedly put forward a far more coherent explanation of world events than other political currents and that in itself has meant nothing. Had the predictions made about Rudd’s return been correct, well, what would have happened then? How would articulating this analysis have led to a practice fundamentally different from that of anyone else on the left?
IMO there’s an impatience that underlies this analysis, a frustration with where the Left’s at that’s not very helpful. At it’s worst, the argument occasionally comes across as a kind of left Ruddism, with Rudd cheered on as a proxy for the missing mass Left organisation. More often, though, it just seems like a stick with which to beat others, without providing any alternative.
My emphasis on explanatory power was actually in reference to the understanding Laborism specifically, (though more tentatively I’d say the same thing about many of the propositions Tad has advanced). It is connected to, but not the same thing as, the analysis of the crisis of politics and anti-politics. Which is connected to but not the same thing as the more immediate commentary about what Rudd’s manoeuvrings represent in terms of attempts to outflank both Abbott *and the left*. I’d encourage you to try to tackle some of this on its individual merits, rather than at the level of some ‘keystone’ crux moment in the whole thing. If we set ourselves the task of figuring out everything at once we’d never get anywhere.
(And for gods sake, can we give up on the straw Rudd Is Great person? Pointing out what Rudd has been/has been trying to do has got very little to do with supporting him. We can surely recognise effective manoeuvres and learn from them even when they come from our enemies.)
In relation to Laborism specifically, there are a range of different theories about its social basis, historical formation, how it works, and how you relate to it. This is true even within the far left grouposcules. The forms that the left broadly defined have adopted in Australia, both in organisation and in argumentation, have all grown up in the shadow of Laborism. We have to a greater extent than we are willing to admit defined ourselves in relation to Labor, and many of our assumptions about what to do presuppose certain things about the way the ALP and its supporters are likely to act. This is true even of the Greens.
And if indeed, something epochal is happening with Laborism, we need to understand what this is, why it is happening, and what it is likely to mean for working class politics. This will likely have significant impacts on the effectiveness of certain forms of argument or practices. Not to mention that the transition itself may present opportunities that failing to analytically understand it will condemn us to miss. Hence more than ever a sharp critical look at our assumptions in this area is necessary (and this would be true even if those forms and assumptions were all correct yesterday, which I’d contend that they weren’t).
Speaking of the far left, I’d argue we’ve been both sloppy and lazy on this. Sloppy in that we’ve elided backwards and forwards from distinct concepts like Laborism and Social-Democracy, which in practice are derived from quite different contexts, that only loosely describe the similar things (bourgeois workers parties). There are important concrete differences which change the way the common features play out, and beyond simple classification the utility of a theory of the ALP that general is dubious. But by sliding all over the shop, we’ve covered over the fact that we’ve never actually elaborated a decent fully worked out theory of the formation and development of Australia’s main political party, and the predominant influence in Australia’s working class. You can’t seriously argue that that failure in the realm of theory is unconnected to the left’s inability to make serious inroads in winning workers away from Labor on an explicitly left wing basis.
I’m a bit bemused and by the reception these arguments get. The bulk of political people engage with the cut and thrust of contemporary politics, but are reluctant to engage in more serious theoretical discussions. Even among activists this bias is broadly true. Yet among my far left associates, the bias is inverted. They’ll talk about the nuts and bolts of debates in the Second International as if they were happening around them, while remaining sublimely oblivious the actual chop chop of today. So the first group is actually heartened by a bunch of Marxists and other lefties writing something from within our tradition about the events of today. The second group sees us engaging in some cute journalistic project at best, and a call to liquidation (or Ruddism) at worst. I’d chalk it up as an oddity and move on, but I think there’s something lurking underneath it which is quite dangerous.
Not arguing out a more immediate analysis of the situation is simply making your active theory implied, rather than explict. We all act on some notion about what is happening that is far more specific than “surplus value extraction” or “class struggle”. The only difference is the extent to which we make it explicit, rigorous, useful and continuously improve it. If you don’t articulate your active theory, your ideas which are explicit are separated from the ideas that guide your action in practice. You end up acting on a kind of left ‘common sense’, which may not be very sensible after all. The de facto effect is not really modesty about the possible, it is just a refusal to submit ones active theory to critical scrutiny. And that way lies madness.
The crudity and generality with which the bulk of the far left approaches politics is part of the problem. Part of the correction to that is an attempt to develop a more immediate set of ideas to help understand the situation and how we might act on it. I don’t see this as an optional extra or a task to be put off until some indefinite point when spontaneity delivers us a situation that shakes us out of our mental torpor. To wait is to lapse into an essentially fatalist approach, relying on necessity or providence to deliver not even a revolution, but merely a half way decent start to an organisation. Not convinced. We should begin carving out a more serious intellectual and practice space now, and continue it. It is part of cohering the strong left current I referred to. I simply don’t accept the apologetics that suggest the left’s weakness and relative lack of impact is exclusively due to external factors – part of the problem is weak politics.
Of course, the luxury of the skeptical approach is that it never needs to be tested either way. We’ll just be waiting for the great leap forward 🙂
From Lizzie on 31 August 2013 at 4.55 am
But what do you mean? Basically what you wrote could be summarized as ‘we need to explain what is going on in mainstream politics and pose an alternative using left ideas.’ What does that actually look like?
The danger you identify – willingness to engage in theoretical discussions rather than day to day politics – is seemingly the fate of this thread.
Um, I wasn’t arguing against theory. I was arguing, firstly, against this particular theory, in which, IMO, an interesting enough insight about antipolitics has been extended into a magical explanation of everything in Australian politics, in a way that’s become completely unfalsifiable, since, in most of the iterations I’ve read, ‘antipolitics’ is so loosely defined as to mean almost anything (eg, the discovery of antipolitics in Rudd saying ‘we need a new way’ or some other anodyne political commonplace) and, indeed, is often identified (in a completely circular fashion) by its results (when Rudd’s leading in the polls, it’s because of antipolitics; as soon as the polls slump, it’s cos there’s been insufficient antipolitics). I was also arguing against a second claim running through this thread — the notion that the failure of the Left stems entirely or in a large part from its inability to recognise one particular shibboleth or another. That seemed to be implicit in your contribution above. Now, fair enough, we need new thinking, new ideas, new strategies, for what we’ve been doing up to now has not been working so well. But big claims require big evidence. Yes, obviously, we need to ensure our analyses of the ALP is as up-to-date as possible. Obviously, we do. But let us imagine that your argument above is immediately adopted by everyone who identifies with the far Left tomorrow. What happens then? Are we suddenly a mass movement or, rather, are we still a collection of individuals and small groups, except with (what you regard as) a better analysis of the ALP?
After years of fruitless turns and get rich quick schemes, a certain humility in these questions seems important.
From Dr_Tad on 2 September 2013 at 7.31 pm
Jeff, the recognition of anti-politics both as a widespread popular sentiment and a political practice is not a theoretical innovation. It is a description of responses from below and above to the breakdown of the political structures that have shaped Australian society for the last century. That breakdown is the more important issue for me — one that is systematically ignored/downplayed/denied by most of the far Left in Australia. I have tried to detail some of that in the posts I link to above, especially the empirical stuff on the hollowing out of Labor’s social base in the trade union bureaucracy.
If one doesn’t accept that basic analysis then there is no need for any explanation of how we are governed beyond more of the same (except, of course, with ever more right-wing characteristics). This then results in seeing the alienation of ordinary people from politics as an uncontradictory positive for the ruling class, a strengthening of the state’s control over the people. In my view this leads to conclusions that are the inverse of what I think is really going on — that capitalism is politically more stable than ever in Australia.
From Male Bastion on 30 August 2013 at 8.45 am
Anyway, only half of the half of the gender divide seems to care anout the political “issue” raised here, as males under 30 don’t, as recognised by the post, and females vaished altogether, seemingly, with the self-banishment of Gillard. So what’s the argument about?
From Male Bastion on 30 August 2013 at 11.29 am
This is worth repeating, with more conventional spelling:
Anyway, only half of the half of the gender divide seems to care about the political “issue” raised here, as males under 30 don’t, as recognized by the post, and females vanished altogether, seemingly, with the self-banishment of Gillard. So what’s the argument about?
From The Piping Shrike on 30 August 2013 at 9.55 am
I find this discussion a little hard to understand, but maybe I don’t mix in the right circles. On this issue of Rudd, there seems to be an attempt to look at the last few months and read everything back from there to dismiss him.
So let us recap. Rudd led Labor to its only victory in the last twenty years, in a campaign that was almost wholly based around him. He then became the most popular PM since they began recording such things thirty years ago (why?). Despite that, he was the first Labor PM to be dumped by his own party in his first term (why?), and then his popularity was such that then Labor broke its own record again and did the even more extraordinary act of reinstating him (why?). Labor’s 2007 victory was unique in the last 20 years and the convulsions since then unique in its history – and they were all centered around one man, even if they weren’t caused by him.
This may be terribly “mainstream” and so not worth worrying about. But as far as I know these are the most significant political developments to have happened in Australia in the last decade. For people who want to intervene in politics but unable to explain the current political convulsions, or even worse, not think its worthwhile doing so seems bizarre to me. Maybe there’s something else of more political significance going on that I haven’t heard about. But then, as I say, maybe I don’t mix in the right circles.
From Jeff Sparrow on 30 August 2013 at 11.09 am
It’s not very surprising that, a week before an election, people are focused on the current poll rather than 2007, especially since, until recently, you seemed to be using this year’s election of proof of your thesis.
As for mixing in the right circles, I appreciate that you are being facetious but, actually, it’s a real point, for it’s difficult to have this discussion without a consensus as to the problem we’re trying to solve. That is, there’s a disagreement about the adequacy of the argument presented here as an explanation of the parties’ electoral fortunes. But there’s also a related argument about whether an appreciation Rudd’s success is key to the revival of the far Left. Are you interested in the second question? If not, there’s not much point debating it.
If your concern is with the far Left then I’ll expand on a point I made above. The far Left largely relates to activism and social struggles, yet with Rudd’s ascension to the leadership of the ALP most of that struggle outside parliament dissipated. It’s been very slim pickings indeed since 2007, despite the very limited social gains the Rudd and Gillard governments have delivered. The back of the kind of (limited) resistance we saw under Howard was rapidly broken. And this occurred while a very union-hostile ALP leader took Labor to a big victory in 2007. A leader whose popularity was, as Shrike says, higher than any on record. And when Rudd was overthrown we saw the union leadership regain influence on the party, and yet cling to it against his possible return as it almost went down to a defeat of staggering proportions. What do these things mean for the unions, still among the largest civil society organisations in the country? What does the unions’ behaviour mean for the possibility of other struggles and campaigns?
If we cannot coherently explain these historical realities alongside the ones that The Piping Shrike points to, then any attempt to revive the far Left (or create some new project that can do what the far Left thinks it is doing) begins on the ground of avoiding what is really happening, as if you can build a political project without accounting for the effective terrain on which you are operating.
The Australian far Left is very weak at understanding how the state and the political class govern over us. There is a tendency to think these are secondary questions, or that when Labor gets into power the union leaders. etc., simply “sell out” to protect a friendly government, thereby shutting down the space for the far Left to operate in. Yet how we are governed is key: We need to grasp how social resistance is shaped and structured by politics, which under capitalism is inherently concentrated on the state. We need to understand how Ruddism inspired hopes, temporarily stabilised politics on the Left and demobilised struggles beyond Labor and the state. We also need to understand in what ways it broke with the material structures of labourism, and in what ways it was weighed down by them.
The “plague on both your houses” approach I criticise is not wrong in the abstract. In the end we are talking about different pro-capitalist parties seeking to run the capitalist state. But it is an unmediated, reductionist understanding of how politics works (and how politics breaks down).
From The Piping Shrike on 30 August 2013 at 11.56 am
He started that way when he returned but has since lost it, which is why he is losing, IMO. But nevertheless the degree to which anti-politics is shaping the political environment (and will continue to do so) might hold some important lessons for how society sees politics and the state in 2013.
The purpose of understanding the current situation is to get some idea how to change it. In my view we are seeing the culmination of profound changes in the nature of politics over the last 20 years that stem from the end of the Cold War and the participation of organised labour in politics. It is happening in different ways in Europe and the US, the Rudd phenomenon and the impact it has had on Labor is how it is being seen in Australia.
In that context, the narrow and ultimately uninteresting task of saving splinter groups of little social significance does not seem worthwhile, in my opinion. New political parties can be easily formed. It does however seem much harder to throw away old ones, no matter how irrelevant.
‘In that context, the narrow and ultimately uninteresting task of saving splinter groups of little social significance does not seem worthwhile, in my opinion’.
That doesn’t seem like an entirely helpful way to engage with the far Left,which might be a problem given these are the people most actively engaged in attempting to change the current situation.
I wonder what your co-thinkers regarding the Rudd ‘anti-politics’ thesis might make of this position?
Dave, you make it sound like helpfully engaging with the far Left is an end in itself. It’s not. The building of mass revolutionary parties (those with real capacity to shake up politics) from small revolutionary groupuscles is the historical exception rather than the rule. Indeed, the one exception everyone clings to – the Bolsheviks – was a faction of a larger social democratic party that didn’t seriously split from the Mensheviks until 1912 (and fully not until 1917 in the midst of revolution).
This is not to write off this or that small group, but to reject the subordination of a clear understanding of the political situation to the internal needs of building the far Left. Without a clear political perspective you might get a bigger far Left, but you are highly unlikely to get one that has any serious social influence.
Dr T always puts it more politely than I. The problem is that having a starting point of “reviving the Left” (rather than fundamental social change) as usually happens, ends up sticking with many of the assumptions of the far Left rather than a more deeper re-think that is required.
This is perhaps where I would differ from Dr T (just to show we are not joined at the hip) as what we are seeing is not just the dissolution of traditional left-right axis (as I believe has been the case for 20 years now) but a problem with political thinking itself. I gather there are some fans of Karl out there. Perhaps they should (re-)read his view on politics.
From Red Ted on 30 August 2013 at 2.15 pm
Tad, I’m confused. Can you complete this sentence for me:
“Only when the left develops a proper understanding of Ruddism will it be able to _________.”
I wouldn’t start a sentence that way, so not sure how to end it.
From Lizzie on 30 August 2013 at 4.42 pm
Tad, in that last post you seem to think the Left needs to be able to explain ‘these historical realities’ as a key basis to ‘revive the far Left.’ If this is your project (unlike the Piping Shrike, it seems?) then the key feature to come to terms with seems to me to be increasing cynicism with the political class. It’s cynicism which either defines or degrades something you seem to think is powerful: Rudd’s ‘anti-politics’. How that particular dynamic works is interesting and relevant but surely it is also ancilliary to the question of how this cynicism can be politically drawn upon to build a decent left current.
I think there are a couple of outcomes of this trend that the left need to come to terms with. Firstly the possibility that it can give rise to far right, libertarian politics and crystallising these differences is often challenging when there is so much common ground. But also, it opens up considerable instability amongst a mass of people open in new ways to resisting government power and state authority. There are plenty of opportunities for the left in many of these movements, but there is a sense that they aren’t seen as the left’s traditional terrain. Lastly of course, there is the biggest challenge: turning cynicism into action – be it rallies or intervention and transformation of traditional social structures, like unions for example, to get them oriented towards some of the key politicial campaigns of the day. (A trend that is part of a much longer decline than just the slim pickings of 2007).
Sometimes I get the sense that Tad you think left groups don’t sufficiently grasp the Rudd dynamic and are therefore not politically making the arguments they need to. We might agree to some extent on the latter, but I reject that the former is the problem.
From Peter Mitchell on 30 August 2013 at 7.22 pm
After reading all that, well no wonder I’m more cynical than ever. What is ‘the left’? What is the far left? As a leftist/unorthodox Marxist of several decades, all this discussion seems like drivel. Sorry, being cynical seems like a valid place to be. I’m passionate about politics, but I’m too busy avoiding any election material at present. It’s just too boring. Also I’m too busy just trying to survive as a disability pensioner. The future of the left is a fantasy for me. I’d rather watch ‘The Simpsons’, ‘Dr Who’ and ‘Escape to the Country’.
From guy rundle on 31 August 2013 at 1.02 am
still a little unclear as to why, though tad’s piece mentions and links to arguments which suggest that the absence of a political left of any heft is due to deeper structural causes, eg
“Most importantly, such nostalgic reimagining cannot be translated into practice, simply because the material basis for labourism no longer exists.”
The problem is not that the depressing state of affairs in Canberra is not ‘real politics’ but that this is what real politics is today.”
the questions remain at the strategic and political level (quite aside from some irritation at the “you havent understood one up-personship…).
If the left’s program was social and democratic control of production it has lost both the struggle for that and even the minimal aim of it being on the agenda. the right won, and the decisive years of defeat in the west were 1945-1970, altho it lingered on into the early 80s in some places.
not saying it couldnt quite rapidly re-emerge in a real crisis ie a total global depression, but it is certainly off the menu now. but i dont really understand how there can be so much talk about the state of the left without any discussion as to what its content should be, even in the most general terms.
im not arguing for crunching out just so schemes but for the analysis such as being done above to be more specific and material.
ie if there is no widespread demand for socialism, or even a social democratic advance, is this because of a)manufactured consent, b)general hegemony c)working class decomposition and embourgeosification, including advantageous spatialised inequality, ie $2 socks means burger-flippers can buy x-boxes and vodka, d) transformation of socio-cultural-psychological forms by a highly abstracted society that has made class and politics itself – matters of the polis – incapable of being done, leaving only admin and reform, and spectacle/performances where politics was, e) a more deterministic structure of history than we assumed, meaning that a lot of what we thought was going on as assertive collective politics was nothing of the sort…
genuinely dont understand why these questions arent asked in these terms in discussions like this. after all, the political left hasnt died at all. but socialism – its core proposition, its definition since the mid-19th c — has. either for the moment or for good.
otherwise it sounds like a company talking marketing opps and rebranding without mentioning that it has no sales and no production (yeah, i know)..
i really dont understand why these d
From Byon on 31 August 2013 at 2.08 pm
The said embourgoisified “burger flippers”, as Francis “End of History” Fukuyama Guy Rundle disparagingly referred to them above, have just recently gone on strike across the US, demanding that their pay be increased from the federal minimum of 7.25 per hour to 15.00 per hour.
Putting aside the situation in Australia for the moment — where reality remains temporarily held at bay by the twin resource and housing bubbles — the lives of working people around the world are marked by by unemployment or precarious employment, with ever more exploitative conditions, indebtedness and bankruptcy for essential costs such as health care and education. This is not to mention foreclosures and homelessness. If this is what “embourgoisification’ amounts to, then maybe one needs a reality check.
Much of the discussion around this subject seems to be informed by a consciousness and outlook that arose during the second half of the 20th century, when capitalism in the core countries of N. America, W. Europe and Japan, was able to average annual growth rates of 3% without too much difficulty. This post-war period of “normal” growth came to an abrupt end in Japan 1990, although it sputtered on for a further eighteen years in Europe and N. America. It is reasonable to project that the Japanese pattern, which has now entered its third decade, ie low growth and failed attempts to resuscitate capitalism through mixtures of brutal austerity for the working class and Keynesianism for various sectors capital, will now be reproduced in N. America and W. Europe.
Liberal, Social Democratic or Labourist reformism, as political programs or forms of political consciousness, remained viable while the capitalist system was humming along in its post-war Fordist overdrive. To mix metaphors, the wheels of that postwar system began to come of with the collapse of the Bretton Woods agreement in 1971. The inevitable denoument was only held at bay through increasingly desparate measures (international restructuring of production, attacks on the working classes, financial bubbles, ponzi schemes and outright criminality in the financial sector). Beyond throwing social reformism overboard, and replacing it wth a program of austerity, endless wars and apparent preparation for dictatorial forms of rule, the ruling classes do not have an answer to the crisis in which they now find themselves. Hard as it may be to fathom from these increasingly sunny antipodes, the ongoing discrediting of the state and the bourgeois and social democratic/labourist parties, along with the accelerating bureacratisation and ossification of the official labour movement, are manifestations of this deepening global crisis of the capitalist social system.
Given the intention of the ruling classes to make working people the world over (including the “burger flippers”) pay for the deepening economic crisis and the bankruptcy of their system, it seems fitting to paraphrase Mark Twain: reports of the end of the class struggle and history are somewhat premature.
Link to article about the by fast food workers across the USA.
This super exploited sector of the working class deserves all the solidarity it can get. In this context, classist terms such as “burger flipper” or sneering throw away lines such as let them drink vodka, use play stations etc, have no place whatsoever.
From guy rundle on 31 August 2013 at 7.44 pm
‘put aside the australian situation for a moment’???
Tad’s entire originating post is about the australian situation. thats the whole point of the discussion. widen it out and the topic becomes too large to be meaningful.
my point or question relates to that – how much of the evacuation of left politics in australia is due to the income gap between australian workers and the wider world – a gap that allows for a degree of discretionary consumption, ie fun stuff, on the part of the former, and which thus gives them an incentive to support the overall system? and how much is due, alternatively, to ideological framing of experience.
If ‘burger flippers’ and embourgeoisified are value-laden terms for you, theyre not for me. people flip burgers for a living. In the US they’re striking, because they cant afford any sort of life. In Oz theyre not. Is that because they can afford more of a life? is that in part because our imports from the US are cheap because of low US wages?
As to embourgeosification – if a whole section of wage-earners have houses appreciating in value, and super funds invested in the stock market, what word would you use? and why assume they have any incentive to disturb the system?
might be hard to believe in the sunny antipodes that people are resisting etc etc etc – but it’s actually not that easy to believe in a lot of other places. one of tad’s points was that sporadic upsurges of protest have led to no sustained mass movements. thats been true of ireland, the UK, and most of the US, recent events notwithstanding. asking why comes back to the questions i asked: would real and visible struggle pop out again quite suddenly given another lurch downwards? or are classes in a global system so decomposed that no unity is possible? are the current systems carrying ideology so all-embracing that no outside is possible, barring total disruption, eg war, etc? or is the system so determinist that ongoing political action on anything other than liberal issues etc is simply a waste of time, and life?
all questions which seem to require more than a bretton woods retread and a repurposed mark twain quote.
From Byon on 31 August 2013 at 11.05 pm
Your argument about the embourgeoisification of the working class through rising house values, rising superannuation portfolios is premised on an unstated (and absurd) assumption of Australian exceptionalism in the world economy.
You say that “widen it out and the topic becomes too large to be meaningful”. On the contrary, I would point out Australia is completely integrated into the global capitalist economy and cannot be meaningfully discussed in isolation from it.
Returning to the assumptions of national economic exceptionalism, these have been heard before (US, Spain, Ireland) where they notoriously foreshadowed the large scale destruction of paper claims to wealth and a reproletarianisation of the “middle class”. In the late late 1990s and early 2000s the US was touted as the very model of the “new economy” where a virtuous circle of capital investment and rising asset prices in stocks and then in the housing sector led to ballooning household and corporate paper claims to wealth which in turn fueled booms in household consumption, the construction sector and further capital investment. When asset bubles finally collapsed, the virtuous circle turned vicious, the 401(k) retirement plans shrank to 201(k) plans and the working classes who had come to see themselves as investors in property markets were foreclosed on by the banks, etc. The US can safely be said to have caught a version of the long term stagnation which began to affect Japan with the puncture of the Japanese asset bubble in the early 1990s.
Chinese investment and trade surpluses were initially driven by the boom in US consumption and the position up to 2008 of the US as the consumer of last resort. With the partial abandonment of this role by the US in 2008, China embarked on its own unsustainable debt binge which has, thus far, kept resource prices high and temporaily stabilised the Australian financial and asset price bubbles (including the value of housing “investments” and superannuation funds). However, it is simply a matter of time before the debt, asset and investment bubbles that have in recent years fuelled growth in China deflate. How the the Chinese ruling class of nouvea riche gangsters and bureaucrats in the CCP will manage the transition to “normal” capitalist rates of growth (ie long term stagnation à la Japan and the US) is a question best speculatied on elsewhere.
Anyway, neither the Australian working classes nor Australian house prices nor superannuation portfoilios are going to be indefinitely insulated from the global systemic crisis. Indeed, anybody who has any political sense whatsoever knows that the neoliberal restructuring of Australian society that began under the Hawke-Keating period is going to be reprised and intensified by the ruling class in the coming years — to the severe detriment of the position of the working classes here. As a capitalist response to the deepening crisis in Australia, we should expect a program of austerity, the dismantling or privatisation of public education and health care, together with attacks on wages and working conditions.
Thus the Australian working class will, in its own way, have to come to terms with the reality that liberal or social democratic/labourite reformism is an increasingly hollow promise and that, like workers in the US and Japan and much of Europe, increasingly “they cant afford any sort of life”.
Understanding where we are today requires much more than a postmodern retread and a repurposed Francis Fukuyama end of history thesis.
From guy rundle on 1 September 2013 at 8.17 pm
Tad’s original question and piece was directed to politics now, but also to the wider question of whether the deep structural conditions for a left had disappeared for now, or for good.
My response was to both the question of immediate political quiescence in australia, and to the wider question of a deep structural transformation of conditions.
To the immediate situation. surely you must recognise that class composition is bound up, at some point, with interests, and that classes can become decomposed by different circumstances? Why is it absurd to say that a fitter/nurse/teacher/office worker with a house in appreciating in value and a super account invested in the stock market by their superfund is not embourgeoisified? they have capital, and it’s capital in use. It may be at several arms length, but it is nevetheless money being earnt from others’ labour – very clearly in the super case, less so in the house case.
Someone with a super fund invested diversly – what is their interest in global solidarity? every material advantage they have in their life is gained from a split working class, and from returns on investments. If a super fund is invested in cadbury, then the super exploitation of cocoa workers is in the interest of workers whose super is invested.
I don’t doubt that such conditions can collapse quite quickly, and a quite radical situation take hold. My question – in relation to tad’s implicit question about whether left activism was even worth it in conditions of stasis – was whether it was worth considering that marxism was a theory of much longer and relatively immutable processes, rather than the more voluntaristic idea of politics that arose with October 1917 and may, in the west, have been misleading.
That is not an end of history thesis – as i said, one argument is that hyper-automation will destroy the value form of capital autonomously. it seems certain to me there will be new stages and forms of human social being.
The question Tad raised, I think, is whether trying to achive this in the received form of the The Left is a meaningful project, or a just a waste of time.
Your unwillingness to consider the particularity of the situation in australia seems to verge on an Idealism – there’s a transcendent thing called the working class, they will come to see their global collective and real interests and things will kick off again.
My suggestion is that this cannot be sustained in the face of evidence. It’s not merely australia. why is there such a paltry Chinese working class movement for example? It can’t be simply a repressive state – Chinese farmers have been in a state of ceaseless uprising for a decade against land alienation. why does China have 19th c work conditions, but no real 19th c working class movement? Is it because there immiseration is less worse than 19c europe? Is it coming, or can it be endlessly deferred? if the latter, what does that tell us about Left prospects?
and that goes back to my determinist argument again….
Guy, a quick response. When I mention the eclipse of the material basis of Labourism I mean the material *political* structures, not some fundamental change in the overall social relations of production that would, say, lead to Marx’s idea of the two main classes (or either of them) to be no longer relevant.
So, again, it’s the specific material structure of politics — how we are governed — that I am mainly talking about.
From Anonymous on 31 August 2013 at 7.24 am
Newman writes: And for gods sake, can we give up on the straw Rudd Is Great person?
Shrike writes Twitter: ‘Rudd can do it better. But at least Beattie’s doing it. RT @SmartState1 Public sick of politics the way we play it’
From fat pickings on 31 August 2013 at 10.24 am
Great post! Generating more than useful discussion.
Stanley Aronowitz on the politics of fear:
We live in a time when liberal reform is dead. Not just because capital waged a successful war on labor and the social welfare state, but also because the liberal opposition is fragmented, their organizations shriveled, their leadership intimidated by the attacks and huddled into corners of impotence. We are at a moment when the liberals will offer the terms of surrender to their adversaries: “cut back Medicare and Social Security, but modestly raise taxes on the wealthy as a symbolic gesture so that we can save face.” They have permitted the Right to seize the initiative and, exceptions by unions notwithstanding, are still plagued by the ghost of the radical movements that still send them into the arms of the neoliberals. In fact, the distinction between the welfare liberals and neoliberals has all but vanished. Despite signs of organized discontent, we are still plagued by a mass psychology of fear. The risk-takers have been relegated to the margins, their numbers overtaken by those seeking security, conformity and compromise. The decline of the radical imagination hobbles attempts at resistance, let alone creating alternatives.
The system survives on the eclipse of the radical imagination, the absence of a viable political opposition with roots in the general population and the conformity of its intellectuals who, to a large extent, are subjugated to the great fear.
Stanley Aronowitz is a distinguished professor at the CUNY Graduate Center and the author of more than 25 books, including Left Turn: Forging a New Political Future.
Full article: http://ow.ly/or9XK
Apologies to all that I haven’t yet responded further (and thanks to all for making comments). I am currently O/S on holidays — and perhaps leaving my nation at its darkest hour, from the look of the polls. 🙁
I will try to reply more in the next couple of days — internet access a bit limited on this first leg.
From Gabrielle Henry on 5 September 2013 at 7.59 am
The left in Australia always defines itself in relation to the Labor Party. It is clear to me that much of the discussion here is ignorant of how things inside the Labor Party actually work. I am distressed that there isn’t more examination of your internalising of populist notions about Labor politics. Kevin Rudd actually appeals to a traditional part of the Labor base, Christian/Catholic socialism. It is not hard to understand when you look at the way he expresses himself to do with ‘moral’ ideas. That is very popular. The Greens appeal to the same tradition. The coming crisis that both the left and the Labor Party is about to face is much more serious than people realise. Without enough members of parliament, Labor cannot provide much opposition to the neoliberal agenda. We don’t have state nor federal governments to provide a basis for opposition for everyone. Lets not pretend that left Labor politicians haven’t always provided the resources and the base for activists. Without that resource left activists have to rely on their own resources. Student organisations, various advocacy groups etc. Please consider this prospect. We also need to learn how to do politics from the Labor Party because there is an enormous amount of collective knowledge about how to do electoral politics within that party. This is based on the assumption that one is a democratic socialist and not a revolutionary socialist and wishes to engage in electoral politics. I would argue that it is also necessary to make party branches have a role outside of electoral politics engaged within their local communities. This is the project we are embarking on in our local community.
From Byon on 7 September 2013 at 11.20 am
This is by way of reply to the comment by Guy Rundle above.
Guy writes:
Why is it absurd to say that a fitter/nurse/teacher/office worker with a house in appreciating in value and a super account invested in the stock market by their superfund is not embourgeoisified? they have capital, and it’s capital in use. It may be at several arms length, but it is nevetheless money being earnt from others’ labour – very clearly in the super case, less so in the house case.
Hilariously, as examples of the”embourgeoisified” you provide teachers, nurses and fitters. Nurses and teachers, who work in education and health, precisely the areas which the actual bourgeoisie have targeted for restructuring and cost cutting in their drive to austerity over the last thirty years, and will single out for brutal restructuring in the future. Fitters and turners? One could scarcely find a subsection of the Australian working class more vulnerable to the ongoing processes of deindustrialisation and the relentless drive of the real bourgeoisie to restore profitability in the face of the long term stagnation by rolling back the conditions of the working class.
I suppose that at this point you are going to raise the mining industry, and the high wages that industrial workers such as fitters and turners apparently obtain in this sector. Let me preemptively address this argument by pointing out that:
Workers in the mining industry have been suffering degradation of their working and life conditions as the unions have bargained away their working conditions for pay rises, much as the United Auto Workers Union did for auto workers in the US in the period 1950-75 (and we know how that ended).
The high wages in the mining sector are very much dependent on the resources boom which is propped up by the bubble economy in China. It is merely a matter of time before the Chines bubble economy deflates, bringing down resource prices with it. The best case outcome of this scenario for the global ruling class is long term stagnation in China, of the sort which Japan has experienced over the last two decades (and counting).
As it is, the mouthpieces of the ruling class (that is the real bourgeoisie, as opposed to supposedly “embourgeoisified” teachers, nurses and fitters/turners), regularly publish loud complaints about the drag that high wages and low productivity in the Australian resource sectors are having on the profitability of the resource giants that control the sector.
Housing values. Most people who live on wages (rather than off capital or investment) are not in a financial position to own their houses outright. They are paying for their houses through loans and, more often than not, these loans are a cause of financial stress. Furthermore, unlike a capitalist who can sell shares or divest and realise the value of an investment, the worker who holds a mortgage typically does not have any practical way to realise the nominal value of his or her supposedly appreciating asset. The holder of the mortgage is also at risk of being foreclosed on should he/her lose employment. Finally, those with large mortgages are at risk of being left underwater if and when the Australian housing and resource bubble bursts (see remark on stagnation and China above). Contrast this precarious situation of the working class mortgage holder with a member of the actual bourgeoisie who typically own several dwellings outright. How being beholden to financial institutions for the bare necessities of life such as housing marks a typical wage worker as being “embourgeoisified” remains a mystery.
Superannuation. This is scam has been consciously designed by the ruling class to enable them to confiscate a proporition of wages for investment in various financial ponzi schemes, under the guise of saving for workers’ retirement. The benefits of such a strategy are three fold; firstly the inflow of funds into financial markets tends to prop up or further inflate the value of the market, most of which is held by the bourgeoisie. Secondly, the financial sector profits by charging exhorbitant fees to (mis)-manage the superannuation funds that are held in the name of waged workers. According to figures quoted by Ken Davidson a few years ago, the fees “earned” by the financial services “industry” in this way alone exceeded the then annual cost to the Federal Government of the old age pension. Thirdly, the superannuation system has been set up to work as a tax shelter for the wealthy.
As I pointed out earlier, the same US workers who, at the height of the US housing and financial bubble, may have seen themselves as investors in housing markets and 401(k) plans (the US version of superannuation), found themselves underwater or foreclosed upon, the value of their 401(k) plans written off. So much for the “embourgeoisification” of the US working class.
While you seem to acknowledge that US is currently a low wage economy, you convinently overlook the long term processes (deindustrialisation,financialisation, restructuring, class warfare from above) that have lead the destruction of the US “middle class”. Is this because and acknowledgement that the same processes mutatis mutandis are at work here would lead to the obvious conclusion that his thesis of “embourgeiosification” of the Australian working class is just so much old ideological chloroform?
Your unwillingness to consider the particularity of the situation in australia seems to verge on an Idealism
Of what particularity do you write here, other than the apparently widely held assumption that Australia will remain immune from the global crisis that presently only shows signs of deepening in the main centres of capitalist accummulation? While the US, Japanese and European bourgeoisie, or the the CCP bureaucrats and nouveau rich who run China, are collectively not able to guarantee “normal” rates of growth let alone protect their individual economies from the crisis — notwithstanding their desperate measures such as austerity, quantitative easing, etc — you seem to be trading on the belief that the gang of criminals, hole diggers and buffoons who comprise the Australian bourgeoisie have discovered some magical capitalist elixir that will stave off stagnation here, in the face of a global crisis. This sounds more like garden variety national hubris than any other particularity.
Absent a revival of a human emancipatory project which, in its own way, addresses the fundamental issues of exploitation exploitation and class oppression, the default course at the moment seems to be the ruling class agenda of austerity, inequality, endless global wars, environmental destruction, militarisation of the state apparatus and apparent preparation for dictatorial forms of rule. Is this what you mean by new stages and forms of human social being? Where do actual humans fit in this project of endless wars, austerity, etc.
why does China have 19th c work conditions, but no real 19th c working class movement? Is it because there immiseration is less worse than 19c europe? Is it coming, or can it be endlessly deferred?
The culpability of Stalinism and Social Democracy in stabilising capitalism in the 20th century has been well documented. Whereas Western ruling classes have since the 1970s have gradually abandoned Social Democracy as a means of stabilising their rule, the longevity of Stalinism in China probably goes a long way to answering this question.
From Neale on 10 September 2013 at 6.31 pm
I wonder if the anarchist and IWW traditions are somethings that need thought here. Verity and Meredith Burgmann pointed to the influence of some of these ideas in Green Bans Red Union, the last time trade unionists brought political economy/ecology together across classes (if I can use the term). David Graeber, author of the book Debt the first 5000 years, a wonderful source of ideas from history too, has recently written on “Bullshit jobs” http://www.strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ from this direction. he looks at how we seem to have been corralled into useless work to keep us occupied and with cash in our pockets (although the last is under threat). Bill Mitchell has a critique of Graeber’s short article on his blog. http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=25265 Bil has great economic points, regarding consumerism etc, but its an example of the economism talking past the other traditions, and the grip economic growth needs have on us. I don’t pretend to know an answer here, but I think Guy is in tune with this, (and superannuation always strikes me as a feature that takes away from collectivism and co-operation towards maximising individual concerns and returns and I better stop that as I will drift even further). and the Occupy Movement, that Graeber was/is a part of, tried to address this. results not so great but election voting trends and actions around the world seem to strongly indicate a disgust with the current political economy.
I guess read William Morris (whose Useful Work versus Usless toil says it in its title, Fourier Marx, etc etc
Just sayin’ as my daughter might say.
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Tag Archives: part mortal
Reflections on What Easter Really Meant To Me
Currently employed full time, I have few hours to spare on writing projects such as this one. Fortunately corporate Australia permits an extra day’s forced holiday over Eostre, so I have been able devote time to penning something on the tafaska cause; a cause, I might add, swamped by ambiguous sentiment. Easter, as with the other Christian-Pagan festival called Christmas, is a celebration of harvest (dedicated from the Goddess Eostre). It represents the death of the season, marked by grieving tears (who said grieving could not be happy?) of the Songkran, and the other welcomes a new birth that ushers in the burning summer sun. Infancy stages are marked and drawn out, so it naturally takes a devil of a long time for the sun (sol) to emerge in full bloom. Conversely, when the cold snap sets in one day out of the blue, it will refuse to shake for several months. Occasionally a seasonal death (metaphor) will linger, but when the cold’s in, it is there to stay.
Embroiled in the Easter message (which is an encapsulation of season changes, differing depending on locations) are numerous metaphors. Perhaps most significant is the death of Tiamat one and a half billion years ago when the planet was subsequently reborn as the Earth. Made popular through living necessity, the harvest festival is far removed from heavenly politics. There is evidence of cosmic philosophy in the Pol Vuh and other ancient records, but the sheer weight of celebrations of abundance shows what the ancients took the most seriously. Indeed, for them, only clearly sincere devotion to God would permit a bountiful harvest, or, In other words, God’s blessing and presumed associated goodwill needed a “trade”. Perhaps inspired by a perceived breakdown in community devotion, at some juncture human sacrifice became the popular way of demonstrating allegiance to God, evidenced by the Wiccan and those dreadful Mayan/Aztec practices of the deep past.
True “Gnostic” Christianity also emphasises the importance of harvest, being the staple for good life. “Evil” is the measure of sickness and disease and not the “justifier” that supports vicious, unholy opinions. Legacies found in some (but by no means all) documents euphemistically labelled “Dead Sea Scrolls” expand a pantheist narrative line fused with Eastern philosophy offering a variation of existential Zen Buddhism. Though the quantum layer is not mentioned directly (and is presumably unknown) by the Gnostics, their interpretations of the dynamics of spiritual (vibrational) existence are defined as states, characters and emotions and these mimic atomic expressive fluctuations. I discuss the importance of this style of reasoning in detail in my book “The Beauty of Existence Decoded”.
While in shameless promotion mode, it would be remiss of me not to mention that I now offer professional consultation sessions. Current enquiries from potential clients have been split into two equal streams. Interest has been shared between the individual pursuit of divine purpose and wider communal discovery – corporeal deep genetic (potentially extra-terrestrial) heritage. I can evaluate and expand both arenas. Each session (via Skype) comes at a reasonable fee of $100 per hour, providing the currency is valid and of the US variety. Preconceptions are forbidden. Closed minds are unwelcome. Those interested in learning more should first read this article detailing an extended two hour consultation conducted recently, Captivated parties will find a contact point there for private communication.
Easter is a Christian religious festival, so to commercialise it in any way would be to insult God. Do our supermarkets give away spiced buns or chocolate eggs said to represent the mock crucifixion and rebirth of Jesus? Other than everything seems to be “on sale” to sell these days, I saw no “giveaways” over the holiday. If Easter meant anything it seemed to represent only profit and loss. It also seemed to represent maintaining an illogical heathen fantasy that ridicules prosperity. Moreover the real Jesus would be horrified by what Christianity has become. Foul blabbermouths crusade bitterly on behalf of hollow, cynical virtues that are there only to enshrine order for order’s sake. They do not uphold the ethos of Jesus; that deliberate open hearted discovery tour and rite to passage.
No, Christianity succumbed to vile attack from the enemies beginning with the Nicolaitans partnering Constantine tyranny. But serious scholars know plans were well underway much earlier. I continue to argue Mark or Marcus, compiler of the synoptic gospel, was really a Roman aristocrat. His argument that Jesus was a part mortal Son of God satisfies all contemporary Roman ideals. If Jesus ministry, in deference to traditional dates, logically and provably (by analysis of journeying timelines) mapped the Jerusalem siege period (66-69AD), then far from there being an extended aural period (irrational in every sense), the Roman version of the life of Jesus was hot off the press right after they won the battle over Jerusalem.
The only unsatisfied enigma is as to why Disciple Peter was needed as star witness. The capture and imprisonment of what I originally believed to be one of Jesus’ chief bodyguards coincided with the collapse of Jerusalem. Given Peter’s prominence as a de facto priest in Mark’s “Acts of the Apostles”, clearly there is more to this picture than meets the eye. Thus, recently, I concluded that Peter’s association with Jesus (the figurehead) was more metaphorical than factual. Instead, he was one of the key Gnostics inside Jerusalem at the time of the siege while Jesus was journeying on the outside. Perhaps Peter’s sleeping at the time of Jesus’ capture represented the miscalculation of a Roman breach and attack of the city which ultimately ended the rebellion.
Contrary to popular opinion, the “Romans” (as were the Greeks prior) had been defeated by the Babylonian King David when the Mediterranean peoples were locally known as Philistines. The Philistines never disappeared. They relocated far from harm’s way, reconsolidated but did not undertake any large scale imperialist conquests until they had become sufficiently strong many centuries later. It is also worth mentioning that understanding of human genetics (genome) makes for greater confusion. Because the ancient Caucasian races all unrestrictedly interbred, authentic genetic traits have been indiscriminately spread over the great group today.
Originally, green eyed, red haired Celts, for instance, were a distinct variety separate of the black haired, grey eyed race and so on. It is hardly surprising the Genome project honestly judges Ashkenazi Jews as bulk-standard “whites”, much to the protest of Zionist supremacists of course. In fact green eyed, red haired priestly Celts are distinctly recorded as Viracocha’s (perhaps some sort of “Anunaki” manifestation) emissaries commissioned to transport Olmec man (presumed Negro) to Mayan South America. Each attired in loose fitting tunics tied at the waist by a coarse rope or sash, feet supported by open toed leather sandals, they appeared no different in descriptive appearance to modern day Benedictine monks.
Guatemala is most commonly referenced as the most up-to-date heritage of the Maya and tribes who have been recorded observing dozens of Earth bonding ceremonies over the Easter period. No wonder the violent imperialist Sandinistas focused on breaking the culture of that great land as a primo priority. Because of the spiritual integrity of genuine timeless ceremonies, all are destined to find a role as a holistic Easter cause. To presume spiritual disintegration of the whole and censorship of any of its parts does not violate the will of God is preposterous indeed. Divides were caused by those that assumed their own superiority and accorded that social apartheid was “justified” by these differences alone. Indeed it was overt racism that permitted the collapse of the Satan Star as the primary act of existence. I discuss the consequences in depth in my book “The Beauty of Existence Decoded”.
The earliest known copy of any New Testament manuscript heralds from the early Christian church located in Alexandria. The document in question arguably dates prior to 200AD and is perhaps contemporary with many of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is odd that it did survive at all, because Constantine nobbled just about all other literatures his thugs could purge from the great Alexandrian library. Our enigmatic manuscript is a copy (the original would have been sketched between 66 and 69AD) of the Fourth Gospel, which is posthumously known as “John’s”.
Aiding by compelling arguments presented by Richard Leigh (et al) in “The Holy Blood, The Holy Grail”, I conclude that John’s Gospel is a very early bastardisation of the word of the real Jesus based on parts of (not tampered with) memoirs recorded by his brother-in-law, Lazarus (son of Joseph of Arimathea). John, the “alias”, was chosen because it derives from a Hebrew expression with means “God is gracious”. It is not beyond the realms of consideration that perhaps Jesus released his own version of “John” prior to the doctored version heralding from Alexandria.
It Jesus’ version did exist, it either has not survived or is hidden from public scrutiny. Either way, should the dating of the Alexandrian bogus scroll be deemed accurate, logic dictates distortion of Essene Gnosticism was well underway from the inside even as the early church was establishing formal roots. Mark, in Acts of the Apostles, it would be fair to say, does more than hint at deep politics collectivising the early church. This doubtlessly reflected turbulent times inside Jerusalem under siege, so why wouldn’t that turmoil carry over? In normal circumstances, Paul, an unmistakable hard line Pharisee, would have failed at every attempt at infiltration.
By the Synod of Hippo (394AD) Gnosticism was dead, as an authority. Roman Catholicism had its way and the Pharisees could breathe easy. Doctrinal “sin” made man accountable to God. Indeed emphasis on Moses’ legacy pushed the concept a stage further by implying man, as a naturally imperfect sinful being, must be subservient to God. His “commandments” or orders from God prepared for unscripted tyranny. None of these ten “primary requirements” of man were or are possible to follow to the letter. Moses had crafted laws that would imply perennial guilt on the sincerely spiritual and this is why the early Christian church, under sentence from Catholicism, became the popular resolve. Priests (who were no different to anyone else) were “apparently” bestowed with mystical powers that allowed them to veto “sin” on behalf of their helpless God.
The tradition expanded as a form of universal transcendentalism delivered through the belief in the divinity of Virgin Mary. Emphasised by the Catholic Church’s relatively recent move on the tail of the New Age “Cosmic Christ” bandwagon highlights just how much Mary had undermined Jesus prior. Her effigy (idol) still holds so much power some believe it is a direct channel to God. I am speaking superficially, of course, and do not responsibly suggest this could be the case. Although it should also be noted that the spiritual value of objects must never be underestimated. When fused in combination with the power of belief, “miracles” might be possible (underscored by our lack of understanding as to the true role of atoms, the building blocks of existence).
The ancients knew that only when very similarly tuned peoples lived on a planet; it would absorb and reflect the group emotional character bandwidth as pulsating echoes. Consequentially, as one infected planet crossed another’s path or came into the zone of influence, inhabitants would be deeply affected by the others’ mood. Even today ignorant horologists make a living from this presumption. Belief in energy saturated effigies is one thing, but the Catholic mumbo-jumbo certainly obscures the truth that Mary was a Roman royal and her idolisation was a deliberate ploy to give her the eternal prestige her status vested.
The Jews were no different in this regard. Melchizedek, the “king”, was a comparative oaf who adopted traditional folklore as a cover for his own historic prosperity. The same trick is partially played scripting Jesus and, undeniably, some of the tradition highlighted by Melchizedek is drawn upon, and why not, if Jesus was of royal blood? Hebrew chroniclers were metaphor makers. Miracles, if implausible, added colour to vestige. A royal shouldn’t be comparable to a commoner. The gospel writer “Matthew” (meaning, from Hebrew, gift of God) pushes the argument that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, which (contrary to Greek philosophic barbarism of terms) says he was the rightful shepherd king to the people of the time. Private debate continues today as to whether he, by any stretch of the truth, could be proven to be seventieth in line (taken from Ezekiel’s prophecy) after Adam.
Jesus’ own identity, I have stated several times, is a Latin joke; an anagram found in the name Josephus. Not coincidentally, if the ministry of Jesus coincided with the Siege of Jerusalem, it would have ushered in Josephus’ coming of age (euphemised by the baptism performed by John the Baptist, son of Zechariah, and one of the progressive steps to messianic authority). His father was a High Priest of the line of King David. All religious scribes were from royal families. There were no equal opportunities in these times. However, because of presumed blood heritage, theoretically any scribe could make a bee-line for regal power. The case was made by Matthew and Mark in no uncertain terms. Jesus/Josephus/Joseph ben Matthias was placed as a direct descendant of David to give added strength to stressed patronage.
Historically, corporeal (of the body) politics between Pharisees (judges) and Sadducees (scribes) was thought to act as an order balancer. This affected law making outcomes determined by the scales of power. Therefore, the most significant outcome of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem was the end of the Sanhedrin (religious government). From that point on, the Sadducees were axed leaving only totalitarian pharisaic (judgemental) domination to thrive. The corresponding exodus from Judea not only rendered Jews without a nation, but also began a new age of spiritual dogma. In effect the payoff for divine tyranny ensured complicit Jews could celebrate the fact they were no longer “goyim” (nationals) because they had no nation.
Rabid distortion of the Moses instructions (emphasised in the Book of Leviticus and others) logically ensued. Per this new irrational epoch, corrupt “Jews” no longer needed to be responsible goyim as they weren’t goyim (being nationless). Corruption was turned sour by the void in explanation as to why Moses’ generalisation tarred the goy “lower than the common beast”. Inhumane, immoral, unjustified behaviour prevailed as a result of abuse of privilege (God presumed the Jews had higher spirituality than other nationals given their grounding in faith) and this message should thrashed home by all decent, God loving Rabbis. Logic proposes Moses actually only targeted goyim that put their “nation” ahead of responsible humanity. Perhaps the answer would be found in the “lost” tabernacles protected by the Arc of the Covenant? Therefore, Israelites that suppose otherwise defy Moses and mock their true God.
With the critical loss of nationhood, the Pharisees have exploited the fact ever since. Even today Haredim deny the legality of Israel as a nation state. Why? They do so to crudely preserve pharisaic injustices whereby the Israelites can have a nation, but are not regarded as “nationals”, because ambiguity determines their nation is not certainly divinely legitimate. For those oblivious to Mosaic doctrine, it was said, of Earth’s peoples, the tribe of Levi was the most worthy under God. Under this vein of responsibility, they could guide the wider Jewish brethren, who were corporeally known as “God’s chosen people”. Finally, whatever could be done for the rest, God’s spawn, was up to the furtive moral probity of the chosen. The doctrine, in the suggestion that the Jews were God’s “chosen people”, implies Judaism is “the” unblemished authentic divine instruction. It also implies that Jews must lead by example.
Remember, none of Moses’ ten fundamental commandments’ are possible to follow to the letter; particularly given the belief that a divine authority would expect any instruction to be observed beyond fully. Therefore, if the commandments were issued “under divine authority” as described, then God was a pretty poor judge of human faculty. Indeed the philosophy behind the commandments pragmatically only encourages human beings to nit-pick ways out of responsibility, perhaps using the same five star lawyers corporates favour today, or resign to resolute spiritual incompetence. The commandments seem to have been drafted to ensure all humans are sure to fail (from the divine perspective). Given this consideration, it is hardly surprising that the Jews have assumed their arbitrary role as chosen, proto divine, people is something of an in-house joke. Faced with the impossible task of demonstrating divinity (based on the commandments), certainly Jews are no different to other humans. They innocently kill things. They have unworthy thoughts. They don’t truly believe less love something they don’t know is true. Moses “as paraphrased” gave his people a simple choice: follow the doctrine and be more worthy than anyone else or fudge it, manipulate it and abuse it.
Up to the point the Sanhedrin was disbanded, similar to politics of today, merit in decision making relied on a two party system. Over hundreds of years the some sorry debates went round and round, drawing the same old time-endured predictable conclusions. That is why Jesus was not particularly satisfied by the Sadducees as he vehemently opposed the Pharisees. Complimenting today’s political machinations, certain groups and views were marginalised to the point of deliberate ignorance or worse. Those deemed a threat to order were persecuted. Today, in conjunction, many people are “persuaded to believe” fate is merely coincidental or random by corrupt, “partisan” sciences, when the reverse is true. The Sanhedrin collapsed because its internal politics had become stale, The Roman “attack” on Jerusalem acted as a “cover story”. I used the term “attack” glibly as no evidence has been forthcoming (beyond more or less instant persecution of Gnostic Christians) to support claims. Like the sensation “holocaust” (creating more ambiguity over the spiritual “legality” of Israel), the supposedly destroyed temple may have equally been “imaginary”, in light of its defiance of strict prophesy.
Between 66-69AD Jesus was on the political campaign trail one jump ahead of authorities. Politics have become much more civil in the modern age. The roguish “pro-sovereignty” Irish party, Sinn Fein, was overtly censored for years by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on behalf of successive British governments. Though no “Jesus” by any stretch of the imagination, telecasts of leader Gerry Adams’ speeches were silenced but for newsreaders’ doctored talk-overs. His voice was said to be too intoxicating with the potential of corrupting listeners. In other words, his arguments were too valid, too compelling to be allowed to be heard and compares with predicable censorship in Jesus’ time, which is the main reason all religious texts offer so much innuendo and metaphor. No one (in sanity) could put a real name to this stuff unless he was a seriously important personage with a giant army to back his mouth up.
Though Flavius can mean golden (sometimes referring “blond haired” boys) or imperial, the Roman Flavian Dynasty is famous for its wreaths (dual metaphor – the laureate poet wearing a crown of thorns?). Encapsulated by the anagram “Josephus”, a royal poet laureate gives birth to spiritual Jesus, in turn sacrificed for sin under a crown of thorns. Mystics know this symbolism is discombobulated and stretches much further. The crown of thorns represents the barbed rose cross reinforced by the “crucifixion”. It is Jesus’ Rosicrucian/Atlantean calling card. Sadly few have the presence of mind to scrutinise this less consider implications. Rather than being one the Rosicrucians, I interpret the message stating Jesus and all Gnostics were up against the Roman version of that order which transferred to the Catholic Church, as is currently the case today. It also confirms that Zionist pharisaic nationless hard liners have partnered with Rosicrucian Philistines in order to secure the globe. Zion approximates an ancient Hebrew word that means fortress or prison.
Easter, the Christian festival, simply calculates Jesus’ death and rebirth as euphemised by the crucifixion/resurrection stories. The four gospels treat the resurrection accounts very differently. In Mark the episode is missing. Matthew passes off the occurrence almost as an aside, perhaps even “with indifference”. Luke slightly improves on Matthew’s trite delivery by adding a short précis of the outline found in Mark’s Acts of the Apostles. In the Acts of the Apostles account Jesus is presented as so disfigured by his harrowing ordeal, he is barely recognisable. Only by “his words” (metaphor – the “legacy of Jesus” and beware of false prophets too) can some of the apostles “see” (another couched metaphor – damned by censorship). For Mark (the Roman who possibly was the character that is labelled Judas Iscariot) Jesus was spent, done, finished and only belong with the other dead (and out of fashion) prophets, so he sent him off in a cloud (we have the expression today “head in the clouds” meaning “to be unrealistic”. It appears to also be a contemporary Roman idiom, so might it apply here?).
It is the legacy of Jesus that was the great threat to pharisaic order and this needed to be censored as all cost. Over the Easter period, I had an enlightening discussion with an Islamic scholar. Unbeknownst to me, the one thing that separates Jesus from all other mystics is he refrained from use of the instructions “no” or “don’t”. Mohamed, we both concluded, took the pharisaic “forced order” path, which, upon reflection, is not entirely “without merit”. His doctrine assuring “alms for the poor” significantly improves on Jesus’ own suggestive Feeding of the Five Thousand and Good Samaritan parables. Was support of others to be made obligatory, then social communion would be a small step away. It is no wonder that the very first Islamic war was fought over the interpretation of Mohamed’s alms for the poor doctrine.
That is why Easter has succumbed to crass commercial “Passover” and the desperate, disadvantaged and poor have been left, all but forsaken.
Posted on April 30, 2017 by ozziethinker in Deep, hidden and real history, Profile of the Gnostic Jesus, Rage against the machine • Tagged abundance, Acts of the Apostles, Alexandrian library, alms for the poor, anagram, ancient records, Anunaki, Ashkenazi Jews, Atlantean, atomic, aural period, Aztec, Babylonian, BBC, Benedictine monks, blood heritage, bonding ceremonies, British Broadcasting Corporation, Catholicism, chocolate eggs, chosen people, Christian-Pagan, Christmas, Closed minds, commercial, Constantine, corporate, cosmic Christ, cosmic philosophy, crown of thorns, crucifixion, Dead Sea scrolls, Disciple, divine purpose, divinity, easter, Eastern philosophy, effigy, Eostre, Essene, existential, exodus, extra-terrestrial, Ezekiel, false prophets, Feeding of the Five Thousand, festival, Flavian Dynasty, flavius, Fourth Gospel, genetic, genome, Gerry Adams, God loving, God’s blessing, Goddess, Good Samaritan, Goyim, Guatemala, Haredim, harvest, Hebrew, High Priest, idol, immoral, imperialist conquests, Inhumane, Islamic scholar, Islamic war, Jerusalem siege, jesus, Jewish Messiah, John the Baptist, Joseph of Arimathea, Josephus, Judas Iscariot, Judea, judges, King David, Latin, laureate poet, lawyers, Lazarus, Levi, Leviticus, Maya, Mayan, Melchizedek, messianic authority, miracles, Mohamed, Mosaic doctrine, Moses, nation, nationals, New Age, New Testament, Nicolaitans, Olmec, pantheist, part mortal, Passover, Pharisee, Philistines, Pol Vuh, Preconceptions, priest, quantum layer, rabbis, rebirth, Rosicrucian, Sadducees, Sanhedrin, Satan Star, scribes, Sinn Fein, Son of God, Songkran, spiced buns, spiritual, Synod of Hippo, synoptic gospel, tafaska, The Beauty of Existence Decoded, The Holy Blood, The Holy Grail, Tiamat, vibrational, Viracocha, Virgin Mary, will of God, wreaths, Zechariah, Zen Buddhism, Zionist, Zionist supremacists • 2 Comments
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Black and White Fun with Macphun’s Tonality
January 29, 2016 - Uncategorized
Tonality CK is Macphun’s digital black and white editing tool. Other tools from Macphun include apps for reducing noise, adding lens effects, working with HDR, and more. With Tonality, Macphun has managed to balance easy presets with serious editing tools to create what I think of as a digital playroom for working with black and white images. In this tutorial, I’m going to look at the play end of the play-serious editing balance. Follow along, and you’ll learn how to create a fun and expressive black and white post-processing workflow with some seriously good presets.
Back to Black and White
Before digital cameras, I photographed almost exclusively in black
and white. I used colour film for specific projects, but overall,
preferred the flexibility and forgiveness of black and white film. There’s
also a never-ending growth curve with black and white photography: it’s
easy to do, but a challenge to master. I relished that challenge of
working the nuances to achieve a beautiful, subtly graduated black and
white print that offered every tone from the darkest black to the
lightest white while still holding detail. I also enjoyed playing with
various toning baths.
When I converted to digital, everything was recorded in colour: conversion to black and white became a less-satisfying process of “taking away.” I
became colour-drunk and enjoyed the ability digital offered to finesse
colours. However, the options for digital conversion to black and white, and the quality of digital sensors, have
improved dramatically over the last few years and I once again find myself
embracing the ability to engage in the challenge of
mastering black and white photography.
seems to have grasped the joy of being both innovative and traditional
with digital photographic processing. Known initially for FX Studio—an
iPhone app—Macphun has since developed a stand-alone desktop suite of
software that also plug into Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, Aperture,
and Apple Photos. (Windows users need not apply: Macphun has chosen to
pick one platform—Mac—and excel at it.)
Bring on the Tonality!
Tonality can be used as a stand-alone app or as a plug-in. The advantage to using it as a stand-alone is the ability to save the file in Macphun’s file format (.mpt), which preserves your adjustments and layers. If you use Tonality as a plug-in, the processed image appears back in your source program in its original file format with all of the adjustments you’ve made in Tonality applied. There’s no ability to go back and review what you’ve done or tweak the image further. I like to use Tonality as a plug-in when I’m batch processing images, when I’m fairly certain about the changes I want to make, or when I am going to apply a preset that I’ve created myself and use routinely. But when using Tonality to play and learn, I prefer to use it as a stand-alone.
For this tutorial, I’ve used Tonality as a stand-alone, but using it as a plug-in is as simple as selecting Tonality from a program’s list of editing options or, in Photoshop, from the list of filters.
Edit in Tonality Stand-Alone
From Lightroom
In Lightroom, use either the context menu (right-click on the image) and select Edit In > Tonality CK, or in Lightroom’s menu, select Photo > Edit In > Tonality CK. Lightroom will create a .tiff version of the image and open it in Tonality. After you’ve made your adjustments in Tonality, select Apply to update the .tiff file with your changes.
From Photoshop
In Photoshop, use the menu and select Filter > Macphun Creative Kit > Tonality CK. Photoshop will export the selected layer of your image to Tonality CK. After you’ve made your adjustments in Tonality, select Apply to update the Photoshop layer with your changes. Note that Tonality applies the adjustments to the layer as destructive changes. For this reason, I typically create a stamped layer of my image (Command-Option-Shift-E) and use that layer in Tonality.
From Apple Photos
In Apple Photos, select the image you want to adjust, then select the Edit button in the top right of the window, or in Photo’s menu, select Image > Show Edit Tools (Shift-Return). In the edit menu that will open beside your image, select Extensions > Tonality CK. If you don’t see Tonality in the list, select More … and then select Tonality CK from the list of extensions.
To use Tonality as a stand-alone, open the app and load your image. (Tonality will not open without an image file.) Now, get set to play!
Digital Darkroom: Tonality’s Presets
Photographic presets have developed a bad rap, and perhaps deservedly so. Although presets are not a bad thing in themselves, lots of bad photography—and even good stuff—is served up with a heavy layer of someone else’s idea of what constitutes an engaging photograph. Presets are often a one-stop application: slap it on and, at best, adjust the strength of the preset. But Macphun has managed to create 150 (and counting) black and white and monochromatic presets that sidestep kitsch and offer variations akin to black and white film photography and wet lab toning. Also, every preset can be adjusted with the full range of Tonality’s processing tools, and presets can be layered and masked for complexity and fine-tuning.
The general layout of Tonality with layers, processing tools, preset categories, and individual presets.
Craft: Tonality’s Presets as Expressive Visualization Tools
You can choose to use Tonality’s presets as traditional presets—apply them and adjust their strength—but instead, I recommend using them to experiment with ways of seeing and interpreting the potential in your images. Tonality makes this kind of creative play easy, natural, and fun. By trying out a range of presets on an image, you can get a feel for what is possible with black and white photography.
Preview and Previsualize
Select a preset and scan the processing tools to see what has been adjusted. There is no shortage of options, with presets loosely grouped to help with selection. My suggestion is that you start with the presets in a collection that best suits your image—Portrait for portraits, for example—but also try presets from a different collection to see what those presets emphasize or change. Then manually adjust a tool or two to see how that changes what the preset created.
Layer and Combine Presets
Also try layering presets to see how that changes the image. The ability to apply toning presets in a separate layer is an advantage over other black and white conversion software. Layers can also be masked for selective application of changes. The masking tools—a brush to paint in, an eraser to paint out, and gradients to ease transition—are the only controls you have for creating a mask, but those tools are adjustable in size, feathering, and opacity. If you’re not happy with your experiments with masking, right-click on the layer and select Fill Mask to remove the masking effects and start again. (In my opinion, if you are trying to control changes with precision that demands more than these tools, you’re missing the point of black and white photography. Save that kind of precise work for a full-scale raster image editing program.)
Experiment to Find Own Your Special Black and White Flow
Take the time to scan the adjustments presets make with the processing tools. Experiment with layers and masking tools, and if you want to start over with a mask, use the layer’s context menu to fill the mask.
I initially started adjusting the following image with presets from the Outdoor category, then switched to presets from the Street collection. The Outdoor presets favoured the trees, bringing out details in the vegetation and blowing out the details in the architecture. The Street presets, on the other hand, played down the foliage and brought out the details in the architecture.
Image processed with Andes Dream preset, found in the Outdoor category.
Image processed with City Life preset, found in the Street category.
Then, in the spirit of being in a playroom, I decided to see if I could recreate a vintage postcard look with my black and white image. I added a layer for toning, and in that layer, added a texture overlay—an option available in the processing tools.
To create a vintage postcard look, I added a layer and used it to apply the Gold preset, found in the Toning category. Then I used the processing tools to add a texture.
Not Just Black and White: Limited-Tone Presets
Tonality also offers a few limited-tone (not-quite black and white) filters. These presets are customized to certain types of images. For example, Lost Shores (in the Outdoor category) preserves the blues in an image, desaturates reds and yellows, and leaves only a wash of green. The preset is clearly meant for … well, photographs of shorelines. But again, experiment. It’s an opportunity to see how the colour filters change the look of a photograph, whether using the luminance filter to change the tonality of a colour range, or the saturation filter to change what colours are preserved in a photograph.
Photo Play: Hunches Can Unlock the Unexpected Magic and Majesty of Pictures
Be open to surprises. The following image was a ho-hum kind of photograph in my archive. I liked it because of the memories associated with that trip, but photographically, the image lacked impact. I didn’t want to give up on this photo, though! I had a hunch, a feeling that this image had more potential than what I was seeing at first glance.
I tried processing the image in black and white, using Tonality. I created something that was better than the original, but I still wasn’t happy with the result.
On a lark, I decided to try some of Tonality’s selective desaturating presets. I started with Fade (in the Dramatic category) and just played. I added a layer with one of the Outdoor black and white presets and reduced the layer opacity, then began making finer adjustments with the processing tools. I wouldn’t use the same settings routinely on other photographs, but for this photograph, experimenting resulted in an image that both recalls my memories and visually satisfies.
Save Your Creations
If you do create a combination of adjustments that you like and would apply to other images, save your recipe as a user preset. Simply select +Create in the presets panel and give your recipe a name. As with all presets, when you apply your personal preset, you still have the option to adjust the effect by using any one or more of the individual processing tools.
You have a few options for saving your final image from the stand-alone version of Tonality. From the menu, you can select:
File > Save, or Save As … to save the image and all of your changes as a Tonality file (.mpt);
File > Export to Image to save the image as a .tiff with all of the changes applied;
File > Open in … to open a completed version of the image in another of Macphun’s programs, Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, Aperture, or Apple Photos (still called iPhotos in Macphun’s menu); or
File > Share to … to send a small .jpg with email or on social media.
Continue Learning and Playing
Many people, new to black and white photography, assume that black and white is colour with the colours removed. But black and white photography is so much more. Further, with the advent of good black and white digital processing, photographers have the opportunity to experiment with contrast, density, colour filtering, and toning baths without the mess, fuss, and chemical dangers of a wet lab.
Chance favours the prepared mind. — Louis Pasteur
Macphun’s Tonality is black and white digital conversion software that manages to preserve the art and skill of traditional wet lab black and white photography, and offer it in a digital format that invites experimentation and mastery.
If you’re new to black and white photography or new to Tonality, start by having fun in Tonality’s playroom of presets, but use Tonality’s unique combination of presets and processing tools to reverse engineer the effects. So long as you’ve archived an original version of your image, you can’t break anything by playing.
In future tutorials, we’ll look at some of Tonality’s processing tools in detail. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about shooting for black and white photography and using other software for digital conversion to black and white, take some time and go through our Black and White Photography learning guide. The digital world of black and white photography can now be as much of a craft as black and white film.
Source: Photoshop | Tuts
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As an experienced female paddler and instructor who has taught thousands of women, I've observed that women have a unique approach to paddling. In my own words I would say that women, in general, feel more confident when they're surrounded and supported by a group of other women, especially when they're faced with situations that challenge them. Women tend to be more cautious on the water, enjoy going at a slower pace, especially when learning, and feed off of the support of their peers in a very positive way.
In contrast, it has also been my observation that men tend to be more physically aggressive in stressful situations and that they are much more likely to get pumped up with adrenaline and throw themselves into rough waters whether they feel like they're ready or not. Men don't seem to need much group support to muster the courage and confidence they need to tackle challenges.
The above opinions came purely from my own personal observations so I was intrigued when I came upon a study by a group of UCLA researchers a few years ago that gives scientific clout to some of them. Researchers, who explored the different responses to stress between men and women, brought to light that women experience a different stress response than men.
Instead of the traditional Fight or Flight response, the researchers found that women experience a response called Tend-and-Befriend. The study describes how women who are stressed or feel threatened exhibit behaviors that involve tending to and protecting their children, including befriending and forming strong bonds with other females or males that they trust. In the study the researchers cite that: "…under conditions of stress, the desire to affiliate with others…is one of the most robust gender differences in adult human behavior…and is the primary gender difference in adult human behavioral responses to stress." (Taylor, Klein, Lewis, Gruenewald, Gurung, Updegraft, 2000)
The researchers also found that while women need to bond when stressed, men prefer to have their space and are much more physically aggressive in stressful situations than women. I've actually had men describe the feeling they have while kayaking whitewater as similar to what they imagine it would feel like going into battle. Some have expressed their need to go fast and keep going.
If men and women are paddling together and the men want to go fast while the women want to go slow and feel supported it can lead to poor communication and misunderstanding which can diminish the fun for both groups. Unfortunately it can also do a lot of damage to the confidence of the women in the group, as women tend to internalize their experiences more than men.
For example, I can remember times in my kayaking career when I struggled being the only female kayaker in a group of highly skilled paddlers running difficult rivers. The men in the group seemed to be able to make quick decisions when it came to making the choice to run an intimidating rapid. I often felt inadequate because it took me longer to make the decision, I was less confident and I sought out opinions from others on their choices. I would get really nervous and when I looked around the men seemed very confident and calm (even if they were nervous on the inside). They rarely offered support or advice and assumed that I was dealing with the situation in the same way that they were.
I've heard other female paddlers describe similar situations and some who have even considered quitting paddling because their experiences were so discouraging. My intention is not to paint women as victims at the hands of male paddlers. Having said that, I do need to point out that traditionally paddling, especially whitewater, has been a male dominated sport. So, naturally, men have been setting the standards for leading, and teaching in the sport.
Luckily there are a lot more women paddling these days so there's a lot more awareness about the different approaches of men and women. Not to mention all of the wonderful women's paddling clinics, groups and festivals that are cropping up. These events are empowering women to feel great about their skills and are giving them the opportunity to hang out with and learn from other women.
Still, I continue to hear some men giving the following advice to women on the river: 'just follow me' and 'you'll be fine.' These words are considered by men to be supportive, and they may motivate men, but they can actually make women feel unsure of the situation. Personally, I enjoy paddling with both men and women and feel like there's a lot we can learn from each other whether we're paddling on rivers, oceans or lakes. Each discipline of kayaking provides it's own challenges that paddlers must work through.
Here are six tips on how to create good communication between men and women on the water so that everyone has a great time. And for women and men who enjoy paddling together already, these tips can maybe make your experience even better! Some are gender specific while others are common sense for everyone.
When you make a commitment to paddle with someone who is nervous or who has less experience than you it should be because you actually want to paddle WITH that person. Offering to take someone paddling means that you're agreeing to support that paddler even if it means that the paddling may not be as challenging for you. Don't try to make the other paddler conform to what you want to do to challenge yourself if they're not ready for it.
It's important for women who are feeling nervous about trying kayaking to surround themselves with a supportive group of people who will allow them to learn and explore at their own pace. Women's workshops and outings can be a great place to start. Once they've built up their confidence it's easier for women to transition to paddling and holding their own confidently in a group of men.
Celebrate others accomplishments on the water. Even if it may be an easy move for you, it could be a big deal for someone else. If everyone supports each other's successes the experience is fun and everyone's confidence gets a boost.
Understand that there are differences between men and women and between individuals and practice compassion and understanding. Don't assume that everyone handles stressful situations just like you. Show compassion and empathy to others in your group who may be fearful and encourage them in a positive and constructive way. Allow them to go through their process (within reason ie- you can't stand at a rapid for half an hour if you're running out of sunlight). Treating each other with respect and understanding goes a long way to creating a positive, fun experiences.
If a woman gets emotional on the water it's important for the men in the group to let her know that they're there to support her while still giving her space. Crying is a natural emotional outlet for frustration and fear (for men and women) and once it passes the paddler usually feels much better, clearer and ready to keep going.
To create balance, women can work on being more physically aggressive and taking more risks (within reason) when trying new things on the water. Men can work on slowing down a bit and enjoying aspects of paddling other than the adrenaline rush, going full speed or showing off.
