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Interest facts or factoids regarding Japan which shed a surprising amount of light on the way things are.
Fun Facts #19: JT: Supreme Court denying welfare for NJ residents inspires exclusionary policy proposals by fringe politicians; yet the math does not equal the hype
Posted on October 27, 2014 October 27, 2014 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
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Hi Blog. Further setting and normalizing the national narrative for denying NJ their due as supporters of Japan’s social safety net, here is another article from the Japan Times charting the moves of the exclusionists. Afterwards is a comment doing the math behind the hype, exposing it as just that: hype. But of course, nobody in the press seems to want to do their sums and expose it for the non-story it should be. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito
Ruling denying welfare for foreign residents finds homegrown, biased support
BY TOMOKO OTAKE, STAFF WRITER, The Japan Times OCT 17, 2014
Courtesy http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/10/17/national/welfare-rollback-underway-ruling-empowers-xenophobes/
The landmark Supreme Court ruling in July that found permanent residents of Japan legally ineligible for public assistance is already having an impact. Moves are afoot both at the national and local levels to try to scale back or remove welfare payments to foreign residents.
In a lawsuit filed by an 82-year-old Chinese woman from Oita Prefecture, the nation’s top court made it clear that permanent foreign residents do not qualify for public assistance because they are not Japanese nationals. Article 1 of the 1950 Public Assistance Law states the law concerns “all nationals,” which the court said referred only to Japanese citizens.
Despite the ruling, the welfare ministry has stood by its long-standing policy of offering the same level of welfare protection to foreigners as Japanese, based on a notice it issued to municipal governments in 1954.
In line with the ministry policy, the municipal governments have distributed welfare benefits — ranging from cash assistance to free health care services to housing aid — to needy foreigners with permanent or long-term residency status, including the spouses of Japanese and migrant workers from Brazil.
But the July ruling has given momentum to some forces, including those harboring anti-foreigner sentiments and advocates of cutting “waste” in government spending, to try to limit foreigners’ access to welfare.
The minor opposition party Jisedai no To (Party for Future Generations), co-founded by ultranationalist Shintaro Ishihara, plans to submit bills to the extraordinary Diet session that would give destitute foreigners a year to choose between two extremes: becoming naturalized citizens or leaving the country.
The move follows an August proposal, by a team of lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic party tasked with eliminating wasteful state spending, to restrict welfare assistance to foreigners.
“The welfare outlays to foreigners run up to ¥122 billion per year,” the Aug. 4 report by the LDP team said. “We must say it is difficult to maintain the status quo.”
The team also said the government “should create guidelines (on public assistance) for foreigners who arrive in Japan, and consider deporting those who cannot maintain a living.”
Taro Kono, a member of the Lower House who heads the LDP project team, said the envisioned revision to the welfare system would not affect permanent residents, but those on mid- to long-term visas. The changes would likely materialize in the form of denied access to public aid for a certain period after one’s arrival in Japan, to prevent abuse by those coming here just to receive welfare, he said. He added that the team has yet to decide on the number of months or years before foreigners would be granted access.
According to Kono, the rationale for creating a probational period is a provision in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law that states the government would deny entry to “a person who is likely to become a burden on the Japanese government or a local public entity because of an inability to make a living.”
“People who come to Japan on mid- to long-term visas would undergo a lot of events here, and some of them might lose their ability to make a living and apply for public assistance. That’s fine. But if they apply for assistance right after they arrive in Japan, that would mean they made a false claim (about their reason for coming),” Kono told The Japan Times earlier this month.
“Likewise when they renew their visas, they are supposed to have means to support themselves or otherwise their requests for visa renewals would be rejected. But if it turns out that they cannot sustain their living in, say, six months after their visas are renewed, that would mean they were not truthful about their means when they applied for a renewed visa, and (this would constitute) grounds for denial of public assistance.”
The LDP team also proposed that all welfare recipients be prescribed generic drugs unless otherwise specified by doctors. If they want to be prescribed patented drugs, they should pay for their share of the costs, according to the team’s report.
The team’s proposal for an eligibility requirement for foreigners based on their period of stay appears to be more or less in line with practices in other advanced countries.
Most European countries do not have a nationality clause for welfare benefits, but do list a residency period as a condition for eligibility, said Shinichi Oka, a professor of social security at Meiji Gakuin University in Tokyo.
At the same time, in Europe there is little distinction among different visa statuses, Oka said, noting that whether people have permanent resident status doesn’t affect their chances of qualifying for welfare.
“I’m not aware of any major European countries that (enforce) a nationality clause for public assistance eligibility,” Oka said. “The only requirement they have is that the applicants have lived in the country for a certain period of time.”
While the U.S. and Britain in principle deny welfare benefits to illegal aliens, in France, foreigners who have entered or are staying illegally in the country are also considered as “having the right to live” and are often deemed eligible for welfare benefits, Oka said.
From the comments below the JT article. Debito.org Readers, go ahead and take apart the numbers if you like:
Charles: “The amount of welfare being paid to foreigners is 122 billion yen! That’s a really big number!” That’s what the average man on the street thinks.
But wait a second, let’s actually do the math. Yeah, I know, you hate math, but it’s okay, we can use a calculator!
Japan’s GDP is 536,122,300,000,000 yen (over 536 TRILLION yen). So 122 billion yen is less than 0.03% of Japan’s economy. Basically, Shintaro Ishihara with his Jisedai no Tou, and the LDP, are wasting countless hours of time on something that, at best, will save Japan 0.03% of its GDP.
To make an analogy, I make about $28,000 a year. So this is the same as me OBSESSING and LOSING SLEEP AT NIGHT over how I can save $8 per year.
I think that maybe instead of spending all this time obsessing over 0.03% of its GDP, Japanese politicians should instead spend that time reviewing their math notes from elementary school, especially division, multiplication, and percentages. If they did that, they might find that this problem isn’t nearly as big as they’d thought.[…]
“According to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan’s total social welfare benefits reached ¥103.487 trillion in fiscal 2010, topping ¥100 trillion for the first time.”
Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2012/12/12/editorials/footing-for-social-welfare/
Okay, so in Japan, the total welfare budget is 103.487 trillion yen. But only 0.122 trillion yen of that goes to foreigners, so that means that the other 103.365 trillion yen are going to Japanese people!
Here, let’s do some more math:
103.487 trillion yen / 127 million Japanese = Each Japanese person is, on average, sucking 814,858 yen per year from the welfare system!
Now let’s do the math for foreigners:
122 billion yen / 2 million foreigners = Each foreigner is, on average, sucking 61,000 yen per year from the welfare system!
So…who’s REALLY sucking welfare, here? I guess I now know where my income tax (所得税) and 8% consumption tax (消費税) are going, now…
…you’re welcome, Japan!
Bad Social Science, Exclusionism, Fun Facts, Hate Speech and Xenophobia, Human Rights, Ironies & Hypocrisies, Japanese Government, Japanese Politics, Media, Unsustainable Japanese Society
Fun facts #18: More than 10% of all homes in Japan are vacant, will be nearly a quarter by 2028
Posted on February 9, 2014 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
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Hi Blog. With some media outlets forecasting a rise in rents due to an alleged economic recovery Abenomics (somehow seeing rising fixed costs for businesses and people as a harbinger of something good), here’s an article stating that Japan’s depopulation (except in Tokyo, where any real opportunity for economic upward mobility is clustering) is probably going to render that moot. Japan’s housing (as you longer-termers probably know, it’s already pretty crappy and not built to last) is also depopulating, as this fascinating article from the Japan Times excerpted below demonstrates. Already more than 10% of all homes in Japan are vacant, and in less than a generation it will be nearly a quarter. And yet there are forecasts for rents (okay, office rents) to rise again. I smell another real estate bubble in the works, although media-driven instead of demand-pulled. Should be some bargains out there for those who can find the realtors and renters who aren’t “Japanese Only.”
I put this under “Fun Facts” because these stats are surprisingly insightful statements on the way things are, or will be, in Japanese society. Those of you more in the know about Japan’s property market (I’ll ask Terrie Lloyd and see if he’ll comment), please feel free to prognosticate. ARUDOU, Debito
Land tax loophole ensures unused, dilapidated firetraps stay standing, till they fall
Abandoned homes a growing menace
BY TOMOKO OTAKE
THE JAPAN TIMES, JAN 7, 2014
As Japan’s population ages and shrinks, run-down, uninhabited properties like this are becoming more common. As of 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available, there were 7.57 million vacant homes, or 13.1 percent of all houses in Japan, up from 3.94 million in 1988 and 5.76 million in 1998, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. The rate is expected to rise to 23.7 percent in 2028.
While these figures include second homes and properties waiting to be rented out or sold, more than a third of the 7.57 million vacant homes in 2008 were categorized as properties left unattended by owners or whose owners have died and are not taken care of at all. Many of these properties are now causing problems in their communities, experts say. As the structures age, the risk of collapse and fire increases. Some have leaked wastewater, damaging neighboring properties. They are also a magnet for criminal behavior, such as arson.
Rest of the article at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/07/national/abandoned-homes-a-growing-menace/
Cultural Issue, Fun Facts, Japanese Government, Tangents, Unsustainable Japanese Society
Holiday Tangent: Other Americans who have relinquished US Citizenship (not just me; I am in good company)
Posted on December 26, 2013 December 26, 2013 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
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Hi Blog. I found this tasty website on TIME Magazine, showing that other famous Americans have chosen to relinquish their US citizenship.
http://swampland.time.com/2013/11/13/so-long-uncle-sam-famous-americans-who-renounced-their-homeland/
Think singers Tina Turner and Maria Callas, film directors John Huston (AFRICAN QUEEN and MALTESE FALCON) and Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam, actors Jet Li and Yul Brynner, performers Yehudi Menuhin and Josephine Baker, writers T.S. Eliot and Shere Hite, politicians Valdas Adamkus (Lithuanian President) and Andreas Papandreaou (Greek PM), and businesspeople Earl Tupper (of Tupperware) and Eduardo Saverin (co-founder of Facebook — yes, the guy with the chicken problem in the movie SOCIAL NETWORK).
I found this even tastier Wikipedia entry giving stories of dozens of people who have not only given up their US legal status, but also even got it back after doing so (Liz Taylor!) or never clearly gave it up (Bobby Fischer, Grace Kelly, Jesse Ventura, and Boris Johnson — yes, that Boris Johnson, London Mayor!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_former_United_States_citizens_who_relinquished_their_nationality
I could spend hours here (and have) reading the cases and following the links. Many of the stories are fascinating, such as:
Activist against racial discrimination in America, seminal researcher of what would eventually become Critical Race Theory, and personal hero W.E.B. Du Bois took Ghanian citizenship (at age 95!) when, in a fit of clear asshollery, the US State Department refused to renew his US passport from abroad (he was in Ghana managing the Encyclopedia Africana project in 1961). He then lost American (he didn’t renounce) because US laws at the time forbade voluntary naturalization and swearing an oath of allegiance to other countries.
Engineer family Mr. and Mrs. William Gorham, formerly of Gorham Engineering in San Francisco, naturalized into Japan (in 1941!) and became Gouhamu Katsundo. According to the entry, “Gorham, a native of San Francisco, moved to Japan with his wife and children in 1918, where he worked as an engineer for various predecessors of Nissan before transferring to Hitachi. He and his wife renounced U.S. citizenship to naturalize as Japanese citizens in May 1941, apparently to escape increasing wartime restrictions on foreigners. He worked on jet engines at Hitachi during the war, while his son moved to Washington, D.C. and joined the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence.” That son Don, a graduate of Tokyo Imperial University in 1941, died in 2011.
Python Terry Gilliam: “Gilliam was born in Minneapolis. In 1968, he obtained British citizenship, then held dual U.S. and British citizenship for the next 38 years. In January 2006 he renounced his U.S. citizenship, describing the George W. Bush administration as having created an environment “scarily similar to the Orwellian nightmare” of his 1985 film Brazil.”
Doctor Ma Haide, formerly George Hatem, who helped eliminate leprosy and some forms of VD in China (died 1988). His entry: “Born in Buffalo, New York to Lebanese American parents in 1910, Hatem came to Shanghai in the 1930s to set up a medical practice. In 1949 he became the first foreigner to naturalize as a citizen of the People’s Republic of China.”
Activist Garry Davis: “Davis was born in Bar Harbor, Maine. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Davis renounced his U.S. citizenship in 1948 in Paris in order to become a “citizen of the world”, and created the first “World Passport”.” Meaning he had the citizenship of NO country. That’s pretty brave.
Private Dancer Tina Turner “was born in 1939 in Nutbush, Tennessee, and rose to international fame as a singer. She began dating German music executive Erwin Bach in 1985, and moved to Zürich with him in 1994. Her application for Swiss citizenship was approved in April 2013, and she confirmed her relinquishment of U.S. citizenship to the U.S. Embassy in Bern in October 2013.” That’s only a few months ago, and what occasioned the TIME Magazine article mentioned above.
There are a few patterns: In the old days people renounced because of tax issues (which is why I believe there is still a stigma attached to doing it (e.g., “the yacht people”), as the US remains practically the only country that taxes its citizens abroad), marrying overseas royalty, running for political office overseas, and as a sign of political protest (e.g., becoming Canadian to avoid the Vietnam War draft). Nowadays we see more lifestyle choices (becoming a citizen of the land in which you live, such as Tina Turner turning Swiss), sports (being able to represent other countries in The Olympics), or occupational choices or opportunities.
The people who are associated with Japan include, of course, Donald Keene, but also James Abegglen (veteran of Iwo Jima, Economics Professor at Sophia University, and author of 1985’s KAISHA and 1958’s THE JAPANESE FACTORY; died 2007), Cathy Reed (ice skater), and Takamiyama Daigoro (Jesse Kuhaulua, sumo wrestler). There is no mention, however, of other sumo wrestlers who took Japanese citizenship, such as Konishiki, Akebono, or Musashimaru. One assumes they did not renounce (good for them; don’t).
My point is that the Americans are so convinced that American citizenship is so coveted and honored that one must be crazy to ever give it up (I personally have been called a “traitor” by an official at the US State Department for doing so). Not true. As one can see by that Wikipedia article, people have been doing it for as long as there have been formal citizenships to adopt or forsake. It’s a legal status like any other. And anyone who plans to live in the country, any country, for good I think should take it.
Further, countries should finally come to their senses that having multiple citizenships is not worrisome, and allow this to happen without forcing anyone to relinquish. Many are. Good for them. And good for us. I am in good company. Arudou Debito
Fun Facts, History, Immigration & Assimilation, Tangents
Bad social paradigms encouraging bad social science: UC Berkeley prof idiotically counts “flyjin” for H-Japan listserv
Posted on June 22, 2011 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. I have a real rib-tickler for you today. Here we have an academic employed at UC Berkeley trying to squeeze flawed data into an already flawed paradigm — not just that of “gaijin” [sic], but also of “flyjin” — as she goes around Tokyo counting NJ as if they were rare birds (or, rather, rarer birds, according to her presumptions under the rubric).