I realize that this article was written using generalizations. I know that some women don't relate to what I'm saying and that some men do. The important thing to take away from this is that there isn't one paradigm for how paddlers should deal with stress or fear. Everyone is different and the study that I have quoted throughout suggests that there are very obvious gender differences when it comes to stress response. The more we learn to communicate effectively with our paddling partners the more fun we'll have. And having fun is the whole point whether you're a Water Divas or a Water Warrior!
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podfanatic
Episode: Me-Me's: 11/20/15
Podcast: The Tony Kornheiser Show
Me-Me's: 11/20/15
Nigel is joined by Jeanne McManus and Chris Cillizza to discuss Bryce Harper's NL MVP award and Alex Ovechkin. Plus, Ann Hornaday, Sally Jenkins and Scott Linn join the show.
— The Tony Kornheiser Show
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The Tony Kornheiser Show > Where's Mr. Tony?: 11/19/15
Nigel is joined by David Aldridge and Torie Clarke to discuss the latest with the Capitals and the Maryland's victory over Georgetown last night. Plus, Barrry Svrluga and Ron Jaworski.
The Tony Kornheiser Show > Welcome Back Mr. Tony: 11/23/15
Tony Kornheiser is joined by Gary Braun and Chris Cillizza to discuss the Redskins' landslide loss to the Panthers. Plus, Mike Freeman and Michael Wilbon join the show.
The Tony Kornheiser Show > Driving Mr. Tony: 11/17/15
Tony Kornheiser is joined by David Aldridge and Liz Clarke to discuss the Texans' victory over the Bengals on Monday Night Football. Plus, they talk Redskins and are joined by Bob Ryan.
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Hillary Clinton to stop in Austin, San Francisco for book tour
Washington (CNN) – Hillary Clinton's book tour is starting to take shape.
The former secretary of state has added two speaking engagements to her schedule centered around "Hard Choices," her upcoming memoir due out June 10.
McConnell, Grimes win GOP primaries in Kentucky, CNN projects
(CNN) - Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell bested his tea party-backed rival on Tuesday, cruising to a Republican primary victory in Kentucky, CNN projects.
McConnell will face Alison Lundergan Grimes, who CNN projects will win the Democratic nomination, in November. Grimes, the Kentucky secretary of state, would be its first woman senator.
Filed under: 2014 • Alison Lundergan Grimes • Kentucky • Mitch McConnell • Senate
Controversial Obama nominee expected to clear Senate hurdle Wednesday
CNN Senior Congressional Producer Ted Barrett
(CNN) - The judicial nomination of a former Justice Department official, who has drawn the ire of senators on the right and left for legal memos he wrote justifying the killing of an American terrorism suspect overseas with drones, is expected to clear a major hurdle on Wednesday.
Senators are likely to break a filibuster of Harvard Law professor David Barron to be a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which is based in Boston.
Filed under: Congress • Obama administration • Senate
Hillary Clinton to sit down with Diane Sawyer for first interview on her new book
CNN Senior Media Correspondent Brian Stelter
(CNN) - Promotion of Hillary Clinton's book "Hard Choices" will begin in earnest on Monday, June 9 when ABC's Diane Sawyer interviews her in a one-hour prime time special.
The prime time hour was announced on Tuesday by ABC, ending months of jockeying to land Clinton's first TV interview tied to the book.
Filed under: 2016 • Hillary Clinton
CNN's GUT CHECK for May 20, 2014
CNN's Sara FIscher and Alan Silverleib
CNN’s POLITICAL GUT CHECK | for May 20, 2014 | 5 p.m.
GAME DAY: FIVE PRIMARIES TO WATCH
IN KENTUCKY ... Tuesday's marquee battle is in Kentucky, where Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell is being challenged by businessman Matt Bevin, who enjoys strong support from many tea party groups and influential conservative anti-establishment organizations. While this race has seen big spending by the campaigns and outside groups, McConnell is expected to cruise to re-nomination for a sixth term.
See HOT SOTS: Final pitches are in for the Kentucky primary contenders
Michelle Obama hosts White House talent show
CNN White House Producer Matthew Hoye
Washington (CNN) - Students participating in a White House talent show got a surprise visit Tuesday when President Barack Obama showed up at the end of their performance – and wondered why he wasn't part of the act.
"I've got talent, but I wasn't invited to participate,” Obama joked.
Filed under: Michelle Obama • President Obama • White House
Dinesh D'Souza pleads guilty to campaign finance fraud
(CNN) - Conservative commentator and author Dinesh D'Souza has pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance law, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
D'Souza, 53, of San Diego, admitted to exceeding donor limits in 2012 by arranging for others to give to the New York Senate campaign of Wendy Long. He also admitted to making false statements about those donations, the office Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said.
Filed under: Elections
Boehner: Tea party and GOP aren't that different
CNN's Deirdre Walsh and Dana Davidsen
(CNN) - House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday the tea party and conservative Republicans are basically one in the same.
As establishment Republican candidates try to fend off a series of tea party challengers in Tuesday's midterm primaries, Boehner sought to quell the apparent divide between the two factions in his caucus.
Filed under: John Boehner • Republican Party • Tea Party
Under pressure to fix budget gap, Christie will slash pension payments
CNN's Ashley Killough
(CNN) - Gov. Chris Christie will cut planned pension payments for state employees by almost $2.5 billion over the next two fiscal years, the New Jersey Republican announced Tuesday.
The move is part of the governor's plan to close an unexpected $807 million budget shortfall that his administration was made aware of last month.
House committee chair calls VA response 'unacceptable'
CNN Senior Congressional Producer Deirdre Walsh
Washington (CNN) - House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller says the response by the Department of Veterans Affairs to a subpoena from his committee over allegations of deadly health care delays has been "very weak" and "unacceptable."
The Florida Republican told CNN that if the embattled agency doesn't provide more details about the information sought earlier this month, the committee could move to hold the VA in contempt.
Filed under: Veterans • Veterans Affairs
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Honest gaming news for all kinds of families.
Search for games, reviews & more
Square Enix Announces Release Date for Lost Sphear
Posted by Eric Watson | July 25, 2017 | News, PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, Video | No Comments
Square Enix had announced earlier this summer that the sophomore title from Tokyo RPG Factory is titled Lost Sphear. Like their first game, I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear is a retro-inspired JRPG. Today they announced it will be out on PlayStation 4, PC (Steam), and Nintendo Switch on January 23, 2018.
Like I Am Setsuna, Lost Sphear will feature an Active Time Battle system reminiscent of classic 90s JRPG series like Final Fantasy. Battles feature a seamless transition from the 3D, top-down exploration.
The story opens when a young boy, Kanata, awakens to find his hometown disappearing. The entire world is disappearing into nothingness. You and your allies will have to use the power of Memory to restore and reshape the missing pieces of the world. And battle a bunch of monsters along the way.
Lost Sphear is available for pre-order on PS4 and Switch via the Square Enix Store. Pre-ordering gets you two special music tracks composed by Tomoki Miyoshi. The music tracks are exclusive to the Square Enix Store. The PS4 pre-order also rewards the “Memoirs of the Moon” wallpaper theme.
In addition to digital, the game will also be available in limited physical packages for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, exclusively from the Square Enix Online Store. Pre-order bonuses also apply to physical versions.
Tokyo RPG Factory is a new studio within Square Enix that specializes in nostalgic, retro-style JRPGs. Tokyo RPG Factory’s debut game, I Am Setsuna, released last year on PC and PS4, and earlier this year on Nintendo Switch. It was generally well-received, though sold very modestly.
Lost Sphear will arrive on January 23, 2018 for PC (Steam), PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch. It has not yet been rated by the ESRB.
JRPGLost SphearPCPlayStation 4ps4rpgSquare EnixswitchTokyo RPG Factory
About Eric Watson
Eric is a freelance writer who enjoys talking about video games, movies, books and Dallas-based sports teams. Every week he watches a random film from his collection of several hundred DVDs and live tweets about it @RogueWatson. He also makes a mean tuna quesadilla. He lives near Fort Worth, Texas with his wife and daughter, two dogs, two cats, two fish tanks, some hermit crabs and a bookshelf full of Transformers.
What is Pixelkin?
Follow Pixelkin
© 2020 Pixelkin.
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Eric Hutchinson is an international platinum-selling singer, songwriter and seasoned touring artist. He has shared the stage with acts such as Jason Mraz, Amos Lee, Ingrid Michaelson, O.A.R., and Michael Franti. His single Rock & Roll earned him his first gold record in the United States and the song became a #1 hit in several countries. Modern Happiness, Eric Hutchinson s fifth studio album, is his finest effort yet. The album s 10 tracks display a dramatic departure from a master songwriter s usual musical forms and lyrical themes, while also expanding on his refined working palette through the many disparate genres that has made his music some of the most engaging of his generation. And while Hutchinson s soul, pop and rock composing has matured exponentially with each previous release, there is a penetratingly earthy and at times unflinchingly raw confessional aspect to each song s subject matter, which translates with striking clarity to his vocals.
Label: LET'S BREAK RECORDS
Modern Happiness
Artist: Eric Hutchinson
New: Not on Hand, Let us get it for you
1. Miracle Worker
2. New Religion
3. I'll Always Be The One Who Makes You Cry
4. Happy Like A Chicken With His Head Cut Off
5. Hands
6. Can't Stop What's Coming
7. She Could Be The One
8. Take It Easy On Me
9. For The First Time
10. A Million Bucks On A Queen Motel Bed
11. Miracle Worker (The Flowerschool Sessions)
12. New Religion (The Flowerschool Sessions)
13. I'll Always Be The One Who Makes You Cry (The Flowerschool Sessions)
14. Happy Like A Chicken With His Head Cut Off (The Flowerschool Sessions)
15. Hands (The Flowerschool Sessions)
16. Can't Stop What's Coming (The Flowerschool Sessions)
17. She Could Be The One (The Flowerschool Sessions)
18. Take It Easy On Me (The Flowerschool Sessions)
19. For The First Time (The Flowerschool Sessions)
20. A Million Bucks On A Queen Motel Bed (The Flowerschool Sessions)
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Are you a winner?
Terms and Conditions for Raffles and Lotteries
Diabetes UK Services Ltd
The Diabetes UK weekly lottery and raffle draw are run by Diabetes UK Services Limited under a licence from the Gambling Commission (No. 000-004999-R-306253-011). Diabetes UK Services Limited is a company owned by Diabetes UK, a charity registered in England (no 215199) and in Scotland (no SC039136). Diabetes UK Services Limited donates all its profits to Diabetes UK.
The person responsible for Our lotteries and raffles is Kath Abrahams, Director of Engagement and Fundraising, Wells Lawrence House, 126 Back Church Lane, London E1 1FH.
Our lottery and raffle draw are managed on Our behalf by Sterling Lotteries, whose address is Furness Gate, Furness Business Park, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, LA14 2PE
In these Terms and Conditions, We refer to Diabetes UK Services Limited as “We” or “Us”. We refer to lottery or raffle players as “You”. We refer to Sterling Lotteries as the “Lottery Manager”. By entering the Diabetes UK weekly lottery or raffle draw you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
General Terms and Conditions which apply to both lotteries and raffle draws
Detailed records about Our lotteries and raffles are kept securely by Our Lottery Manager and may be provided to the Gambling Commission at their request.
We are committed to supporting Your participation in Our lottery and raffles safely and responsibly. Please see Our Responsible Gambling Policy for details on how to get help if You or a family member experience problems with gambling.
We are required by Our licence to inform customers about what happens to funds which We hold on account for You, and the extent to which funds are protected in the event of insolvency. These include advance payments for entry to lotteries or raffles which are not committed to a specific lottery or raffle, unpaid winnings and unclaimed prizes.
We hold customer funds separate from company funds in a mixture of bank accounts. These funds are not protected in the event of insolvency. This meets the Gambling Commission’s requirements for the segregation of customer funds at the level: basic segregation. Please see the Gambling Commission's webpage here for more details.
You agree that if You win a lottery or a raffle prize, We can use Your title, surname and county of residence to announce the winners on Our website.
We will use Your personal information which You supply to us when entering a lottery or a raffle draw in accordance with our privacy policy privacy. You accept that it is Your responsibility to keep Your contact details and bank details up to date.
We will not be liable for:
Lottery or raffle entries or communications which are lost, stolen or delayed in the post, damaged or illegible, from which the prize winner or entrant cannot be identified or which have insufficient postage (proof of posting is not proof of receipt);
any late bank payments;
Our failure or inability to contact You and/or award any prize due to any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in the contact or bank details You have provided or Your failure to update these if they change;
loss or damage incurred by You in connection with Your participation in Our lottery or raffles or Your use of any prize;
any interruptions or errors on or to Our website;
technical hardware or software errors or failures or lost, faulty or unavailable network connections; or
any failure or delay beyond Our reasonable control.
Our liability to You is limited to the amount of any prize which may have become due to You. We will not be liable in contract, tort (including but not limited to negligence) or otherwise in connection with Our lottery or raffle draws for loss of revenue, contract, profits, anticipated savings or loss of data, any special or indirect or consequential losses or any loss of goodwill or reputation. Nothing in these terms and conditions shall limit Our liability for death or personal injury caused by Our negligence, fraud or for any other matter for which liability may not be limited by law.
Entry to the Weekly Lottery Draw
Who can enter the Weekly Lottery Draw?
You must be a resident of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) only. Residents of Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and The Channel Islands are excluded from entering as they are covered by their own gambling laws. You must be aged 16 or over. We reserve the right to cancel or refuse entry into the lottery at Our discretion and any such decision is final and binding.
Entering the Weekly Lottery Draw
The cost of each entry is £1. You may purchase more than one entry, and payment must be made in advance by direct debit, credit card or cheque payment.
The maximum number of lottery lines You can hold is 20.
The prizes available for any lottery will be as described at https://play.diabetes.org.uk/. Prizes are subject to availability and We reserve the right to substitute any prize with another prize of equal or greater value. Prizes are non-transferable, non-negotiable and except where expressly stated no cash alternative will be available.
We may (without giving any reason or notice) cancel an existing subscription or terminate or suspend the lottery scheme, refunding any credit to the player where outstanding.
If We are unable to allocate a lottery subscription to a particular player after carrying out reasonable enquiries, We will treat it as a donation to Diabetes UK.
The lottery draw will be conducted every Friday. The draw will be conducted by a random number generator (software approved by the Gambling Commission). Should a Friday Draw fall on a bank holiday, the draw will take place the following working day.
The winning numbers will be published on www.diabetes.org.uk and will be available from the Helpline (0370 034 0783) from the following Monday. In the case of a Bank Holiday, the results will be published the following working day.
We will send out cheques to the winners through the post to the name and address provided at point of entry. If You are a winner, We may ask You to provide evidence that You are over 16 before We send out a prize to You. If You are aged under 16, We are unable to provide any prize to You and We will return any entry payments to You. In this circumstance, a new winner will be selected.
If You are a winner but You do not cash Your winner’s cheque within six months of the date written on the cheque, or We are unable for any reason to deliver a non-cash prize to the address provided by You, the prize will be forfeited.
Cancelling Your entry to the lottery
If You would like to cancel Your entry into the Diabetes UK Lottery, You can contact Us in the ways listed below. If You are paying for Your lottery entry by Direct Debit, You should also notify Your bank to cancel the payment. Payment for the next entry may still be taken if Your Direct Debit was due to fall within 5 working days of the date on which You cancelled.
If Your entry was paid in advance by cash, cheque or credit card, then You will be entered into the draw for the remainder of the balance. However, You can request a refund if required for moneys not yet allocated into a draw.
To inform Us that You would like to cancel Your entry into the draw, please contact Us in one of the following ways:
weeklylotteries@diabetes.org.uk
Diabetes UK Weekly Lottery Furness Gate, Peter Green Way Furness Business Park Barrow-in-Furness LA14 2PE
Who can enter the Raffle Draw?
You must be a resident of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) only. Residents of Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and The Channel Islands are excluded from entering as they are covered by their own gambling laws. You must be aged over 16. We reserve the right to cancel or refuse entry into the raffle draw at Our discretion and any such decision is final and binding.
Entering the Raffle Draw
To enter a Diabetes UK Raffle:
Fill in the response form enclosed in the mailing and post it back to the specified address along with Your ticket stubs. Tear off and keep the tickets purchased. Alternatively, buy tickets online at https://raffle.diabetes.org.uk
You must not sell raffle tickets on the street or to anyone who is, or appears to be, under 16.
The prizes available for any raffle will be as described at https://raffle.diabetes.org.uk. Prizes are subject to availability and We reserve the right to substitute any prize with another prize of equal or greater value. Prizes are non-transferable, non-negotiable and except where expressly stated no cash alternative will be available.
Raffle Ticket Re-order PolicyBefore fulfilling a request for additional tickets, We will check for any previous history of tickets bought or sold by You and decide, in Our discretion, whether more books are sent. We will not send additional books of tickets exceeding a face value of £60.00 in relation to any one draw. Please return any unsold books to:
Diabetes UK Raffle Freepost RTST-EUKJ-SZJS Furness Gate, Peter Green Way Furness Business Park Barrow-in-Furness LA14 2PE
Winning Raffle Tickets
The raffle draw will be conducted on the date specified on the ticket. The draw will be conducted by a random number generator (software approved by the Gambling Commission).
The winning ticket numbers will be published on https://raffle.diabetes.org.uk and will be available from the Helpline (0370 034 0783) from the following working day.
We will send out cheques to the winners through the post to the name and address provided at point of entry. If You are a winner, We may ask You to provide evidence that You are over 16 before We send out a cheque to You. If You are aged under 16, We are unable to pay any prize money to You and We will return any entry payments to You.
If You wish to make a complaint about any aspect of Our lottery or raffles, You may do so by telephone, or in writing (by letter or e-mail).
Telephone complaints are managed by Our Lottery Manager: Sterling Lotteries. Contact details: 03700858843 (9am-5pm, Monday to Friday). Telephone log sheets will be kept on file for 9 months. If an initial complaint cannot be resolved, Our Lottery Manager will inform Us immediately of the issue and We will try to resolve it with You.
Written complaints are managed by Diabetes UK Services Ltd.
weeklylotteries@diabetes.org.uk or contact@diabetes.org.uk
Supporter Care Team Diabetes UK Wells Lawrence House 126 Back Church Lane London E1 1FH
We will respond to Your complaint within a maximum of 7 working days. However, if We can’t give You a full response within this timescale, We will let You know the reasons for any delay and the expected date of response.
If You are unhappy with the complaint response You receive, You can ask for Your complaint to be escalated to a senior member of Our staff to review the situation and provide a response. Details of how to do this will be provided in Our complaint response. We will acknowledge any escalated complaint within one working day and will let You know the name of the investigating team. We aim to provide a full response to an escalated complaint within ten working days and to resolve any complaint fully within 8 weeks.
In the event that We have been unable to resolve a complaint to Your satisfaction within 8 weeks, You can refer any gambling-related complaint to the Independent Betting Adjudication Service (IBAS) www.ibas-uk.com. This service is provided free of charge to You.
We will keep a record of complaints and report them to the Gambling Commission as required by the Gambling Commission.
These terms and conditions are governed by English law. You agree that any dispute between You and Us which cannot be resolved through the Complaints procedure outlined above will be dealt with exclusively by the English courts.
Diabetes UK Services Limited has the right to change and/or update these terms and conditions at its discretion. Players will be notified of any material changes.
Responsible Gambling Policy 2017
Diabetes UK Services Ltd has put in place the following procedures to encourage people to gamble responsibly and seek help should gambling become a problem.
The Be Gamble Aware helpline number and website address is included on all tickets and entry forms to lotteries. For support, visit www.begambleaware.org or phone 0808 8020 133, 8am to midnight, seven days a week.
You can request to be self-excluded from Diabetes UK Lottery and Raffle communications and entry into any prize draws if you are struggling to control your gambling.
Self-exclusion means asking to be excluded from gambling promotion for a certain length of time, usually between six and twelve months but can be up to seven years. You can do this by contacting us by one of the following methods:
Email - weeklylotteries@diabetes.org.uk or
Phone - 0370 034 0783, Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm
Once we receive your request, we will take all reasonable steps to stop sending you any information about our lotteries, raffles and prize draws as soon as we can. We will also close your account and return any funds we hold to you.
It is up to you to keep to the self-exclusion agreement but Diabetes UK will do all we reasonably can to help you. You can extend the self-exclusion period at any time for six months or longer. After the end of your self-exclusion period, we will not start sending you promotional material about our lottery, raffle or prize draw products for seven years unless you specifically ask for or agree to accept this material. If you take positive steps to participate in our lottery, raffle or prize draw products during the six month period after the end of your self-exclusion period, we will contact you by telephone and give you a 24 hour cooling-off period. If we breach the self-exclusion period, we are obliged to report it to the Gambling Commission.
Players can also set a limit on the number of books or entries they would like for an individual raffle or lottery and also the number they would like to participate in on an annual basis.
Underage gambling is an offence. To protect children, we operate procedures to exclude those under the age of 16 from entering our lottery or raffle.
Through our membership with The Lotteries Council, Diabetes UK Services Ltd makes a contribution each year to help problem gambling via The Responsible Gambling Trust www.begambleaware.org
Advice for Responsible Gambling
The majority of people do gamble responsibly. It may help you to keep your gambling under control by remembering the following:
You are buying fun, not investing your money
Before playing, set strict limits on how much time and money you are going to spend
Quit while you’re ahead
Only gamble with money you can afford to lose
Don’t spend more money on gambling with the hope to win back money that you have lost
Keep other interests and hobbies – don’t let gambling take over your life
Don’t gamble in order to escape from stress or boredom
Gambling in moderation is okay
For some, however, gambling can become a problem. If you are concerned about the amount you are gambling, and feel it is taking over your life (or you are concerned for a friend or relative), then the following questions may help you and give you some guidance.
Have others criticised your gambling?
Have you ever lied to cover up the amount you have gambled or time spent doing it?
Do arguments, frustrations or disappointments make you want to gamble?
Do you gamble alone for long periods?
Do you stay away from work or college to gamble?
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Forums > General Discussion > Gemini Season Is Actually Good, Okay?
Thread started 05/22/19 8:39am
OldFriends4Sal
Gemini Season Is Actually Good, Okay?
https://www.thecut.com/20...stics.html
After the lazy, sensual groundedness of Taurus season, Gemini season arrives with an energy that's sharper, less solid, more diffuse. If Taurus season's energy is magnetic and earthy, focused on the body and the five senses, Gemini season — which usually runs from about May 21 to June 21 — offers the chance to turn our energies outward again, to the social world. If Taurus season is a time for earthy work and earthy luxury, Gemini season is a time for fresh air and sparkling light, for ideas and conversation.
Gemini is the first air sign of the zodiac year, and as an air sign, its energy is bright and social and intellectual, less tethered to some of the more solid practicalities of life. Sometimes this "airiness" is misunderstood to be an indicator of an empty head, but really, air signs are always buzzing with ideas, with schemes, with mental energy that can move too fast for the rest of us to even see it.
Because Gemini is ruled by Mercury, the planet of communication and connection, this air sign energy can take on a chatty, highly verbal, extra-social shine. Think about how expressive, how charming, how totally fun and delightful Stevie Nicks always is in her interviews! Geminis are intellectually curious and broadly observant of the world and people in it. Even if you're typically more of a thinker than a talker, even if you're typically someone who hammers out your thoughts before sharing them, in Gemini season, you might feel compelled to think out loud, not to hoard your best ideas but to share them, to connect with other people.
At the same time, all this bright social energy can sometimes seem restless or unpredictable. When the sun is in Gemini, you're likely to find your attentions split and scattered, to find it suddenly difficult to fully devote your attention to a single question or to really dive deep on a single topic. And it's okay just to go with it! It's okay just to let yourself be dazzled by the world and all it holds. During Gemini season, engaging with the world can nourish you more than you think; the world will reward you for indulging in your curiosity.
Some of this restless energy can be attributed to the fact that as the final sign of springtime before we reach the summer solstice, Gemini is a mutable sign, like all signs that come at the end of a season. Mutable signs are flexible and adaptable, at ease with endings and transitions and change. Gemini's symbol, the twins, points to the idea of an adaptability so powerful, so complete, that Gemini can seem like two separate people. Gemini can be as happy in the club as in the library, as much at ease on a crowded bus as in business class seats.
It's this bright sociability, this ease in adapting to be comfortable anywhere, that can lead other people to imagine Gemini to be "two-faced" or duplicitous — as though in order to feel so at ease in so many disparate contexts, some kind of fakery or inauthenticity must be involved. This can manifest in some weirdly strident anti-Gemini sentiment. Remember when Lizzo, a Taurus, dedicated a song to every woman who has ever "been victimized" by a Gemini? ("Should I slander Gemini? ... You know what? Yes. Give us a reason to like you, Gemini." Ouch!) Like every sign, Gemini has its shadow side, and all of its exciting, magnetic charm can easily be used to selfish, nefarious, or just chaotic ends. Still, there are so many reasons to love the sign. Gemini season has so much to offer!
In Gemini season, you can let go of the idea that you can only act one way, that you can only be one thing, that you have to choose between all the different sides of yourself. In Gemini season, you can recognize that every part of yourself is equally authentic, equally real. See Walt Whitman's classic statement of Gemini intent: "Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself,/(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" See Agnes Varda's signature two-toned hair! In Gemini season, you can follow your curiosity, and you don't ever have to be bored.
#IDEFINEME #ALBUMSSTILLMATTER
A Liar Shall Not Tarry In My Presence
I will make you cyber shit in your pants!
What's the matter with your life
Is poverty bringing U down?
Is the mailman jerking U 'round?
Did he put your million dollar check
Dalia11
My favorite Sun Sign! Happy Birthday Geminis with May birthdays. Geminis born in May have some Taurus tendencies.
hey thank you. that's interesting
PennyPurple
I love being a Gemini.
As Prince would say, we have 2 sides and they both friends.
Reply #4 posted 05/23/19 3:10am
One of my favorite songs from the love symbol album! 😃 ...."When you hear my music you be having fun - that's when I got you - that's when you're Mine"..... I was 16 when that album came out.
..."If you want to play with me - you better learn the rules"..... 😃 💝
The song: "My Name is Prince".
"I love you baby, but not like I Love My Guitar". Honesty from a male Gemini musician. Those words say a lot, makes a person wonder and answers a question all at the same time! I love it! 😃
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Natashia Williams
Actress | Music Department | Writer
Known for She Spies (2002-2004), How to Be a Player (1997), So Little Time (2001-2002), CSI: NY (2006)
Aug 2, 1978 (age 41) | 5' 9" (1.75m)
Become a member to see Natashia Williams's STARmeter.
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@BaseballATeam Plus, it also glosses over that it's not exactly a straight weekly. Hitters have two periods Mon-Thur, Fri-Sun. 42 minutes ago
@BaseballATeam 3 and 4 seem incongruous. You actively refuse to play on one of the days and yet you only want daily leagues? Seems odd. 48 minutes ago
@ManlyVanLee @bdentrek Can't really go too far with an IL because then the waiver wire would be bare and with no tr… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 54 minutes ago
Posts tagged ‘Max Scherzer’
Friday: 08.2.2013
TINSTAAPP: Episode 10 – Liriano v. Leake
Rundown:
0:00 – 10:35 — [Intro]
10:36 – 52:48 — [Trade Deadline SP Breakdown: Garza, Peavy, Kennedy, Norris]
52:49 – 1:31:13– [Emails: Price, Danks, Anibal, Injuries mid-delivery, Scherzer]
1:31:56 – 2:36:22 — [Game of the Week: Liriano at Leake]
2:36:23 – 2:47:55 — [Picking Next Week’s GotW: Jimenez at Fernandez AND Hughes at Kennedy]
2:47:56 – 3:05:16 — [Homework]
3:05:17 – 3:08:09 – [Homework Assignments]
3:08:10 – 3:29:49 — [Recommendations and Close]
BP Trade Piece: Hunter Pence
Randy Johnson: Photographer!
Dramatic Reading of Morosi Tweets
The Day I Read 24 Articles: My Favorites
Music by Thrice
Opener: Stare at the Sun
Closer: The Sky is Falling
Download Here (84 MB; 3:29:50)
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Posted in Audio, Podcast, TINSTAAPP | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Anibal Sanchez, Bud Norris, CC Sabathia, David Price, Francisco Liriano, Gerrit Cole, Ian Kennedy, Jake Peavy, John Lackey, Jose Fernandez, Madison Bumgarner, Matt Garza, Max Scherzer, Mike Leake, Phil Hughes, Roger Clemens, Ubaldo Jimenez
Monday: 07.4.2011
Hail Mary Team, Part 4
Now we take to the mound with the Hail Mary Team. As I mentioned in the introduction piece, fixing rate stats (ERA & WHIP most commonly) is harder than piling up counting stats. The more the innings pile up, the harder it is to make a significant move in ERA or WHIP without Justin Verlander-in-June-type numbers from a pitcher or three (0.92 ERA, 0.71 WHIP in 49 IP). OK maybe you don’t need guys to throw that well, but you need some heavy innings of quality work to move the needle.
Of course that also depends on how stratified your league’s ERA & WHIP standings are to begin with and given how plentiful pitching has been this year, they might be pretty tight top to the bottom. All that said, the guys on this list have the kind of skills to lower their ERA and WHIP totals by a decent margin over the second half, but the results haven’t been up to expectations so they can likely be had at a discount. This group will contain a lot of strikeout upside and hopefully their continued display of strong skills will start to net the results they deserve leading in turn to wins along with several innings of quality ERA and WHIP.
Catchers, First Basemen & Second Basemen
Shortstops & Third Basemen
STARTING PITCHER:
Zach Greinke (MIL) – The ultimate Hail Mary Teamer, Greinke should be your first target for pitching to see if that ugly 5.66 ERA can bring in a heavy discount. For a lot of owners it won’t (as they realize he has been better than a 5.66), but even if he comes with a small discount he is worth it. His skills have been amazing (11.7 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and 6.4 K/BB), but he has been brutalized by absurd LOB% (55%) and HR/FB (15%) rates that just can’t continue or at least I certainly wouldn’t bet on them continuing. His .341 BABIP is a career high, too. That could be equal parts his 24% line drive rate (highest since 2006) and a poor infield defense. Adding it all together, there just seems to be no way that he can continue to post the base skills he is and yet carry an ERA that high. Perhaps you can turn your best hitter or pitcher into Greinke plus something else to start your Hail Mary Team.
Matt Garza (CHC) – I was worried about Garza heading into Wrigley especially with an escalating flyball rate the last few years. Without a skills change, I thought he would get knocked around for plenty of home runs, especially on afternoons when the wind was blowing out. Alas, he made a major skills change. His flyball rate has gone from 45% down to 28%(!) with his groundball rate rising in concert from 36% to 50%.
However his work with men on base has ailed him this year thus what should have been the makings of a career year (2.87 xFIP, 2.98 FIP) has resulted in modest improvements from a 3.91 ERA last year to 3.77 this year. There is room for more and Garza is one to target. His current ERA won’t earn you a clearance price via trade, but a 3.77 doesn’t quite get his current manager what it used to either so don’t buckle into your trade partner’s demands without some push & pull.
Chris Carpenter (STL) – Too bad I didn’t think of this strategy a few weeks ago because Carpenter would have been a perfect selection back in mid-June. However he has started to turn a corner with back-to-back one run outings in seven and nine innings, respectively, lowering his ERA from 4.47 to an even 4.00. Of course that is still a decent bit below average as he has just a 90 ERA+ for the season.
His hit rate has leapt from 8.2 to 9.8 H/9 this year. He allowed 8+ hits nine times all of last year and has already matched that total in 2011. He has doubled his outings of 10+ hits allowed from two to four. While part of it may be the downgrade from Brendan Ryan to Ryan Theriot at shortstop, a bigger part is a massive surge in line drive rate to 24%, a three year high. His groundball rate has dipped 5% as a result, too. His skills suggest an ERA of about three and a quarter so there’s still room to go even in the midst of his current mini-hot streak.
Ricky Nolasco (FLO) – Is there a more maddening pitcher in fantasy baseball? After slightly outperforming his skills in 2008 (3.52 ERA/3.69 xFIP), he has massively underperformed against his skills the last two and a half years. ERAs of 5.06, 4.51 and this year’s 4.08 have left us scratching our heads standing next to xFIP totals of 3.23, 3.37 and 3.50. Like Carpenter, Nolasco has seen a dramatic rise in his line drive percentage up to a career high of 25% after sitting 19-22% for his career.
The dip in strikeouts from 8.4 to 6.5 is a bit alarming, too, but his strikeout-to-walk ratio remains very strong at 3.1 so he should still be better than a 4.08 ERA. I am still willing to bet on a guy who had three straight years of 4.4 K/BB spanning 555 innings coming into this year, especially if I’m going all-in on a season that hasn’t panned out as initially planned. The Hail Mary Team is obviously about embracing risk, it is really the only way for the strategy to succeed. Well the risk panning out is the only for it to succeed, but the first step is not being afraid of risk.
Edwin Jackson (CWS) – I have put him in my spot starter picks several times this year. His talent is starting to shine through more often than in years past, but the results haven’t yet caught up as his ERA (4.24) is nearly a run higher than his xFIP (3.28). He is yet another guy suffering from an outlier line drive rate as his is also at a career high of 25% after just once topping 19% since he became a full-time starter back in 2007 (21%, 2008). So if that evens out this year, his hit rate will come down from 10.1 and with it the WHIP will drop and his results will start to resemble his true skill level. I find that a lot of fantasy managers don’t really like Jackson so if you present them with an opportunity to remove him from their team, they may happily oblige at less than full value.
Mat Latos (SD) – We saw the kind of heights that Latos can reach last year and there aren’t any glaring issues in his profile that suggest he can’t get back there again this year. The flyball rate has ticked up from 40% to 46% while the groundball rate is down from 45% to 40%, but that hurts a lot less in his home ballpark and a few others within his division where it is reasonable to assume he will find himself pitching throughout the second half. He isn’t pitching like the sub-3.00 ERA guy from 2010, but you don’t need him to in order for him to be worth your while in a trade. Test the waters on him in your league and if the Latos manager in your league is in a tight ERA battle, maybe you have someone with a shiny ERA he would be more interested in.
Chad Billingsley (LAD) – Billingsley appears to be coming out of his funk a bit having lowered his ERA from 4.65 on June 15th to 4.15 after Sunday night’s start. Of course that is still below average with an 87 ERA+ and a buying opportunity is there even if the price hasn’t dropped significantly. His skills remain rock solid with very little movement in his strikeout and walk rates since 2007. If he can just avoid those full-on implosion starts (6+ ER), he should be able to chisel his ERA down to 3.50ish by season’s end if not better.
Max Scherzer (DET) – Even if he isn’t on your team this year, you probably have an idea of how maddening his season has been. And now 18 starts in, I can’t imagine a fantasy manager sticking to his guns and making someone pay full price for a 4.90 ERA and 1.47 WHIP. Now he might just say “I have come this far and I’m going to stick it out,” and if so you just move on. But more likely you can find something even on your down-trodden team that will entice his manager to make a move at something well under preseason costs.
For your end, you are getting a guy who is still posting very strong skills (8.1 K/9, 2.5 K/BB), but one who has been bitten hard by gopheritis (1.4 HR/9, 12% HR/FB). Not only have his home run and home run per flyball rates hit career highs, but he is also allowing a career high 44% flyballs making it that much worse. The Tigers fired their pitching coach on Sunday and perhaps newly promoted bullpen coach Jeff Jones can figure out what Rick Knapp couldn’t and get Scherzer back on his 2010 second half track.
Brandon Morrow (TOR) – In what was supposed to be another step forward if not a full on breakout season, Morrow has actually regressed in 2011 despite maintaining his 11.0 K/9 and lowering his walk rate from 4.1 to 3.6 BB/9. Alas his efforts with men on base have continued to plague him as his LOB% has dropped from 69% in 2010 to 65% this year. The talent is in there and we saw last August what it can deliver as he went 30 innings with a 2.97 ERA, 1.02 WHIP and 14.7 K/9 en route to a 3-0 record in five starts. Roll the dice on that potential without question, especially in a redraft league where you are taking a shot.
Edinson Volquez (CIN) – Another live arm (9.3 K/9) with an ERA that seems to belie his true skill (5.65 ERA, 3.97 xFIP). A lot of his problems have been tied to home runs. His insane 18% HR/FB has done a number on his ERA and even if that just evens out to his career mark of 12% (as opposed to league average around 9-10%), his ERA will feel it in a big way. His ownership rates are way down so he is guy you might be able to get without a trade. Hell, he may be a big reason you are in this place to begin with in which case just hold on. The talent is there. Let’s see if it comes to fore in the second half.
Brett Anderson (OAK) – Originally we were worried he would need Tommy John Surgery, but that appears to be out of the question now. His return this year is still a question, but we’re throwing a Hail Mary here, so if a contender in your league has him, he might opt to get out from under that risk and get someone into his rotation who is actually pitching every fifth day.
Posted in Analysis, Fantasy Baseball, Player Focus, Predictions, Redraft Leagues, Statistical Analysis, Stats, Strategy, Trading | 3 Comments »
Tags: Brandon Morrow, Brett Anderson, Chad Billingsley, Chris Carpenter, Edinson Volquez, Edwin Jackson, Mat Latos, Matt Garza, Max Scherzer, Ricky Nolasco, Zach Greinke
Friday: 05.15.2009
K/BB as an ERA Indicator Addendum
Over at Owner’s Edge by Fanball.com, I wrote a piece about strikeout-to-walk ratios and how they relate to a pitcher’s ERA. I looked at the past two seasons to see how strong a correlation there was between K/BB ratio and ERA. If a strong enough relation existed, I wanted to use that information to see which pitchers stood out as buy-low or sell-high targets based on their K/BB and ERA thus far.
I was happy with the results in terms of the players identified, but some of my statistical conclusions left me a little uneasy, so I went back to the drawing board a bit. This time around, I went five years back and grabbed every qualifying ERA. This data set presented 393 samples with ERAs ranging from 2.27 to 6.47 and K/BB ratios from 8.3 to 1.1. I was comfortable with the depth of this set. In the original piece I used a 2.0 K/BB threshold, but given that 2.0 is the baseline that we generally look for in the fantasy baseball world, I thought it was a bit low for the purposes of what I’m looking to get out of the data.
I bumped it up to 2.5. At 2.0, it’s essentially a coinflip which isn’t surprising considering that it is hardly an elite mark. In fact there were 248 data points of 2.0 or better and it was a 60%/40% split of ERAs +/- 4.00. The worst ERA in the entire study, Eric Milton‘s disgusting 6.47 offering from 2005, actually topped the 2.0 threshold thanks to his sparkling 2.5 BB/9 rate. Moving to 2.5 cuts out the bottom 31 ERAs in the study and 46 of the bottom 50.
Here are the results with the deeper data pool and higher K/BB threshold:
The above charts show that a 2.5+ K/BB ratio is three times more likely to yield a sub-4.00 ERA than not. Within a given season, there will be a group of pitchers whose skills should have netted them a better ERA, but poor defense or simply bad luck plagued them and left their skills unrewarded. The average was eight such starters per season. Given that recent trends have between 80 and 90 ERA qualifiers, it is about 9-10% of starting pitchers that get the short of the stick regardless of skills.
Here are some of the best buy-low opportunities who are also at risk of being part of this year’s batch of unlucky pitchers:
I don’t think you can really buy low on Justin Verlander given how unbelievably hot he has been lately striking out 9, 11, 11 and 13 in his past four starts. However all four of his AL Central counterparts on the list should come at legitimate discounts. I’d target Minnesota’s Kevin Slowey above all. His 0.9 BB/9 is amazing and while it might not hold 100%, he maintained a 1.3 in 160 IP last year so it’s unlikely to jump up too much. Rich Harden, Jon Lester and Jake Peavy won’t be bargain bin pick ups because of their gaudy strikeout totals (and because Harden and Peavy don’t have outrageous ERAs), but if you can get them at any discount, I’d recommend doing so immediately.
The at-risk group has it’s fair share of star power on it, too:
Three-fifths of the New York Yankees rotation is overachieving so far while the remaining two are getting obliterated (A.J. Burnett-5.36, Phil Hughes-7.56). And that over achievement has earned a record just one game above .500. Any regression could be very damaging and quickly push the Yankees to fourth in their division. But I actually expect Sabathia and Chamberlain to get better as we close out May and head into June. Sabathia will up his K-rate while Chamberlain will trim his BB-rate and continue to strikeout a batter per innings.
Jair Jurrjens and Brian Bannister are major red flags. We know what the bottom looks like for Bannister (1.9 K/BB in 183 IP last year led to 5.76 ERA), but Jurrjens flirted with the 2.0 threshold last year and ended up having a pretty successful year. Of course he did go for a sub-3.00 ERA in the first half and then regress heavily with a 4.49 in the second half. At least in 2008 he was straddling the limit with a 1.9 first half and 2.1 second half. I’d sell him instantly. And I’d have never bought Bannister so if you do have him, cash in that lottery ticket as soon as you can because it has an expiration date.
The names on this list that I’m least worried about are: Chad Billingsley, Max Scherzer and Matt Garza because of their strong K-rates of 9.3, 8.4 and 7.9, respectively. Yes Mitchell Boggs is toting an 8.1 K/9, but the last time he reached a mark that high was his final year at the University of Georgia in 2005 so I’m not buying it in the least with just 22 innings of work. As I mentioned earlier, I do think Chamberlain will turn it around, but there is still some risk because he has a nearly 10.0 H/9 rate to go with the gaudy BB-rate. There are concerns that he is trying to save himself to go six or seven innings and it’s causing him to be very hittable in the rare instances that he is actually in zone.
Posted in All BbP Originals, Analysis, Data & News, Fantasy Baseball, Strategy | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Andy Pettitte, Barry Zito, CC Sabathia, Chad Billingsley, Cole Hamels, Data & News, Derek Lowe, Fantasy Baseball, Jake Peavy, Joba Chamberlain, Jon Lester, Justin Verlander, Kevin Slowey, Matt Garza, Max Scherzer, Mitchell Boggs, Rich Harden
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The Future is not Retro
One faction of urbanists that I’ve sometimes found myself clashing with is people who assume that a greener, less auto-centric future will look something like the traditional small towns of the past. Strong Towns is the best example I know of of this tendency, arguing against high-rise urban redevelopment and in favor of urbanism that looks like pre-freeway Midwestern main streets. But this retro attitude to the future happens everywhere, and recently I’ve had to argue about this with the generally pro-modern Cap’n Transit and his take about the future of vacations. Even the push for light rail in a number of cities has connections with nostalgia for old streetcars, to the point that some American cities build mixed-traffic streetcars, such as Portland.
The future was not retro in the 1950s
The best analogy for a zero-emissions future is ironically what it seeks to undo: the history of suburbanization. In retrospect, we can view midcentury suburbanization as a physical expansion of built-up areas at lower density, at automobile scale. But at the time, it was not always viewed this way. Socially, the suburbs were supposed to be a return to rural virtues. The American patrician reformers who advocated for them consciously wanted to get rid of ethnic urban neighborhoods and their alien cultures. The German Christian democratic push for regional road and rail connections has the same social origin, just without the ethnic dimension – cities were dens of iniquity and sin.
At the same time, the suburbs, that future of the middle of the 20th century, were completely different from the mythologized 19th century past, before cities like New York and Berlin had grown so big. Most obviously, they were linked to urban jobs; the social forces that pushed for them were aware of that in real time, and sought transportation links precisely in order to permit access to urban jobs in what they hoped would be rural living.
But a number of other key differences are visible – for one, those suburbs were near the big cities of the early 20th century, and not in areas with demographic decline. In the United States, the Great Plains and Appalachia kept depopulating and the Deep South except Atlanta kept demographically stagnating. The growth in that era of interregional convergence happened in suburbs around New York, Chicago, and other big then-industrial cities, and in parts of what would soon be called the Sunbelt, namely Southern California, Texas, and Florida. In Germany, this history is more complicated, as the stagnating region that traditionalists had hoped to repopulate was Prussia and Posen, which were given to Poland at the end of the war and ethnically cleansed of their German populations. However, we can still see postwar shifts within West Germany toward suburbs of big cities like Munich and Frankfurt, while the Ruhr stagnated.
The future of transit-oriented development is not retro
People who dislike the auto-oriented form of cities can easily romanticize how cities looked before mass motorization. They’d have uniform missing middle built form in most of the US and UK, or uniform mid-rise in New York and Continental Europe. American YIMBYs in particular easily slip into romanticizing missing middle density and asking to replace single-family housing with duplexes and triplexes rather than with anything more substantial.
If you want to see what 21st-century TOD looks like, go to the richer parts of East Asia, especially Tokyo, which builds much more housing than Hong Kong and Singapore. The density in Tokyo is anything but uniform. There are clusters of high-rise buildings next to train stations, and lower density further away, even small single-family houses fronting narrow streets far enough from train stations that it’s not economical to redevelop them. It offends nostalgic Westerners; the future often does.
In the context of a growing city like New York or London, what this means is that the suburbs can expect to look spiky. There’s no point in turning, say, everything within two kilometers of Cockfosters (or the Little Neck LIRR station) into mid-rise apartments or even rowhouses. What’s the point? There’s a lot more demand 100 meters from the station than two kilometers away, enough that people pay the construction cost premium for the 20th floor 100 meters from the stations in preference to the third floor two kilometers away. The same is true for Paris – there’s no solution for its growth needs other than high-rises near RER stations and key Metro stations in the city as well as the suburbs, like the existing social housing complexes but with less space between buildings. It may offend people who associate high-rises with either the poor or recent high-skill immigrants, but again, the future often offends traditionalists.
The future of transportation is not retro
In countries that do not rigidly prevent urban housing growth the way the US does, the trend toward reurbanization is clear. Germany’s big cities are growing while everything else is shrinking save some suburbs in the richest regions, such as around Munich. Rural France keeps depopulating.
In this context, the modes of transportation of the future are rapid transit and high-speed rail. Rapid transit is preferable to buses and surface trains in most cities, because it serves spiky development better – the stations are spaced farther apart, which is fine because population density is not isotropic and neither is job density, and larger cities need the longer range that comes with the higher average speed of the subway or regional train over that of the tramway.
High-speed rail is likewise preferable to an everywhere-to-everywhere low-speed rail network like that of Switzerland. In a country with very large metro areas spaced 500 km or so apart, like the US, France, or Germany, connecting those growing city centers is of crucial importance, while nearby cities of 100,000 are of diminishing importance. Moreover, very big cities can be connected by trains so frequent that untimed transfers are viable. Already under the Deutschlandtakt plan, there will be 2.5 trains between Berlin and Hanover every hour, and if average speeds between Berlin and the Rhine-Ruhr were increased to be in line with those of the TGVs, demand would fill 4-6 trains per hour, enough to facilitate untimed transfers from connecting lines going north and south of Hanover. The Northeast Corridor has even more latent demand, given the huge size of New York.
The future of travel is not retro
The transportation network both follows and shapes travel patterns. Rapid transit is symbiotic with spiky TOD, and high-speed rail is symbiotic with extensive intercity travel.
The implication is that the future of holidays, too, is not retro. Vacation trips between major cities will become easier if countries that are not France and Japan build a dense network of high-speed lines akin to what France has done over the last 40 years and what Japan has done over the last 60. Many of those cities have thriving tourism economies, and these can expect to expand if there are fast trains connecting them to other cities within 300-1,000 kilometers.
Sometimes, these high-speed lines could serve romanticized tourist destinations. Niagara Falls lies between New York and Toronto, and could see expansion of visits, including day trips from Toronto and Buffalo and overnight stays from New York. The Riviera will surely see more travel once the much-delayed LGV PACA puts Nice four hours away from Paris by train rather than five and a half. Even the Black Forest might see an expansion of travel if people connect from high-speed trains from the rest of Germany to regional trains at Freiburg, going from the Rhine Valley up to the mountains; but even then, I expect a future Germany’s domestic tourism to be increasingly urban, probably involving the Rhine waterfront as well as the historic cities along the river.
But for the most part, tourist destinations designed around driving, like most American national parks as well as state parks like the Catskills, will shrink in importance in a zero-carbon future. It does not matter if they used to have rail access, as Glacier National Park did; the tourism of the leisure class of the early 20th century is not the same as that of the middle class of the middle of the 21st. Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are not the only pretty places in the world or even in the United States; the Hudson Valley and the entire Pacific Coast are pretty too, and do not require either driving or taking a hypothetical train line that, on the list of the United States’ top transportation priorities, would not crack the top 100. This will offend people whose idea of environmentalism is based on the priorities of turn-of-the-century patrician conservationists, but environmental science has moved on and the nature of the biggest ecological crisis facing humanity has changed.
The non-retro future is pretty cool
The theme of the future is that, just as the Industrial Revolution involved urbanization and rural depopulation, urban development patterns this century involve growth in the big metro areas and decline elsewhere and in traditional small towns. This is fine. The status anxieties of Basil Fawlty types who either can’t or won’t adapt to a world that has little use for their prejudices are not a serious public concern.
Already, people lead full lives in big global cities like New York and London without any of the trappings of what passed for normality in the middle of the 20th century, like a detached house with a yard and no racial minorities or working-class people within sight. The rest will adapt to this reality, just as early 20th century urbanites adapted to the reality of suburbanization a generation later.
It’s not even an imposition. It’s opportunity. People can live in high-quality housing with access to extensive social as well as job networks, and travel to many different places with different languages, flora and fauna, vistas, architecture, food, and local retail. Even in the same language zone, Northern and Southern Germany look completely different from each other, as do Paris and Southern France, or New England and Washington. Then outside the cities there are enough places walking distance from a commuter rail line or on the way on a high-speed line between two cities that people can if they’d like go somewhere and spend time out of sight of other people. There’s so much to do in a regime of green prosperity; the world merely awaits the enactment of policies that encourage such a future in lieu of one dominated by small-minded local interests who define themselves by how much they can pollute.
Written by Alon Levy Posted in Development, Environmental Issues, Germany, High-Speed Rail, New York, Urban Design, Urban Transit, Urbanism
Streetsblog did a podcast with someone from Vancouver recently who said pretty much the same thing. That the best analogies to Vancouver development patterns were found in Asia and not really in North America or Europe.
Yeah. The one big difference is that even though Vancouver and Tokyo have similar housing construction rates, in Tokyo there’s much more redevelopment in rich areas like Roppongi, whereas in Vancouver those areas remain zoned for single-family residential.
You don’t mention flight even once (despite the obvious relevance to destinations like the Grand Canyon that few Americans could reasonably reach by rail). Do you assume that flying will stop, or else become unaffordable to most of the population?
2019/09/09 - 04:15 Witek
Well Alon is talking zero carbon world, flying is not really efficient and I don’t know how it can go zero-carbon unless they really make a big leap forward with the electric plane 😉
Technically speaking, a zero carbon world is impossible for people to live in, because humans exhale carbon dioxide. So I assumed he was speaking of a more sensible goal like a zero *net* carbon world.
Exhalation is in a closed system with the biosphere – the CO2 animals exhale comes from carbon in their bodies, which they replenish by consuming plants and other animals. Unless the biosphere’s biomass shrinks, e.g. if a forest is burned, this does not actually emit CO2 into the atmosphere on net.
2019/09/09 - 12:27 Herbert
What about power to liquid fuel produced by filtering carbon dioxide from the air and turning it into fuel with hydrogen in a Fischer Tropsch like process?
I assume another way saying that is to say that human carbon comes from plants, and plant carbon comes from the atmosphere (photosynthesis), so when humans exhale atmospheric CO2 only returns to the point it was at before the cycle started.
However, the same is true of burning a forest.
So I don’t see any real reason to prefer zero carbon to zero net carbon (i.e. allow airplanes, and plant a bunch of trees).
2019/09/09 - 15:57 Kenneth Easwaran
Eric – as long as plant and animal biomass remain constant, the exhalation of the animals is matched by the carbon fixing of the plants. If burning a forest is imagined as part of a sustainable process where the amount burned each year is equal to the amount grown that same year, then yeah, this is also net zero carbon. The thing that is not net-zero carbon is if a forest is burned and then remains in some other state, like barren, or possibly a grassland or desert. Then there is a one-time change.
If you want net zero carbon where you fly airplanes and plant trees to fix carbon, then you need a constantly growing biomass of trees, which presumably means clearing grasslands to create forests, which isn’t obviously as much of a win as people might think. In any case, it’s clearly not sustainable, since there’s only so many new trees the world can hold without eradicating some other ecosystems.
Unless you remove some trees and put them into low earth orbit…
2019/09/23 - 21:25 michaelrjames
Or put them on a little patch of the two-thirds of the planet’s surface that is ocean. The Pacific is vast beyond our comprehension and most of it is essentially empty, extremely distant from human habitation, is warm water with huge insolation ….
Where do you put all those trees?
2019/09/12 - 08:21 owentt
There is an active daily rail link from LA to Grand Canyon right now, running right up to the rim on a spur line with commercial service today. The same line serves various other cities all the way out to Chicago.
The spur line has been active since 1901 with a long pause in the 1970s and 1980s.
@Herbert “Where do you put all those trees?”
Alon is positing a lot more rural open space if the small towns and farm country empty out into megacities.
But I thought we needed the farmland for “biofuel”…
Yeah, I do assume that. The only thing capable of replacing intercontinental flying is vactrains, which exhibit the same spikiness as high-speed trains. Any destination can put up an airport and fly planes to a hub, but vactrains involve extensive linear infrastructure, and if it at all pencils out, it will only be along very thick intercity routes.
You can also cover a zeppelin in solar panels to power its propellers…
They have delivery dates for electric puddle jumpers. It should make the Essential Air Services flights Real Americans(tm) take, need less subsidy.
When an airplane crashes it doesn’t make the planes in back of it crash too. The synthetic fuel plant doesn’t care much where the carbon and hydrogen are coming from. You can dump almost anything in one end and get almost anything out the other. It’s not done much because dead dinosaur goo is cheaper. But not so expensive building vactrains makes sense. And crashing airplanes don’t make the planes in back of it crash too.
Puddle jumpers lose against HSR every single time
2019/09/11 - 18:37 threestationsquare
If there’s a busy enough route and no ocean in the way, sure. HSR from NYC to Miami is probably worth it in a decarbonized world, but the last leg from Miami to most of the Caribbean is probably going to be on an (electric or biofuel) aircraft until not long before the Dyson Sphere starts construction.
Not when you are hours away, by bus, from the nearest HSR station.
Why is there an airport in that non-place then?
NYC-Miami, also NYC-London and similar routes, might one day be served by underwater vactrains.
I would like to see the math on whether electric aircraft could ever be technologically and economically viable for short range flights (i.e. between Caribbean or Greek islands, or Seoul-Jeju, or Korea-Japan, or DC-Pittsburgh).
I know they are talking about 10-seat electric planes right now with a quite substantial range, but 150-seat planes with a short range might be more useful.
Seoul-Jeju will be doable by rail before an electric plane becomes viable there (remember, even if it had the range, it’d need to achieve comparable turnaround times and pax loads)
2019/09/09 - 07:28 Pingback: “The Future Is Not Retro”: Urbanist Realities and “Her”banism | Straßgefühl
Your essential theme is fine but you have gone too far in seemingly accepting that anything new, regardless of success on certain terms, is inevitable and resistance is futile. Some fads come and go, and some can be quite long-lived, not necessarily for the right reasons. Car-dependence is clearly in this category where we are going thru a considerable change. At this moment in history we are close to ‘peak car’, on one or other side of the peak. This doesn’t mean a particular kind of urbanist is totally against cars but that their dominance of our environment and lives has gone too far and, further, it’s unnecessary. A preference for walkable neighbourhoods or cities is not to ban all vehicles. Indeed one of the most famous battles over cars illustrates the point. Jane Jacobs was not against cars in cities–though some people may misinterpret her that way. But she was against the kind of grotesque over-reach by Robert Moses and the car-lobby who were intent on implementing the 1930s fantasies of massive and elevated highways thru the heart of our cities and communities, destroying all in its path including beloved parks (Wash. Sq Pk) and neighbourhoods. Since those days (early 60s) big freeways forcing their way in the heart of cities has been in retreat with some being demolished: NYC’s Westside; San Fran’s Embarcadero; Boston’s I93; Seattle’s Alaskan Hgwy; Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon creek restoration and Paris’ Pompidou riverside expressway closure.
My point is that one doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, fatalist about every apparently irresistible trend. The unhealthy intrusion and over-dependence on cars became obvious in the 60s if not before and it has taken almost half a century (much too long) to gain serious traction with how we actually plan and build our cities. Your recipe would be that we can do nothing about it. If anything the story of cars and roads shows that we need to be more proactive on such important life-affecting things.
Then there is the built form of our cities and particularly housing. Just like with cars I believe we have plenty of evidence to make a judgment on this rather than just leave it to commercial interests. You wrote:
There’s no point in turning, say, everything within two kilometers of Cockfosters (or the Little Neck LIRR station) into mid-rise apartments or even rowhouses. What’s the point? There’s a lot more demand 100 meters from the station than two kilometers away, enough that people pay the construction cost premium for the 20th floor 100 meters from the stations in preference to the third floor two kilometers away. The same is true for Paris – there’s no solution for its growth needs other than high-rises near RER stations and key Metro stations in the city as well as the suburbs, like the existing social housing complexes but with less space between buildings. It may offend people who associate high-rises with either the poor or recent high-skill immigrants, but again, the future often offends traditionalists.
I don’t suppose we want to go over the same old ground yet again, but it’s disappointing that you continue to adhere to factually incorrect assumptions about ‘solutions’ to housing where higher density, especially around transit, is desirable. High-density does not require high-rise. Sure it can be achieved with high-rise but actually rarely is, as is clear from Paris being the densest western city and the only comparable places are Manhattan or smaller cores of some European and parts of Tokyo come close. Regarding suburbs and TOD around RER stations we have had this discussion before:
https://pedestrianobservations.com/2017/11/14/suburban-transit-oriented-development/#comment-27105
Bourg-la-Reine (southern suburb of Paris) and its ritzy neighbour (next station on that RER line) Sceaux have combined population of close to 40,000 and density of 11,000/km2. The vast majority of the housing typology is low-to-medium rise apartments and terrace- and single-family homes. Almost no high-rise worth speaking of. And the thing is that Paris (and many cities) have gone thru the high-rise experiment in the suburbs in the post-war period. As we know it has not been a great success and is currently being unwound–by demolitions and rebuilding low-rise, denser developments that often achieve higher density and certainly a vaster better urbanity and livability. And that is the point and a very non-trivial one. Are we really going to repeat the same errors just because it is the preferred model of property developers and their political proxies. (Google “Aldi shopping bag stuffed with $100,000” to read about last week’s political scandal in Australia involving property developers illegally influencing politicians with donations in brown paper bags.)
As it happens I am reading two books I just received, by Florian Urban* on exactly this issue. (And yes, there’s a perfect piece of nominative determinism!) He’s originally a Berliner now a prof. in Glasgow. He refers to the low-medium rise typology as “tenements” or “new tenements” and compares the old ones (in Berlin, Paris, Vienna etc) versus the new types n the last 3 or 4 decades. Of many examples which he discusses two stand out re this subject, Ørestad in Copenhagen and Aspern Lake Town, Vienna. They are both ‘new towns’ but within, or close to, their host cities, built on brownfield sites, and are planned around rail-transit. (There is also Kirchsteigfeld near Berlin which looks better but I haven’t studied it yet.) Ørestad is particularly disappointing because somehow one expects more from the Danes. Urban attempts to give it a good gloss but actually reveals there has been quite a bit of criticism because it was still “committed to the mid-twentieth-century tower-in-the-park model” and “mourned the lack of “intimate space” and considered it a mistake that the city had given in to economic pressure and allowed the shopping centre Field’s” (Copenhagen’s biggest mall, entirely inward-facing American-style).
Ørestad is filled with starchitecture and many will be familiar with some of the “tenements” because they are often featured in pictorials, eg. the Otte-tallet (Figure 8 house, Bjarke Ingels Group, “a 150-metre-long and 6-metre-wide seven-storey megastructure”) but that is part of the town’s problem. It is a big mix of types including up to 22 storeys and many at 7 storeys and many of very quirky shapes and asymmetry (11 flrs at one end, 4 flrs at the other end) but all somewhat separated and isolated. The photos amply confirm that overall the site has that typical bleakness with too much open space, too-wide roads and an evident failure to generate a city-type urbanity (one of the designers aims). Windy spaces is apparently an issue! The town in Vienna is similar.
But the worst aspect is the under-utilisation of the sites: though it seems neither town has filled up each has a density (when complete) of about 5,000/km2, less than half of Bourg-la-Reine or Sceaux.
Note that a circle around a transit station of radius 0.8km (so-called “walkable”) can hold 40,000 residents at Parisian density ie. Haussmannian topology; or 90,000 at 1.2km and 160,000 at 1.6km. My argument above, and many times previously on your blog, is that high-rise won’t achieve anything like this density even if it has that potential. If it is attempted it will produce awful bleak anti-urbanity. Indeed the two new towns have quite a bit of Haussmannian topology (7 floors) but always too spatially separated from neighbours and roads or parks etc. The designers have wilfully thrown out every lesson in urbanity we can easily see in the world’s cities. Alon, you should know better, having chosen to live in Paris-11 and Berlin-Mitte, not in one of the cheaper-rent hi-rise in the banlieus or a Plattenbau.
Watching several docos on this 9/11 anniversary, apparently those events provoked a trend of people wanting to live no higher than 8 floors because that is the limit of the reach of ladders of the fire-brigade! I agree but for additional reasons.
*Florian Urban, The New Tenements, residences in the inner city since 1970, 2018, Routledge.
Bourg-la-Reine also has high-rises right next to the RER station… Paris is to a substantial extent already building this spiky development in the suburbs. The constraint on housing planning in Ile-de-France is that it’s not allowed to replace residential buildings with bigger buildings – new development has to go on railyards and disused factories. Stockholm is the same, but development can also go on undeveloped areas that are not important as parks; Paris just doesn’t have such areas anymore. Because land availability for new development under this constraint is so limited, new housing in the suburbs is high-rise or on the tall side of mid-rise, just as it was in the 1950s and 60s when the HLMs were being built in the Zone and in the suburbs.
In Berlin I live in Neukölln, which is the poorest neighborhood inside the Ring. My parents watch a crime show depicting the neighborhood as full of drug dealers; I for one only see one drug used commonly, alcohol, but that’s Germany, not Neukölln. In Paris I picked a place on the RER because I was commuting down to IHES and wanted to avoid the Métro-RER transfer at Les Halles; the agencies I found on the Internet either did not show anything extra muros or only showed things in La Défense, a.k.a. Western Paris prices without actually living in the city. It’s all mid-rise because most of the market-rate housing stock is mid-rise, the high-rises in Ile-de-France are generally HLMs and the ones in Berlin are generally communist-era public housing blocks.
I’m not sure that is true–that they are still building high-rise apartments. I recall that they are building Haussmann-type buildings (ie. 7-8 floors) around a new station for the RER-E extension (at Cergy or Mantes-la-Jollie). Further, my whole point is that it still won’t produce higher-density just like the old HLMs in the banlieus are not more dense than the really old HLM/HBM in Paris (or inner fringe). And that is the same reason not to promote high-rise as part of TOD, anywhere. We risk building–for entirely the wrong “reason”–urban/suburban infrastructure that will be crap and that will blight the city and people’s lives for another half century.
As usual, one must distinguish between the property developers who want to build as high as they are allowed or that can convince the authorities. In the Anglosphere the property speculators have the politicians in their pockets. I don’t think their reach is as great elsewhere, and there is more desire to build good urbanity. Though I criticise those “new tenements” described by Florian Urban, at least they were genuine efforts to create good environments even if they patently got it wrong, and there is no excuse for repeating those same errors.
France builds more housing per capita than the US and UK, and maybe even Canada, I’m not sure, so I don’t get why you think property developers have politicians in their pockets in the Anglosphere.
I don’t quite get your point. But it is totally transparent that property developers buy Anglosphere politicians. Though of course it is also supported by Anglosphere bankers as part of the whole property bubble Ponzi, mortgage racket.
Certainly in France I don’t think it is anywhere near the same level. Nor, from what I understand, in Germany or Austria (The Vienna Model; Austrians are among the richest people on earth but an astounding fraction of Viennese live in public housing.). There is more longer-term planning and more real concern for national interest.
Vienna during its red past deliberately made it unattractive for capital investors to build housing in order to get more public housing built. They’re moving towards that system once again…
If only red Vienna wasn’t surrounded by fascist Austria…
Vienna in its present is poorer than the rest of Austria, inc. Lower Austria in particular, and has seen income stagnation since the recession began, even as Berlin has pulled ahead. Stagnation is a great strategy for affordability, I’ve heard housing in Rome is really cheap.
Berlin is poorer than the German average. And Vienna is booming in every aspect that counts
Per capita market income net of interest and rent, 2008 -> 2016:
Vienna: 23,400 -> 22,900
Lower Austria: 23,500 -> 25,100
Berlin: 18,600 -> 22,500
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/refreshTableAction.do?tab=table&plugin=1&pcode=tgs00036&language=en
Yearly public transit ticket in Vienna: 365€
And Vienna still has affordable housing…
Yes, when average incomes in your city stagnate, it’s easy to have affordable housing even with moderate levels of construction. But when they rise fast as in Berlin, rents rise more slowly, especially when so much housing is locked up in rent control agreements.
Vienna has loads of people moving into the city from elsewhere, which imho is a far more important yardstick for success than money
You can have population growth with income growth, as in Berlin (from a low level) and Munich (from an already high one), or population growth without income growth, as in the American Sunbelt and Vienna. Lots of people are moving to Central Florida, but that area is economically depressed.
Why are people moving there?
A city that has people running away from it has a problem. A city that has to manage a huge influx of potential new residents is doing *something* right.
I mean that’s why the Berlin wall was such a declaration of bankruptcy on the moral front. If you can’t keep your people in, your system is flawed.
If you could choose any Berlin neighborhood, regardless of cost, which would you choose?
I don’t know that I’d even live in Berlin. But if I did, then probably just somewhere in Mitte.
So you yourself would NOT live in a tower in the park?
Why do you assume others would?
2019/09/10 - 18:31 Nilo
Did Alon advocate for towers in a park anywhere? I must have missed it. Anyways if I could live anywhere in the world I’d be along the beach in a high rise in Ipanema.
He does advocate “spiky density” which to me sounds like a high rise on top of the subway station surrounded by nothing more than it sounds like Fhain-Kreuzberg or its southern extension in northern Neukölln…
In equally central parts of Tokyo this really means somewhat lower background density than Kreuzberg but then very dense high-rises next to train stations. You get dense SFR (or missing middle) density farther away from the train stations in places like Toshima or Taito, but the overall density in Toshima is higher than in Kreuzberg, and I think Toshima also has a higher share of commercial areas than Kreuzberg (Wikipedia says 20% and 49% residential) but I’m not sure. The density in parts of Toshima right next to Ikebukuro is specifically a lot higher than in parts of Kreuzberg right next to Mehringdamm.
How many cities of twenty million are there and how many cities of half a million are there?
2019/09/09 - 08:19 Ben Ross
We see the spikiness in the Washington DC area, which is one of the few US cities to have both an extensive rail transit system and county-level zoning in the suburbs. But a major factor, possibly the crucial factor, in creating it is zoning. In both Montgomery and Arlington Counties, spikiness around transit stations is the result of a conscious choice by elected officials to try to satisfy both pro-growth and anti-growth forces.
Fairfax has the spikiness uncorrelated with the transit (or in the case of Tysons, the transit came later in response to the spike). This is something you can also see in parts of Montgomery, and in the Edge City phenomenon in many other cities. Basically, the single family homes come first and take the best land, and zoning dumps the later density into the least desirable locations.
2019/09/09 - 08:34 IAN! Mitchell
A zero-carbon world is not happening- Humans respire.
The cost economics of going to zero *net* carbon (if that ever even happens) don’t mean the disappearance of technologies such as flight. The emissions of Norwegian air shuttle are 44 pax-km/L , or 104 mpg- which is better than bus fleets get in any North American City.
Atmospheric carbon recapture in 2019 runs at about $600 per ton as of 2018.
Meaning that a flight from LA to the Grand Canyon would cost about $175 worth of carbon recapture.
The costs of domestic aviation in the US prior to deregulation were significantly higher than the costs of domestic aviation in the US would be with carbon recapture- with 2018 technology. Whether the tech that’s intended to lower that price to $100 per tonne will come to fruition or not, we can expect atmospheric carbon recapture to be the most expensive today that it will ever be.
Even in Japan and France, there are 615 and 478 cars per every 1,000 people. Those are the countries you hold up as if they were the car-free future.
That’s not a low enough penetration of automobiles for people to stop visiting truly awe-inspiring places like Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Zion, Arches, or the Grand Tetons. People already are visiting Yosemite from Silicon valley in a Tesla. I know because I’ve done it! These places aren’t merely “pretty”- and the pacific coast is not all that much more accessible by transit than Yosemite is today.
Is it more likely that the places that will be built between now and 2100 will look like Vancouver than Northside, Jackson Heights, or New Orleans? Yeah, probably. But that has more to do with an ossified development and finance process that makes it an equal amount of red tape to build a 6-story Texas Doughnut that encompasses an entire block as it does to build a polish duplex, granny flat, or 4plex in a desirable residential area.
For all the pomp that Vancouver has, it is still plainly a North American city- the one with the highest housing costs. When it comes to “spiky” development, Mississauga, the crown jewel of “Density without Urbanism” outside of the old soviet bloc, is a pretty sterling example. It’s something Le Corbusier would salivate over.
Spiky is not the kind of place we should be building.
There are atmospheric forcing effects, so the GHG emissions of a liter of jet fuel burned in flight are higher than those of a liter of gas burned at the ground, I believe by a factor of about 2.
Actually airplane pollution causes cooling via reflection of incoming sunlight. Remember how the almost week of no flights after 9/11 caused a measurable global cooling?
The solution to airline emissions will be biofuels. It won’t be carbon capture and sequestration which is just something promoted by the fossil fuel industries who don’t want to do anything.
Also, it is mostly a distraction at this point as it represents only about 4-5% of total carbon emissions.
Cars are getting replaced. Electricity and heating are getting decarbonized. Agriculture is being reformed towards lower emissions.
Aviation grows far faster than any efficiency gains in engines. And PtL is only competitive if oil based fuel gets significantly more expensive
@Herbert “Cars are getting replaced. Electricity and heating are getting decarbonized. Agriculture is being reformed towards lower emissions.”
Maybe some of those things will happen someday, but none of them are happening right now.
There are places where one or two of those things are currently happening. Of course we need all those things to be happening everywhere, but that’s just politics same as building rail lines
You seem to contradict yourself, but I googled and it seems contrails have a net warming effect, resulting in cooling after 9/11.
https://globalnews.ca/news/2934513/empty-skies-after-911-set-the-stage-for-an-unlikely-climate-change-experiment/
Oops, yes you are correct. I meant to write “9/11 caused a measurable global warming“.
It is the same basis of creating sea spray mists to increase the albedo of the atmosphere–to reflect more incoming radiation. It might also have a contribution from sulphur in emissions mimicking volcanoes.
Here is a more authoritative summary, however this is a bit old and it seems it remains unresolved (however the observation of increased warming in the period after stopping of flights after 9/11 is not in dispute, just the cause:effect relationship).
https://www.nature.com/news/2008/081231/full/news.2008.1335.html
Can aircraft trails affect climate? Grounding planes after the 11 September attacks may not have caused unusual temperature effects.
Anna Barnett, Dec 2008.
Theory or fact?
Two studies1,2 noted that when planes stopped flying on 11–14 September 2001, the average daily temperature range in the United States rose markedly, exceeding the three-day periods before and after by an average of 1.8 °C. The unusual size of the shift, says David Travis of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, who led both of the earlier studies, implied that an absence of contrails gave the temperature range a significant boost. But that idea, he says, was “more like a hypothesis” than a firm conclusion.
There’s significant debate among reasonable experts in the field as to the exact value of said factor…
2019/09/10 - 23:25 Pokemon Black Card
Post-1970s financialization of the economy has really done a number on multifamily topology. If 90% of deposits are in one of five mega banks then it only makes sense to build clusters of Texas Doughnuts connected by skybridges. If money is dispersed across a bajillion savings and loans then you’re going to see a lot of smaller courtyard and dingbat complexes. Financialization and consolidation have centralization (of government) and harmonization (of regulations) as prerequisites, so an argument about the relative future importance of the bungalow court versus Southeast Asian style high rise clusters can be devolved to an argument about the future of government. Globally, there is a 150-year trend towards centralization in the US and a near 200-year trend in the UK and Germany, but the African nations have been dividing for 60+ years and the former Eastern bloc has been fracturing at a rapid pace since 1991. I don’t claim to be smart enough to know where we’ll be in 50 years.