I raise this on Debito.org because it’s amazing how stupid concepts from Planet Japan somehow manage to entice apparently educated people elsewhere to follow suit, and… I’ll just stop commenting and let you read the rest. Courtesy of H-Japan’s online archives, accessible to the general public. Arudou Debito
//////////////////////////////////////////////
Courtesy http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Japan&month=1106&week=c&msg=ZlvuE6%2bnxMsSGrzDqLzQvA&user=&pw=
From: H-Japan Editor
List Editor: H-Japan Editor
Editor’s Subject: H-JAPAN (E): The Great Fukushima Panic of 2011 / empirical evidence on “flyjin”
Author’s Subject: H-JAPAN (E): The Great Fukushima Panic of 2011 / empirical evidence on “flyjin”
Date Written: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:19:01 -0400
Date Posted: Mon, 19 Jun 2011 18:19:01 -0400
On-line editor: Janet R. Goodwin
From: Dana Buntrock
I am using the term “gaijin” here to refer to racially differentiated (non-Asian) individuals, including those who appear to be from the Indian subcontinent. If mixed-race children were with a non-Asian parent, I counted them. I also counted one woman in a version of the headscarf worn by Moslem women, seen from behind, and her child (in a stroller), because the attire was clearly non-Japanese in nature. That is, I tended to err on the side of counting individuals as being foreign.
I did a casual count Friday, June 17 through Sunday, June 19. The first two days, I went about normal activity, but the last day, I confess, I deliberately went to a tourist spot. I included those seen within my hotel, a nice business hotel that maintains a reservations web site in English and often has foreign guests.
Friday count: 22. (8 a.m.-7:30 p.m.) I went through 9 subway stations:
Akasaka, Meijijungumae, KitaSando, Shinjuku (Oedo at Minami Shinjuku), Aoyama Itchome, Gaienmae, Akasaka-Mitsuke to Nagatacho, and Kojimachi. I walked at least 6 kilometers: from my hotel to the first station (.6 km), from Kita Sando west for 1.2 km, from there to several floors, including the 6th, of the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Minami Shinjuku (1.8 km), from Aoyama Itchome to Gaienmae (.7 km) and from Kojimachi back to the Akasaka area (1.6 if done efficiently, which I did not).
Saturday count: 135. About 15 under 5 years old.
I went through Roppongi twice, Hiro once, and Midtown twice. I went through three crowded shopping areas–Ebisu, Midtown, and Roppongi HIlls, plus the Photography Museum. I went to National Azabu (upstairs) on a Saturday.
I was out 8 and a half hours, and I went through Roppongi Station (10:30 a.m.), Ebisu (subway) Station, and HIro Station. I walked 1.5 km around Ebisu, and from Hiro to Roppongi HIlls (another 1.5 km) to Gallery Ma (another 1.5 km) to Midtown (600 meters) and back to the hotel (1 km). About 6 kilometers.
Sunday count: 60. I counted 13 women; 4 were children.
Out at 9 a.m., walked from Akasaka to near the foot of Tokyo Tower via Ark Hills (1.9 km), continued on to Daimon Station, boarded a monorail to Tenozu Isle (1.5 km), Walked a very short distance from there, then boarded a cab back to Akasaka. Afterward, walked to Kasumigaseki (2 km), continued to the Imperial Palace Gardens (3 km), walked from there to Otemachi Stn (1.5), direct line back to Akasaka, and back to hotel (.5 km) about 6:30 p.m.
21 men and 8 women were seen in the area of the Imperial Palace, including joggers and apparent tourists. (Note: I attended an English-language church service, but did not count the congregants. There were about 45 people in the church, and between half and two-thirds were non-Asian. The church would normally have at least 50% more congregants, and often double.)
Walked about 10.5 km, was in three not-particularly-busy subway stations, but lingered around the Imperial Palace.
DANA BUNTROCK
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SOME RESPONSES
Courtesy http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Japan&month=1106&week=c&msg=9NxPdJQedAvmyzo4ZXFdhA&user=&pw=
Editor’s Subject: H-JAPAN (E): The Great Fukushima Panic of 2011 (2 responses)
Author’s Subject: H-JAPAN (E): The Great Fukushima Panic of 2011 (2 responses)
Date Written: Mon, 20 Jun 2011 22:18:52 -0400
Date Posted: Tue, 20 Jun 2011 22:18:52 -0400
(1) From: Georg Blind
Re: empirical evidence on “flyjin” vs. “fryjin”; ample statistics available
This is both a response to an earlier question on this list, and a comment to Dana Buntrock’s post.
Concise entry and departure statistics are available from Ministry of Justice:
http://www.moj.go.jp/housei/toukei/toukei_ichiran_nyukan.html
The latest available tables are for March 2011. Total “gaijin” departures were about 1% down from March 2010. In contrast, US citizens were down about 20%; citizens of European countries about 5%.
As soon as available, April data will show the full extent of the exodus if corrected for overall fluctuation (e.g., from a comparison of February to April changes in 2010).
While interesting as an individual observation, Dana Buntrock’s gaijin counts, are methodologically highly questionable. The following – not too serious example – might illustrate this: let’s define “fryjin” as foreigners working in Japanese KFC restaurants. Let’s assume one would count fryjin presence in 10 different locations in Tokyo. Would that yield a reliable picture of the “fryjin” situation? 1. The mere count of “fryjin” would need to be compared to the number of Japanese staff. – How many Japanese did Dana Buntrock count during her survey? 2. How many “fryjin” were there one year ago; i.e., was there a change in the number of “fryjin”? – And putting 1. and 2. together, was there some change in the share of “fryjin”? 3. Are observations at Tokyo KFC restaurants representative for the whole country? In that sense, the church example is by far more telling than the street counts.
Best, Georg
Georg Blind
Research Fellow and Lecturer
The University of Zurich
Institute of East Asian Studies
(2) From: Cecilia
With respect, I am not sure how constructive it is to be adopting the term “flyjin”. Though the term may appear to be cute and clever, in reality in the Kanto area in particular it is a loaded word that in some circles has become derisive and abusive. The term flyjin trivialises the reality that there is an evacuation zone in place and that there is a serious radiation problem – the extent of which is still not clearly determined. It also fails to consider that people who left were in many cases acting on embassy advice or company instructions. I have been in Tokyo since the earthquake, except for a Golden Week sojourn in Tohoku, with no thought of leaving but have been dismayed at the macho vitriol around who stayed and who left. It’s disappointing to see the term being picked up unproblematised in academic circles.
A spot count of conspicuous foreigners on the streets of Tokyo tells nothing about the numbers of people who have left Tokyo. In particular it ignores a distinction between residents (short and long term) and tourists. It also ignores the fact that most foreigners (both resident and tourists) are Asian. A spot count that has no control, defines foreigners in racial terms (which probably labels Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Singaporeans and many other SE Asians as Japanese) and conflates people that have actively left with people that decided not come, is meaningless. For the dip (plunge) in foreign visitor numbers the Ministry of Justice data is much more useful. http://www.tourism.jp/english/statistics/inbound.php
Cecilia Fujishima
OKAY, ONE MORE COMMENT FROM DEBITO: Bravo Ms. Fujishima. It’s also disappointing to see the racial term “gaijin” thusly being picked up unproblematized in academic circles, but that’s a long-standing terminology that people just seem to laugh off as grounded in general use. But see how it feeds into a general idiocracy and flawed paradigms vis-a-vis scholarship on Japan? D.
Bad Social Science, Education, Fun Facts, Ironies & Hypocrisies, Problematic Foreign Treatment
Fun Facts #15: Percentages of J high school grads matriculating into college by prefecture
Posted on June 13, 2010 June 13, 2010 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. As a Sunday Tangent, here are the Ministry of Education’s latest figures (2009) for Japanese high school students entering college. In most prefectures, it’s only about half the graduates:
Source: Eiken Facts 2010, “Eiken Shikakku Shutokusha Kakutoku de Daigaku no Miryoku Zukuri o”, (Zaidan Houjin Nihon Eiken Kyouryokukai/MEXT 2010, pg 5)
A cursory look reveals that Okinawa has by far the fewest percentage of students going on to college (the national average is 53.9%), and Tokyo/Kyoto (Kyoto allegedly being the place with the highest number of colleges per capita) the highest. Hokkaido is significantly below average as well (third from the bottom), but it’s still higher than Iwate. See how your prefecture stacks up.
As this is a Fun Facts category, I’ll leave interpretations to others. But this is significantly less than the American percentages, according to the US Department of Labor, reporting that 70.1% of high school graduates went to college last year. Given that university is significantly more expensive in the US than in Japan (it costs at least a luxury car per year these days in tuition alone to go to, say, an elite private or Ivy League), I’m disinclined to say it’s a matter of economics. Thoughts? Arudou Debito in Sapporo
Education, Fun Facts, Tangents, 日本語
Fun Facts #14: JK provides budgetary stats to show why current immigration-resistant regime is unsustainable
Posted on April 2, 2010 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
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Hi Blog. Frequent commenter and contributor to Debito.org JK offers a follow-up about a recent article featured here on Debito.org, about the NJ nurse import program (one that as of this time is doomed to become yet another revolving-door visa program). He offers some “Fun Facts”, as in budgetary statistics, about why the current visa regime discouraging labor imports but not immigration is unsustainable. Read on. Arudou Debito in Tokyo, not quitting activism.
/////////////////////////////////////
Hi Debito:
Another immigration-related thread for you. From the article, you can tell that a comprehensive immigration policy is needed:
1st foreign nurses pass national exam
On a different topic, the legislature just approved a record 92.3 trillion yen budget for fiscal year 2010 (which, BTW is 4.2% larger than the budget for fiscal year 2009). In my opinion, it is unlikely that the budget will stimulate the economy because of the huge shortfall in taxes which only amount to 37.4 trillion yen. This is an 8.7 trillion yen / 18.9% decrease from fiscal year 2009. Because of the drop, the government had to issue a record 44.3 trillion yen in bonds, which is an 11 trillion yen increase from fiscal year 2009.
To my knowledge, this is the first budget in which bond issuance is greater than tax revenue.
All of this raises more questions about the nation’s fiscal health — government debt reached 189% of its gross domestic product in 2009 (the highest among industrialized countries) and I expect it to reach 200% in 2010.
What does this have to do with debito.org? Well, a shrinking tax base (read: population) is directly related to the country’s fiscal / economic condition. If for no other reason, a comprehensive immigration policy is needed to bring in more taxpayers in order shore up the GOJ’s increasingly unsustainable economic situation.
Here are the various sources:
Japan’s parliament passes record trillion-dollar budget
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/36798
Japan’s ruling DPJ has record budget passed through Diet
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2010-03/24/c_13223166.htm
Japan parliament passes record $1 trillion budget
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/international/article299882.ece
Regards, -JK
Fun Facts, Immigration & Assimilation, Japanese Government
Fun Facts #13: National minimum wage map
Posted on March 11, 2009 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. Have you ever wondered what the minimum wage is in Japan? Well, guess what, it depends. On the prefecture. On the industry. On the industry within the prefecture too.
Now, before you throw up your arms in anguish and wonder how we’ll ever get an accurate measure, along comes the GOJ with a clickable minimum wage map by prefecture and industry. You can have a look and see where people on the bottom rung of the ladder are earning the least and most. Found this while researching the PhD. To quote Spock, “Fascinating.”
MHLW sponsored minimum wage prefectural map at http://www.saiteichingin.com/linkMap.html
Here’s a partial screen capture of it. It’s very well organized. They’ve made it real easy even in terms of language. See, when the GOJ really wants you to have the information, they do a pretty good job of it.
http://www.saiteichingin.com/linkMap.html
If you want to see more about their definitions and science, click here:
http://www.saiteichingin.com/about.html
Of course, when I say “on the bottom rung of the ladder”, I mean citizens. There are however, tens of thousands of people (i.e. NJ “Trainees”) who don’t qualify for the labor-law protections of a minimum wage. They get saddled with debts and some make around 300 yen an hour, less than half the minimum minimum wage for Japanese. See more here, here, and here.
FYI. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
Fun Facts, Labor issues, Problematic Foreign Treatment
Fun Facts #12: Statistics on Naturalized Citizens in Japan; holding steady despite immigration
Posted on February 26, 2009 February 26, 2009 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. Again, something interesting that cropped up while researching my thesis: The stats on people who have naturalized (or applied and been rejected for Japanese citizenship for the past ten years. Courtesy of the MOJ.
http://www.moj.go.jp/TOUKEI/t_minj03.html
COMMENTS: Once upon a time (as in 2000), the MOJ would not give me these numbers, citing “privacy”, and it wasn’t until relatively recently before these stats, the ultimate in immigration, were so freely public.
Over the past ten years (1998-2007), 153,103 people became Japanese citizens. That’s a sizeable amount, for if you assume reasonable influx for the previous five decades (1948-1997), we’re looking at at least half a million people here as cloaked NJ-blood citizens. That’s a lot of people no matter how you slice it. (Of course, these older stats are still not available online for confirmation.)
As you can see, numbers have held steady, at an average of about 15,000 plus applicants per year. And about the same number were accepted. In fact the rejection rate is so low (153,103/154,844 people = 98.9% acceptance rate), you are only a little more likely to be convicted of a crime during criminal trial in Japan (99.9%) than be rejected for citizenship once you file all the paperwork. That should encourage those who are considering it.
Of course, one would hope that a high acceptance rate would be the case. There is a weeding-out procedure at the very beginning, as when you go to the MOJ Kokuseki-ka, they’ll sit you down for a one-on-one interview for an hour or so and ascertain whether or not you qualify. And turn you away if you don’t. Sensible, since there is a lot of paperwork (naturally), and you don’t want to be rejected after getting everything together (it took me a year; documents aren’t always comparable or easy to get from overseas, especially if your family is not all that cooperative).
Note how the numbers of people either applying or succeeding over the years are not really rising (in fact, they’ve often roller-coastered significantly every year). Considering the rapid rise of the NJ resident population over the same period, this is a little surprising.
Also note the high numbers of Korean and Chinese applicants (around 90% or more). I was one of the few, the proud, the 725 non-K or C who got in in 2000. Less than five percent. However, the numbers of non-K or C accepted over the past ten years have tripled. I wonder if I was part of blazing some sort of trail. Arudou Debito in Sapporo
More on my naturalization here.
Fun Facts, Good News, Immigration & Assimilation, Japanese Government
Fun Facts #11: Ekonomisuto estimates 35% of Japan’s population will be over 65 by 2050
Hi Blog. Today’s entry is part of an occasional series called “Fun Facts”, where I come across a statistic so unzipping of reality that it bears memorizing. True “Fun Facts” are fun both in their predictive power and in describing how things got to where they are today. See what I mean by looking at previous Fun Facts on this blog.
The facts I will talk about today are about the future. While researching stuff on Debito.org, I realized that one source I quote often in my powerpoint presentations has never been blogged: An Ekonomisuto Japan article, dated January 15, 2008, with an amazing estimate.
UPDATE: Some corrections made, courtesy James Annan. Incorrect text crossed out.
The yellow bar (left-hand scale) indicates the population of people aged 65-74 in given years. The orange bar (same scale) indicates population of people aged 75 and up. The dotted line (right-hand scale) indicates percentage of population those people aged 65-74 would take up in those given years. The red line same for people aged 75 and up ([including the 65-74 age bracket]).
[Thus] The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare estimates that well more than half of the J population (57.2%, as in 21.5% +35.7%) well over a third of the Japanese population (35.7%) will be over 65 years of age by 2050, and the majority of those oldies will be well beyond a working age. Can you imagine over a third of a population above 75 65 years of age? Who works and who pays taxes, when most this many people are retired on pensions or should be? That’s if trends stay as they are, mind. That’s why the GOJ has changed its tune to increasing the NJ population. We’re talking a demographic juggernaut that may ultimately wipe out this country’s productivity and accumulated wealth.
Although this is more estimate than “fun fact”, it is still the MHLW’s estimate, and as such worthy of consideration. But if you want more fun, consider these numbers about NJ working visas from the same Ekonomisuto article of last January. Their source: MOJ Immigration Bureau, as of the end of 2006.
Topping the list of people who can work in the top left-hand column are the “Specialist in Humanities/International Services” (i.e. language teachers). Then we have “Engineers” (as in System Engineers) , “Entertainers” (as in, in many cases, human trafficking), “Skilled Laborers” (contract workers in factories, but not Trainees), and on down. The numbers are for numbers of individuals.
The right-hand column is for people who cannot work, topped by “Exchange Students”, “Dependents”, “Trainees” (who do work but aren’t counted as “laborers”, as they are not covered by labor laws) on down. Below that are the six-digit numbers for people who can work without restrictions: The Zainichis (Special Permanent Residents), the Regular Permanent Residents (immigrants, fast gaining), the Long-Term Residents (as in the Nikkei Brazilians etc.), Spouses of Japanese Nationals etc.
What I don’t get is that the media reports that “The number of people entering Japan to become trainees had been increasing since the foreign trainee system started in 1993, topping 100,000 in 2007.” So, well, where are they in the numbers above? I only see 70,519. Anyway, companies are slashing their Researcher and Trainee numbers, so I think we might even see a fall in the number of NJ residents in Japan for the first time in four decades
Illegal overstayers are estimated at 170,839, but their numbers keep dropping.
Who’s here from what country is in the pie chart, sourced from Immigration. The numbers (2006) are indeed now historical, as the Chinese surpassed the Koreans to become the number one ethnic minority in Japan for the first time in 2007. Third are Brazilians, then The Philippines, Peru, the US, and then a whopping number of “others”.
NOTE: the top numbers (visas) and the bottom numbers (pie chart) don’t add up to each other (they’re not counting some of the more obscure visa statuses, like Diplomat). I’m not sure what the American military on their bases in Japan are counted as.
There are some estimates and Fun Facts. A bit historical, but they give some idea of scale. Have fun. Arudou Debito in Sapporo.
Fun Facts, Immigration & Assimilation, Labor issues, 日本語
Fun Facts #10: Excellent Japan Times FYI column on the sex industry in Japan
Posted on June 8, 2008 February 23, 2009 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. Yet another excellent and informative Japan Times FYI column, this time on the sex industry in Japan. I’m not going to comment specifically on why I’m reposting it on Debito.org (because anything I say will just be misconstrued). It’s just a great article on a pervasive topic in Japan. Arudou Debito
Law bends over backward to allow ‘fuzoku’
By JUN HONGO, Staff writer
The Japan Times May 27, 2008
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080527i1.html
Some desires money can’t gratify, but for appetites of the flesh, there are ways in Japan to legally sate one’s carnal cravings.
Hey sailor: Two men stroll among “soapland” parlors in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, last year. JUN HONGO PHOTO
Like many countries, prostitution is illegal in Japan, at least on paper. Brothel-like “soapland” and sexual massage parlors get around these barriers.
And the overt, erotic services of the so-called fashion health venues found in Tokyo’s Kabukicho district and the soaplands in the hot springs resort of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, ensure that the world’s oldest profession lives on, only under another name.
The context of Japan’s legal definition of prostitution is narrow enough to provide ample loopholes for red-light district operators.
Following are questions and answers regarding Japan’s sex industry — commonly known as “fuzoku” — and the attempts or lack thereof by the government to curb them:
What law bans prostitution in Japan?
The Prostitution Prevention Law, enacted in 1957, forbids the act of having “intercourse with an unspecified person in exchange for payment.” It also punishes acts including soliciting by prostitutes and organized prostitution, such as operating brothels.
Legal experts say it is hard for police to crack down on prostitution because it is tricky to verify if a couple had consensual or compensated sex.
The law meanwhile does not ban paid sex with a “specified person,” or someone who has become an acquaintance. It also defines sex exclusively as vaginal intercourse. Thus other paid sexual acts are not illegal.
Soliciting sex on the street could be punishable by a maximum six-month prison term or ¥10,000 fine. Parties who provide locations for prostitution could face a maximum seven-year sentence or ¥300,000 fine.
According to National Police Agency statistics, 923 people were arrested for violating the Prostitution Prevention Law in 2006.
How many types of fuzoku businesses are there?
Enacted in 1948, the Law Regulating Businesses Affecting Public Morals breaks down the sex industry into several major categories, including soaplands, “fashion health” massage parlors, call-girl businesses, strip clubs, love hotels and adult shops.
Soaplands, the “king” of fuzoku, are where clients have sex. “Fashion health” massage parlors offer sexual activities other than straight intercourse.
The law requires such businesses to register with police and operate only within their registered category. It also bans people under age 18 from working or entering fuzoku establishments.
All sex businesses except soaplands abide by the prostitution law because they do not provide straight intercourse and limit other services to mainly massages.
So how can soaplands operate legally?
To dodge the law, soapland operators claim their male clients and their hired masseuses perform sex as couples who have grown fond of each other.
A customer entering a soapland, legally registered as “a special public bathhouse,” pays an admission fee “that holds the pretext as the charge to use the bathing facility,” Kansai University professor Yoshikazu Nagai said.
The client then is usually asked to pay a massage-service fee directly to the masseuse — giving the pretense that the woman is working on her own and the soapland owner is not running a brothel.
According to Nagai, who authored “Fuzoku Eigyo Torishimari” (“Control of Sex Business Operations”), the process also allows the two to be deemed as adults who became acquainted at the soapland.
The law is conveniently interpreted to mean the male customer is having sex with an acquaintance, not with an “unspecified” person in exchange for cash.
Is that an acceptable justification?
“Is it nonsense to deem that the couple fell in love while massaging at a soapland? Yes. But that is how things have operated inside the Japanese legal framework for over five decades,” Nagai said.
Nagai noted the legal framework on prostitution varies worldwide. Sudan, for instance, punishes prostitutes with death, but the same act is legal and out in the open in the Netherlands.
Many observers say police avoid cracking down hard on prostitution mainly because it is considered a necessary evil and they would rather keep the industry on a loose leash than let the market go underground.
“Putting aside the debate of whether it is right or wrong, the definition of prostitution differs greatly by country and is influenced by cultural, historical and religious backgrounds,” Nagai explained.
When did the sex trade begin in Japan?
Prostitution goes back to ancient times, and there were only local-level laws against selling sex until the prostitution law was enacted in the postwar period.
According to Nagai, 16th century feudal lord Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the first to demarcate part of Kyoto as a red-light district.
“Hideyoshi knew that it would be easier for him to supervise the brothels if they were concentrated in a single location,” Nagai said. “It also made it easier for him to collect levies from business owners.”
What are the health concerns at fuzoku establishments?
In regards to sexually transmitted diseases, most fuzoku businesses conduct comprehensive medical tests when hiring a female worker. Soaplands undergo monthly inspections by public health centers to maintain hygiene.
Some establishments turn away foreign clients.
“This is because of the worldwide outbreak of AIDS in the late 1980s,” Nagai said, noting some premises continue to ban foreign nationals because of the misguided fear that AIDS is spread by them.
How big is the sex industry?
There were approximately 1,200 soaplands in Japan and 17,500 sex-related businesses, including massage parlors and strip clubs, in 2006, according to statistics released by the NPA.
While some have suggested the sex business is a ¥1 trillion industry, Nagai said coming up with an accurate estimate is difficult because of the diversity.
But it is still a way for women to make quick cash, as a soapland “masseuse” can make ¥10 million or more a year, he said.
The sex industry also remains a source of funds for the underworld. According to the NPA, 20 percent of people arrested in violation of the prostitution law in 2006 were related to the mob.
But Nagai believes the industry may be facing a downtrend, since information technology has made it easy for amateurs to operate as freelancers.
Many outdated sex businesses will face such competition in the future, he said.
“One only needs a cell phone to secretly start a call-girl business,” Nagai said. “It has become so convenient and there is no need for professional knowledge or the effort to maintain a bathhouse.”
The Weekly FYI appears Tuesdays (Wednesday in some areas). Readers are encouraged to send ideas, questions and opinions to National News Desk
The Japan Times: Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Cultural Issue, Exclusionism, Fun Facts, Japanese Government, Tangents
Fun Facts #9: Divorce, Population decrease, Japan’s minus GDP growth, and inherited Nat’l Diet member seats
Posted on December 8, 2007 April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. Here are another series of “Fun Facts”–innocuous-looking statistics which open portals into grander trends at work:
Fact one: Divorce rate rocketing, as predicted by Debito.org.
-> National Chauvinistic Husbands Association
Courtesy Terrie’s Take #442, December 2, 2007
The advent of a new law back in April this year which allows women to seek half of their husband’s pension has spawned both a boom in divorces (up 6.1% in April alone) as well as a reactionary protest group called the National Chauvinistic Husbands Association (NCHA). The group says that the “chauvinistic” part of their moniker, “kanpaku” in Japanese, refers more accurately to the top assistant to the emperor in days gone by, rather than the current negative meaning that it has today. Regardless, the association faces an uphill battle. Apparently 70% of Japanese women are staying single until 29 or later, versus 75% of them being married at that age twenty years ago, and 95% of all divorce applications come from women. (Source: TT commentary from kansascity.com, Nov 29, 2007)
http://www.kansascity.com/238/story/382085.html
COMMENT: Surprised by both the jump and the fact that almost all people asking for divorce are women. I was in the tiny minority. More on the issue of divorce in Japan at http://www.debito.org/thedivorce.html
On to Fact 2: Japan’s imminent depopulation:
-> Workers to fall 10.7m in 22 years
Courtesy Terrie’s Take #441, November 25, 2007
The Labor Ministry has said that Japan’s working population will drop by around 17%, or 10.7m people, by 2030. This will cause the current labor force of 66.57m to fall to 55.84m. The Ministry says that the fall could be held to less than half this amount if more women and elderly joined the workforce. ***Ed: And tell us again why the Japanese government has turned xenophobic about foreigners living in Japan? It’s only a matter of time before the realities of the market force a mind shift in the politicians and bureaucrats who today are so busy trying to keep foreigners and their child-breeding ways out of Japan.** (Source: TT commentary from nikkei.co.jp, Nov 23, 2007)
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/AC/TNKS/Nni20071122D22JFA10.htm
COMMENT: I will point out the irony behind the wan hope that forcing more women to work is actually going to help women want to have babies? And that the oft-touted development of robots (including this silly article from The Economist Dec 20th 2005 “Japan’s humanoid robots–Better than people: Why the Japanese want their robots to act more like humans”) is no elixir.
This leads us to Fact Three: Japan’s decreasing GDP Growth (in start contrast to the rest of the developed world. Courtesy of Niall Murtagh of The Community:
Debito — Interesting statistic on WBS news (World Biz Satellite) last night, December 2: can’t remember the figures exactly but in the 10 years from 1996 to 2006, GNP grew by over 50% in UK, Canada, Australia, 45%+ in France, Italy, and by about 2% in Japan.
In other words while Japan is not getting poorer, it is being left behind by nearly all other major (and minor) countries, as regards growth.
Immigration does seem to go in tandem with economic growth (from 1995-2005, non-nationals in Ireland went from almost none to 10% of population, while GNP increased by about 140%). It won’t happen here. Did a bit of quick googling and found figs that make the TV stats seem about right.
(Web site only gives figs in national currencies, so I calculated the % change).
It sure hasn’t been a great decade for Japan, even if statistics are only statistics!
GDP per capita, current prices
IMF World Economic Outlook and EconStats
http://www.econstats.com/weo/V016.htm
1996 – 2006 % change
Japan: -1.47
Italy 47.14
UK 61.29
Germany 22.94
Netherlands 47.79
Spain 84.45
Finland 59.11
Greece 103.54
Switzerland 22.08
Ireland 153.17
NewZealand 43.33
Canada 54.76
Korea 87.64
China 131.90
US 51.34
COMMENT: Do people really think they’re being served by the powers that be that run this country? Although I’m well aware the true policymakers in this society are the faceless bureaucrats, the actual policymaking part of Japan that is not faceless–the Diet–is actually a peerage masquerading as an elected legislature.
“When you look at the figures, what can only be called a political class becomes clear. After the last election, for example, 185 of 480 Diet members (39%) are second- or third- (or more) generation politicians (seshuu seijika). Of 244 members of the LDP (the ruling party for practically all the postwar period), 126 (52%) are inherited. Eight of the last ten Prime Ministers were from inherited seats, as are around half of the Abe and Fukuda Cabinets. When you have an average turnover of only about 3% per election, the cream floats to the top, and debates become very closed-circuit…”
Courtesy the author. Excerpted from my upcoming Japan Times Zeit Gist column out December 20, 2007, Draft Six. Otanoshimi ni…
Arudou Debito in Sapporo
Fun Facts, Japanese Government, Labor issues
Fun Facts #8: Stuff gleaned from Seidensticker’s “Tokyo Rising”
Posted on September 13, 2007 September 20, 2007 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. Been stampeding through the late Edward Seidensticker’s book TOKYO RISING (borrowed from FCCJ library, but two weeks is simply not long enough for me to get through a book; I like to suck on them over months and am never faithful to one tome unless it’s really good), and these are some things that popped up for Debito.org:
One powerful force in the workings of the city and the prefecture is not entirely under the control of the prefectural government: the police. The chief of the Tokyo prefecutral police is appointed by a national police agency with the approval of the prime minister and upon the advice of a prefectural police commission, which is in effectual. None of these agencies is under the control of governor and council. Tokyo becomes a police city when it is thought necessary to guard against the embarrassment of having someone shoot at a president or a queen or a pope [or a Beatle; see more about the concert gone so badly in 1966–3000 police seated to make sure 10,000 Budoukan spectators didn’t even stand up during the concert–that the Beatles never returned to Japan as a group to perform]. It has more than twice as many policemen as Osaka, though it is less than twice as large in population. The problem of police excesses is by no means limited to Tokyo–it was in Kanagawa Prefecture that a case of illegal eavesdropping was uncovered in 1986–but it is most conspicuous in the prefecture in which national embarrassments are most likely to occur. (page 169)
This might be one reason why the Tokyo Police (keishichou) seem to be much more assiduous in their Gaijin Card Checkpoints than anywhere else in the country…
There was in those days [during the Occupation] the problem of the “third nationals” [sangokujin]. It was conspicuous in the underworld and in gang squabbling. Third nationals were for practical purposes Chinese and Koreans resident in Japan [i.e. the Zainichis]. The expression put them in their place, distinguishing them both from Japanese and from the Occupation, which favored them, treating Chinese as allies and Koreans as quasi allies (enemies of the enemy). It is hard to deny that they took advantage of their position.