You’re ignoring the fact that a Texas doughnut is designed once and built a hundred times, and the permitting process is streamlined for the sake of “economic development”.
Frequently entire block-sized developments are approved more readily than a single garage conversion or granny flat. The ossified process of permitting and approvals is what’s driving out missing middle- more so than the structure of capital investment is.
2019/09/09 - 09:02 Aaron M. Renn
You can have a full life in these cities without traditional middle class trappings – if you are content with far sub-replacement fertility. The problem is that cities cities are dependent on hinterlands (domestic and foreign) that are built on a completely different model in order to produce and raise the kids who will live in them. If the world converts to this, the demographics no longer work. Perhaps you think the Japanese model, where population declines and concentrates in a handful of cities, with much of the country de facto being abandoned, is a great model from an environmental perspective. But it’s hard to predict exactly how to navigate the future in a country with long term declining population.
That’s not really the explanation for low birthrates in these cities. Serious academics (i.e. not Kotkin) have studied this, people in East Asia are aware of the problem of low birthrates. Paulin Tay Straughan argues that on a national scale it’s an artifact of very long work hours and the middle class’s need to spend extensive amounts of money on private education, such as tutoring and cram schools – IIRC she mentions that Singapore leads the world in % of GDP spent on private education. Birthrates are lower in Tokyo than in rural Japan because permanent salaried office jobs with brutal working hours cluster in Tokyo. Lower-productivity, lower-pay jobs in Japan have more normal working hours, so family formation rates there are higher than among salarymen.
In the US, the working hours don’t depend on social class much – the average is the same as Japan, but everyone works the same hours – but the private cost of childbirth in the middle class is even higher because of extreme childcare costs. And in Continental Western Europe, childcare is cheaper and in many places (like Berlin or the Nordic countries) free or almost free, private spending on education is very low, and middle-class jobs offer 4-7 weeks of paid vacation. Here, the Asian pattern of low birthrates in cities isn’t really true. Ile-de-France’s share of children is the same as that of France in general, and Paris’s is only somewhat lower. Germany generally has very low birthrates, but it comes from a culture in which women have to choose between children and careers so the rates of either are lower than in more flexible countries like the US or Sweden.
Fun fact: during the GDR the east had a higher birth rate than the west from the sixties onward. Despite migrants (who have more kids in the first generation on average) and heavily religious people (who are likewise more into the fruitful multiplying) bring scarcer in the east. After 1989/90 birth rates tanked in the east, only slowly creeping up towards the western average of 1.4/1.3
Didn’t the parts of Germany that became the East always have higher birthrates? Or am I mixing my stereotypes of prewar East Elbia with those of the Dutch Bible Belt?
I’m not sure birth rate data pre 1914 is fine grained enough to tell either way.
Certainly the Saxon industrial region had a higher birth rate than the Ruhr area…
East Elbia also pretty much disappeared with the end of the war. Those parts that weren’t annexed to Poland and the USSR had their social structure changed (for the better) by the complete removal of the Junker class
2019/09/09 - 15:57 myb6
Doesn’t “spiky” imply there will still be a lot of lower-density family-friendly areas, the drawback being less convenience to the transit nodes? Having the density gradient occur on a finer-grained scale would make all the density levels more livable.
lower-density family-friendly areas
That is a false equivalence. It is not (higher) densities that make a place less child friendly but design. Dense cities in France (and probably Germany & Nordics) are more child and family friendly than almost any suburban area in either France or especially the Anglosphere because, you know .. socialism. ie. ecoles maternelles, children’s play parks (probably more in central Paris than any other region on earth), walkable/strollable neighbourhoods, child-friendly cafes, convenient medical clinics, pharmacies, shopping of all kinds etc.
OTOH all attempts to make high-rise family friendly have failed, eg. Corbusier’s “communal” zones in buildings or the huge empty “green” spaces in his towers fantasies that still seem to have captured modern planners despite the century of contrary evidence (eg. Ørestad). Ignorant proseltyzers for suburban SFH continue to peddle the outdated notion that Manhattan or inner Paris is no place for children. Indeed as Jane Jacobs wrote close to 6 decades ago, the high density of people on the streets and parks (small ones like Wash. Sq. not giant ones like Central Park) is exactly what increases urbanity and safety etc in dense urban areas.
Alon was explicit about East Asian style spikiness, so high-rise. More generally however, with small children and their necessaries lots of stairs and elevators are a pain. You also have cost. Right now that’s overwhelmingly the zoning/demand chasm, but in the spiky free-build ideal both outdoor and livable sqft would still be cheaper outside the spikes. I agree that, in form, exurban or highway-suburb densities aren’t actually ideal for kids.
Yes, we must have socialism for walkability (curse those darn capitalists with their tax-funded no-fee auto network), cafes and shopping.
Dutch and Danish urbanites manage reproduction just fine…
Isn’t the entire differential in Japanese Birth rate from the United States based on their low rate of out of wed lock births? See this twitter thread. https://twitter.com/tgrayeb/status/1121562789556948992.
Given that especially in the United States most out of wedlock births aren’t planned, it would seem like access to better sexual health resources would eliminate the United States superior growth rate. It would actually seem that in fact in terms of children born in wedlock there’s probably a long way to go if countries actually want to have replacement level fertility.
Isn’t it amazing how many (unfortunately not all) parents with unplanned kids somehow make it work?
Maybe we should focus on making the “make it work” more visible for potential parents considering kids but ultimately saying no…
2019/09/09 - 09:42 Michael
In America, it’s midrise podium construction for the foreseeable future.
What everyone neglects to mention about the post-war era in the US is that light frame single family housing was the by far the cheapest way to provide residential square footage. The fire codes, building codes, financing, & local regulatory framework laid out after WW2 had 3 cost optimization nodes: light frame SFUs, 1 story concrete block “decorated sheds” retail/commercial, and steel frame construction with repeating floor plates for class A office space. The result was high-rise office cores with a steep density decline. In places with weak white collar economies, there was no core & just sprawl. Nationwide, most of the in-between neighborhoods that didn’t conform to those 3 nodes failed catastrophically. Only in places with large amounts of capital sloshing around were some preserved & reborn as charming residential neighborhoods.
Podium construction (and the attendant regulatory updates) has introduced a mid-rise format that makes sense from a cost perspective. Since we went generations without a midrise format that worked, there’s just huge latent demand everywhere. It’s going to continue to be the dominate form of development in the cores of small & medium cities and in the neighborhood commercial districts of major cities for at least a generation.
The story of high-rise office cores surrounded by SFR has to include zoning. American zoning laws regulate use rigidly, unlike (say) German or French ones, which focus on regulating size. With use zoning, SFR zoning, and historic preservation in some near-downtown neighborhoods (like in Atlanta), it’s not really possible for CBDs to creep outward the way they do here, where residential and office buildings sometimes have the same physical shape and the same building can swap use based on demand.
The US excuses a lot of stuff based on fire codes, but apparently mcmansions are really fire-prone – the open floor plans make it easy for fires to spread internally, and the low population density means people live far from the fire station.
There’s a reason why the US economy can be fairly robust despite a development model that seems insane. 1. The externalities of fossil fuels are not absorbed locally. 2. Sprawl has a few tricks. Cost of square footage is very low. Storm water costs are low. The little risk of fire spreading to neighboring properties. Wide arterials (stroads) with signalized intersections are relatively cheap. Box retail, where the store receives its daily shipments on pallets from semi can deliver goods to consumers about as cheap as possible. Sidewalks, street lights, street trees, trash collection etc are all eliminated. The result is sprawl is cheap to build and to live in, even when clocking 15,000 miles/year per driver.
Zoning is the core element of sprawl. You have to separate the semi-trailer deliveries, mosquito infested water detention ponds, and everyone driving everywhere from the residential neighborhoods to have it be a tolerable living arrangement. If a city has really high housing demand, folks will live in an industrial park & probably convert it to a residential neighborhood fairly quickly. But in most places, there’s zero demand to live around those activities.
Where people will live is in in-fill apartments in legacy neighborhoods, hence the importance of a cost competitive, mid-rise format.
2019/09/09 - 10:34 yuuka
It’s important to remember that the Soviets also had a considerable about of low-rise podium housing, put up quickly with prefab technologies, in the Khruschev era.
Over here in Singapore we’ve apparently managed to build high-rises out of prefabs, but in the past few years I’ve seen a majority of projects (both private and public) where Le Corbusier’s “towers in a park” reign supreme.
That’s the future in the US, at least for a while. The reality for most of the US is that real estate is priced at replacement cost (or less). From 1945 to about 2005, that meant basically two housing options: ~$300/sq ft boutique high rise or ~$135/sq ft light frame (which mostly comes in detached SFUs, but also motel-style garden apartments and few other flavors). Now, we’ve got $170/sq ft podium mid-rises in the mix. There’s a whole lot of places where that price point makes sense that were previously not compatible with light frame and didn’t have the economics to justify high rise.
The problem of light frame is that ground floor residential in places with foot traffic is not desirable. And regulation generally prevents the mixing of uses within light frame buildings. Since light frame is limited to 3 stories (4 with expensive tricks like spinklers), and the 1st floor becomes a throwaway, it’s a bad tool for urban in-fill. The podium puts retail/office and parking on the first level, residential or offices above. It’s a much better tool.
Does that mean that superstar cities shouldn’t build high rises? Of course not. The price per square foot in parts of SF or NYC is well over $1,000/sq ft. That clearly justifies high rise construction. But the dominate theme of development in the US is going to be mid-rise infill everywhere else.
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote. But can’t light frame easily already accommodate densities way higher than most Americans live in? So far the nascent movement for ADUs etc has surprised me with how quickly and easily they’ve achieved (potentially important) legal changes. Could take a serious bite in the podium market. OTOH it remains to be seen how much development the legal changes will actually trigger.
In Los Angeles, Chicagoland, Houston, etc we get the garden apartment complex neighborhoods but it’s “density without urbanism” and generally considered inferior. The issue is configuration. If we want walkability & urbanity, we need buildings without setbacks & mixed uses. In traditional cities, the simple answer is to put apartments above light commercial, since that provides mixed uses while residents don’t mind the lack of a setback if they are on the second floor or above.
A issue in the US is that most jurisdictions prohibit mixing commercial & residential in a light frame building, unless it’s been grandfathered in. So in most places, we get 2 sets of buildings. One for the commercial use & one for residential use.
Then with the residential, most people living in garden apartment buildings have a strong preference to be setback from the street. No one wants people looking in their windows at night. Between the separated uses & the setbacks, they are not great neighborhoods for walkability in spite of relatively high densities, so people drive a lot.
This is what it ends up looking like with the setbacks, lots of shrubbery by the apartments. Adjacent to strip mall commercial.
https://www.google.com/maps/@33.8164166,-117.9413922,3a,75y,133.75h,83.59t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sf0o9QC_nqSZHdjAf_yYbQw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
How hard is it to walk 10 feet? I don’t see how a 10 foot bushy setback affects walkability (unless you’re disabled, I don’t know how disabled people are supposed to get up those stairs).
The strip malls and the stroad are unpleasant for walking, but that’s not the fault of this apartment complex.
Nothing is individually going to derail a neighborhood: few stroads, some buildings with setbacks, a strip mall or two, separated land uses, curvilinear streets, surface parking, even a highway. It’s the totality of those elements and the lack of a critical mass of walkable destinations that results in density without urbanism.
OTOH, these podium buildings with 4-6 levels of light frame residential over a concrete block, white box commercial stall…. even we can figure out how to use these to make a coherent city neighborhood.
https://www.google.com/maps/@47.6273905,-122.3423639,3a,75y,156h,97.7t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1spIAyuKVughaYufItuqt2uQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192
But zoning doesn’t allow midrise in many places
2019/09/09 - 10:35 Martin Kolk
I think it is common for transit advocates to underemphasize the role of busses, and I think this is particularly true for intercity travel. I can sympathise with buses playing only a subsidiary role (in contrast to rail traffic) in cities up to a million people or so, but in other cases, a full coach is a pretty energy-efficient way of transporting people, and with electricity replacing diesel efficiency will increase further. After all, for example the BART is basically just a grade-separated electric bus.
Electric inter-city busses are already feasible, and given the massive energy costs associated with rail construction (much like steel and concrete that is hard to decarbonize), I don’t see why electrified inter-city buses can take care of a very large share of intercity traffic in much of the west. Unlike you have travel volumes of at least 500 passengers/hour it is probably much more efficient to use current road infrastructure for a bus than new rail investments. Rail investments have the additional issue that most carbon costs are upfront, while global warming requires immediate reductions. The tourist destinations mentioned above are very good examples of where busses easily could replace cars (as they already do in the Japanese alps around Kamikochi at very high frequencies, Yosemite also has decent bus transit). For most of the US electric intercity busses would compete very well both time-wise and of course in particular environmentally compared to personal transit, the issue is primarily and fundamentally image-oriented I think (extending to a lot of progressive rail advocates). Megaregions will of course always need rail, but I don’t think connecting cities in Wyoming or Kansas with additional rail tracks is environmentally sound.
I think larger cities for sure underinvest in mass-transit, but I am less sure about new major rail investments for inter-city traffic outside very densely populated areas are a very good environmental (and for sure financial) choice.
Lifecycle costs of various transport modes:
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/5/1/014003
Electric inter-city buses:
https://www.electrive.com/2018/04/11/flixbus-launches-first-long-distance-electric-bus-route-in-france/
2019/09/09 - 14:02 Lee Ratner
Most transit activists, particular if they have market urbanist or transit as a social justice issue tendencies, tend to prefer busses over rail because a bus line can be put in faster and is cheaper to build than rail. Rail advocates tend to focus that it is easier to get affluent people out of their cars with rail than a bus and we need this for transit to be built. Rail has the advantage of more permanency. Its a lot harder to destroy a rail line with dedicated right of way than a bus line or even mess with it.
Rail has the advantages of speed, capacity and comfort over buses trying to fix those for buses makes buses lose the advantages of cost
2019/09/09 - 19:24 LeeEsq
People get nostalgic and form emotional attachments over all that they don’t get to buses. When the streetcars were torn up in the Anglophone world after World War II, not a lot but more than a few people became nostalgic for them. As rail transportation grey more scare in the United States and Canada, people developed at least some nostalgia for that. The bus never really generated this level of emotion attachment.
Rail nostalgia is a global phenomenon. Not just an Anglosphere one. There are reasons for this. But I don’t know which.
Bus nostalgia doesn’t really exist to an appreciable extent
My guess is that it is a combination of factors. A big one is that the old railroads had different classes like airplanes. This made it a lot easier to create classy and attractive looking media featuring rail travel like a 1920s or 1930s whodunnit set in a first claim compartment of a train. You can’t really do this with a bus. Even non-first class rail travel as a romanticism about it. Pulling into a big attractive station or even a small town station after a long journey, etc. Busses seemed more utilitarian in contrast. Very few bus stations are designed to be as attractive buildings that people want to look at and be in.
Rail travel STILL has several classes of service. That’s only natural. A product whose main selling point is price (e.g. Ryanair) will have only one class of service. So the absence of “luxury buses” in any country with a decent railway (some amount of “premium” bus service exists in middle income Latin America e.g. Mexico) pretty much proves my point about buses being unattractive to most car drivers.
When old first class was abolished in the fifties, the people who had ridden it took to cars and planes. Now that trains are more attractive than cars and planes on many routes again, railways are experimenting with a level of luxury “above” the 1950s to 2000s “first class” (actually second class)
Herbert, 2019/09/09 – 19:43
Rail nostalgia is a global phenomenon. Not just an Anglosphere one. There are reasons for this.
I grew up in suburbia and never used trains or metro until an adult in my late twenties. But I still have that “nostalgia” for rail transport.
This is an interesting question. Brainstorming some factors:
-Not many time/places where bus represented a major improvement in mobility, whereas 19thC trains or midcentury autos/aviation really widened the world for people.
-The view is typically more concrete than countryside.
-Midline stops are typically awful, not much more than a gas station and sad fast-food.
-No bus-equivalent in the public mind for huge intercity trains or palatial stations.
-Bus compartments considerably noisier and more cramped.
-Being the same tech as the private auto with less convenience, the bus was a lesser choice from the start.
Bus stations with a lot of service stink of exhaust
Even the humble tram had a great deal of nostalgia power to it. When tram systems were torn up, people came out to see them off for one last ride and many began to quickly miss them after they gone. A tram isn’t that much more convenient than a bus if it doesn’t have a right of way but it seems to invoke the image of cozier, more closely knit big city of neighborhoods than the bus does. The British probably came closest to making something romantic out of the bus with their double deckers.
2019/09/10 - 14:36 DL
Permanence goes both ways. A badly planned, screwed up rail line will stay in place for way too long. Permanence doesn’t mean anything negative OR positive since they cancel out.
If the “badly planned” aspect is “doesn’t hit major population or employment centers” the very permanence of rail makes this issue self fixing as development is attracted to rail service unless prohibited by law
You are making a subjective argument which doesn’t carry a lot of weight.
Besides the fact that development is simply not possible in some places regarding topography and floodplains, you are basically saying that a permanently single track line (due to expensive build.. say the marshland line through the southern bay area, or a tunnel), with permanently restricted service as a result will do better than land close to the center city with bus access. This seems very irrational.
Who builds a permanently single track line with no possibility of later doubling and why do they do that?
It’s not a matter of choice, it’s a matter of geography
As for who does it, anybody building with extreme enough constraints. For this example I am just using it to demonstrate a point.
Geography can be made subservient to human interests through technology
I am not arguing that, I am just saying you have to think about the costs. Impractical/ridiculously expensive to build for very little benefit is functionally the same thing as impossible. Nobody goes around building floating hot tubs in volcanoes.
Buses that don’t have their own infrastructure can by nature never be faster than cars, because their top speed is at best that of cars and often lower and unlike cars they have to make stops to drop off and pick up passengers. So there’s little incentive to move drivers to buses. The only current incentive (can do certain other things while in transit) will be gone of self driving cars ever take of.
Buses on their own right of way of course need their own infrastructure which compares unfavourably with rail in terms of durability and environmental footprint.
So whom exactly are they supposed to be attractive to and why?
Both your response and the response above is related to travel within cities, where I agree that for dense cities rail makes sense. They do not at all however apply to travel between cities.
Then issues of right-of-way are rather unimportant, and if run point-to-point compares well with cars on time. Most importantly busses are of course much much more cost and energy-efficient, which is probably why they would be important for decarbonizing transport. With reasonable EU gas prices, the costs saving really are very substantial over 300×2 km or so. Importantly unless massive concrete and financial investments in new rail, they could gain market share simply by increasing fossil fuel prices and using current infrastructure, having a very positive effect on under-taxed western and deficit running societies.
Regarding comfort, I would take a highway bus over a sitting facing backwards on a tilting 150 km/h train any day. I can not even think of reading a newspaper or open a laptop on those trains (it is hard enough when facing forward).
The good old “tilting trains make me vomit” canard. Buses move around much more violently…
Anyway. A bus has a top speed of 100 km/h or below. Even assuming non-stop operation, the bus will lose against a car with a 120 km/h top speed and better acceleration.
So as speed is out of the question as a sales argument and people currently in cars don’t lie the thought of having to take scheduled transport with other people, the only remaining argument is price.
How do you bring down price? By stuffing as many seats into the bus as you can. And there goes any hint of comfort.
So where exactly do you see the bus leaving the niche of the last resort of marginal routes or cheapskates with no other option?
The point with decarbonisation is that we need to make consuming energy much more expensive (within 30 years), so of course, the price will become more of an issue then. At high densities, rail investments will be very energy efficient, but I seriously doubt that will be that case in low-density contexts. And as the US has no real inter-city rail service to speak of, everything would have to be built from scratch (there really only is a single double-tracked line with meaningful traffic). Good luck decarbonizing within 30 years with only new rail lines, with honest accounting for CO2 emissions during infrastructure expansion.
And Herbert, have you actually ever been riding a true tilting train such as the X2000 in Sweden or the Pendolino (I have taken both)? And if so, can you confirm that you could read a book comfortable facing backwards for 2 hours in such a train (I prefer slower non-tiling trains for this reason)?
I have ridden a diesel tilting train from Nuremberg to Dresden many many times. The train now only runs the Nuremberg to Hof route, but yes its shaking and rattling from the diesel engine were quite notable. And if one got up while the train moved, one would notice the movement.
I read a lot on that train. I also watched TV on my laptop.
As for the carbon impact of new rail construction, that has to be depreciated over centuries. And double tracking and electrifying existing cargo routes has to be done anyway to replace highway trucking
Regarding, depreciation of infrastructure the problem is that it makes no sense to depreciate carbon emissions over centuries (I would agree if we were discussing financial costs of the tracks). We need to combat climate change within the next 30 years, or if you are more sceptical to a major economic impact still only 75 years.
A climate solution that does more harm than good the first 40 years is currently not a solution at all, it is a climate problem. For cities, we probably need to break out of current car-centred city planning anyway, but for inter-city travels, we are probably often better of with existing infrastructure (high-ways with electrified busses).
As for combining cargo on trains with passenger traffic on the same tracks, I am a sceptic (maybe cargo at night is okay), I am not sure anywhere in the world where there is a satisfactory solution for both cargo and transit, but that is a different discussion.
How does Sweden achieve high freight rail mode share as well as high passenger rail mode share? Are the tracks just in different parts of the country, i.e. passengers in Stockholm and the southern cities, freight in Norrland?
(This is roughly the Swiss solution – the main freight line, Gotthard, has obscenely low passenger rail speeds.)
The Gotthard base tunnel is Switzerland’s fastest rail line but it was built primarily for cargo.
And yes, most ton kilometers happen in the sparsely populated north of Sweden simply because a lot of mines are there and a lot of kilometers are there…
Similar to how a container from Long Beach to Kansas is more ton kilometers than one from Hamburg to Essen…
It’s really the exact opposite. A bus never stops movement in all three dimensions. If I try reading or using a laptop I quickly become nauseous. The problem with those trains you don’t like is that they aren’t HSR. The whole point of true HSR (>250km/h) is that they have to be engineered to be far more stable such that you can hardly tell they are moving once they attain their cruising speed, and tilting is to make bends less noticeable. The faster the better. Probably the smoothest motion a human can experience is at 11,000 km/h in geostationary orbit. (Well I suppose perfectly still on terra firma which is moving thru space at some unimaginable relative speed.)
Though it’s true that you don’t want to try to focus on anything too close to the outside of the train.
You can stand a coin on edge in a Chinese high speed train while it’s doing 300 km/h
With great track geometry that is basically true. But constructing true HSR with that kind of track geometry is in most real-life contexts is horrendously expensive (either due to present settlements or unfavourable geography). The Japanese are basically building a straight tunnel from Tokyo to Osaka to achieve that. The Chinese are basically building most of their railway network on concrete pillars (with little respect for land ownership). That is even more concrete engineering, that makes any CO2 gains from running trains harder to achieve. That will make the economic/environmentally feasible new routes even more restricted, outside very dense regions.
How often does that concrete have to be spilled over the centuries a major rail line lives?
2019/09/11 - 13:05 JimJ
I do not go to a city to see the train station, let alone the bus station. In some cases, I take a car primarily because otherwise I’m not sure how to get around in the destination city. Even in cities where it turns out to fairly easy, it isn’t usually easy to be confident of that in advance. If you’re talking about commuting to a more rural house, then the problem is that you probably still need a car to get home from the station, so you’ve already paid most of the cost of a car. The train or bus ticket has to compete with only the cost of gas (not the car payment or insurance), and you have to worry about what to do the few times you stay late or miss the bus/train.
You can bike to the train station.
JimJ, 2019/09/11 – 13:05
I do not go to a city to see the train station …
Then you don’t know what you are missing. It is a real experience to arrive at those great cathedrals of rail around Europe, from Paris-Nord, Amsterdam Central, Berlin-Hauptbahnhof, Madrid-Atocha (at least the old part with the rainforest interior) and London-St-Pancras etc. And Mumbai-Central. New York-Grand-Central, Washington-Grand-Union etc.
Even the puny stations built by Brightline with their five tracks or less have been designed with architecture in mind (not my style mind you, but neo-Gothic apparently isn’t the done thing anymore)
2019/09/10 - 05:35 Mikel
You don’t really need to build 300 km/h greenfield viaducts and 30 km base tunnels everywhere. In many rural areas, the tracks (or at least their former ROW) are already there — you can get a 160 km/h single-track regional line with only modest improvements to existing infrastructure. Add small trains running every hour with reasonable (i.e. subsidized) fares and you’ll get a decent amount of commuters who didn’t really like driving every day on twisty roads full of slow tractors and dairy trucks, plus carless tourists on weekends if the line connects to a large enough regional hub.
I mean a 160 km/h line from Varna to Sofia would probably cut travel times from seven hours to maybe five, maybe four. A 300 km/h line would smash domestic aviation to smithereens.
But those are cities with a combined population of like 2M (2.5M if you add a branch to Plovdiv); I think Martin Kolk was probably thinking of a smaller scale. What I meant is the typical provincial city of 50K-100K (surrounded* by rural towns of maybe 1K-5K) that concentrates the majority of the area’s non-agrarian jobs as well as a healthcare, educational and government facilities. Even if that city happens to be on the way of an important HSR route (think of Segovia, for example), the rural commuter branches are usually too expensive for new construction, but in many cases modernization of existing infrastructure (electrification, straightening of curves, etc.) may well be worth a shot.
*In mountain areas, the pattern of human settlement and travel demans tends to ve very linear, so you can serve a lot of it with comparatively few rail-km. I’ve never been to Switzerland but I believe this is how the southern part of the country works?
Rural areas will wither and die. They’ve done that since the industrial revolution started
Living in a metro of 125k, there is no traffic and it is easy to park. Unless you want to ban automobiles there is never going to much transit use. Cars are too cheap. And there never is any traffic and it’s easy to park.
I live in a city of the size you describe. Everybody here bikes everywhere. And they’re planning to build a tram line because traffic is so bad.
2019/09/09 - 10:47 SB
In carbon neutral world, can rich people just pay for their emissions?
If so then rich people could still use cars and planes and have a second home in the countryside.
Then the question becomes what percentage of people can afford to pay for emission?
I guess it will vary depending the area. Highly likely that silicon valley will continue to people driving electric cars/
Power to liquid will eventually become cheaper than all other realistic sources if fuel in aviation. And there are currently claims that existing technology could enable a price per liter below 1.50€ if mass production took place
To prevent massive global warming, the carbon tax will by definition have to be high enough that most people cannot afford to emit carbon.
Of course, it’s possible that the world could get super rich and everyone could be driving electric cars at the same time most people cannot afford gasoline cars.
It’s also possible that carbon sequestration will become cheap enough that we can all emit carbon freely and then suck it up again.
Where do wet put the sucked up carbon?
Probably turn it into fuel and burn it again?
So Power to Liquid?
Yes. Of course that is exactly what all plant life on earth does. The main issue with either capturing or storing, let alone transforming it back into high-energy forms of carbon (oils, carbohydrates, cellulose etc) is the energy required. Much better to use solar, and what better than to use those neat little packages that have evolved over a billion years or so to do it all at once?
Now, if we had a clean endless cheap source of energy, say fusion whether cold or hot, no prob. But for now and the next 50 or 100 years let’s stick to what already works (maybe tweak it a bit). And this timescale is the only one that matters, the one we have to get thru if we want to survive roughly the way we are, rather than reverting to a small population living in caves.
Problem is: those pesky little plants insist on not being 100% made out of fuel…
Herbert wrote: Problem is: those pesky little plants insist on not being 100% made out of fuel…
Herbert, I get the impression that you aren’t a scientist or have much training in biology? Sometimes, as with this last comment, I can’t quite see what your point is. (BTW, I don’t wish to hit you over the head with credentialism but I have a PhD in biochemistry, molecular genetics.) You and others here worry too much about “efficiency” but while not nothing, it isn’t the same issue when we harness biology like this. Unless of course we use silly methods, which alas can be true for a lot of ‘modern’ agriculture. Burning fields after harvesting the main product (corn stalks, sugar cane, etc) or just allowing it to rot on the surface or somewhere else (producing methane, much worse than CO2). We need to either use that ‘waste’, like in the schemes using cellulosic conversion (which has huge energy locked up in its structure) or turn it back into carbon in the earth to improve soil fertility rather than constantly deplete it like we tend to do. Or use the ‘waste’ in ways to permanently lock up that sequestered carbon; that’s what timber is, or as the nascent building products made out of bamboo (one of the fastest growing plants). Even I have tended to discount or dismiss the use of such methods to impact on the carbon balance of the atmosphere but in fact it can be very significant if we just alter the cycling towards permanent removal. Note that all this burning is often not counted because it is ‘recycled’/recaptured in next years crop; or even a forest fire results in big forest regrowth (except when it doesn’t).
And remember it is all being driven by free energy. Your power-to-liquid schemes can’t work over the timescales we need them to work, ie. the next 50 years, because it won’t make any sense to divert any renewable energy to this application as it will all be needed to displace our existing use of fossil fueled energy. The only feasible alternative is to use nuclear power but that simply can’t happen in the timescale. Despite all the building of nukes in China, by 2030 it will still account for about 5% of their energy use; nothing is going to change this; using that power for creating synthetic fuels is false because it is just forcing the use of other energy elsewhere.
But using biology to produce this energy will capture the energy completely separate to any human capture via solar or wind. It won’t compete or impact it at all. Of course it can’t be allowed to displace agriculture or at least not significantly, but commercial agriculture has plenty of potential to be co-productive without sacrifice. Almost a free lunch.
Then there is the absolutely massive potential of the ocean. This is my personal preference because it has staggering potential to be both productive (food and/or biofuels) as well as sequester masses of carbon to the bottom of the ocean. In fact this is exactly how our planet was decarbonised and made fit for most higher lifeforms in the Precambrian. About 550 million years ago, a colossal volcanic outgassing raised the atmospheric CO2 levels to 12%, about 350 times modern levels, causing extreme greenhouse conditions. Though plant growth on land did its part (laying down today’s fossil fuel precursors) but the serious heavy-lifting was done at the ocean surface by unimaginable numbers of marine algae that sucked that carbon out of the atmosphere and lay down their carbonate skeletons that turned into limestone–that is the most efficient form of sequestered carbon and you can see it in the trillions of tonnes of limestone cliffs or rock (eg. a layer under the whole of England). Michelangelo’s David is made of the stuff.
It’s not free but close. And yes, it requires some R&D to get it to work ‘efficiently’ in today’s oceans. Vast swathes of the Pacific are almost-dead zones and merely need some light seeding with almost zero-cost elements (mostly iron and silicate) and biology will do the rest, powered by the free solar energy they are evolved to capture. Forget about ‘efficiency’ of photosynthesis, Herbert, it gets the job done. Relative to the human input, the output is leveraged to almost fantastical amounts. That’s the power of biology.
I don’t think we should take the risk – however remote – of an eutrophic Pacific Ocean.
And where is all this new energy agriculture going to be put? Solar cells can be put into the desert… And there are solar cells that convert 45% of solar radiation into electricity. Not just the 25% photosynthesis does…
Damn, I forgot to finish my last long rant with my intended punchline, for Alon: in this sense, of harvesting existing biology,
the future is retro.
2019/09/12 - 13:41 Tonami
I thought Photosynthesis was around 6% efficiency. Wikipedia says it’s 3-6% and a theoretical limit of 11%.
At any rate far lower than solar cells
I give up.
The efficiency difference is irrelevant.
Photosynthesis captures about 130 terawatts, 8 times current human consumption. Photosynthetic organisms also convert around >100 billion tonnes of carbon into biomass per year of which about half is in the oceans.
This doesn’t need much change to make a real impact on capturing the excess carbon we are releasing each year, about 3 billion tonnes (10bn t CO2 equivalent).
When the organisms die, they rot, releasing either carbon dioxide leaving us where we were before or methane, leaving us much worse off.
Now if we could stop them from rotting, they would be carbon suckers…
Several things.
One is that that is where all our fossil fuels come from: the corpses of countless plant cells.
Another is that, the first thing the dying or dead marine beasties do, is sink.
The next, is that the main thing we are interested in here is their calcium carbonate skeletons, which don’t ‘rot’. They can dissolve though obviously there are conditions where gazillions of tonnes of them have survived on the ocean bottoms to form limestone. But even if these dead critters ‘rot’ or partially dissolve, the trick is that they sink deep enough to still sequester all that carbon on a long enough cycle time for us to traverse the next 50 to 100 years. Cycle times could easily be hundreds if not thousands or more years.
The trick is convincing them to grow.
The prices for renewables and batteries keeps dropping, no one is going to want new stuff that burns things around 2025 or so.
What about aviation?
In the medium term, biofuels. In the long term possibly some hydrogen-based system. Maybe less far future than imagined. I recall that ammonia (or maybe lithium-borohydride) has higher energy density than aviation fuel and certainly a lot more than liquified hydrogen which is obviously a non-starter. Hydrogen beats all other energy stores but for the problem of what it needs for storage. Liquid ammonia is part of the solution.
All these things assume zero weight of the oxygen consumed which is why space flight is so problematic but Elon Musk will shortly solve that one …. . Ha, well looking up Wiki it turns out antimatter has the highest energy density (by a factor of about 10e10 over current fuels) so maybe it will take an Elon Musk rocket scientist to come up with a Warp drive ….
But seriously: biofuels. Although it may ultimately come via solar energy from the oceans, in the short term maybe diverting all the sugar cane from our guts to more useful applications …
Biofuels have obvious downsides compared to PtL including the “tank vs table” issue you so flippantly non-addressed…
Biofuels are just carbon sequestration into fuel.
I assume this could be done more cheaply than biofuels using an industrial process, since the industrial process could be “intelligently designed” to use any material in any way, and not face the constraint of having to reproduce itself.
Eric said: “Biofuels are just carbon sequestration into fuel.”
True, though I wouldn’t call it “sequestration” rather “transformation”. But the big thing is the “bio”. It means that the energy for the process is solar (as for all living things except those surviving on black smokers).
Your alternative is itself going to consume even more energy. As the maxim goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch … except when it is from the sun, and biology has provided the synthesis mechanism evolved over the past billion years. Of course it’s not free but the biggest component, the energy, is and that leaves the cultivation or in some schemes just harvesting, and purification.
Plants need water. Solar panels do not. And all things told Power to liquid is probably more energy efficient…
Not necessarily. To both points.
There are schemes to use the otherwise discarded or burned cellulosic fibre of currently harvested crops (so a kind of free lunch). And it turns out some of the most efficient converters of sun into high-energy plant products (oils, carbohydrates) are among the most hardy water-efficient plants in the biosphere, eg. salt-bush in Australia that grows in very low rainfall zones where nothing much else will grow. But it could also be ocean-based plants like seaweed and algae, in which case it is not competing with land, freshwater or food sources. Some of this may need some fancy genetic engineering but entirely do-able.
In terms of energy efficiency, it is unlikely anything using the sun can really compete with biology which has perfected solar energy capture to power the most sophisticated chemical plant in the known universe.
Also it will not be competing for the same commercial energy sources, especially the only type that makes any sense: green energy.
The efficiency of photosynthesis isn’t actually all that great. I think there are experimental solar cells that have it beat.
And unless you design an engine that burns plant matter as-is, you’ll have further losses covering whichever part of the plant is usually into fuel…
I’ll ask point blank: do you think the future will look more like Märkisches Viertel with maybe a subway stop underneath (if they ever build it) or more like Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg with a tram line passing through?
Remember that the latter is denser
Alon pleads the fifth on the grounds that he would incriminate himself 🙂
But it’s not really a fair comparison.
Wiki tells me:
Märkisches Viertel is “a large housing estate of about 17,000 apartments with chains of high-rises up to 18 floors that were built from 1964 to 1974.”
Märkisches Viertel: 35,100 residents on 3.2km2 = 11,000/km2
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg: 278,579 residents on 20.16km2 = 14,000/km2
I’m guessing that MV is perhaps more upmarket, or more middle-class? And certainly, ahem, less ‘diverse’ than the old-city F-K?
MV has the nickname “merkwürdiges Viertel“ or “peculiar quarter” among some Berliners… It’s certainly not “upmarket” in any way and in no danger of gentrification (unlike FH-Xberg).
Having been promised an U-Bahn in the sixties that STILL hasn’t happened probably didn’t help…
So, you’re saying Märkisches Viertel is more Plattenbau than one of the “new tenements” Florian Urban describes (there’s no mention of M-V in his book).
Sounds like you’re just trolling Alon, you terrible person you … (Honourable and respectable people, like me for example, don’t do that …)
It’s high rises and it was originally planned to be served by subway, which I think is Alon’s vision, compared to Blockrandbebauung served by trams, given how dismissive he is of trams due to reasons I still don’t quite get.
10km of Berlin tram cost the same to build as 1km of Berlin subway… And the tram has half the capacity of the subway. Now there may be routes where ThE added capacity is essential. But there are few of those left in Berlin.
As for speed, S-Bahn is faster than U-Bahn. Regio is faster than S-Bahn. But you have to get to the stop first…
“And the tram has half the capacity of the subway”
This I don’t understand. The subway can be twice as long (or longer) than a tram so you are saying tram frequency is at least as high as subway frequency. How is possible, when the subway has separate ROW and the tram does not?
Platform length is the obvious limit to subway length. What’s the limit to tram length?
And the maximum possible frequency is largely determined by the speed of loading and unloading.
Subway platforms are routinely 200m long. Tram platforms are limited to a single city block, typically 100 or even just 50 meters long.
As for frequency, a subway with modern signalling can run every 100 seconds. Can a tram run that frequently? Doesn’t the very fact that a tram must sometimes wait for traffic lights (which run on 1 or 2 minute cycles) make it impossible to keep such headways without constant bunching?
Subway platforms CAN be that length (or an even greater length) but are they in Berlin?
If we’re debating what to build next, surely we can make the platforms whatever we want?
What’s wrong with Blockrandbebauung?
Nothing, but what does that have to do with subways and trams?
MV was not panned for trams and still doesn’t have them (there’s debate about extending a line coming from the east, but no concrete action)
F-Hain Xberg was designed for trams and F-Hain still has them while Xberg is destined to get them back
Making the platforms of ALL the existing stops on at least the love you want to extend longer is prohibitively expensive compared to sighing and accepting existing platform length as a given while muddling along.
It’s the same with passing loops for kilometer long freight trains. They’d be nice, but they’re too expensive
Nah, I didn’t respond because it took me a while to remember what Märkisches Viertel was. It’s pretty far out of the way. It’s a suburban social housing project, like any HLM in the banlieues; I don’t live there for two important reasons: I do not qualify for social assistance, and it is pretty far from city center. I did view an apartment one S-Bahn stop closer in, in a newly-renovated low-rise, and the broker got squeamish about my freelancer status, but even if I could have had it, I don’t think I’d have picked it over where I currently live, not with that rent premium.
Stockholm for the record is a city of Märkische Viertel. The Million Program housing in the area was developed right around T-bana stations, at a lower density than city center at the scale of several square kilometers but higher density at the scale of a few hundred meters from the station. This is also the nature of Tokyo density and how it differs from Western density. None of Tokyo’s wards is as dense as Manhattan or Paris, let alone the 11th or the Upper East and West Sides – and the UES and UWS have maybe twice the residential space per capita of Tokyo, probably even more than twice. But Tokyo is better even than New York at concentrating density within 100 meters of a train station, let alone the more platykurtic European cities.
Platy what?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurtosis
Why does Europe have high transit ridership if you need to put everybody literally atop one of the five subway stops per twenty square kilometers according to your vision?
Not that any European city has the mode share of Singapore or Tokyo, but the ones that come closest in Western Europe kind of do put people right next to metro stations. Paris has dense Metro coverage citywide and then a concentration of development next to stations in the suburbs, and Stockholm has housing projects right on top of T-bana stations.
Hamburg which shut down its tram lacks behind Munich which despite plans to do did not.
I still don’t know what makes you dismissive of the perfect transport solution for mid sized cities: tramways
The high levels of transit usage in Prague and Stockholm with metro-based systems, and even in Vienna and Budapest with mixed ones.
Prague – like most eastern bloc cities – has a massive tram network.
Vienna was pretty late to the metro game and its current transit success is in part precisely due to never shutting down its trams (unlike west Berlin with its unseemly urban highways built with west German subsidies during the cold war)
In Budapest it took almost eight decades from the first line (whose interstation is shorter than at some trams) to the second one… And even then the Budapest metro is about the size of the Nuremberg one… The trams are four times the route length…
Alone wrote: Stockholm for the record is a city of Märkische Viertel. The Million Program housing in the area was developed right around T-bana stations, at a lower density than city center at the scale of several square kilometers but higher density at the scale of a few hundred meters from the station. This is also the nature of Tokyo density and how it differs from Western density. None of Tokyo’s wards is as dense as Manhattan or Paris, let alone the 11th or the Upper East and West Sides
Then Stockholm, like much of the world, got those “new towns” or “new tenements” wrong too. And as you know by now, I want not just density but more importantly I want the good kind of urbanity that comes from a certain building form that is compatible with that density. We are agreed that none of these achieve both and in fact they don’t even really achieve optimal density. Märkische Viertel is ≈11,000/km2 and is deadsville as are those newtowns Florian Urban describes. Spiky development within a puny 100m of transit is terrible and by itself cannot produce what we both want (localised density is one thing but if only in such a tiny footprint it is pretty useless as a TOD). Like I have said over and over, we actually know what works but too many (speculators, starchitects, city bureaucrats and it seems urbanists) continue with failed models. It’s like the epidemic of obesity–we seem helpless to stop it even as we know how to.
So what’s the thing that works and how do you serve it with transit?
For big cities it already exists: Paris,especially after GPX, and then various lesser cities that attempt similar (NYC, definitely not London or Tokyo). I’d include Hong Kong but not too many westerners want to live like that (though I have known 100% pure suburbanites from Oz who have gone to live there and then fallen in love with the freedom provided by that city and realised that their previous auto-based freedom was actually a gilded prison).
Oh, and needless to say this is a Paris not reliant upon high-rise residential but Haussmannian scale.
The late 19th century for some reason built a type of housing and urban fabric that 21st century urbanites can’t get enough of
Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg has several subway lines. I don’t think you can support a neighbourhood like that effectively with only trams.
Dresden – Neustadt is in many ways “a neighborhood like that”. And it has zero subways.
Dresden Innere Neustadt has a density of 4300/km^2, less than half that of Märkisches Viertel and less than a third Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. (And is served by 9 trains an hour at the S-Bahn station.)
The Dresden S-Bahn only started serving äußere Neustadt pretty recently and unless one is going to the airport, there’s little user for Dresden residents using the S-Bahn
(I guess Äußere Neustadt is denser. Adding the two together gets a density of 8800/km^2.)
Sorry I got stuck in the local lingo. When people who know Dresden speak of ;Neustadt” they mean äußere which survived the bombing largely unscathed and is now rapidly gentryfying. The gentrification train has already partially moved on towards Hechtviertel.
Innere Neustadt isn’t actually that interesting, but take a (maybe digital) stroll north of Albertplatz and tell me it doesn’t look like Berlin Xberg
The busiest rapid transit trunk line in Berlin, the Stadtbahn, passes through Friedrichshain.
S-Bahns can easily coexist with trams.
Subways have historically often been built while trams were shut down. Often with more mileage of tram being eliminated than subway being constructed. Look at Nuremberg, Munich, Hamburg and West Berlin. Door to door many trips in Nuremberg were shorter before the subway was built…
As an informal observation, meaning I could be totally wrong about this, but people in wealthy developed Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan seem to have a lot higher tolerance for the type of seemingly chaotically built cities than people in wealthy developed countries. People from Europe or North America might visiting Tokyo and Osaka or watching movies with hyper-urban settings but I don’t think many of us really want to live there 24/7. Even in the most urban countries in Europe and North America, places like France and Germany where rapid transit wasn’t ignored after World War II, there is an attempt to impose a lot of order on the entire thing. I’ve lived in New York City and spent a lot of time in Tokyo, New York comes across as a lot more top down control in how things are built.
Do you want me to consolidate your 2 comments?
Re top-down control: Japan in a way has more of it than the US. In New York, zoning is a municipal law, but there’s councilmanic privilege, i.e. on local issues like housing development the entire City Council will defer to the one member representing the area; in effect, one local elected official is the dictator on such decisions. In Japan, zoning is a national law, and in France and Sweden, recent acceleration of development happened under state control in response to crisis-level rents in the their respective capitals. Housing in Japan, and potentially in next generation’s France if current construction rates continue, is a great example of liberalism and centralism together: a strong state establishes rule of law and restrains local magnates from extracting value from productive people. In the US it’s the opposite, a kind of ancien regime-style semi-centralized feudalism in which local notables can extract value provided they don’t challenge the mayor/governor/king.
Yes, please consolidate. I’m aware that zoning is a national issue in Japan. I’m just making an informal observation based on my visits to Japan, different cities in the United States, and Europe. Whether it is in France’s liberalism plus centralization or America’s semi-centralized feudalism, there seems to be an attempt to make cities look more orderly rather than organic in Europe and North America than anything I’ve seen in Tokyo or elsewhere in Japanese big cities.
European cities are very “organic” in that they virtually never follow a grid. Even formerly gridded cities (Roman cities for instance and some early modern planned cities) often have additions that don’t follow a grid
There’s some grid planning, e.g. in Mannheim and Stockholm, as well as non-grid planning, e.g. Paris and its imitators. Even London has had some planning, although not very much of it.
I mentioned Mannheim (or Karlsruhe) under the headline of “early modern planned cities”. They’re rare and their expansion usually doesn’t follow the same logic as the original plan. Same as Tegel airport with its non hexagonal expansions…
“Local notables” strikes me as a misnomer, as quantitatively the problem is overwhelmingly SF/NY.
Yeah, and the people I’m complaining about pretty much are the local notables of SF and NY, like various fixtures in neighborhood activism who’ve been in the city 40 years and think things used to be better then than they are now, or the entire concept of the community board in NY.
Interesting, from my point-of-view there’s so much overlap between that demographic and those with national+ influence and so little overlap with “local notables” in rest-of-country that I would group things entirely differently.
I don’t think New York community members have a lot of national+ influence. We’re not talking NYTimes journalists – evidently there are two YIMBYs on the NYTimes op-ed team, Paul Krugman and Jamelle Bouie, and zero people who openly defend NIMBYism.
I don’t want to spam comments, so for brevity I’ll just state that I think your article takes issue with a lot of broad groups and sentiments when the problem is overwhelmingly concentrated in a subset of people whom you don’t seem to be talking about in the article.
Explain yourself. Whom do you mean?
Alon agrees the problem is overwhelmingly SF/NY, and further narrows it down to SF/NY NIMBY activists, but then the article at various points goes after nostalgic YIMBYs, traditionalists, polluters, people who dislike minorities/poor/working, people who like SFHs with yards, etc, which led me to a very confusing read of “local notables”.
Yeah, the problem has a few different loci. The vanguard class of NIMBYism is local notables in expensive cities. In practice, they only have informal power in the US, not formal power, so in the same manner that when the crime rate rises you complain about the police rather than about criminals, when housing production falters you complain about do-nothing governors and state legislatures. Both Cuomo and Newsom have the power to tell the NIMBYs to shove off, and Newsom was in a relatively easy position to do so by forcing a vote on SB 50, which would have passed; both governors have instead chosen to do nothing.
I point out things other than those because the future is not just about more housing in currently-expensive cities. It’s also about commercial TOD, which Californian YIMBYs are pretty bad with. And it’s more broadly about green transportation, where everything in the US and some things in Europe and East Asia are a total mess.
The NIMBYs in New York convince someone to define a historic district which freezes everything in amber forever. They did a fabulous job on the Meatpacking district. There are two overlapping ones with slightly different goals. They then get upset that you can’t put residential in an industrial historic district.
Plenty of Asian-Americans live in the suburban sprawl.
So it seems that Asians don’t have a preference in regardless to urban density.
I know that. What I noted is that politically, developed Asian countries have not attempted to impose order on their cities in the way that developed countries in Europe and North America have. Japan and Taiwan are affluent countries and could easily impose a different type of design via politics like other developed countries have done.
Which “order” has Munich imposed on its urban design that Yokohama hasn’t?
The palaces and streets laid out by the Wittelsbach to make it look like a grand capital for their dynasty.
The Wittelsbachs were illegitimate settler colonizers
Cities in foreign cultures only appear chaotic because you don’t see the method in the madness.
My first time in Managua when I didn’t speak Spanish all that well it appeared much more chaotic than the twentieth time…
By the way, Managua is a major example of poor countries getting urban design wrong by copying the U.S.
Managua is some of the worse urban design I’ve seen outside of Africa.
I concur. It badly needs SOME form of decent mass transit. Heck even a few bus lanes would improve the lives of millions of people there. Oh and a semblance of a city center would be nice. Whether it be rebuilding the old core to earthquake safe standards or making Carreterra a Masaya walkable is less important than getting going…
But the government prefer spending money on highways, propaganda and stupid metal “trees of life”. Unfortunately they are what passes for the left and the right wing wouldn’t do a thing better about urban design…
Both Japanese, Chinese, and Taiwanese, and Korean cities are really pretty gridded, where the urban structure follows quite strong overall plans (and strong regional urban plans). Much more so than most older European cities. True chaos you will only find in South and Southeast Asia.
Often the narrow lanes, which may seem “chaotic” are only the innermost sub-structure of quite strongly planned urban grids. What sets places like Japan and Taiwan apart are pretty small building lots with free-standing buildings, which create a lot more variety in the urban landscape, and more variety in age of the buildings, and the opportunity for more flexible responses to changing demand for housing and commercial space.
Your last paragraph is a more accurate version of why cities in developed Asian countries seem more chaotic to people from Europe and North America. The narrow lanes and sheer variety of buildings caused by the small building lots with free standing buildings makes the cities look more improvised than cities in North America and Europe even though they probably aren’t.
But that really depends on which Asian cities we’re talking about… Singapore has very wide roads for the most part, and no grids whatsoever. It’s as if you took the street plan of an American suburb but then built high-rises there and dug subways to serve the development.
Yes, but Singapore is an Anglophone city just as Shanghai is … etc.
The Chinese may have been the first to create a very ordered gridded city thousands of years ago. Though Beijing is not particularly old it inherited the Imperial plan at its heart. But the ancient imperial cities in Asia (and central America?) like Surat Thani and Sukhothai (and Angkor Wat?) are grids.
I’m fairly sure there are plenty of grids in Singapore, especially in the downtown area (both the old one and the new Marina district)
yuuka, 019/09/10 – 08:19
No, not really. The old downtown is only very loosely gridded with none of it strictly rectilinear. And Marina Bay Sands is not at all gridded; there’s not a straight street in it which has to be deliberate (there is no need for a grid there).
The Brits don’t believe in proper town planning, probably because they don’t like spending money on such things until it is absolutely unavoidable. Compare to the French colonial cities like Hanoi or French Quarter in Shanghai, still today considered among the most beautiful parts of Asian cities (helped by the extensive avenues of plane trees). Gridded and ordered NYC only starts above Canal street and by then it was an American city. Perhaps the most dramatic example of this cavalier attitude to planning is Heathrow airport, in the middle of residential London and about to cost $30 billion to add a third runway; a peculiar kind of madness not to have relocated it well out of the city about 6 decades ago when Paris, NYC and others did.
1) There is nothing magical about a perfect grid that makes it much better than a slightly wiggly grid like that which covers most of downtown Singapore.
2) Central Milton Keynes has a rigid grid, and outer Milton Keynes has a wiggly arterial grid which was planned for gridded bus service. The UK does planning, just not where history has already done the planning for it (however badly).
3) Heathrow is further from the center than CDG, and not much closer to the center than JFK. To the extent it’s “in the middle of residential London” that’s only because Paris is denser than London and NYC is lucky enough to have an ocean to fly over.
Eric, 2019/09/10 – 13:28
Yeah but that totally misses the point. CDG and JFK were relocated in the 50s/60s to a part of the city where there was never going to be serious issues of land use, ie. either for airport expansion or any residential interference. Heathrow is smack in the west of London which was and is prime residential; not only does it mean endless conflict over flights and local disturbance and of course the cost (in money and political costs) of airport expansion but it continues to cause disturbance of a wide swathe of London. It should have been relocated to either east London, or even Gatwick made the major London airport (Gatwick is 47km but only 30m by train and for most of its existence faster, quicker and more convenient than the Piccadilly line from Heathrow).
For CDG the state reserved a gigantic bit of land (33km2) to the north-east of the city and with no residential conflicts (IIRC one tiny hamlet was relocated), and in fact with regulations that keep airspace over most of Paris free of planes. Anyone watching Wimbledon (near Heathrow) can see and hear the difference; and compare to Roland-Garros (as it happens named after an aviator!). JFK is in the middle of the Jamaica wetlands which is roughly the arrangement the fabled Boris Island airport would have/should have been in London if they planned it when they should have (at least 60 years ago).
I’d say Hong Kong is similar in that the Brits dithered for decades but finally the decision was taken to build the new airport and all the associated infrastructure (and a new town at Tung Chung); this wasn’t a British decision but that of the mandarins (HK civil service) and the powerful business community who knew they had to act, and especially before the handover. The result was the world’s biggest civil engineering project at that time and one of the best airports in the world. Of course it cost US$20bn but in reality was priceless. Singapore, another former Brit outpost, also built a new airport (on mostly reclaimed land) which is rated best in the world (now 6 years in a row). But poor old Blighty can’t manage any such bold planning itself.
As an informal observation, meaning I could be very wrong about this, but people in developed wealthy Asian countries like Japan and Taiwan, seem to be a lot more willing to deal with urban chaos than people from Europe or North America. Even in the most urban places in Europe and North America, there isn’t really anything like how Tokyo or Osaka comes across. There seems to be a greater effort to exert top down control and make things appear as orderly as possible.
I’m surprised that you think “small single-family houses fronting narrow streets” offends nostalgic Westerners, because this is exactly what the nostalgic Westerners I know pine for. And they’re generally in favor of having convenient access to a busier built-up MainSt/Uptown/whatever. In their dreams that node may look more “missing middle” or Hausmann than Blade Runner, but as other commenters have pointed out the actual density consequences of that preference are pretty minor.
“who define themselves by how much they can pollute” -> cartoon. Poor show.
Small SFR isn’t offensive to nostalgic Americans, but the high-rises 10 minutes away on foot are.
The article has a lot of angst for the difference between “spikiness of high-rise and small SFH” and “spikiness of mid-rise and small SFH”.
My nostalgia is for Gründerzeit Blockrandbebauung, only not heated with coal…
My nostalgia is for Gründerzeit Blockrandbebauung,
I think that is true of Florian Urban because it is what he grew up in, in Berlin (Berlin-Mitte, and prior to that, Vienna). Yet, many of his “new tenements” he appears to endorse, such as Ørestad and Kirchsteigfeld, Berlin, take the building typology (some of it seriously tampered with by those starchitects) and dump it into that “towers in a park” format which removes all the useful urbanity that is not only not replaced by all that wide open space but wrecked by it. In an academic study of Kirchsteigfeld and its inhabitants they found “the appealing square and parks are underused …”. “On the other hand they reflected very ittle on those aspects that next to architectural beauty were most stressed by the designers Krier/Kohl: an urban feel or the ability to generate an attractive community. … The categories “urbanity” and “positive identification with the neighbourhood,” however were not particularly significant–or at least not consciously acknowledged. For the architect, as well as for the politicians who promoted Kirchsteigfeld’s new urbanity in the first place, this must have bee rather disillusioning.” “What they enjoyed most was that it was not a Plattenbau scheme (“repetitive ten-storey prefa blocks, six-lane streets and vast open spaces”).
Except that I would argue it is still closer to those Plattenbau schemes than your much loved Gründerzeit Blockrandbebauung. And you can bet your last dollar or euro that those starchitects live in Mitte not in Kirchsteigfeld … just like Corbu lived his last 31 years in a 6-storey apartment building in Paris-16, nothing remotely like Villa Savoye in Poissy! Not to mention Unités d’Habitation with its wonderful (!) communal spaces. (Amount of communal spaces in 24 Rue Nungesser et Coli, Paris 75016: close to zero if omit the staircase to get to his penthouse).
It is kind of weird that many of the relevant “experts”, and alas we’d have to include Alon, continue to promote such schemes (high-rise is intrinsic to some of them, and is a pure expression of the econocrat), when they so self-evidently fail. Of course even future residents might blather on about “air, green and wide open spaces”, until they actually live in them and find they don’t actually use those spaces, green or otherwise.
I can’t be certain (because it is uncaptioned) but I believe the cover pic (see Amazon) is a modern incarnation of this building type.
All the “public space” you really need is a street of adequate width from which cars have been banned. Look at the medieval old towns beloved by American tourists, look at the 19th century construction fetching huge prices these days. Well, the latter also have courtyards which are a nice addition
Obviously I agree though my favourite urban arrangement has lots of small parks and squares. CityLab today has an article on Barcelona’s experiment in superblocks in which 9 blocks in a 3×3 superblock are turned into mostly a carfree zone. This is an attempt to overcome the Eixample’s paucity of such spaces (parks or squares) and too much traffic. Though the original plan had all those blocks with chamfered corners to create larger “square”-like spaces at intersections, the traffic is a killer. They should have learned from the Gothic quarter and apparently Cerdà had wanted those features but they were lost on implementation. (My favourite part of Barcelona is Gracia with its delightful small shady squares.)
I live in a “tower in the park” because I can’t afford the rents at nicer places and you can’t even have a nice little bbq in said park. What’s the point of the park then?
It turns out Florian Urban discusses Märkisches Viertel in the second book of his I have (but have not yet started: Tower and Slab, histories of global mass housing, 2012). Here is an extract:
The new housing development Märkisches Viertel in West Berlin was apparently a straightforward success. According to a journalist in 1966, the architects paid homage to the urban design tradition of Berlin’s grand boulevard Unter den Linden and the city’s most symbolic monument, the Brandenburg Gate. They created an “expressive composition” that embodies a “will to art” and a “sensible and not only mechanistic spatial order.” 1 … The paper Die Welt, which in 1966 had still praised “the colourful residence of the future”4 and the “plasticity of the forms” that resonated the rhythm of the surrounding landscape5 only two years later reviled the new homes as “factories for dwelling” bearing strong resemblance to “the Stalinallee in East Berlin … and to the products of urban renewal in the black neighbourhoods of Manhattan.”6
Hardly any city has experienced harsher debates over tower-and-slab developments than the birthplace of Walter Gropius. The Märkisches Viertel (1963-74, designers: Werner Düttmann, Hans Müller, Georg Heinrichs, and others) was a textbook example. It comprised more than 17,000 apartments in tower blocks with 10 to 14 stories, and in 2006, it had about 36,000 inhabitants. It was typical of what was considered the most advanced urban design of the time. Großsiedlungen (great settlements) were built on the peripheries of big cities in both East and West Germany from the 1960s. They were rooted in the Weimar Republic tradition of public utility housing, and at first widely applauded. In both German countries their reputation rapidly deteriorated in the late 1960s.
In the socialist East, one can detect a growing dissatisfaction with a policy that officially was not to be questioned; eventually this led to a modification and downsizing of the slab developments. In the West, prefab housing triggered a massive bout of mudslinging in the media, which continued for several years. The controversy over the Märkisches Viertel was the most salient example; it stood, however, for an architectural debate over form, function, and physical determinism that went far beyond academic and architectural circles and shook large parts of the population. What was at stake in Germany at the time was nothing less than the modernist promise of development and progress. … The Großsiedlungen came to be the symbolic battleground for a struggle in which radical college students sided with bourgeois traditionalists against an establishment of liberal developers and Social Democratic politicians.
I reproduce this extensive tract because it demonstrates that the battles of half a century ago don’t seem to have been learned, or are about to be retaught all over again. Though I was under the impression that the French had learned and were not repeating the same errors. Alon suggests otherwise, so it is going to provoke me into more extensive adventures into the Parisian banlieus next visit! No doubt facilitated by the RER. Ha, maybe an urbanist version of Maspero’s ethnographic Roissy Express, a journey through the Paris suburbs.
Wherever poor people live, the middle class will sneer at them, and often invent excuses. In France I’ve read some bullshit analysis, I think on Wikipedia, arguing that the banlieues have high unemployment because use separation means children grow up never seeing any adults work, so they don’t learn to appreciate the value of hard work. (Europe has less use separation than the US, where rich people live in residential-only neighborhoods.) The explanation can never be about racism, or poor social services, or an education system that perpetuates class segregation; it has to be some culture of poverty, which the Thatcherites openly blame on the working class’s poor morals and which the so-called progressives blame on artifacts like the physical housing stock.
While the effect of housing stock has been exaggerated, it DOES have an effect. Not getting any light or Any healthy food DID lead to nutrition related diseases in the nineteenth century.
But the real root cause was poverty
People who can choose, choose not to live in Plattenbau if they can help it.
Grûnderzeit buildings meanwhile are rapidly gentryfying
Alon Levy, 2019/09/11 – 13:15
Wherever poor people live, the middle class will sneer at them, and often invent excuses.
True. I certainly believe that almost all of the Corbusian high-rise housing stock is dehumanising, as well as quite unnecessary (for the high density all planners claim they want). It only “works” where there is a quite uniform high-earning middle-class of residents like in Stuy-Cooper Town in Manhattan.
But I wouldn’t be in denial that it is the only factor. Social conditioning is clearly important. One big issue for those projects in Seine-St-Denis is that the first-gen immigrant and still many second-gen, is that there simply are no longer the lower-skill jobs for them anymore. The Citroen factory in 93-Aulnay is closed. Even middle-skill jobs are starting to disappear.
It is instructive watching the Hong Kong insurrection unfold and repeat. Some of the young people interviewed explained how many of the newly-immigrant mainlanders, some of whom were their parents, simply couldn’t understand. They can’t change their learned behaviours or inculcations and will never understand, and ultimately must be ignored.
Funny enough, right now in Australia we have a raging battle over our first federal member of parliament who is mainland-born Chinese. First she got in trouble during the election by printing posters in Mandarin impersonating the Electoral Commission exhorting voters to vote Liberal (remember, in Oz that means ‘conservative’) (illegal and still under court action). And now it turns out she has been a member of the CCP for the last 14 years, though she spent the past week denying it, has finally admitted it, saying she has moved beyond it. Some people can (move beyond their social imprinting) but most cannot, and frankly we don’t believe her. It will be surprising if she survives the week though since the government has a slim majority of two they are going to fight it all the way.
BTW, there have been violent clashes in Australia between mainlander Chinese (immigrants and students) and other disapora Chinese (mostly HK, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan), also immigrants and students, who support the Hong Kongers. Mainlander immigrants/students have to be careful about visibly supporting HK because of repercussions to their PRC relatives, or themselves when they return. (In Australia by 2023 Chinese born in the PRC will outnumber immigrants born in the UK! HK shows this might be ok but equally one remains nervous until their children grow up in Oz (and become complacent slobs like the rest of us! Well no, the most prominent role model has to be Penny Wong, minority-leader in the Senate and former federal minister of Finance in the last Labor government, and extremely intelligent & articulate))
The point is that social and educational background is hugely important, and really one must look to the next generation if one is expecting change. At the very least providing reasonable housing, plus health & education, is necessary. None of it is easy but at least housing is something for which the solution is kind of obvious and not so difficult, ie. learning from the recent blunders, if only the neolib econocrats can be overcome. The latter is the most difficult thing.
2019/09/11 - 08:57 Ha
I think with the current climate change, we need to grow more green trees to have a fresh environment
Do they have a significant effect on microclimate?
What is the appeal of “missing middle”? Is it viewed as a minimal change? In my experience, it is close to a worst-of-both compromise between apartment buildings and single family housing. (Granny flats are less of a problem … until they become common.) I don’t think that bad-compromise status is logically required, but I do think the changes needed to prevent it in the US are likely to be more radical than those needed for almost any other solution to housing shortages.
We need to return to Blockrandbebauung
Missing middle is a way to double (roughly, depending on the exact type) the density of housing, or in other words, to need only half the area to house the same number of people. What’s the cost? Somewhat less yard outside, and a shared wall or two. For most people, I think that’s a very small cost. You get many of the gains of density, while losing little of what’s attractive about a house.
If you look at German suburbia, even pretty affluent families live in two or three storey buildings (often the living room and kitchen at ground level, a cellar and the kids on the first floor)
Then there of course rowhouses and many people live in Doppelhaushälften…
If you do nothing else, having the same tough square metrage in a two storey building halves the footprint and doubles density compared to a one storey suburban building
In practice the cost of doubling density by replacing SFH with missing middle is traffic. When you double the density it stops so easy for everybody to drive and park everywhere, but there probably still isn’t enough density to support walkable stores, the roads are still probably too wide and busy to be pleasant to walk on, there are still enough drivers to politically block bus/tram lanes, etc. So you end up falling awkwardly in between car-density and walking/transit-density, with neither mode functioning well. (These issues are less severe if you built “missing middle” in the first place before cars were common, so the walkable stores and streets already existed and just had to avoid being destroyed, but modern conversions of auto-oriented SFH to missing middle face a pretty severe chicken-and-egg problem around traffic and parking.)
Could be, but that sounds like a generalization that may be an over-generalization.
The problem you describe is inherent in trying to convert any area from car-dominant to walk/transit-dominant using any type of construction.
Sometimes urbanism needs to come by fiat and resistance needs to be crushed. They’ll come around a few years after it’s built…
The highway and urban renewal movements thought like you did.
There’s this wondrous invention called the bicycle.
My best guess is that it’s a combination of two things. First, in Canada there’s a lot of housing development, esp. in Vancouver, but it almost never replaces single-family houses in single-family neighborhoods, but rather it’s high-density mid- and high-rise housing along major corridors and near subway stations. There isn’t much density in between, hence the term missing middle. Some people keep pushing for it out of aesthetic hate for modern boxy buildings, or out of belief that rents in Canada aren’t cooling not because they need even more development but because the development is too high-rise, or just out of desire to see more density in exclusive suburban neighborhoods like Shaughnessy that aren’t really close to public transit.
Second, in the US, it’s something different. There’s tons and tons of missing middle in the US, and a lot of people are nostalgic for it because it’s the traditional vernacular architecture of most old non-New York cities. New York has a mid-rise traditional architecture, but it evokes turn-of-the-century working-class poverty, whereas the missing middle density of New England evokes a fuzzy old-timey retro feeling. Then to compound it all, Los Angeles has its own postwar missing middle vernacular, the dingbat, which used to evoke poverty but among many YIMBYs evokes a sense of retro California’s commitment to growth.
This isn’t an actual compromise with anyone. NIMBYs hate duplexes as much as they do high-rises. It’s auto-compromise among YIMBYs who are bad at urbanism and bad at politics.
If land were free building more storeys would be more expensive. Of course land isn’t free which is why building up to make one square meter of ground into dozens of square meters of housing makes sense…
But of course insane regulation calling for parking nobody needs make building needlessly expensive
“NIMBYs hate duplexes as much as they do high-rises.” This isn’t my experience. Not at all.
Where is your experience based? Where I live (suburban Michigan), there are certainly complaints about anything with more than two stories, but I haven’t met anyone who would wouldn’t (grudgingly) take an apartment building nearby if the alternative were a dozen duplexes in the same neighborhood.
For that little bit of Alon that will remain forever Parisian, despite himself:
Non to retro!
The Parisian guide to vintage fashion
Jess Cartner-Morley, Wed 11 Sep 2019
In fact, despite the headline it is really ‘oui to retro’ just not vintage. Which could sum up my attitude to multi-family housing! Style over fashion, function over form etc.
I’m so sad the Shinkansen no longer makes trains with the noses of the 500 Series. Here’s function and also form together! Sigh.
Re my being a Parisian: I’m developing a soft spot for Macron, but that doesn’t make a Parisian, it makes me a German liberal.
Macron is a doofus
If Macron is a doofus, words fail to describe most other current world leaders. I think that is quite a good word for Boris but for Macron-haters surely it is neoliberal elite banker …
I’m note sure if Alon was making a little joke, like the Irish: “I’ve got a soft spot for X. …. a bog in northern Ireland.”
He’s only halfway thru his term. There is very little so far to condemn his as a doofus. Even though those meetings don’t count for very much (though you know what Winston said: jaw, jaw ..) but I thought he handled the Biarritz-G7 rather well. He herded those cats.
Yeah, but on this particular thread we’re talking housing not transport. Despite technology (or because of it*) and a hundred iterations over the past century, it is quite hard to perceive of actual true functional advances in human habitation. High rise per se does not meet the bill. Especially super-talls. Those lightweight ticky-tacky American abominations represent a regression. Even the low-mid-rise today, say 6-8 floors, are worse than the almost 400 year old building I lived in on Ile-St-Louis. And I put my money where my mouth is: I current live in a 110 year-old former wool-store.
Both in function and density and liveability pre-war always beats post-war construction.
*The ubiquity of aircon is a blight. It became an excuse for property speculators to build without external windows or airshafts etc (for bathrooms and even bedrooms which they now build without windows inventing the weasel description “borrowed light”), and my particular bane, proliferation of 100% glass facades which is awful for both hot or cold climates.
110 years old? That puts it right around my favorite era of architecture… Late nineteenth, early twentieth century…
And I entirely agree regarding glass facades… I think despite us often talking at cross purposes, the ideal housing we imagine doesn’t look THAT different. Certainly not a LeCorbusierian tower in the park, but rather Gründerzeit Blockrandbebauung…
The high-rise residential form on the Upper East and West Sides is not towers in a park but towers on a base. So up to the 6th or so floor the building looks like any mid-rise from street level, but then it’s set back and keeps getting taller, up to 30 or 40 floors.
Do you like Blockrandbebauung?
Yes, very much so. I live in one here and lived in one in Stockholm, and I appreciate the courtyard even though I don’t use it.
2019/09/12 - 09:00 Pingback: News roundup: problematic – Seattle Transit Blog
2019/09/12 - 16:36 Wanderer
Unfortunately, there is a strong American prejudice against living in a highrise, or even a midrise, with children. The belief is that it deprives children of play opportunity, spontaneity. Of course it’s pretty silly because Americans rarely let their children run around in the way that used to be standard. That requires a special name–“free range” children. This tightening of control has happened in both urban and suburban environments.
You can cite Manhattan as a counterexample, but the New York region and Manhattan as a whole are atypical.
So unless American attitudes change, highrises around metros means zones of adult living, perhaps with some infants and toddlers. I don’t see an issue with that, but the suburban family ideal tends to stigmatize it. And there are plenty of households without school age children
There also aren’t enough rail transit stations to meet the housing need. Throw in the slowly expanded stock of BRT stations and you still haven’t met the need.
“Missing middle” housing eases the iron grip of single family monoculture in metropolitan neighborhoods. You might be able to convince NIMBYs to accept duplexes or triplexes when they’d fight highrises to the death. You might also convince the City Council to accept the compromise. I think the problem of increased traffic that Alon cites is real, though many of these areas have a lot of roadway capacity. But don’t expected American missing middle housing to be car-free, at least not until well into the future.
I haven’t experienced many pleasant highrise environments, Vancouver might be an exceptional case. They’re just not nice to be in on the ground, Manhattan included. It seems like there are more pleasant dense mid-rise cities, like Stockholm. I think that this needs to be improved, to increase the acceptability of highrise and modern housing.
Barcelona Eixample is both dense and family friendly. Especially since they introduced super blocks
The NIMBYs do not actually accept duplexes and triplexes more than they do mid- and high-rise construction, though.
High-rises are plenty nice to be near; Midtown is very walkable. There are outlying areas with not-nice high-rises, like Parisian banlieues and such, but rest assured, people don’t find the Parisian banlieues nice regardless of the housing typology. In Berlin, too, I find Neukölln decently pleasant, but tons of Aryan Germans lose their minds over its various markers of foreignness, like the hookah bars and Turkish kebab shops, and that’s with housing stock that in terms of size, setbacks, etc. looks the same as in Charlottenburg or Prenzlauer Berg.
Northern Neukölln is rapidly gentrifying
Neukölln overall is undergoing white flight.
First of all: citation needed.
Second of all: where are they fleeing to?
Third of all: who counts as “white” in Berlin?
1. Follow links here: https://twitter.com/alon_levy/status/1167698946510262272
2. I don’t know.
3. White = people without migration background. It’s not perfect – third-generation Turkish-Germans would count as white, Israelis (hi) would count as nonwhite – but it’s a decent proxy, esp. given that in Neukölln, so many immigrants are from Muslim countries.
There are outlying areas with not-nice high-rises, like Parisian banlieues and such, but rest assured, people don’t find the Parisian banlieues nice regardless of the housing typology.
Once again you are way overgeneralising about the “banlieus” when you really mean a relatively minor subset of topologies in the Parisian suburbs. Misleading. I don’t know the percentage but while it might be high (ie. >50%?) in Seine-Saint-Denis (department 93 which is what most people, whether they know it or not, mean when they talk about the “banlieus”) overall it has to be a minority form of housing. In most of the rest of the petite-couronne (inner ring of suburbs) there is not much of those 15-20 storey ‘project’ housing. For example your denigration wouldn’t go down well with the 40,000 who live in Sceaux and Bourg-le-Reine. Last week I was looking thru Google-Earth and Streetview at Joinville-le-Pont which directly adjoins Paris-12 and Bois-de-Vincennes (ie. waking distance to Paris or 3 stops on the RER-A2) and quite a bit of it is SFH, not very salubrious but perfectly acceptable. These days I am ranging far and wide in my browsing and looked at the end of the line for RER-D2 at Melun, a town of about 50,000 and found this proto-Haussmannian apartment block, short walk to RER station (about 50mins ride to Paris Gare-de-Lyon or Chatelet) with a rather nice 5-room apartment for the price of a broomcupboard/closet in central Paris (link below). Melun would even be acceptable to some of the more retro-minded Americans as you can have ‘town and country’ but it’s part of greater Paris (it’s the very edge of Ile-de-France I believe). Especially when they find out that right on the edge of town is the Chateau Vaux-le-Vicomte where they filmed the tv series Versailles (of course it was designed by the same team who the Sun King recruited to do Versailles: Le Vau, le Nôtre & Le Brun).
I didn’t do an extensive Google ‘flyover’ but couldn’t see any 15-20 storey towers.
https://www.pap.fr/annonce/vente-appartement-maison-melun-77000-g38542-r427300757
Austin and Minneapolis have functionally eliminated SFH zoning citywide. Austin it’s ADUs, Minneapolis it’s up to triplex. Neither city would ever have legalized high-rise construction citywide. The only place with that is Houston.
Most places in New York City there already are two, three and four family houses along with an elevator building or two. When you are surfing through on Google Streetview, count the mailboxes. And in a lot of the suburbs.
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2019/09/14 - 11:24 Urbanism_Houston
“The status anxieties of Basil Fawlty types who either can’t or won’t adapt to a world that has little use for their prejudices are not a serious public concern.” Honestly, I don’t see why discussions of urbanism and transportation policy have to degenerate into snarky asides about people towards whom the writer (in this case, Alon Levy) feels superior. The “Basil Fawlty” types vote, and are prepared to use the political system to attempt to preserve their status (in fairness, left-wing environmentalists and urbanists are also so prepared). If people would stop this nonsense, maybe we (I write from the US) won’t have to live with four more years of Trump.
The Basil Fawlty types know what they are and will say no to everything, no matter what I say. What annoys me is that people who identify as leftists act as those types’ useful idiots. I’ve been told by a self-identifying Marxist on Twitter not to use the expression “petite bourgeoisie” because those people are struggling too. And I’ve been told so, so many times that earning $100,000 a year or even $150,000 a year doesn’t make you rich.
2019/09/14 - 13:08 sbh
From a construction and architecture perspective, there are some sustainability arguments against highrises (also with bonus arguments thrown in):
1. Reuse of existing historic structures (often midrise) preserves embodied energy and reuses high-quality materials that are no longer affordable (solid masonry facades, stone foundations, some furnishings and fixtures). This is not a limitless supply, but at least in the US there’s still plenty of it in secondary & tertiary cities.
2. Highrises are often (always) structurally steel or cast concrete. Sustainability-wise concrete is awful and steel is not super great (though recyclable). Mass-timber sourced from well-managed forests holds a lot of promise. Though viable in highrises, it’s more suitable for midrise.
3. Utilizing passive or alternative HVAC strategies is far harder in highrise than midrise. i.e. if you want to use heat pumps or passive cooling, you can fit the pumps on the roof or basement and provide operable windows up to the xth floor of a midrise. In a highrise, sealing everything up just makes a lot more sense from a packaging perspective. Though other strategies are possible, you have more opts. at a mid-rise scale.
4. Comparing US / Western Europe to Asia is a bit of a stretch–they’re very culturally different with very different levels of population. The former will not see pop. growth into a situation like the latter anytime soon, among other things. Strategies will of course be different.
5. As others have said, there’s an experience argument against high-rises. Corbu towers in a park don’t seem to work, and modern highrises still need to face the test of time. Meanwhile midrises have seen enduring if regionally and temporally variable success, several centuries in some places. Time does and should provide valuable learning opportunities.
6. In pricey markets, there’s a strong incentive for developers to build as high as allowable (within financial/technical reason). The desires of the developer rarely seem to be mutually-beneficial with the that of the average-incomed occupants. Not the first method in determining successful housing types, but not a bad gut-check.
7. The need to be physically present in the city where it happens may be less important than in times past b/c of the obvious improvements in telecom. Extreme prices in the NYCs of the world could (are?) giving rise to secondary nodes in a web model, rather than the previous runner-ups of the hub-and-spoke.
1. Those secondary and tertiary cities in the US have a price signal that screams “let people live elsewhere.”
2. That sounds reasonable if you’re in the US, but European construction uses very little wood. Mid-rises here are mostly made of stone – and residential construction costs in France and Germany are lower than in the US by a decent margin. I don’t know Swedish construction costs off the top of my head, but Sweden has a carbon tax of about $130/t and again uses stone and concrete for modern construction.
3. In all these legacy buildings in both the US and Europe, the HVAC strategy is to have none at all and have people die every time there’s a heat wave.
4. Population growth rates in Western countries are higher than in developed Asian ones because of high immigration levels as well as higher birthrates. And if Western culture can’t deal with the form of urbanism required to save the planet, then Western culture should move aside, not the planet.
5. Towers on a base have worked for 50+ years. Jane Jacobs predicted that the Upper West Side would remain a slum forever; she was wrong, to the point that today’s NIMBY excuse against building tall is not that the UWS is undesirable but that it’s so desirable so as to be expensive.
6. Why are the desires of the developer not beneficial with those of the average occupants? They seem to be aligned in Tokyo. In Vancouver, too, regionwide rents aren’t as high as the racists would have you believe; those racists refuse to live in areas with too many Asians, and in a region that’s 42% Asian, that leaves the racists with only a handful of exclusive single-family neighborhoods to live in.
7. People have been saying that location is becoming unimportant since the beginning of the Internet, and instead the opposite has happened. The reason, pace Krugman, is that low transportation costs make it easier to ship goods from the core to the periphery, which increases the value of the core; railroads, likewise, increased the concentration of industry in the old US manufacturing belt, even though in theory they’d also make it easier to live in Virginia and visit Baltimore often.
Very glad to see I’ve gotten a reply from the writer himself. To the re-rebuttel:
When I say mass timber I don’t mean the dimensional lumber construction that is very common is American residential construction. I’m talking about wood composites that are much more popular in Europe and Canada than in the US.
I’m not sure if you mean buildings are clad in stone, but buildings haven’t utilized load-bearing stone in well over a century. Even stone-faced buildings are not that common on either continent. The Nordic countries are actually some of the best in the world in advancing mass-timber construction, in part because of carbon taxes. Concrete is still of course necessary for some applications, but there is a recognition that timber can reduce environmental impacts not just in the creation of parts and pieces but in assembly, use, and end-of-life reuse. The future is not retro, it’s a composite.
I’m obviously not arguing for no HVAC. Saying that people will die in a heatwave in unmodified historic structures is flashy, but not particularly relevant to anything I said.
I completely agree that transport (and by extension TOD) is extremely important, and that high-rises will be part of the solution. But the energy impact of building and operating buildings is huge, and you don’t seem to address that, either above or in your kind reply.
Towers on a base might work in some circumstances, but you seem to ignore the failures of garden city towers–there are many reasons, from policy to upkeep–but some has to be attributable to the typology. Taking this questionable record with the material and operational concerns, it’s hard to see how highrises can be the golden bullet you paint them as.
You may have a point that I am one of the fools waiting for the glorious day of location-free work (not sure it’d be all that glorious actually). I guess I would meekly point to a steady increase in working-from-home over the past decade and a bit. My secondary city argument is also probably more relevant in the contexts of existing ‘megacity’ regions, as you have written about before. Perhaps isolated rust-belt cities will not see a second-coming.
I appreciate your arguments and recognize your focus is transit, but I think you risk forgetting important details in your crusade of intellectually-pure TOD.
The Nordic countries use timber more, yes, but that’s more an artifact of low population density leaving forests intact. Even there, the urban mid-rises I remember seeing under construction in Stockholm were not timber. Most of Western Europe south of Scandinavia deforested in the Middle Ages or even earlier; the forests we do see in France are mostly second or third growth after marginal land was abandoned in the 19th century, and I think so are most German forests.
The construction in France uses some timber for elements like doors, but in mixed structures, the load is not borne by the timber. It may involve concrete, I’m not sure, but the architecture museum in Paris is adamant that the building material is pierre and not béton.
The problem with talking about the failure of tower-in-the-park design is that in the places in the world that use it for middle-class hosing, i.e. Singapore and Hong Kong, the design is not considered to be problematic in any way. The complaints about high-rises in the Western world today echo the early-20c complaints about zero lot line mid-rises leading to the urban renewal schemes that created these towers in parks. Today as a hundred years ago, people look at low-income neighborhoods and assume that their problems are about urban design and not poverty.
Take, for example, the question of maintenance. Maintenance is absolutely not a problem on the Upper East and West Sides. There are coop fees, adding up to a few hundred dollars per month to cover maintenance. It’s a few dollars (I think 4-5?) per square meter of floor area per month, which is an appreciable fraction of New York construction costs (which are in the teens per month at 4-5% ROI), but not a large fraction of current New York rent. Maintenance becomes a problem in places where the residents are too poor to afford regular upkeep and the city or state skimps on maintenance in public housing in order to limit short-term public spending. People like pretending it’s not about poverty because it’s easier to say “this form of housing we middle-class people look down on is bad” than to say “the government needs to spend more money on poor people.”
The problem with talking about the failure of tower-in-the-park design is that in the places in the world that use it for middle-class hosing, i.e. Singapore and Hong Kong, the design is not considered to be problematic in any way.
Actually a lot of housing in Singapore is not high-rise even though that is what is always shown in the media. Unfortunately I can’t find any data to indicate the relative percentages. Further, Singapore is often cited as one of the densest cities but at 7,804/km² it’s not really; even though that is a crude estimate (not adjusted for urbanised land) it is still one third to one quarter that of Manhattan or inner-Paris. Of course the latter shows that much higher densities can be achieved without resorting to high-rise. Equally, that land scarcity per se, or building opportunities are not responsible for Singapore’s high property prices; ie. the arguments about building high to solve these problems (affordability and density, land scarcity) are completely false. But that doesn’t stop it being a self-serving argument by developers and often governments (in their pockets).
Not that I am totally opposed to high-rise in some circumstances but Singapore has a “green urban” ethos which would be much more compatible with low-medium rise than high-rise, and it wouldn’t affect their ability to house their population. In fact, Singapore has a wide diversity of building types and looking at online descriptions of the Woodlands newtown it appears to be very uniform in height, at about 11-12 floors, so a bit higher but with 60,000 households and 250k residents in similar footprint it kinda resembles Paris-15! It appears to be their new model for middle-class housing (which is 99% Singapore 🙂
Hong Kong is mostly not “towers in a park” which is the main reason why I find it tolerable; ground level is always lively and hyper-functional in HK and the opposite of all those Corbu-like housing projects whether Berlin (eg. Märkisches Viertel, older Plattenbau), American project housing etc.
Re Jane Jacobs and the UWS, I don’t recall her labelling it a slum. I’m not sure it ever deserved that description especially as the first housing there was luxury apartments like the Dakota (1884; 7-8 floors); you’d have to go back to the 19th century . And further, I don’t think most of it classifies as high-rise of which there is a thin veneer along the park. True, it is higher than Paris but a lot is 12-storey perimeter-block style which is Haussmannian with a few extra floors added. There are also some 5-storey brownstones. I think it is telling that the southern bit colonised by Trump high-rise is not considered by UWSiders to be part of “their” zone (and once again, despite its high-rise it actually has lower density than the UWS average, or of course Paris-11).
I’ve never been to Woodlands. I’m thinking of places like Clementi or even Orchard. Some of it is towers-on-a-base, but my recollection is that it doesn’t quite have the continuous street wall of Manhattan streets.
The density in Singapore includes industrial land (there’s a lot of it, Singapore’s workforce is, what, 25% industrial?), some parks, and an intact piece of rainforest that doubles as a military training zone. Similarly, the density at the southernmost tip of the UWS includes office towers, which do not add to residential density.
In the 1950s and early 60s, Jacobs didn’t need to classify the UWS as a slum; everyone knew it was one, hence West Side Story. She complained that Lincoln Center was a place only for “bums” (her word, not mine) and worried that the new “elevator buildings” on West End Avenue and Riverside Park were too uniform in height and would support no street life and the area would become undesirable. The opposite happened.
Except many of those black and brown neighborhoods torn down in the name of “urban renewal” had vibrant community life and small locally owned businesses. Towers in the park by and large do not.
In the 1950s, the middle class did not think of these neighborhoods (some black and Puerto Rican, some ethnic-white) as having vibrant community life, just as today the middle class does not think of the projects as having vibrant community life.
If you passed through the streets of those neighborhoods back then you could see their community life…
Wherever the community life of towers in the park is happening, it ain’t the parks surrounding the towers
It’s not in parks outside the projects, it’s inside, like the courtyards in between the buildings and such. Same way that in single-family American suburbs the front yard is purely ornamental whereas the back yard is where people play.
So which purpose do those empty expanses of grass serve?
And where are those courtyards? I sure as hell got none…
Mass timber utilizes small pieces laminated together. Therefore, a lot of this wood can be sourced from farmed forests. The majority of wood from even some third-growth forests would go towards higher-value uses like veneers and solid finishes.
They might be referring to historic structures. No modern structure is built from load-bearing stone. The high-rise exists solely because the steel frame allowed it to.
You’re talking around the issue I raised; construction materials and methods, and the operation of buildings is inevitable, and must be dealt with. Choosing a high-rise over a mid-rise must be a balance between creating spiky density and the inherent material and operational drawbacks of the typology.
I never quite figured it out but I think most of the residential 6-8 floor buildings in Paris have structural brick walls, with finished facade of dressed stone (pierre-de-taille) or stucco. From the late 19th century steel was used structurally in commercial buildings and of course railway stations but I reckon residential hadn’t changed much from the 17th century–as visible on Ile St Louis which was essentially complete by about 1670 and was built as the ‘new’ luxury style for the transforming city much of which had been all-timber except for palaces. Those 17th century buildings have cast iron things like balustrades and balconies and on internal staircases but I can’t see how they’d have steel structural elements.
At the turn of the century art nouveau appeared but I’m not sure it wasn’t just decorative changes (naked brick together with stone and sometimes fancy ceramic brick), a prime example being Hector Guimard’s Castel Béranger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_B%C3%A9ranger
Hotel Lutetia pushed the old styles and methods to their (Parisian) limits by having 9 floors and even a 10th roof-terrace (total ≈32m), with the top 3 floors setback to comply with height regulations. It was built by the same owner and same architect (Boileau) of Bonne Marché (opposite it), which had used a steel structure designed by Eiffel in 1872. So maybe the Lutetia also used steel frame but not sure. Of course the first steel-framed high-rise was the Home Insurance Building at 10 floors (42m) in 1885 in Chicago though Eiffel’s steel tower (1889) wasn’t exceeded for 40 years (by the Chrysler building).
I believe the first all-timber (CLT) ‘high-rise’ was the ten-storey (32m) Forté building in Victoria Harbour, Melbourne Docklands in 2012-13.
Glad you said this cause it forced me to check myself. I ended up finding an interesting analysis. You can find it under “Structural and Material Characterization of a Haussmann Building”. They found that it’s a hybrid between stick timber (of all materials…), brick, and limestone infill. Also some cast iron mixed with load-bearing stone (limestone) on the ground floor / subfloor level.
Eiffel and contemporaries used iron, not steel–but in application they both are a major shift from load-bearing masonry.
The high-rises that Alon speaks of are exclusively rendered in steel and/or concrete–no matter what they are clad in. CLT (mass timber) is certainly quite new, but promising. There are concerns with harvesting, compounds used in the glues, and end-of-life; however, as mentioned previously, concrete is almost all negatives (environment-wise). Steel is a lot better, but it both does not sequester carbon like wood while also being more energy-intensive to move and assemble during construction.
Yeah, so to clarify, the buildings I saw in the Paris architecture museum that were said to be made of stone were not particularly tall. I forget the exact heights but I think the range was the higher end of mid-rise, so 6-10 stories. My point wasn’t about viability of stone high-rises (it’s viable – the Chrysler was made of brick – but uncommon), it was about the rarity of woodframe mid-rises on this side of the Pond.
Brick isn’t the same as brick. There’s a process of hydraulic pressing the mud before putting it into a kiln which was only available from the industrial era onwards… That process increases the load bearing support by a lot
I really can’t emphasize this enough–though a building may have brick on the outside, that doesn’t mean it’s made of brick–the Chrysler building is faced with a thin layer of brick and stone, but the building is the tallest steel structure in the world.
And again, mass wood construction is more common in Europe & Canada than the US. Stick framing is not used above 4-5 stories.
The facing material certainly matters in terms of environmental impact, but it does not affect the height the way the structure does.
Of course the Chrysler, like any building above the approximate limits of 10 floors in those Parisian buildings, is steel frame. However it’s not the tallest steel structure in the world. Heck today it’s actually less tall than the Eiffel which exceeded it when they added its broadcasting tower in the 40s.
Re the Paris apartment buildings, they may use some stone on the ground floor but the rest will be mostly brick including foundations. There remains timber framing and floors but this typology was specifically developed in the 17th century to overcome what was then mostly ramshackle and fire-prone all-timber buildings in Paris very little of which remains–if any remain they may be undetectable because they would have subsequently been covered with a facade of stone, brick or stucco, probably imposed by fire regulations. I suppose you can label it timber “stick” but they were/are pretty massive (“chene massif” ie. solid oak) ie. typically over-engineered but also why they remain standing strong even 3.5 centuries later! Thanks for that link but I am just a tad cynical about those authors slightly odd conclusions: despite the survival over centuries they are intent on the “need” to update their structure! The fact is these buildings are very solid and quite fire-resistant. Fires are all to do with the contents and no 19th century (let alone 17th) fire sprinklers–but then Trump Tower also does not have fire sprinklers as we found out when a rich guy died in his apartment which was totally burnt out (last year?). They speak of thermal and sound insulation but these are far superior to modern construction. I once had the need to repair a section of floor and was amazed at what was under there (as in Figs 8 & 10 of that paper).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328654898_Structural_and_Material_Characterization_of_a_Haussmann_Building/link/5bdacc4f92851c6b279e3bcb/download
You can see these older, pre-Haussmannian, buildings throughout the inner-arrondissements however they are mixed in with Haussmannian (or 19th century & post-Haussmann) buildings. The Marais is one of the most intact older set of buildings but Ile-St-Louis is the best to observe because it is unambiguous as it was almost all built in one short period in the 17th century as part of a housing development, by arrangement between the king, Henri IV, who wanted to improve Paris and engineer Christophe Marie whose celebrity lives on in the Pont Marie connection to the Right bank (all-stone and IIRC the second oldest still-original-structure bridge in Paris after Pont Neuf). The only exceptions will be the few SFHs, ie. mansions which will be mostly stone (Hotel Lambert, Hotel Lauzun–though in its history it became a notorious boarding house and hangout for Baudelaire’s Club des Hashischins).
I agree with most of your points, but telecommuting and home office have been the “next big coming thing” for how long now?
Yeah, perhaps that was a little much of me…see my reply to Alon. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on the legitimacy of my response.
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Original Scotland Travel Poster of Loch Maree by James Porteous Wood
Retrovation
Here for sale is a fantastic original travel poster for Scotland. The print is by the artist James Porteous Wood of Lock Maree and Slioch, Wester Ross.
Produced by Waddie & Co Ltd of Edinburgh who were established in 1860. Really great condition for age. We have several travel posters of Scotland for sale in other listings. We believe this poster to date from the 1950s. The creative output of the artist James Porteous Wood (1919-2005) was both prodigious and varied. If he found his greatest satisfaction as a painter of Scottish landscapes and seascapes, he was also a graphic artist and illustrator, a portrait painter and a calligrapher of great distinction.
During the Second World War, Porteus Wood was part of the design team at the Royal Engineers in Ripon, north Yorkshire, for the portable Bailey bridge, and made maps from photographs of enemy territory. Both enterprises will have saved many lives, but with characteristic modesty, he never spoke about this vital work. As director of art and design for Asprey's, the London jewellers, silversmiths and goldsmiths, he was responsible for some extraordinarily accomplished objets d'art, which can now be found in palaces and institutions worldwide.
Shows signs of wear and tear as it is old and has been used, but only adds to its character. Great decorative item which would look fantastic in any home or business interior.
The poster will be sent rolled up in a cardboard tube.
50 cm width, 75 cm heigh
Original Scotland Travel Poster of the River Dee by James Porteous Wood
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20:06:20 Monday, January 20
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Washington’s denunciation of INF Treaty destroys global security system and poses real threats
15:36 | 08.09.2019 | Analytic
8 September 2019. PenzaNews. Russia will start producing the missiles previously forbidden by terms of the INF Treaty, from which Washington officially withdrew on August 2, but Moscow will not be the first to deploy them, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a plenary session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) on September 5.
Photo: Kremlin.ru
“We said outright that we would not deploy anything after the Americans tested such a missile. We will make such missiles, of course, but we will not deploy them in the regions where no ground-based missile systems of this class of US manufacture have emerged,” Russian leader said.
“If US missiles are deployed in Japan or South Korea, we understand that this will be done to counterbalance potential threats from North Korea, but it will create certain considerable problems for us. Most probably these missile systems will be able to reach targets on a vast area in Russia, including the Far East,” the head of state explained.
Earlier, at a press conference in Helsinki on August 21, Vladimir Putin drew attention to the fact that the US test of the ground version of the Tomahawk missile that can be launched from installations already deployed in Romania and planned for deployment in Poland, poses new threats to Russia, and they will not go unanswered.
“It only requires a change of software. I am not sure that our American friends will even inform their European partners about the software they use in these systems. For us this means a new threat appearing that we must respond to,” he said.
On August 23, at a meeting with permanent members of the Security Council in Kremlin, the president of the country stressed that the use of the MK-41 universal launcher during the US test fully confirms the validity of the claims that Russia set forth to the United States during the agreement’s validity period.
“The fact that stands out is that the testing of a missile with the characteristics prohibited under this Treaty took place only 16 days after the Washington’s denunciation of the Treaty. Clearly, the test was not an improvisation but another link in the chain of long-planned measures that were taken in the past. This only proves the validity of our concerns that were expressed earlier. Even in prior years, we were aware that the United States had long been developing the weapons banned by the INF Treaty. We repeatedly informed our partners about that. But instead of rectifying this unacceptable situation and getting back to observing the Treaty, the Americans orchestrated a propaganda campaign claiming that Russia is in breach. As we all see now, the only purpose of that campaign was to provide cover for Washington’s own actions in violation of the Treaty and its initial plan to withdraw,” Vladimir Putin said.
Speaking to MGIMO students on September 2, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Russia invited NATO members to join a “voluntary moratorium” on the deployment of intermediate and shorter-range missiles, but had not yet received a positive response.
“Let me remind you that, despite the US has destructed the INF treaty we made a very important political gesture. President Putin said the treaty no longer exists, but we will take tit-for-tat measures: if the United States begins to develop such weapons, we reserve the right to do the same. If they test it, we will gain the same right [...] And if the United States refrains from deploying it in Europe or in Asia, then we will not take the same steps. This is a serious offer. In fact, this is a moratorium, a voluntary moratorium, which we have already voiced for NATO members, inviting them to collectively join it. They have not yet responded with consent,” Foreign Minister said.
Commenting on the difficult situation in the field of global security, Greg Thielmann, Board Member of the Arms Control Association and former office director in the State Department's intelligence bureau, INR, who was specializing in political-military and intelligence issues, said that both countries have made a serious mistake in withdrawing from the treaty.
He said that he shared the official position of the White House on alleged Russia’s violations of the treaty, but at the same time believed that the United States was insufficiently diligent in pursuing a resolution of compliance issues.
“Since 2014, when both sides accused each other of treaty violations, there have been only two meetings – in 2016 and 2017 – of the Special Verification Commission, the mechanism designated by the treaty for addressing compliance concerns. Neither side ever proposed reciprocal visits and inspections of the systems whose capabilities were in question – Russia’s 9M729 cruise missile and the US Mark 41 Aegis Ashore missile defense launchers in Romania,” Greg Thielmann said.
According to him, the fate of the Russian-American New START treaty also remains unclear.
“Since it entered into force in 2011, New START has helped stabilize the US-Russian strategic relationship, and avoid significant amounts of unnecessary defense spending. If the treaty is allowed to expire without a replacement, the result will almost inevitably be a new, unconstrained nuclear arms race with each side overestimating the capabilities and malign motives of the other. This prospect appears likely if President Trump is reelected in 2020,” the analyst explained.
However, if any of the Democratic candidates win in 2020, it should be possible to quickly utilize the 5-year extension option built into the treaty, assuming that Russia cooperates, he said.
“Negotiating the inclusion of new weapons types and lowering the existing limits would be facilitated by New START extension,” Greg Thielmann stressed.
Answering the question about possibility of concluding a multilateral agreement on nuclear arms control, the expert expressed the opinion that this is premature.
“It will be necessary for the United States and Russia, with 90% of the world’s total nuclear weapons, to achieve further bilateral reductions before third-countries can be persuaded to join in numerical limits. But existing international agreements, like the Outer-Space Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty have already made progress in multilateral nuclear arms control, pointing the path to more extensive progress on nuclear disarmament in coming years,” the expert said.
Meanwhile, Petr Topychkanov, Senior Researcher in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said that it was difficult to justify the end of the treaty in the situation, when in fact this document didn’t significantly affect the security interests of nether US or Russia.
“Unlike the US–Soviet juxtaposition in the Cold war, today’s disagreements between two sides don’t mean the high risk of armed conflict. […]So, the question about why now the United States and Russia need intermediate nuclear forces remains unanswered for me. I didn't see any convincing arguments in favor of the US or Russian withdrawal because of third parties, such as China. The existing nuclear capabilities of Russia and the United States allow then to have reliable deterrence relations with each other or third parties,” the analyst said.
Speaking about the possible US exit from New START, he called this prospect unfortunate, stressing that it will affect the transparency and predictability of the United States and Russia for each other.
“The lack of these two features will give the ground to more significant suspicions that will fuel the arms competition between two nuclear-weapon states, if not to say the arms race. It will also attract the fire of criticism from the countries, supporting the nuclear disarmament goal. On the legal front, it will weaken the nuclear nonproliferation regime and strengthen the regime that will arise around the new TPNW,” Petr Topychkanov explained.
At the same time, he added that he would avoid assessing the prospects for maintaining the New START.
“The only point is clear. If the political will to save the New START prevails in both Moscow and Washington, there are no significant obstacles for expanding or re-negotiating this document,” SIPRI expert said.
Commenting on the possible creation of a comprehensive agreement that could be signed by other nuclear powers, the expert said that this possibility doesn’t look real.
“At the current stage, the US withdrawal from the INF Treaty and the risk of the New START survival make this possibility even more unreal. First, because after killing the last nuclear arms control agreements, both the United States and Russia will affect their reputation as reliable partners for negotiating future arms control mechanisms. Second, the INF Treaty end and a shadow of death over the New START provoke the crisis of the nuclear disarmament and arms control agendas among the nuclear-armed states. When two leading nuclear-weapon states fail to preserve these treaties, it will be harder to engage other possessors of nuclear weapons into multilateral arms control frameworks,” Petr Topychkanov said.
In turn, Frank von Hippel, American physicist from Princeton University, who served the Assistant Director for National Security in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, expressed confidence that in order to reduce their nuclear potential, Moscow and Washington should have a clear idea of further intentions of China in this field.
“I do think that, at some point, it will be important for China to at least agree to a ceiling to its nuclear forces in order for Russia and the US to continue to reduce,” Frank von Hippel explained.
Asked about the justifiability of Donald Trump’s decision to denounce the INF Treaty, the expert emphasized that he did not consider the withdrawal from the agreement a correct response, even though in his opinion, Russia may have violated the INF Treaty.
Frank von Hippel also expressed concern about the future of New START, while adding that there was still a chance to maintain the agreement.
“New START expires just after the next US president comes into office. If that president is not Donald Trump, perhaps the US and Russia could extend it for another five years to give time for negotiating a successor agreement,” a former White House adviser said.
Commenting on recent US cruise missile tests, Patrick Sensburg, German MP from the CDU/CSU fraction, said that these cruise missiles “have been indeed banned under the INF Treaty.”
“The agreement prohibited both sides from producing, testing and owning ground-based ballistic missiles and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Sea-based missiles of this range were allowed, however. That’s how it can be explained why the US could test a missile so soon after the end of the contract. It might be very similar to the sea-based missiles,” the politician suggested.
From his point of view, security situation is becoming more unpredictable.
“It is unclear whether President Trump plans to replace the INF or to renew another major treaty, called New START, which drove American and Russian nuclear arsenals to their lowest levels in nearly 60 years. The decision of suspending has the potential to incite a new arms race — not only with Russia, but also with China. The world could be left without any limits on the nuclear arsenals of nuclear states for the first time since 1972,” Patrick Sensburg said.
Given this circumstance, he pointed out the importance of the participation of third countries in further nuclear arms control agreements.
“I would consider an agreement between US, Russia, China and the European Union as a major step forward in atomic dismantling. But I believe that achieving this is a great challenge, because the US do not agree on this issue yet. However, in this context, efforts should be made to reach out to other major nuclear states – for example, countries in the European Union or India. That would provide a much stronger basis for disarmament of nuclear weapons in the world,” the politician concluded.
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The Force Awakens: The Starlight Project - <strong>WORKPRINT RELEASED</strong>
NeverarGreat said:
Sorry I haven’t responded yet, but I’ve had to take my mind off the hook for a while regarding Star Wars in general and this edit in particular. After TROS, everything’s felt a bit surreal. It’s the sort of movie that I feel like pushes the ST into such a campy, turn-your-brain-off direction that any work these fanedits could do is practically meaningless. I suppose that there is still value in them as standalone projects, but those are the feelings I’ve been grappling with. In addition, the total sum of work I’ve put into Starlight has, for me, not been equal to the result. Many things about it are a mixed bag, as your excellent feedback has pointed out. Not that I am opposed to criticism, quite the opposite! But I know that a lot of work must still be done to make this the edit that you have all been hoping for, and I’m not sure that I’m up to the task.
Hey Nev,
I’d really like to have a larger discussion about The Rise of Skywalker and what your thoughts are, but it might not be appropriate for this thread (at least not until it has been tagged with including TROS spoilers). But how The Starlight Project fits into the sequel trilogy as a whole is something that I think is worth discussing.
You are not alone in your opinions about TROS. The truth is, the overarching handling of the ST was all over the place, in part, I think, because of divisiveness of The Last Jedi and the attempt to pull everything together in a single movie at the end. The result was a manic conclusion that is difficult to work out in conjunction with the other two films in the series.
The Force Awakens is such a good movie — my favorite of the ST — and I do believe that it should get the love it deserves. The work you’ve done on The Starlight Project has been nothing short of spectacular and makes the movie all the better.
So now what? Well, as someone that has truly adopted fanedits as being my go-to versions of various movies, I really think that the ST as a whole might have a saving chance depending on what people are able to do with fanediting these films. I don’t want to just “give up” because the theatrical version of TROS wasn’t what I wanted; rather, I actively thought to myself while watching it — “Oh, we could fix this in a fanedit,” etc.
What I think would help would be, after TROS is released on Blu-ray, taking some of the elements of that movie (esp. Rey’s lineage) and include it in bits and pieces into The Starlight Project. This could be in the form of flashbacks, or other little hits that are sprinkled in. I would like to see the same done in The Last Jedi.
Ultimately, I would like to spread out some of the craziness that is packed into TROS into the other two films of the ST to help give a more cohesive trilogy that anyone can enjoy and appreciate the story as a whole. The first place to start, I think, is with The Force Awakens, as it shares so much with The Rise of Skywalker.
It’s my hope that you’ll come back to this project, because I love the work you’ve done on it. But I can certainly understand if you need a break. But after TROS is released, I won’t lie: I’ll be itching to come up with new ideas to flesh out the trilogy as a whole, and I think a lot of that can be done with the work you’ve put into The Starlight Project. This has is my favorite fanedit of any I’ve watched, and I hope that we can continue to do more with it to improve the entire ST. I am confident that we can.
When you’re ready, let’s talk about how we can integrate some of the elements of TROS into The Starlight Project, because I think we can actually make it pretty cool and improve the sequel trilogy as a whole as result. I know you’ve mentioned some interest in fanediting The Last Jedi (which I would love to see someday), and being able to develop a ST that truly serves as a “definitive” version is one worth watching.
My dream is that, someday, I’ll no longer refer to the “ST” as “sequel trilogy,” but rather as the “Starlight Trilogy,” one cohesive overarching story that brings all of it together the way it should have been.
Just wanted to chime in and ask what our thoughts have been on the feedback suggested so far, since the workprint was released?
Star Wars: <strong>The Rise Of Skywalker</strong> Redux Ideas thread - * <strong>SPOILERS</strong> *
1-Jan-2020 7:59 PM
Here is a 10 minute long behind-the-scenes video that appears to have quite a bit of unused footage. I’m wondering if it’s possible to integrate some of this into a fanedit, if needed.
https://youtu.be/y4-SHoaWbc4
jkimm said:
TIE fighter escape:
• Remove Finn saying “Did you see that, did you see that?” Poe “I saw it”.
• Remove Poe saying “well I ain’t using it” and instead just have him say “FN huh, Finn, I’m gonna call you Finn”.
• Remove TIE fighter exploding after being sucked into the sand.
What is your rationale for the suggestion of the removal of these elements?
Have you considered just making your own fanedit since these are very picky changes that, in my opinion, seem entirely unnecessary?
27-Dec-2019 11:16 PM
poppasketti said:
Another option, as many have said, is to plant the seed at the end of TLJ. One thought I had is that so much is made of the Resistance sending out a signal for help, and no one answering. It’s reinforced again in TROS. What if they did get an answer, from Palpatine? The radio crackles, and maybe we just hear his iconic laugh. Just a tease at the end to build up anticipation for TROS.
I know I’m late to this convo but that sounds incredible.
The one thing I wished we saw more of was a connection between TLJ and TROS. Bridging those two films together would have helped things immensely.
I wish there was some way to go as far as Rey’s parental reveal happening in TLJ, but I don’t know how it would work.
27-Dec-2019 2:58 AM
I’m going to come back to this post and fill in the blanks with more detail, but…
I really think a lot of this movie should have happened in The Last Jedi.
Wondering if it’s possible to combine the two movies or use some of that film to better flesh out this one. It moves so fast.
24-Dec-2019 10:44 PM — Edited 24-Dec-2019 10:47 PM
Miche said:
Yeah, I was wondering, why did you keep that awful jokeful dialog at the opening segment. ¿Does it really work? I see it as a horrible statement to a terrible character. (Poe being the central victim here)
I absolutely, 100% disagree with this comment. There are some folks that are very anti-humor in Star Wars. I am not one of them.
While yes, I believe there are some jokes that run on or just miss the mark (C3PO’s puns in Attack of the Clones come to mind), Poe’s snarky comments to Kylo Ren are lighthearted and “feel” real. They sold me on him being an awesome character from the start.
If it were my fanedit, I wouldn’t get rid of either line. I think they are both a welcoming introduction, especially for folks that aren’t as familiar with Star Wars — keeps things fun and fresh. Puts some life in Star Wars without being too meta or overbearing.
There is no reason why either of Poe’s intro lines should be removed. Just my opinion, of course.
For nearly 2 years, I have been re-editing The Last Jedi. It is now available!
This looks promising. I hope to give this a watch here soon!
Okay, just watched the workprint.
Let’s start with what goes without saying: Nev, you have created what is likely one of the most ambitious Star Wars fanedits ever made. Not only are the concepts for your vision executed with care, but they are done so in a way that is incredibly polished and blurs the line between the original and what you have improved upon. Absolutely excellent work and you should be very proud.
I am not going to comment on every change that was made, because frankly, I agreed with nearly all of them. Upon a rewatch, I may come back to this with other thoughts. However, let me call out some of the issues that need to be addressed (most of them are minor technical quirks):
In the crawl, is “Episode VII” centered? It looks too far off to the right above “THE FORCE AWAKENS.”
What’s with the speed increase at the end of the crawl? It should move as the same speed throughout.
When the village gets shot up by stormtroopers, Phasma says, “On my command.” Listen close, you can hear her repeat the last syllable happen a couple times (maybe due to a duplicated audio segment). I would recommend headphones for this, but it’s definitely there.
Why did you cut Unkar Plutt’s introductory line? “What you brought me today is, hmm, worth one quarter portion.”
The Poe/Kylo Ren interrogation scene looks great.
There is just some clipping on some of the audio (again, can be heard through headphones).
Maybe add some fades at the beginning/ends of those clips to prevent the clipping sounds.
Not seeing the point of the nighttime BB-8 scene after Poe’s interrogation. It looks pretty but doesn’t serve a purpose if its that short.
Just as Snoke’s first scene occurs, is there a way to have Hux say Supreme Leader Snoke’s name or something? For people new to the series, they don’t know who this giant holligam is. If Hux said it, it would help — even if just as a voiceover in the clip leading up to this one.
Clipped audio at Snoke scene / line: “Our strategy must change…"
I’ve seen edits before where they put an effect on Snoke to make him look more like a hologram.
Is that possible here? Since when did holagrams go HD?
The transition from Kylo Ren praying feels a little weird
Is there any shot of Kylo Ren walking down the hall of his star destoryer that could be used after he stands up from praying but before the shot of Finn preparing to leave? Like as a transition?
Turn down the music volume just a tad when Han says “where’d you get that” when Maz hands him the lightsaber
When Rey returns to Maz’s castle during the battle, you can hear Han’s voice say, “Oh no” (probably from a duplicated audio clip).
I feel like the music is just a tad too loud when Leia and Han are having their talk about Ben while they are inside the Resistance base.
Another clipped audio just before Leia says, “The First Order, they’re charging the weapon now”
When Rey hides from the stormtroopers while on Starkiller Base, the scene cuts to Phasma saying, “Take no chances, I won’t tolerate sloppiness,” then back to Rey, then back to Phasma. Why not just have Rey hide, then have one cut to Phasma? It feels a little choppy having to switch between the two.
Moving the Leia reaction scene to Han’s death… I’m debating on this one. I feel like it actually flowed better having her reaction take place after Han dies but before Chewie goes crazy. You did the opposite here (that I do see the reason to why!); however, I’m just a little unsure.
Everything looks awesome. I’ll have more comments after I can watch it again, but these are my initial notes. Thanks again for putting this all together — it’s really great!
16-Dec-2019 8:13 PM — Edited 16-Dec-2019 8:19 PM
I’m super excited!
Once the workprint is out, you should expect to hear quite a bit of feedback. I think that enjoying it as a whole will likely give a different perspective to some of the more specific changes you’ve made over the last couple years (wow, has it been that long?!).
My suggestion is, once you have the workprint out, maybe take a few days and let folks pick it apart while you go see The Rise of Skywalker. Then when you’re ready, dig in, see what suggestions have been made, and think about whether there’s anything new that could further enhance the film. If you have a detailed changes list to accompany the workprint, it will probably help.
Finally, as an aside: Thanks for making this so much fun, Nev! I know that I only started commenting the last few months or so (yikes, it’s been almost a year since I started following this project — time flies!), but I think I speak for everyone here when I say that watching your project evolve has been a blast. I genuinely get excited each time you post a new clip.
Thanks for letting us be a part of it!
I’m seeing TROS with my girlfriend and brothers early (7:20 AM) on Saturday
Haha, alright I’m not going to post anything in this thread between Thursday and Saturday morning then!
But I’d be careful about getting spoilers from newbies that might comment here. At least until you can see it on Saturday.
I think that works really well.
Although I do think that the previous version you put together felt more dreamlike, particularly with the voices of Han and Kylo Ren echoing in the background.
I noticed that you also switched to doing simple dissolves in/out on those clips. I’m wondering (and this may be a terrible idea, but here it is): what if instead of fading to black between the clips, it just cut back to Rey sleeping in the chair?
Scene starts, Rey establishing shot
Quick cut to dream
Quick cut back to Rey
Quick cut back to dream
Eventually moving faster and not returning to Rey until she wakes up.
I’m just playing with ideas here. I think we may have more to work with after seeing The Rise of Skywalker.
P.S. When are you seeing the movie, by the way?
15-Dec-2019 8:43 PM
Really, really good. You do great work.
The only item I maybe kinda wish it also had was a shot of the Jedi texts, since she indicates that she’s dreamt about the place.
I love the peaceful music in the latter half. If there was any place to integrate the Jedi texts, it would be along with those clips.
If it doesn’t work though, no big deal.
ziggyonice said:
Just cut to black right after Leia and then let the dream fade in.
On second thought, how would this work? “Tell us all you know.” And then sharp cut to black? I feel like it would need to fade to black. Like you would need a wide shot of the interior of the Resistance base or something as Leia, Poe, and Finn discuss and then fade from that into the dream sequence.
RogueLeader said:
I also felt when you cut to this scene, you start with the dream first and we don’t see Rey until she wakes up suddenly. So something like, “Tell us all you know.” cut to black. Fade in on island. The simplest thing might be to start with her entering frame looking at the tree, and cutting when she is reaching for the books. Simple and mysterious.
I agree. This reminds me of Anakin’s dream sequence from Revenge of the Sith. We don’t need the shot of Starkiller Base or of a sleeping Rey. Just cut to black right after Leia and then let the dream fade in.
You could take a cue from ROTS, the balcony scene wipes from the balcony to a black screen, and then the dream fades in, then as the dream ends it hard cuts to Anakin waking up.
7-Dec-2019 10:50 AM — Edited 7-Dec-2019 10:51 AM
I’m surprised the subtitles are burned in. Does the Blu-ray have an alternate audio track for other languages or subtitles? Because I would think that would require they not be burned in.
The Starlight Project Part 2: The Last Jedi
I cannot believe how great the lyrics match the action. I had a huge smile when the battalion line came up. 😄
It’s looking really good, dude.
4-Nov-2019 12:36 AM
FreezingTNT2 said:
J.J. Abrams originally wanted to put Jar Jar’s skeleton in a scene, but it didn’t end up happening in the final cut. Do you plan on putting it back in?
This seems unnecessary and a little petty. Not sure what value this change would bring to the film other than being an easter egg requiring a lot of work to render.
31-Oct-2019 2:04 AM — Edited 31-Oct-2019 2:32 AM
You can of course discuss anything at any time, I’m all ears 😉
Okay, I’m going to talk about the crawl!
I consider myself to be a semi-purist, and I don’t like changing canon too much. Moving the order of events around and providing some additional context for what has happened is great, but major alterations bug me a bit. So with regards to the crawl, I’d like to keep its contents true while shedding light on three main points:
Luke is missing
The First Order is a threat
The Resistance is defending the Republic
Your existing crawl has some great verbiage and does explain some of this, though it needs to be just a little less wordy and a little more in line with canon. So I’d like to propose another version, which takes some of your ideas (which are fantastic, by the way) and merge them with some of mine. This is what I came up with:
Password: fanedit
Luke Skywalker has vanished.
In the years since his absence,
the fledgling New Republic has
been threatened by the sinister
IMPERIAL FIRST ORDER,
risen by remnants of the Empire.
Lead by a mysterious shadow,
this faction of evil grows quickly,
annihilating all in its
path until Skywalker, the last
Jedi, has been destroyed.
Determined to defend the
vulnerable Republic, a small
RESISTANCE is desperate to
find Luke and enlist his help in
defeating this new darkness
spreading across the stars . . . .
This crawl addresses the three points made above, and also sheds a little light on some of the unanswered questions about the political state of the galaxy without being overbearing. It explains that the First Order comes from remains of the Empire and is lead by “a mysterious shadow,” which might give some credence to their quick rise to power and military clout. Finally, I want it to be clear that the Resistance is not lead by the Republic, but still vows to defend then — with Luke as a key player in their strategy. Hence why, “This will begin to make things right.”
It also uses some of your great expressions (“spreading across the stars” is awesome) and many of the word choices, albeit in a few other locations in the text, where terms like “sinister” and “shadow” are great too.
Speaking of the crawl, I had a somewhat weird idea for a more substantial change to the galactic table setting, so it would be something to do after v1 is released (if at all):
I have to think a bit more about this.
This change is certainly interesting and does make me curious how it would look if executed correctly. Of course, I’d have to loosen up about my desire to keep things canon here! 😜 But you’re right, it does fix the issue of Leia not warning the Republic of the impending Starkiller attack. However, there may be another way to resolve that, although I had never even thought about that until you just mentioned it. Wondering if a line could simply be thrown in about Hosnian Prime preparing to evacuate or something. I’ll think on this some more.
27-Oct-2019 4:02 PM
Can I add a request? This is minor and silly, but hear me out.
In the final trailer that was released for The Force Awakens, it included a shot of an X-Wing shooting a TIE Fighter during the Takodana battle. The same shot is in the final version of the film, albeit with one change: they took out the sound effect of the X-Wing shooting the TIE Fighter (or they lowered the volume of its laser cannons so much that you can barely hear them).
I’m wondering if you would consider putting it back in.
Listen to the difference (I’ve cued up the exact moment I’m talking about):
Trailer version
It’s not a big deal, but I just think the X-Wing’s laser cannons sounded so cool in that trailer and when it was removed from the final version of the film, I was a little disappointed.
Definitely like the lowest thing on your priority list but I figured I’d ask.
…a potential upside is that the crawl might not need to be quite as plot heavy.
I don’t mind having some plot elements mentioned in the crawl. This does take place ~30 years after Return of the Jedi, so I feel like at least a few major elements are going to need to be mentioned in it.
Speaking of which, I’d like to discuss the crawl again and some of the content of it… whenever you’re ready to have that discussion. 😃
However with the new images I’ve created of BB-8 sitting outside of Rey’s house at night, a new option becomes available. Rey finds BB-8 and brings the droid home, then BB-8 facilitates the transition to the Finalizer as a flashback.
I am struggling to picture how this would work. If there’s anyone that can figure it out, it’s you. With that said, I’m afraid it’s probably going to complicate the story more than it needs to. Let’s be real, for most non-fans, understanding Star Wars is confusing enough as it is.
I’m of the opinion that, if you can keep it simple, that’s going to be the better route to go. If you want to make a mock up of the order of scenes with a flashback, I’m open to looking at it and tell you what I think. But when I watch a fanedit, I watch it with the idea that I’m going to be showing this to someone that hasn’t seen Star Wars, so I go for whatever makes the most sense.
20-Oct-2019 1:16 PM — Edited 20-Oct-2019 1:16 PM
Would it be better if I were to replace the rocks behind Luke and have him fade in totally independent of the surroundings?
I don’t mind Luke fading in, as it is a dream sequence, after all. However, I would maybe see if you could have him fade in more slowly, almost with the bright white bloom effect of the background.
I kind of like the idea of the viewer seeing this and wondering if he faded in, or if it’s just almost like he’s appearing from the fog of the background. Maybe if his fade in was slower and not so obviously an appearance. Think more of a gradual reveal — “is that a figure? a person? it is a person! omg, is that Luke?”
In its current state, it’s more like he just apparated into the frame. Having his appearance come in a little slower may make it seem more mysterious. I don’t think you have to replace the rocks necessarily.
This change looks good, and I like your reasoning behind it. I always felt like BB-8 needed to be part of that scene, and this edit pulls it off well.
Visually, I didn’t like the shot of Chewie, Poe, and rando Resistance member that interrupts BB-8 rolling forward. It just felt choppy or too quick or something. Would the shot of Rey looking at the map be a better fit here? Or would that be too awkward after having seen her in the Luke/dream sequence?
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Quiz: Match the Jargon to the Sport: HowStuffWorks
Match the Jargon to the Sport
Which American sport would you see a "curveball" in?
A curveball is a type of pitch in the sport of baseball. Curveballs will move through the air depending on the amount of spin put on them by the pitcher, making it difficult for the batter to hit.
Originally devised from soccer, in what sport will you score a "try"?
Rugby Union sees teams of 15 players competing for victory over two halves of 40 minutes each. The highest point-scoring event in the game is called a try. It is worth five points.
In which of these sports can you be "offside"?
The offside rule in soccer simply means that an attacking player cannot be beyond the last defender when a ball is passed to him. Although it is simply, it's the interpretation by lines persons that often leads to controversy.
A "360 toe flip" would be associated with which of these sports?
The sport of skateboarding has produced some incredible athletes over the years. Think of Tony Hawk, for instance. These skateboarders push the boundaries, inventing new tricks often. An example of a skateboarding trick is a "360 toe flip."
A "quarterback" is a position in which sport listed below?
Patball
Perhaps the most important player on the field, a "quarterback" runs the offensive game for an American Football team. Effectively, he is the on-field general and calls all the plays when his team is on attack.
In which sport would you see a "Back 2-and-a-half somersaults in the tuck position"?
Springboard Diving
Springboard diving has many dive types, one of which is the "Back 2-and-a-half somersaults in the tuck position." In fact, dives can come from six different dive types. They are forward, backward, reverse, inward, twisting and armstand. Withing those dive types, there are four body positions as well!
A "wide" would form part of which of these sports?
A "wide" in cricket happens when a bowler bowls the ball too far on either side of the batsman for him to reach it. Because he can't, the bowling side is penalized one penalty run and the ball needs to be bowled again.
We're not sure we want to partake in a sport that features a "crotch lift." Which of these do you think that sport is?
King Fu
Yes, wrestling is filled with many different moves, but the "crotch lift" sees someone try to lift their opponent by grappling them near their crotch area and throwing them over. Pass, thanks!
A "fluffus" is performed in which of these sports?
Care to try a "fluffus"? To perform one, you need to bounce on a trampoline and then manage a double somersault with a twist! Sounds tricky, that is for sure. Be sure you have something soft to land on off the trampoline, just in case.
In which of these track and field events might someone do the "Fosbury flop"?
The "Fosbury Flop" is a method of approaching the high jump. It was named after Dick Fosbury, who won the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics using this technique. Before, most high jump athletes used a number of other methods to clear the pole, including the "Western Roll." Today, the Fosbury Flop is the only way to do it if you want to compete with the best.
Do you know in which sport a player would be said to have scored a "worldie"?
Rugby Fives
A "worldie" happens when a player scores a goal in soccer. But it's not just any goal. It is a world class goal. For instance, a 35-yard shot from outside the box might be classed as a "worldie". It simply means world class.
The captain is positioned at the "helm" in which sport?
Cricket Sixes
In sailing, you would definitely find the captain at the "helm" of the ship. And generally, he would have the steering wheel in his hand while barking orders to the crew. In competition sailing, though, the captain doesn't usually go down with the ship!
A "bagel" is associated with which of these sports?
No a "bagel" is not something players eat during the course of their matchup. It simply means a player has routed their opponent. For instance, in a women's matchup, someone winning 6-0, 6-0 has a "bagel," with the 0 making the shape of the pastry.
When someone records a "birdie" on their scorecard, which sport are they participating in?
A "birdie" is when a golfer shoots one under par for a hole. For instance, if a hole is a par three, the golfer would have completed it in only two shots and therefore scored a "birdie".
In which team sport would players be playing in a "barnburner"?
Mixed Doubles Tennis
In ice hockey, the playing area is often called a "barn". A "barn burner" is therefore a high-scoring game.
Of the list below, which sport would you most commonly associate with "the pits"?
Yak Polo
Ultralight Aviation
It's not a terrible place, really. In motor racing, all the various team garages are found in "the pits." During a race, a driver might bring his car into "the pits" to change tires or refuel.
What sport includes a piece of equipment known as a "spoon"?
Well it might be a spoon for giants, but the slang word for a lacrosse stick is a "spoon." It certainly does look like an oversized piece of cutlery.
If you perform a "header," which sport would you be playing?
Zui Quan
There are many ways to play a ball in soccer. On the times it flies in the air toward a player, he might choose to "head" it to another team member or even at the goal. This simply means that instead of using his feet, he uses his head.
An "ace" is seen in which sport?
If someone serves an "ace" in tennis, they have won a point by making a service which their opponent could not hit, let alone return. You can only score an "ace" in your service game.
If you need to shout "fore," which sport are you participating in?
"Fore!" is never a good thing in golf. If you hear that as a spectator, make sure you duck. It means a golfer has hit the ball off line and it is sailing into the crowd! (Note: If you're ordering hot dogs at a golf match, stick to three or five.)
"Spike" is a term that comes from _______?
Unicycling
Volleyball is a great team game. When someone "spikes" the ball, they are hitting it as hard as they can into the opposition area, usually with a downward motion. This makes it difficult to return.
"Beezer" is a term from which of these sports?
Beezer is indeed a term from boxing. But what does it mean? Well, a "beezer" is a boxer's nose, a frequent target for his opponent. If you can break your adversary's "beezer" he will have trouble breathing properly ... and be in a lot of pain!
Originating in England, this sport includes a scoring method known as a "six"? Can you name it?
In cricket, batsmen score runs by hitting the ball into gaps in the field and running between the wickets. They can also score runs by hitting the ball to the boundary rope (a four) or in the air over the boundary rope (a six).
In basketball, the free throw line is also sometimes called?
The Larry Bird line
Points for sure
The charity stripe
In professional basketball, a free throw is not often missed. And that is why the free throw line is known as the charity stripe. It's like giving away points for free!
From the options below, which sport would see a free-kick or penalty awarded for a "handball"?
Pushball
If a player is struck on the hand by a ball in the sport of soccer, the referee will give a free-kick for a "handball." If this happens inside the penalty area, a penalty will be given.
When a triathlete has "bonked," what has happened to them?
They had to change their swimming gear that kept falling off.
They are exhausted and have run out of steam.
They had to change a broken running shoe.
They had to change a bike tire.
It's a strange term, but "bonked" or "bonk" just means that someone doing a triathlon has run out of steam. It's no surprise, really! Who wants to swim, run and cycle in the same race!
From the answers below, which would you associate with the term "bank shot"?
In the sport of pool, a "bank shot" is when a player has made use of a side cushion to hit the cue ball into their target ball and then hopefully in the pocket. This can also refer to when the cue ball hits the object ball, then the object ball goes off a cushion.
In baseball, a batter stands at the ______ when facing up to a pitcher.
Batter up! When a batter readies to face a pitcher in baseball, he is standing over the plate. If the pitcher wants to strike out the batter, he'll have to keep his pitches more or less over the plate (depending on the umpire's strike zone).
What sport gave us the term "deuce"?
Tennis has a very unique scoring system that starts in multiples of 15 and then goes to 10; for instance, 15-all, 30-all and then 40-all. 40-all is never said as 40-all. It is simply called "deuce".
"Nutmeg" is a term found in which of these sports?
Wood Chopping
Competitive cooking
When a player performs a "nutmeg" in soccer, he has cleverly kicked the ball through the open legs of his opponent, run past him and gathered the ball again. To be nutmegged is the ultimate humiliation on a soccer pitch.
A person brought crashing to the ground by "death cookies" is participating in which sport?
Quadrathlon
Mountain biking can be a very tough sport. And dangerous ... especially when going downhill fast. It's best to look out for medium sized rocks, known as "death cookies," that might throw you from your bike!
"Touchdowns" are a way to score points in which sport?
A "touchdown" is the major scoring play in American football. It can be achieved in a number of ways but just needs a player to work their way into the end zone with the ball or to receive the ball there. It is worth six points.
A "loop" is performed in which sport listed below?
Beach golf
Doubles tennis
The sport of aerobatics sees pilots performing a series of maneuvers for which they are scored according to difficulty level, efficiency and other criteria. One of these maneuvers, a "loop," sees the pilot pull up and continue to pull back on this flight stick until the aircraft has completed a full circle.
In which of these sports would someone be "punch drunk"?
Punch drunk is a term from the sport of boxing. It is given to a boxer who has taken far too many hits and is staggering around the ring, not really knowing where he is. For this reason, they are said to be "punch drunk."
From the options below, in which sport would someone hit a "grand slam"?
Yes, a grand slam is certainly a phrase that comes from baseball. And what does it mean? It is a 4-run home run, a longball struck when the bases were loaded. This is a rare occurrence, and very often changes the momentum in a game dramatically.
Is This Real or Fake Sports Jargon?
Which Sport Suits You?
Can We Guess What Your Favorite Sport Is?
Can You Knock This Baseball Knowledge Quiz Out of the Park?
Can You Guess the Sport from These Easy Riddles?
Can You Name the Sport From the Athlete?
Which Sport Were You Born to Play?
Can You Match the Athlete to the Correct Sport?
What Sport Is Good for You?
How well do you know your baseball jargon?
Did you know that there are over 800 different sports played all around the world? And this list is growing by the day. These sports range from the ones we know and love, like baseball, soccer, American football and ice hockey, to very obscure sports such as auto polo, banzai skydiving, extreme ironing and other examples. Of course, some are not taken as seriously as others (we're looking at you here, extreme ironing!)
Around 200 of these sports have national federations, and that makes them pretty serious. Why? Well, it means that they feature organized competitions to determine who are the best at whatever sport it is, be it a team sport or an individual sport. And of course, you know that unique jargon often is associated with sports, and that is what today's quiz is all about.
Do you think you know which sport you can score an "ace" in? What about a "six"? And which sport would you associate with the term "bonked"? Or the "Fosbury flop"? What about the strangely named "beezer"? Think you know? Well, then let's see how many sport jargon terms you can get right out of 35! Make sure you "hit it out the park!"
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← Recap: Speedy meeting is not without controversy
Election advice for autism advocates →
A peek at the new transportation proposal
Posted on October 14, 2010 by rpnorton | 3 Comments
At tonight’s meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on Student Assignment, Board members got a peek at the Superintendent’s proposal to align our student transportation system to the new assignment system’s goals (I’ll post the presentation as soon as I have it in electronic form). Note that all of the discussion below refers only to general education transportation — students with disabilities are entitled to door-to-door transportation if it supports access to a free, appropriate public education, regardless of budget considerations.
Each general education bus (not route, since most buses run multiple routes) costs the district somewhere between $90,000 and $100,000 annually. The Superintendent is proposing to reduce the number of buses from 44 to 25 over a three-year “phase-out” period beginning in 2011-12. The Board has long been asking for a reduction in our overall transportation spending, but beyond that, has asked for our system of transportation — which hasn’t been overhauled since the 1980s — to be redesigned to align with the Board’s goals for student assignment. To do this, the staff proposed several objectives:
Provide transportation to racially-isolated schools that have traditionally been underenrolled;
Maintain current routes that help create diverse enrollments;
Provide students living in low test score (CTIP 1) areas with access to K-8 schools, language immersion programs and the SF Public Montessori School;
Provide English learners with access to biliteracy and immersion programs;
Provide newcomers with access to newcomer programs;
Provide reasonable access to attendance area schools in areas where attendance area is geographically large (e.g., Daniel Webster);
Provide students in densely-populated areas with reasonable access to schools in less-populated areas of the City;
Support access to SFUSD afterschool programs in areas where afterschool programs are not available at the elementary school.
All of these objectives have a downside: many students currently being bused would lose access to transportation. This past year, the Board eliminated all busing to high schools, but staff said tonight that the five buses currently serving middle school students would probably be preserved until the Board approves a new elementary-to-middle school feeder plan (currently on hold). That means that most of the impacted students would be those enrolled in elementary school programs; currently 3,300 students are regularly bused to and/or from SFUSD elementary schools to their homes or afterschool programs.
One of the things Board members requested tonight was a deeper understanding of who is being bused where, and which/how many students would be affected by eliminating elementary routes and service to non-SFUSD afterschool programs. The idea of eliminating service to non-SFUSD afterschool programs could have a huge impact on students, since currently we offer service to 19 SFUSD afterschool programs and 31 non-SFUSD programs. Parents depend on these programs and I feel strongly that we cannot jerk the rug out from under families without offering any kind of safety net.
But what would such a safety net look like? One suggestion might be to offer students currently being transported to non-SFUSD programs space in an SFUSD program, preferably one on-site but if that isn’t possible, then transportation to an SFUSD-run program nearby. I don’t really love that suggestion because it seems counter-intuitive — why cut one bus route only to offer another? In some cases, this proposed solution could be more efficient because instead of transporting 20 students from the same school to five or six different afterschool programs, we would now transport them to one program. But I prefer a guarantee that every student who loses transportation to an off-site afterschool program will instead be offered on-site afterschool care — as a district we have envisioned a goal of on-site afterschool care at every site, and this guarantee would support that vision. It may, however, not be feasible due to budget restrictions, licensing red tape, and other concerns.
Right now I am not prepared to support any proposal that leaves working families high and dry without access to afterschool care, so we’ll have to see what the data says and how the proposal evolves once it is fully fleshed out. But I would urge school communities to begin talking about how they might respond if busing to off-site afterschool programs were no longer available.
Discussion then shifted to the district’s outreach plan to ensure families are fully aware of new deadlines and procedures for the new assignment system. In August, the Educational Placement Center convened a meeting of 40 community organizations and advocacy groups to gather ideas and input on how best to reach out and inform families about the big changes in school assignment. From that meeting, the following plan emerged (in addition to the traditional avenues of media outreach, public service announcements, mailings and posters/flyers in public places):
New guides are under development, including specific advice and information for high school enrollment, for families seeking programs to support English Learners, a guide to the new enrollment policy, and special marketing materials for families at Superintendent’s Zone schools. The district will also continue to publish a special education enrollment guide (Board members pointed out we still don’t know what it will say), and a guide to Elementary and Middle schools.
The EPC and community partners will convene workshops at the November 13 Enrollment Fair (covering topics like the Lowell HS application process, programs for English Learners, immersion programs, special education programs, and Pre-K to K special education transitions). In addition, seven enrollment workshops (now called “Discovery Workshops”) will be held at locations around the city between mid-November and late January.
EPC has a new “Mobile Center” that will bring staff to do targeted outreach in neighborhoods around the City, including Treasure Island, Bayview, Western Addition, the Mission, and Visitacion Valley. The Mobile Center will provide one-on-one enrollment counseling, collect applications, and offer product giveaways to families.
In the week before applications are due (early-to-mid February), EPC staff will be available in different parts of the city — the Bayview, Richmond, Outer Mission, Chinatown, Potrero Hill and Sunset — to collect applications from families.
EPC staff will also conduct “Walking the Beat” outreach, identifying high-traffic walking locations throughout SF and distribute postcards with information about Key Dates and Mobile EPC services, as well as enrollment applications.
Students at Superintendent’s Zone schools will be taken on “Road Trips” to middle and high schools to learn about what to expect next year and what their options are.
Staff are using technology in new ways, including investigating text messaging options and working with a marketing group (paid for with a grant) to develop a new enrollment web site to help families search for an appropriate school program. The enrollment process now has a new tag line, too: “Discover. Apply. Enroll.”
I continue to get a lot of questions on the ins and outs of the new system (an FAQ of sorts is here; read the comments for additional questions/answers). Lots more details will be available at the various Discovery Workshops (school addresses are available here):
Saturday, Nov. 20: 10 a.m. – 12 noon at Dr. Charles Drew Elementary;
Wednesday, Dec. 1: 6 p.m. -8 p.m. at Marina Middle School;
Thursday, Dec. 2: 6 p.m. -8 p.m. at A.P. Giannini Middle School;
Saturday, Dec. 4: 10 a.m. – 12 noon at Bret Harte Elementary;
Saturday, Dec. 11: 10 a.m. – 12 noon at Bryant Elementary;
Saturday, Jan. 22: 10 a.m. – 12 noon at Junipero Serra Elementary;
Saturday, Jan 29: 10 a.m. – 12 noon at Rosa Parks Elementary.
Finally, key dates — please don’t deluge me with questions about how the different dates for letters work because I don’t know — I just heard about them tonight. All will be revealed on November 13 (I am repeating that mantra to myself in a hopeful voice several times a day between now and the Enrollment Fair):
Enrollment Fair: November 13, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Concourse — 7th and Brannan Streets.
Deadline for March Placement (what we used to call Round I): Feb. 18;
March Placement letters sent: March 18;
Deadline for May Placement (what we used to call Round II): April 15;
May Placement letters sent: May 13;
August Placement letters: TBD.
This entry was posted in BOE, issues, student assignment and tagged recap, student assignment, transportation. Bookmark the permalink.
3 responses to “A peek at the new transportation proposal”
Terri | October 18, 2010 at 3:35 pm |
What about charging a fee for bus transportation instead of eliminating bus routes? Many children attend schools far from home and will continue to do so for the next several years, so it only seems fair that they have a way to get to and from school. Transportation availability was a major factor in which schools I chose to consider under the current enrollment system, and I’m sure that the same goes for many parents. The school my children attend has a private afterschool program, but there is not space for everyone who needs it. Unfortunately, my kids may have to leave their school if the bus is eliminated.
rpnorton | October 15, 2010 at 3:18 pm |
@Suzanne – that’s possible. Commissioner Yee specifically requested there be some consideration of field trips in the new policy.
Suzanne | October 15, 2010 at 9:58 am |
Will the reduction in the number of school buses also reduce the availability of school buses for field trips? My understanding is that schools have access to buses during the day between the times of drop off and pick up, but is that dependent on the number of buses that SFUSD uses, or is it a separate allocation?
We volunteer to help others, but research shows how much it helps us, too washingtonpost.com/health/we-volu… 26 minutes ago
YES!!!!!!! twitter.com/hknightsf/stat… 44 minutes ago
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Protect Good Parents
EXPERIENCE OF PARENTS
THE LATTA REVIEW
WATCH “Mum On A Mission” (2014)
You can also view our earlier documentary on this slider “My Mummy’s A Criminal” (2011)
“If I see good parents getting criminalised for lightly smacking their children for the purposes of discipline, I’m going to change the law … if we start seeing that situation breaking down – good parents being hauled before the courts – then I’m going to do something about it.” – Prime Minister John Key, June 2008
This website is dedicated to law-abiding parents who want to raise great kids – but are confronted with a confusing law which also ignores the realities of parenting.
Prime Minister John Key says that the anti-smacking law is a complete and utter dog’s breakfast, badly drafted, extremely vague. However, in December 2009, in response to an overwhelming 87% opposition to the anti-smacking law in the Referendum, John Key told kiwi mums and dads that a light smack was ok. Psychologist Nigel Latta who headed a review of the law said that “parents could relax”. But the Latta review has since been exposed asmisleading, failed to meet its Terms of Reference, and missed out or ignored key information. John Key’s assurances are in direct conflict with what groups like Barnados, the Children’s Commissioner and Plunket are telling parents, and the way the anti-smacking law is being enforced by the police, CYF and the Family Court. And in September 2010 in Parliament, all political parties, except for ACT, sent a clear message that a light smack is not ok when they rejected the very amendment that National MP’s had been vigorously lobbying for when in opposition! Law-abiding parents raising great kids are now confused.
This website backgrounds the issue, provides important legal advice and encouragement for parents, and shows practical solutions to tackling the issue we all want solved – child abuse.
MEDIA RELEASE: Legal Analysis of Smacking Law Raises Serious Concerns
Media Release 12 Feb 2018
A legal analysis of the 2007 anti-smacking law says that the law is confusing to parents, police and the legal profession; that statements and guarantees made by politicians were misleading; and that a comprehensive analysis of the effects of the law on families is impossible because of the difficulty in obtaining copies of judgements, and the absence of key data from the police.
The analysis provided to Family First NZ in January by public law specialists Chen Palmer is an update of an earlier Opinion in 2014, but reviews other cases which have become relevant since that time.
“it is just over 10 years since the hugely unpopular anti-smacking law was rammed through Parliament against the better judgement and will of the New Zealand people. This legal Opinion by Mai Chen will sound further warning bells to families and is a rebuke to all the politicians who thought they knew better than the public,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.
<<READ THE FULL DETAILS>>
THE ANTI-SMACKING LAW – “DEFYING HUMAN NATURE” Interviewer: “…so, you don’t want to see smacking banned…” Clark: “Absolutely not! I think you’re trying to defy human nature.” – Helen Clark, Election Campaign 2005 Here’s the Problem In many cases, parental guidance
Smacking laws were never about the real issue of child abuse Sue Reid – Family First NZ. Published in NZ Herald Apr 16, 2009 It is a shame that we have a Families Commission that is driven by ideology rather
Legal advice for parents
Family First has received the following advice from lawyers throughout New Zealand. Choose from the below links for reliable advice on the three important questions that good parents need answers to. What does the law currently allow and not allow
The truth about smacking
Smacking is defined as: physically non-injurious; intended to modify behavior; and administered with an opened hand to the extremities or buttocks (Pediatrics, 1996, Vol. 88, p. 853) Anything above or beyond that becomes child abuse. Let’s deal with some of
Read the full article below on why the Prime Minister’s Review was misleading and flawed. Click HERE for PDF version. Click HERE for a summary. Open publication – Free publishing – More news
click on poster to download PDF version
Simon Barnett Radio/TV personality “Because of my opposition to the anti-smacking law I am labeled as a parent who is ‘violent’ and who ‘bashes’ and ‘assaults’ kids. Nothing is further from the truth. I find that offensive, and so should
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Home » Ghosted By Your Best Friend
Ghosted By Your Best Friend
May 30, 2017 by Troi G. Leave a Comment
Ghosting, the practice of distancing yourself abruptly from another person, has become more common in the last ten years. It happens a lot at the end of romantic relationships. But being ghosted by someone you consider to be a close friend hurts a whole lot more. Yet, could there be circumstances when ghosting is the only option? We are looking at the reasons for being suddenly dumped by a friend and also how to cope with being ghosted by your best friend.
Sally and Julie
Sally had a five-year friendship that she valued quite a lot. Julie had children of similar ages and they shared many interests in common. Julie had a quirky sense of humor, though Sally was often perturbed by the way Julie criticized other mutual acquaintances, especially regarding their parenting methods. Julie’s life seemed to always be in crisis, and she was constantly involved in one battle or another. From legal issues to arguments with motor repair companies, there was always something for Julie to complain about. Sally sympathized with her friend and tried to support her as much as she could.
Sally often invited Julie over for a chat so their children could play together. The problem was that Julie preferred to talk than have a two-way conversation. She could hold forth for hours, going on and on about her current problem, whatever it happened to be. Sometimes Sally had to drop hints that it was time to wind the visit up.
Eventually Julie’s criticism turned to Sally’s children. Sally’s daughter hadn’t responded in the ‘right way’, or her son had been ‘selfish with his toys’. Sally was getting fed up. She found that she continually thought about what Julie had said, and even modified her own behavior and words in order not to attract Julie’s ire.
Things came to a head just before Christmas, when after inviting herself and her family over for an evening during the holidays, Julie failed to respond for four days to Sally’s email regarding the arrangements. Sally sent a brief message telling Julie that she was no longer able to maintain the friendship. Sally reports feeling a huge sense of relief. She realized how much Julie’s problems had been affecting her, and how draining and toxic the friendship had become. Sally knew that the email incident was not important, but it gave her the motivation she needed to drop the friendship. She never contacted Julie again. Did Sally act badly because she ghosted her friend?
Jamilla and Sonya
Jamilla met Sonya at work. They immediately became good friends. It felt as though they’d known each other forever. They were friends for two years when Jamilla sensed a change in their relationship. She noticed on FaceBook that Sonya had arranged a weekend trip with some other friends and hadn’t invited Jamilla. She hadn’t even mentioned it to Jamilla when they’d last spoken a few days earlier.
Gradually Sonya withdrew from Jamilla while reinforcing friendships with other people. Jamilla felt dreadful. She had no idea if she’d upset Sonya. When she asked the question, Sonya replied that she was just busy and sorry for being a bad friend. Then one day, Jamilla sent Sonya a text, a funny photo of her dog with a simple, “Hope your weekend is good. See you at work.” Sonya didn’t respond. This was unusual, as she would at least send back a smiley face. Sonya wasn’t at work on the Monday and wasn’t answering her phone. In fact Sonya didn’t turn up for work until the following week and when she did she walked right past Jamilla, refusing to acknowledge her.