If the police couild not intercede in behalf of Japanese gangs that thought of themselves (or at any rate advertised themselves) as Robin Hoods and defenders of the Japanese spirit, there is much evidence that they managed to aid them surreptitiously. In the “Shimbashi Incident” of 1946, American military police and Japanese police intervened to prevent an armed battle between Chinese and Japanese gangs for control of the market. The nonbattle was in effect a victory for the Japanese. It showed the Chinese, who were progressively weaker, that they could not have everything their way even in that day of confusion and demoralization. Across the bay in Chiba, later in 1946, the police seem to have actualy encouraged a showdown between Japanese and third-national gangs. It would be the occasion, the Chiba police and the American military police agreed, for rounding up gangsters of whatever natioanlity. The Japanese police told the Japanese gangs what was to happen and invited their cooperation. The Americans do not seem to have accorded the same favor to the third nationals. The encounter took place, a few minutes of gunfire in which several men were wounded but no one was killed, and in the end only third nationals were rounded up. (page 154-155)
The most powerful force in getting [the postwar Japanese economy] moving again came fairly late. The Korean War broke out in June 1950, almost exactly at midpoint thorugh what we may call the decade of the rebuilding. For Korea it was a terrible happening, for Japan a momentous one, with little sense of the terrible… It was perhaps natural in an occupied country that had no foreign policy save to get rid of the Occupation and export things wherever possible…
Momentous the event certainly was for all that. Japanese profits from the Korean War were massive and they went into rebuilding city and land, and bring them back somewhat near, in material terms, the position that had been theirs before the folly of the forties. Procurement contracts in the remaining months of 1950 ran to $180 milion, and before the Korean War was over they ran to $2.3 billion. Production returned to and passed prewar levels. Direct Ameircan aid, which had been necessary in the immediate postwar years, now ceased to be. Brave beginnings had already been made towards putting things together again, but it was in the early fifties that matters went forward with speed and purpose… Yet it is ironic that the prosperity of a country which has renounced war (see Article IX of the postwar constitution) is founded on a war. (page 155-156)
All-in-all, in TOKYO RISING Seidensticker has created a book that is okay for those who really know something about Tokyo or Japan already (it’s a work that would thrill academic specialists in the field, but if they assigned it to their students with only incipient knowledge of Japan it would leave them nonplussed). For me, after 20 years here, it’s a decent read–it fills a lot of holes and answers a lot of lingering questions. For anyone else, it would probably be a head-scratcher. It would merely promote Japan as a land of impenetrable exotica (which is the wont of this generation of Japan specialists anyway, IMO), instead of as a land of quirks working under a mostly rational system. It takes a lot of experiences before people see the rationality. I’m sure Seidensticker himself saw it too, but he really doesn’t communicate that at all well. Too much reliance on novelists (with largely boring or uncontexted excerpts from their writings) as primary sources of information as well.
This is one of the reasons I refused to read “specialist” books on Japan for so long, until I had built up my own set of experiences from which to get the hang of this place. Now that I have gotten the hang, I find it amazing how so many books on Japan are written by those who don’t have the hang, or can’t communicate that they do.
Fun Facts, History, Japanese police/Foreign crime, Problematic Foreign Treatment
Fun Facts #7: Latest Sumo Banzuke shows one third of top ranked are NJ (UPDATED)
Posted on June 29, 2007 April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. Not a big sports fan by any means (and I won’t analyze this too deeply, since there are plenty of others out there who see and know a lot more about Sumo), but perusing the Nikkan Sports pages while on the road the other day, I saw on page 12 of the issue dated June 26, 2007, the following Fun Facts:
1) THE TWO TOP WRESTLERS (NOW WITH HAKUHOU BECOMING YOKOZUNA) ARE NOW MONGOLIAN
(this is not unprecedented–Hawaiians Akebono and Musashimaru have also done this, but there were also Takanohana and Wakanohana as Yokozuna to balance them out in the 1990’s)
2) NEARLY ONE-THIRD OF THE TOP RANKS (MAKUNOUCHI, i.e. YOKOZUNA TO MAEGASHIRA 17)–THIRTEEN OUT OF THE 42, ARE OF OVERSEAS ORIGIN
3) BROKEN DOWN BY NATIONALITY (apologies for any misread names, corrections appreciated):
SEVEN MONGOLIANS (Asashouryuu, Hakuhou, Tokitenkuu, Ama, Asasekiryuu, Tsururyuu, Ryuuou)
TWO RUSSIANS (Rouhou, Hakurousan)
ONE BULGARIAN (Kotooushuu)
ONE KOREAN (Kasugaou)
ONE GEORGIAN (Kokkai)
ONE ESTONIAN (Baruto)
4) And currently in the lower ranks (Juuryou and Makushita), we have another eight NJ listed out of the 48–and seven of those are Mongolian (the other Russian).
Crystal-balling on Japan’s internationalization based upon rankings in Sport–especially Sumo (where rankings change very quickly, particularly in the ranks that don’t attract the attention of many fans) is difficult.
But this is pretty impressive, especially when I remember the bad old days when the Sumo Kyoukai doubted foreigners would ever have the proper “spirit” to achieve the enlightened ranks of the coveted Yokozuna. Then came Akebono. Now it seems as though NJ in general, and Mongolians in particular, have come into their own in one of the world’s most exclusive and entertwined-with-nationality sports (the word “kokugi”, anyone?). Bravo.
That’s all the interpretation of the stats I’ll offer. But it’s a development, now with Hakuhou’s ascent to Yokozuna, that Debito.org should observe as well.
REFERENTIAL LINKS:
JAPAN TIMES INTERVIEW WITH KISENOSATO, Nov 11, 2006
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ss20061111a1.html:
…Now that you are a regular in the upper makunouchi ranks, how do you feel about all the foreign participation in sumo nowadays?
I know there are a lot of different nationalities now in sumo but I don’t see any of the foreign born rikishi as anything other than rikishi. Rikishi are rikishi to me.
In the stadiums and on television, via the Internet too, there seem to be more and more non-Japanese fans following the sport. Do you think this is good for sumo?
Definitely. At many of the basho I see more and more foreign people, even in the masu-seki box seats and it makes me happy as it gives me extra power to want to try harder.
In these days of so much dominance by non-Japanese rikishi, many Japanese and even foreign fans see yourself and Homasho-zeki as the bright Japanese hopes for the future — how do you feel about that?
I do like the attention, but there are so many rikishi in sumo nowadays that I just feel honored to be able to fight them as best I can.
JAPAN TIMES INTERVIEW WITH ESTONIAN BARUTO, March 1, 2005
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20050301zg.html
HAKUHOU WRESTLES HIS WAY INTO THE HISTORY BOOKS, Japan Times May 29, 2007
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ss20070529a1.html
A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD?
National Sports Festival bars gaijin, and amateur leagues follow suit, by Arudou Debito
Japan Times, Sept. 30, 2003
Even more links here
Readers, add some more links or enclose more articles you find important in the Comments section below…?
Fun Facts, Sport
Fun Facts #6: “Newcomers” soon outnumbering “Oldcomers”
Posted on June 5, 2007 April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. I added this on specially to the end of my previous newsletter, but don’t want it to get buried. Let me reprint it specially as a FUN FACT:
REGISTERED NJ POPULATION HITS RECORD NUMBERS AGAIN IN 2006: 2.08 MILLION
…the Permanent-Resident “Newcomers” prepare to outnumber the “Oldcomers” by 2008
Latest figures for the population of registered NJ residents (i.e. anyone on 3-month visas and up) were made public last week by the Ministry of Justice (see them for yourself at http://www.moj.go.jp/PRESS/070516-1.pdf)
These are up to the end of 2006 (it takes about 5 months to tabulate the previous year’s figures). The headline:
FOREIGN RESIDENTS AT RECORD HIGH
The Yomiuri Shinbun May. 22, 2007
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070522TDY01002.htm
The number of foreign residents in Japan as of the end of 2006 hit a record-high of 2.08 million, increasing 3.6 percent from the previous year, according to the Justice Ministry’s Immigration Bureau.
The figure of 2,084,919 accounted for 1.63 percent of the nation’s total population.
By nationality and place of origin, the two Koreas combined had the largest share at 28.7 percent, or 598,219. But because of the aging population and naturalization, the number of special permanent residents is decreasing after peaking in 1991.
In order of descending share after the two Koreas, China registered 26.9 percent or 560,741; Brazil, 15 percent or 312,979; and thereafter the order was the Philippines, Peru and the United States…
By prefecture, Tokyo came top with 364,712. Thereafter, Osaka, Aichi, Kanagawa, Saitama, Hyogo, Chiba, Shizuoka, Gifu and Kyoto prefectures accounted for about 70 percent.
Gifu Prefecture increased by 7.6 percent from a year ago, and Aichi by 7.1 percent. The high rates of increase in the two Chubu region prefectures is thought to be attributable to the area’s favorable economic conditions.
(May. 22, 2007)
http://www.debito.org/?p=355
COMMENT: Oddly lost in translation from the original Japanese article (http://www.debito.org/?p=410) was the fact that this represents the 45th straight year the NJ population has risen. And at the rate reported above (3.6%), under the laws of statistics and compounding interest rates, this means the NJ population will again double in about 20 years.
It took twenty years to double last time, so the rate is holding steady. In fact, although the average is usually around a net gain of 50,000 souls per year, 2006 saw a gain of about 70,000. Accelerating?
The bigger news is this, though only briefly alluded to above:
Japan has two different types of Permanent Resident: The “Special PRs” (tokubetsu eijuusha), better known as the “Zainichi” ethnic Korean/Chinese etc. generational foreigners born in Japan, and the “General PRs” (ippan eijuusha), better known as the immigrants who have come here to settle and have been granted permission to stay in Japan forever.
Once upon a time, thanks to Japan’s jus sanguinis laws behind citizenship, most “foreigners” were in fact born in Japan–former citizens of empire stripped of their citizenship postwar and their descendents.
No longer. Every year, the number of “Oldcomers” are dropping, while the “Newcomers” are in fact catching up.
According to the MOJ, these are the raw numbers of people each year between 2002 and 2006 respectively:
Oldcomers:
(rate of decrease 2005-2006 of 2%)
Newcomers:
(rate of increase 2005-2006 of 12.8%)
If things continue at 2006’s rate, the number of “Newcomer” immigrants will surpass the “Oldcomers” this year, 2007!
Oldcomers: …434183 425499
Newcomers: …444,970 501926
which means that according to statistics, the Newcomers with PR will double again in a little under six years!
Of course, we won’t see the point of inflection officially until May 2008, but those are the trends. This is a major sea change, because with PR these people are probably here to stay forever, as per the terms of their visa.
As far as rights and internationalization advocates go, this should sound hopeful for increasing pressure on Japan to pass a law against racial discrimination. But I’m hearing rumblings:
According to sources I really cannot name, the “Oldcomers” have a much longer history of human-rights advocacy, and a greater sense of entitlement to “victimhood” than the upstart immigrants. It’s entirely likely the Zainichis might not be too cooperative. After all–they’ve suffered for generations and gotten a few policy bones thrown them by the GOJ. Why should they help make life any easier for others who haven’t paid their time and earned their stripes?
Those are some crystal-ball prognostications. Let’s see how things look in five to ten years, as the landscape keeps shifting under the advocates of human rights for minorities in Japan.
Arudou Debito in Upstate NY, USA
Fun Facts, Immigration & Assimilation
Fun Facts #5: Nat Geo on Japan’s Tsunami Charity
Posted on May 21, 2007 April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. I voice enough criticism of Japan on this space. Let’s also give praise where it is due.
According to the National Geographic Dec 2005, Japan’s record regarding keeping its international promises regarding tsunami relief has been excellent. In fact, it’s basically the only country which made (even superseded) enormous pledges of donations for victims of the big waves a couple of years ago.
Bravo, Japan! Shame on everyone else, especially the oil-rich countries–both in terms of pledge and fulfillment. Where’s the Muslim feeling of brotherhood when you need it? Debito
Fun Facts, Human Rights, Ironies & Hypocrisies, Japanese Government
Fun Facts #4: Indicative Postwar “Child’s Play”
Posted on April 26, 2007 June 5, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. This will be my last blog entry for at least a week (if not until around May 7), as I will be cycling around Kyushu with friend Chris without email or probably web access.
So let’s break on a more pleasant note: From one of my favorite books on Japan (John Dower, EMBRACING DEFEAT, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning tome on the strategies Post-WWII Japanese society used to cope with losing a war), my favorite section (pp. 110-112). Brief comment follows:
Children’s games can provide a barometer of their times. With consumers of any sort still in the distant future, youngsters were thrown back on their imaginations, and their play became a lively measure of the obsessions of adult society. Not long before, boys in particular had played war with a chilling innocence of what they were being encouraged to become. They donned headbands and imagined themselves piloting the planes that would, in fact, never return. They played at being heroic sailors long after the imperial navy began to be decimated. Armed with wooden spears and bayonets, they threw themselves screaming at mock-ups of Roosevelt and Churchill and pretended they were saving the country from the foreign devils [48]. In defeat, there was no such clear indoctrination behind children’s games. Essentially, they played at doing what they saw grownups do. It was a sobering sight.
There were not many commerical toys in this world, although the first popular one after the war was revealing. In December 1945, a toy maker in Kyoto produced a jeep not quite 10 centimeters long that sold for 10 yen. The stock of one hundred thousand quickly disappeared from store shelves, heralding the modest revival of the toy industry. The quintessentially American nature of the product was appropriate, for the child’s world was defined, in generally positive and uncritical ways, by an acceptance of the fact of being occupied. Jeeps were associated with the chocolate and chewing gum handed out by cheerful GIs, and thus with the few delicious amenities imaginable in these war-torn lives. “Hello,” “goodbye,” “jeep,” and “give me chocolate” were the first English words most youngsters learned. They also learned to fold newspapers into soft GI-style hats rather than the traditional samurai helmets of the past. To older, nationalistic Japanese, a good part of child’s play seemed to involve finding pleasure in being colonized.
The games *were* happy–that was the point of playing, after all–but in ways that almost invariably tended to sadden grownups, for they highlighted so clearly and innocently the pathos that war and defeat had brought into their lives. Early in 1946, for example, it was reported that the three most popular activities among small boys and girls were yamiichi-gokko, panpan asobi, and demo asobi–that is, holding a mock black market, playing prostitute and customer, and recreating left-wing political demonstrations.