Jamilla was confused and devastated. She tried emailing Sonya, leaving her a voice mail, but no response. Within a couple of weeks Sonya had left her job too. Jamilla never heard from her again. She had been ghosted.
When Ghosting is an Option
Ghosting is justified if you feel that the friendship has changed from being a mutually supporting relationship to being one-sided and toxic. If you have done your best to keep the friendship going, but the other person is taking advantage of your good nature, ghosting might be your only choice. Janice had a friend who was always broke. Janice enjoyed her company so would always pay when they met up for lunch. Janice was horrified when her friend asked if she could take out a business loan secured on Janice’s home. She didn't understand why a friend would even ask her to do that. Janice couldn’t bring herself to speak to her again.
Lou had struck up a friendship with Jennifer, whose child went to the same school as her daughter. Within a few months, Jennifer started to turn up at her Lou’s house without invitation. She would even show up unexpectedly at family parties. Lou felt as if her life was being invaded and regretted ever striking up a friendship with the woman. After spending an hour hiding in her own home while Jennifer stood in the porch, ringing the doorbell, she gathered her courage and asked Jennifer to respect her privacy. Jennifer immediately acted contrite and begged for forgiveness. Lou felt sorry for her and agreed to carry on being friends. But Jennifer continued to insert herself into every aspect of Lou’s life until she felt the only thing she could do was to cut all contact. She de-friended Jennifer on social media and refused to answer her calls and text. Eventually Jennifer got the message and gave up.
If you feel that a confrontation would make things worse, or if your friend is intimidating and manipulative, dropping all contact may be your best option.
When You’ve Been Ghosted
If your friend has ghosted you and you have no idea why, the only thing you can do is accept it and get on with your life. It’s a good idea to reach out just once by whatever method you can, to say something like, “Hope everything is okay with you?” Don’t apologize. Don’t try to find out if you’ve done anything wrong. You probably haven’t. Don’t expect closure from the other person. It hurts, but you have to let it go.
Please share your stories of ghosting or being ghosted, and how you dealt with the aftermath.
Filed Under: Family & Friends
Destiny & Your Life's Meaning
Loss & Grieving
Love or Relationships
Psychic Feature Series
Psychics and Spirituality
13 Signs You May Have Psychic Abilities
How Do You Know if You Have Clairsentience or “Clear…
Psychic Dreams! When a Dream Becomes a Vision
Do You See Shadow Spirits?
What is a Crystal Child? 14 Signs of Crystal Children
Cartomancy: A Comprehensive Guide to a Deck of Cards
Am I a Witch? 25 Signs You Were Born To Be a Witch
Signs of a Rainbow Child
Psychic Love: How Do You Recognize Your Soulmate?
I’m in Love with a Married Woman
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Tietokannat
Tieteelliset julkaisut
Opinnäytetyökilpailu 2018–2019
Mukaan
Vapaaehtoiseksi
Tulokset kategoriasta aihe hakusanalla stressihäiriö. Takaisin
Therapeutic effect of increased openness: Investigating mechanism of action in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. (Wagner MT, Mithoefer MC, Mithoefer AT, MacAulay RK, Jerome L.., 2017)
Julkaisu: Journal of Psychopharmacology
Tiivistelmä: A growing body of research suggests that traumatic events lead to persisting personality change characterized by increased neuroticism. Relevantly, enduring improvements in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been found in response to 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy.
There is evidence that lasting changes in the personality feature of "openness" occur in response to hallucinogens, and that this may potentially act as a therapeutic mechanism of change. The present study investigated whether heightened Openness and decreased Neuroticism served as a mechanism of change within a randomized trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for chronic, treatment-resistant PTSD. The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) Global Scores and NEO PI-R Personality Inventory (NEO) Openness and Neuroticism Scales served as outcome measures.
Results indicated that changes in Openness but not Neuroticism played a moderating role in the relationship between reduced PTSD symptoms and MDMA treatment. Following MDMA-assisted psychotherapy, increased Openness and decreased Neuroticism when comparing baseline personality traits with long-term follow-up traits also were found.
These preliminary findings suggest that the effect of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy extends beyond specific PTSD symptomatology and fundamentally alters personality structure, resulting in long-term persisting personality change. Results are discussed in terms of possible mechanisms of psychotherapeutic change.
Yhdiste: MDMA
Aihe: Yleiset vaikutukset, stressihäiriö
Menetelmät: Kaksoissokkoutettu, lumekontrolloitu, satunnaistettu, haastattelu, seuranta
Otoskoko: 20
Muuta: Tutkimus on jatkoa artikkelille Mithoefer ym. (2011).
DOI: 10.1177/0269881117711712
URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5544120/
Linkki Pysyvä linkki julkaisun sivulle tietokannassamme
Treating posttraumatic stress disorder with MDMA-assisted psychotherapy: A preliminary meta-analysis and comparison to prolonged exposure therapy. (Amoroso T, Workman M, 2016)
Tiivistelmä: Since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has become a major area of research and development. The most widely accepted treatment for PTSD is prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, but for many patients it is intolerable or ineffective. ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy (MDMA-AP) has recently re-emerged as a new treatment option, with two clinical trials having been published and both producing promising results. However, these results have yet to be compared to existing treatments.
The present paper seeks to bridge this gap in the literature. Often the statistical significance of clinical trials is overemphasized, while the magnitude of the treatment effects is overlooked. The current meta-analysis aims to provide a comparison of the cumulative effect size of the MDMA-AP studies with those of PE. Effect sizes were calculated for primary and secondary outcome measures in the MDMA-AP clinical trials and compared to those of a meta-analysis including several PE clinical trials.
It was found that MDMA-AP had larger effect sizes in both clinician-observed outcomes than PE did (Hedges' g=1.17 vs. g=1.08, respectively) and patient self-report outcomes (Hedges' g=0.87 vs. g=0.77, respectively). The dropout rates of PE and MDMA-AP were also compared, revealing that MDMA-AP had a considerably lower percentage of patients dropping out than PE did. These results suggest that MDMA-AP offers a promising treatment for PTSD.
Aihe: Stressihäiriö, haitta-arvio
Menetelmät: Meta-analyysi, kaksoissokkoutettu, satunnaistettu, lumekontrolloitu
Otoskoko: 0
URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0269881116642542
The Psychopharmacology of ±3,4 Methylenedioxymethamphetamine and its Role in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. (Amoroso T, 2015)
Julkaisu: Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
Tiivistelmä: Prior to 1985, ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) was readily used as a psychotherapeutic adjunct. As MDMA became popular in treating various psychiatric illnesses by mental health professionals, the public started to abuse the MDMA-containing recreational drug "ecstasy." This alarmed the DEA, which led to emergency scheduling of MDMA as a Schedule I drug. Due to its scheduling in 1985, human research and clinical use has been limited.
The majority of research on MDMA has been focused on the drug's potential harmful effects rather than its possible therapeutic effects. The limitations on retrospective human studies and preclinical animal models of MDMA neurotoxicity are examined in this analysis. New research has shown that MDMA, used as a catalyst in psychotherapy, is effective in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
This review also examines the psychopharmacological basis for the efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Specifically, the brain regions involved with both PTSD and those activated by MDMA (i.e., amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and hippocampus) are examined. Also, the possible neurochemical mechanisms involved in MDMA's efficacy in treating PTSD are reviewed.
Aihe: Yleiset vaikutukset, farmakologia, stressihäiriö
Menetelmät: Kirjallisuuskatsaus
DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2015.1094156
URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26579955
Durability of improvement in post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and absence of harmful effects or drug dependency after ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted psychotherapy: a prospective long-term follow-up study (Mithoefer MC, Wagner MT, Mithoefer AT, Jerome L, Martin SF, .., 2013)
Tiivistelmä: We report follow-up data evaluating the long-term outcomes for the first completed trial of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy for chronic, treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Mithoefer et al., 2011).
All of the 19 subjects who received MDMA-assisted treatment in the original trial participated in the long-term follow-up (LTFU), with 16 out of 19 completing all of the long-term outcome measures, which were administered from 17 to 74 months after the original study's final MDMA session (mean = 45.4; SD = 17.3). Our primary outcome measure used was the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS). Secondary outcome measures were the Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R) and the Neuroticism Extroversion Oppenness Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) Personality Inventory.
We also collected a long-term follow-up questionnaire. Results for the 16 CAPS completers showed there were no statistical differences between mean CAPS score at LTFU (mean = 23.7; SD = 22.8) (t (matched) = 0.1; df = 15, p = 0.91) and the mean CAPS score previously obtained at Study Exit (mean = 24.6, SD = 18.6).
On average, subjects maintained statistically and clinically-significant gains in symptom relief, although two of these subjects did relapse. It was promising that we found the majority of these subjects with previously severe PTSD who were unresponsive to existing treatments had symptomatic relief provided by MDMA-assisted psychotherapy that persisted over time, with no subjects reporting harm from participation in the study.
Aihe: stressihäiriö
Menetelmät: Seuranta
Muuta: Seurantatutkimus tutkimuksesta Mithoefer ym. (2011)
Tagit: MDMA, PTSD
URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233746130_Durability_of_...
A randomized, controlled pilot study of MDMA (±3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine)- assisted psychotherapy for treatment of resistant, chronic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). (Oehen P, Traber R, Widmer V, Schnyder U, 2013)
Tiivistelmä: Psychiatrists and psychotherapists in the US (1970s to 1985) and Switzerland (1988–1993) used MDMA legally as a prescription drug, to enhance the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Early reports suggest that it is useful in treating trauma-related disorders. Recently, the first completed pilot study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD yielded encouraging results.
Designed to test the safety and efficacy of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in patients with treatment-resistant PTSD; our randomized, double-blind, active-placebo controlled trial enrolled 12 patients for treatment with either low-dose (25 mg, plus 12.5 mg supplemental dose) or full-dose MDMA (125 mg, plus 62.5 mg supplemental dose). MDMA was administered during three experimental sessions, interspersed with weekly non-drug-based psychotherapy sessions. Outcome measures used were the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS). Patients were assessed at baseline, three weeks after the second and third MDMA session (end of treatment), and at the 2-month and 1-year follow-ups.
We found that MDMA-assisted psychotherapy can be safely administered in a clinical setting. No drug-related serious adverse events occurred. We did not see statistically significant reductions in CAPS scores (p = 0.066), although there was clinically and statistically significant self-reported (PDS) improvement (p = 0.014). CAPS scores improved further at the 1-year follow-up. In addition, three MDMA sessions were more effective than two (p = 0.016).
Menetelmät: Kaksoissokkoutettu, lumekontrolloitu, satunnaistettu, seuranta
The safety and efficacy of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine- assisted psychotherapy in subjects with chronic, treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder: the first randomized controlled pilot study (Mithoefer MC, Wagner MT, Mithoefer AT, Jerome L, Doblin R, 2011)
Tiivistelmä: Case reports indicate that psychiatrists administered 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) as a catalyst to psychotherapy before recreational use of MDMA as ‘Ecstasy’ resulted in its criminalization in 1985.
Over two decades later, this study is the first completed clinical trial evaluating MDMA as a therapeutic adjunct. Twenty patients with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder, refractory to both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, were randomly assigned to psychotherapy with concomitant active drug (n = 12) or inactive placebo (n = 8) administered during two 8-h experimental psychotherapy sessions. Both groups received preparatory and follow-up non-drug psychotherapy.
The primary outcome measure was the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, administered at baseline, 4 days after each experimental session, and 2 months after the second session. Neurocognitive testing, blood pressure, and temperature monitoring were performed.
After 2-month follow-up, placebo subjects were offered the option to re-enroll in the experimental procedure with open-label MDMA. Decrease in Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale scores from baseline was significantly greater for the group that received MDMA than for the placebo group at all three time points after baseline.
The rate of clinical response was 10/12 (83%) in the active treatment group versus 2/8 (25%) in the placebo group. There were no drug-related serious adverse events, adverse neurocognitive effects or clinically significant blood pressure increases. MDMA-assisted psychotherapy can be administered to posttraumatic stress disorder patients without evidence of harm, and it may be useful in patients refractory to other treatments.
URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881110378371
MDMA-assisted psychotherapy using low doses in a small sample of women with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder. (Bouso JC, Doblin R, Farré M, Alcázar MA, Gómez-Jarabo G, 2008)
Tiivistelmä: The purpose of this study was to investigate the safety of different doses of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy administered in a psychotherapeutic setting to women with chronic PTSD secondary to a sexual assault, and also to obtain preliminary data regarding efficacy. Although this study was originally planned to include 29 subjects, political pressures led to the closing of the study before it could be finished, at which time only six subjects had been treated. Preliminary results from those six subjects are presented here. We found that low doses of MDMA (between 50 and 75 mg) were both psychologically and physiologically safe for all the subjects. Future studies in larger samples and using larger doses are needed in order to further clarify the safety and efficacy of MDMA in the clinical setting in subjects with PTSD.
Menetelmät: Kaksoissokkoutettu, satunnaistettu, lumekontrolloitum seuranta
DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2008.10400637
Copyright Psykedeelitutkimusyhdistys ry
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Regulis
REG+
EMA and EUnetHTA parallel advice introduced
Posted at 13:18 on July 5th, 2017 in PV, Regulation, Trials
The process for applying for joint scientific advice from EMA and Health Technology Assessment bodies has been simplified by the establishment of European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) and the development of a new IT platform.
There is currently a two-step process for patients to access medicines. Firstly a regulatory agency assesses the benefits against the risks of the medicine and grants a marketing authorisation if the balance is favourable. Then, the Heath Technology Assessment (HTA) bodies in each member state considers the value of the new medicine against treatments already available in accordance with national practices and legislative requirements. This enables them to make a decision regarding reimbursement and the price of the medicines at a national level.
In order to speed up this process, it has been possible for medicines developers to seek parallel scientific advice from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and HTA bodies. However, this required the medicines developer to contact each Member State’s HTA body individually.
A body called European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) was set up to facilitate the transfer of information between HTAs across Europe and various pilot schemes have been in operation to refine procedures
Now to request parallel scientific advice, medicines developers only need to notify EMA and EUnetHTA, who will coordinate the HTAs that the developer wishes to take part in the parallel scientific advice.
In addition, the EMA and EUnetHTA have set up a joint platform which allow them to share information, communicate more easily and streamlines logistics for industry. The aim is that coordinated advice can be provided to medicines developers on their plans, particularly the structure of pivotal phase III studies and post-authorisation safety and efficacy studies. This should help ensure that one set of data is generated by the medicines developer which meets the differing requirements of the regulatory agency and the HTAs.
The first requests for parallel consultations will be processed in September 2017.
To access the guidance document which has been produced jointly by EMA and EUnetHTA about parallel consultation, click here.
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Anthropology Online (Alexander Street Press)
Anthropology Online brings together a wide range of written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. It will grow to become the most comprehensive resource for the study of social and cultural life yet created. Cross-searchable with Ethnographic Video Online, Anthropology Online provides sociologists, anthropologists, cultural historians, and others with complete works of the key practitioners and theorists alike throughout the discipline. The majority of the content is in English, with some French and German material. Geographical coverage is global, with special focus given outside the developed world. Ranging from 19th century to the present day, Anthropology Online documents the history and development of the discipline itself, while also providing the most comprehensive tool for current trends and contemporary study.
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/anto
Aristoteles Latinus Archive (Brepols)
The database contains the text editions of the printed Aristoteles Latinus series and is continuously enriched by additional editions. This electronic edition is particularly valuable, partly because it is an integrated database containing all medieval translations of Aristotle's work. The subscription covers full text access to all content added until January 2015.
http://www.brepolis.net/
Art Libraries Network kubikat
MPG Library Catalog
Kubikat is the collective catalog of four of the leading German scholarly research institutes in the field of art history * Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence (Max-Planck-Institut) * Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich - funded by the Bavarian Ministry of Sciences, Research and the Arts * Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte (Centre allemand d'histoire de l'art) in Paris - funded by the Foundation of German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA) * Bibliotheca Hertziana (Max Planck-Institut für Kunstgeschichte) in Rome The catalog project began in 1993 as a joint initiative of the institutes in Munich, Rome and Florence, supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
http://www.kubikat.org/
Bibliography of Asian Studies, BAS (EBSCO)
The online version of the Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) references principally western-language articles and book chapters on all parts of Asia. It covers various subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&custid=ns022704&profile=e...
Catholic Reformation (Alexander Street Press)
The Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation makes the documentary riches of this era accessible, adding functionalities that maximize the flexibility with which researchers can search, view, organize, and manipulate this historically important source material. With new content uploads occurring on a regular basis, the database offers a constantly growing treasury of documents, including papal and synodal decrees, catechisms and inquisitorial manuals, biblical commentaries, theological treatises and systems, liturgical writings, saints' lives, and devotional works.
https://dlcr.alexanderstreet.com
Classic Protestant Texts (Alexander Street Press)
The Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts gives researchers access to an extensive range of seminal works from the Reformation and post-Reformation eras. With new content uploads occurring on a regular basis, the database offers a constantly growing treasury of theological writings, biblical commentaries, confessional documents, and polemical treatises written by more than 300 Protestant authors.
https://tcpt.alexanderstreet.com
FRANCIS (EBSCO)
FRANCIS indexes multilingual information and provides in-depth coverage of humanities and social sciences.
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=ip,uid&profile=ehost&defaultdb=f...
Language: French Subject: Religion
1 Anthropology 2 Archaeology 2 Arts 3 Economics 1 Education 1 Environmental Studies more ... 5 History 3 Linguistics 3 Literature 4 Philosophy 1 Political Science 2 Psychology Religion 2 Sociology less ...
2 Book Collection 2 Fulltext Database 1 MPG Library Catalog 2 Reference Database
3 DFG Nationallizenz 1 DFG-funded Allianz-Lizenz 1 Max Planck Society
7 English French 4 German 3 Latin 1 Italian 1 Spanish
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Original story and reporting by Samantha Chatman for ABC 7 Chicago on November 24th. Link to original story and video segment may be found HERE.
Sunday, November 24, 2019 10:59PM
CHICAGO (WLS) — A new Illinois law is supposed to protect both adults and children with sesame allergies, but some argue that law is giving families a false sense of security.
Sesame allergies are becoming increasingly common and serious.
Earlier this year, Illinois passed a law requiring all food manufacturers to declare foods that contain sesame on their labels. But the ABC7 I-Team has learned that certain companies may not be following that law, raising concerns for those with sesame allergies.
Alexandra Bradley, 14, faces a number of food restrictions. The Ravenswood teen is allergic to dairy, fish, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame, experiencing a number of reactions over the years.
Alexandra’s mother learned her daughter had severe food allergies when she was just 4 months old.
“So we started realizing when we were grocery shopping it was a whole new ballgame,” Amanda Bradley said.
She said sesame has been by far the most difficult allergen to manage.
A recent study found that more than 1.5 million Americans have a sesame allergy.
Sesame falls just under the top eight allergens in the U.S., but despite its rapid growth, food manufacturers weren’t required to label sesame on their products.
“The products will say ‘may contain milk,’ ‘may contain peanuts,’ but it does not say ‘may contain sesame,'” said Amanda Bradley.
The Bradleys said it’s been an uphill battle, forcing them to avoid many foods out of fear they may contain sesame.
“But then I suddenly found out that Illinois had just passed this law, so I’m like, ‘Great!'” she said.
Earlier this year, the Illinois Legislature unanimously passed a bill that would require all food manufacturers shipping products to Illinois to label all packaged food that contains sesame. But months after the bill passed, the Bradleys said they haven’t noticed a change in labeling.
In fact, they said certain items they know contain sesame still don’t have any warning labels about the allergen, which means some food companies may not be following state law.
“Now that this law has passed, I’m afraid people will just assume that this law is being followed,” Amanda Bradley said. “We need to know that we can go in the grocery store and trust those products.”
Illinois State Rep. Jonathan Carroll co-sponsored the sesame labeling bill.
His daughter, who’s also allergic to sesame, inspired him to take action.
He admits enforcement of the law won’t be an overnight task, but said the Food and Drug Administration hasn’t made it any easier.
“I’ll be frank, I think the FDA has dropped the ball on this one,” Carroll said.
The FDA told the ABC7 I-Team that they have the authority to require labeling of allergens, such as sesame.
“When it comes to labeling sesame as an allergen, enforcement discretion would fall to FDA for listing allergens on food product labels,” an FDA spokesperson said.
While the FDA acknowledges the growing concern among Americans when it comes to sesame allergies, labeling sesame on foods is still not a federal requirement.
It’s why Carroll said his law is so important.
“We can’t have another food allergy attack. We can’t have someone else get sick while the FDA is having hearings and looking for public comment,” he said. “This is a safety crisis. We have people that, if they ingest the wrong foods, will die.”
Carroll said he’s fully prepared to work with the Illinois Attorney General’s Office to see that food companies are following Illinois law, regardless of the FDA’s stance.
“It’s really important to keep kids safe so no one gets hurt,” Alexandra Bradley said.
The FDA is currently reviewing public comment to better understand sesame allergies and the people who struggle with it.
But Rep. Carroll said that’s not enough. He hopes Illinois’ sesame law will help move the needle with the FDA to ensure adults and children across the country are safe.
ABC 7, Allergies, Food & Drink, Food Allergies, Food and Drug Administration, Food Safety, Illinois, Samantha Chatman, Sesame, Sesame Allergies, State Rep. Jonathan Carroll
Illinois becomes first state to require insurers to cover EpiPens for kids, but questions remain about costs
New Study Finds Prevalence of Sesame Allergy, as Illinois Becomes First State to Mandate Sesame Labeling on Packaged Foods
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タンデム検出器によるγ線の飛来方向とエネルギーの同時計測に関する基礎的検討 利用統計を見る
白川 芳幸
A tandem detector, which positively raises directional dependence for coming gamma-rays, has been produced experimentally to measure directions and energies of coming gamma-rays simultaneously. In the tandem detector, a cylindrical NaI(Tl) , the same sized BGO scintillator and a fitted photomultiplier tube are combined optically at this order. Since the lengths of crossing each scintillator are changed according to coming directions of gamma-rays, the directions can be recognized by counting photopeaks on a spectrum made by the NaI(Tl) and the BGO scintillator and by obtaining the ratio of photopeak counts.
Using the tandem detector, the following experiments were carried out for purposes of 1) Confirmation of the measurement principle and 2) Verification of the performance. A 137Cs source of 3.7MBq was put 20cm in front of the detector. Coming gamma-rays were counted for 60 seconds and the counting ratio was calculated from the spectrum. The source was moved in each 10 degrees for the side of the detector until it becomes 90 degrees. Then the similar experiments were repeated. Next, the experiments were kept taking the distances between the source and the detector as 30cm, 100cm and 200cm. From the results of the experiments, it was proven that the counting ratio changed approximately from 1.6 to 2.9 when the direction changes from 0 to 90 degrees. This means that the coming direction can be decided when the counting ratio is known. At the same time, it was confirmed that the energy characteristics of the tandem detector were the same as those of an NaI(Tl) and a BGO detector.
As a result, it has been shown that the tandem detector has a possibility of measuring the coming direction and the energy of gamma-rays simultaneously.
Radioisotopes
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Al Hayat TV online - Tv ao vivo
Al Hayat TV
Categoria: Religião
Al Hayat TV 2.6 de 5
Alhayat TV, also known as Life TV (قناة الحياة), is an Arabic-language television channel that airs in countries in North Africa, West Asia, the Middle East, America, Canada, Australia and some of Europe.[1] Broadcasting started in September 2003, largely from Egypt. Alhayat is evangelical in its aims, and in its Mission Statement explains that "Jesus Christ came to earth to destroy the works of the devil and his blood shed on the cross to redeem humanity and restore the broken relationship with God to come back."[1] Programs can be viewed live from its website.
Sada ELbalad - دراما
Egipto - TV pública
قناة صدى البلد قناة مصرية ؛ انطلقت عام 2011 فى بثها التجريبى ، من مدينة الانتاج الاعلامي في مصر ، القناة تتابع آخر الأخبار والتطورات على الساحة
Egipto - Religião
Alhayat TV, also known as Life TV (قناة الحياة), is an Arabic-language television channel that airs in countries in North Africa, West Asia, the
Aghapy TV, the very first Coptic Orthodox Christian satellite channel, aims to serve Christians worldwide through the broadcast of spiritual, social
4 Shabab TV
قناة فضائية تبث على نايل سات 11316 عامودي
Egipto - Notícias
بي بي سي العربية هي شبكة لنقل الاخبار والمعلومات الى العالم العربي عبر عدة وسائط، تشمل الانترنت والراديو والتلفزيون والهواتف المحمولة. وتعد بي بي سي
ABN SAT 3
ABN is a non-denominational ministry committed to presenting the WORD of God and its transforming message of Jesus Christ to the world through media.
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Home » About Us » Awards and Recognition
2016-2020 Programs of Research and Scholarly Excellence (PRSE) designee
Support and funding provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Colorado State University. Programs are awarded this designation because they have achieved great distinction and set a standard for excellence in research, teaching and service that may serve as a model for programs throughout the institution and externally. PRSE designation provides enhanced visibility and enables advocacy in the context of the larger research and training missions of CSU. The PLHC is using the designation to further develop its revival of the American West Program.
2016 Pre-Catalyst for Innovative Partnerships program recipient
Seed funding and support offered by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Colorado State University, for new, early-stage research partnerships to explore transformative, interdisciplinary ideas. The PLHC is using the seed and support to develop its revival of the American West Program.
2012 CESU Network National Award
Awarded in recognition of the PLHC’s outstanding contributions to the CESU (Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units) Network.
2012 Rocky Mountain-CESU Student Award
PLHC researcher Nichelle Frank received this regional award for her contribution to the PLHC oral history project conducted via a CESU agreement with Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
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Tag Archives: Excerpt
Book Tour and Excerpt ~ Icing on the Cake by @AnnMarie_Walker @SMPRomance
Posted in Ann Marie Walker, Book Promo, Excerpt, Reading & Writing Between The Wines Blog, Romantic Comedy, Roxanne Vargas, Rush Too Far, S.L. Scott, Uncategorized by Susi
by Ann Marie Walker
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks
Notting Hill meets The Prince & Me in Icing on the Cake, the second standalone laugh-out-loud romance in Ann Marie Walker’s Wild Wedding series
Cassandra Miller doesn’t have time for men. She’s far too busy trying to open a cupcake shop with her silent partner and best friend, not to mention catering her brother’s wedding. And let’s face it, it’s not like Prince Charming is going to stroll into the bakery and sweep her off her feet.
Henry has been a prince his entire life but for one wild wedding he wants to be nothing more than an “Average Joe”, or in this instance, “Average Hank”. However, when a case of mistaken identity and a batch of burned cupcakes ends in a night of passion, Cassie and Hank must decide if theirs is a recipe for disaster or the makings of true romance.
He lifted his head and when his gaze met hers, he smiled. Shy and sexy all at once, Cassie knew without question it was the sort of smile that meant nothing but trouble. The kind that got him whatever he wanted. The kind that was absolutely irresistible.
And as if that wasn’t enough, he had the whole sexy accent thing going for him.
The stranger leaned closer, close enough for her to smell the faint scent of his soap. It was clean and yet a little spicy and made her want to lick his neck. Because yeah, that was something a perfectly sane woman would do.
The energy between them crackled with anticipation. Then again, maybe it was all in her head. Maybe she’d finally read one too many romance novels and her brain was permanently rewired to think every handsome stranger had the potential to be Mr. Right. Or at the very least, Mr. Right Now.
A beat of silence ticked between them offering her the perfect opportunity to play it safe, to explain what she actually meant and end the whole matter with an awkward laugh. But this handsome stranger had awakened something deep inside her and for once in her life Cassandra Miller didn’t feel like playing it safe. Instead she felt wild and reckless, and the last thing she wanted was to end the moment in any way at all. In fact, she wanted to prolong it, to suspend it in time like something from The Matrix. Then maybe she could even step back and watch from all angles because holy hell, this gorgeous stranger was going to kiss her. Right there. In the shop. With her hair up in a messy bun and flour and dough all over her hands. And what’s more, she was going to let him. So instead of playing it safe, Cassie lifted her chin just as he dipped his head and then . . . .
About Ann Marie Walker
Ann Marie Walker writes steamy books about sexy boys. She’s a fan of fancy cocktails, anything chocolate, and 80s rom-coms. Her super power is connecting any situation to an episode of Friends and she thinks all coffee cups should be the size of a bowl. If it’s December she can be found watching Love Actually but the rest of the year you can find her at AnnMarieWalker.com where she would be happy to talk to you about alpha males, lemon drop martinis or supermodel David Gandy. Ann Marie attended the University of Notre Dame and currently lives in Chicago.
Enter to win a Royal Romance Pack + $25 Amazon Gift Card!
Ann Marie wal, Book Tour, Excerpt, Reading and Writing Between the Wines Blog 1 Comment
#BookBlitz Excerpt & Giveaway ~ Icing on the Cake by @AnnMarie_Walker
Posted in Ann Marie Walker, Anticipated Books, Book Blitz, Book Promo, Buy Links, Excerpt, Giveaway, Reading and Writing Between the Wines Blog, Romantic Comedy, Series, Sexy Book Boyfriends by Susi
One of my favorite authors has just released another book! I’m excited to share this excerpt for Icing on the Cake by Ann Marie Walker with you today. Stay tuned for my full review later this week.
His fingers rested on her hips, barely touching her, and yet she felt as though she were melting into his hands. Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. She wanted to feel the weight of him against her, to know he was as affected by her as she was him. He pressed against her and she felt the shape of him, hard against her softness, and she couldn’t help but wonder how long he’d been that way, if this perfect man had wanted her this whole time as badly as she’d wanted him.
When he broke their kiss, she was more than ready for whatever came next.
“Come up to my room,” Hank breathed. His lips moved over her jaw and down her throat, leaving a trail of feather light kisses that left her aching for more. “I have a lovely four-poster bed that’s far too big for one.”
His room, his bed. Sex in his bed. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t want one wild night with this handsome stranger, but sex in a bed was so . . . so . . . normal. She’d done normal. And although normal sex was better than no sex, something told her that the man in front of her was offering good sex, and that was something that was long overdue.
Cassie blinked hard. She took a moment to gather her composure, but like her resistance it was currently scattered all over the bakery floor. Hmm, the floor would work just fine.
When she didn’t answer he pulled back, slipping a finger under her chin and lifting her eyes to his once again. “Shall I take that as a yes?”
“Why can’t we just stay here?” Her voice sounded as shaky as the rest of her. But it wasn’t from intimidation or nerves. On the contrary, for the first time in her life Cassie felt strong and fearless and brave. Still, something about this man made her tremble in the most delicious way.
His eyes glowed with a mixture of amusement and lust. “Believe me, luv, I’d like nothing better than to take you right here, against this door.”
Her heart hammered inside her chest. Did he really just say that? And in an accent that was nearly enough to finish her off? Who was this man who had come into her life as if a direct answer to Olivia’s outrageous suggestion? The images her friend had conjured two days prior flooded her senses. Oh yes, that was exactly what she wanted. Right then and there.
Lucky for her, Hank was a bit more aware of their surroundings. “But those windows don’t have any curtains,” he said, nodding over his shoulder. “And I would hate for some random pub-goer to get an eyeful of your beautiful curves as he stumbled home.”
Sex god and a gentleman? This guy was too good to be true.
“Ask me again,” she said.
A momentary frown drifted across his face until realization took hold. He leaned closer and whispered roughly against her ear. “Let’s go up to my room, so I can make you come all night.”
Holy hell, that he didn’t have to offer twice.
Ann Marie Walker, Excerpt, Giveaway, Icing on the Cake, Reading and Writing Between the Wines Blog, Series Leave a comment
#Release Blitz & Excerpt Combust by @KBrombergDriven
Posted in Buy Links, Excerpt, K. Bromberg, New Release, Reading & Writing Between The Wines Blog, standalone by Susi
Here’s another book to add to my never ending TBR read. I loved the Driven Series and am looking forward to reading this book ASAP. Check it out!
Combust, an all new sexy and emotional standalone by K. Bromberg is Available NOW!
From New York Times Bestselling author, K. Bromberg, comes the second standalone book in the Everyday Heroes series. Just how hot will firefighter Grady Malone turn up the heat?
Songwriter Dylan McCoy has been burned.
By her boyfriend she found in her bed . . . with someone else.
By the contract she signed that obligates her to work with him until the songs for his new album are complete.
By her agent when she asked Dylan to keep their breakup on the down-low.
When she finds herself in Sunnyville, she refuses to let her new roommate burn her too. Still . . . a rebound has never looked so good.
That’s her first thought when she sees firefighter Grady Malone.
Sexy. Charismatic. Unapologetic. He’s a man who carries his own scars—the ones on his back, the survivor’s guilt on his soul, and the fear in his heart.
When an unexpected visitor puts their roommate status to the test, will their undeniable attraction burn out, or will they both take a chance and play with fire?
Purchase your copy today!
Amazon US – http://amzn.to/2DUI1Hc
Amazon UK – http://amzn.to/2FlPDQk
Amazon CA – http://amzn.to/2BzsBTE
iBooks – https://apple.co/2CBOtm5
Barnes and Noble – http://bit.ly/2CPGb7K
Kobo – http://bit.ly/2CzIyhT
Amazon Paperback – http://amzn.to/2lRSKY2
Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2kQ9z8P
Preoccupied with a text on my phone from my agent, I walk into the kitchen and suck in a breath when I come face to back with Grady. He’s standing with his hand on the refrigerator door, head leaned inside, and his back fully exposed to me. It’s broad and strong and scarred immeasurably.
I stare.
I can’t help it. The marks are a dizzying array of dark and light and ridged and smooth. And they’re undeniably burns. Goosebumps chase over my skin as I imagine the pain he must have endured when he got those. I think of his habit of wearing unbuttoned shirts but never going shirtless and the hint of scars just visible above his collar that I never could have imagined led to this roadmap to hell on his back.
A part of me instinctively wants to reach out to touch them, bring some kind of comfort. It sounds ridiculous, even to me, but that doesn’t abate the urge.
“Not pretty, huh? Get a good look while you can.” His voice is gruff as his spine stiffens and body stills, emotion woven through the words.
“Thank God not all of you is pretty. I was beginning to feel majorly insecure having to live with perfection like you,” I say off the cuff, trying to make this situation less awkward. My attempt to settle the sudden tension sparking in the air around us.
“Perfection?” he asks as he turns to face me with a smile that masks the emotion swirling in his eyes.
“Yeah. You have scars. I have mermaid thighs.”
“Mermaid thighs?” He laughs. “What in the world are you talking about?”
“Thighs that touch from the top all the way to my knees.” I shrug as if it doesn’t bug me, as if I’m not highlighting one of the insults Tara threw at me. It’s a whole lot easier to make fun of myself so long as it puts him at ease.
“Do you ever give yourself a break?”
“Do you?” I ask the question, sparking a silent battle of wills as we stare at each other and wonder what to say next about the other’s insecurities. Coming up empty, I shift gears. “I think there is some type of rule about how many abs are fair for a guy to have when the rest of us are just struggling to find one of them.”
His smile rings more genuine as he steps toward me, and I step back, my hips leaning against the counter now.
“Is that so?” His voice lowers as his eyes flick to my lips and then back up. “I’m sure you have some under your shirt there.”
Why does the simple action make it seem so hard to swallow?
He takes another step.
“What are you building outside?”
“A playroom.”
A nervous chuckle falls from my lips as I think of all of the versions of playrooms I’ve read about in my romance books. My cheeks stain red as I imagine Grady with a flogger in one hand standing beside a St. Andrew’s Cross.
“A playroom?”
“Yeah.” He takes a step closer so we’re breathing the same air, his voice husky enough to cause every part of my body to grow alert. “A playroom. You know . . . a pool table. Foosball. A real man cave.”
I exhale a shaky sigh, suddenly more than aware that he’s so close, shirtless, sweaty, and smelling like sun and soap mixed together. But it’s his eyes that make my thoughts falter. There’s an intensity to them I don’t expect from the perpetually cheerful Grady Malone.
“Ah, that kind of playroom . . .” But my words trail off as he steps even closer and braces his hands on the counter on either side of me. I can hear his intake of breath. The music floating in from outside. The pound of my pulse in my ears.
“Hey, Dyl?”
“Yes?” Our eyes hold, my lips fall lax.
“I need you to open up.”
“What?” I question as his hand brushes against my hip and his fingers pull on the drawer handle I’m standing in front of.
“I need the bottle opener. You’re standing in front of the drawer it’s in.” His lips spread into a full-fledged grin as I scramble away from the counter and, of course, run smack dab into the hardness, all six foot plus of him.
And then I rebound off him again in a flustered state that has him laughing and me stuttering. “Sorry. I wasn’t—I didn’t . . .” His arms hold on to my biceps to steady me, which prompts me to look up and meet his eyes.
“We need to stop meeting like this,” he murmurs, the heat of his breath hitting my lips.
“We do.” Brilliant, Dylan. Freaking brilliant response. “I’ve gotta . . . I’ve gotta get back to . . . to writing.”
About K. Bromberg
New York Times Bestselling author K. Bromberg writes contemporary novels that contain a mixture of sweet, emotional, a whole lot of sexy, and a little bit of real. She likes to write strong heroines, and damaged heroes who we love to hate and hate to love.
A mom of three, she plots her novels in between school runs and soccer practices, more often than not with her laptop in tow.
Since publishing her first book in 2013, Kristy has sold over one million copies of her books across sixteen different countries and has landed on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists over twenty-five times. Her Driven trilogy (Driven, Fueled, and Crashed) is currently being adapted for film by Passionflix with the first movie slated to release in the summer of 2018.
She is currently working on her Everyday Heroes trilogy. This series consists of three complete standalone novels—Cuffed, Combust, and Cockpit (late spring 2018)—and is about three brothers who are emergency responders, the jobs that call to them, and the women who challenge them.
She loves to hear from her readers so make sure you check her out on social media or sign up for her newsletter to stay up to date on all her latest releases and sales: http://bit.ly/254MWtI
Connect with K. Bromberg
Website: http://www.kbromberg.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorKBromberg
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KBrombergDriven
Instagram: https://instagram.com/kbromberg13/
Amazon Author page: http://amzn.to/204Qnfz
GoodReads: http://bit.ly/1koZIkL
Join her Reader Group: http://bit.ly/1PMUoG3
Sign up for her Newsletter: http://bit.ly/254MWtI
Combust, Excerpt, K. Bromberg, Reading and Writing Between the Wines Blog, Release Blitz, Standalone Leave a comment
Virtual Blog Tour – Dog Tags for Christmas by @lindsaymckenna @authorjmmadden @KaLynCooperbook @TastyBookTours
Posted in 18 and over, Book Promo, books, Contemporary Adult Romance, Excerpt, Giveaway, Reading & Writing Between The Wines Blog by Susi
Three heartwarming military homecoming stories.
DOG TAGS FOR CHRISTMAS
Holiday Anthology
Lindsay McKenna, J.M. Madden
& KaLyn Cooper
Released Oct 6th, 2016
Men and women in the armed forces are often away from
home, family and their beloved pets for the holidays. But this year, three
service members will be home for Christmas in heartwarming military homecoming
stories by New York Times Bestselling Authors Lindsay McKenna, KaLyn Cooper and
J.M. Madden.
Gift by Lindsay McKenna
Two veterans—one human, one canine—have returned to
Montana to recover from the traumas of war. Former Army Ranger Nick Conway
depended on his WMD dog Snowflake to help him navigate IEDs on the battlefield.
Now he needs his best friend to help him cope with his PTSD and acclimate to
civilian life. When he meets Holly McGuire and agrees to help her deliver meals
to the elderly, her inner light calls to him, but his demons hold him back from
giving in to his attraction. But Snowflake takes an immediate shine to the
kindhearted Holly—and he has never led Nick down the wrong path.
Christmas Dream by J.M. Madden
When Veterinarian Willow James’ office is broken into, it’s natural that she
turn to her soul mate, former Navy SEAL K9 handler Joe Flynn, to track down the
culprits. The trail leads to a notorious Pit-Bull fighting ring. It may take a
Christmas miracle and a helpful nudge from an old partner to get everyone home
safely.
Noel’s Puppy Power by KaLyn Cooper
Tanner Hill is better at communicating with animals than women. That might be
why he hasn’t had a second date in over two years. He’s also been extremely
busy with his kennel that has become the premier training facility,
specializing in supplying dogs to veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder. Then again, there is this psychologist he can’t get out of his head,
or his heart.
Dr. Bailey Conrad would never allow the loss of half her right leg to an IED in
Iraq to stop her. Every day at the VA hospital, she sees patients who have lost
so much more to the war effort. It’s her goal in life to help as many vets as
possible to find a ‘new normal’, because she knows firsthand, it’s the internal
scars that can be the most difficult to heal.
Amazon | B
& N | iTunes | Kobo
Lindsay McKenna lives her life as a risk taker, and it shines through the books she loves to write:
romance, adventure and suspense. She started writing at age thirteen and
continues to hone her writing skills to this day. She sold her first romance
novel in 1981. The rest is history. Because she went into the military, this experience became the backbone of her writing—she is credited with writing the first military romance novel (Captive
of Fate, 1983, Silhouette Special Edition) and has created a thriving sub-genre
within the romance field! As a New York Times Best Selling author, she has sold
23 million books and in 32 foreign languages in her career thus far. Her many
experiences in the U.S. Navy are backdrop for her understanding of the military
in general, and also her very successful Morgan’s Mercenaries, which is an
ongoing series in Silhouette to this day! Forty-five books strong!
Lindsay has gone Indie in 2015 and has created a new family saga on par with
Morgan’s Mercenaries It is known as the DELOS SERIES. There will be paperback
and eBooks created under Blue Turtle Publishing, her company for her fans.
Readers who love Morgan and his family are bound to fall in love with the
Culver family. Delos is romantic suspense, which Lindsay is well known for. It
took her five years to create and bring DELOS to her readers. It was worth the
wait, but we’ll let you decide that.
Lindsay loves to hear from her readers and loves to know what they’d like to
see her write next. Stay up with the latest on the Delos Series here.
Please visit her Web site at www.lindsaymckenna.com. And be sure to sign up for her free quarterly
newsletter. It contains exclusive content found nowhere else on the Net. Plus,
giveaways and other surprises, to her loyal and faithful subscribers!
Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads
NY Times and USA Today Bestselling author J.M. Madden writes compelling romances between ‘combat modified’ military men and the women who love them. J.M. (the J stands for
Jennifer, not Jim as she’s been asked MANY times!) loves any and all good love
stories, most particularly her own. She has two beautiful children and a husband
who always keeps her on her toes.
J.M. was a Deputy Sheriff in Ohio for nine years, until hubby moved the clan to
Kentucky. When not chasing the family around, she’s at the computer, reading
and writing, perfecting her craft. She occasionally takes breaks to feed her
animal horde and is trying to control her office-supply addiction, but both
tasks are uphill battles. Happily, she is writing full-time and always has
several projects in the works. She also dearly loves to hear from readers!
KaLyn Cooper’s romances blend fact and fiction with blazing heat and heart-pounding suspense.
Twenty-two years as a military wife has shown KaLyn the world, and thirty years in PR taught her that fact can be stranger than fiction. She leaves it up to the reader to separate truth from imagination.
She, her husband, and bird dog live in Eastern Tennessee on a micro-plantation
filled with gardens, cattle, and quail. When she’s not writing, she’s at the
shooting range or paddling on the river.
Excerpt from Snowflakes Gift by Lindsay McKenna
Snow was coming down hard in town as Nick drove the van toward the shut-in area at four p.m. The smell of spaghetti and buttered, garlic toast filled the vehicle. Myra had made sweet potato cupcakes for dessert, and he stole one before they left the charity facility. It was nearly Thanksgiving and he was looking forward to taking Holly to his folks place for the afternoon and evening. The wipers were rhythmically swinging back and forth, throwing off the heavy, wet flakes. The roads were salted, but still Nick was wary of invisible black ice. In the late afternoon the heat of the day was gone and things got slick real fast.
“Oh dear,” Holly called, sitting up, pointing out her passenger-side window. “Look, Nick!”
Snowflake, who stood between them, heard the pitch of her voice change, and whined.
Nick slowed and pulled over to the curb, then looked to where she was pointing. There was a yellow Labrador moving awkwardly through the belly deep snow between two brick buildings. Her ribs were prominent even though she had a short, thick winter coat on. “She’s starving,” he muttered, scowling. “It looks like a female Lab. She’s too dainty looking to be a male.”
“She’s terribly thin,” Holly said, worried. “I wonder if someone dumped her—they do that all the time around here. I hate it.”
“No collar on her, either,” Nick agreed. The Lab was about a hundred-feet down the alley between the two buildings, slugging it out with the snow. Nick heard Holly make a little sound of urgency. She had such a big heart, and she hated to see animals or humans suffer.
Nick knew she wanted to get out and try to call the dog over to her. From the looks of the animal, her light-brown eyes wild looking, tongue lolling out of her mouth, her fur matted, he intuitively knew this was a dog that had been left behind a long time ago to fend for herself.
“She’s feral,” he warned Holly. She turned, her huge, blue eyes filled with tears. “She won’t let us near her. I’m sorry.” And he was. It wouldn’t be the first dog dumped here that Nick had found, or that Holly had come upon around the building of one of her shut-ins. They had a no-kill shelter here, and this Lab would have had a warm place to stay, food, and care if they could befriend her.
“Can’t we do something for her, Nick?”
Dog tags for Christmas, Excerpt, Giveaway, J.M.Madden, Kalyn Cooper, Lindsay McKenna, set 2 Comments
#BlogTour #NewRelease #Excerpt #Giveaway – You Before Anyone Else by @Juliecross1980 @MarkTPerini @TastyBookTours
Posted in Anticipated Books, Book Promo, Excerpt, Giveaway, Julie Cross, Mark Perini, Promo, Reading & Writing Between The Wines Blog by Susi
Be a #ModelCitizen and Enter to Win!
YOU BEFORE ANYONE ELSE
Julie Cross & Mark Perini
Releasing August 2nd, 2016
Sourcebooks Fire
Bestselling author Julie Cross teams up with international model Mark Perini to create You Before Anyone Else, a poignant and authentic contemporary YA novel and companion to Halfway Perfect.
The supportive friend, the reliable daughter, the doting big sister: Finley is used to being the glue that holds everyone
together. But while her sweet demeanor makes her the perfect confidant, her wholesome look isn’t landing her the high-paying modeling jobs, which are what Finley needs if she is going to reopen her mother’s dance studio.
Enter Eddie. He’s intense and driven, not to mention the life of every party, and he completely charms Finley. The last thing she
wants is another commitment to stand in the way of her dreams, but when she’s with Eddie, their chemistry takes over and she can let go of her
responsibilities and just be. After all, what’s so wrong about putting herself first once in a while?
Except Eddie is hiding a secret. A big secret. And when it surfaces, he and Finley are going to have to choose between their love
for each other and everything else…
Amazon | B& N | Google | iTunes
Julie Cross and Mark Perini, along with Tasty Book Tours, are celebrating those who have taken the steps in Breaking the Mold on society’sexpectations, like Finley, the heroine from YOU BEFORE ANYONE ELSE! We are looking for anyone who would like to share their story and be entered to win a 2017 Erin Condren Life Planner!
Head over to fb.me/TastyBookTours and leave a comment with your story. Feel free to share picture of your journey and use #breakingthemold at the end of your comment!
Entries must be in by 11:59pm, Aug 15th, 2016. No purchase necessary to enter. If under 12 years old, you must have approval by a guardian to enter.
“What are you so afraid of?” Summer asks.
I take a sip of the beer Dima brought me a few minutes ago. “Oh, I don’t know, addiction, overdose, puking on some innocent victim’s shoes, random drug testing by the agency…”
Summer laughs. “Drug testing on models? Yeah, that’ll be the day.”
Okay, so maybe I just don’t want to do it. Even if I should be in my so-called experimental phase.
I wouldn’t exactly label myself a rule follower, but I guess I’m just cautious. I haven’t always been this way. Not that I’ve done drugs, but before high school, I was all about ballet. Let’s just say I had a rep for being the sassy troublemaker. My mom being my ballet teacher may have had something to do with my behavior. My fingers immediately move to the cross dangling from my neck—I’ve only removed it a couple times over the last four years. Somehow, it’s always warmer than my hands.
I debate texting my dad to ask him if he’s done coke or molly. He’d probably tell me. But I wouldn’t want to freak him out. Seems like a conversation better reserved for a weekend visit instead of late on a Friday night when I could be too far gone to help, for all he knows.
I glance around the room and finally spot someone I know: my friend Alex and his girlfriend Eve. Alex and I did a big Calvin Klein shoot last year, and Eve was the photographer’s assistant. Actually, Eve used to be a model too, another preteen/teen phenom like Elana, who headlined that CK shoot along with Alex. My part had been fairly small, and still, that was my biggest job ever.
“Have you met Alex?”
Summer shrugs, grabs two more shots of vodka, and hands me one. “Like I would remember.”
I down the shot quickly and prepare to talk to Alex and Eve. Maybe they’ve done drugs and can advise me. But my buzzing phone distracts me. I pull it out of my purse and glance at the new text.
JASON: Yeah, it’s so weird to be home again. But I missed it.
My stomach flip-flops. He replied to my text. Hours later, but still…this could mean—
“Oh lord, you’re pathetic.” Summer is leaned toward me, reading over my shoulder. “That’s probably enough for you to live off of for another six months or so, right?”
I glare at her and shove the phone back into my purse.
“No comeback? Wonder why…” She pretends to be in deep thought. “He said he missed it. Not you. Cut the fucking cord already. It’s not healthy.”
If only it were that easy. When you’re in a relationship with someone for four years, you get so comfortable with that person. It’s daunting to start all over again.
I make my way across the room to see Alex and Eve, who are leaning against the back of the couch, more absorbed in each other than anything else.
“I heard Elana’s back from France?” Alex asks me, keeping his voice low.
“Yep, her and her mom. I think her mom is driving her crazy, but that’s to be expected. French Mama is driving me crazy too.”
They both laugh at the mention of French Mama, but I can’t take credit for that title. Summer made it up.
“I can’t believe her parents let her come back to New York,” Eve says.
Alex smiles at her. “You’re just upset that they’re here and not in France where we can hit them up for lodging.”
My gaze travels back and forth between the two of them. “You guys are going to France? Are you going for Fashion Week?”
Eve shakes her head. “Nope. I did the Prada shoot, and I’m done for good. Got tuition for next year covered.”
Even though Eve had supposedly quit modeling a few years ago, she pulled a one-last-job stunt last spring to cover her tuition at Columbia. She’s a photography student with a lot of experience under her belt.
“We’re doing the cheap travel, backpacking in Europe but without actual backpacks thing,” Alex explains.
Across the room, another beer pong player is being requested. This could possibly be the most adventurous thing I’m willing to do here. I turn to Alex and Eve again. “Well, good luck in Europe. I’m gonna go play beer pong.”
“Hey.” I grab Dima’s shirt sleeve. “You need another player?”
He looks me over, deliberating. “Sure. Be the new guy’s partner.”
“The new guy?” I glance around. What does that even mean? New to the party, like he just walked in? I’ve been here fifteen minutes.
“He’s new to the agency,” Dima says. “First casting, and he books some big job.”
“So we hate him then, right?” I joke. I turn around to head toward the game table and run right into a guy about my age with wild, dark curly hair and designer jeans.
“This guy,” Dima says to me and then turns to the new guy. “Got you a partner. Finley. She lives in the agency apartment downstairs.”
They exchange a look that says I’ve been mentioned before. I’m not liking that too much, but usually, I don’t come to these parties. Instead, I bang on the door at two in the morning to tell them to
stop thumping around like elephants. Maybe I got a bad rep.
While we wait for Dima to find a partner, I snatch two beers from a nearby cooler and offer one up to New Guy. “So, Dima said you’re new, but he didn’t say where you’re from.”
“Uh…the Midwest.”
“The Midwest.” Okay. Someone doesn’t want to get personal. “Like Wisconsin or like Chicago?”
“Chicago…well, not in Chicago, but around it, you know?” he says.
“Right.” I pop open my can and take a drink. “What’s your name? I’m sorry, I don’t think Dima said…”
“Eddie.” He lifts his gaze again. “Eddie Wells. And you’re Finley Belton, the girl who lives downstairs.”
Summer breezes past me but stops when she spots me holding the beer pong ball. “Beer pong? Oh, you wild animal…grrrr.” She holds up her tiger paws and growls at me.
I give her the finger and then turn back to Eddie. “I’m one of the girls who live downstairs.”
“One is too bitchy, one is too underage, and one is nice,” he recites, most likely quoting Dima.
This is exactly what I’m trying to escape tonight. “Dima called me the baby bear?” I’m secretly hoping he catches my reference to Goldilocks.
“No,” Eddie says. “He called you Finley Belton, but I added the nice part, because you brought me a beer. And it is just right, not to mention you’re talking to me instead of staring and whispering to other people about me.”
Points for his fairy tale knowledge, and I’m sure the whispering is the result of whatever big job he’s landed. Too many models at this party.
Eve tries to be Dima’s partner, but he refuses and tells Alex to play with him. Eve opens her mouth to protest, but Dima holds up a hand. “Don’t even. I know your type. You’ll engineer some fancy trick shots. No Ivy League players showing me up. I got a rep to protect.”
“Fine,” Eve snaps. “I’ll just stand here and look pretty. And I’m definitely rooting for Fin and…” She gestures toward the new guy.
“Eddie,” I fill in for her. “Eddie from Chicago.”
“Eddie from Chicago,” Eve repeats. “Good luck.”
Summer returns and stands beside Eve, both leaning against the back of the love seat.
“Fin makes a great partner,” Summer says to Eddie. “She knits. Lots of finger dexterity.”
I shoot her a glare and will my face not to heat up. So not cool.
Julie Cross is a NYT and USA Today bestselling author of New Adult and Young Adult fiction, including the Tempest
series, a young adult science fiction trilogy which includes Tempest, Vortex, Timestorm (St. Martin’s Press).She’s also the author of Letters to Nowhere series, Whatever Life Throws at You, Third Degree, Halfway Perfect, and many more to come!
Julie lives in Central Illinois with her husband and three children. She’s a former gymnast, longtime gymnastics fan, coach, and former Gymnastics Program Director with the YMCA.
She’s a lover of books, devouring several novels a week, especially in the young adult and new adult genres.
Outside of her reading and writing credibility’s, Julie Cross is a committed–but not talented–long distance runner, creator of imaginary beach
vacations, Midwest bipolar weather survivor, expired CPR certification card holder, as well as a ponytail and gym shoe addict.
Mark Perini is a New York City based author debuting his first YA novel, Halfway Perfect.
Additionally, Mark is a featured author in the NA anthology, Fifty First Times.
Mark began his career as an international fashion model when he was 18 years old, while simultaneously obtaining a
business degree from Seton Hall University. He has a passion for traveling the world, and he’s made a blood pact with friends to see all seven ancient wonders of the world before he’s thirty. Four down three to go.
Don’t miss the companion novel
HALFWAY PERFECT
Excerpt, Giveaway, Julie Cross, Mark Perini, New Release, Reading and Writing Between the Wines Blog, You Before Anyone Else 2 Comments
Release Day Blast #Excerpt & #Giveaway – Sweet Carolina Morning by @susan_schild @TastyBookTours
Posted in Blog Tour, Book Promo, Excerpt, Giveaway, Reading & Writing Between The Wines Blog, Susan Schild by Susi
Life down South just got a whole lot sweeter…
SWEET CAROLINA MORNING
Willow Hill #2
Susan Schild
Releasing Aug 2nd, 2016
Life down South just got a whole lot sweeter in Susan Schild’s new novel about a woman whose happily-ever-after is about to begin…whether she’s ready for it or not.
Finally, just shy of forty years old, Linny Taylor is living the life of her dreams in her charming hometown of Willow Hill, North Carolina. The past few years have been anything but a fairy tale: Left broke by her con man late-husband, Linny has struggled to rebuild her life from scratch. Then she met Jack Avery, the town’s much-adored veterinarian. And she’s marrying him.
Everything should be coming up roses for Linny. So why does she have such a serious case of pre-wedding jitters? It could be because Jack’s prosperous family doesn’t approve of her rough-and-tumble background. Or that his ex-wife is suddenly back on the scene. Or that Linny has yet to win over his son’s heart. All these obstacles—not to mention what she should wear when she walks down the aisle—are taking the joy out of planning her wedding. Linny better find a way to trust love again, or she might risk losing the one man she wants to be with—forever…
Amazon | B & N | Google | iTunes | Kobo
Start the Willow Hill Series at the beginning!
from Chapter 1: Trouble in the Stepmother Hood
Though it was February, the galley kitchen at her future husband’s old farmhouse was steamy and hot, but Linny hardly noticed. Peering at the pages on the counter, she pushed back up her nose the reading glasses she’d had to borrow from Jack and double-checked to make sure she’d not left out any key ingredients. Why had she printed the recipe in ten-point font?
Tonight’s menu came from a website she’d found called Recipes for Picky Eaters, and she hoped it was a winner. She shook her head, chagrined at Jack’s reaction to the first possible menu she’d suggested. He’d kept that pleasant smile on his handsome face, but his eyebrows had shot up. Once they’d come back down to normal, his veto had been so diplomatic. “Darlin’, the mountain trout, braised Brussels sprouts, and beet salad sounds tasty, and I hope you cook them for me real soon, but eleven-year-old boys’ tastes tend to be more… well, mainstream.”
Blowing back a stray lock of hair, she turned on the oven light and peeked inside. The neat rows of crusted chicken breasts were browning nicely in their casserole dish home. The side dishes—creamy-looking mac and cheese and green bean casserole topped with onion rings—were both bubbling gently. She breathed in cooking smells and was transported back to Sunday suppers at the farm when Nana and Paw-Paw were still alive. Sighing, she felt a wash of safety, contentment, belonging. Those were just the feelings she wanted to infuse in this new little family.
Sliding into the chair, Linny admired the old kitchen table and touched the swirls of the tiger oak. It felt warm, solid. How many other families had sat around it and shared their lives over meals? She pictured her and her two men gathered around like in a scene from the Hallmark Channel, talking and laughing about their day. Jack and Neal would lavishly compliment her on her cooking, she’d blush, wave them off, and act as though it was no big deal. “I just threw the meal together,” she’d trill.
Trouble was, it was a big deal, and not just because Linny was just learning to cook. She rubbed her chin and thought about it. This morning, Jack had sat his son down after they’d cleaned up from their pancake breakfast and told him that he and Linny were marrying in the summer. Linny had just sat beside Jack and let him do the talking but felt a stab of sadness as she saw Neal’s face fall. Forlorn. He looked forlorn. When he asked in a trembling voice, “So, you and Mom aren’t ever getting back together?” she thought her heart might break. He still held out hope for his family to be whole again, the way it used to be. Never mind that Neal’s mother, Vera, had already remarried the year before. Though Linny and Jack had been dating officially since October, she’d only just started spending a lot of time with the two of them. Jack hadn’t wanted to introduce her to his son until they knew they were serious, so Linny was only just getting to know the young man.
Linny got a nervous flip in her stomach when she thought about becoming a stepmother. She’d gone thirty-eight years without children, and in a few short months, she’d be slipping into this new role without even a course or certificate. Linny got up and made herself a mug of Chamomile tea. Calming, the label said. She sat back down and blew on the tea to cool it and tried to quell the thrum of the squadron of butterflies that was revving up in the pit of her stomach.
Staring out the window, she thought of the other scenarios she’d been imagining, in living color and the minutest detail. If she messed up in this new job, he’d be that troubled teen with the shaved head who sold pot and lived in their basement after he dropped out of school in tenth grade. Neal would end up being the inebriated driver of a speeding car full of kids who drove them into a tree after leaving an unchaperoned party. Her heart banged as she tried to obliterate the image she’d seen in this morning’s News and Clarion -the mangled wreckage of a barely recognizable car driven by a teen going the wrong way on I-40. He’d killed himself and badly injured a whole vanload of kids on the way home late from a church youth group retreat. Pulling out her phone, she scrolled through her emails as the good smells wafted from the oven and felt her shoulders relax as she reread Mary Catherine’s note. Nice to have a best friend who practiced family law.
Under the subject line, Impending Stepmother Hood, her friend wrote:
You asked for advice on your new parenting gig. Remember, a lot of divorced couples and blended families don’t talk civilly and don’t act in the best interests of children. In my practice, we serve more of the send-the-kids-home-dirty and talk-trash-about-the-stepmother crowd. What not to do may be more useful than what to do.
Another disclaimer: I’m no expert on teenage boys just because I had one. Remember just a few months back, my nineteen-year-old almost got a DUI on a bike. Boys are knuckleheads between the ages of eleven and twenty-four. Your nerves will fray no matter how hard you try to be a good mother—or, harder yet, stepmother—but I will tell you what I know.
Meet me for a quick breakfast 7:00 a.m. Wednesday at Jumpin’ Joe’s Bean House?
Blowing out a sigh of relief, Linny replied, Perfect. She let herself sink back into the chair for a moment. Thank goodness for Mary Catherine.
Glancing at the clock, she rose and fretted as she checked the timer. Last weekend’s cookout at her place had been a bust. Neal had picked at his food, claiming he “’just wasn’t hungry.”’ What American boy didn’t like grilled hamburgers and French fries made from scratch—from the actual potato? Could it be that he didn’t like her? She tried to dismiss the thought. How could he not like her when she was already so fond of him? He was whip smart, mostly well mannered, sensitive, and had an offbeat sense of humor that would catch her when she wasn’t expecting it and make her burst out laughing.
Tonight would be different, she decided, setting flatware firmly at the three places at the table. After grilling Jack extensively about his son’s food likes and dislikes, she’d scoured the internet for the perfect menu. If she was finally going to embark on this mother thing, she sure as heck was going to excel at it. She’d do the whole shebang: soccer weekends, volunteering on field trips, deep talks about life. She’d waited long enough for this little family, and now that she’d got it, dang it, she was going to do it right. The water glasses spilled over as she set them too firmly down on the table.
Jack and Neal were still at the barn with the mare that was about to foal. She picked up the walkie-talkie and pressed the button. “Supper’s ready, men.”
The line crackled. “Be right up,” Jack said cheerfully. “I’m hungry as a bear.”
She’d just finished putting on a slick of lip gloss as they clattered into the room, bringing with them a wash of fresh February air. Her heart still skipped a beat when Jack gave her a boyish grin, and she longed for a kiss, but there was sweet-faced Neal, right on his heels. She felt a pang of regret. She and Jack had talked about it and agreed on the rule of no smooching or PDAs in front of the boy right on the brink of becoming a man. She felt wistful. Leaning against the stove, she smiled as she took them in, amazed at how much commotion the two could make just walking into a room, with their thudding boots, unzippering coats, biceps punching, and easy laughter. Linny raked back her hair with her fingers. Man, her too quiet life had sure changed.
Susan Schild writes wholesome and sunny Southern fiction. She likes stories about charming men,
missing money, adventuresome women, sweet dogs, and happily ever afters at any age. Susan is a wife and a stepmother. She enjoys rummaging through thrift store for treasures like four dollar cashmere sweaters and amateur watercolor paintings. She likes taking walks with her Lab mix, Tucker, and his buddies. She and her family live in North Carolina.Susan has used her professional background as a psychotherapist and a management consultant to add authenticity to her characters.
SWEET SOUTHERN HEARTS, the final book in the Willow Hill series, will be released in January of 2017.
Readers can look forward to more adventures, new beaus, sinister ministers, lovebirds over fifty, a road trip for Mama and her pals, and maybe even an “I Do”…or two.
Blog Tour, Excerpt, Giveaway, Reading and Writing Between the Wines Blog, Susan Schild, Sweet Carolina Morning Leave a comment
Cover Reveal & Excerpt – Caught In The Flames by @KaceySheaBooks
Posted in Book Promo, Coming Soon!, Cover Reveal, Kacey Shea, Reading & Writing Between The Wines Blog by Susi
Caught in the Flames by Kacey Shea
Release Day: August 23
Model: Shane Williams
Photographer: Eric Battershell
Designer: Perfect Pear Creative Covers
Preorder price of $2.99 only available through release week!
Amazon: https://goo.gl/LqtMyR
Nook: http://goo.gl/Z41QpX
Kobo: https://goo.gl/sXVm8Z
iBooks: Coming soon
Add to Goodreads: https://goo.gl/00CrKu
Callie Gordon is more than a little obsessed…
I Love firemen.
Heroic. Selfless. Brave.
Not to mention the uniform with those damn sexy pants…I can’t get enough.
Imagine my surprise when local fire captain, Chase Matthews, wanders into my yard on moving day. I’ve hit real estate gold. Hot as sin with that all-knowing smirk creates an instant spark. Welcome to the neighborhood never looked so good.
But dating a firefighter isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Chase keeps me at distance even when I attempt to break down his walls. A friendship with the nosy eccentric woman down the street reveals there’s more to Chase than he’s willing to share. I’m playing with fire and bound to get burned.
Secrets unfold.
Truths are brought to light.
Can I handle the heat? Or will my love for this man prove that sometimes even good girls have to burn down the house?
I hate coffee.
Okay, that’s a lie. I just hate the way it’s impossible to jog and drink coffee at the same time. After tossing and turning alone last night when I should have been tangled up with Chase, I woke early and decided if I’m not getting lucky I might as well get in better shape. Besides, what else do I have to do on a Sunday morning?
I lace up my sneakers and hit the pavement with purpose. But that energy fades with each advancing step. My abstinent morning exercise plan messes with my normally caffeine infused routine. So when I turn the corner about a half mile into my jog and Kiki flags me down with a cup of java in her hands, I have to stop.
The cool morning air hits the hot brew and causes a swirl of steam to rise over the mug. She observes my infatuation and invites me inside to join her in a cup. I can’t not say yes. Not saying yes to coffee is like refusing Jesus. Okay, bad example. Lots of people refuse Jesus. I can still be friends with those people. But people who refuse coffee? I don’t trust those fuckers.
So, instead of running to stay in shape for my hot ass fireman boyfriend, I’m having coffee with Kiki at her kitchen table. Enjoying every second. I inhale the roasted brew before cooling it with my exhale to take a long sip.
Kiki’s interior décor is a mix between eclectic grandma and boho chic. Really, I wouldn’t expect normal from Kiki, so it fits her perfectly.
“So, what is it you do for a job, Callie?”
“I’m a graphic designer.”
“Oh, that’s lovely, dear. Do you make T-shirts?” She furrows her brows and sips from her mug. I grin in response. “I actually do design for a firm that specializes in website development and company re-branding. Sometimes I get to design logos that go on T-shirts.”
“A creative mind. I knew we were kindred spirits.” She pats my arm. “Plus, you’re a coffee addict like me.”
“How did you know?” I sigh as I take another sip. She laughs, a throaty chuckle with a knowing look on her wrinkled face.
“It’s written all over your face. I’m what I like to call seasoned. I’ve been on this earth a while. I can tell these things.”
I bite my lip. She does seem to exceptionally intuitive. Maybe she can help me out. “What else can you tell about me?”
“You love yourself one of those fire boys,” she answers with a glint in her eyes.
“How do you know that?” I almost gasp. Maybe she’s psychic or a fortune teller. Oh, maybe she can read my aura.
“I just know.” She shrugs as Silas jumps onto the table. Kiki shoos him down and he complies with an irritated meow. “That, and the ladies at tai chi told me you’ve been dating the captain.” She smirks. When she raises her mug to salute mine I have to let loose a little laugh of my own. No special mind reading powers, just good old fashion neighborhood gossip at its finest.
“Yes, I’ve been dating Chase for a few weeks now.” Remembering the disappointment of yesterday and our missed date I have to resist the urge to pull out my phone to see if he’s called or texted. I’m sure he hasn’t. He won’t get off until nine and with this being his third shift in a row I don’t expect he’ll want to come over.
“Trouble in paradise already? That’s not good! You’re a beautiful woman. He’s hot as sin. What’s the problem?”
“No trouble. Really.” My lips pull into a frown as I remember the Evil Grocery woman. Maybe there’s more trouble than I’m aware of.
“I’m not convinced. Tell Kiki about it and I’m sure I can help. Besides, I know everything about everyone.”
I grin and consider her offer. I’m sure she does know everything. But I wonder how good she is with sharing secrets. I don’t have the time or energy to be involved in neighborhood politics. She
scratches at her neck and it reveals a little of her weathered skin. I’m surprised at the colorful ink scrolled across her shoulder. This woman is full of surprises and there’s something in the way she smiles at me that makes me
want to be her friend.
“Okay. I’ll tell you my problems on one condition.”
“You tell me the stories behind all your tattoos.” I smirk and she does that throaty chuckle again.
“You sure about that? That could take days. I have lots of ’em.”
“Stories or tattoos?”
“Yeah. I’m sure. What’s that one on your shoulder?”
“Oh, this ol’ thing? This is one of my favorites.” She pulls down the neck of her blouse and her bra strap so I can see better. It’s a bouquet of flowers. I recognize the violets, periwinkle, and lilies, but it’s the foreign words scrolling through the center in script lettering that captures my focus. It’s beautiful.
“What does it say?”
“Il dolce far niente.” The words roll off her tongue in a soft caress.
“Is that Spanish?”
“Italian. It means, it is sweet doing nothing. This was my first tattoo. I got it the summer I turned eighteen. My friend and I took our life’s savings and flew to Europe.” She chuckles that rough laughter. “You can imagine our parents weren’t too thrilled. We had been raised to grow up and find a spouse. Maybe spend a few years in college first, but then find a mate. Instead, Bets and I took off for an adventure. My parents tried to keep me from going. Insisted I was doing nothing with my life.”
“So you got a tattoo about doing nothing?” I grin.
“Yes. Though it was far from the truth. I ended up doing my fair share of Italian men that summer.” She waggles her almost translucent brow and I lean forward over the table. This woman is fascinating.
Her fingers stroke the rim of her mug, and light bounces off the diamond on her left ring finger.
“Did you marry one of those Italians?” Her eyes follow mine to her ring and she just grins.
“My turn is up. Tell me about the captain.”
I can’t help the way my face pulls into a smile just thinking about Chase. I take a gulp of coffee and try to put my feelings for him into words. “He’s the most attractive man I’ve ever dated. And I’ve always been a bit infatuated with his profession. But I didn’t pursue him. He asked me out, and, well, it’s only been a few weeks
but I’m a goner. He really is the most perfect man.” I know I’m gushing and sound more like an infatuated teen than a grown ass woman but I can’t seem to stop. Kiki smiles warmly and then pats my arm before standing to move to the counter. She brings back the coffee pot and motions to my cup. I nod with a
“Beautiful men. They were always my downfall, too. And a man in uniform is difficult to resist. I’d warn you to be careful, but sounds as though you’ve already crashed and burned for this one.”
“Is there any reason I should be careful with Chase?” I ask because something tells me if there is, this woman would know.
“Oh, honey, there’s always a reason to be careful in love. Doesn’t mean the heart listens.”
She smiles and I return it. I should excuse myself to leave now. It’d be polite after taking up so much of her morning, but I don’t want to take off just yet. I want to know more about Kiki—her tattoos, her stories, her life.
“Will you tell me about another tattoo?”
“If you have the time, dear. I’m sure you have other places to be than spending your day
with an old woman.”
“I have time.”
At my answer her grin pulls into a smile that fills her entire face. Her eyes crinkle so much they almost close.
“Well, how about this rose here . . .”
I get so wrapped up in Kiki’s tales that it’s hours before I finally jog home. The afternoon sun beats down on my skin and the humid air makes it difficult to breathe, but there’s a lightless on my soul and even in my steps as I trot the familiar path home. I’m glad fate crossed my path with Kiki today. Rather than spending the entire day obsessing about Chase I gained a new friend, one whose wisdom and life adventures fascinate me beyond measure. I can tell she’s a little lonely, and who wouldn’t be, living in that house alone with no career
and no family. But today I think I needed her company as much as she needed mine.
Kacey Shea is a mom of three, wife, and indie author who resides in sunny Arizona. She enjoys reading and writing romance novels as much as her son loves unicorns, which is a lot.
When she’s not writing you will find her playing taxi cab to her children while belting out her favorite tunes, meeting friends or family for food and to share some laughs, or sweating it out in the gym. Kacey finds that picking up heavy weights repeatedly is good for her mental health as much as it is for the physical.
She has an unhealthy obsession with firefighters. It could be the pants. It could be the fire. It’s just hot. On occasion she has been known to include them, without their knowledge, in her selfies outside the grocery store.
Kacey one day aspires to be a woman hand model in a sexy photo shoot. You know, the woman’s hand raking across the muscular back or six pack stomach of the male fitness model. Yep, that hand.