Black-market games–hawkers and their wares–might be seen in retrospect as a kind of school for small entrepreneurs, but to grownups at the time they were simply another grim reminder of the necessity of engaging in illegal activity to make ends meet. Panpan asobi, prostitution play, was even harder for parents to behold, for panpan was a postwar euphemism for freelance prostitutes who catered almost exclusively to the GI trade. A photograph from early 1946 shows laughing youngsters in shabby clothes reenacting this–a boy wearing a soft GI hat, his arm hooked into that of a little girl wearing patched pants. In the demo game, children ran around waving red paper flags. As youngsters grew older, play shaded into practice. The press took care to note when roundups of prostitutes included girls as young as fourteen, while schoolboys as well as orphans and runaways quickly learned how to earn pocket money as pimps by leading GIs to women. “You like to meet my sister?” became, for some, the next level of English after “give me chocolate.”
As time passed, the playtime repertoire expanded. In mid-1947, a teacher in Osaka reported that his pupils seemed absorbed in playing “train” games, using the teacher’s platform at the front of the classroom as the center of their activities. In “repatriate train,” children put on their school knapsacks, jammed together on the dais, shook and trembled, and got off at “Osaka.” “Special train”–obviously a takeoff on the railway cars reserved for occupation personnel–allowed only “pretty people” to get on. A “conductor” judged who was favored and who wasn’t. A button missing? Rejected. Dirty face? Rejected. Those who passed these arbitrary hurdles sat in leisure on the train. Those rejected stood by enviously. In “ordinary train,” everyone piled on, pushing and shoving, complaining about being stepped on, crying out for help. Every so often, the conductors balancing on the edges of the platform announced that the train had broken down and everyone had to get off. It was, the teacher lamented, a sorry spectacle to behold: from playing war to playing at utter confusion.
Well into 1949, children continued to turn social disorders into games. In runpen-gokkothey pretended to be homeless vagrants. The game took its name from teh German word lumpen, which had come to Japan earier as “lumpenproleteriat” and then acquired the everyday meaning of being an unemployed vagrant. The atmosphere of lawlessness was reenacted in “to catch a thief” (dorobo-gokko) and “pretending handcuffs” (tejou-gokko). “Catch a thief,” it was said, had replaced hide-and-seek in popularity. Desire to strike it rich was captured in a lottery game. Predictably, child’s play also included kaidashi-gokko, pretending to leave home to search for food [49].
COMMENT: This marvellously-written and researched account by Dr Dower, in parts guffaw-inducing, in others depressing, is something rarely considered in historical accounts: The barometer of social suffering as absorbed and reflected in its children doing what kids do: trying to have fun.
The photo accompanying the text (and referred to within), concerning panpan asobi is priceless:
(Click on image to see whole photo)
I especially love the expressions on the girls’ faces. And I can see why people in most societies shield their children’s eyes from what happens next when the couple repairs elsewhere.
On a more serious note, this play wouldn’t be quite so beneficial to society if it wasn’t seen as fun by the children. More like trauma. And given that Tokyo Guv Ishihara Shintaro was about to turn 15 by the time the war ended, it’s perhaps unsurprising that he couldn’t see the brighter side of the Occupation, and became the very stripey character (particularly regarding non-Japanese) that he is.
Arudou Debito in Yoyogi-Uehara, Tokyo
Cultural Issue, Fun Facts, History
Fun Facts #3: TIME: Japan’s postwar housing shortage and the aftermath
Posted on April 18, 2007 April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. An article I found completely by chance during a walk around Kyoto a couple of years ago.
Spotted in a basket outside a boutique: Old TIME magazines, which completely by chance had issues published around when I was born (January 13, 1965). Decided on a whim to buy the issues which straddled my birthday to see what was news back then. And discovered that TS Eliot died around when I was born (January 4). Anyway, the article:
(Widen your browser or click on image to see full article)
TIME Magazine January 8, 1965
(Here’s the cover, ‘cos I love the old painted TIME magazine covers:)
COMMENT: It’s interesting how Japan’s high-growth economy has already by 1965 created a huge economic bubble, and how even back then the Western media was noting the “rabbit hutch” housing market. And love the anecdote about this lack of space inhibiting conjugal relations…
But I cite this article because it contains the Fun Fact:
“THE AVERAGE HEIGHT OF BUILDINGS IN TOKYO WAS 1.7 STORIES IN 1965.”
Amazing to consider, with the price of land beggaring everyone both in terms of budget and space.
This also meant that PM Satou Eisaku’s policy of earmarking public funds to alleviate this housing shortage (3 million units to be built over seven years) is probably the main reason why so many buildings in Tokyo were built for function, not form. They had to go up as quickly as possible–which meant:
1) The “rabbit hutches” were just stacked on top of each other–see the horrible danchi system to this day in Adachi-ku, for example.
2) The construction lobby (kensetsu zoku) would thus get phenomenal power in terms of politics and corruption (for when you throw public money at a problem without time for oversight, there is nearly always skimming and cut corners). This probably enabled the kensetsu zoku to continue leaning on the government for more boondoggle seibi projects (see Kerr, DOGS AND DEMONS) even after the housing shortage was alleviated. The impact of that on Japan’s financial health still resonates today.
3) As Tokyo does, the rest of the country follows. The economies of scale created by these cookie-cutter houses influenced housing design nationwide. Meaning (in my opinion) Japanese houses are still some of the the highest-priced for the lowest quality in the world, and still largely devoid of esthetic (i.e. despite many exceptions, still generally built for function, not form–especially up here in Hokkaido).
I’m probably overstating the case. But this article answered quite a few burning questions for me about why Japanese are so rich yet in terms of housing live so poorly. Debito in Sapporo
PS: Another interesting article from the following week’s TIME Magazine on PM Satou follows FYI. Contains a bit of the contemporary attitude of belittling Japanese leaders (cf. de Gaulle’s description of PM Ikeda Hayato in 1960 as a “transistor salesman”).
It also contains the bonus Fun Fact that PMs Kishi Nobusuke and Satou Eisaku were brothers. Japan’s political world is indeed riddled with an elite. D
Fun Facts, History, Japanese Government
Fun Facts #2: Comparative govt “kokusaika”-friendliness by Prefecture
Posted on April 5, 2007 April 23, 2008 by Debito Arudou Ph.D.
Hi Blog. More FUN FACTS (maybe this time “factoids”), courtesy of the Minami Nihon Shinbun of February 12, 2007:
(Click on image to see whole article, or widen your browser window to see color map)
This is a color-coded chart of how each of Japan’s 47 municipal governments stack up in terms of NJ user-friendliness for their NJ residents (tabunka kyousei)–behind the two other pillars the national government (Soumushou) determined in March 2006 to be the backbone of Japan’s internationalization: “International Communication” (kokusai kouryuu), and “International Cooperation” (kokusai kyouryoku). “Multicultural Coexistence”, the cleanest translation I can come up for tabunka kyousei, means, according to the article, “the mutual acknowledgement of peoples’ differences by nationality and ethnicity, and living together as equals in the local communities”.
Hm. This shows quite a bit of thought on the part of the government. Well and good. But in practice?
An NPO in Osaka (the Tabunka Kyousei Center) launched a survey to see how well each local government did. According to the article, they included services such as Japanese lessons, information in foreign languages, education for their children, and policies taking into consideration local non-Japanese residents, etc. The data was collected between October 2005 and August 2006. Full marks are 80 points.
As you can see by the color coding in the above article, Tokyo and Hyogo scored best, then high-foreign population centers near Aichi and Gifu bubbled under. Scoring worst were Aomori, Nagasaki, Saga, Ehime, and (gasp–seriously) Okinawa!
The Japan Times (Feb 15, 2007) also did a full article on this, blogged on Debito.org at http://www.debito.org/?p=223
The average score was just above half marks, 41 points. So any prefecture in the map above colored orange or below should hang their heads in shame. Note how they are often the ones with depopulation problems (not to mention imported brides for farmers), so if local governments want to avoid acculturalization issues in the future, they had better get their acts together and make people more comfortable living there.
Debito in Sapporo
Fun Facts, Immigration & Assimilation, Japanese Government, 日本語
Fun Facts #1: Comparative GDPs of J Prefectures
Hello Blog. Kicking off my first installment of FUN FACTS–an occasional series of interesting articles I’ve found and blogged for posterity. Not necessarily internationalization- or immigration-related, but fun to know nonetheless.
I’ve heard many times from people that Japanese newspapers and media are boring. But that’s often because the bored don’t know where to look. For example, have a look at this article from February 7, 2007’s Asahi Shinbun (pg 23) (click on image to see entire image; some English translation follows article):
The article talks about PM Abe’s vision of “doushuusei”, the consolidation of prefectures, to cut down on local government costs and maybe even (*cough*–pipe dream at this stage) devolving more power to more self-sufficient local governments.
If Japan’s 47 prefectures/municipal governments were cut down to eleven regions (see chart above), this would produce the following results: (All figures for GDP are dated 2003 (I won’t bother to convert), and population figures from the 2005 Census.)
1) HOKKAIDO (population 5.63 million) would be the world’s 36th largest economy, around the size of PORTUGAL.
2) TOUHOKU (pop. 9.63 million), 25th, around the size of NORWAY.
3) NORTH KANTO (pop. 16.27 million) 17th, between SWITZERLAND and HOLLAND.
4) SOUTH KANTO (including Tokyo and Yokohama, pop. 28.30 million), 8th, around the size of CANADA.
5) TOUKAI (including Nagoya, pop. 15.02 million), 17th, around the size of HOLLAND.
6) SHIKOKU (pop. 4.09 million), 41st, around the size of SINGAPORE.
7) OKINAWA (pop. 1.36 million), 64th, around the size of LUXEMBOURG.
8) HOKURIKU (pop. 5.54 million), 32nd, around the size of ARGENTINA.
9) KANSAI (pop. 20.89 million), 16th, around the size of AUSTRALIA.
10) CHUUGOKU (pop. 7.68 million), 27th, around the size of SOUTH AFRICA.
11) KYUSHU (pop. 13.35 million), 17th, around the size of SWITZERLAND.
I’ll let readers knead and pull the stats for a bit–dividing GDP sizes by population etc. But from this you can get an inkling of which parts of Japan are richest and poorest, and which are more or less likely to be self-sufficient (if the tax-hungry and control-freak national government would ever allow any political devolution to the provinces; fat chance at this stage) post-Doushuusei on an economic basis alone.
Old Debito.org essay on Hokkaido’s economic dependency on the mainland here. Here endeth the first Fun Facts. Hope you enjoyed. Another one in the pipeline. Debito in Sapporo
Fun Facts, Japanese Government, 日本語
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Bordeaux: Lynch-Bages owner buys Haut-Batailley
Chris Mercer April 3, 2017
Château Haut-Batailley vineyards. The estate was bought by the owners of Pauillac neighbour Lynch-Bages in 2017, but the price was not disclosed. Credit: Haut-Batailley.
The Cazes family of Château Lynch-Bages has put to rest several weeks of speculation in Bordeaux by confirming that it has acquired Château Haut-Batailley, the 1855 Grand Cru Classé estate in Pauillac.
Bordeaux has seen many outside investors seduced by its premier châteaux over the centuries, but the Cazes family’s purchase of Haut-Batailley in Pauillac was a deal forged on the Gironde river’s Left Bank.
The Cazes household confirmed in a press release late last week that it had added the 40-hectare Haut-Batailley estate to its operations, which include fellow Pauillac estate Château Lynch-Bages. Fitfth-growth Haut-Batailley has 22 hectares of vines.
No price was disclosed.
Pauillac has some of the most expensive vineyards in Bordeaux, and vineyard land in the appellation cost two million euros per hectare on average in 2015, according to French land agency Safer.
‘Château Haut-Batailley is a magnificent property that has always produced great wines,’ said Jean-Charles Cazes, general manager of the family-owned group. ‘We’re particularly happy that it has passed between two families who have friendly relations and know each other well.
‘This acquisition will strengthen our presence in Pauillac with the aim of undertaking a project distinct from Lynch-Bages. In order to respect the estate’s identity and the integrity of its vineyard, the property will be managed independently and have its own dedicated team of technical experts.’
Haut-Batailley was previously owned by the Brest-Borie family, who bought the estate in the 1930s.
‘We are delighted that Château Haut-Batailley has been accepted into the fold of the Cazes family, who are committed to continuing the work undertaken at the estate,’ said current estate manager François-Xavier Borie. ‘We’re confident that they will maintain the identity and character of the property.’
The estate’s vineyards are 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc. Its vines are on average 35 years old.
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The barrel cellar at Château Pontet-Canet.
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Château Lascombes, second growth estate in Margaux. Credit: Château Lascombes.
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How much of Bordeaux 2016 will be sold in-barrel? Credit: Peter Horree / Alamy Stock Photo
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How to Make a Light Shade from a Vinyl Record
By: Victoria Bailey
How to Cut PVC Vinyl Records
How to repair deep scratches on vinyl records
How to Play Vinyl Backwards on a Record Player
How to make music mashups with soundcloud
How to Make a Record Birthday Cake
The 1960s and 1970s are popular decorating themes for bedrooms, basement party rooms and home bars. Whether you're designing a room in flower-power or stayin'-alive style, a record album hanging lamp can be just the right decorating touch. This light is made from a vinyl record album melted into a bowl shape, then turned upside down and turned into a retro lamp shade. These lamps make an authentic retro touch hanging over a jukebox or in a kid's room.
Preheat the oven to 93.3 degrees Celsius. Place a metal bowl the same size as the album face down onto a metal baking tray.
Place a quarter in the middle of the album, centred over the hole in the middle of the record. Trace around the quarter with a pencil. Remove the quarter and cut away the record label inside the circle, removing all traces of paper. Turn over the album and do the same thing on the other side.
Lay the album onto the metal bowl. Place the baking tray into the oven. Allow the vinyl record to heat and soften for five minutes.
Remove the baking tray from the oven and set it on a heat-proof surface. Use the screwdriver to stretch the softened vinyl in the centre of the album to widen the hole. Make the new hole the same size as the circle you traced from the quarter.
Push and fold the edges of the album down over the bowl to create a round shape. Form the record into a bowl shape with fluted, wavy sides. If you want a smaller shade, turn the bowl over and place the album inside.
Work fast, as the album will cool in a few minutes. If you are not finished moulding the record before it starts to harden, place it back into the oven for a couple of minutes to soften it again, then take it out and finish the job.
Thread the light plug through the hole in the centre of the shade to complete your hanging vinyl record lamp.
Digs Magazine: In Record Time
Working in sunny Florida, Anne Baley has been writing professionally since 2009. Her home and lifestyle articles have been seen on Coldwell Banker and Gardening Know How. Baley has published a series of books teaching how to live a frugal life with style and panache.
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Wisconsin Robin Engine Specs
Adam Yeomans
Adam Yeomans has been writing professionally since 2010, with his work appearing on websites such as eHow. He works in the construction industry as a builder and as an energy efficiency consultant.