Until that day comes she will continue writing sexy, flirty romance novels in hopes to bring others joy!
Kacey enjoys interacting with her fans so please feel free to stalk her on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Website www.kaceysheabooks.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/kaceysheabooks
Twitter https://www.twitter.com/kaceysheabooks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaceysheabooks
Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/kaceyshea
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13919697.Kacey_Shea
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Chapter 37: Offing
On July 30, 2018 July 30, 2018 By ErraticErrata
“Callowans as a people can be summed up by the fact that, before the Uncivil Wars had even come to a close, it’d become a common boast among the populace that the Black Queen had not even spent a sennight in Keter before having several counts of arson and murder to her name.”
– Extract from the personal memoirs of Lady Aisha Bishara
Follow the food. So went Thief’s advice.
That Malicia or a flesh puppet were in the city was a given: Neshamah wouldn’t bother to seriously negotiate with a High Lord. It would have been like a man having to keep a serious face while making a pact with mutton chop, in his eyes. I’d personally been of the opinion that it was a near certainty that the puppet would be the one in Keter, since the Empress leaving the Tower unattended for more than a few weeks was a recipe for usurpation. Akua, however, had made it clear that with the right precautions it was possible for Malicia to be here in person while a puppet held the Tower for her. She was not the kind of Empress that had a strong presence outside Ater: apparently even by imperial standards she didn’t leave her seat of power often. It made sense, in a way. Malicia wasn’t a fighter, and for decades she’d had Black to send after messes sword in hand. Her almost cripplingly-focused talents were in rule and intrigue, and they were most effectively wielded from the Imperial court. Diabolist noted that the court at the Tower wasn’t necessarily the centre of power in a Tyrant’s reign – Terribilis II had barely held one and distributed most its traditional authority to Ater’s bureaucracy. Malicia, however, had inherited a festering snake pit of a court from her predecessor Nefarious and then promptly encouraged the most murderous leanings of the highborn by rewarding the victorious in those struggles with riches and influence.
That, however, had been decades ago. Before the Conquest or my birth. Now that Malicia had spent years removing the aristocrats from the bureaucracy and Black had unceremoniously drummed them out of the Legions, her hold on Ater and the Tower was extremely hard to shake. She could afford to let the High Lords break their teeth on her power base while she placed most her attention on the negotiations in Keter. Akua even speculated that she might be baiting out would-be usurpers in order to have them out in the open when she returned home with a Keteran alliance. That turnaround was likely to see their own families turn on those ambitious few, neatly decapitating any nascent opposition without her having to lift a finger. It certainly sounded like Malicia, I had to admit. A plan with several ancillary benefits unfolding quietly while her enemies swung at mist. Regardless, it’d been a priority to find out whether we were dealing with the actual Empress or a puppet. From a narrow perspective, it didn’t matter which it was if we managed to slaughter them all anyway: the result would still be us with the only bidder at the Dead King’s auction. Looking at it more broadly, though, the difference was major. For one, if I killed Malicia in the flesh I’d be gaining a ‘legitimate’ claim to the Tower.
Kill the Empress, be the Empress: that was the law of the Wasteland. If you managed to scatter all the other carrion birds pecking at the corpse, anyway. Getting involved in the flaming tar pit that was your average Praesi succession was the least of what I needed right now, and pretty high on my list of ‘things I would prefer never to have to deal with’. Malicia would have to go if the Liesse Accords were going to be implemented properly and I couldn’t deny that the longer she had to scheme the more dangerous she became, but as long as the Empress lived there was a lid on the Wasteland jar of crazy. Much like Cordelia Hasenbach, she wasn’t someone I liked facing but she remained very much preferable to whoever would step up if she was removed from power. I wouldn’t put it beyond a High Lord trying to climb the Tower to take a swing at me as their foremost ‘rival’ even while the Empire was being attacked by Ashur. Particularly if their lands were far enough from the sea. There were dozens of examples in the histories to be found of Praesi cheerfully emptying a whole quiver into their foot just like that. On the other hand, taking Malicia prisoner just wasn’t feasible. Not in Keter. And for all that Praesi ambition could end up biting me, there was also a decent chance that instead the Empire would collapse into civil war as every prominent highborn tried to claim the Tower. I couldn’t even dismiss the possibility that the legions in the Wasteland would try to proclaim Black as Dread Emperor and fill mass graves with whoever objected to that.
I didn’t relish the loss of life it would involve, but if Praes was clawing at itself it wasn’t looking at Callow. It might be a risk worth taking.
“So I’ve got a report for you,” Archer announced, strolling through the wards.
She had a bottle in hand, I noted. That was definitely not what I had sent her out for.
“If you blew off reconnaissance to get drunk, there will be consequences,” I mildly said.
“I would never,” Indrani assured me. “I just happened to find a cellar while on my very serious fact-finding mission, and it would have been criminally negligent of me not to investigate.”
“Was it locked?” I sighed.
“Is it really a lock if it breaks?” Archer mused. “That’s a question for the philosophers, Catherine. We’re straying off topic.”
So I’d need to offer Athal an apology, then. Hakram’s suggestion that we just make a scroll template with blank spaces to fill in with the latest thing she’d done was becoming increasingly tempting.
“This is what we call Atalantian baptismal, Cat,” Indrani seriously told me, putting the bottle on the table. “I’ve heard that if an entire glass is drunk in a single sitting, it will outright kill a man.”
“I’m considering killing as well, at the moment,” I informed her.
“That would be a grave miscarriage of justice,” Indrani told me. “Since I found it inside the only other palace that has servants in it.”
My eyes narrowed. I’d asked the Dead King for further time to debate his offer before our next conversation and sent both Archer and Thief out find the tracks of any Imperial presence in the city. Follow the food, Vivienne had said. Malicia’s delegation would need to eat, would be offered all the trapping of hospitality as the honoured guests that they were. That left traces, in a city where the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants were walking corpses. I set aside the pile of scrolls that held our now-irrelevant bargaining position and dragged out the rough sketch of the palaces surrounding the Hall of the Dead I’d asked Masego to make. There were five in whole, forming a circle interrupted by the same number of avenues going into the city-fortress. The Silent Palace, our own, was slightly to the left of the gates into the Hall.
“Which one?” I asked.
Indrani jabbed her finger onto the parchment. Slightly to the right, on the opposite side of the black stone spire.
“The Threefold Reflection,” I said.
Athal had helpfully provided the names of every existing palace when I’d casually asked as much, feigning idle curiosity. The dark-haired man had also revealed there were old sorceries protecting each of them, though he hadn’t gone into detail. Not all that surprising. This whole city was a fortress, not even the guesthouses would be toothless.
“The place is… unsettling,” Archer said, grabbing the seat across from me. “The layout is wrong. Hallways lead where they shouldn’t: I went through the same threshold twice and ended up in different places both times. I’d call it a maze, but you can map out a maze. There’s wizardly bullshit at play here I think might rule that out.”
“Did you find out how many people are in the delegation?” I asked.
“I kept out of sight,” she said, shaking her head. “Got a look at one of them, though. Tall man in steel plate, silent. Black iron mask over his face.”
“I’ve seen those before,” I said. “They’re called Sentinels. The personal guard of whoever holds the Tower, though there’s enough they count more as a personal army. Supposedly spells and potions keep them unconditionally loyal.”
“Might be we have ourselves the real Empress, then,” Indrani said.
“They’re exactly the kind of guards a puppet would bring as well,” I said. “Won’t talk, can’t betray and they probably have triggers inside their body that’ll kill them if someone tries to grab and extract.”
“Would they obey a puppet, though?” Archer asked.
“I have no idea,” I admitted after a moment. “But I know who we can ask.”
I exerted my will and tugged at Akua’s leash, gently. There was resistance. I tugged a second time, and when I did not feel her moving towards me I rolled my eyes and simply dragged her here. The shade poured out of the wall about thirty heartbeats later and only then did I loosen my grip. Diabolist was grimacing.
“That,” she said, “was exceedingly unpleasant. And I barely had time to bid my farewells.”
“Do it again,” Indrani grinned.
I ignored her.
“Would Sentinels obey a flesh simulacrum the Empress occasionally takes over?” I asked.
Akua’s brow rose.
“If instructed to, certainly,” she said. “Authority over them can be even granted by certain court titles, it is not held sorely by the Tyrant.”
“Not a tie breaker, then,” I told Indrani.
“Was that the sum total of your inquiry?” Diabolist asked, sounding a little miffed. “I was having a conversation of some import.”
“Tell me about it,” I invited, repressing a grin.
Occasionally yanking Akua’s chain had lost none of the satisfaction even after the novelty faded.
“We will be expected to meet with the Dead King two days from now, at twilight,” Akua said. “Excuses can be stretched no further.”
I drummed my fingers against the table as Archer cracked open the bottle from – Atalante, was it? Strange, I remembered reading somewhere they were the religious ones in the League. The House of Light tended to frown on drinking to excess. The Callowan one, anyway, for all I knew it was different down there.
“So that’s our window,” I said. “Two days. Hopefully Thief has more to add, because we’re low on information at the moment and I don’t relish the thought of attempting an assassination half blind in Keter of all places.”
Whether or not Vivienne had anything to say remained a mystery for several hours after that. Hakram returned before too long, having exhausted the few points I’d sent him to seek clarification on with the Hosts to keep up the pretence of ongoing debate on our part. I went for a walk after that, in part to clear my mind but mostly so I get away from those fucking wards. I knew why we’d had Masego put it up, but it didn’t make staying under them any more pleasant. I decided to get something useful done while I was out and about, so I moved towards the highest circles of the Silent Palace to get a look at the terrain between us and this Threefold Reflection the Empress allegedly resided in. The layout of this place was all interlocked circles so getting oriented was easy, but I’d failed to grasp the varying heights. The circle furthest out was one of the lowest, the rooftop almost a terrace. From the flat black marble I could get a good look at the broad open space that separated the palaces from the Hall of the Dead, but little else. There were, I noted, patrols now. There’d been a few of those before that I remembered, but nowhere as large or frequent. Was Neshamah tightening his watch? You told me Malicia was here and that she was at odds with me, I thought. Considering that little talk we had the day before about how betrayal is a passing thing, that was as good as an invitation to kill her.
Evidently, that didn’t mean he would make it easy for me. This was a test of sorts, I decided. I doubted that breaching the laws of hospitality would rank in even the worst hundred of the sins to the Dead King’s name, but he’d keep the pretence. He might not actively obstruct me, but unless I remained discreet there would be consequences. That didn’t bode well. The Woe had many talents, but discretion was not usually counted among them – though that was in large part my own fault, it had to be said. I could barely make out the edge of the Threefold Reflection from the side of the Hall of the Dead, but I’d meant to get a good look and this told me less than nothing. Casting a look at the grounds below, freshly-scrubbed paving stones, I shrugged and leapt. I’d gone without armour for the day, so my knees barely bent when I landed. Cloak fluttering around me, I nodded at the approaching patrol as they turned to me. Archer had told me of the breeds of dead there were to be found in the city, but there were no differences to my senses. They all felt like little balls of will working a corpse, and though some might feel stronger it was not a certain thing. For one, the officers were supposed to be the Binds – those with souls and real intelligence – but the presence for some of the officer-armoured dead were almost entirely faded.
I’d have to rely on sight to tell them apart, and sight could be tricked.
“Just going for a walk,” I told them.
A corpse in a lovely sculpted iron breastplate and conical helmet nodded.
“If you require escort, Great Majesty, it can be provided,” he offered.
“Won’t be necessary,” I said. “Though I thank you for the courtesy.”
They resumed their patrol without a word, offering polite nods when they passed me by. How long had that one been dead, I wondered? I could be centuries. I’d glimpsed flesh beneath the helm, but that meant nothing. Necromancy could preserve that near indefinitely. Strolling as casually as a girl could with a sword at her hip and a cloak embroidered with the banners of her defeated foes could – not all that casually, I felt safe in assuming – I passed by the palace separating mine from the Threefold Reflection. It was the largest of those I’d seen, and the Silent Palace dwarfed the one in Laure. The Garden of Crowns, Athal had called it. Wasn’t seeing a lot of those, but the garden part seemed accurate. Instead of a single massive construction, this one was a display of smaller pavilions lost in a beautiful sprawl of stone and greenery. The beauty was somewhat spoiled by the fact that the trees and grass seemed to sprout directly from granite, but that might just have been me. It was empty, or so I thought. Then I caught sight of a silhouette seated under a shaded living oak arbour, looking down at a crystal-clear pond. Man, not a woman. Creation had not seen fit to have me run into Malicia, then. Torn between moving on towards the Threefold Reflection and having a closer look at this oddity, I eventually went for the oddity. The palace wasn’t going anywhere.
I tread softly on the pebble paths that winded through the greenery, keeping an eye on the stranger. Too pale to be Soninke or Taghreb. Either an outside acquisition by the Empress, or entirely unrelated to her. I confirmed the second thought when I came close enough my otherworldly senses picked up on what lied within the man: power. Not a Name, no. That kind of power had a peculiar taste to it, life and weight and something like inevitability. What I felt from him was cousin to that, or perhaps just the remains of it. Like words engraved in stone left unreadable by time and tide you could still barely make out some letters from. Revenant, I thought. Indrani had told me they kept a shade of what they’d once been after their raising. The dead man did not react even when I’d come well within earshot for a mortal, staring silently into the pond. I could make out shapes in the water, fish and water lilies. The way light caught on them allowed me to realize they were not living things but sculpted and painted stone. I put aside the mild discomfort I felt at the sight and studied the man closer. Late forties, or so he’d been before his death. A crown of white hair came in sparse tufts, and the beginnings of beard could be seen on his jaw. His clothes were rich drapery, though the colour had faded with the centuries, and there was a sword on his lap. None of this mattered half as much as the brooch on his chest: a tasteful little twist of silver with two golden ornaments on it.
Bells.
“There is no need to stand there, child,” the Revenant said. “It is not my pond, nor my ruinous light that shines down upon it.”
I swallowed.
“You’re a Fairfax,” I blurted out, and immediately cringed.
Catherine Silvertongue struck again. The Revenant turned to study me, pale brown eyes surprised.
“King Edward of Callow,” he said. “And you are Deoraithe. A daughter of House Iarsmai?”
It had to be an Edward, didn’t it? Callow had those like the Principate had its never-ending gaggle of First Prince Louis – too many to know by rote save for the numbers at the end. Suddenly I was glad I hadn’t worn a crown. It would have felt tasteless in front of a Fairfax of the old blood. When he’d spoken that title it had been with that muted ripple of power, the one that said it hadn’t merely been a title for him.
“Just a foundling,” I replied, shaking my head.
“Named, then,” he sagely said, and with a courtly gesture invited me to sit.
I settled into the stone seat by his own, tongue-tied.
“Would that be Edward the Fifth?” I said, desperately trying to remember which of those had gotten themselves killed while crusading.
“The Seventh,” the king chided. “You will know my daughter Mary, at least. She was but three when I was claimed, she must be the longest-reigning monarch Callow has ever seen.”
Oh shit. He was talking about Mary the Songbird. That entire reign had been a mess: the Marquess of Vale had fought a short but bloody civil war to seize the regency and refused to give it up even after she came of age. He’d kept her imprisoned in the Songbird’s Cage until one of her cousins rebelled and overthrew him. She didn’t survive the assault on Laure, smothered with a pillow by her captor before the palace could be breached. There were at least half a dozen songs and plays about the tragedy. Her cousin took the crown, after, and all House Lerness of Vale hung save for the children.
“I have heard of her,” I diplomatically said. “I’m sorry to tell you that House Fairfax is gone. As far as I know, the last member of it died during a Praesi invasion over twenty years ago.”
The man chuckled.
“It was dead long before that, girl,” he said. “I share not a drop of blood with the famous Eleonor. My forbear merely kept the name to justify her rule after her husband had the poor taste of dying before getting her with child.”
I blinked. Yolanda the Wicked, that. Scholars centuries later still debated or not whether she’d been a villain or just extremely unpopular. Some argued she’d been demonized because of her Proceran origins and that she’d had lawful claim to rule, even though her children did not. The other side tended to point out she’d had the rest of House Fairfax murdered to ensure said children did in fact succeed her. This felt like a history lesson, until I remembered I was sitting next to breathing history. Well, moving anyway.
“Catherine Foundling,” I introduced myself, since girl and child were starting to get on my nerves.
“I would welcome you to these grounds, Catherine Foundling, but there is no welcome to be had in this earthly pit of devils,” King Edward said.
I nodded my thanks, for lack of a better answer.
“If I may ask, Your Majesty,” I said. “You seem…”
“Lucid?” the dead man smile. “The Abomination’s little jest. Most of my fellows are of more taciturn bent. You see, when he came for me I told him that even in the face of eternity I would spit on him and all his works.”
My fingers clenched. Evidently, Neshamah had decided to test the truth of that.
“Do not look so appalled,” the king gently said. “I will yet have the last laugh over that dark creature, even if I must wait until the Last Dusk for it. Though I am bound to serve in this place it is only a passing thing.”
“So you’re the guardian of this,” I probed, hand moving to vaguely encompass our surroundings.
“In a manner of speaking,” King Edward said. “This is the Garden of Crowns, young Foundling. None serve here who were not royalty while they drew breath. The power once bestowed on me by Above has merely earned the role of the sword guarding this palace.”
My eyes narrowed.
“So there’s a former Named guarding all five palaces,” I said.
“Indeed,” he agreed. “Though the Abomination changes the watchers at a whim. The Bloody Sword once kept vigil over the that unpleasant pyramid beyond the Garden, but has since been replaced. Other than I, the only one who has remained for more than a century is the Thief of Stars.”
“Oh?” I said, blood running cold. “And where does he guard?”
“She,” he corrected. “The Silent Palace. It amused the Abomination to bind her there, as she attempted to rob it whilst living.”
So we’d had a heroine with a talent for discretion breathing down our neck the entire time without a single one of us noticing. Lovely. This assassination plot was already getting off to a great start.
“You display great curiosity as to the nature of this pit,” King Edward said calmly. “I will not inquire as to your purpose, as I would be bound to then speak it. But you are born of Callow, are you not?”
“I am,” I warily agreed.
“It has been a very long time,” he said quietly, “since I have spoken to one of my people. And I have worried, over the years. We warred with the Principate mere decades before they came, beggars at my door, asking for our swords to march north for their sake. Yet I know the gratitude of princes is an ephemeral thing. And to the east, the Enemy ever lurks. You spoke of an invasion?”
The snarl in his voice when he spoke of Procer had a warm feeling in my belly, I wouldn’t deny it. I’d run out of patience with them as well, it was reassuring to know I was in good company there. Unfortunately, I had few good tales to tell him.
“We call it the Conquest,” I said. “They won at the Fields of Streges and swept over the Callow. Until recently we were under occupation.”
“That patch of grass has been watered by more armies than rainstorms,” King Edward ruefully said. “It does not matter. The beast swells fat with the meat of us but it ever chokes on our bones. There will be another Eleonor, sooner or later.”
I didn’t know how to tell him that none had come. That if she’d ever been born, the closest thing I had to a father had cut her throat before her name could be known. That I might the closest thing to her we had, and wasn’t that a horrifying thought?
“We’re under siege,” I said. “The Tenth Crusade marches right through us and attempts at peace have failed. The princes of Procer wants to carve us up and I am unsure how far up that desire runs.”
“Procerans are always hungry,” King Edwards said darkly. “And when that hunger leads them to the brink, they weep for others to pay the dues in their stead. Hold the Vales, young Foundling. And watch the Blessed Isle for a Wasteland knife.”
I bleakly laughed. How could I tell him that the ruling Dread Empress was out for my blood, trying to crush me underfoot, and that she was still the closest thing I had to an ally at the moment? The dead man idly brushed his fingers against his brooch, then spoke up hesitatingly.
“It is unseemly to ask, I know,” he said. “Yet, my daughter…”
I thought of pale green eyes, and the kindest lie I’d ever been told. That it wouldn’t get easier.
“She is still,” I said with a smile, “spoken of in song.”
The naked relief on his face only made it worse.
“She would have loved that,” he said with a quirk of the lips. “She had a lovely singing voice, my Mary. And she was good, even as a child. Kind. That is a rare thing in a ruler. There is a place for harshness, but kindness is the mother of prosperity.”
I nodded slowly. I couldn’t stand to stay here any longer, next to the man I’d lied to and his long-dead memories, so slowly I rose to my feet.
“It was a pleasure to meet you, Your Majesty,” I said, bowing.
“Don’t,” he said. “I am not a fool, young Catherine.”
He smiled, like we shared a secret.
“The first Albans were seneschals of Laure long before they were kings,” he told me. “And Eleonor, for all her virtues, was born a mere knightess. There is no shame in one’s birth. We are what we bring into this world, not what brought us into it.”
He rose as well, and touched my wrist.
“Stand tall, Queen Catherine,” King Edward the Seventh told me. “Stand proud. We have been broken before, humbled and rent asunder. We have crawled through the blood of our kin and suffered the yoke of tyrants. It does not matter. We do not yield, we do not bend even when the sky comes tumbling down on our heads. Keep your grudges close, child, and never forget them. We are Callowans, and for every slight there is a price.”
Ours will be long, the song went, and paid twice.
Woe on us all, but if the Gods demanded my home be ashes then the Gods would burn.
Chapter 36: Enchère
Fatalism I
139 thoughts on “Chapter 37: Offing”
Callowans do love themselves a grudge.
Hmmm… another of a these transient chapters where Catherine speaks with someone hiding her truest self. I guess in a sense this chapter is supposed to remind us of the bonds between her and Praes. How she cares and hides from Blacks while hating and working with Malicia.
Actually, I read this is emphasizing her connection with Callow, and how that is her true self, not all these alliances and intrigue with Praes.
TameCurtsy
For every slight, a price.
For every chapter, a vote: http://topwebfiction.com/vote.php?for=a-practical-guide-to-evil
Acknowledged Queen of Callow by the former King of Callow, well looks like Cat just gained a legitimate claim to the crown
Kind of. While that is an interesting observation to make, he 1) doesn’t know she’s a villain and 2) no one else knows she was ‘approved’ by a dead Callowan Revenant of the Dead King.
I guess this does give her a stronger metaphysical tie to some kind of ‘name’ if she still had one and probably makes her infinitesimally stronger.
Dantalian
Why wouldn’t he know she’s a villain?
She’s peacefully walking through Keter, even though she’s Queen of Callow.
Heroes simply don’t make deals with the Dead King, they just throw themselves at him.
At this point, I think the Name Catherrine is most likely to inherit is “Local Girl Done Good.” 😛
He must at least suspect she’s a villain seeing as she’s casually strolling through Keter.
I think this is continuing the “sword from the stone” theme. By pulling out the sword she’s proven to be worthy of becoming a Queen. Now, she’s been legitimized by the past in the only way available to her.
Even though no one will know about this, for the purposes of the story she’s even more than a person destined to rule – she’s an inheritor of the Callowan legacy.
Give him a Title and set him loose on the Crusades.
People will hear of it
ArkhCthuul
Haha, 9h yeah, that’d be a laugh.
Still, liked the introspection and the acceptance of at least her core by a former Calloway king.
That would be interesting enough to be possible, actually. Mayhaps Cat will include his freedom in the bargain she strucks. Who knows.
Viconr
Unless he was controlled by DK all along.
For the metaphysical presentation of winter she does tend to solve problems via fire now doesn’t she?
Aaron Wagner
I don’t know about you but I burn more fires in winter than in summer
Oh, that was a great one. Kudos.
Callowans are more Dawi than Umgi I think, vengeance for every slight and justice for every grudge beats in their hearts.
General Callowan attitude regularly evokes remembrance of Dammaz Kron, yes.
Also, a story of an olden King returning as a Ravenant general at the head of an army of the dead to fight for his former land just because he still have several bones to pick, and is too stubborn to die without setting the score…
Un-Metaphorical Grapevine
Would you be tried as an arsonist, murderer, or heathen for trying to burn a god?
I think you get deified if you succeed.
I remember reading a story once where a god-killer escaped legal consequences because the only relevant crime on the books was *attempted* deicide. No one had ever bothered writing up a legal punishment for successful god murder, on account of no one anticipating anyone actually succeeding at the task.
You are now obligated to find that story, as I want to read it too 😛
Tales of MU I think. Warning: it’s a very sexually graphic story with a heavy emphasis on BDSM, and last I recall the story was (after several books) put on hiatus and had yet to be returned to last I saw.
It’s got some pretty excellent worldbuilding though, I’d recommend it for that alone.
And yet, doesn’t one need to attempt the deed in order to succeed? Unless he managed to do it by accident…
Gydd
Tales of MU had a character mention that particular lacunae.
Only other character else who would/could is Telwyrn from TGaB, and for her, laws happen to other people.
Yep, I’m pretty sure it was Arachne from TGaB. The latest chapter sort of adds to that story in passing.
Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason?
Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
I wonder is thief a transitional name she can perhaps gain a small bit of weight to her name in order to transition into a more noble or villainous name. Maybe the thief of night teaches her that somethings are not worth stealing or sacrificing and she turns on Catherine allowing diabolist to join the woe or the other hero tells her the history of Callow and how diabolist is just like the dead king thus she attempts everything in her power to end the noble.
Anybody else nervous about who or what diabolist was speaking to that had need of her being pulled away. She is always up to something.
Five towers five named sounds like the dead king has formed his revenants into a band of heroes we have a rogue, a noble name, so far only thing missing are mage, healer, barbarian.
I think [Thief] is only transitional until they become powerful enough to have Of [Something] as a suffix to their Name.
Erfling
She stole the godsdamned sun, what more do you want
But she’s not the first or the only one to have stolen [the Sun] or [Fire] before, that was done following the paths of her predecessors. She is bigger than that, she’s now in Government, I’m seeing in my mind’s eye [Thief of Nations]. Rulers waking up in a world where their borders, holdings and titles are gone, people not having a cultural idendity of any relavence or coherence, Black’s crushing of the Callowan rebellion in Book 2 on a worldwide scale.
I believe names such as “Thief” are full Names themselves, while the “Something of Something” names are mostly sidegrades or downgrades when a “Something” already exists or that the person is way too specialized in a specific region to just be called “Something”.
Thief did steal star, if you count that small sun of Summer.
Thief of Summers Might perhaps
If she takes a Winter title that could be a good path to a ‘Thief of…’ Name. Thief of Stars sounds like a good title. Maybe Thief defeats the Revenant and assumes her Name?
He thinks Cat’s a daughter of House Ismail on first seeing her.
I wonder if that is solely because she’s a half Deoraithe as part of a delegation in/to Keter, or if she looks like an Ismail.
Also, that opening quote is awesome.
By the way, it’s also a typo: the name of the ruling line of Daoine is Iarsmai (at least EE fixed it to that the last time I asked him about it).
It can be not a typo, just a differnet house. This king is OLD. What gives?
“Call me Ishmael…”
Ismael came up before and it was actually fixed… once, when it was pointed out. I think another case was left as is, because nobody mentioned it. Both times it referred to Kegan.
It seems even a long undead king accepts Cathrine as a Queen, even if Procer won’t. Even if no one is ever told about this meeting, that has narrative weight to it.
It’s not like he has any high ground to stand on being of a bastard line thanks to Yolanda, it’s what you bring to Callow and strive for that matters.
Shogun no Yari
Probably because Callowans don’t really care for outside opinions. Cat is Callowan, that is all that matters.
5 palaces, 5 Named guards. One is the Thief of Stars, counterpart to the Thief of the Woe. The other, Edward VII, former king of Callow, perfect mirror to the Black Queen of the same.
I wonder who Masego, Hakram and Indrani’s counterparts in Keter are?
Especially given a hint that Dead King changes those when it struck his fancy. It would be just like him, to specifically change undead Named guardians of palaces as a jest.
It would be pretty funny if there was a flesh puppet in each Palace. One of them would be getting a bit of help from the Thief of Stars to hide itself in the Silent Palace.
It’s possible Hakram’s counterpart will be an Orc Warlord. The Dead King predates Miezans so they were still around and seeing a Named Orc at the height of their power would be a nice contrast to what they are now.
Now I’m wondering if he’s got any Dread Emperors hanging around…
on the other could thief become the thief of stars, she had stole the sun of summer, at least she could learn a couple of tricks from that one
wyaldriddler
Hah, I was getting some *serious* Dark Souls vibes from this chapter. Stupid Idea, but I would be amused if Edward VII could follow Cat after all the stuff that is coming. I find that I really like him as he’s been presented so far.
Maybe she can ask Dead King of Edward, as a sign of good will for well proceived negotiations.
And then Edward would be calling her “young lady” and nagging her about grand-(grand)-children for the rest of eternity…
He will be like a grandpa that she never knew. It will neatly fall into her current family dynamic. An orc as a brother, a wizard as cousin, Archer as sister, Black as a father, and many murderous Named aunts and uncles.
Would be a fun twist to bring him back to Callow. Bad news, I allied with an undead army of doom, good news, it’s led by an old Callowan king. I wonder if that would balance out in the eyes of the people
It would raise morals of any Callowan to a peak. As a sort of blessing from past, an evidence of inheritance. Brandon may even cry a little.
Being crowned queen of Callow by a former ruler a Fairfax no less
Talbot would cry tears of joy, to see his great, great …great grandfather? Nobles would not be able to to doubt her claim and “good” would be confused to say the least but to be honest no Callowan care what outsiders think of them.
The name she would transition to would probably boost the Broken Bells, they would in memory of their undying former king revenant, and to praise there current named queen/ immortal abomination they would be called the Unbroken Bells as soon as they die they would be ressurected by her necromancy becoming the first undead knightly order. A true testament to Chatharine bluring the lines between good and evil.
But you forget that he’ll have access to the truth of his daughter’s demise…which means someone lied and that equals a full scale Callowan grudge special.
“We will never forgive and we will never forget.” And with an admonition from a past king of Callow to stand tall and proud and spit in the collective gods’ eye, no less. It is a great and terrible thing to be called kin by a king and to be counseled to hang on to your hate.
On an aside, does anyone else think Catherine has some kind of power that makes people underestimate her? It’s like the first thing people think when they see her is “girl” or “child.” Oh, and “short.” She really hates that last, and so, she being a Callowan, the gods will burn.
Power? No. It’s an epithet.
She was merely a girl when she came to her Name. Now she’ll always be one.
Sort of like a vampired turned young?
Vampire, rather. Stupid injured arm…
Not always. So long as that’s what she sees herself as.
Metrux
Which is even seen by way of Masego. He was but a small child when he became Named, but he kept growing until he met Cat. For Named it’s more a matter of how you see yourself, and are seen by the world.
With Black also – he was old and feeling tired of life, and had started to show gray hair consequently, but after Cat stabbed him, breaking the mold of Fate, he is feeling reinvigorated, young and able to wonder once again, and his aging is visibly reversed as a result – to a point where it is seen almost like a second youth.
That could be a thing of Evil Names exclusively, though – Good Names do not remove the Boon of Aging from the bearers as a norm, however young inside said bearers may feel. And Cat is a special case, of course.
Great chapter, my one nitpick (which returns for the first time we heard the rhyme) is that “ours will be long and paid twice” sounds kinda clunky. I’m a fan of:
“Ours will be paid long and twice”
The world is going to burn at her feat. It’s going to be glorious.
Say, I wonder if she can ask for King Edward back, you know, as a loan. What’s a rental hero between friends right?
For every slight there is a price,
Ours will be long and paid twice.
I feel it rhymes better than your suggestion, as both lines here have 2 parts to them where naturally stop. Your line would be said in a single breath.
Lab Rat
Your version also changes the meaning; “Ours will be long and paid twice” means that’ll we’ll hold our grudge forever and once we catch you , we’ll be even worse to you than you were to us. “Ours will be paid long and twice”, on the other hand, means that when we get our revenge, we’ll make it last a long time.
Heh. So even a proper Fairfax king puts country before the Heavens, eh? Callowans truly are vengeful to the bone.
If he is indeed acting as more than a puppet of our local Hidden Horror, helping to push Catherine along the lines he wants her to go.
In Ranger’s interlude, we saw two former Named have most, if not all, of their personality intact. But you’re right, there’s always a possibility that this is part of the Dead King’s machinations.
Ok, it may be prudent to expect skulduggery from the Dead King, but this is seriously starting to sound like a paranoia.
It’s only paranoia if someone isn’t out to get you
Only after you’ve been proven right. Until then, it’s paranoia.
Zourath
I don’t see him being a puppet, but he is probably also being used. The Hidden Horror strikes me as far too much of a subtle type to leave an obvious opening in the narrative like the king being puppeted, he knows the Bard would exploit it if he did. I think that he had the king guard there on the off chance an interaction like this played out, then just waited for Callowans to be Callowans.
“I will not inquire as to your purpose, as I would be bound to then speak it. But you are born of Callow, are you not?”
How will the revelation that this Revenant is disloyal to the Dead King but under certain compulsions play out? Surely the Saint of Swords, given the knowledge to do so, could cut the tethers that bind them; the Saint of Swords has cut several other things that aren’t even objects.
The heroine is more likely to cut down the undead completely. A mercy, really. And, after all, it is the Dead King’s sorcery animating the undead. It is unknown whether severing his influence without removing what animates them is possible.
It depends on if the necromancy that power(s/ed) the revenants is a continuous application of magical energy. If it is then cutting the “strings” of the revenant would most likely cause him to collapse. If not, then cutting the connection to the Dead King would most likely free the revenant from the Dead King’s control. Unless the Dead King didn’t implant a magical “seed” inside the corpse that automatically restores the link as soon as it is cut. Given his intelligence shown so far, it is quite plausible he would have such a fail safe, at least in all the dead Named he values greatly.
All necromancy so far has been of the first kind, so it seems likely that this is also that, especially since Cat mentioned the undead all feeling somewhat similar with the exception of the shade of name power she felt.
The Revenant that wishes not to know something because it would have to report it has ALREADY been freed from control. It makes most of its own decisions and acts independently already.
Maybe cutting the bonds that compel specific actions would directly or indirectly result in the destruction of the undead directly. If so, it’s still easier than cutting them directly, since the bodies of Named have plot armor, and the SoS has already been shown to be unable to penetrate plot armor.
blitzxs
Heh. Guess that Cat’s fear of Callowons rebelling if word got out that she allied with the Dead King never came to pass. They must REALLY hate the nations of the Tenth Crusade when they wouldn’t mind allying with the the greatest monster in Calernia just to return the slight against them.
Keeping in mind that they are having an Evil Ruler and Rulership sets the morality and personality of your territory and people – that might also mean that they are becoming more ruthless and hate-filled, no matter who their target of ire is.
Keep in mind this has only be stated by the Grey Pilgrim who isn’t exactly unbiased. It could easily be that Callowan people are simply getting more desperate and hence more prone to radical action.
It kinda surprises me how everyone seems to take GP’s words as a face value just because he is a hero. Even if he doesn’t outright lie, there’s no way he’s objective in what he says.
It’s not because he’s a hero. It’s because he’s the personification of wise advice, and he’s one of the big hitters.
We also take Akua at her word when she prattles about the treacherous tendencies of wastelanders.
He’s already shown he’s not above manipulating Catherine to achieve his goals, and even when he doesn’t, he’s definitely heavily biased. I wouldn’t say he lied to her face or even intentionally hid information from her, but I highly doubt what he told Cat is the full picture of what is actually happening.
That is true. But it does mean that Cat probably has a palpable influence on her people, even if the part about it bringing damnation is not necessarily true.
And I hope people stop talking about Cat like she’s not a villain. She admits she is, and she wanted to keep Akua’s evil weapon of doom. She didn’t want it made, but she was for keeping it.
She’s not Akua, but she was willing to bring the Hells into this.
The only reason she is considered a villain is because of the in-story definition of a villain. If you don’t swear to do the Heaven’s will then you’re considered a villain whether you are or not. That is just the perception that the populace of Calernia at large have which is probably why there hasn’t been a Hero allied with below before Catherine.
I actually found it suspect that such a hero hasn’t presented itself yet. Especially in Callow that are notorious for their grudges.
I could easily conceive of a situation where a Callowan peasant loses his family to a scuffle between a Judgment-sworn hero and a villain. In the aftermath, as he kneeled over the still warm corpses of his family amid the ashes of his home he feels an overwhelming sense of powerlessness. Of weakness that he could not stand up the Gods’ favored champions. In that moment he swears death and vengeance to villains and heroes alike and leaves on a quest to seek power (Ironic and/or hypocritical I know). He swears never to stand by helplessly again as the people he cares for get trampled underfoot by a bunch of powertripping assholes. So he sought out the legendary Lady of the Lake to train him in the ways of murder.
Initially she refused, but our would be hero would not be convinced otherwise. He kept asking and asking, repeatedly getting rebuffed and even getting beaten to within an inch of his life by the half elf. Still he would not give up. He knew in his heart he would gain the power to beat the shit out of all those goddamn assholes even if it cost him his life. Their existence is a pain on his life and he cannot abide them living. This conviction would be enough to qualify him for a Name. Maybe Heir or something. His conviction impresses Ranger enough she decides to teach him the ways of the hunt. He practices relentlessly, LEARNING ways to kill everything that walks. PERFECTING the methods his teacher shows him and eventually TRANSCENDING them to deal with those pesky story save bullshit.
Eventually he leaves Refuge and earns the Name The Sword of Vengeance while standing above the still warm corpses of the Hero and the reanimated Villain that put him on the path. As he looks at their dead bodies his resolve strengthens. He decides to become the Sword that will smite all foreign invaders to his land whether they be hypocrites in the west or the lunatics on the east or enemies within. The Sword that protects with the righteous fury of vengeance.
…So I am no EE so forgive the shitty story quality, but shouldn’t those turn of events have probably happened in the past? Or similarly?
Sorry, Tl;Dr. Will read the story later.
But as for Cat only being a Villain because she’s not sworn to Above… She is under the Gods Below. As Akua has stated, Praesi will backstab the Gods Below if it serves their interest and that’s part of their devotion. In the same way, Cat will burn the Gods Below for Callow… And that’s part of her villainy.
Whether or not Catherine can be considered a villain is irrelevant to my point which is exactly what I’ve written in the first comment, namely that people believe Grey Pilgrim unconditionally without any evidence, and I find it weird and a little disappointing.
It depends on how you define a villain, by the way.
It is not the strongest argument, but he is an authority. The narrative he’s trying to set up also works for him teaching Cat things. As a last point, there is some evidence which he himself pointed out in Callow.
Not really. The evidence you speak of can be interpreted in a number of ways, and not all of them align with GP’s position on the matter. Yet (almost) everyone treats it like it was a proven fact, ignoring the obvious interest Grey Pilgrim has in misleading Catherine and even more obvious bias characterizing pretty much everyone with a strong opinion on any given matter. Note that it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not true – just that we shouldn’t take everything he says as a face value.
This is especially jarring considering that the Dead King is given a reverse treatment in the comments – everything even remotely related to him is immediately suspected of being a trick meant to manipulate Cat to his sinister ends. Again, it’s not necessarily wrong, but it makes the readers look paranoid.
Uh… You do remember this is the guy who outwitted the Bard, who tricked an entire nation in order to ascend to power, and who Cat keeps saying is untrustworthy? It’s only paranoia if they’re not out to get you.
On the other hand, the Pilgrim has always been trying to outwit Cat, but in his position as advisor and wise man cherry picked truth is a better tool than outright lies.
It’s funny how everyone keeps misinterpreting my comments no matter how clear I make myself.
I DID NOT TELL ANYONE TO TRUST THE DEAD KING. I’m merely saying not everything is a deception. Seeing threats where there are none is as dangerous as not seeing the ones that are. I’m pretty sure the Dead King has other things to do BESIDES manipulating Cat.
You implied people were overreacting when it comes to him and compared him to the Pilgrim. I merely put forward all the reasons we have not to trust him, and some we have to trust the Pilgrim.
Now, if many people keep misunderstanding you no matter how much effort you make, it may be that your measure of how clear you are being is flawed, or you are misunderstanding them.
Actually, I brought the Dead King up to underline the commenters’ inconsistency in being suspicious. Trusting the Dead King is foolish, that much is true. But taking Grey Pilgrim’s word on the matter without taking into account the enormous disparity between his worldview and the actual situation Callow and Catherine are in is just as foolish. This, and only this, is what I’ve trying to say from the very beginning, and any implied meanings are entirely imaginary.
I believe I put forward sufficient explanation for why the Pilgrim’s word can be trusted to be true, if cherry picked, while the Dead King’s can’t. It’s not inconsistency if there is reason.
And I believe I put forward sufficient explanation why you’re wrong, so I think we’re even.
Did you? You provided no counterargument to the idea that the Pilgrim’s narrative role stimulates him to provide true advice, that contrary to Neshamah we have some idea what he wants, and that it is not in his nature to outright lie.
How long are we going to continue with this bullshit? It’s not worth the effort anymore.
I considered it spirited debate. I am sorry you feel that way.
Please, don’t be. You make me feel guilty.
As for the Dead King, the general consensus seems to be that everything that happened since Cat first set a foot in Keter has been a part of the evil plot carefully orchestrated by the Dead King in order to trick Cat into doing something. While the existence of such a plot is pretty likely and some of the events that have transpired since Chapter 33 are probably part of it, I very much doubt ALL OF THEM are, and this is one of the less likely instances.
Well, Neshamah has proven to be a meticulous planner, and he’s had a few centuries to plan whatever this is.
Also…we don’t know what his plan is, so we best be ready for anything.
GP quite likely wholeheartedly believes in the trickle-down corrupting effect of having Team Evil ruling any land. However, Team Good also has rather staggeringly direct mind control techniques they use on both Named and muggles alike with all the subtlety of Trump at an international conference — and, GP has that number on speed-dial, so he couldn’t fully spot the hypocrisy for what it is (he gets part of the way, then seems to get shutdown and diverted into killbot mode). But, see, that isn’t corruption. Oh, no. That is meet, right and Good… even if it throws an entire city and countryside into, e.g. the maws of the undead who weren’t actively doing anything at the time or could wipe a country off the map for four generations just to make a point.
I don’t know about Good rulers using mind control. Callow has been ruled by Kings and Queens of Callow on the side of Good, and yet that didn’t stop their nobles from being self-serving assholes. Just ask Mary the Songbird.
The rulers themselves don’t have to. The Heavens do it off their own bat, often without telling the rulers. This is going by how Cordelia is getting the carpet whipped out from under her. Or how Liesse was going to be “saved” by mindraping the entire population through guilt trips… And, none of the Callowan lords or ladies who supported the rebellion were told about the incoming Angel ahead of time by Team Good, or asked their opinions about it.
My point was: it’s not having Evil™ rulers that corrupts a country any more than having Good™ ones blesses it. People aren’t that simple, and Good™ acting like compete jerks can still corrupt a nation just fine by sheer knock-on, butterfly effects. While blaming the other side for the results of their own actions, of course. And, that’s even without the Heavens stepping in directly.
Yeah, Good isn’t necessarily good… It is very willing to sacrifice the few for the many, as it sees, while Evil a courage the sacrifice of the many for the goals of the few.
The thing is, there’s a ton of evidence for Praesi being backstabbing bastards and not so much for villains corrupting the world.
Like, GP is literally the only guy who thinks this. If it was indeed the case, wouldn’t the House of Light object more strongly to Cat being crowned? How about Black – he’s lived and breathed Namelore for forty years so you’d think he’d give her a heads up. Hell, you’d at least expect a snide remark from Bard or something. But there’s nothing.
Though you make a good point with the wise mentor angle.
For evidence, one might look at Neshamah’s rise, and what the Pilgrim pointed out in Callow itself.
Black is concerned with Namelore mostly as it relates to breaking Creation into his image. I don’t think he’d care much about corruption, but even if he did he wouldn’t be likely to tell Cat things that might make her deviate from the path he wanted for her.
And the Bard? She’s barely talked to Cat yet. And she’s more the “manipulate things so evil is defeated” type than the “trade philosophical insights with the villain” one.
Black (or Malicia) would definitely point it out to Cat. Suddenly radicalizing an entire nation would make ruling a lot tougher and they’re both concerned with keeping Callow mellow – they would let her know just so she could adjust.
With Bard, I meant more her conversations with William etc. At some point, you’d expect her to bitch about how a villain is objectively going to corrupt the country, but she never does.
Just to clarify, I’m not dismissing the possibility it’s true but I am weary of accepting it at face value.
No one said anything about “radicalize”. If anything, increasing the traditionally evil traits in Callow makes them *easier* for both her and Praes to rule. Well, more her than Praes.
Regarding the Bard, I believe we never got all her conversations with William. Plus, she didn’t really need to give him that – he was already motivated.
I get the feeling that Callow is more agnostic towards the gods, as both the God Above and Below have constantly used Callow as a battlefield for their wars for many, many generations.
The Grey Pilgrim may be simply underestimating just how deep Callowian grudges go and how little they actually care which side they’re on as long as those grudges are paid in full.
Callow always repays its debts, no matter how long it takes. And Callow has a *lot* of debts to call in.
I think the religious schism has more to do with it.
How can setting Keter on fire be seen as a bad thing?
We just saw that even back in thr day, callowans were about the grudge. It makes sense, even if GP is wrong. The east invades and serves the gods below, fuck them. But the north invades and says it is the will of the gods above. Well fuck them too! The queen is a villain? She’s from Callow, fighting for Callow. And even the priests just said “well fuck the holy decree”, good to know they are from Callow too. She’ went to deal with the dead king? Oh ,it was to fuck with Procer? Yeah that sounds like her.
And then they find out she torched the place. Thats classic Black Queen. Good ol Cat, best ruler in forever
Well, first of all, Callowans just had Procer declare all of them to be heritics, infuriating them.
Second, there is an aspect here of proof of hostility to the Dead King. As in “see, the Black Queen didn’t really ally the Dead King, she was there less than a sennight and she burned down some buildings and murdered the true villain – the Dread Empress. The Black Queen was obviously planning to doublecross the Dead King from the beginning.”
Thus continuing Cat’s pattern of walking the fine line of an anti-hero.
The threefold reflection is a bit of a scary name for the place. Very similar situation to the threefold crossing. In the home field of an opponent who’s all but invited her to metaphorically cross swords, with it being the blatant major trial in her path.
Not a great situation if there is any connection as far as the nature of the trap, considering Black failed it outright and Cat’s crooked crossing of it ended up with her chained to Akua’s will until she mutilated herself to get out.
Well, the similarity is in “threefold”, but threes have always been relevant to the story. I don’t put that much stock in this particular coincidence.
Unless I’m misremembering, Akua’s trial was the “fourfold crossing.” Not threefold.
The Four Catherines were Canon, White Knight, Smuggler Queen, and Legionary.
Thanks. I didn’t remember the name and assumed they had it right.
To top that off, it was called a Fourfold Crossing: Catherine’s first “fight” with Akua was an illusion too, and here she has enough of smoke and mirrors of her own.
Burnsy
Thief: “So how’d you get a name like that?”
Thief of Stars: “I stole the jewels from the crown of a Dread Empress, said to be as many and as beautiful as the stars themselves.”
Thief: “Neat. I stole an actual star once. From a demi-god”
Nethermore
Thief’s answer is beyond perfect here. Thanks for making me laugh.
oaclo
Man, am I crazy or has this whole story been setting up Cat for a Fisher King ‘story’?
It’s been established that the Fae come back in cycles every time they die and she is definitely a Fae at this point. Seeing as there apparently no more Winter Fae on their continent, would it be too crazy for her to revive in the winters when Callow is threatened for eternity?
jacobhollander
As Russia has General Winter so does Callow have Catherine Foundling. Don’t invade in winter or prepare for an army of undead suicide goats and excessive usage of goblinfire.
The king here certainly felt like the Fisher King in a lot of ways, honestly.
Interesting. I start to wonder if the Dead King’s scheme includes the idea of having Cat kill a guest and using the slight to drive her into a (more) unfavorable bargaining position.
Her bargaining position can not get much more undesireble. She is in a bidding war with Malicia for the Dead Kings help, trying to limit casualities while neither of the other two care the least bit about dead civilians.
At least one of them might well find dead civilians very useful in fact.
Oh yes. I meant he might have a catch 22 in place. Kill Malicia, you’re screwed. Don’t kill Malicia, you’re screwed.
EE, is the necromancy that powers the Revenants and the undead of the Dead King a sustained endeavor or is it similar to Still Water in that it only required a spark of magic to initiate?
Shouldn’t Hakram use Find to, well… find Malicia?
She’s the main user of Nefarious’ certified remotely controlled puppets. Hakram’s Find is a nerfed version of Providence as applied to directions, relying on it (especially in that particular situation) is more or less repeating Hanno’s mistakes.
Sure, but how is following food any better? Presumably both the puppet and Malicia herself need to eat so it’s not as if the current method differentiates between them. Using Find would probably be a lot quicker.
The situation is also quite different than with Hanno. Black knew the White Knight was on the opposite side of the battlefield and had a good idea of when the engagement was going to happen. Malicia likely doesn’t know Cat is after her, hell she might not even know Cat’s in Keter.
His Find is not a perception, but a luck based Aspect. He does not sense where something is, when he Finds something it is where it was, but he simply was at the right place at the right time. So he could wander around and Find her, but… He’d be alone and impossibilitated from doing anything for the moment. Not the best of plans.
Is that right? I don’t recall it being stated as luck though I might be missing it.
It does seem to give him a sense of where something is though. Read through the Extra Chapter: Deadhand – the Aspect very clearly nudges him along in a particular directions to find Thief.
My take FWIW
Cat is badly overmatched here. She should tell the Dead King that she cannot meet his terms because it will lead to the destruction of Callow and further, she has no wish to bid against the arrest Empress, her ally. She should then tell the Dead King she will continue to fight the crusade and hope he will join that fight as an ally and friend. She should then go home due to the religious mess in her Kingdom. Then, she should find out if the Dead King will let her leave.
Run away. Run the fuck far away. Let Malicia cut the deal with the human embodiment of evil. Go home Cat and live to fight another day.
Killing Malicia is INSANE. Foolish. Deluded. You are making it an enemy of the empire and the Dead King.
Oh one last thing: stop letting the Diabolist talk. She cannot he trusted and is manipulating you. Kill her now before she becomes a the client at
I think the previous chapter explained pretty well why this is not an option.
The Silvertongue seems like a good Name to transition to. (:
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Steve Perry Drops Suit to Prevent the Release of Old Demos
Mike Coppola, Getty Images
Former Journey singer Steve Perry has dropped a lawsuit that he filed last November to stop some demos he made in the early '90s from being heard by the public. The case was scheduled to go to trial on June 25.
The news comes via the Blast, who saw the court documents. Instead of suing, Perry will attend mediation with Phil Brown, the musician with whom Perry recorded the tracks, at an unknown date this month.
Perry cut the demos on an eight-track recorder in Brown's garage for $1,500. According to the original court filings, Perry said that “he did not perform them as he would if the recordings were intended for public release," that the singer "owns all intellectual property rights in said vocal performances" and "Brown abandoned any claim to those performances in 2002.”
However, after Perry's Traces came out in October 2018 and put him back in the public eye, Brown began making noises about releasing the tapes. A month later a judge granted Perry's request for a Temporary Restraining Order to prevent the demos from coming out until the case could he heard in court.
In response, Brown has maintained that he "has at all times maintained both creative and physical control over the Brown/Perry songs. As such, under long-standing controlling authority, Brown had, and continues to have, the right to independently license, sell, perform, or otherwise monetize the four Brown/Perry songs without the consent of his co-author, Perry, so long as Brown later accounts to Perry for Perry’s portion of any resultant proceeds."
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Source: Steve Perry Drops Suit to Prevent the Release of Old Demos
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55 Years Ago: Rock ’n’ Roll Fireball Alan Freed Dies
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Theoretical perspectives on using epidemiology and systems thinking to better understand the aetiology and prevention of distance running-related injury
- Hulme, Adam
Hulme, Adam
Text; Thesis; PhD
https://library.federation.edu.au/record=b2746669
On a global scale, the sporting activity of distance running has increased in popularity. This is likely attributable to a growing societal concern for the documented rise in several lifestyle-related chronic diseases. As a form of exercise, running provides significant beneficial effects on a range of biomedical health indices, and is the preferred physical activity of choice for many people given its high accessibility and relatively low financial cost. Notwithstanding the many health-related benefits associated with running, the risk of sustaining a distance running-related injury (RRI) can be high. Therefore, from an injury prevention perspective, understanding why runners sustain RRI is of primary scientific importance. Over the last fifty years, the science behind RRI causation and prevention has attracted considerable interest amongst sports injury prevention researchers. During that time, there has been a concerted scholarly effort to understand the aetiology of RRI from an epidemiological and clinical research-based standpoint. Traditional scientific approaches have attempted to identify the effect of discrete trainingrelated, behavioural, and/or biomechanical exposures on the risk of developing either general or specific RRI. Despite what is now a considerable body of work, several descriptive and systematic reviews have found a history of previous injury to be the only definitive risk factor for subsequent RRI development. Alongside the continuing application of traditional scientific approaches, this PhD thesis promotes the use of a complementary ‘systems thinking’ theoretical perspective for better understanding the development and prevention of RRI. There are several contained chapters, the first of which is a systematic review of the RRI aetiological literature. After examining in closer detail the causal mechanism underpinning RRI development, a series of papers urge injury prevention scientists to consider drawing on alternative philosophical perspectives when planning and designing research. In building on the preceding arguments, the final chapters involve the construction of a systems ergonomics control structure model of the Australian distance running system, including the way RRI is managed and controlled.; Doctor of Philosophy
Copyright Adam Hulme
Injury prevention; Aetiology; Epidemiology; Running related injury
View Details Download SOURCE1 Australian Digital Thesis 5 MB Adobe Acrobat PDF View Details Download
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10 Cheap Verizon iPhones For Sale in 2020
If your income is not much and want to experience an iPhone, you must check out the listed Verizon iPhones for sale below. We know that iPhones don’t come cheap because of the premium quality. So, we’ve listed certified renewed phones within your budget.
These phones have been tested by the professionals so that you don’t get faulty hardware. The body might have some scratches here and there from the previous usage. Thinking of overall quality, we think these are better options than buying cheap Android phones.
10 cheap Verizon phones for sale without contract
In the beginning, you will get some cheap Verizon phones for sale without a contract but the phones, in the end, aren’t that cheap. That’s because of their specifications and being not so old models.
1. Apple iPhone SE, 32GB
This is the cheapest phone on this list of iPhones for sale that you can use on Verizon’s network. Also, it is the last iPhone that comes with a small screen. We thought people don’t like small screens anymore but the stock clearance sale and other statistics are showing that people still love this iPhone model.
Apple iPhone SE, 32GB, Space Gray - For Verizon...
This device is locked to Verizon only and not compatible with any other carrier.
The device does not come with headphones or a SIM card. It does include a charger and charging cable...
Inspected and guaranteed to have minimal cosmetic damage, which is not noticeable when the device is...
If you want a phone that fits any pocket size, compact, and easy to carry around, you should go with this one. Some good old features like the front-mounted fingerprint scanner, power button on top, and headphone jack can still be enjoyed on this phone.
That’s why most of the seniors love this phone. With Verizon cell phone plans for seniors, it will be the most intelligently chosen pack of all. However, the iPhone SE is officially discontinued. So, you’ll only get to buy the renewed phones now.
The phone has a 4” Retina display that is made with IPS technology so that you can experience a realistic screen quality.
Its Li-Po 1624 mAh battery is capable of keeping it awake for a maximum of 10 days in standby mode and 13 hours of 4G internet browsing.
The iPhone SE is compatible with Wi-Fi calling, VoLTE, and FaceTime calling so that you get a great video calling experience.
Inside, it has a 64-bit A9 chip with an embedded M9 motion coprocessor for the lag-free gaming experience.
Regarding memory capacity, the RAM is 2GB and the ROM is 32GB to store enough photos and videos in high resolution.
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2. Apple iPhone 6s, 64GB
This is the last iPhone that has a headphone jack and that’s why many people still want to buy one. With bigger memory, better build quality, and more features, we think this one is worth your money.
Apple iPhone 6S, 64GB, Rose Gold - For AT&T /...
Locked to the GSM network and only compatible with GSM carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Metro. Will...
The screen quality might not be up to the standard considering its price but it still is good enough. The 3D touch feature and the stable operating system will surely impress you. Moreover, it has the strongest material used in smartphones to this day which is aluminum 7000 series. With the ion-strengthened glass and strong body, you get an iPhone to use for several years.
The iPhone 6s is also officially discontinued and you won’t even find one from Apple’s stock clearance sale. However, you can get it from the above link and order it with the best price available out there.
The phone has a 4.7” Retina display that is made with IPS technology with a resolution of 750 x 1334 pixels.
Its Li-Ion 1715 mAh battery is capable of keeping it awake for a maximum of 240 hours in standby mode and 14 hours of 3G internet browsing.
The iPhone 6s has a Touch ID fingerprint sensor for security, 3-axis gyro, Accelerometer for tracking, and ambient light sensor for auto-brightness control.
3. Apple iPhone 6S Plus, 64GB
There are not many differences between the 6s and 6s Plus. We have listed the 6s and 6s Plus instead of 6 and 6 Plus because you can get better iPhones with a little bit of extra money.
Apple iPhone 6S Plus, 64GB, Rose Gold - Fully...
Fully unlocked and compatible with any carrier of choice (e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon,...
With a bigger screen, this phone also has a better screen quality. The contrast ratio of the 6s is 1300:1 where the 6s Plus has 1400:1. So, you get sharper and rich in color image quality.
The camera quality of both iPhones is good as usual. But with optical image stabilization, we think you should better go with this one. So, let’s have a look at only the different key features of the 6s Plus from the iPhone 6s.
The phone has a 5.5” Retina display that is made with IPS technology with a resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels.
It has a bigger battery that is 2750 mAh and you can get a maximum of 384 hours of standby time and 24 hours of talk time.
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4. Apple iPhone 7, 32GB
Though Apple has failed to impress us with the design, they surely caught our attention with the specs. The smartphone manufacturer is not producing this model anymore but you can still find some new one at their stock clearance sale. So, check those out before the stock runs out or buy our listed renewed phone with much lower price.
Apple iPhone 7 Matte Black 32GB Verizon Unlocked...
Renewed products look and work like new. These Pre-Owned products have been inspected and tested by...
New 12MP camera, optical image stabilization, Quad-LED true Tone Flash, and live Photos LTE Advanced...
An entirely new camera system. The brightest, most colorful iPhone display ever. The fastest...
Now, a lower price doesn’t indicate that you’re getting a fake or faulty device. These are refurbished phones and you get the same performance as a new one. You’ll only notice some scratches for the previous use. The iPhone 7 comes with a better chipset and more processing power to support lag-free gaming.
Also, it has an IP67 rating which will save your phone from small accidents. The build quality is the same as previous models which are durable enough. Though this is an old model iPhone, you’ll still be able to upgrade it to iOS 13.2 and all the latest software updates. Let’s see the upgraded key features of the iPhone 7 compared to the iPhone 6s.
Its Li-Ion 1960 mAh battery is capable of 40 hours of music play and 14 hours of 3G internet browsing.
The iPhone 7 has great taptic engine feedback, front-mounted fingerprint sensor, improved camera quality, and better battery life.
Inside, it has a 64-bit A10 Fusion 16 nm chip with PowerVR Series7XT Plus 6-core graphics for a lag-free gaming experience.
5. Apple iPhone 7, 256GB
Apple iPhone 7 256GB Unlocked GSM Quad-Core Phone...
4.7-inch Retina HD LED-backlit Display with IPS Technology, 1334 x 750 pixels with...
iOS, Chipset: Apple A10 Fusion Chip, Processor: Quad-Core 2.34 GHz, GPU: PowerVR Series7XT (Six-Core...
12MP Camera with f/1.8, 28mm lens, 1/3 inch Sensor Size & 7MP Front Camera with f/2.2 aperture
This is the same model as the previous one and its one of the great deals among all Verizon iPhones for sale. Some of us love to take photos and selfies a lot and having 32GB internal memory is not enough. That’s why we’ve listed a 256GB version so that no one returns empty-handed. Moreover, from the iPhone 7, Apple is making the phones waterproof.
The internal memory configuration is 2GB+256GB which is more than enough to store thousands of high-resolution photos.
It has a contrast ratio of 1603:1 which is better than the iPhone 6s.
6. Apple iPhone 7 Plus, 32GB
Apple iPhone 7 Plus, 32GB, Rose Gold - For Verizon...
The iPhone 7 Plus is also almost the same as the iPhone 7 and you’ll love this version if you are a big-screen lover. The screen size, display quality, and battery capacity are improved in the iPhone 7 Plus.
Its Li-Ion 2900 mAh battery is capable of 384 hours of standby time and 21 hours of talk time so that you never run out of charge within your work hours.
With its 12MP+7MP camera setup, you’ll be able to capture the moment without missing any detail.
Getting an iPhone 8 with a very low budget is no big deal with Verizon phone deals for existing customers. Here, we’re presenting renewed phones which will satisfy you with its official certification for ultimate quality.
Apple iPhone 8, 64GB, Silver - For Verizon...
Apple did not give enough effort to make the successor of the iPhone 7. Same design with some improvements here and there and you got the latest iPhone in 2017. This phone can still beat many Android phones at the same price.
We were not impressed with the battery capacity and that’s why you should go with the iPhone 8 Plus if you don’t have any problem with the big displays. But it has a fast-charging feature which makes half of the battery charged within 30 minutes.
Its Li-Ion 1821 mAh battery is capable of 40 hours of continuous music playback, 14 hours of talk time, 13 hours of video playback, and 12 hours of internet use.
The iPhone 8 has the Dolby Digital Plus sound system, the latest Bluetooth, audio, and video calling technology, fingerprint sensor, and face detection capability.
Inside, it has a 64-bit Apple A11 10nm Bionic chip with a 3-core Apple GPU for the lag-free gaming experience.
Apple iPhone 8, 256GB, Red - For Verizon (Renewed)
This phone is for use with Verizon and is also Unlocked for GSM and CDMA carriers.
4. 7-Inch (diagonal) widescreen LCD multi-touch display with IPS technology and Retina HD display
Splash, water, and dust resistant
This is the exact same model as the previous one but the 256GB version. So, there’s not much to talk about it. We think you should select this version if you really like the iPhone 8. However, the screen quality is better than the iPhone 7.
Regarding memory capacity, the RAM is 2GB and the ROM is 256GB to store enough photos and videos in high resolution.
Apple iPhone 8 Plus, 64GB, Space Gray - For...
The iPhone 8 Plus is slightly better than the iPhone 8 in terms of screen quality, camera setup, and battery capacity. This one also has a fast-charging capability with a wireless charging feature. If you need a bigger screen size for gaming and internet browsing, you should buy this one.
Its Li-Ion 2691 mAh battery is capable of 60 hours of continuous music playback and 21 hours of talk time.
With 12MP+12MP dual camera setup on the back, you get picture quality like no other previous models.
10. Apple iPhone X, 256GB
This is not a very old model like other iPhones on the list. So, the price is a bit higher and you should consider this one instead of the iPhone 8. From Apple’s official site, you can get the refurbished phone for way higher price than the one listed here.
Apple iPhone X, 256GB, Space Gray - For Verizon...
12MP Rear Camera / 7MP Front Camera
An all-new 5.8-inch Super Retina screen with all-screen OLED Multi-Touch display
With great Verizon business cell phone plans, this phone will the perfect assistant for your employees. With other helpful features, the screen quality of this phone is dramatically improved than the previous version.
It has Super Retina OLED capacitive touchscreen technology which provides one of the world’s best display quality. Moreover, it has a bigger screen size, more battery capacity, and huge memory capacity.
The phone has a 5.8” Retina display that is made with IPS technology with a resolution of 1125 x 2436 pixels and 120Hz touch-sensing.
Its Li-Ion 2716 mAh battery is capable of 60 hours of continuous music playback, 21 hours of talk time.
The iPhone X has 15W fast-charging and Qi wireless charging capability with all other basic features that you expect from an iPhone.
That’s all about the Verizon iPhones for sale with a low price range. But we know that there are some low-income families that can’t even afford this pricing. That’s why there are offers with Verizon wireless free government phones including Verizon internet for low-income families. So, everyone in the country of freedom gets the benefit of cellular network, 4G internet, and have the chance to improve their lifestyle.
Final Recommendation
If you have enough cash in your pocket, you should order the Apple iPhone X, 256GB. Honestly, the price you’re getting is the best for such specification and performance. But if you have a low budget, you must check out the Apple iPhone SE, 16GB which is the cheapest among all Verizon iPhones for sale.
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Nazis Belong In The Past
To the generation with parents and grandparents who fought in the Second World War and who learned about the Holocaust, Fascism and the dangers of far right radicalisation on the school curriculum Nazism seemed a horror consigned to the most shameful parts of modern history. It was unthinkable that an ideology as discriminative and inhumane as that followed by a man who wanted to eradicate an entire religion from the face of the planet could ever once again be seriously entertained as political theory. But make a comeback it has, in a manner that needs to be exposed a great deal more publicly than it has been.
It is important that Nazism as a term is clearly defined. I am not using the word as a euphemism here or as a substitute for far right hatred, for which it is often mistakenly used. I am using the word literally. There are a growing number of people today who genuinely claim to be Nazis in the sense that they admire the doctrine of Adolf Hitler and share his hatred of the Jewish people.
Nazism, simply put, is the political doctrine of the German Nazi party in the 1940s. The key elements were a belief in a superior “master” race, a nationalistic plan for expansion of German lands and a deeply entrenched anti-Semitism underpinning the belief that Jewish people (and others) were racially impure and therefore “not deserving of life.”
There is some debate as to whether Fascism started as a left wing ideology. In modern debate this stems from both a misunderstanding of the term “National Socialism” and a determination from those of a far right persuasion who do not identify as Nazis to smear the political left with a perceived link to the Nazi philosophy. A full discussion of Socialism, Nationalism and Capitalism is beyond the remit of this article but stated very simply Socialism is a political theory that advances the well-being of those worst off in society, advocates state owned utilities (think NHS) and promotes democratic consensus and the voice of the people. Fascism is an elitist political system where the government is heavily influenced by non-state run businesses run for Capitalist gain, the focus is on Nationalistic identity rather than individualism and the voice of those in power is closer to dictatorship than democracy (think Hitler).
On a first reading some items on the National Socialist Party’s 25 point plan do read as being close to Socialist principles. Specifically “All citizens must have equal rights and obligations,” and “We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens,” sound to echo Socialist values. But it is important these points are read with regard to the overall context which is that citizens are defined solely within the Nationalistic sense of being German born. This is specifically pointed out in the doctrine – “Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race.” The underpinning premise of National Socialism was the pursuit of inequality based on Nationalism. In no sense of the word could this divisive ideology be considered to be Socialism.
The Nazis of the 21st century refer to themselves as Neo Nazis. This is essentially 1940s Nazism stripped right back to those key principles of inequality and division. Neo Nazism does not even make the pretence to be advancing the rights of citizens, it is focused entirely on the dehumanisation and objectification of those it does not deem to be worthy of citizenship. In seeking to create divisions Neo Nazism has retained the anti-Semitism of old but the focus and obsession with racial purity (translated – they only like white people) has also contributed to a rise in Islamophobia and anti Muslim hatred.
Whereas Nazism was abhorrent in believing dehumanisation to be a means to an end Neo Nazism is abhorrent for seeing it as an end in itself. Neo Nazism is not political theory it is an attempt to justify the thuggery, ignorance and hatred of a bored and vicious minority sector of modern youth.
Neo Nazism first found its home on social media, primarily on Twitter and hate sites like The Daily Stormer but is also now spreading to far right social media sites like GAB which have been specifically envisioned to create right wing echo chambers. The rise of Neo Nazis on social media is a serious concern because it exposes the young and the naïve to a radical doctrine of hate and dehumanisation. News events like the appointment of Donald Trump to the American presidency and in particular his appointment of Breitbart anti-Semite Stephen Barron to the position of his senior advisor have given Neo Nazis the self-illusion of having credible acceptable views and provided them with the confidence to keep posting their hate on public forums.
The inability to act from social media giants (we have seen evidence that Facebook allow private groups which discuss “alternative” ways to stop UK immigration), entertainment sites (why is Holocaust Denier Alison Chabloz allowed to sing her venom on YouTube?), web search companies (Up until last month the auto correction on Google for “Was the holocaust….?” ended in “a hoax,”) main stream media (LBC continue to employ Katie Hopkins despite her publicly endorsing anti-Semitic Twitter accounts) ISPs (why is white supremacist forum Stormfront not blocked in the UK?) and the government (Why is racist hate group Britain First not proscribed?) have all been instrumental in allowing this resurgence in Neo Nazism.
The online upsurge in Neo Nazism has morphed into physical acts and violence around the world. In America a group of armed white supremacists plan to march through Montana as a “protest” against Jewish people and Jewish run businesses. In the UK youth group National Action were allowed to make numerous street “protests” and hold rallies openly inciting hate against Jewish people before finally being proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Following many complaints by ourselves and others to Twitter, National Action spokesman Jack Renshaw* has finally had his account suspended. The Prevent program in the UK which attempts to identify young people in danger of radicalisation has reported a massive 74% spike in far right referrals. Even more worryingly is the fact that 300 of those are reported to be under 18 with some as young as ten.
Most people have heard the quotation from George Santayana; “Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them, ” and the sentiment is true. It is imperative that the horrors of Nazism never leave our educational syllabus. Every generation must be taught how the pursuit of a far right nationalistic doctrine can end in devastation and genocide.
And those of us who were taught about Nazism at school? We have learned our history. We do not have the excuse that we are uneducated or uninformed. We have learned the dangers of an extremist far right ideology, we have learned the consequences of Nazism, of radical expansionist Nationalism. We have learned what happens when human beings are dehumanised and abused. Yet despite this knowledge and our bitter understanding of where a path to Neo Nazism would take our countries we are still failing to take the action needed to stamp out the Nazi resurgence before it indoctrinates our young and our vulnerable into hatred.
Those of us who are unwilling to use what we have learned from history and teach the next generation are doomed to watch our children repeat the mistakes of the past.
Nobody can change 1939-1945 but anybody could change 2017.
Image of suitcases at Auschwitz Museum above used with kind permission of Time Travel Turtle (@MichaelTurtle)
*Looks like a 12 year old choirboy, here is a picture.
Alison Chabloz0Anti Semitism0Britain First0Donald Trump0Far Right0Fascism0Hate Speech0Jack Renshaw0National Socialism0Nationalism0Naziism0Neo Nazis0Steve Bannon0WWII0You Tube
⟵Claiming 2017 Back From The Haters
Claire Khaw – Nazi Promotes Infanticide⟶
3 thoughts on “Nazis Belong In The Past”
Fridge says:
Why isn’t racism in this as a teenager I was beaten up quite commonly for being a kid who hung about with coloured kids,although that’s not the term that was used.you talk about neo Nazi far right ideology to our kids,presume you mean our white kids?but you seem not to mention that all kids are being radicalized no matter their colour. Is it then OK for some kids to be radicals? The people in power only care for the money they can make and social standing they can attain. These are supposed to be the ones who are leading and guiding us,but they as a whole lack any moral compass it seems that the compass has broken we are either far right or far left
Ciaran Goggins says:
Communism is surely as vile as fascism. It tells folks what to think, as you do. Alison Chabloz? Gagged, Jack Renshaw, jailed. Raybould, hunted.
Chabloz – Antisemitic, found guilty by the courts
Renshaw – Nazi, found guilty by the courts
Raybould – Fail d0x.
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1 800 920 0539 | Contact Us
Solar Panel Maintenance & Cleaning
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Emergency on a Hospital Roof
by Ernie Cecchetto on September 28, 2015
How could someone die of a heart attack on the roof of a hospital?…
You would think that being in such close proximity to the people who could save your life would make this situation impossible right? But it actually happened.
It was a warm summer day and the roofing company contracted to replace the roof on the hospital was in the process of removing the heavy gravel ballast. One of the labourers was hauling material and it was obviously extremely strenuous. Consequently, the man suffered a heart attack…and following emergency protocol, the foreman called 911. Being on the roof created extreme access challenges and taking the man off the roof wasn’t an option for the crew. They needed to wait for emergency responders to get to the scene and stabilize the individual.
This is where things took a turn for the extreme worse. Ambulance attendants were instructed by 911 dispatchers to get to the 4th or 5th level of the hospital. It was obviously incredibly confusing and the responders who arrived at the scene didn’t realize the patient was on the roof…and if they did, they wouldn’t have a clue that the only access point was in an obscure stairwell on the other side of the building.
The man succumbed to the trauma. I can’t help but think he could have been around today if emergency services had access to the building drawings or something that would have lead them directly to the location.
The newly crowned BOMA Pinnacle Award for Innovation – Emergency Response Portal is trying to help!
http://www.emergencyresponseportal.org/
If you’d like to know more about their service, toss me a message or drop them an email.
info@emergencyresponseportal.org
Ernie CecchettoEmergency on a Hospital Roof 09.28.2015
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Scrapping area assemblies ‘wrong move’, says Rotherham councillor
Posted on June 1, 2017 by Rik
AN OPPOSITION councillor labelled scrapping area assemblies “a step in the dark” as members voted in favour of the move.
The ruling Labour group says the meetings format – introduced in 2000 – is outdated and focuses too much on residents’ problems.
The seven area assemblies will be axed and the money – including chairs’ allowances – will be given directly to councillors to spend in their community.
Read on… http://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/view,scrapping-area-assemblies-wrong-move-says-rotherham-councillor_22790.htm
This entry was posted in Abuse of power and tagged Allen Cowles, Labour Chicanery, Labour Party, RMBC, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, UKIP by Rik. Bookmark the permalink.
11 thoughts on “Scrapping area assemblies ‘wrong move’, says Rotherham councillor”
malcontent on June 1, 2017 at 4:23 pm said:
When Area assemblies were introduced we were told “any” questions could be asked at them and now we are told people use them just to moan. Well there’s certainly plenty to moan about in this town which has been in Labour control since before the second world war.
Colin Tawn on June 1, 2017 at 4:35 pm said:
This is another shady move by the ruling Labour group to stifle debate. If there are no reports of complaints then in La La Labour Land everything must be OK.
‘Workers have nothing to complain about in a Socialist utopia’.
More worrying is the report the money saved will be given to councillors. Why?
Didn’t C.Read Esq. say he would run RMBC on more prudent lines, if so then the money saved should go into the treasury pot?
Murphy’s Law: Expenditure increases to meet income.
Scrap the forum where genuine concerns and complaints can be aired then sweeten the deal by giving councillors extra (taxpayers) money.
You couldn’t make this up.
big bird . on June 1, 2017 at 6:42 pm said:
what are area assemblies for if not for people to air problems in there area ? what a loads of ……….
Dave Smith on June 1, 2017 at 7:59 pm said:
I dread to think what the three numpties in Dinnington will spend the money on, they will be meeting away from the public gaze to decide where the money will go. You can bet it will be spent in the best way that suits the Labour Party. I have attended many area assemblies and the people that don’t turn up are the borough councillors, with this decision they are off the hook. We can’t even get them to attend a Town Council meeting once a month, so I definitely don’t trust them with the money.
Clifton Labour on June 1, 2017 at 9:07 pm said:
This was all about protecting Rose McNeeley & Taiba Yaseen
Mcneeley: former chair of standards, former cabinet member, former mayor and Akhtars patsy throughout the bulk of the CSE years
Yaseen: Biraderi chief, British Muslim Youth member, “Rotherham 12” organiser, And current cabinet member responsible for getting shut of area assemblies.
– too many area assemblies = too many minutes.
Most people want ‘Owd Rosie to pass on into obscurity without much more ado than a breeze of stale fag-smoke. Noone knows what to do with Yaseen.
Keep yer eyes peeled
pleasant on June 1, 2017 at 9:08 pm said:
The same is happening this side of the road. The traitorous anti-democratic contemptuous anti-Corbyn self-absorbed fake labourites are behaving like Stalinists, hiding away, refusing to be held to account, closing opportunities to speak out, and silencing complaint. Where are the commissioners? Are they mere useless, toothless puppets? If labour is genuine and truthful about people having a say, people will come, but not when they realise that the public meetings are nothing but a sham. Local labour is a disgrace, shame on them.
Caven vines on June 1, 2017 at 9:28 pm said:
Yes but everyone connected to them
Close ranks and protect them
Nothing changes
As soon as they get powers back upto
Same old tricks
Phil on June 1, 2017 at 9:47 pm said:
They even verbally attack and bully their own party members at meetings when they held to account.
Margaret on June 1, 2017 at 10:04 pm said:
Explains why only a handful and mostly cllrs or those on payroll bother 2 turnup
S Thornton on June 2, 2017 at 10:49 pm said:
“the money will be given to Councillors”, What a joke. Each councillor is already given £1000 per year “leadership fund” ( what leadership ?.) This money is Taxpayers money, that they are giving back to us and they expect us to be great full . Most do not even achieve to spend the money in that financial year, and the under spend just disappears back into the RMBC coffers. The money that is given away normally only goes to groups that Labour Councillors think will vote for them. But even worse is that its been show that in an election year, the Labour councillors actually manage to increase the “give away”, I wonder why.
Instead of giving the money to the numpty councillors, just reduce the Council tax. Lastly, In these time of “austerity”, Jeza`s words not mine, have our Labour councillors voted to take a pay cut. Pigs might fly and jezza might press the button.
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Greater Rochester Track Club
Location: Rochester, NY US 14692
Nearby Races
The Greater Rochester Track Club (GRTC) traces its origins back to July 1, 1958 when the old Rochester Track Club (RTC) was founded. Peter Todd, current cross country and track coach at the Rochester Institute of Technology was elected as the President and served as such until 1976. Along with Todd, the original members of the RTC were Herb Wabnitz, Gary Thompson, Jerry Fuhrman and Ed Duncan. The club chose red and white as their official colors because four of the five founding members were students at Cortland State, whose colors - yep, you guessed it - just happened to be red and white. That first summer the RTC team won just one team trophy and ended the year with seventeen members.
Early stars of the RTC were Ed Duncan who, as a nineteen year old college sophomore was 10th in the 1961 Boston Marathon, and along with Jack Coons, Dick Ashley and Don Brown put the club on the map. In 1966, Track & Field News voted the RTC one of the top five distance teams in the country.
Trent Jackson, another early RTC member, represented the U.S. in the 1960 Olympics, pulling up lame in the semi-finals of the 100M dash. Gold medalist (Bullet) Bob Hayes was the only runner to beat Trent at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon that year. In fact, Trent Jackson still holds the national high school record for 100 yard dash at 9.4 seconds. In 1971 Trent became the inaugural inductee into the RTC Hall of Fame.
The early Rochester Track Club was a distance-oriented team. At this time the Tuesday evening summer track meets were the core of the club’s activities. These meets served as qualifiers for the East Avenue Mile.
In 1976 the RTC merged with both the Rochester Road Runners and Brockport’s College City Striders Club to become the Greater Rochester Track Club. Bill Quinlisk, now the president of the Genesee Valley Harriers, became the president of the new club and guided its growth until 1979 when he handed the reins over to one of the first women presidents of a major running club, Uta Allers. The innovative Ms. Allers served until 1981 when top masters runner Dick Withrow became the club’s third president. The GRTC saw a dramatic increase in membership to nearly 2000 by 1983. Along with the running boom came the amazing increase in numbers, size and quality of local races.
From that one team trophy won by the RTC in 1958, the GRTC has grown to a total of winning over 20 national championships and over 200 team championships in both regional and state-level competition. Over the years more than 10,000 different athletes have competed for the Greater Rochester Track Club.
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Rochester, NY US 14692
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Leaving Alaska…
“At some point we knew it would be time to leave Alaska. Leaving Hoonah would be hard, we’d made so many good friends here in this part of the world that’s refreshingly faraway from mainstream living. Alaska is exactly what we’d been searching for really but, like everything perfect, it couldn’t be forever. ” Dave
Somewhat belatedly we’ve now written up a transcript of our long voyage from Alaska to Mexico from August to November last year. This forms part of our ‘Where Are We Now’ section of our website that details everything since we left the Mediterranean in 2006.
Mexico is a new experience for us. We’re back in a third world environment to some degree although many Mexicans will argue with that description of their country, but compared to mainland America that’s perhaps what it is. We had to give up our plans for the Northwest Passage route home because of problems with our Volvo Penta engine, so Mexico is our only option considering that we have to make for Panama and the Panama Canal.
Ahead of us await hurricanes, salsa and that curious phenomenon called Donald Trump’s wall… something that many Alaskans are massively in favour of even when considering there are exceptionally few Mexicans in Alaska…
If you are interested in reading our rather lengthy transcript then please click the following link.
Alaska to Mexico 2017 >
Sailing Alaska to Mexico
Sailing Vessel Sanna Latest News
San Diego Experience… Let’s Get To Mexico…
“Whilst I kneeled behind Marie to listen in on the speaker a guy walked around the corner of the building then stopped suddenly when he saw me kneeling right behind Marie on her hands and knees. “Whoa,” he said, “I’m sorry to interrupt you, it’s a free world and you guys should do what you wanna do.” He sheepishly disappeared back around the corner embarrassed. Marie and I looked at each other quite shocked.” Dave.
The Harbour Police office had a notice posted saying that all transiting vessels must use the communication kiosk located at the outside corner of the building. The notice said this provided a link to the main police office downtown for processing incoming boat traffic and arranging for the requisite vessel inspection… except the kiosk didn’t do any of that. There was a keyboard on the kiosk but some of the keys didn’t work, so when dialling any of the four numbers given we then received a message on the screen saying we’d dialled an incorrect number. After fifteen minutes of trying our luck with the keyboard we somehow struck lucky and got the number right, a faint voice on the line then gave instructions that we could not quite make out because the voice seemed to be coming from somewhere around our feet…
Continue reading “San Diego Experience… Let’s Get To Mexico…” →
San Diego Port Of Entry
San Francisco Sailing
“First off, a storm sized wave swamped our stern sending our bucket under the steering wheel which then jammed, that then tripped our autopilot which meant we broached beam-on to the next big green wave that nearly capsized us. All because we’d forgotten to tie down the bucket. Then the same thing happened again five minutes later because once more we didn’t tie down the bucket.” Marie
We knew we’d left things late but what could we do? Dave said everything would be fine but the engine setback in Port Townsend cost us time, precious time we couldn’t afford meaning that we’d have to make the eight hundred mile passage from Port Townsend to San Francisco towards the end of October. October is when the Pacific winter storms start to build and is why every sailor worth his salts on the American west coast who’s heading south reckons to be gone from Townsend by mid-September. October is way too late they say…
Continue reading “Storm…” →
Cape Mendocino
The Chichagof Mine
“I said the old mining camp would be nothing but trouble but we still went there. It took five days to find the mine, what happened afterwards will stay with me for the rest of my life. Then it turns out Dave knew about the rumours all along…” Henry
So we finally left Elfin Cove to head for Sitka. The route first took us east along the tide driven Lisianski Straits to the Pacific Ocean shoreline of Chichagof Island, then we laid a course southwards through the stunning outside passage – taking us between countless small islands that protected us from the worst of the long Pacific swells breaking along the outer coastline. The route, often used by Alaskan fishermen, afforded a number of secluded anchorages that we could use to day-sail our way south. It is difficult to find words to describe to you this spectacular journey, this part of Alaska that appears in no tourist guide or cruise itinerary yet must easily rank as one of the most scenic passages we’ve made since leaving the Mediterranean twelve years ago…
Read more of this post >
Chichagof Mine
Chichagof. Chichagof Island. Southeast Alaska
“Things are changing fast in Alaska and our own complex situation changes too. Life on a sailboat is often not easy and the influences of the real world create social and family pressures that are sometimes difficult to ignore. There’s always an intrinsic reason to move on…”
Together we decided to leave Alaska to slowly make our way home. Our upcoming blogs and latest news will reflect our feelings that we must perhaps face things as they really are.
In July the three of us, Marie, Henry and myself left Hoonah for the last time to sail south. We left behind exceptionally good friends we’d made during our three years there, it was a heartbreaking decision but one we deliberated knowing it was time to move on. Partly this was because of the changes in Alaska in the face of relentless growth in huge monster-sized cruise ships that often brings tacky tourism and also because of our ongoing engine issues that finally put paid to our plans to attempt a transit of the Northwest Passage… and after listening to lots of advise it was clear that we must head south to get things fixed once and for all. It’s notoriously difficult to fix an English sailboat in Alaska.
Continue reading “Latest News & Blogs…” →
Grizzly Bears Alaska
A Right Good Alaskan Adventure…
In June my youngest daughter Louise travelled out to Alaska to join me onboard Sänna. To meet up with her I sailed Sänna the forty miles or so from Hoonah to Auke Bay just north of Juneau, all the way there worried about docking solo in the absolute chaos that is Auke Bay’s Edward Statten Harbour…
All photography Copyright ©️Louise Ungless
Visit our website Sänna-uk.com
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Fish, Chips & Mushy Peas
“I will give you water and share the fish we have for food. I will teach you when to sing our song and dance our dance, but you must not then plant your flag in this land and call it your land. Your King is not our King and your Lord is not our Lord.” Chief Kaawishté of the Tlinkit, Shakes V, 1878
The First Nation fisherman from Yankee Maid asked if I’d like three king crabs they’d caught earlier in the day. Sure, I said, I’d be more than pleased to take them off him. We got talking, his name was Robbie, he was true-blood Tlinget descended directly from Kaawishté, the tribal Chief Shakes over on Shakes Island… the Naanyaa.aayí clan still reside in present day Wrangell. Robbie bought over the crabs which he’d cooked up already so I dressed them down for my favourite crab & cucumber sandwiches (always cut diagonally) and fresh-crab salad. This was just fine. Afterwards I wandered over to Yankee Maid to thank Rob again. Come aboard, he said, you can meet Gerry our cook…
chips and mushy peas
Yankee Maid
Slow Grown Alaskan Gold…
“Wes Tyler said it didn’t matter what got into our new cabin ceilings, yellow cedar could take anything without warping, twisting or bending even if we ended up at the bottom of the ocean.”
Well, our cabin ceilings and hatch linings had taken a hammering over the cold winter, condensation having formed and then frozen several times over until they began to rot. But we were in the best place to get new timber… the timber growing in Chichagoff’s Tongas Forest is probably some of the best available in the whole world…
Read about how my step-brother Gary and I both turned craftsmen and made an amazing discovery about slow growing Alaskan Gold…
You can follow our circumnavigation adventure by clicking the WordPress Follow button below or by Liking our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/sv.sanna. Our main Sänna Blog is at www.sailblogs.com/member/eastwards.
Icy Straits Lumber
Yellow Cedar
By Gum It’s Good News From Alaska
“If it wasn’t for my bad luck then l would have no luck at all. The curse of my bad luck is in my head but my good luck is always on the horizon where the sun rises every day. I head that way but the sunshine is all the time in the same place each morning when I wake. Now I am old and my bones are creaking like the bending trees in the wind I thank my good luck each day I see the sun rise from the horizon of my dreams.” Chief Eagles Fist of the Huna.
So I got a call from Braden to say there’d been a really heavy snowfall and Sänna was much too low in the water. He said many of the fishing boats in Hoonah harbour were bad but not to worry, because they’re gonna get their shovels and clear the snow as best they could. Then he called to say everything was OK but a few days later he called and said there’d been another bad storm and this time everything had froze over… meanwhile we’re sitting in the sunshine of sunny Norfolk all stressed out wondering what the hell we’ll find in a few weeks time when we get back onboard…
Continue reading “By Gum It’s Good News From Alaska” →
Our latest VIDEO production details our voyage deep into the Glacier Bay National Park from Hoonah in Southeast Alaska during 2016. Crossing the Icy Straits in gale force winds of thirty-five knots made a splendid change from endless engine work… all three of us relished the challenge of intense sailing to seek shelter in Bartlett Cove, where we needed to validate our permits with Park Rangers who vigorously restrict the number of vessels allowed into the immense Glacier Bay area. With over 3.3 million acres of rugged mountains, frozen glaciers, temperate rainforest and exceptionally wild coastlines of the St Elias Mountain Range, Glacier Bay is an undoubted challenge for any sailing vessel.
We transported photographic and video equipment ashore to find and film Alaskan wildlife at its most extreme. Please take time to view this ten minute film production expertly produced by www.davidungless.com. Continue reading “Wild Alaska” →
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Embracing Uncertainty
as life unfolds
Tag: Turtles
Mother turtle dance + stars and hermit crabs
April 5, 2019 Sara MoserLeave a comment
The night we went to the beach to look for a mother turtle was magical.
We were led by Eddie, a young Italian biologist working among fisherman on the Nicoya peninsula. His mission is to educate them about sustainable fishing as well as to do his part in preserving the sea turtles.
There were no lights other than the red light from his headlamp. Brighter lights disturb the turtles. It was a perfect clear night, and the multitude of stars seemed low enough to reach out and touch.
As we walked almost blindly, there were what seemed to be a lot of rocks or shells. Eddie shone the light at our feet and we were simultaneously delighted and horrified to see thousands of small hermit crabs scurrying around! It was impossible not to step on them, but Eddie said that our weight would just push them into the sand.
Finally, Eddie told us he had spotted an Olive Ridley turtle, but we all needed to stay back while she dug her hole. When she began laying, he said, she would go into a trance and wouldn’t be aware of our presence. When he said we could, we circled around her and watched in wonder. It’s hard to see in this picture, and you can google and see lots of clear pictures, but this is me sharing my experience of this amazing act of nature.
As we stood in awe, Eddie informed us that he had discovered that the turtle was missing a back rudder, and he suspected that the hole wasn’t deep enough. Turtle eggs are highly susceptible to predators such as raccoons and dogs, who often steal them as they are laid or shortly after. So he said that when she was finished, we would dig them up and relocate them to a deeper nest in a safer place on the beach.
After the eggs were laid, she covered them with sand, and, turning in circles, patted the sand down. This took about 20 minutes, and we could see that she was hindered by her lack of a rudder. We followed her as she made her way in the starlight to the ocean, cheering for her as she reached the water, never to see the fruit of her labor.
Eddie immediately started digging up the nest, and allowed someone in the group to assist. We were all awestruck as the count went up and up until the total of eggs was 108! The eggs were placed in a bag and passed around so we could all feel it’s weight – quite heavy! Imagine the work – this sea animal, beautiful in the water but awkward on land, hauling her already heavy body, made even heavier with these eggs,50 feet over land before releasing them from her body and returning to the sea.
While we were engrossed in the task of rescuing these eggs, Eddie spotted another turtle. By the time the last egg was recovered from the first nest, the second turtle had begun laying. We again watched the act with a reverent awe, and as this mother, with all her flippers intact, began her dance of covering the precious eggs, we could see the perfection. She patted, and twirled, and rested a bit, then repeated this over and over until she was satisfied with her work.
After we cheered her on her return trek to the ocean, it was somewhat anticlimactic to watch Eddie locate a spot to rebury the eggs. It was all a wonder, though, and I will always hold that night in my heart as one of the most amazing I have ever experienced.
Here is a link to a youtube video of an Olive Ridley giving birth, covering the eggs, and going back to the sea. It is very cool, but doesn’t capture the magic of being there on the dark beach under the blanket of stars being a part of the mystery of life.
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Living in the moment – a meditation
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Home › Interior Freedom: Experiencing The Freedom Of The Children of God
Interior Freedom: Experiencing The Freedom Of The Children of God
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It's not always possible to control external events. There are so many things that are outside our control: the past, what others think of us, chronic health issues, other peoples' actions, the weather, unforeseen events. This list goes on and on.
It is possible, though, to gain more control over our interior life.
In his book "Interior Freedom" Fr. Jacques Phillipe shows us that we possess, each of us, inside of us a space of freedom that no-one can take away. Despite the most unfavorable outward circumstances, we can claim our freedom because God is its source and its guarantee. Without this, we will always be in search for something else to fulfill us, and we will never understand true happiness.
Fr. Philippe lays out a simple but important theme: "We gain possession of our interior freedom in proportion to our growth in faith, hope, and love." He explains that the dynamism between these three theological virtues is the heart of our spiritual life, and he underscores the key role of the virtue of hope in our spiritual growth.
Written in a simple and inviting style, Interior Freedom seeks to liberate the heart and mind to live the true freedom to which God calls each of us.
View Fr. Jacques Philippe's website and App (www.frjacquesphilippe.com)
The Eight Doors of the Kingdom: Meditations on the Beatitudes
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La Trobe University Scholars
Exercise training for patients with heart failure: a systematic review of factors that improve mortality and morbidity Academic Article
View record in Web of Science ®
PURPOSE: To determine the efficacy of exercise training and its effects on outcomes in patients with heart failure. METHODS: MEDLINE, Medscape, and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Registry were searched for trials of exercise training in heart failure patients. Data relating to training protocol, exercise capacity, and outcome measures were extracted and reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 81 studies were identified: 30 randomized controlled trials, five nonrandomized controlled trials, nine randomized crossover trials, and 37 longitudinal cohort studies. Exercise training was performed in 2387 patients. The average increment in peak oxygen consumption was 17% in 57 studies that measured oxygen consumption directly, 17% in 40 studies of aerobic training, 9% in three studies that only used strength training, 15% in 13 studies of combined aerobic and strength training, and 16% in the one study on inspiratory training. There were no reports of deaths that were directly related to exercise during more than 60,000 patient-hours of exercise training. During the training and follow-up periods of the randomized controlled trials, there were 56 combined (deaths or adverse events) events in the exercise groups and 75 combined events in the control groups (odds ratio [OR] = 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.61 to 1.32; P = 0.60). During this same period, 26 exercising and 41 nonexercising subjects died (OR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.37 to 1.02; P = 0.06). CONCLUSION: Exercise training is safe and effective in patients with heart failure. The risk of adverse events may be reduced, but further studies are required to determine whether there is any mortality benefit.
Smart, Neil
Marwick, Thomas H
Exercise (MeSH)
General & Internal Medicine (Science Metrix)
Heart Failure (MeSH)
Humans (MeSH)
Middle Aged (MeSH)
Oxygen Consumption (MeSH)
Risk (MeSH)
Risk Assessment (MeSH)
Safety (MeSH)
American Journal of Medicine Journal
CORONARY PATIENTS
General & Internal Medicine
HIGH-RISK PATIENTS
LEFT-VENTRICULAR DYSFUNCTION
MYOCARDIAL-INFARCTION
Medicine, General & Internal
PHYSICAL-EXERCISE
RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED-TRIAL
SKELETAL-MUSCLE
10.1016/j.amjmed.2003.11.033
© Copyright 2020 La Trobe University Scholars. All rights reserved. La Trobe University CRICOS Provider Code Number 00115M
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eVols Repository
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Hawaiʻi Review
Hawaiʻi Review, 2010
Hawaiʻi Review, Issue 72
72 2010.pdf 5.18 MB Adobe PDF View/Open
Title: Hawaiʻi Review, Issue 72
Authors: University of Hawai'i at Mānoa
LC Subject Headings: University of Hawai'i at Mānoa--Literary Journals
Publisher: Honolulu, University of Hawaii
Series: Volume 32; Number 1
Abstract: Editor in Chief: Mizushima, Stephanie. Asst. Editor: Scott, Chad. Poetry Editor: Lee, Jared. Contents: Abels, Scott: "From Rambo Goes to Idaho." Akalis, Scott - "G.I. Kill." Berman, Ruth - "Ice Castle." Caliri, Matt - "Plumelectric Gaiameria." Ching, Donald Carreira - "Between Sky and Sea." Cook, Paul - "Gadfly." Dahl, Carolyn - "Bird's Day." Davis, William Virgil - "A Morning Like This," "Thought." Eckhart, Jade - "Sixteen Weeks." Epp, Darrell - "Pick A Letter," "No Sweat." Gallaway, Scott - "The Oak and the Woodpecker," "Preservation." Gearen, Claire - "The Geometry of Love," "Waimea Rock," "Pepe'opae Bogs, Molokai." Henderson, Derek - "A Finger I Think Across." Herman, Mimi - "The Storm," "Things Undone Around the House." Hess, Mickey - "A-hole in Germantown." Idian, Toby - "Anonymous," "Father Time," "Smile," "Masks," "E.D.I.T.S," "Hollow," "Puppet Queen," "Reaper," "Hold." Kincaid, Joan Payne - "Grimy April III," "In A Wicker Chair IV." Kingston, Katie - "Leaving," "Bicycle for My Sister," "Translating Clouds." Lehmann, Gary - "Winter Tourists Picnicking on the Beach at Sarasota, 1941." Rodrigues, Augusto (trans. Alexis Levitin) - "Among Books and Letters." Long, Jeffery Ryan - "Defender." Low, Christina - "Underestimating Dirty Berber," "Winter Storm," "Pandora's Brain." Misner, Caroline - "Hot August Night." Moan, Tamara - "The Artist," "Under the Full Moon," "Waianapanapa." Nicola, James - "Crepusculars," "Celebration." Odhiambo, David N. - "Mirage." Roy, Anjoli - "Baby." Rolland, Rebecca Givens - "Imagining the Final Destination." Paul Sacksteder - "Urban Ecology," "The Smaller Components of Driving." Talbot, Kelly - "Satellite Contemplation," "Hydroplanning." Turner, Kendall - "Fish," "Parts of Speech." Vaughan, Ashley - "The Grass is Greener," "Charge," "Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide," "I Want to Write a Poem." Whiting, Nathan - "The Concussion," "The Fearful Wave," "A Room Too Small," "A Snowflake Falls Across Ranges," "Hands Amidst Laughter." Woolfitt, William - "Displaced."
Pages/Duration: 166 pages
Appears in Collections: Hawaiʻi Review, 2010
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exhibitionsj g ballard
Car Symbolism
“[The] Institute for Research in Art & Technology encouraged cross-disciplinary work in cinema, video, print, theatre, music, photography and cybernetics. The gallery space was officially opened on 4 October 1969 and featured a poetry writing machine attached to a nearby teleprinter and another computer in Great Portland Street. The gallery shared the ground floor of the building with a small cinema and in the weeks leading up to Ballard’s exhibition the New Arts Lab’s programme included screenings of Andy Warhol’s films and an exhibition by Ian Breakwell and John Hilliard.
As advertised in Art & Artists, ‘Jim Ballard: Crashed Cars‘ took place at the gallery between 4-28 April 1970. The cars – a Pontiac, an Austin Cambridge A60 and a Mini – were hired from Charles Symmonds’s knacker’s yard, Motor Crash Repairs. ‘They don’t appeal to me as art,’ Symmonds told the Sunday Times. ‘I detest cars. But maybe it’s a good idea to show crashed cars. It’s frightening.’ Ballard’s choice of car was far from accidental. The Pontiac was a model from the mid-fifties, and thus represented a particularly baroque phase in American car styling, while the Mini symbolised the fun-loving mobility of the swinging sixties. The sober and conservative saloon, the A60, stood for the Mini’s exact antithesis. All however, through the catastrophe of the car crash, were now in a sense equivalent; smashed and levelled to the raw material of their crushed metal, broken glass, and stained upholstery…”
Text: Simon Ford, A Psychopathic Hymn: J.G. Ballard’s ‘Crashed Cars’ Exhibition of 1970.slashseconds.org
June 17, 2012 July 17, 2012 tezby
← From Inception to Inception via 2001 & Avatar
Near Mercury →
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Coalition SOF
Palestinian Killed After Attacking IDF Soldiers in Jericho
by Special Operations Feb 23, 2018
Israeli Security forces killed a Palestinian man on Thursday in the West Bank after he attacked them, an IDF spokeswoman said. The dead man was identified as Yassin al-Saradih, 33, who attacked Jewish soldiers with an iron bar during a demonstration in Jericho, officials stated.
Saradih was shot and arrested as surveillance video shows IDF soldiers kicking him as he was being led away.
Saradih also tried to seize a soldier’s weapon, according to the army spokeswoman.
The security camera footage does not clearly show an attempt to snatch a weapon.
The soldiers also later found a knife in Saradih’s possession, the spokeswoman added.
The soldiers entered Jericho on Thursday morning to arrest Palestinians wanted by the security services, according to the IDF’s Twitter account.
Ismail al-Masri, Saradih’s brother-in-law, told the official Palestinian Authority news site Wafa that “the soldiers beat Yassin in every part of his body, especially his stomach and back.”
PLO Prisoners Commission chairman Essa Qaraqaa slammed the security forces for killing Saradih.
“This is a crime, an execution and a premeditated murder,” he said in comments published on Wafa. “What happened reflects the brutality and terrorism of those soldiers.”
The Israeli military’s statement said that their troops acted responsibly. “In response to the immediate threat, the troops fired toward the assailant and confronted him from close range and were able to stop him,” the military said.
“A knife was also found in his possession. Troops evacuated him to a hospital to receive medical treatment. His death was later announced. The incident is being reviewed.”
To read the entire article from Jerusalem Post, click here:
IDF West Bank Units Using New Intelligence Methods To Combat Terror Attacks
Ceasefire Reached After Rockets, Airstrikes Produce Bloody Weekend in Gaza
Hamas Offering $1 Million Dollar Bounty For Israeli Identities in Nov. Raid
Israeli Special Forces Training Deemed Unsafe, Going Through Changes
A Dangerous IDF Special Forces Mission Goes Awry
Israeli Strikes Hamas Tunnel, Outpost and Boats in Gaza
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JobsJobs, internships,
PhDs, and more
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and other opportunites
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AdvertisePromote your jobs
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AboutWho we are and
why we made this site
Careers ResourcesInterviewsSue Horne
Credit: UK Space Agency
Sue Horne
Space Exploration Programme Manager at the UK Space Agency
Where do you work and what is your job?
I work at the UK Space Agency as Space Exploration Programme Manager.
What does your job involve?
Developing the UK Space Agency’s strategy for Space Exploration. Managing the UK instrument contributions to exploration missions mainly ExoMars. Making sure the funding is in place for the teams and that they deliver to time, budget and schedule. UK delegate to the ESA Programme Board for Human Spaceflight and Exploration. Developing the UK industrial strategy and looking after UK industries interests. Run the exploration science exploitation and outreach programmes.
What interested you in working in the space sector?
I fell into space by accident and I am so glad I did. I did an archaeological science degree, did some research and then moved to the Research Councils into a managerial role. I turned up at work one morning to find I was no longer looking after civil engineering research and had been moved into Earth Observation. That was in 1991 and they haven’t been able to move me out of the Space area since.
What do you do in a typical day?
I don’t have a typical day. It can be as wide ranging as working with a contractor to develop outreach materials, providing ministers with briefs on issues, working with a university on a technical issue, organising a conference. The only thing that is typical is that when leaving work I won’t have done what I had planned to.
Are there any other interesting aspects to your work?
Well, I have gone to some interesting places such as Svalbard (but I didn’t see a polar bear). I have been to one launch but that was Cluster 1 which exploded and I’ve not been allowed to one since. I do like the mix of science. I do meet astronauts. But the best bit is doing schools talks which I don’t manage to do often enough.
What is it about your job that fascinates or inspires you?
Why I liked managing research is that you always going into new areas. I started in building research and now I do Mars. The challenge of understanding new things is great. There are a lot of very talented scientists and engineers and I try and sort out the finance and politics to allow them to do incredible space missions.
Why is what you do important?
Answering the question, Is there life elsewhere in the universe? is important so that we can grasp where humanity fits in the big picture. The science and engineering required to do this is challenging and develops highly skilled people and new technology for the benefit of the economy. I play a role in achieving this.
What advice would you give to someone considering a career in space?
Doing science and engineering is the normal way of entering space as a career but there are lots of things you can do with other qualifications. So if you are interested just be persistent.
UK Space Agency
The UK Space Agency is an executive agency of the Government of the United Kingdom, responsible for the United Kingdom's civil space programme.
This article contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Are we missing something or spouting nonsense? Let us know!
This site is a work in progress and we're always looking to improve it.
You can get in touch with us on our contact us page.
SpaceCareers.uk is provided by UKSEDS, the UK's national student space society. See our About section to learn more.
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Games Database Xbox One Adventure: Role Playing
Warhammer: Chaosbane - Xbox One
Got packs, screens, info?
View all cover & box art (3) »
Also for: PS4
Viewed: 3D Third-person, floating camera Genre:
Adventure: Role Playing
Media: Blu-Ray Arcade origin: No
Developer: Eko Soft. Co.: BigBen
Publishers: BigBen (GB)
Released: 4 Jun 2019 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 16+
Features: Local co-op, Variable Refresh Rate
Connectivity: Online Multiplayer, Online co-op, Local Multiplayer
All Screens (7) >>
It's difficult to believe that no-one made a Warhammer hack 'n' slash RPG before now, but here we are - Chaosbane is the first action RPG to grace one of the deepest fantasy universes out there, and fans are going to be delighted.
The elevator pitch for the game is basically, 'Diablo in the Warhammer universe'. That means you play from an isometric point of view while you furiously bash the heck out of your enemies. It's the kind of old school brawler that goes so far as to show you the stats you're knocking out of your foes as you bludgeon them with magic.
For the serious fans out there - the game takes place in the middle of the Old World history and you can try your hand as a human, a dwarf, a high elf or a wood elf and you can do it in locations such as Praag or Nuln. It's on you to save the soul of Magnus, last defender of the Empire of Man from the encroaching forces of chaos. The script is by Games Workshop writer Mike Lee, so you know you're in good hands.
You can get into the action solo or with three mates, locally or online, and when you're done creaming the story mode you can come back for more with boss rush mode, infinite dungeons and weekly challenges for an even more intense hit of battling.
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Profound Strategy for Wedding Festivities
The one that the servants were speaking of inside the medicine storage room was naturally Bai Fu Rong. Ever since Feng Yu Heng brought her out of her space, she had been kept inside the medicine storage room. She would go and give her a shot every day at a set time, and a reliable servant would usually take care of her.
Bai Fu Rong never woke up. It was not the result of giving her medicine. Instead, it was the result of her body deteriorating too quickly that caused her nerves to be unable to endure and also weaken. From there, she fell into a coma. Although Feng Yu Heng was never too worried, she knew that there would be a day when Bai Fu Rong would wake up. Although the fall from health was quick, the recovery would be slow. The result of this pace allowed Bai Fu Rong’s body to acclimate and adjust.
But regardless of what was said, she could not remain unconscious the entire time. Waking up should be considered a checkpoint. Only by waking up can the future treatment work in unison with her. The result would also be a bit better.
Feng Yu Heng followed the servant and hurriedly headed in the direction of her own courtyard while asking for the situation. The servant said: “First, her entire body was trembling. Later on, she began to spout nonsense, and it was not clear what she was saying. Her eyes were also closed and never opened. Just earlier, she coughed up a mouthful of blood. This servant saw that things were not too good and was thinking of going next door to call young miss to come back and take a look.”
Feng Yu Heng nodded and did not ask anything else. She increased her pace and very quickly entered the medicine storage room. There were two other maidservants inside the medicine storage room that were taking care of Bai Fu Rong. Upon seeing that Feng Yu Heng returned, they both let out a sigh of relief, with one of them spreading out a handkerchief for Feng Yu Heng to see. At the same time, she said: “In under two hours, she coughed up blood twice, and it was black both times.”
Feng Yu Heng glanced at the handkerchief and came to an understanding. She told the maidservants: “This is the contaminated blood. It contains the poisons that were in the body. Grandfather and I used needles and worked on it for so long. We finally managed to force a bit out. Pay a bit more attention. I fear that she will be coughing up this sort of black blood over the next few days. It will continue for roughly three to five days. After that, she will begin to wake up. During this time, there must always be one person at her side to keep an eye on her. It’s the same during the night.” While she spoke, she said to Wang Chuan: “Bring a few more people later on. Have them keep watch in shifts.”
Upon hearing that things were turning for the better, the servants let out a sigh of relief. Someone had already begun taking care of changing Bai Fu Rong’s clothes. Huang Quan, who had been kept outside, pushed the door open at this time and went to Feng Yu Heng’s side, quietly saying: “This servant saw craftsman Bai standing outside the courtyard this entire time. From time to time, he would look over in this direction. He should have heard about the news from this side and wanted to take a look.”
Craftsman Bai had not seen his daughter for a year and had already begun to miss her long ago. But when he saw the current Bai Fu Rong, the profound feelings of missing her became an intense hatred. Hands clenched into fists on the table, his forehead was tightly furrowed.
Feng Yu Heng, however, smiled bitterly, “Uncle Bai, do not get angry. Fu Rong’s current condition is already much better. The reason that I never let you see her is that I feared that you could not handle seeing her. Don’t worry. The treatment for this illness was researched by grandfather. We are 90 percent certain that we can have Fu Rong recover completely. Although she will not be able to return to herself completely, she will not be too different. Uncle can remain at ease.”
What else could craftsman Bai say. He did not pay attention to Feng Yu Heng’s objections, as he kneeled on the ground and gave her a very proper salute. When he stood up once more, he muttered: “I thought that no matter what, they were still related. Even if they used this child, they would not do something so fierce; however, I never thought that I thought too kindly of them. What familial relationship. In their mind, they don’t put any stock in blood ties.”
He brought it up, but Feng Yu Heng did not want to pick up on it. It was an ill-fated relationship, to begin with. Back when there was the situation between her, Kang Yi and Ru Jia, craftsman Bai had probably heard about it but could not bring it up; however, she did not know that he did not hate her. But even if he did, after this event, Qian Zhou had completely hurt his heart.
Craftsman Bai said to Feng Yu Heng: “The Yao family’s wedding has already concluded. This old one no longer has an excuse to continue living here. Imperial daughter, please send me back to the palace.”
Feng Yu Heng asked him: “If uncle doesn’t want to go back, you can just continue to live in my imperial daughter’s manor. Or you can go back to the Bai manor. I will send some guards over. Nothing will happen.”
Craftsman Bai shook his head, “No need, I’ll be going back. I keep feeling that there is someone in the palace that is controlling the situation. Although Qian Zhou has collapsed, the threat has not truly been eradicated. Precisely who is concealed inside the palace remains unknown to this moment. On this trip back to the palace, there is something that I wish to ask imperial daughter to help me say.”
Feng Yu Heng nodded, “Would uncle please speak.”
“There’s not really much. I just wanted to ask imperial daughter to tell each of the palaces that craftsman Bai is older and fear that I will no longer be able to continue working for many more years. While I am still able to make them, I will make a few more. There’s no need to continue acting accordingly like before. If the imperial concubine of each palace wants something, it’s all fine.”
His intentions were very clear. By opening the doors, he could meet more people in order to find out where that needle was hidden in the palace. This was the only option.
Feng Yu Heng nodded and agreed. The two spoke for a little while longer before agreeing on returning to the palace in the morning the following day. After that, she left craftsman Bai to keep Bai Fu Rong company for a little while. Only then did they disperse.
As for this day, it was destined to not be peaceful, especially at night.
With a new wife marrying into the Yao manor, there were wedding festivities. Yao Shu dragged his brothers to drink and eat, not wanting to return for a long time. As for Lu Yao, she no longer had any servants that came with her from the Lu family. Being taken care of was very inconvenient. When she tried to send people to go and find Yao Shu, servants were sent out three times but were unable to bring him back.
The new wife awkwardly sat in the bridal chamber until her back began to ache. Only when it was nearing midnight did she hear the sound of footsteps come from the yard.
A servant ran over to the entrance to take a look then turned around and said to her: “Eldest young master has come over. It seems that he drank a bit much.”
Lu Yao quickly put on a kind expression and said: “It’s fine. Today is a good day. The bridegroom drinking too much is normal.” Because the situation during the day had become what it was, there was no longer any need for her to wear a veil. When she stood up, she directed the servant to fetch some clean water to help the eldest young master get cleaned up. She then sent someone to heat up a soup to help someone sober up. Like this, she sent out both of the servants that were in the room. She then made use of the time before Yao Shu entered the room to walk over to the stand where the candle was. She quickly took off the hairpin from her head, as there was a space inside. Lu Yao twisted off the top and swiftly poured out a powder into the pit of the candle. The powder mixed with the wax and very quickly blended together without any trace.
After doing this, she picked up a pair of scissors and began to cut at the center of the candle. At this time, Yao Shu pushed the door open and happened to see her cutting the candles. He could not help but ask: “What are you doing?”
Lu Yao put down the scissors and went to support him. Seeing that the newlyweds were in the room, the maidservants could no longer take care of them, thus they all retreated. Lu Yao supported Yao Shu over to sit on the bed while saying to him: “Cutting the center of the candle is a rule for the first night of a wedding. It is a good symbol. Wife heard husband coming back earlier, thus I rushed to cut up the core of the candle, hoping that we… can stay together for a long time.”
Yao Shu looked at Lu Yao; however, his gaze no longer contained the same love that it did before. During the day, Lu Yao had cried to him about how she had been stained at a young age and had tried to commit suicide a few times; however, she could not do anything about being rescued by the family. She had begged him to help her. He could kill her personally, such that even if she died, she would die in the arms of the person that she loved. If it had been exposed back then, she would have rather just killed herself by crushing her own head.
Yao Shu had feelings for Lu Yao and could not handle her pleading look; moreover, she was a victim of having her purity sullied. Since he was marrying her, he should dote on her properly. But he was still a man. He thought that the girl he was marrying would be completely pure; however, who knew that she was no longer pure. He felt a little uncomfortable, thus he brought his brothers to drink and not return until late.
He could avoid it for a bit, but he could not avoid it forever. For the sake of not allowing his parents, uncles, aunts and grandfather to see what was wrong, he still gritted his teeth and returned. Now that he saw Lu Yao, he did not feel as he did before.
How could Lu Yao not understand what Yao Shu was thinking. She did not insist, only apathetically taking care of helping Yao Shu wash, get changed and remove his shoes and socks. Only after she helped him into bed did she retrieve her pillow from the other side and retreat.
Yao Shu was stunned and asked in confusion: “Where are you going?”
Lu Yao smiled bitterly, “Husband marrying this wife and giving the Lu family prestige is already a grand grace to this wife. I absolutely do not dare use my sullied body to take care of husband. Husband rest well. This wife will go sleep on the bed in the outer room. If husband has any matter, just call.”
After saying this, she retreated and kindly blocked the bed with the screen.
Her actions caused Yao Shu to feel a little surprised, and he felt a bit distressed, especially the words “I absolutely do not dare use my sullied body to take care of husband.” This caused Yao Shu to feel that he had been an unreasonable man. His wife had suffered a grievance, but not only did he not show any concern, he even felt disdain. How could this be how a son of the Yao family should act?
Although he thought like this, he could not bring himself to drag Lu Yao back. After all, everyone knew what should happen on the wedding night in the bridal chamber. It was unavoidable that he would think a bit too much, as he felt that if he forcefully brought Lu Yao back, it would cause her to feel that he was a man with a brutish heart.
Thinking like this, he decided to cross that bridge when he got there. He would need to protect Lu Yao’s heart. When she no longer felt any burdens, it would not be too late to consummate the marriage.
With this plan in mind, he calmed down and closed his eyes to sleep. But who knew if it was because he had drank too much that caused him to be excitable or if it was the result of candles in the bridal chamber, although there was no bride at his side, it was inevitable that there would be restlessness. Yao Shu lay in bed and felt that his body was exceptionally hot. A mysterious urge filled his body, and even his breath was hot. With a certain feeling welling up, he sat up and looked past the screen. He subconsciously shouted: “Wife!”
Well doesn’t that scream “ALL ACCORDING TO KEIKAKU” (Commentator’s Note: Keikaku means Plan.)
4Tuna says:
… oh god, you did it.
You got my respect for pulling that one of
Not Minger says:
Well, Aphrodisiac huh? damn this 2nd chen yu…. and i didnt change my opinion for yao shu….a moron , he’s the kind a guy who is good at study but stupid on social affair and common sense
I really don’t like reading about stupid men. Are the Yao family so overly friendly that they don’t teach their kids scheming 101. They’re a medical family for crying out loud, at least teach the younger generation how to detect shit like Aphrodisiac!!!
Maybe he is the ‘example’ to be set? Teaching is one thing but a living example of a gullible fool is a very handy reminder to his brothers/cousins
Overused aphrodisiac trope again? Her reasoning is probably to increase her standing by getting pregnant but the child is actually her dead brothers… or something like that since they presumably did the deed just hours before the marriage…
(╯‵□′)╯︵┴─┴
I love your “flip the table” character
akirasamurai99 says:
Mesmo ela tendo grávida do irmão ,Feng Yu Heng tem como fazer um teste de paternidade hahahahah que pena esse plano já começou errado😊
Any mention on Lu Yao and Yao Shu’s age? The gap is toooooo high: Lu Yao is full of schemes and Yao Shu is too kind-hearted to know those schemes…
=_=* I really hate this guy….
I remember a classmate last time objected to my broken record like screams of, “Yao Shu is an idiot.” Classmate, come out, let’s discuss. What do you call this behavior if not idiocy?
I hate this stupid cousin… I really want to snap him out!
Thanks for the chapters😘
Seriously, are all the Yao family people after Grandfather’s generation morons? How can he still trust her words about the cutting of the candle wick?
Tsss.. idiot. Hope your wife ends up like Feng Chen Yu.
Leave a Reply to Hilda Espinoza Gonzalez Cancel reply
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Carbon Tariff Economic Analysis
by Shane Hall
Carbon tariffs tax goods from countries with lax controls on emissions.
Power station image by Freeze Frame Photography from Fotolia.com
1 Effects of Free Trade on the Environment
2 About Human Rights & Free Trade
3 Explain the North American Free Trade Agreement
4 NAFTA Pros & Cons
Carbon tariffs involve issues of climate change, carbon emissions and international trade. Advocates claim tariffs will force the world's leading polluters to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by raising the price of their products. Opponents counter that the tariffs are too costly relative to their benefits, too complicated to implement and violate principles of free trade.
A carbon tariff is a tax imposed on imported goods from countries that do not curb their emissions of greenhouse gases. The tariff can take different forms, such as a direct tax that reflects the "carbon footprint" of the good's production or a requirement that the exporting nation purchase emissions credits from the importing nation under a cap and trade system. French President Nicolas Sarkozy favors a system for the European Union that requires countries with fewer restrictions on carbon emissions to purchase EU emissions credits.
Proponents' Claims
Proponents of carbon tariffs contend the measures are needed in the absence of a global agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Industries in nations with laws and regulations to reduce emissions face higher production costs. However, those regulations do not apply to foreign producers of the same goods. This inequity could lead domestic producers to move their operations to countries with lax emissions controls. Advocates say carbon tariffs will level the playing field by imposing higher costs on imported goods from countries that do not curb their greenhouse gas emissions.
The title of a report by the Institute for Public Affairs (IPA), a research organization based in Australia, branded carbon tariffs as "costly, ineffectual and protectionist." The report's authors pointed out that carbon tariffs could harm the domestic industries the tariffs are designed to protect, by making imported materials used by domestic producers more expensive. The authors also stated that carbon tariffs are unlikely to create incentives for other countries to reduce their carbon emissions. Overall, the IPA report concluded that the costs of carbon tariffs far exceed their benefits.
Potential Trade Violations
The IPA report stated that carbon tariffs may violate World Trade Organization rules designed to promote free trade among the world's nations. The authors further suggested that the introduction of tariffs could trigger retaliatory trade sanctions. The Council on Foreign Relations echoed the IPA's concerns about a possible trade war resulting from carbon tariffs.
The authors of the IPA report on carbon tariffs observed that determining the amount of carbon input used in the production of a particular product is highly complex. Goods manufactured with parts from multiple countries make the task even more complicated. The authors cited as an example a Mexican-made car with parts produced in Japan and Brazil. Carbon tariffs, the report concluded, could require a complex regulatory system.
Institute of Public Affairs; Costly, Ineffectual and Protectionist Carbon Tariffs; Tim Wilson, et al.;
Green Supply Chain News: The Crazy World of Carbon Tariffs
Shane Hall is a writer and research analyst with more than 20 years of experience. His work has appeared in "Brookings Papers on Education Policy," "Population and Development" and various Texas newspapers. Hall has a Doctor of Philosophy in political economy and is a former college instructor of economics and political science.
Hall, Shane. "Carbon Tariff Economic Analysis." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/carbon-tariff-economic-analysis-13419.html. Accessed 19 January 2020.
Hall, Shane. (n.d.). Carbon Tariff Economic Analysis. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/carbon-tariff-economic-analysis-13419.html
Hall, Shane. "Carbon Tariff Economic Analysis" accessed January 19, 2020. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/carbon-tariff-economic-analysis-13419.html
Economic System of Mercantilists
The Significance of an Economic Partnership Agreement
Do US Companies Pay Taxes When They Ship Overseas?
The Effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement
The Effects of Free Trade
The Effect of Revaluation on Business
Pros of Free Trade
What Is an Economic Partnership Agreement?
NAFTA Certificate of Origin Instructions
North American Free Trade Agreement Pros & Cons
Definition of "Spillover Costs"
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Catchy Business Name Ideas
by George N. Root III
The right name for your boutique can help drive bigger sales receipts.
Burke/Triolo Productions/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
1 Tips to Generate a Catchy Business Name
2 Ideas for Naming New Businesses
3 Great Business Name Ideas
4 Ideas for Business Names & Slogans
A catchy business name helps customers to remember your company and sets your business apart from the competition. Whether your business name is clever, funny, resourceful or a combination of these characteristics, a unique business name gives you a conversation-starter with customers, vendors and business associates. Use creativity to come up with catchy business name ideas.
Use Acronym
An acronym is a word created by the first letters of a series of other words. For example, FBI is an acronym used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In the case of FBI, the acronym became popular after it was associated with the organization, but you can use existing words to give your acronym more familiarity with the public. For example, if you own an classic auto repair company, then one name to consider for your company would be "Classic Auto Repair," which would allow you to use the acronym CAR. You could also try to find a way to work your company name acronym into your business phone number to make it memorable as well.
A thesaurus is a reference book that helps you find alternate words that have the same meaning as the word you are considering. These are referred to as synonyms. For example, a thesaurus may list the word "tumble" as a synonym to the word "fall." Write down the words you feel are associated with your business and begin finding synonyms using a thesaurus. For example, when you input the word "manufacture" into the Merriam-Webster online thesaurus, the resulting synonyms include "fabricate," "form" and "fashion." Related words include "originate," "contrive" and "concoct." Using this method, you could call your business "Smith's Metal Originators" rather than "Smith's Metal Manufacturers."
An adjective is a word that is used to describe something. For example, rather than describing something as simply "the ball," you could describe it as "the red ball." Adjectives can add color and character to an otherwise mundane phrase or business name. The use of adjectives can create a catchy business name that would be memorable to customers and vendors. For example, rather than naming your company "Bob's Auto Sales," you could name it "Bob's Appetizing Auto Sales." The adjective "appetizing" has nothing to do with auto sales and that is what makes the name catchy. Putting adjectives into your business name that people would not expect is an element that will make your business name memorable.
Entrepreneur: How to Name Your Business
Business.gov: How to Name a Business
CareerChoiceGuide.com: Business Name Ideas
Merriam-Webster Thesaurus
Small Business Administration: Naming a Business
George N. Root III began writing professionally in 1985. His publishing credits include a weekly column in the "Lockport Union Sun and Journal" along with the "Spectrum," the "Niagara Falls Gazette," "Tonawanda News," "Watertown Daily News" and the "Buffalo News." Root has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the State University of New York, Buffalo.
N., George. "Catchy Business Name Ideas." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/catchy-business-name-ideas-3237.html. Accessed 20 January 2020.
N., George. (n.d.). Catchy Business Name Ideas. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/catchy-business-name-ideas-3237.html
N., George. "Catchy Business Name Ideas" accessed January 20, 2020. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/catchy-business-name-ideas-3237.html
List of Name Ideas for a Photography Company
Unique Business Name Ideas
Create a New Company Name
Creative Names for a Painting Business
Name a Photography Business
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Smart Dublin
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Smart Bins in Dublin
Back to Smart Stories
Smart bins send emails when they are full!
Self compacting bins that send an email when they need to be emptied – no we are not kidding! There has been a quiet revolution going on in the leafy streets of Dun-Laoghaire Rathdown and Dublin City Council will follow shortly.
Traditional public litter bins have been known to fill and overflow quickly, especially on sunny days in seaside towns and areas such as Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Given the vagaries of the Irish weather system, it can be an impossible task to know when the bins outside a certain ice cream shop, or boardwalk need to be emptied.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council was looking to improve the efficiency of its public waste collection service, and at the same time reduce operational costs. Through the introduction of Smart Bins, it has successfully achieved this and more.
Smart Bins are solar powered, wifi enabled bins that are being installed in towns, villages and residential areas across the country to replace traditional public litter bins.
Smart Bins Features:
Smart Bins come with a built-in solar compactor which gets triggered when rubbish reaches a certain level. Rubbish is compacted, which enables it to reach a whopping 800 litres of waste: 6-8 times that of a traditional bin!
The wifi-enabled bin is able to communicate when the waste reaches 85% capacity. The bin actually sends a text and email to the relevant waste management division informing them that it is ready for emptying.
Optional extra sensors can provide other info such as air quality, sound monitoring, travel times between location, and even wifi up to 25m radius!
“The challenge is to use this smart information to deliver a more efficient service and a better environment to residents i.e. cleaner streets and less annoyance due to traffic and noise of collection” Richard Shakespeare, Director of Municipal Services, DLR.
The bins provide data to Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown’s waste collection service providers so they can:
monitor real time levels of waste in all of the smart bins in the network
locate and identify smart bins that needs collection
better plan and organise waste collection based on actual waste levels that need collection
There are currently 401 Smart Bins installed in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County area. The project is managed by the County Council by the Environment Department with the purpose to improve the efficiency of waste management. Since 2010 the bin collection service has been transferred to Panda Waste.
Dublin City Council completed 2 smart bin pilots after consultation with the market. The results were very positive and a tender was issued at the end of 2016. Smart bins are expected on the city streets shortly.
Links & Contact
Email: environ@dlrcoco.ie
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Home / Blog / Ambassadors, High Commissioners take leave of President Julius Maada Bio
Ambassadors, High Commissioners take leave of President Julius Maada Bio
Sierra Network October 10, 2018 Blog Leave a comment 1,226 Views
Freetown, Sierra Leone, Wednesday 10 October 2018 – Newly approved Ambassadors and High Commissioners have taken leave of His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio at State House, in readiness to take up their respective assignments abroad.
Presenting the diplomats to the President, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr Alie Kabbah, said the purpose of diplomacy was to seek and protect one’s home country’s interests within the host nation. He disclosed that they were pleased with the calibre of people that were appointed to represent Sierra Leone in foreign countries, adding that the appointees were the best crop of diplomats to represent, build and rebrand the image of the country.
“These are the best sets of diplomas ever in the history of diplomacy in this country. They have had some of the best training on the purpose of their job and are ready to accept the difficult challenges that lie ahead of them,” Dr Kabbah said.
Making a statement on this occasion, President Bio congratulated the Ambassadors and High Commissioners for having gone through parliamentary approvals and the training organised by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He urged them to accept the many difficult challenges in rebuilding a new Sierra Leone, particularly in foreign countries.
“Collectively we are going to take the challenge and we will leave a global footprint at the end of the day,” he said and cautioned the departing Ambassadors and High Commissioners. He further assured them of his continued support to make their work, overseas, comfortable, but advised them to embark on economic diplomacy that would be attractive to foreigners and investors.
On behalf of the diplomats, Ambassador to Germany, Dr Mbaimba Bayoh, thanked the President for placing the highest amount of confidence in them to represent the country in foreign lands. He said that they had accepted the offer with humility and noted that their appointment was a big national responsibility but also a great opportunity to serve their country overseas.
Ambassador Bayoh also assured the President that all the Ambassadors and High Commissioners would work assiduously to add on to nation building, thereby finding ways to support the flagship programme of the government – free and quality education – and also other areas that were lacking in the country.
For More Enquires:
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Tags government of sierra leone President julius maada bio
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Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images
Sutton United boss pokes the bear ahead of Arsenal visit
By Nicholas MendolaFeb 16, 2017, 2:09 PM EST
Sutton United manager Paul Doswell is getting the most from his five minutes of fame.
The unpaid non-league boss is preparing to host Premier League giants Arsenal at Gander Green Lane for an FA Cup fifth round tie on Monday, and is speaking plainly regarding his opponents.
[ MORE: PL Power Rankings ]
Arsenal was waxed by Bayern Munich in the first leg of an UEFA Champions League Round of 16 match on Wednesday, and Doswell says he has no sympathy for Arsene Wenger (though he believes the longtime Gunners boss shouldn’t be taking flak for the blowout).
He also notably said he believes none of the Premier League clubs could contend with Bayern. From Sky Sports:
“In sport it is about levels and none of the top six English clubs can get near Bayern, Barcelona or Real Madrid. That is a fact.”
However, Doswell believes Wenger has been unfairly criticised given his consistent record in the Premier League.
“Wenger is getting criticised – and I think wrongly – that he doesn’t have enough leaders in the dressing room, but he has still managed to qualify for the Champions League for the last 15 years,” he said.
Doswell also said that Sutton United is “over the moon” to welcome Wenger and the Gunners. Have to wonder whether this doesn’t have all the makings of a memorably big blowout.
Tags: Arsenal, FA Cup, Paul Doswell, Premier League, Sutton United
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Richfield Considers Lowering Parking Minimums
By John Edwards on May 1, 2019 in Parking
On Monday April 22, the Richfield Planning Commission split 3-3 on a recommendation by planning staff to reduce parking minimums in mixed use zoning districts. In areas near transit, the plan would reduce minimum requirements from 1.5 to one space per unit. Outside of areas with high frequency transit, parking minimums would be made consistent with existing rules in high-density zoning districts — 1.25 spaces per unit.
The proposal goes forward to the Richfield City Council, where it will be considered without a recommendation from the Planning Commission.
Richfield city planner Matt Brillhart told commissioners that approved apartment projects within the last two years had mostly been within the 1.25 to 1.3 range, with the exception of a building consisting mostly of studios that included one parking space per apartment.
Commissioner Sean Hayford Oleary — referencing the fact that Minneapolis eliminated parking minimums entirely in the recently adopted 2040 plan — said the reduction they were considering was still “a much higher number than what Minneapolis requires just a few blocks north of where many of these apartment buildings are.”
Commissioner Peter Lavin responded, “We’re not Minneapolis.”
Lavin argued for maintaining the commission’s ability to judge parking requirements on a case by case basis for each proposed development. Earlier in the meeting he voted against allowing a bubble tea cafe to open with 13 parking spaces — two spaces under the 15-space minimum.
Commissioner James Rudolph explained his own personal parking math: winter snow occupies 1/3 of every parking lot for nine months of the year, with just four months snow-free (he didn’t explain why his year includes 13 months).
Brillhart, the planner, pointed out that most new residential parking in Richfield is covered, and in cases where it’s not, they have dedicated space for snow storage. In cases where commercial development has been built at the minimum requirement, it’s specifically prohibited to store snow on site.
Rudolph called the idea of a residential parking minimum reduction a “nightmare.” He delivered a series of parking anecdotes throughout the meeting, which were called into question by a skeptical Commissioner Susan Rosenberg.
Rudolph: “I see it every day. You can drive by my house. You can drive by the new developments…”
Rosenberg: “You see people circling the parking lots not finding a place to park?”
Rudolph: “The parking lots are full.”
Rosenberg: “Everyday?”
Rudolph: “People are parking on the streets. Yes.”
Rosenberg: “Mhmm.”
“In my experience living in Richfield, we do have vast amounts of parking space,” Said Commission Chair Allysen Hoberg. “It does behoove Richfield to look at our parking requirements.”
Brillhart explained the justification for his staff recommendation:
“Richfield’s best transit days are ahead of it. We don’t have too many high frequency transit lines operating today. That’s going to change within about three years. The D Line will be running on Portland Avenue offering rapid transit service. The Orange Line will be running on 35W, stopping at 66th Street and 76th Street, offering high frequency transit between here and downtown.
“The zoning code is not looking backward at the past, it’s looking forward. The average household size is smaller than ever. Vehicle ownership rates are steady or dropping. Not every household in Richfield owns a vehicle.”
One thing unaddressed at Monday’s meeting is the sheer cost of parking. It’s expensive, especially when it’s structured. In 2015, a Minneapolis developer told the Star Tribune that the cost of underground parking is $25,000 per stall, plus maintenance, taxes, and insurance. This cost affects what sorts of buildings are possible and the price people pay to live there.
The proposed parking minimum reduction was one piece of a package of recommendations from Richfield planning staff intended to “address inconsistencies” and “make other adjustments based on lessons learned from recent and approved development projects.” The other proposed changes, mostly related to setbacks and permitted uses, were passed by the Planning Commission without controversy.
About John Edwards
John Edwards is a licensed pedestrian, champion bus rider, and Nice Ride enthusiast. He is the anchor and managing editor of Wedge LIVE! and a co-founder of Neighbors for More Neighbors.
View all posts by John Edwards →
cars, development, featured, housing, parking, richfield
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9 Responses to Richfield Considers Lowering Parking Minimums
Matt May 1, 2019 at 1:49 pm #
Richfielders seemed quite concerned when Crossroads Apartments at Penn and 494 were upmarketed into the Concierge Apartments which resulted in nearly all tenants being kicked out. While there’s lots of reasons why situations like that happened and there’s lots of things that can be done as a result, it’s hard to think Richfield takes housing affordability seriously when it uses the heavy hand of city government to mandate massive amounts of off-street parking that may not be needed and have significant cost.
Does Richfield want developers to spend money building housing for people or building housing for cars?
Lou Miranda May 2, 2019 at 10:10 am #
Is it safe to assume commissioners Lavin & Rudolph are among the most senior members, and will be retiring soon? Are there term limits?
They seem to be from the Jurassic period of car dominance. This is not what’s best for the city.
I wonder how many people on the commission live in apartments or condos?
P.S. Bravo to Commissioner Oleary for his comments.
Monte Castleman May 2, 2019 at 2:54 pm #
There’s a substantial number of people (quite a few of them young) that live in the suburbs precisely because they don’t like Minneapolis (politics, policies, density, crime, and built form, etc) and will resist any attempts to make the suburbs more like Minneapolis, and don’t think making things harder for people in cars is best for the suburbs.
Meanwhile there’s a lot of people moving into the suburbs that want to live like Minneapolis, but don’t either through circumstance or because they can’t afford a place in Minneapolis, but want to make the suburbs more like or identical to the Minneapolis they don’t live in.
Between these groups are people that don’t care, and people that think that even if they dislike Minneapolis as a whole or just dislike elements of it, there are some good elements from them that the suburbs could copy. All this makes for lively city council meetings and Facebook discussions.
People in the former group who like Richfield as “Minnesota’s First Suburb,” are free to build or buy the off-street parking they desire even if it is no longer required.
People in the latter group, who like Richfield as the “Urban Hometown,” simply want the freedom not to build or buy something they may not want.
This is a common sense proposal to reduce government social engineering, and it doesn’t limit anyone’s freedom. On the contrary, those pushing this change are expanding the bounds of freedom for Richfield residents.
Tim May 3, 2019 at 10:15 am #
How is this making things harder for people in cars who already live in Richfield, though? This is about future parking, not taking existing parking away.
Monte Castleman May 3, 2019 at 12:47 pm #
If you could make an ordinance that no one can own more cars than their unit provides off-street parking for that would be one thing, but otherwise I have a feeling that people will buy units without parking because they’re cheaper and then immediately park a car on nearby public streets, or their life changes and they now need a car or another car to get to work, or their kid learns how to drive. Or they just get tired of going to get groceries in the cold and snow instead of the heated, air conditioned comfort of a car.
Then you have problems with those cars taking up street parking in front of nearby houses and not getting out of the way of snowplows in the winter.
Tim May 3, 2019 at 1:23 pm #
If street parking is allowed, I don’t see the issue with people parking in front of other people’s houses. If people are parking where (or when) they’re not supposed to, they can be towed. if people’s parking needs change and there’s no way around it, well, probably time to move, then.
There are already ways to deal with this. I’m speaking as a suburban resident who lives in multifamily housing with limited parking, so this is already the norm in a number of places. Richfield will be fine.
Frank Phelan May 7, 2019 at 6:12 pm #
All those who worship at the altar of the free market should be 100% opposed to mandated parking minimums.
If you believe in free markets, let the market decide the most useful allocation of resources.
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Program Basics
How to Associate Owners to Property Records
Overview: The Mange Graves Workspace is where property record details, including ownership, are maintained. The Mange Graves workspace allows an unlimited number of owners to be assigned to a property. These owners can be selected from a list from your address book, or they can be added on-the-fly from the Manage Graves Workspace.
Best Practice: It is not unusual for a property to be sold to more than one person, such as a husband and wife. It is strongly recommended an Address Book record be created for each person as an individual, as opposed to combining them as a single person.
Mr. John Smith, Mrs. Joan Smith
As opposed to Mr. and Mrs. John Smith
To Add New or Additional Owners to a Grave Record:
In the Manage Graves Workspace, browse to the record to which you wish to add an owner, and click the Edit Grave Or, if you are adding a new Grave, Click New Grave.
Click in the white space below the “Owner” field to display a new line in the Owner grid.
Or, if you have grid navigation preference turned on, you can click the + in the grid navigation bar to create a line for the owner.
You may select an existing contact from your Address book, or create a new Address book Contact as your Owner.
First, click in the Name field to display a list of existing Address Book Contacts. If the owner has a record in this list, select the existing address book contact.
If the contact does not yet exist, click Add New, which is the first entry on the list.
Enter the appropriate information in the New Owner Record pop-up window. Note there are four tabs in this window, which will allow you to enter any data you have for this person.
Click OK to return to the property record.
If more than one owner is needed, hit the TAB key on your keyboard until an additional owner line is open for you to work with. Repeat steps 2-4 for each owner needed.
Confirm the Grave Status is reflective of a property that is owned.
After adding all desired owners, click Save in the lower right-hand corner of the program window.
IMPORTANT NOTE: If you add an owner to a property assigned to a deed, the owner will be added to ALL records attached to that deed.
Activating the Owner and Occupant Grid Navigation Preference
Pontem Software System Requirements
Standard Mapping Setup and Use
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surfing tribe
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home / collections / books / leroy grannis: surf photography of the 1960s and 1970s
leroy grannis: surf photography of the 1960s and 1970s
leroy grannis: surf photography of the 1960s and 1970s by steve barilotti
developed by hawaiian islanders over five centuries ago, surfing began to peak on the mainland in the 1950s, taking america - and the world - by storm. surfing was not just a sport, but a way of life, and the culture that surrounded it was admired and exported across the globe. one of the key image-makers from that period is leroy grannis, a surfer since 1931, who began photographing the scene in california and hawaii in the longboard era of the early 1960s.
this collection, drawn from grannis' personal archives, showcases an impressive selection of surf photographs - from the bliss of catching the perfect wave at san onofre to dramatic wipeouts at oahu's famed north shore. an innovator in the field, grannis suction-cupped a waterproof box to his board, enabling him to change film in the water and stay closer to the action than other photographers of the time. equally notable is his work covering an emerging surf lifestyle, from "surfer stomps" and hoards of fans at surf contests to board-laden woody station wagons along the pacific coast highway. it is in these iconic images that surfing embodied the free-spirited nature of an era - a time before shortboards and celebrity endorsements, when surfing was at its bronzed best.
copyright © 2020 surfing tribe.
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← Dignity and Respect
Alberta Separatism Rears its Goofy Head →
Politics in the Age of Bewilderment
Posted on January 6, 2019 by susanonthesoapbox
The historian and philosopher Yuval Noah Harari says we’re living in the Age of Bewilderment, the old stories have collapsed and the new stories have not yet been written.
Ms Soapbox thinks some politicians are trying to bridge this gap by pretending it doesn’t exist. They hope to turn this unsettling time into the Age of Nostalgia. Unfortunately, nostalgia is not a satisfactory response to climate change, technological change or cultural change, in fact it is prone to nasty backlash when insecurity and a sense of alienation enflame xenophobia.
We recognize nostalgia politicians, people like Jason Kenney who want to restore the Alberta Advantage (whatever that means) by scrapping the carbon tax, propping up coal companies, and setting up war rooms to beat down oilsands critics with bellicose jargon.
More enlightened politicians, like Rachel Notley, meet uncertainty head on with bold new strategies that make life more stable for those they govern.
Notley kicked off her first term in office with a climate leadership plan intended to transition an economy dependent on fossil fuels to renewables while at the same time generating enough revenue to keep the ship afloat until we got there.
Unfortunately, the economy took a beating when oil prices plummeted and the Notley government reacted by becoming more strident in its support of the energy industry, almost to the exclusion of everything else.
It’s time to regroup.
Yes, the energy industry is important to Alberta, but the industry like everything else is in transition. It will never roar back to its former glory. Albertans know this and are in desperate need of politicians who are prepared to offer a bold, new vision for the future.
A friend once told me if we want Albertans to forgo their conservative ideology we must set out its flaws and then present a superior progressive vision to replace it.*
Notley’s NDP have done a good job of demonstrating the economic and social flaws in Kenney’s conservative ideology, however instead of merely rebutting Kenney’s narrative and becoming trapped in the language of the Age of Nostalgia, it’s time for the NDP to present a bold optimistic vision for Alberta.
This vision should be based on the progressive ideals that shook up the conservative halls of the Legislature in Notley’s first term. It should include providing quality education throughout our lives (how else will the workforce retool to address shifting demands), improving access to quality healthcare, continuing to overhaul taxation (a serious look at a provincial sales tax would be a good start) and strengthening our efforts to mitigate climate change.
Such a vision would be well received by Albertans who recognize that it’s practical optimism not nostalgia that puts bread on the table.
The AOC factor
We’re just a few months away from the next provincial election. Is it too late for Rachel Notley and the NDP (or any progressive party for that matter) to communicate a realistic and optimistic vision for the future?
No, not if our politicians take their cues from politicians like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (or AOC as she’s known on social media).
AOC and The Breakfast Club
Ocasio-Cortez is a democratic socialist and the youngest woman to be elected to the US Congress. She supports progressive policies like universal healthcare, free university tuition, job guarantees and gun control. As part of her effort to mitigate climate change, Ocasio-Cortez is co-sponsoring a bill to introduce taxes of up to 70% on incomes of $10 million or more (the top .05% of the population) to fund the Green New Deal.
The Republicans are apoplectic. Not only is it heresy to increase taxes on the super wealthy, but Ocasio-Cortez and some of her college friends were caught on tape doing a dance sequence from The Breakfast Club. Oh, the shame of it all.
Here’s what’s so magnificent about all this: (1) Ocasio-Cortez’s tax proposal is bold and consistent with her progressive beliefs, (2) it’s been endorsed by economists like Nobel prize winner Paul Krugman and (3) she responded to the GOP’s horror at her dance video with another clip of her dancing in the hall outside her congressional office. Take that you dinosaurs.
A compelling new vision presented by smart articulate politicians could lead the NDP to victory this spring; in which case may I be the first to post a video of the Notley crew dancing in the corridors of power?
And if the dance analogy (take that you dinosaurs) doesn’t do it for you, remember what Wayne Gretzky said: Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it has been.
*With thanks to DD
This entry was posted in Economics, Education, Energy & Natural Resources, General Health Care, Politics and Government and tagged Age of Bewilderment, Age of Nostalgia, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jason Kenney, Rachel Notley, Yuval Noah Harari. Bookmark the permalink.
28 Responses to Politics in the Age of Bewilderment
therockymountainpictureshow says:
Wow. Oh yes, Susan . . .
Wow. Oh, yes . . .
Thanks rockymountainpictureshow!
Munroe Scott says:
As usual, Susan, right on target. Keep it up.
Thanks Munroe. I really liked your recent piece about calling climate “change” what it really is…climate “chaos”. Here’s the link to your blog for those readers who haven’t found it yet. https://munroescott.wordpress.com/2019/01/05/lets-change-change/
” …Yes, the energy industry is important to Alberta, but the industry like everything else is in transition. It will never roar back to its former glory. Albertans know this and are in desperate need of politicians who are prepared to offer a bold, new vision for the future…”
I agree with your second sentence but I profoundly felt it cringeworthy when the daily poster person for the oil rough/red necks, the “rancher” from west of Calgary, the carbon tax paying refusenik, who in an interview with CBC Edmonton, assertively declared she will opt out until the boom times of Alberta return to us, which will certainly reappear if we get that GD Trans Mountain pipeline magic bullet.
I believe the refusenik, now a hobby farmer with 50 head, was a graduate school achiever and career participant from the oil and gas sector.
Thanks Douglas, you have to wonder what these people think Trudeau should do. Do they want him to rip up the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763 and any treaties, agreements, legislation and court decisions passed since then that protect aboriginal land claims and the rights and freedoms that arise from such claims? What about the rights of non-aboriginal land owners, should they be steam rolled into allowing oil companies to put their facilities on private property? All of this “just make it happen” stuff sounds fine when it gets you what you want, but it sets a dangerous precedent for future governments which may decide what we really need now is a nuclear reactor in your back yard. Would these people be happy to allow the government to override their rights to make it happen?