Wisconsin Robin is an engine type used on lawn mowers and small utility carts until the late 1990s. Robin's largest contract with and distributor was with Snapper lawnmowers. When Snapper went out of business, Wisconsin Robin also went under and eventually became Subaru Robin, which produces generator engines. Wisconsin Robin engine specifications depend on the engine type.
Engine Label
All Wisconsin Robin engines bore an eight-digit specification label, located on the blower housing, for the 600, 700, 800 and 900 series engines. The last three digits of the specification label indicates the specific part of the engine that had changed, a change as simple as the paint color to a PTO to a different bolt on the crank case. This was Fuji's (the Robin Engine production company) way of keeping track of the changes.
2 Cycle Engines
The two-cycle Wisconsin Robin Engines were produced almost exclusively for Snapper lawnmowers and had a vertical drive for spinning the lawn mower blade. The muffler is mounted directly on the left side of the two-cycle engine on all models. The mixed gas tank is located behind the blower housing where the pull start is located.
The Wisconsin Robin engine has a feature not common at the time. The crank shaft housing rotated on ball bearings creating little friction and allowing the crank shaft to operate without excessively overheating.
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3406 Caterpillar Flywheel and Torque Converter Torque Specs
How to Adjust the Clutch on a Massey Ferguson 135
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The Million Man March: 20 Years Later
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[RANDOM RETRO] Common- “The 6th Sense”
By #teamEBONYMarch 13, 2013
[RANDOM RETRO] Common- “The Corners” f/ Kanye West and The Last Poets
[RANDOM RETRO] Common- “I Used to Love H.E.R.”
[RANDOM RETRO] Common-“Reminding Me (Of Sef)”
Who Will Revere The Black Woman?
Mark Twain said, in effect, that when a country enslaves a people, the first necessary job is to make the...
By Abbey LincolnFebruary 12, 2013
[RANDOM RETRO] Erykah Badu- “Didn’t Cha Know” (2000)
By #teamEBONYFebruary 7, 2013
[RANDOM RETRO] The Pharcyde- “Runnin'” (1995)
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Apple iPad Pro 2020 release date, price, specs rumors: Gadget expected to have mmWave 5G support and miniLED display
‘The Sims 4’ could get snow and resort-themed content packs soon
Financial trading bots have fascinating similarities to people – we need to learn from them
Google claims to have invented a quantum computer, but IBM begs to differ
Car wars: how Nokia could find itself at centre of EU investigation over technology patents
Screen time: Conclusions about the effects of digital media are often incomplete, irrelevant or wrong
Nintendo Switch game updates: ‘BioShock Collection,’ ‘Dead or School,’ and 14 titles coming to the console
Donald Trump vs. Apple legal dispute looms as POTUS slams the company’s refusal to unlock criminal’s iPhones
‘Elder Scrolls 6’ release date, rumors: Why Black Marsh could be an interesting location choice
‘Warcraft 3: Reforged’ system requirements still unknown despite Jan. 28 launch
‘Wasteland 3’ release date, gameplay: inXile’ upcoming role-playing game to introduce a few changes
AirPods Pro firmware update 2C54 reportedly worsens the active noise cancellation feature
Sony Xperia 5 Plus release date likely to be announced at the MWC 2020
Virtual reality could expand therapy options in remote areas
Amazon Echo’s privacy issues go way beyond voice recordings
Why fitness trackers may not give you all the 'credit' you hoped for
iPhone SE 2 Plus release date, specs: SE device with ‘full-screen design’ arrives in early 2021
iPhone X, released in 2017, was the first smartphone from Apple with a full-screen design. | Photo credit: Apple India/YouTube screenshot
Friday, December 6, 2019 11:32 AM UTC
The previous months have been filled with reports about the anticipated release of iPhone SE 2. However, Apple now appears to have more plans for its more affordable smartphone lineup as iPhone SE 2 Plus is now predicted to be in the pipeline with an early 2021 release date window.
iPhone SE 2 Plus release date, specs, design: What to expect?
It has been a quiet three years for Apple’s iPhone SE brand. A successor to the 2016-released device has been in the rumor mill for quite a while before reliable industry sources have started reporting that the iPhone SE 2 is finally in the making.
The wait for iPhone SE 2 would be worth it if recent predictions by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo would come true. Kuo’s recent notes (via MacRumors) indicate that Apple is already working on a device to be called iPhone SE 2 Plus. Not much was said about its specs, but it is expected to bring the full-screen design to Apple’s more affordable smartphones.
However, iPhone SE 2 would still have Touch ID as its biometric authentication system with a scanner incorporated in the power button amid the absence of a home button. The device is also expected to have a bigger body with a display size between 5.5 to 6.1 inches.
Aside from the speculated device, Apple is also predicted to change its annual calendar of product launches. JP Morgan analysts are expecting the Cupertino, California-based tech giant to opt for a biannual iPhone release cycle. This tallies with Kuo’s predictions that iPhone SE 2 and iPhone SE 2 Plus would be released in the first half of 2020 and 2021, respectively, while Apple would maintain a late-in-the-year launch for premium smartphones.
iPhone SE 2 release date, specs: Apple opens 2020 with a new smartphone
For now, fans should look forward to the iPhone SE 2 that is highly anticipated to be released as early as the first quarter of 2020. Earlier analyses suggest that the device would enter mass production by January while an unveiling event would take place in March.
The iPhone SE 2 coming out next year would not have a full-screen design as it is rumored to have a similar appearance with the iPhone 8 series. It was the latest model to sport a home button. The upcoming device is expected to be powered by the A13 chip while maintaining a price tag below $400.
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Articles From : artsandlec
artsandlec
Understanding Genetics and Cancer
“There has never been a scientific career quite like Mary-Claire King’s.” The New York Times
The Genetics of Inherited Breast and Ovarian Cancer: From Gene Discovery to Precision Medicine and Public Health
0 Comments">Comments
$10 : General Public
$5 : UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
$5 : Youth (18 & under / Student ID required for high school age)
UCSB Campus, Campbell Hall
Call the Arts & Lectures ticket office at (805) 893-3535 for your tickets!
Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE
$38.50 - $88.50 : General Public
$28.50 : UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
$28.50 : Youth (18 & under / Student ID required for high school age)
Includes facility fee
Arlington Theatre
Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour
$21.50 : General Public
$15 : UCSB Students (Current student ID required)
$15 : Youth (18 & under / Student ID required for high school age)
FREE; no advance tickets required, Registration recommended (opens Feb 18)
Pollock Theater
$31 - $46 : General Public
Bill Bryson: The Body: A Guide for Occupants
The Granada
Jane: A Thematic Learning Initiative Event
FREE; no advance tickets required
This Changes Everything: A Thematic Learning Initiative Event
Itzhak: Grammy Nominee for Best Music Film
Buddy Guy Jimmie Vaughan Charlie Musselwhite
Three blues legends – a pair of guitar heroes and a revered harmonica player – come together for an unforgettable night of music. An eighttime Grammy Award-winner, Kennedy Center and National Medal of Arts honoree and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Buddy Guy is an American treasure, guitar master and ambassador of Chicago blues.
Michael Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble
Schubert: Rondo in A Major, D. 438
Benjamin Attahir: Newly-commissioned work TBA
Mendelssohn: String Octet in E-flat Major, op. 20
Nashville-based experimental roots trio The Wood Brothers combines a “rustic folk sound with a jolt of sonic and stylistic playfulness” (Aspen Times). With soulful vocals, rich harmonies, unwavering grooves and searing guitar work, bassist Chris Wood (also of Medeski Martin & Wood), his brother Oliver on acoustic and electric guitars and multi-instrumentalist Jano Rix – who plays percussion and keyboards and sings, simultaneously – harness a kaleidoscopic array of influences and exemplary musicianship into a must-see live show.
Rosanne Cash with John Leventhal
With an iconic sound that transcends country, pop, rock and blues, Rosanne Cash’s voice and vision have captured American life for generations of fans. Following her triple-Grammy-winning album The River & the Thread, her new album She Remembers Everything is a poetic, lush and soulful collection of songs that reckon with a flawed and fragile world. Returning to more personal songwriting after a trio of albums that explored her southern roots and family heritage, Cash has embraced narratives of women survivors.
Grupo Corpo
Brazil’s leading contemporary dance troupe Grupo Corpo returns with a phenomenal double bill of two wildly different works that showcase the 21-member group’s extraordinary range. In Gira, choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras constructs a powerful glossary of gestures of praise and movement inspired by Afro-Brazilian religious rituals, set to music by the Brazilian fusion group Méta Méta. In Bach, the baroque world of J.S. Bach is made modern in a score by Marco Antônio Guimarães, with dancers in brilliant shades of gold, regal blue and black dropping from a set of enormous organ pipes.
Miloš and Friends
A young star who has revitalized the role of the guitar in classical music, Miloš Karadaglic is one of the “champions of the classical guitar who have shaped its sound in the last century” (BBC Music Magazine). His vast talent expands traditional and contemporary repertoire with skillful and imaginative arrangements, whether he is playing classical works or on his album devoted to the music of The Beatles. Making his long-awaited Santa Barbara debut with a string quartet and double bass, Miloš will display his full range in an exciting program that includes works by J.S.
Leave it to Jill Lepore to offer a magisterial account of the rise of America and an urgent reckoning with the beauty and tragedy of our divided nation. The latest masterpiece from the award-winning Harvard historian, New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of books including The Secret History of Wonder Woman, These Truths explores our past in order to understand the present and prepare for our future. At a time of much despair over the future of liberal democracy, Lepore’s newly-released follow-up, This America, makes a stirring case for the nation.
Lyle Lovett and his Acoustic Group
One of the most compelling and captivating musicians in popular music, Lyle Lovett returns for a rare appearance with his acoustic group. A singer, composer, actor and four-time Grammy Award-winner, Lovett has broadened the definition of American music in a career that spans 14 albums, fusing elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, gospel and blues. The Texas trailblazer will be joined in concert by his long-running backup band, combining his rich sound, singular gift for storytelling and wry sense of humor in an intimate acoustic performance that showcases his rich and eclectic oeuvre.
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3 Things to Consider Before Your Business Donates to Charity
Stephanie Vozza
December 3, 2012 min read
While some hit the stores the day after Thanksgiving, Justine Lackey, president of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.-based Good Cents Bookkeeping, a money-management firm for entrepreneurs, has another tradition.
"During the year, I put the charity solicitations I receive in a folder, and after Thanksgiving I review them and decide which organizations I want to support," says Lackey. "This way, I make sure I’m giving appropriately, and bearing the bottom line in mind."
With tax laws likely changing soon, it’s a good idea to follow Lackey’s lead and donate before the end of the year, as one of the proposed revisions for 2013 is a cap on itemized deductions. But before you write a check, here are three things you need to do.
Related: Richard Branson Shines a Spotlight on 5 Altruistic Companies
1. Evaluate the organization. Any time you consider making a donation, you should ensure that the organization is legitimate and lives up to its mission.
"It's unfortunate, but with disasters like super storm Sandy, many 'charities' pop up that aren't charities at all, in fact they are scams," says Lackey. "As a business owner, I want to be guided by both my heart and my brain."
To evaluate a charity, visit charitynavigator.org. The website provides information such as financial performance, accountability, revenue, expenses and leadership compensation. It also offers tips for donors on selecting a worthy charity
To ensure that your donation will be deductible, Lackey also recommends verifying a charity’s exemption status with the IRS.
2. Determine how much you should give. Of course, you can give as much as you like, but if you want to take a tax deduction, it’s a good idea to know the rules.
Lackey offers these guidelines -- If you are a sole proprietor, you will claim donations on your itemized personal tax return, and if you are in a partnership or S Corp, you will deduct your share of the donation on your itemized personal tax return.
On a personal return, you can deduct up to 30% to 50% of your adjusted gross income, with the amount depending upon the charity’s IRS category.Organizations such as churches, schools and private-operating foundations fall into the 50% category; veterans' and fraternal societies are in the 30% category. (click here for a full list). If your business is a C Corp, you will list deductions on the business’s return and can deduct up to 10% of taxable income.
Realted: Inside What Small-Business Owners Had to Say to Obama About the Fiscal Cliff
3. Keep detailed records. Finally, you must keep a paper trail. For cash donations, you will need a bank record, such as a canceled check or written documentation from the charity detailing your contribution. Donations of more than $250, however, require a written record from the organization outlining the amount, date, and whether any goods or services were given in exchange for the donation.
"For example, if you attended a charity ball where tickets were $500, but the value of the entertainment and meal was $125, the organization would outline your donation and your deduction would be $375." says Lackey.
"The rules can be complex. It’s best to invest in a qualified CPA, an enrolled agent certified by the IRS, or a qualified tax preparer who can evaluate your personal situation and make sure you are getting the biggest tax benefit."
Related: Your Startup's Top 3 Most Trusted Accounting Allies
The Tax & Legal Playbook
The Business Owner's Guide to Financial Freedom
Cash From The Crowd
Dirty Little Secrets: What the Credit Reporting Agencies Won't Tell You
The Best Way to Borrow From Friends and Family to Grow Your Business? Here's How to Do It Right
How to Save for Retirement While Running a Business
Free Webinar: Learn How to Tell Your Business' Financial Story
The 12 Tax Days of Christmas: Day 12
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Tax and transparency
We believe that responsible and ethical behaviour is a prerequisite for sustainable business. We have zero tolerance for corruption and all Equinor personnel are expected to adhere to our policy and familiarise themselves with the Code of Conduct through a confirmation statement.
Our code is based on our values and reflects our commitment to high ethical standards in our business activities. We look for business partners with similar values and ethical standards to ours, and we work with our suppliers to ensure integrity throughout our value chain.
Code of conduct PDF 8 MB
Transparency is a cornerstone of good governance and is vital in the combat of corruption. We are committed to conducting our business activities in an open and transparent manner, promoting transparency in our industry and supporting efforts to improve openness and accountability to combat corruption worldwide. Transparency allows businesses to prosper in a predictable environment, contributes to a level playing field and enables citizens to hold governments accountable. Our business generates significant revenues in the societies where we operate, and transparency is vital to ensure that the wealth derived from the energy we produce is put to effective and equitable use.
Open is one of our four company values. We were among the first major oil and gas companies to voluntarily start disclosing all revenues and payments to governments in the countries where we operate. We are a signatory to the anti-corruption initiative Call to Action by the United Nations Global Compact, an appeal by the private sector to governments to address corruption and enhance good governance.
In addition to our revenue transparency disclosures, we aim to be open about other aspects of our sustainability performance. Our climate advocacy position is publicly available, and we are disclosing both our ambitions and goals, as well as annual performance in our efforts to combat climate change.
Equinor’s approach to tax
Equinor is committed to be a responsible corporate citizen world-wide. We will execute tax compliance and planning in a professional manner, aligned with good business practice. Transparency in tax payments is vital to ensuring that the revenues derived from our operations is put to effective and equitable use, as it enables citizens to hold governments accountable for the payments they receive. An important principle is that Equinor will pay taxes where legally due and where the economic value is generated. Artificial transactions with no connections to our business activities will never be pursued.