Susan: Thanks for another great blog. Jason Kenney is full of contradictions. Jason Kenney was in the CPC when his fellow cabinet member, Jim Prentice, the Environment Minister, wanted to phase out coal fired power plants in Canada, by 2020. Jason Kenney agreed with Jim Prentice. Jason Kenney also said he supports the carbon tax. Jason Kenney also favoured the government purchasing the pipeline. By returning to the Alberta advantage, what Jason Kenney really means is returning to the flat tax failure and doing more sharp austerity that we saw under Ralph Klein. That is no advantage. The Alberta PCs were a big failure, since the Don Getty years and so scandal plagued, fiscally reckless and negligent. We are still paying for those major mistakes today. The UCP would return to that, and it is not a risk worth taking. I hope voters will wake up. Hope you have a Happy New Year.
Thanks Dwayne. While I knew that Kenney the federal cabinet minister supported the equalization formula, I didn’t know he also supported Prentice’s plan to phase out coal fired power plants and the carbon tax. That’s very interesting. It reminds me of Donald Trump’s approach to policy (although it may be more correct to call it a knee-jerk reaction to whatever is a hot mess at the moment). Both Trump and Kenney act as if they’re free to contradict themselves whenever it suits them because whatever they said yesterday doesn’t count. That’s not leadership.
the salamander horde says:
.. I referred a ways back – to ‘The Bewilderness’
and the ‘Bewilderedness’ – Now these are two different arid envirwrongments where the likes of Andrew Scheer, Jason Kenney or any smarmy faux ‘public servant’ goes for a GOP style ‘system update’ or dogma refresh. There are many ‘cum loud’ alumni.. Doctorates and diplomas are awarded easily, much like those of Trump University or schools of thoughtlessness run by Jerry Fallwell Inc. Even tickets to heaven are available.. at a slight cost.. But Wait ! There’s more ! Clap clap and the illuminated bible lights up .. and says ‘Friend, just send cash’ .. and your name will be etched upon the pipeline to Asia ..
ronmac says:
Maybe nostalgia isn’t such a bad thing. Like the 1950’s when times were simpler, kids were playing with hoola-hops, and the super-rich were getting taxed at 92%.
You gotta hand it to AOC. A leaked video of her dancing goes viral on the net and a few days later the New York Post comes out with this headline: “Socialist upstart Ocasio-Cortez urges 70% tax on super-rich.” In one swirl she jump started a conversation on class and taxation.
Some observers have pointed out her proposals are not that radical at all. Then U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower was taxing the super-wealthy at 92% and it’s no coincidence the 1950’s were boom times.
Looking for an optomistic vision for the future? A slogan? How about, “I like Ike.”
You’re right Ronmac, we could learn some valuable lessons from past leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal was exactly what the US needed to recover from the Great Depression and as you point out the improvement in the economy didn’t stop President Dwight Eisenhower from taxing the super-wealthy at 92%.
I raised AOC in the Alberta context because I wanted Albertans to think about the whole idea of taxing the wealthy. It’s not sacrilegious, it makes good economic sense. And yet Albertans go berzerk at the mere mention of a tax hike. It’s time we grew up.
Thom Pardoe says:
I don’t know that Eisenhower actually implemented those tax rates, rather than was in power at a time when those rates were in effect. Indeed, the US tax code had many, many more tax brackets from the time it was implemented as well, scaling up a percent with each increment in income. That progressive scaling was eliminated in the drive for simplicity.
Carlos Beca says:
Yes I would add
‘In the drive for simplicity … and make the rich SUPER rich’ 🙂
Trump has not paid taxes since 1975 and proud of it
Do not get mad I am just teasing
J.E. Molnar says:
Really appreciate your refreshing and serious take on Alberta politics — well done!!
If Albertans are waiting for new ideas and a new vision from the United Conservative Party don’t hold your breath. Jason Kenney has his transition team in place even before his party’s policies are publicly revealed and the UCP is even elected as a government. So far what we’ve gotten from the Duke of Demagoguery is:
NO Shadow Budget!
NO Platform document!
NO Climate mitigation plan!
NO Transparency (on dark money donor list)
Sadly it appears Jason Kenney will employ Kim Campbell’s failed election strategy of 1993, “An election is no time to discuss serious issues” — and hope he can gaslight Albertans to a UCP victory.
J.E….”the Duke of Demagoguery”…you made me smile, but you are absolutely correct about the UCP making promises and failing to deliver.
All of Kenney’s broken promises are important but the one that bothers me the most is Kenney’s refusal to release the names of ALL of the donors to his leadership campaign. He says some of his donors wish to remain anonymous. The question is why.
Two reasons pop to mind.
One, the donors didn’t want to appear disloyal to one of the other candidates–but given that his competition was Richard Starke, Stephen Khan, and Byron Nelson and none of them were heavy hitters in the PC world, this doesn’t make sense.
Two, the donors wanted to avoid the perception that they were buying influence–but given that big name business people contribute to political campaigns all the time and Fred Mannix, Stanley Milner and Nancy Southern had no issue with being identified this doesn’t make sense either.
This leads me to wonder whether the donors demanding anonymity were people Kenney thinks would alarm Albertans if their identity were known, people active in far right groups or fundamentalist religious groups, for example.
All we know for sure is Kenney spent $1.46 million in the leadership race. This was 7 times more than his competitors and there are a lot of people out there like the guy in Brooks who said he’d sue Kenney if Kenney didn’t deliver on his promise to get rid of GSAs in schools. Oh and to make the issue of no transparency even more unsettling, I wanted to include a link to the article but the page has been taken down.
Susan I would call it the second Dark Ages. Jane Jacobs predicted it.
Life goes in cycles and we have certainly entered the second Dark Ages at around the Time Margaret Thatcher took over in Britain and Ronald Reagan in the US.
The first Dark Ages went from 500 to about 1500 AD in a time when education and technology were way slower. So I hope that now, if Putin or Trump do not blow the world up, it will be way shorter.
Trump could even start a civil war because of the war temper tantrum.
I think that Quantum Physics will be the precursor of a second Renaissance. Entanglement will be explained and we will start the development of teleportation and instant communication with the rest of the Universe.
sorry I meant the ‘wall temper tantrum…’ not ‘war.
Carlos, what an intriguing comment 🙂 Things feel so wonky now that maybe what we need is exactly that–teleportation and instant communication with the rest of the Universe. If nothing else, it would remind us to be humble.
Your comment about Trump starting a civil war is prescient. I read an article about America’s failed war on terrorism. The author said the US had never fought invaders on its own soil (apparently Pearl Harbor didn’t count because it was too remote for most Americans and WW2 was fought “over there”). The author said 9/11 was the first time the US felt threatened at home. A government’s first job is to protect its citizens. If it can’t do that it loses credibility. Since terrorism is fought behind the scenes it’s tough for the government to be seen to be doing something, that’s why it went overboard with inflammatory rhetoric, ridiculous levels of airport security, and all the orange and red alerts.
So back to Trump. Trump has painted himself into a corner. He characterized Mexicans as rapists, drug dealers and terrorists coming to the US to harm Americans, he said he’d protect Americans by building a wall to stop the flow and now he can’t get the money to built the wall. His credibility as President is on the line and he’ll stop at nothing to save himself. A very dangerous situation.
Susan I loved your sentence ‘If nothing else, it would remind us to be humble’
To me that is the number one problem in the world and particularly in the West where the culture of celebrity and extreme competition is close to its zenith.
We could gain a lot from a bit different approach to life.
I thought the Neanderthals had vanished thousands of years ago but somehow one survived in the US. The concept that a wall somehow is going to stop drug trafficking in the US is an extraordinary accomplishment on his part. God where is Einstein when we need him – remember the quote ‘Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expect different results’
Political Ranger says:
Well, that’s a relief!
I don’t know what you were up to over the Christmas season Ms. Soapbox but I’m sure glad you were … and btw, keep at it!
Your defensive, reflexive and anachronous comments over the last few months, while always thoughtful and eloquent and of course, rightfully yours to make, were worrying to any progressive concerned about a future in this province. There is no doubt that a successful life in a future Alberta for all but the most wealthy will not resemble life in the Klien era. Petroleum will be in severe decline, wildcatting will join the realm of cowboying, planning processes will become essential as will regulations and enforcement. Recognizing such is a pre-requisite to providing for opportunities for just such a successful life.
Nostalgia and weak thinking, whether about land use practices or governments, is for-sure not going to provide solutions to today’s problems. AOC might not have the answers either; but we damn well sure have to be thinking along those lines.
Failure is just too dire to accept.
Thanks Political Ranger, it must be something in the eggnog!
In all seriousness, the sheer volume of stuff coming at us (me) has been overwhelming…this fuzzies the mind and the spirit.
I agree that we need to be thinking ahead to the future, what I’m trying to get a handle on is how do we get there given the level of resistance we’re facing. But there may be hope, someone told me today that his Kenney-supporting friend says he’s worried about what Kenney will do to our healthcare system. He’s worried not because he has health problems but because his wife works in healthcare and he doesn’t want her to lose her job. They say all politics is personal. Maybe we should start there.
I appreciate this post so much – thank you!
You’re very welcome Carol!
I do not know Yuval Noah Harari but Jared Diamond explains quite well in his book ‘Guns Germs and Steel’ why some cultures dominate others and how they disappear despite their previous amazing success – examples like Babylon, Roman..etc.
His most interesting suggestions of why vigorous cultures fall in disarray and sometimes collapse is that is not caused by external forces but by their own internal rot, and if not corrected before it falls into amnesia due to lack of transfer from generation to generation, then it could develop into a major shock. I believe this is happening in many places especially in the US where slowly since Richard Nixon’s corrupted ways, the rot has been growing and spreading and become accepted to the point where now facts no longer matter. If this situation is not corrected within the period when people still remember a more ethical time then another substandard state is born.
Of course we are not immune to it at all. Personally think that we, along with most of western world are in the same rotting process due to our lack of democratic values and neglect towards more ethical and moral behaviour. It is easier to be greedy and have a ‘WHO CARES’ and ‘THANK GOD IS FRIDAY’ attitude then work within good ethical and moral limits that by the way were established 2000 years ago and we claim to abide by and respect. I do not remember my Mom and Dad use any of this type of attitude and they have passed that to us kids. We choose whatever we think is appropriate to us but in general, we are not making the right decisions. Society follows the examples of their governments and it is obvious we are in a clear decline – this is why I strongly believe politicians are an important part of the problem because they are the promoters and the examples are horrendous to say the least.
One of the most unfortunate aspects of this whole discussion is its domination by absolutists—on both sides. On one side, climate change is a global crisis, and only the most drastic action can save us. On the other side, climate change is a non-issue, maybe even a hoax, and we don’t need to do anything about it—or, maybe it is an issue, but we are an insignificant factor in the global picture and so we don’t need to do our fair share because the world’s biggest economies aren’t.
My professional Nursing practice is in the field of chronic disease management, working for AHS. We learned long time ago that when you want a client to engage in health behaviour change as part of a management strategy for diabetes, or cardiovascular disease, or obesity, or whatever, the scolding, dictatorial, paternalistic approach does absolutely no good, and is in fact detrimental to the therapeutic client-provider relationship that is so crucial in these conditions. Wagging your finger and telling someone they need to quit smoking, lose weight, get more exercise, eat more veggies, take all these pills, and whatnot, just tunes them out and gets us nowhere.
It’s the same in a democracy. Try telling voters something they don’t want to hear, and they’ll vote you out & elect someone whose message is friendlier. That’s what’s happening with hard-core environmental absolutists, who want all oil & gas production stopped or at least drastically curtailed. The “leave it in the ground” rhetoric might play in some places, but it sure doesn’t play here.
There are hundreds of thousands of ordinary Alberta families—not executive suite big shots, but ordinary moms & dads—whose families’ economic security depend either directly or indirectly on the oilpatch. It’s not just the oil & gas workers themselves, in places like Drayton Valley and Lloydminster, Red Deer and Leduc, High Level, Rainbow Lake, Peace River and Grande Prairie, and, yes Fort McMurray and Calgary. It’s also the folks that sell them their houses& cars, couches & fridges, groceries & clothes & school supplies. It’s the teachers that teach their kids, the nurses who take care of their loved ones, and the dentists that look after their teeth. The “leave it in the ground” crowd would throw all of those people under the bus.
On the denialist side, things are no better. Climate change is a global problem, which requires global solutions. Albertans & Canadians are citizens of the world, and as a G-7 country, ours is one of the world’s richest. If we do not step up and do our share, how can we expect developing countries to do theirs? We’re less than a year from the next Federal election, and just a couple or three months from a Provincial one, and still there is thundering silence from the Conservative parties on how they would address climate change. The only thing we do know, is that they would abolish the approach advocated by virtually every economist that has spoken out on the issue, and that is a market incentive to drive behaviour change towards energy conservation. I guess the anti-Big Government, deregulate-everything libertarian wing of the Conservative parties are going to push for expensive, heavy-handed regulatory mechanisms to reduce GHG emissions … ? Cognitive dissonance, anyone?
So, where is the mushy middle? Where are the moderates? Where is the effort to seek common ground? I’m afraid it’s gone. All that’s left, is anger.
Jerrymacgp I do not disagree with your view but I think it is incomplete. The moderates to me are the ones who have created the radical attitudes. They have been totally ineffective on resolving real crucial issues. Most democratic countries in the world are moderates and look where we are today. Their corruption and ineffectiveness brought about what you call the absolutists.
I remind you that it was the moderates who allowed Hitler to invade Austria and Poland because they did not believe in the reality behind him.
The present environmental situation was not created by absolutists. The issue created the radical positions you are talking about.
Who created the issues we have with our indigenous peoples?
What you call absolutists are actually the ones who have been bringing the issues to the surface to be dealt with.
So your view that the lack of moderates is the problem is not the real picture, in my opinion.
The real issue is lack of integrity, ethics and morals on all sides.
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Bootleg: Series 3
by The Morning Life
© Copyright - The Morning Life / The Morning Life (744773015426)
Ethereal rock that is personal and full of impact. Haunting vocals, thick musical textures and dense harmonies. An album best enjoyed in sequence from beginning to end.
1. Feeling Good
2. Get Back Home
3. Life on Mars?
4. Heavy Hail
5. Eleven Plus
This 5 song EP is the third installment of The Morning Life's "Bootleg Series" collection. Featuring studio versions of their critically acclaimed rendition of the song "Feeling Good" (made popular by Nina Simone) as well as the live favorite "Life On Mars?", Bootleg Series 3 offers the same sonic excellence as it's predecessor "Old Hymns of a New Age". The EP also features new song "Get Back Home" which switches musical gears and underscores the kind of quiet calm that only The Morning Life can bring. Known for their blistering live performances the EP is rounded out with a couple of live tracks recorded durning the "Hymns" tour.
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Wú Míng Assault Corps
An Infinity unit box that provides the weapons options needed. Now you can compose a Fireteam of these Heavy Infantrymen in the Imperial Service Sectorial Army. The Wú Míng, known as “Those without name”, are a violent and dangerous regiment, assault troops specialized in urban environments, close combat and clean-up operations.
1x Wú Míng (Light Shotgun)
1x Wú Míng (Forward Observer) (Boarding Shotgun)
1x Wú Míng (Fireteam: Duo) (Chain Rifle)
1x Wú Míng (HMG)
“Now we all know for a fact that the recruitment terms of the Assault Corps are a sham. When you fulfil your mission you are not pardoned, simply sent on another mission… If you survived, that is.”
Soldier 6847-H, Wú Míng Assault Corps, responding to his officer in command. Southern Front, Norstralia, Paradiso. First Offensive. This recording was used as evidence of the punitive measures administered to this convict operative.
A name is everything to a Yu Jing citizen. It does not only represent the individual, but also his parents, his family and even his place of birth. The worst curse that can be uttered by a Yu Jing citizen, and the most insulting to receive, can be translated as “fuck your name”. Consequently, one of the most degrading punishments meted out by Yu Jing civilian and military tribunals is the official denial of a name.
Excerpt from Society and citizenship in the Yu Jing StateEmpire by Dr Emilia Soares. Published in “Magazine of Social and Economic Studies of the University of Firozabad”. Available on Maya.
The Wú Míng Assault Corps is a penal military regiment. All its members are denied a name, and instead are given a serial number. The regiment is formed from the most dangerous and violent elements of the regular Yu Jing forces, often referred to as “pigs for the slaughter”. All Wú Míng live on probation and are forced to wear a subdermal tracking implant on their faces. The circuitry forms the characters for Wú Míng, acting as a clearly recognizable mark of shame. The punishment received—denial of a name, social scorn, being enlisted into the army and sent to the frontlines—can be commuted after a set period of service, assuming they survive. As a heavy infantry assault unit, they specialize in urban environments, close combat, offensive deployment, and cleanup operations. The ID number on their combat suits is always visible despite their camo patterns, making their status quite obvious. Most Wú Míng hold a great deal of resentment against the system, and perceive their service in the Assault Corps as an act of humiliation. This hatred and resentment seeps into their fighting style, along with the fact that the Regiment is the only thing standing between them and a summary execution.
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Medical Marijuana Brought More Than $10 Million in Tax Revenue to Md. in FY 2019
January 15, 2020 by Maryland Reporter Leave a Comment
Medical marijuana produced more than $10 million in tax revenue for Maryland in FY 2019 – exceeding the amount of money the industry brought to state coffers during the previous two fiscal years combined, according to data provided by the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission.
The latest numbers cover the period that ended on June 30, 2019. The total estimated revenue for medical marijuana for that fiscal year is $10,371,437. State expenditures for the fiscal year were $5,608,806.
In FY 2018 medical cannabis brought $3,508,494 to Maryland in tax revenue. State expenditures were $4,389,767. In FY 2017, the industry brought $4,234,017 in revenue to the state, while expenditures were $2,540,331.
Cannabis companies in Maryland made an estimated $96 million in the 12-month period from Dec. 1, 2017 to Nov. 30, 2018, according to the commission.
During the same period Illinois cannabis companies made $36.3 million, Massachusetts cannabis companies made between $25-35 million and New York cannabis companies made between $5-15 million, according to data from those respective states.
Maryland has an estimated 87 licensed cannabis shops, according to a spreadsheet provided by the commission. The majority are located in major population centers such as Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County and Montgomery County.
The majority of prescriptions were written for chronic pain, severe pain, PTSD, severe or persistent muscle spasms and severe nausea.
Mitch Trellis, managing partner of Remedy, a medical marijuana dispensary in Columbia, said the hurdles to opening a cannabis shop in Maryland “are many and numerous.”
Remedy, a medical marijuana dispensary, is located in a nondescript strip mall in Columbia. The shop opened in 2017. (MarylandReporter.com photo)
Trellis said he began a working group in April 2014 but was not able to open his shop until the end of 2017. He said the application process alone took about 18 months.
“It took us close to four years to basically get to open.”
But Trellis said the wait was worth it.
“We’re the Number 1 store in the state by both sales and by patients served.”
Trellis said he has 32 employees and serves more than 2,000 customers per week. However, he admits that the cannabis industry in Maryland is tough.
“It is the most competitive state in America. There are more stores per square mile than anywhere else in America.”
Banking is a major hurdle for cannabis shop owners. Marijuana is illegal under federal law and banks are national and sometimes even multi-national entities. Because of this, most banks are not willing to accept deposits from cannabis shops because the federal government could revoke their FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) charter. If a bank’s charter is revoked, its deposits would no longer be federally insured.
Severn Bank in Annapolis is one of the few banks in Maryland that accepts deposits from cannabis shops. Trellis said Remedy deposits its money there.
“They’ve been very forward and very innovative in their processes and in their programs, and they’ve done a great job,” he explained.
Kevin Shin, co-founder and CEO of Grove Group Management, a financial firm based in New York City that invests in cannabis, said Maryland’s medical marijuana industry is lucrative.
Shin said the number of medical marijuana users in the state increased 20% from 2018 to 2019. He explained what that means for the industry.
“National conglomerates are trying to consolidate licenses making larger brands, so smaller operators have to work smart since there are enough sales to survive in the growth market. Sustaining sales and growing the medical consumer base will be key for dispensaries. Sales and distribution for processors and growers.”
But like Trellis, Shin said the hurdles are many.
“The typical hurdles of high capital requirements and operating costs while managing sales and margins will always be constant. You need financial discipline, a strong management team, and foresight to keep contingency funds for regulation changes that are bound to come.”
Shin said lack of diversity among cannabis shop owners is a problem in Maryland.
“In the first round, only one license was awarded to an African American-owned group and the commission has gone through leadership changes. Minorities including women need better representation as the state program evolves which will evolve.”
Eleven states have legalized recreational marijuana use. They are Maine, Illinois, Colorado, California, Alaska, Vermont, Oregon, Nevada, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Washington.
Fifteen states have decriminalized marijuana use. In 2014, Maryland followed that path by passing a law that makes possession of 10 grams or less punishable by a fine and a mandatory drug education program.
Concrete action on legalization is not expected during this legislative session. However, two bills have been filed related to cannabis. The House bill would prohibit medical marijuana users from being denied the right to purchase, own, possess or a carry a firearm. The Senate bill would allow an income tax subtraction modification for the expenses medical cannabis growers incur.
Last year the general assembly established a working group to study legalization for adult users.
Maryland’s medical marijuana program was established by the assembly in 2012. However, the program did not become operational until December 2017.
William Tilburg, executive director of the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, did not respond to a request by MarylandReporter.com for comment by the deadline for this story, nor did a spokesperson for Comptroller Peter Franchot.
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Filed Under: Homepage Highlights, Portal Highlights Tagged With: Health, Medical Marijuana
Shore Arts: MSO Selects Winner of Elizabeth Loker Competition
January 13, 2020 by Steve Parks 1 Comment
The winner of the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra’s inaugural Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition is Joseph McNure, a 22-year-old graduate student in music at the University of Maryland College Park, whose instrument of choice is the alto saxophone.
Joseph McNure
McNure was awarded $2,000 and a three-concert reprise in March of the winning performance of Paul Creston’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone, along with the full orchestra performing Mozart’s Symphony No. 33. The Creston concerto was a bold choice, composed by an Italian-American born to Sicilian immigrant parents in 1905. Creston died in 1985, and although he was a prolific composer whose work was widely performed through the 1950s, he was better known as a teacher in his later years. McNure interpreted the piece in an original classical jazz format, ranging from frantic piercing to quieter riffs that seemed to evoke familiar refrains you think you know but can’t quite place.
McNure, a Virginia Beach native, was the last of six finalists to perform Thursday night, January 9, at the Avalon Theatre in Easton. Six competitors were selected among about 40 applicants who were judged in December based on audio performances submitted to an MSO team. The team led by Terry Ewell, graduate director of music at Towson University, also consisted of Dane Krich, the orchestra’s general manager, and Julian Benichou, its music director. Ewell and Benichou were judges of the final round of the competition, while Krich emceed the evening’s proceedings.
While McNure said he was “thrilled” to win the competition, he’s been a winner before—capturing top honors in the University of Maryland Concerto Competition last fall.
Second-place was won by Joshua Lauretig, 25, who performed the oboe solo of Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major. Honorable mention went to 12-year-old Sophia Lin of Longfellow Middle School in Virginia, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major. The other contestants were saxophonist Tae Ho Twang playing Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto in E-flat Major and cellists Yejin Hong and Eunghee Cho, both of whom performed, separately, Dvorak’s Cello Concerto.
In the awards presentation, Maestro Benichou noted that music competitions are not to be compared to athletic battles in that each contestant in music is out to play one’s best rather than to defeat fellow musicians. In solo competitions, he said, “We don’t learn music so much as learn about ourselves.”
Benichou also paid tribute to the competition’s namesake, the late Elizabeth Loker, longtime Easton supporter of the orchestra who bequeathed a gift to the MSO in her will.
As the winner of this first annual Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition, Joseph McNure, will perform his triumphant Paul Creston piece with the orchestra, also performing the Mozart symphony, on March 5 at the Easton Church of God, March 7 at Ocean View Church of Christ, Ocean View, Delaware, and March 8 at the Community Church in Ocean Pines, Maryland. Tickets: $45, 888-846-8600.
Steve Parks is a retired journalist, arts writer and editor now living in Easton
Filed Under: Arts Homepage Highlights, Arts Portal Notes, Homepage Notes, Homepage Notes Tagged With: Avalon Theatre, Easton, local news, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, music, The Talbot Spy
John Hines Promoted to Electric Department Manager
January 12, 2020 by Spy Desk 1 Comment
John E. Hines III, P.E.
Easton Utilities named John E. Hines III, P.E., as the Electric Department Manager. In this position, John is responsible for all aspects of the operation for the safe generation and delivery of power from transmission through distribution to the customer. “I am honored to be chosen as the next leader of this department comprised of knowledgeable, dedicated individuals focused on providing safe and reliable service to our community,” stated Hines.
John joined Easton Utilities in 2004 and has held several positions within the electric department. In this role, he replaces Arnie Boughner who retired from Easton Utilities in early January as the Electric Department Manager for over 17 years. John will now oversee six divisions that operate and maintain the power plants, substations and distribution infrastructure along with the vehicle fleet for all of Easton Utilities. “We are fortunate to have John on our team as he has demonstrated his commitment to safety and reliability during his 15+ years with Easton Utilities,” said Hugh E. Grunden, president and CEO of Easton Utilities.
Prior to joining Easton Utilities, John held various roles as an Electrical Engineer and Project Manager for companies in the mid-Atlantic region. He holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Maryland. With a passion for boating and sailboat racing, John has been an active member of the Miles River Yacht Club since 2005 serving in various leadership positions, including Commodore. He resides in Easton with his wife and two daughters.
Easton Utilities is a community-owned, not-for-profit utility and telecommunications company operating the Electric, Natural Gas, Water, Wastewater, Cable Television, and Internet services for the Town of Easton and portions of the surrounding area. Visit eastonutilities.com for more information.
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Filed Under: Homepage Notes, Portal Notes Tagged With: local news, The Talbot Spy
Qlarant Announces Acquisition of IT Development Firm
January 5, 2020 by Spy Desk
Qlarant announced today the acquisition of Studio Codeworks, an information technology company located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The acquisition is an integral part of Qlarant’s strategic plan to grow product lines, expand their commercial market, and build its skilled and passionate workforce. Led by Will Mapp III, Studio Codeworks has been actively working with Qlarant over the past 3 years on program design and development.
By combining resources, Qlarant and Studio Codeworks will continue to lead the development of innovative programs that work to resolve risk and fight fraud, waste, and abuse in major industries and federal/state agencies. The Qlarant Board of Directors approved the acquisition and the agreement closed Tuesday, December 31, 2019.
“We have been working closely with this team for some time now, and we are familiar with the skillsets and knowledge base of each staff member,” says Dr. Ron Forsythe Jr., CEO of Qlarant. “Studio Codeworks has provided Qlarant with insight, technology skills, and a strong commitment to our programs — along with a passion for finding solutions to complex problems. We believe the work ethic and attitudes of this team will be a positive addition to our existing culture.”
Qlarant has nine offices throughout the United States including its headquarters in Easton, Md. The existing staff of Studio Codeworks will maintain their location in Silver Spring, Md. Will Mapp III will lead the Technology Research and Development Department for Qlarant and his team will include the associates formerly of Studio Codeworks. No other staffing or organizational changes will be made at this time. Will Mapp III will report directly to Ron Forsythe, Jr., CEO.
“As someone from the Eastern Shore, I am very excited to join Qlarant’s team. Qlarant is a great and storied company doing phenomenal work in
Health Services,” says Will Mapp III. “Qlarant’s commitment to quality and Studio’s commitment to technical excellence present a fantastic opportunity to extend the reach of improving people’s lives and benefitting mankind.”
About Qlarant: Qlarant is a not-for-profit, nationally respected leader in fighting fraud, waste, and abuse—improving program quality, and optimizing performance. The company uses subject matter experts and innovative data science and technology to help organizations see risks, solve problems, and seize opportunities. Solutions are customized for state, federal, and commercial agencies across the nation. The Qlarant Foundation— the mission arm of the organization—has provided over $5 Million in grants to charities throughout Maryland and Washington, D.C. Qlarant employs nearly 500 people and has a 45-year record of accomplishment improving the performance of some of the Nation’s most important programs. Qlarant is a licensed AgileCxO Transformation Partner.
If you would like more information, please contact Pat Boos at 410.819.3553/ boosp@qlarant.com or visit the website www.qlarant.com
SCORE Mid-Shore Offering Business Mentoring Sessions at TCFL
The SCORE Mid Shore Chapter is offering free business mentoring mini sessions at the Talbot County Free Library in Easton on the second Wednesday of every month from 11am to 2pm (lobby area). The next mentoring opportunity is January 8, 2020. Future sessions will continue with same time and location.
SCORE Mid-Shore is a resource of the US Small Business Administration and is America’s premier small business mentoring organization. SCORE Mid-Shore provides confidential and free business mentoring to the emerging and existing small business community of Easton and surrounding counties. The Chapter is dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and assisting small businesses to achieve their goals.
No appointment is required for the free library sessions and are held on a drop-in basis. Submit your business questions to the SCORE Mid-Shore representative on duty. Additional meetings with SCORE Mid-Shore are free of charge and can be scheduled at the site with the mentor. Further free mentoring is also available by calling 877-572-0735 for a session at the local SCORE location at 101 Marlboro Ave., Suite 53 in Easton.
Visit the SCORE Mid-Shore website at “midshore.score.org.” Check out our mentors and try one of our webinars.
Easton’s Challenge with Retail’s Empty Little Boxes: A Chat with Discover Easton’s Ross Benincasa
January 3, 2020 by Dave Wheelan
There are a few reasons why Easton residents experience certain anxiety when they see vacant storefronts in and around the historic district. The first is sentimental. These abandoned shops, which fall into the 3,000 to 10,000 square feet range, such as Ben Franklin, the News Center, Earth Origins Market, and Safeway were greatly beloved by their customers. The simple sight of these now deserted sites causes an understandable sadness with those missing products or former employees.
The second is more particular. No one likes to see empty storefronts since it seems to send a message about a town’s vitality, or lack thereof. And while it may be true that almost every town in America is also facing a dramatically changing retail world, when it’s your town, one is inclined to take it very personally.
That is one of the reasons that the Spy recently spoke to the Town of Easton’s Ross Benincasa. Beyond directly managing the town’s significant “Discover Easton” campaign of events and marketing, Ross routinely plays a critical role in the town’s economic development strategies, including daily contact with commercial real estate brokers and future store owners.
In his Spy chat, Ross talks about Easton’s “little box” challenge that could ease some minds worried about a retail Armageddon in the near future. Beyond citing that Easton’s vacancy rate is not of line with historical patterns, Ross highlights a new level of innovation with commercial real estate that finds new uses for these old favorite places. He also takes about the relationship between retail and the lack of housing for younger residents who are increasingly making up the largest percentage of consumers in the country.
This video is approximately seven minutes in length.
Filed Under: Portal Highlights, Public Affairs Homepage Highlights, Public Affairs Portal Highlights
Food Friday: Sick as a Dog
January 3, 2020 by Jean Sanders
It has become a holiday ritual that is almost as predictable as the ball dropping in Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The holidays end, and one of us gets sick. It was my turn this year. We had a fine and festive Christmas with the young marrieds, cooked and ate and repeated the process surely more than three times a day, if my snug waistbands are any true indicator of the epicurean pleasures we experienced. And now the holidays are over, and we have all of 2020 to consider – Leap Year and all.
I guess we partied a little too hearty. My cold has mushroomed into massive congestion, sneezing and coughing. There are multiple Kleenex boxes in every room of the house. I am not a pleasant sight, just a noisy series of barking coughs and wet sniffles.
Imagine what the our homecoming was like for poor Luke the wonder dog, newly sprung from the kennel, as he tied the apron bow, and got out the cookbooks so he could make some chicken soup to hurry my healing process. He’s such a good dog. This is a reminder to be kind to our faithful companions! And since we can’t teach an old dog new tricks, luckily for us, Luke knows his way around the kitchen. These are the words that he dictated to me, as he stood on the stool, chopping vegetables and measuring out cups of rice, listening to The Splendid Table, where he has garnered a surprising breadth of culinary knowledge.
“A word to the wise: you are going to need chicken soup sooner or later this winter. And, no, it will never taste as good as your mother’s. It will ward off the flu, and will ease the aches and pains of that miserable head cold. And soon, you will feel right as rain.” (I wonder if it is only Luke who is partial to clichés or if all dogs are prone, like food writers?)
I can see Maurice Sendak will hovering behind Luke, proudly, as he measures out the rice. And soon we will be slipping on the sliding ice, sipping our own chicken soup with rice. Maybe Luke will end up with Max and the Wild Things, stirring soup on a well-drawn pen and ink stove.
Luke recommends:
1 deboned chicken carcass, including skin
OR 1 whole chicken (do not give the poor dog a bone, no matter how eloquent he is, or how mournfully he looks at you)
6 quarts water
2 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery stalks, roughly chopped
4 black peppercorns
1. Use a large stock pot, and add butter and chicken over medium heat. Brown them a little bit.
2. Add all the rest of the ingredients, and bring to a boil.
3. Boil for 3 minutes, then turn heat down to low.
4. Cover, and simmer for about 3-4 hours, stirring every once in a while.
5. Once it’s a golden color, strain and let cool. Put in the refrigerator overnight, then skim the fat off the top.
Chicken Soup (not completely homemade – but sometimes a dog is on deadline and life has to go on)
Half an onion, minced
2 carrots, finely diced
A sprig of fresh thyme, or a few shakes of dried
2 quarts chicken stock
1 cup uncooked, long grain rice (or, if you are a noodle family, have your wicked way with them)
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken
1. Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a large, heavy-bottomed skillet.
2. Add onion and carrot, and sauté until soft, 5-7 minutes.
3. Add bay leaf, thyme, and chicken broth, and bring to a boil.
4. Reduce to a simmer and add rice and chicken.
5. Let soup bubble, stirring occasionally, until the rice is cooked through, about 15-20 minutes.
Note from Luke:
This will be much better than Lipton’s Chicken Noodle dried-powder and freeze-dried chicken bits! And certainly better than Campbell’s. Have you ever looked at those pinkish chicken nubbins? Well, you were probably feverish and anything warm was going to do the trick.
And now, thanks to Luke, you have a nice, comforting stash of stock in your freezer, and you are ready for that rainy, sneezy, sniffling, no-good, terrible day. I remember the glory days, back in elementary school, when I could stay home, bundled up on the sofa with a blanket, a pillow, a box of Kleenex and jelly glass of ginger ale with a bent paper straw. I reveled in spending a feverish day napping in front of the black and white TV. If you are lucky when you succumb to this year’s stay-home-from-school cold maybe Bewitched and The Dick Van Dyke Show will be on YouTube someplace. Or you can catch up with Season Three of The Crown!
Luke has taken good care of me. Mr. Friday has gone back to the serenity of his office, and I am tottering around the house starting to take the Christmas decorations down. But later this afternoon, Luke and I are going to curl up on the sofa, catching up on the Christmas movies we were too busy to watch last week. Happy New Year!
“If you are a dog and your owner suggests that you wear a sweater suggest that he wear a tail.”
-Fran Lebowitz
Filed Under: Archives, Food Friday, Homepage Highlights, Homepage Slider
Easton Utilities Brings Water Service to Hyde Park
December 23, 2019 by Spy Desk
Today Easton Utilities commenced providing water service to the Hyde Park community. Easton Utilities water system has always provided clean, safe drinking water in abundant supply. “We are very excited about this opportunity to bring our quality water and exceptional customer service to this neighborhood,” said Paul L. Moffett, Water Department Manager for Easton Utilities.
The new water service will be provided to the existing dwelling units, office and community building. “The residents of our community are delighted to have this valuable service from Easton Utilities and we look forward to the benefits this adds to our development,” stated James Sonday, Hyde Park owner’s representative. Prior to being connected to the town water system, residents were served by Hyde Park’s on-site well system.
Filed Under: Homepage Notes Tagged With: local news, The Talbot Spy
Qlarant President and Cambridge Resident Recognized at December 10 Ceremony
Sandy Love, President Qlarant Integrity Solutions
Leadership Maryland announced today that Sandy Love, President of Qlarant, has completed the professional development program dedicated to building a better Maryland by harnessing the strength of its local business and community leaders. Leadership Maryland honored Ms. Love, a resident of Cambridge, and the entire Class of 2019 at its 27th annual graduation ceremony held December 10 at the Lord Baltimore Hotel.
Ms. Love was one of 50 applicants chosen by committee to complete Leadership Maryland’s eight-month hands-on learning program focused on the state’s most vital social, economic and environmental issues.
“As this year’s Leadership Maryland cohort completes its program, their journey as a graduate of our state’s finest organization of professionals begins,” said Leadership Maryland Board Chairman Dr. Memo F. Diriker ‘12, director of BEACON at Salisbury University. “Over the past eight months they have learned about our state, the critical issues it faces, and above all, themselves. On behalf of the Board, I congratulate each of them for completing this defining milestone and I look forward to seeing them apply these lessons to accomplish great things for our state.”
Leadership Maryland is open to senior-level executives with significant achievements in either their careers and/or their communities.
“This has been a tremendous experience,” says Ms. Love. “Qlarant has been a supporter of this program for many years and I have been inspired by the program”.
Ideal Leadership Maryland members have a desire to learn more about Maryland’s most critical issues and a personal commitment to be a force for positive change in their organizations, their communities, and their state.
About Leadership Maryland
Leadership Maryland is a professional development program dedicated to building a better Maryland by harnessing the strength of its local business and community leaders. Each year, as many as 52 diverse and accomplished executives from Maryland’s public and private sectors are selected to come together as a class for an eight-month hands-on learning program focused on the state’s most vital social, economic and environmental issues. The first Leadership Maryland class graduated in 1993, and the organization’s alumni network now consists of more than 1,100 leaders from all industries and regions of the state. To learn more, please call Leadership Maryland at 410-841-2101 or visit www.LeadershipMD.org or email Info@LeadershipMD.org.
About Qlarant:
Qlarant is a not-for-profit, nationally respected leader in fighting fraud, waste, and abuse—improving program quality, and optimizing performance. The company uses subject matter experts and innovative data science and technology to help organizations see risks, solve problems, and seize opportunities. Solutions are customized for state and federal agencies as well as commercial industries across the nation. The Qlarant Foundation— the mission arm of the organization—provides grants to services provided in underserved communities. Qlarant employs nearly 500 people and has a 45-year record of accomplishment improving the performance of some of the Nation’s most important programs. Qlarant is a licensed AgileCxO Transformation Partner.
Filed Under: Homepage Notes, Portal Notes Tagged With: local news, Qlarant, The Talbot Spy
Maryland 2.0: Trappe has Found an Angel in Tom Mitchell
December 10, 2019 by Dave Wheelan
Angel investors come in every shape and size but rarely do they come in the form of Tom Mitchell and Trappe, Maryland.
This small rural community some ten miles south of Easton off of Route 50 has a current population of 1,000 people, give or take. While it has had moments of prosperity, including the introduction of Mitchum’s fine dining restaurant (now closed) a few years ago, it finds itself most of the time getting lost as beachgoers drive by heading for Cambridge and Salisbury.
But for Tom Mitchell, Trappe has never been about the best possible return on investment. For him, it comes from a particular love of the community but also a unique devotion to his wife, Maria.
For the last ten years, Maria has battled Alzheimer’s Disease while Tom continued his successful career as an entrepreneur in several industries. Maria, who is 100% Greek, was always counted on to be the heart and soul of the Mitchell home, and Tom was eager to find a way to keep his wife’s passion for great food and natural warmth alive as she battles this cruel illness.
And so, without any experience in the restaurant business, other than his natural appetite and fondness for tasty libations, Tom embarked on a simple plan to turn the abandoned Mitchum’s back into a major center for fine dining. Using Maria’s favorite recipes, and his skill of making sound real estate deals, Mitchell found himself the owner of Momma Maria’s Bistro last April.
But, like all good stories, it didn’t just end with a tremendous new restaurant. As Tom started to invest in downtown Trappe, he saw an exceptional opportunity for even more investment. Quickly he took over the former bank building across the street to start Coffee Trappe, and has since purchased with at least five other commercial properties all within a stone’s throw away from Mamma Maria’s front door.
In short order, a restaurant project has now grown into a town project. Tom saw this as a way to keep Trappe’s small-town feel at a time when the population should grow significantly with the addition of the Lakeside community (which will eventually have five unique neighborhoods ) on the other side of Route 50.
The Spy has plans to cover the unique success story of Momma Maria’s as a new and hugely popular fine dining establishment under the management of chef Michael Quattrucci early next year but took our opportunity to talk to Tom about how one person, with passion and emotional investment, can truly save a little town.
This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about Momma Maria’s please go here.
Filed Under: Chats, Homepage Slider, Maryland 3.0 Tagged With: local news, The Talbot Spy, Trappe
Best of the Spy
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Leland Ness: Jane's World War II Tanks and Fighting Vehicles
Belton Cooper: Death Traps
Landing Vehicle, Tracked
Universal Carrier
Sturmgeschütz IV
Sturmmörser Tiger
Type 2 Ka-Mi
Pz Kpfw IV
Schwerer Panzerspähwagen (7,5) (Sd Kfz 233)
Carro Armato M13/40
Leichter Panzerspähwagen (Sd Kfz 221)
76 mm Gun Motor Carriage, M18
7TP
The Polish 7TP was a was based on the Vickers 6-ton, which also inspired the Soviet T-26 and the US Light Tank, M2. The 7TP received several improvements over the Vickers 6-ton, including a more reliable engine (using a license-build Saurer-Diesel engine, a first in Europe), a better cooling system and upgraded armour.
Two variants existed: a twin turret version and a single turret version. The twin turret version was armed with two 7,92 mm Ckm wz. 30 machine guns (a copy of the US Browning M1917 heavy machine gun). The two turrets were not fully traversable, and were therefore not very effective. The single turret version was armed with a modified Bofors 37 mm anti-tank gun 36 (named 37 mm Bofors wz. 37) with a Zeiss telescopic sight and a single Ckm wz. 30 machine gun.
The two different versions have become known as 7TPdw and 7TPjw in post-war western litterature, with "dw" being short for "dwuwieżowy" (twin-turreted) and "jw" being short for "jednowieżowy" (single-turreted), however these designations were not used officially by Poland.
Prototype trials started in mid-1934, and 22 were ordered on 1935-03-18, along with 10 special-made railway waggons for rail transportation. Bofors initially handled turret production for the single turret version, and delivered the first 16 turrets between 1936-02 and 1937-01. From 1938-05, the turret production was moved to Poland. Several twin turret versions were upgraded to the superior single turret. In addition, the cooling and exhaust system was upgraded during production.
By the time of the German invasion of Poland, a total of 135 7TPs were available. The two main units equipped with the 7TP were the 1st and 2nd Light Tank Battalion, each equipped with 49 single turret 7TPs. In addition, single and twin turret versions of the 7TP fought in the defence of Warsaw. The 7TP was superior to the German Pz. Kpfw. I, Pz. Kpfw. II and Pz. Kpfw. 35(t), and was able to penetrate the armour on all sides of the Pz. Kpfw. 38(t), Pz. Kpfw. III and Pz. Kpfw. IV. Due to its thin armour, however, it was vulnerable against all German anti-tank weapons.
After Poland's defeat, Germany used captured 7TPs for training purposes and for police and anti-partisan warfare. Yugoslavia and Afghanistan were interested in buying 36 and 12 single turret 7TP's respectively, however Germany invaded Poland before the deals could be concluded.
The 7TP's chassis was also used as the basis for the C7P artillery tractor, of which a few also served as armoured recovery vehicles for 7TP units.
Single turret
Twin turret
9.9 t - t
2.27 m - m
Armour (range)
5-17 mm
Speed (max)
Primary weapon
37 mm Bofors wz. 37 (1) Ckm wz. 30 (2)
Ckm wz. 30 (1) -
Profile view of a 7TP
7TP fording a trench
Forum discussion of the 7TP (external link)
List of preserved 7TP (external link)
Back to Tanks in World War 2
SPIELBERGER, Walther. Beute-Kraftwagen und -Panzer der deutschen Wehrmacht.
DERELA, Michal. 7TP light tank. Last updated 2002-06-09. Fetched 2009-08-30. Available from Internet: <http://derela.republika.pl/7tp.htm>
This page was last updated 2012-08-11 13:35:43.
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Home Back to the main site
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You've reached Captivating Tatiana Maslany the original and longest running fansite for all things Tatiana Maslany on the web. That's right, this was the very first fansite dedicated to her online and it's something we proud ourselves on. Tatiana is best known for her roles in the amazing BBC America television show Orphan Black. Browse the site and visit the web's most comprehensive Tatiana gallery with over 92,000 photos. Don't forget to follow us on Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook and bookmark us to visit the site again. - J.
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Te Wairua Auaha
Ngā Toi me te Pāpori
Arts and social engagement
Kōrero: Arts and social engagement
People have used art to persuade and protest in New Zealand since the 19th century. Visual artworks, songs, poetry and theatre have been employed to engage New Zealanders socially. The arts are also used to help people with mental or physical disabilities.
He kōrero nā Ben Schrader
Te āhua nui: Emma Lancaster at an art class at the Ranfurly Care Society, Auckland
Colonisation and social change
Criticising society
Arts therapy and access
Trade union banners
Communist mural
'End of the golden age'
'French letter'
The Quilt-Stitch group
For many artists the production of artworks has had a social and cultural purpose. In early colonial paintings New Zealand’s rugged landscapes were sometimes changed to make them look more attractive to potential settlers from Britain.
Māori employed art to protest the detrimental aspects of colonialism. Some Māori also composed waiata (songs) to protest the loss of their land and other injustices.
Cartoons often satirised current events, but they were also used by some groups to promote social change. Unions were among the first to use art to build a collective identity and attract public support.
When Māori rugby players were banned from the 1960 All Black tour of apartheid-era South Africa, Gerry Merito from the Howard Morrison Quartet wrote the song ‘My old man’s an All Black’ to protest the decision. From the 1970s artists increasingly questioned New Zealand’s idealised view of its race relations.
The feminist movement sought to give women the same opportunities as men. Jacqueline Fahey’s paintings, for example, depicted the social isolation of suburban life.
The environmental movement rose to prominence in the early 1970s following a government initiative to dam Lake Manapōuri for hydro-electricity. John Hanlon’s 1973 protest song ‘Damn the dam’ became popular. Artists such as Pat Hanly and Ralph Hotere used their art to protest environmental and political issues.
Arts therapies and access
Arts therapy is based on the belief that art practices and materials can help build, restore and maintain physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. It encompasses visual art making, drama, dance and movement.
Music therapy is used to help people with disabilities and those who are socially isolated.
In 2014 a number of non-government arts organisations advocated on behalf of people who experienced barriers to participating in the arts.
Tāngia te kōrero katoa
Whai muri: Page 1. Colonisation and social change Whai muri
Me pēnei te tohu i te whārangi:
Ben Schrader, 'Arts and social engagement', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/mi/arts-and-social-engagement (accessed 21 January 2020)
He kōrero nā Ben Schrader, i tāngia i te 22 Oct 2014
He kōrero anō mō...
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Pokémon Go will soon get ads in the form of sponsored locations
Lucia Maffei @maffei_lucia / 4 years
After having become one of the most viral mobile applications of all time, Pokémon Go will soon include advertising, according to its developer.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Niantic CEO John Hanke said that “sponsored locations” would provide a new revenue stream, in addition to in-app purchases of power-ups and virtual items. In other words, retailers and companies will be granted the paid opportunity to be featured prominently on the game’s virtual map, in the hope to drive customers inside their facilities.
A Niantic spokesperson declined to provide further details about the amount of potential revenue split between ads and in-app purchases.
According to the Financial Times, the network of virtual “portals” mapped to on-street locations in Pokémon Go will be similar to the one featured on Ingress, Niantic’s previous game. Brands that paid to create sponsored content in Ingress are pharmacy Duane Reade, café chain Jamba Juice and car-rental service Zipcar. In Japan, where Ingress is popular, brands that decided to buy similar in-game promotions are convenience store chain Lawson and Tokyo Mitsubishi Bank.
Advertisers will be charged on a “cost per visit” basis, similar to the “cost per click” used in Google’s search advertising, Hanke said.
Some U.S. retailers have already found that being featured in the game can drive tons of real customers into their stores. “The amount of people has been astonishing,” Tom Lattanzio, the owner of L’Inizio Pizza Bar in Long Island City, Queens, told The New York Post yesterday. The Financial Times reported that the pizza restaurant saw business increase 75 percent after buying a $10 in-game power-up that lured Pokémon to its location.
Pokémon have invaded the Art Institute! Catch them if you can and find 14 PokéStops around the museum. #PokemonGO pic.twitter.com/MICPddACuf
— Art Institute (@artinstitutechi) July 11, 2016
Other businesses and organizations have tried to attract visitors by emphasizing the large number of Pokestops around their buildings. The Art Institute of Chicago, for example, tweeted an invite to “Catch them if you can” around the museum.
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US Job Openings Fall 0.4% in July
By BANI SAPRA, AP Business Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of open U.S. jobs slipped 0.4% in July, while hires climbed slightly, a sign that some employers may be growing cautious amid rising economic uncertainty.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that employers advertised 7.22 million available jobs in July, down from a revised 7.25 million in June. Job openings reached a peak of 7.6 million last November but have fallen by about 400,000 since then. This is the second consecutive month in which job openings have declined.
Still, total hiring edged up to 6 million. The number of quits, which tends to increase when people are confident in the prospect of finding a new job, rose to 3.6 million.
The figures point to a largely healthy job outlook, said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan Chase Bank, in a note to clients.
“Like many other recent labor market indicators, the JOLTS report signals that job market conditions are reasonably healthy, but that they are not as upbeat as they were at some earlier stages of the expansion,” Silver said.
After U.S. employers added a modest 130,000 jobs in August, some economists view the declining job openings as a sign of weakness for the labor market.
“Last week’s jobs report sparked a debate over whether the slowdown in hiring is due to an economy hitting full employment, but today’s JOLTS report indicates that this is actually a labor market that is losing momentum,” said Nick Bunker, an economist at jobs site Indeed.
There are 1.2 job openings for every unemployed person, suggesting that many businesses still remain hungry for workers. Additional hiring could be especially significant in fueling consumer spending, which is the primary driver of economic growth.
But Julia Pollak, a labor economist at online job marketplace ZipRecruiter noted that Tuesday’s report revealed rising layoffs in the manufacturing and mining industries.
“Production industries are really starting to show signs of decline, while the service industries are doing pretty well,” Pollak said. “But the service providing industries are typically far less volatile during a downturn. Production is really the tail that wags the dog.”
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Home Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Make plans for first high school graduation exercises
Make plans for first high school graduation exercises
Title Make plans for first high school graduation exercises
Collection ID Valley Times Collection
Location/Accession HCNVT_d056_f33_i18
Description Photograph caption dated January 28, 1957 reads, "Lots of work - Making decorations for their senior breakfasts are these student leaders at Reseda and Birmingham highs. Above, members of Reseda 'Premiers' - their name for graduating class - are, from left, standing, Kay Hubbell, Barbara Barnes and Doug Ward; seated, Kenda Christianson and Barbara Bernstein. Below are Birmingham 'Olympians,' from left, seated, Sue Pollock, senior breakfast chairman, and Charmaine Breckenridge, assistant chairman; and, standing, Nazar Ashjian, senior class treasurer; Ron Griffeth, senior president."; See images #00031363 through #00031369 for all photos in this series.
Subject Birmingham High School (Van Nuys, Calif.).
Birmingham High School (Van Nuys, Calif.)--Students.
High school student activities--California--Los Angeles.
High school graduates--California--Los Angeles.
High school seniors--California--Los Angeles.
High schools--California--Los Angeles.
Schools--California--Van Nuys (Los Angeles).
Decoration and ornament--California--Los Angeles.
Young women--California--Los Angeles.
Young men--California--Los Angeles.
Van Nuys (Los Angeles, Calif.).
Valley Times Collection photographs.
Credits This project was supported in whole or in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.; Made accessible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and Photo Friends.
Sub-Collection Name Valley Times Photo Collection
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[:en]”My major was in environmental economics. I wanted to intern somewhere that has to do with my area of study – I’m interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how environmental issues mitigate conflict. The other major thing was that I liked that it wasn’t just Israeli Jews or Americans here – diversity is an integral part of the program.”
Arava Institue ( Year- 2016 )[:]
Lynnette Hacopian
“As a Religious Studies major I wanted to go to the holy land and learn Hebrew so I can read religious texts in their original language and study translation discrepancies. However, I never expected to have such a layered and complex experience.”
Haifa University ( Study Abroad Program )
Brooke Gentry
“Masa gave me a unique opportunity to be a student at one of the world’s top universities. It was very interesting; my days were busy from morning till night. We studied four days a week and once a week there were excursions around the country or lectures with guest speakers.”
“I met and got to know many wonderful and intelligent people. It was a huge networking opportunity. Many have stayed my close friends. I feel that I changed personally, and also that I was a part of something larger than myself. I became more independent. It was a challenge for me and I have successfully met the challenge. I had an unforgettable experience while I was at the Technion on the Masa program.”
Technion University ( Study Abroad Program )
Yulia Gr
“I’m half Israeli. For a very long time, I wanted to be here and live here. It was really the combination of the international health program at Ben-Gurion University and being back in Israel.”
Ben Gurion University ( BGU Medical School First Year – 2016-2019 )
Daniel Levi
Wayside, NJ
“BGU as a whole is so much more like a university campus in the States. It’s such a student-driven scene here. I think I’ve enjoyed it so much more than I would have to go to school elsewhere.”
“People in our class come from all over the place and all have this goal of making the world a better place. People from all over the world, which you have everywhere, but the fact that people came here to study is really special. It offers a really unique perspective coming here and learning here and then potentially to applying it to patients in the States.”
Ben Gurion University ( BGU Medical School First Year )
Jenna Meyer
“I wanted to experience Israel for myself and build a stronger connection to my Jewish heritage.”
Ben Gurion University ( GAP Year Program – Year 2016 )
[:de]”I wanted to experience Israel for myself and build a stronger connection to my Jewish heritage.”
Ben Gurion University ( GAP Year Program – Year 2016 )[:]
Naftali Horowitz
Pasaick, NJ
“Masa’s scholarship enabled me to fulfill a lifelong dream: living in Israel and learning Hebrew. Through Masa, I spent a semester studying abroad at Ben-Gurion University and making friendships that will last me a lifetime. Through Ulpan and volunteering, I learned to speak Hebrew almost fluently. After this incredible semester, I plan to maintain connections with Israel throughout my life. Thank you, for providing me with such an amazing opportunity.”
Ben Gurion University ( Study Abroad Program- Year 2017)
[:de]“Masa’s scholarship enabled me to fulfill a lifelong dream: living in Israel and learning Hebrew. Through Masa, I spent a semester studying abroad at Ben-Gurion University and making friendships that will last me a lifetime. Through Ulpan and volunteering, I learned to speak Hebrew almost fluently. After this incredible semester, I plan to maintain connections with Israel throughout my life. Thank you, for providing me with such an amazing opportunity.” Ben Gunion University ( Study Abroad Program- Year 2017) [:]
Talia Borofsky
“I recommend the semester and summer internship program to anyone who is willing to step out of their comfort zone just a little bit and trust the people of Israel to take them in, teach them, and help show them what they can accomplish in such a short period. I’m grateful and thankful for the friends I made, the professors who educated me, and my colleagues who taught me.”
Tel Aviv University ( Study Abroad + Intern Program – Year 2016 )
[:de]”I recommend the semester and summer internship program to anyone who is willing to step out of their comfort zone just a little bit and trust the people of Israel to take them in, teach them, and help show them what they can accomplish in such a short period. I’m grateful and thankful for the friends I made, the professors who educated me, and my colleagues who taught me.”
Tel Aviv University ( Study Abroad + Intern Program – Year 2016 )[:]
Dana Sherman
George Washington University in D.C
“I chose to study at Tel Aviv University because of the great offering of classes, and the career center, which I knew I would use to help me figure out what I wanted to do while I pivoted from journalism.”
“The Sofaer International MBA program was interesting and opened my eyes to different things that I hadn’t thought about. It also gave me a new lens to view my experience covering financial bankruptcy, now that I understood a little more about what went into running a business.”
Tel Aviv University ( Sofaer International MBA Program – Year 2016 )
Aviva Gat
“Who would have thought that one semester could influence the
rest of your life? Studying abroad at Tel Aviv University was the
best decision of my college career. Not only did I grow as a person
but as a professional as well. In one semester I was exposed to
diverse cultures, making friends from all over the world, while
immersing myself in Israeli society. I decided to take advantage
of the opportunities given by Masa and utilize my time away
from the books and the beach wisely. Volunteering twice a week
teaching dance and English at an after-school program in Yafo,
allowed me to gain experience in my field of study while building
long-lasting relationships within the community.”
Tel Aviv University ( Study Abroad Program – Year 2015 )
Stephanie Aseraph
“Being raised Jewish, I have always felt some sort of connection to Israel
but I had never questioned why until I decided to study abroad in Tel Aviv.
I wanted to further my major in communications and psychology minor in
the most beautiful city in the world. I loved being able to communicate
with all of the diverse students on TAU’s campus. Studying abroad at TAU
through Masa Israel and with the help of Penn State Hillel, allowed me to
have many opportunities that I would not have had otherwise. This diverse
university allowed me to study a wide range of courses and additionally
took us on many adventures to Jerusalem, Haifa, and the Dead Sea!”
Kirya Ades-Aron
“Getting my master’s in Israel with the help of Masa was life-changing.
I learned a lot about myself, I expanded my network globally, lived like
a local and truly understood my Jewish identity. Learning about Israel’s
security doctrine and diplomatic approaches really gave me perspective
about the Middle East and the strategies used towards a path to peace.
Living in Israel for a year opened my eyes to believe that anything
is possible and that you just have to do it. It gave me the confidence to
pursue my passions and dreams. I made friends from all over the world,
understood different cultures and perspective, and now whenever
I travel I always have a friend. A few years later, I took yet another
journey and work for Masa Israel’s marketing team in New York.”
Tel Aviv University ( M.A. in Security & Diplomacy Program – Year 2011 )
Axel Angeles
“My interest in being here has been all about the community on campus and getting to talk with people I wouldn’t get to talk with otherwise, with different perspectives. It’s been really cool.”
Arava Institute ( Study Abroad Program – Year 2016 )
Back home I’m pretty involved in anti-war activism and things like that in the region. So this is a great way to get direct perspective on the ground. I think it’s a pretty important thing, what’s going on here, actually. I think it builds a lot of understanding, a lot of trusts. Honestly, I think the academics are the least of what this place has to offer.
Zachary Field
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Singularity University Hosts Manufacturing Summit This May In Boston To Focus On 8 Disruptive Technologies Causing Exponential Change
Leading Companies, Entrepreneurs, Analysts, Investors and Government Policy Makers Will Connect with Global Community to Experience Innovations, Learn How to Advance & Leverage Disruptions
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – April 18, 2017 – Singularity University (SU), a global community with a mission to educate, inspire, and empower leaders to apply exponential technologies to address humanity’s grand challenges today announced the second annual Exponential Manufacturing Summit taking place at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston, May 17-19, 2017.
The event is expected to attract over 500 global executives, entrepreneurs, investors, government, and policy leaders. The conference will showcase and discuss disruptive advances in eight areas that are fundamentally changing manufacturing today, including: artificial intelligence and machine learning, bio manufacturing, energy, additive manufacturing, augmented reality, IoT, and advanced and collaborative robotics. These exponential technologies are rapidly changing how we make resource and maintenance decisions; design and develop customer-centric product lines; add flexibility and speed to our production processes; and improve our ability to store, pick, ship, and sell orders of all sizes to retailers and individual purchasers alike.
Exponential Manufacturing is one of three Exponential Summits each year devoted to a vertical industry with the other two dedicated to Exponential Finance and Exponential Medicine. SU also hosts an annual Global Summit and a growing number of International Summits. These Summits foster technology innovation and the real-world applications that drive global good. To date, the Summits have attracted over 4,000 attendees from 85 countries who network with each other and domain experts in exponential technologies and thinking. During these unique events, attendees gain actionable knowledge and skills along with a network of industry contacts to help them navigate how these disruptive technologies can be incorporated into and benefit their organizations.
Specific to this year’s Exponential Manufacturing, the focus will be on:
How new regulations and the new Administration will affect R&D, jobs, and trade
How to increase workforce productivity with the use of AI and advanced robotics
How machine learning is changing everything we know about decision making
How digitization, autonomous factories, and virtual and augmented reality will change your entire retail supply chain
How digital platforms and 3D printing help small companies go from art to part faster
How large organizations can learn to pivot with the speed of a start-up
“This year we’ll share SU’s unique insight on recent advances in exponential and converging technologies, but we’ll also go deeper than ever before into how these technologies are affecting specific manufacturing functions and the strategic decisions leaders will need to be prepared to make right now,” said Will Weisman, Executive Director, Summits.
Among the topics and presenters addressing this year’s Exponential Manufacturing Summit:
Jay Timmons, President of the National Association of Manufacturers on the Trump Administration’s policies and programs that impact manufacturing
Dr. Ray Kurzweil, Co-Founder & Chancellor of SU and Director of Engineering at Google
Megan Brewster, former Sr. Policy Advisor for Advanced Manufacturing in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy
Deborah Wince-Smith, President & CEO of the Council on Competitiveness on the global outlook for the industry
Jay Rogers, Local Motors Co-Founder & CEO on the future of transportation
Trisa Thompson, Dell’s SVP & Chief Responsibility Officer on Impact Manufacturing
Rodney Brooks, Rethink Robotics Founder, Chairman & CTO on partnering with robots
Dyan Finkhousen, GE Director of Open Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing on crowdsourcing and open innovation
Bill McInnis, Vice President of Reebok Future on process transformation and the liquid factory, and
Erin Bradner, Autodesk Sr. Principal Research Scientist on generative design, to name a few.
There will also be a hands-on Innovation Lab for attendees to see demonstrations of the latest advanced manufacturing innovations.
Exponential Manufacturing is produced with generous support from Deloitte, Platinum Partner of Singularity University Summits, as well as from the following Exponential Manufacturing partners: GE Ventures, BD, and AutoDesk. Registration, full speaker lineup, and working agenda are available at https://su.org/summits/exponential-manufacturing/.
Press inquiries? Ask questions or register here: https://su.org/summits/exponential-manufacturing/.
ABOUT SINGULARITY UNIVERSITY (SU)
Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU’s collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. A certified benefit corporation headquartered at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, SU was founded in 2008 by renowned innovators Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Peter H. Diamandis with program funding from leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, and UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU.
Anna Roubos, singularityu@ogilvy.com
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Student union turns to Capitol for help
Members of the California Alliance of Academic Student Employees/United Auto Workers delivered petitions and letters to legislators at the state Capitol last week, asking for their help.
The letters, signed by a majority of the more than 6,000 teaching associates, graduate assistants, tutors and graders within the CSU system, asked that state legislators push the CSU for contracts that are consistent with the standard for unionized academic student employees across the country and in the University of California system.
Since October 2004, CAASE/UAW members have been negotiating with the CSU, but no agreement has yet been reached.
The issues in dispute include protection against an excessive workload, protection against dismissal without just cause, guaranteed wage increases, student fee waivers, health benefits, and access to basic information about union members, such as employee names.
“(The CSU) is trying to make this whole process as difficult as possible,” said Diana Andres, a teaching associate and graduate assistant in the Biology Department at CSUN, as well as a member of the bargaining committee for CAASE/UAW.
Andres said the CSU is being particularly firm about not granting academic student employees fee waivers for student fees. She said an academic student employee makes, on average, $518 per month, with a good portion of that money going toward paying student fees, a price other schools, particularly those in the UC system, do not have to pay.
Also in contention are wage increases, something the academic student assistants have not seen since 1991, Andres said. Budget cuts within the CSU are part of the reason.
“We’re being hit in several ways by this budget crisis,” Andres said.
CAASE/UAW members are hoping their appeals to state legislators will help advance their fight for fair contracts.
“We’ve gotten a lot of support from the legislators,” said Xochitl Lopez, an organizer for CAASE/UAW and a student at Sacramento State University.
Lopez said she hopes legislators will help persuade the CSU to “give the student employees more meaningful contract proposals.”
Members of the group have informed the CSU that it is imperative that contract negotiations are completed before the end of April so that members on the bargaining committee can approve the contract before they leave for summer break.
However, if a resolution is not established soon, Lopez said some academic student employees will go on strike.
“People are extremely agitated right now, waiting as long as they have (for a contract),” said Lopez. “If (the CSU) continues with (its) unfair practices, a strike will happen.”
In December 2004, CAASE/UAW members held a one-day unfair labor practice strike, to prepare for the possibility of a future strike.
“It will hurt the students if the (teaching associates) and other assistants go on strike,” said Clara Potes-Fellow, spokesperson for the CSU. “It’s a selfish way of looking at things.”
Contract negotiations between CAASE/UAW and the CSU are scheduled for April 26 and 28.
“We’re hoping that this will be the chance for us to come to an agreement,” Potes-Fellow said.
Rushing Waters: A Mural that Celebrates the History of Pacoima
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Letter to the FBI concerning the antibiotic Cipro and it’s promotion by ABC News.
Anthrax Issues
Dear Mr. Dunton:
I am reaching out to you as a patriotic American, a loving human being seeking world peace, and a Harvard graduate independent investigator with expertise in the fields of behavioral science, biological warfare, and biochemical terrorism. I relay this information in the hope that it will prompt you, and other FBI officials, to critically examine what I believe is legitimate intelligence bearing on global efforts to fight terrorism. May what I share herein lead to important discoveries regarding the recent terrorist attacks on America, prevent future attacks, and deter escalating global warfare.
I understand that the FBI is currently investigating terrorist group financing, and the likelihood that individuals and organizations with advanced knowledge concerning the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America “shorted” certain stocks and commodities for profit, akin to “inside trading.” You are likely familiar with the concept of “wagging the dog” to advance political policies and gain profit. I also know that you are familiar with neo-Nazi organizations operating in the United States, particularly in the northern Idaho area, and their possible involvements in acts of domestic, and international, terrorism. Given this introduction, what follows is evidence strongly suggesting the urgent need to investigate three organizations for leads concerning the funding of global terrorists. The primary suspect is the Bayer Corporation.
Last week, based on a report by ABC News, and previous unprecedented actions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that were likely influenced by industry lobbyists, ABC was caught “wagging the dog” for Bayer engaged in price gouging panicked American’s seeking protection against anthrax. Besides this being of relevance to the FBI’s ongoing terrorism investigation as I explain below, this should be investigated as a conspiracy to commit fraud against the U.S. Government and the hundreds of thousands of Americans induced to buy the antibiotic Cipro through such manipulative methods.
According to ABC News (Thursday, Sept. 27), sales of Bayer’s antibiotic Cipro have skyrocketed 1,000 percent from fears of anthrax retaliations in “America’s New War.” Anchorman Peter Jennings reported anxious consumers spending an outrageous $700 per person for a mere two-month supply. Two month supplies of other antibiotics regarded safe and effective against anthrax, and traditionally recommended by experts, are available for as little as $20 at farm feed stores.
Black’s Law Dictionary includes within its definition of fraud, “a concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her injury.” Peter Jennings heralded ABC’s special story the preceding evening by saying, “Preparing for a possible anthrax attack. We’re going through these fears, one by one, day by day. Good night.” In this context, ABC’s special segment on anthrax and Cipro sales may be seen as a form of “white collar bioterrorism.” Through this savvy and fraudulent form of drug promotion, consumers are being disadvantaged, over-charged, and placed at risk of injury from the potentially dangerous side effects of an antibiotic that offers no significant advantage over less costly alternatives for anthrax.
The Bayer Corporation maintains several serious skeletons in its corporate closet. In my thirteenth book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare (Tetrahedron, LLC; 1-888-508-4787), released in June, 2001, I examine a small number of multinational corporations, including Bayer, that have historically sponsored fear, espionage, and even terrorist campaigns for profit and global domination. Besides being found guilty of transmitting the AIDS-virus, HIV, through contaminated blood products to thousands of trusting consumers during the early 1980s, Bayer was blacklisted by the U.S.Government during, and shortly after, World War II. The OSS and CIA learned that Bayer maintained intimate ties to the German chemical/pharmaceutical cartel known as I.G. Farben. This consortium produced the earliest pesticides, drugs, and war gasses, including Zyclone B used in concentration camp gas chambers. According to the first CIA director Allen W. Dulles, as reported by CBS News war correspondent Paul Manning, the Farben cartel provided the chief economic and industrial engines behind the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler.
The Bayer Company evaded U.S. Government controls during and following the holocaust in which millions of mostly Jewish people were used as experimental subjects in medical atrocities overseen by I.G. Farben’s president Hermann Schmitz, who also directed the German-multinational Bayer A.G.
Of urgent pertinence to the FBI’s current investigation into terrorism’s money trail, a recent investigation into terrorist group funding, issued by The Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee (OBIC) directed by Representative Charles Key, found “Neo-Nazi figures have actually been implicated in Middle Eastern special weapons procurement and terrorist activity.” For example, the group reported, “since the 1960s, an old Swiss Nazi named Francois Genaud has reportedly masterminded several airplane hijackings for the PLO.” The now defunct “Odessa” organization, the post-war successor to Hitler’s S.S., according to OBIC, “had numerous documented meetings with representatives of various Arab organizations; and, during the early 1980s, a Neo-Nazi named Odfried Hepp attacked several U.S. military installations in Germany with bombs. Hepp was later found to have been financed by Al Fatah.” Hepp, OBIC reported, did his Ph.D. on “Neo-Nazi/PLO bombings of U.S. housing, cars and military facilities in Germany.” Given these facts alone, an FBI investigation into this matter is critical.
I am also contacting congressional leaders at this time urging an immediate U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the FDA’s “advisory committee” that sponsored the unprecedented sole endorsement of Bayer’s Cipro for anthrax. Nowhere in the Physician’s Desk Reference (2000) is it claimed that Cipro is especially indicated for anthrax. In fact, Bacillus anthracis is not even mentioned. What is mentioned is that, “although effective in clinical trials, ciprofloxacin is not a drug of first choice in the treatment of presumed or confirmed pneumonia secondary to Streptococcus pneumoniae.” This organism, like anthrax, is an aerobic gram-positive microbe. (Likewise, Bacillus anthracis causes pneumonia in the form of commonly terminal hemorrhagic bronchopneumonia.) Furthermore the PDR states: “WARNINGS-THE SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CIPROFLOXACIN IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND ADOLESCENTS (LESS THAN 18 YEARS OF AGE), PREGNANT WOMEN, AND LACTATING WOMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED.” Alternatively, numerous bioweapons experts have consistently recommended far less costly and time-tested antibiotics to fight anthrax, including the natural and synthetic penicillins, erythromycin, cephalosporins, and the tetracyclines.
This knowledge is consistent with the published works of pharmacist and attorney, Dr. Lawrence J. Joyce, also an expert in biological warfare with training at the U.S. Army’s Dugway Proving Grounds. Dr. Joyce advised that in the event of a required emergency response to anthrax, “the choice of therapy should simply depend on the availability of each antibiotic.” He also advised consumers, in advance of an emergency, to spend as little as $20 to purchase such antibiotics at their nearest farm feed and veterinary stores. A complete list of alternative antibiotics and instructions for the general public for anthrax preparedness is currently listed on my affiliated website at http://www.tetrahedron.org.
Any advantages Bayer’s product could conceivable offer over these other trusted antibiotics, could not be worth Cipro’s extraordinary $700 cost. The U.S. government, in stockpiling this drug following the advisory committee’s report, and consumers nationwide obviously frightened into a drug-demanding frenzy, have been royally bilked by this historically untrustworthy multinational company.
Given our current urgent concerns regarding terrorism, drug industry officials whose economic motives clearly conflict with U.S. national security interests, and the health and safety of all Americans, should be investigated forthwith. Given the Bayer Company’s infamy and possible financial links to contemporary neo-Nazi and terrorist organizations, ABC, Bayer, and the FDA’s “advisory committee” should be investigated by the FBI along with other leads regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. For all we know, inside traders in these organizations may be funding contemporary terrorist groups in support of industrial espionage operations and global conflict.
This would be textbook Machiavellian theory in practice. That is, create the political problems, fear, and associated financial opportunities, and create the solutions-costly and risky products and services for profit, regardless of the lives lost.
Please provide me with a written response to this urgent request and shared intelligence as soon as possible.
Yours in the Spirit of health and world peace,
Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H.
President, Tetrahedron, LLC
Cc: Members of the U.S. Congress,
Allied peace organizations and the news media.
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