Equinor group tax strategy document PDF 100 KB
Payments to governments
Equinor was among the first major oil and gas companies that voluntarily disclosed payments to governments. We have welcomed initiatives to strengthen revenue transparency legislation and actively shared our experience with peer companies, governments and civil society. For Equinor, it is important that revenue transparency regulation applies globally, is effective, and creates a levelled playing field for all companies, communities and governments.
As now required by Norwegian legislation, we disclose payments to governments pertaining to our extractive activities per project in a separate report. In order to provide context, the report also contains information on investments, revenues, purchases of goods and services and production volumes per country, in addition to a full list of subsidiaries and information about inter-company interest expenses.
Payments to Governments report 2018 XLSX 69 KB
Payments to Governments report 2017 XLSX 404 KB
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI)
We have supported the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) since its inception, and we respect and promote the EITI principles. The EITI is a global standard to promote open and accountable management of oil, gas and mineral resources. It is supported by coalition of governments, companies, civil society groups, investors and international organisations.
The EITI has evolved from payment disclosures into providing context and use of revenue data. In the 2019 EITI Standard, new contracts awarded by governments from 2021 must be made public.
Equinor has made public its position that we support and will advocate for the public disclosure by host countries of their petroleum contracts and licenses. More information about the EITI, including individual country reports are available at www.eiti.org
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EU leftists demand ‘climate emergency’ Parliament committee
By Beatriz Rios and Sam Morgan | EURACTIV.com
28-06-2019 (updated: 01-07-2019 )
Firefighters try to extinguish a forest fire in the town of Rianxo, northwestern Spain, 26 March 2019. [Photo: EPA-EFE/LAVANDEIRA JR]
The European Parliament’s leftist group (GUE/NGL) has proposed setting up a special climate emergency parliamentary committee to shift the spotlight on to green issues even more over the next five years.
GUE/NGL has suggested that the new committee would be a special task force like the ones set up in the past to investigate the Lux Leaks financial scandal and the Dieselgate emissions testing fraud.
Climate change is currently handled by the environment committee (ENVI) but the 69-member-strong panel also deals with everything else from plastic waste and chemicals to disease prevention and food safety.
Other committees like energy and industry (ITRE), transport (TRAN) and agriculture (AGRI) also deal with climate policies to different extents. That is why the leftist group wants to dedicate one committee to it in order to focus minds.
Spanish MEP Sira Rego, the group’s candidate to be Parliament president, told reporters that “we want one of our first initiatives […] to be focused on the eco-social crisis”.
“We will bring to the Conference of Presidents the proposal to create a special committee on climate emergency,” Rego added. “It is a core issue that must be on the agenda.”
EU countries urged to see ‘opportunity in climate change’
Climate change should be seen as an opportunity not a threat but the tools at the EU’s disposal need to be changed to deal with the coming challenge, according to officials, MEPs and climate experts.
GUE/NGL is already in contact with other political groups that might be willing to support the proposal. “There should be a maximum level of consensus,” she said.
Even if the proposal does not get a sufficient majority within the conference of presidents, the group would propose a vote on setting up the “common sense” committee at the first sitting of the new Parliament next week.
“We will keep insisting on this because we believe it is a core element and if there is any way we can monitor the situation and make policy proposals, we will fight for it. That’s our commitment,” Rego explained, adding that she is “very optimistic” about their chances.
On paper, the idea is likely to get wide support as most of the political groups put green policies high on their agendas for the next five years. If anyone decides not to back it then “they will have to explain why”, Rego warned.
Timmermans: A green candidate in the red corner
Frans Timmermans, the Socialists’ leading candidate, has promised a sustainable Europe if he is given the nod to lead the next European Commission. But how sustainable are the Dutchman’s green credentials?
She also defended the need to build alliances with other groups as Europe faces a climate emergency, concluding that “saving the planet should be a common sense issue, even for conservative forces”.
Greenpeace EU told EURACTIV that the next Parliament “cannot just leave it up to the Commission” and suggested that the proposed committee should be tasked with issuing year-on-year emission-cutting recommendations.
Climate Action Network Europe Director Wendel Trio said that the committee “could be really helpful”.
However, he added that it would only work “if it had a strong mandate to decide on all legislation that impacts climate change”, citing taxation, agriculture and trade as areas that would need attention.
Indeed, adding another committee could mean a repeat of the ugly turf war that erupted between the Parliament’s environment and energy committees earlier this year.
Both claimed that a resolution on the Commission’s draft climate plan was within their area of interest, so the proposed climate emergency committee will have to be given a clear set of responsibilities.
EU Parliament turf war risks derailing 2050 climate planning
A dispute between two European Parliament committees threatens to tarnish a debate about the EU’s climate plans for 2050, after MEPs backed two separate resolutions on the European Commission’s strategy.
Knock-on effect
The EU is currently locked in talks over a European Commission strategy that would see the bloc go climate neutral by 2050. An agreement fell apart at the last Council summit but a deal is expected by the end of the year or in early 2020.
A high-ranking Commission source told EURACTIV that setting up a committee dedicated to achieving that goal would be a step in the right direction but suggested that calling it a ‘climate emergency’ task force would be too alarmist.
The current EU executive is proud of its climate legacy and counts the signing of the Paris Agreement, an extensive set of clean energy laws for 2030 and the draft long-term 2050 strategy among its achievements.
EU takes stock after climate deal disappointment
EU environment ministers met on Wednesday (26 June) to take stock of how a landmark climate deal fell short of a final agreement last week. Signs now suggest that the European Council will stick to its end-of-year deadline and Poland will finally get on board.
More and more countries have decided to declare climate emergencies this year, including Canada, France, Ireland and the UK. The city of New York followed suit on Thursday (27 June).
However, the actual significance of declaring such an emergency has been called into question, after it was revealed that those four countries still subsidise fossil fuels to the tune of more than €23bn.
EURACTIV Members
1LEAK: Commission considers facial recognition ban in AI 'white paper'
2European Parliament calls on member states to act on Poland and Hungary
3Athens smarting after exclusion from German-hosted Libya conference
4Poland, Germany get largest slices of Just Transition Fund
5Greece ready to send 'forces' to Libya to monitor ceasefire
6Belgium debates phase-out of US nuclear weapons on its soil
7Portugal eyes more immigrants to mitigate low-birth rate
8Billions to be wasted on ‘unnecessary’ gas projects, study says
9EU to unveil trillion-euro 'Green Deal' financial plan
10Nuclear 'excluded' from EU's new Just Transition Fund
2 responses to “EU leftists demand ‘climate emergency’ Parliament committee”
Johan Stavers says:
Now ‘climate change’ shifts to ‘climate emergency’
Propaganda really is second nature to Marxists.
Oswaldo says:
Sitting on their hands really is second nature to climate change negationists.
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Panathinaikos, Batista sign one-year deal
Jul 18, 2014 by Euroleague.net Print
Greek champ Panathinaikos Athens announced on Friday afternoon a one-year deal with big man Esteban Batista for the upcoming season. Batista (2.08 meters, 30 years old) arrives from Pinar Karsiyaka Izmir, where last season he was a starter and averaged 17.8 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.3 steals in 16 Eurocup games. Batista led all players in index rating during the Last 32 (163) and ranked second in 2-pointers made both in the regular season and the Last 32. This will be Batista's sixth Turkish Airlines Euroleague appearance, as previously he had played with Maccabi Tel Aviv from 2007 to 2009, in Baskonia in 2010-11 and Anadolu Efes Istanbul from 2011 to 2013. He arrived in Izmir last summer and went on to win the Turkish National Cup.
Panathinaikos came from behind, again
It was a very positive week for Panathinaikos OPAP Athens, which showed great character to win two games in front of its fans.
Panathinaikos rode rollercoaster to victory
The final 15-point margin did not do justice to the exciting basketball Panathinaikos OPAP Athens and FC Bayern Munich showcased at OAKA on Wednesday night.
Panathinaikos adds Rautins to backcourt
Panathinaikos OPAP Athens added depth to its perimeter by signing guard Andy Rautins until the end of the season, the club announced on Friday.
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Wed, Jan 22, 2020 | UPDATED 11:38 UTC
World Entertainment Sports Others
Moscow (Russia) Dec 09: Miss South Africa rules all.
Zozibini Tunzi was crowned Miss Universe Sunday night after excelling through rounds of swimsuit and evening gown struts, questions on social issues and one final chance to explain why she was the right choice.
"I grew up in a world where a woman who looks like me - with my kind of skin and my kind of hair - was never considered to be beautiful," she said in her last response. "I think it is time that that stops today. I want children to look at me and see my face and I want them to see their faces reflected in mine."
The two runners-up for the crown were Miss Mexico and Miss Puerto Rico.
"If you do not use your beauty for your life's mission, it's just an empty ornament," Sofía Aragon, representing Mexico, said earlier in the competition.
Madison Anderson represented Puerto Rico.
"Being on the Miss Universe stage is not just a dream" Anderson said. "I believe that I found my mission. It's a representation of dedication, resilience and perseverance. I do believe my mission is to show the world that magic happens when we refuse to give up because the universe always listens to a stubborn heart."
And if you're wondering, yes, there was another mix-up and Steve Harvey was involved in it. But it was nothing like the 2015 disaster when he called out the wrong winner.
Harvey hosted the pageant for the fifth time sporting a bedazzled green and gold suit jacket.
He was commenting on a costume from earlier in week and said Miss Philippines won the National Costume Contest. But the woman standing next to him said she was Miss Malaysia.
"Y'all got to quit doing this to me," he said.
The massive competition was hosted at Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
It has already made history with Miss Myanmar, Swe Zin Htet, who says she's the first openly gay contestant.
Last year's winner, Catriona Gray from the Philippines spoke during Sunday's pageant, saying the past year has been "unforgettable, life-changing and purposeful."
"We're getting this amazing platform to voice the things we're passionate about, the things we care about," she said in a video. "I always had a voice, but Miss Universe allowed me to amplify it."
Source: CNN News
World War II Bomb Defused in Berlin - Police
Moscow (Russia), Jan 22: A World War II bomb found in central Berlin was successfully defused, Berlin police said on Wednesday.
We're visiting right now, so we won't really have to: Trump on visiting Pak when he heads out to India
West Bengal: Pollution abatement projects to prevent sewage flow into Ganga
Public vote on constitutional amendments will be held on the law as a whole - official
WHO's Emergency Committee to convene on novel coronavirus on January 22
Syrian government forces repel terrorists' attacks near Palmyra - media
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LQD - Germany Now Expecting No Deal Brexit
by ATinNM Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 03:37:24 PM EST
UK, EU ramp up Brexit talks as Parliament suspension backlash grows
"We cannot imagine reopening the Withdrawal Agreement," said Maas. "We assume that Brexit will happen on October 31. We will do everything to avoid a no-deal Brexit. But the British government has made it clear that if there is no agreement (on the Irish border) a no-deal Brexit will happen."
Interesting behind-the-scenes chatter:
I hear the argument more and more in continental Europe that Britain would be such a problematic member of the EU, the metaphor of cancer, or poison is used.
No deal would poison relations for a generation. There would be a huge blame game. The Brits would blame it on continental Europe, continental Europe would blame it on the Brits.
As we've been saying.
And the economic fallout would be very dark, very serious indeed.
More for the UK - but see below - than the EU. The EU has the resources to fund a bog-standard Keynesian jump-start investment program. If Denmark can sell negative interest rate bonds then the EU could float 1% bonds and get them snapped up. It's the political will that is lacking.
Do you think Britain would come crawling back to the EU in the event of no deal?
The idea that this is likely to happen any time soon is one I really caution against. Many of my friends believe that we would be back within a few years. This is complete nonsense. First, it's a misreading of the Brits. We are stubborn, bloody-minded, it would take a few years before we admit we made a big mistake. Secondly, the Scots would leave, Northern Ireland would be off with Ireland. We'd be back to the 16th century, the whole constitutional structure of the UK would be called into question. And then the EU would itself move on, along Franco-German lines, and therefore it would be a different kind of EU. And we would have none of the perks like the rebate, we would have to sign up to the Euro. It would be an illusion.
LQD - Germany Now Expecting No Deal Brexit | 69 comments (69 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: LQD - Germany Now Expecting No Deal Brexit (4.00 / 4)
As I have been saying:
A no deal Brexit means no deal on everything else until the key issues in the Withdrawal agreement are addressed more or less as they were in the Withdrawal Agreement.
A no deal Brexit will be followed by bitter recriminations all around and a rapid policy divergence if it led, as I expect it will, to the UK lining up with the US on regulatory and other matters. It will become EU vs. US/UK
The bitter recriminations could lead to a trade war especially if it resulted in a return to violence in N. Ireland and a rapid deterioration in bilateral relations elsewhere.
Talk of the UK re-joining the EU is delusional, at least for a generation, and even if there were general recognition that Brexit was a mistake.
The EU will try to "capture" al the business previously conducted by the UK in the EU, particularly financial services and what is left of British industry. This will compensate, in some degree, for economic damage caused by loss of EU exports to UK.
There will be great dislocation in EU (and especially Irish) exports to the UK and some sort of temporary return to Intervention may be required to prevent wholesale bankruptcies in the agricultural sector.
Racist incidents against EU nationals in the UK will further embitter relations at a social and political level.
There may be a mild recession in the EU - which may have happened anyway - but the UK could lose as much as 10% of its GDP and much of the Government's tax base making further Government austerity almost inevitable.
The EU may have to impose general tariffs on UK goods to prevent a 25% devaluation of Sterling making EU products and services uncompetitive against UK exports to the EU.
A disintegration of the UK will be almost inevitable, but again, could take quite some time. We are used to talking politics in 12 month timeframes. The changes wrought by Brexit could take decades to fully manifest themselves.
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 06:34:11 PM EST
Sturgeon isn't going to call another Scottish Independence referendum unless she is sure the SNP can win it. The most recent Lord Ashcroft Poll has Yes with a narrow 52/48% lead. My bet is she'll wait until there's a solid 56% in favor and maybe even 58% before trying it again.
She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. -- Jean-Paul Sartre
by ATinNM on Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 07:35:46 PM EST
Yes, and next time they better have some answers as to what currency they will be using, what is their policy of the division of the UK National debt, what happens to UK military assets in Scotland, and what happens at the border with England re: regulatory alignment if they rejoin the EU.
Scottish independence sentiment has been supercharged by Johnston and the subsequent pro-roguing of Parliament. And, as I'vementioned elsewhere, the loss of Ruth Davidson is a critical blow to Scottish Tories.
If the UK leaves without a deal on 31st October, I imagine independence polls will be at least 60-40 if not 70-30.
2 years from now I'd be astounded if a similar drift was not happening in Ulster. Both the DUP and now Joohnston have critically damaged unionism. People were willing to hold their noses and vote for bigots when their lifestyles were pretty good, but they may re-discover their consciences and a previously unsuspected Irishness soon enough after brexit.
keep to the Fen Causeway
by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 01:38:37 PM EST
I agree with everything you say except this:
the UK lining up with the US on regulatory and other matters. It will become EU vs. US/UK
The UK is socially much more compatible with Europe than with the US. While British tourists may think they understand what is going on here based on brief holidays to Disney World, the reality of southwestern Pennsylvania, rural Indiana, New Mexico, Mississippi, Utah, etc. is shockingly different.
Trade negotiations between the UK and US would be amusing to say the least. And the US will be much more concerned about trade with the EU than with whatever is left of the UK.
by asdf on Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 11:23:39 PM EST
More important, the UK has little of value to EXPORT to the US except ICT info and services, perhaps. So gross import value (USD) will slide on FX before the next DOD sec, as Larry "Trash Talk" Summers recently blurted, even strikes "the hardest bargain".
Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
by Cat on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 12:34:30 AM EST
When GBP breaks the buck (none / 1)
shoppers at Walmart and Kroger, Sam's Club and Costco are going to pile their "virtual" carts with what?
Waitrose tinned beans and imported Ford Fiestas?
Re: When GBP breaks the buck (4.00 / 2)
Come now, Beanz Meanz Heinz.
Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
L. Cohen
by john_evans (john(dot)evans(dot)et(at)gmail(dot)com) on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 08:05:15 AM EST
The reason Brexit is happening at all is because this turns out not to be true. A significant proportion of the population has more in common with the average low-information red state racist than it does with European culture. So if you talk to British low-info voters you'll find they think the EU is literally a dictatorship, and the US is the land of freedom, hope, and opportunity and the UK's bff.
The US has done an outstanding job of colonising the UK culturally. And the media have been complicit. Even supposedly cosmopolitan newspapers like The Guardian are more likely to print slightly sneery comical stories about events in Europe than hard news about political developments in the EU. And the BBC has been hopeless for years now.
Only the educated middle classes and certain business types have any genuine attachment to the EU, and no one who matters needs cares what they want.
The reality is that the US Establishment thinks the UK and is quaintly rich in parts, a nice helpful pirate state for offshoring and tax evasion and money laundering, but not much of a major player otherwise. And the UK's voters and politicians are unusually easy to manipulate. So the UK will make a very nice meal, and the US will soon lose interest in the leftovers.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 05:47:02 PM EST
My understanding is that most of the German media have not believed that a no deal Brexit could happen. They seem to have woken up to this possibility finally.
The Brexiters, of course, expect the EU to cave in at the last minute.
by Bernard on Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 08:36:13 PM EST
Re: LQD - Germany Now Expecting No Deal Brexit (none / 1)
What is the French press saying?
Very little. Not a major topic.
Reading Eurotrib, you'd believe that Brexit is the major issue Europe.
Fact is, except for Ireland -for very good reasons - and for the UK, where Brexit has sucked all the political oxygen, it has not been a prominent topic in continental Europe; only occasionally, like last March, in the run-up to the EU Council meeting.
As much as the toffs think themselves as the most important and influential people in Europe, the opinion is not reciprocated.
The main issues in Europe for the past three years are a weakening of international institutions, thanks to Trump, the rise of extreme right, who's now in power in Poland, Hungary, possibly Austria and Italy as well; for the eastern countries, the fear of Putin's Russia; the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, affecting mainly Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Italy. I would personally add the growing influence of organized crime in smaller countries like Cyprus, Malta or Slovakia.
In France in particular, the main issue has been the "gilets jaunes" winter of discontent and the Macron's regime continual push to impose their neo-lib reforms on the country. The region most impacted by Brexit is Northern France: local governments there have rung the alarm bell about the need to prepare for it (and they now claim to be ready).
by Bernard on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 10:08:04 AM EST
Brexit is - of course - another example of the rise of the extreme right, and almost certainly also of the influence of Putin's Russia.
I can't imagine much that would do more damage to the extreme right across Europe, and also to Putin's plans, than a Remain outcome in the UK - not because this is a UK-specific issue, but because if Brexit succeeds the same template will be rolled out across Europe.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 11:29:31 AM EST
Pray tell in what way Putin (as in Russia) would benefit from Brexit? Because I really can't see this.
Should Russia for some reason wanted weak EU, surely keeping UK inside would be the most efficient way to achieve this? If Russia wanted -- again, for some unknown reason -- to disintegrate EU, starting with a member Russia can help to overcome the necessary economic turmoils (say, Italy, Hungary etc) wouldn't have proven to be so counterproductive to the effort. Do you believe Russian policymakers are as separated from reality as the most extreme brexiters are.
It is true that with Britain removed EU will be much less Russophobic, but Poland (and Denmark and Sweden) still remains to blame Russia for everything.
Me, I would think a strong, but less trans-atlantic, EU would be most preferred by Russia. Much less hassle to deal with one block (that can calm down the most agressive, almost-racist, Russia-haters) that a hodge-podge of small nation-states with conflicting ambitions. Let EU deal with the national ambitions and economic turmoils and keep Europe stable and secure for Russia to prosper with.
So, for what purpose would Putin want Brexit?
by pelgus on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 02:11:28 PM EST
Question:"So, for what purpose would Putin want Brexit?"
Answer:"with Britain removed EU will be much less Russophobic, but Poland (and Denmark and Sweden) still remains to blame Russia for everything."
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 03:27:02 PM EST
The reality is that Putin does want Brexit. So there is no need to speculate if, because "if" is already established.
He has said as much a number of times, and the links between Leave, senior Tories, and the Russian oligarchy have been well-documented.
Why is more complex, and a full discussion would be book-length. But the template seems to be clear - Putin is supporting far-right movements across Europe, and aiming for regime change where possible. So there is no evidence at all that he's happy with peaceful coexistence. In fact the opposite is more likely.
Tusk hits back
Putin's disdain for liberalism and liberal democracy - which, coincidentally, seems to be shared by Brexiters and also by Trump and the US far-right - doesn't seem like a plausible position for someone interested in a peaceful and stable Europe.
In fact Putin is a textbook quasi-fascist reactionary who is making common cause with like-minded politicians in other countries. The far-right in the US is only too happy to support this, because when it comes to values the quasi-fascists in the US, the UK, Russia (and other countries) are largely interchangeable. The far-right in the UK has been on the same page for decades already.
So essentially we have a cultural/info war being used to destabilise a neighbouring superpower - partly because it's fun to try, partly because no one has done it on quite this scale before, and partly because it's incredibly cost-effective, far less obvious, and far less risky than overt Cold War II missile-waving.
I assume the plan is to roll out regime change across Europe, and Brexit is the proof-of-concept trial run. Russia gets its regime and value change, and a pliant neighbour less likely to impose sanctions and complain about human rights violations and military expansion, the US gets its "business opportunities", and the voters get screwed - all with more or less plausible (if not entirely convincing) deniability, and no actual shooting.
He has said as much a number of times
Right after the referendum he said that Brexit was not in Russia's interest. This was repeated by Russia's permanent representative to EU. Russia doesn't want disintegrated Europe. It can't afford it -- EU is Russia's biggest trading partner, regardless of sanctions. They need a trading block next to them, not a bunch of hostile, small nations.
So, the if is established only in the tabloid-level understanding of the issue. Looking behind the headlines to what was actually said, it's obvious that Russia has nothing to gain from Brexit, and that they know this.
the links between Leave, senior Tories, and the Russian oligarchy have been well-documented
Most of the Russian oligarchs Tories are cozy with are those who are opposed to Putin, and can't return to Russia (because they would have to pay long overdue taxes), so they live in London and fund anybody trying to remove Putin. Not every Russian "is close to Putin" or "belong to Putin's inner circle". When Soros meddles with politics in some country, do you automatically blame Trump or Orban? Or is it only Russian oligarchs that can't have their own agendas?
Putin is supporting far-right movements across Europe, and aiming for regime change where possible
Regime changes in Europe are extremely difficult, most countries have constitutions and working democracies. It's possible for right-wing parties to get to govermn, but that's not same as regime change. And Italy is giving an example how loonies don't last for long in government. At least not in countries where heads of state guard the constitution and democracy.
As for the right-wing support, I've seen a lot of talk about it, too. But very little actual evidence. I'm not saying I would be surprised if it turned out to be true (or maybe I would, Russians still seem to take fascism seriously) but so far I've only seen that National Front sought Russian loans trough Latvian middleman, they were not offered any money. And that Swedish(?) semi-neo-nazis webpage was funded by Ukrainian living in Berlin. Or something like that.
I'm not saying that you're wrong, but I'm taking that same approach as Craig Murray: some me the evidence. There's such an information war waged against Russia, that I won't take anything at face value anymore.
And here logic dictates that Russia benefits more from undisturbed EU than it gains from dissolving one. Now, the USA on the other hand...
by pelgus on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 03:49:13 PM EST
Great comment - the basis for a diary methinks! Would be good to have a more researched and nuanced diary on how Putin and Russian émigré Oligarchs view Brexit, UK and EU. My own sense is similar to yours, that a close working relationship between Russia and the EU makes sense, problems in Crimea and Ukraine notwithstanding. Indeed you could argue that the US stirring things up in Ukraine is calculated to prevent such a rapprochement.
But that still leaves some apparent Russian actions as discordant notes. Outliers and anomalies? I'm thinking of Salisbury and Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). Miscalculations?
I'm expecting an October surprise US/Israeli attack on Iran to aid the Trump re-election effort. That should test the USA/EU/Russian relationships! John Bolton is mad enough to try anything.
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 04:04:44 PM EST
Latest rumor has Bolton out of the loop.
by ATinNM on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 05:29:24 PM EST
Too mad even for Trump? (none / 0)
More likely too much of an interventionist whereas Trump is more of an isolationist. He was a strange choice for Nat Sec Advisor for that reason alone.
Re: Too mad even for Trump? (none / 1)
No one else would take it.
by ATinNM on Tue Sep 3rd, 2019 at 04:35:57 PM EST
Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17). Miscalculations?
Purely accidental ... Eastern Ukraine was a war zone for weeks/months. Airspace should have been shut down for commercial flights. Ukraine government and ambassadors of EU countries did meet early in July 2014 but failed to act. Russia did a very poor handling of an ugly mistake. The military taking down a passenger plane we have seen in a few instances before: US and Iranian passenger flight during the Reagan years, Ukraine and a Soviet airliner, Soviet Union intercepting a South Korean flight and the top secret downing of a passenger flight above the Mediterranean near Italy during NATO exercises.
Interesting developments with the new Ukrainian actor/president who replaced the chocolate olygarch ...
○ Ukraine authorities arrest man allegedly tied to shooting down MH17 | Kyiv Post |
○ Is This MH17 Suspect the Reason Ukraine-Russia Prisoner Swap Stalled?
Related reading in Dutch News
Global Warming - distance between America and Europe is steadily increasing.
by Oui on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 10:16:51 PM EST
I think I'd go with "reckless negligence " rather than "accident": they most likely ran an air defence unit in battlefield mode without adequate command and control in an area with civilian flights.
by Colman (colman at eurotrib.com) on Tue Sep 3rd, 2019 at 10:16:08 AM EST
Key Witness Downing MH17 Let Go Free (none / 0)
Court of Appeals releases MH17 suspect Tsemakh
The Kyiv Court of Appeals has released Volodymyr Tsemakh, a fighter for the Russian proxy troops in eastern Ukraine and likely a key witness or suspect in the 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17.
Despite facing terrorism charges in Ukraine, Tsemakh has been released without bail or any travel restrictions.
○ MH17 crash: 'Key witness' released in Ukraine | BBC News |
Related reading ...
○ UNIAN: Dutch foreign minister says release of MH17 suspect `raises questions'
○ The Malaysian PM cast doubt on Russian culpability in the attack
○ A message to the soldiers in the Ukraine, the politicians, the media, our friends and family
by Oui on Thu Sep 5th, 2019 at 09:36:03 PM EST
Just an aside... The Putin loans to the FN are well-documented. It went like this, schematically :
Putin asks some banker friend to loan some millions to the FN for their election campaign
The loan is resold several times, and in the end transferred to a bad bank which subsequently goes bust
The FN never has to pay back the loan...
Problem for the FN : the French media got hold of the story, and they will have to pay back every penny.
It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue Sep 3rd, 2019 at 08:51:38 AM EST
Let's talk UK exports, by commodity (none / 0)
if we're going to gloss competition between nations, wealth of &tc., mostly cos I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of WWII delusions.
UK, MIT-OCE, gross value, 2017
Let's begin a SWOT reality check viz. RUSSIA with
Crude Petroleum ($19.1B), Refined Petroleum
Agriculture (lower right, "tan" color block)
by Cat on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 04:14:24 PM EST
I would be interested in your (and Afew's) view of how France will respond to a no deal Brexit at an elite and popular level. Will UK exports be "discouraged" at Calais? Will "sectoral agreements" in the absence of a withdrawal deal be permitted? Will Johnson et al be indulged afterwards or shunned like the plague?
And similarly for Germany. They may onlt we awakening slowly to the prospect of a no deal Brexit, but once they get going, how will they respond, especially if a recession beckons?
My own sense is that the whole ball game will change after a n deal Brexit, but I am struggling to get a sense for how much, and how quickly.
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 12:20:06 PM EST
by Bernard on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 04:42:12 PM EST
Sets my mind thinking the EU response to a No Deal will be a heavy sigh, a shrug, a brief moment of "Well this is a pain in the ass," and then deal with it. IF Germany can be convinced to knock it off with the Austerity nonsense the EU will actually be better off without the UK.
by ATinNM on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 03:28:31 PM EST
'without the CURRENT UK'.
I'm not sure that they do.
I think the plan is to force through No Deal and then capitalise on the ensuing chaos, politically and financially.
Textbook shock doctrine. Although rather than calling it that, we may as well call it what it really is - political terrorism.
by ThatBritGuy (thatbritguy (at) googlemail.com) on Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 11:23:46 PM EST
England is facing a the 1930s style liberal democracy failing into Fascism. For much the same reason: incredibly inept, short-sighted, economic management.
by ATinNM on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 01:15:47 AM EST
I think the problem is worse than inept, short sighted economic management. It has become deliberate looting of the society by a self serving elite acting through the Conservative Party and given air cover by an allied self serving media.
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 01:25:27 AM EST
Indeed. I don't think it was inept at all. It was carefully calculated.
The right used to be terrified of Communism. It was perfectly happy to support Hitler. Now that Communism isn't really a threat, it's repeating itself - because why not?
Put the proles in their box with a crippling combination of debt and economic insecurity, kill the welfare state, remove taxes, create a new feudal-corporate utopia controlled by an Orwellian combination of mass media lies and social media manipulations - what's not to like?
The Nazis didn't just happen. They were funded and supported by interests inside and outside Germany.
This is more of the same. Only this time we can't expect the "free" world to ride to the rescue, because the "free" world has decided it wants to be part of the problem.
It's Time for Germany to Step Up Der Speigel
Germany must accept that it is simply too big to be like Switzerland; it can't simply stay silent when France's president pitches the idea of working with Germany to reform the EU. Part of having a credible foreign policy is honoring international commitments to invest more in defense and cease being a freeloader on America's dime. This is the only way Germany will ever be able to shake the accusation that its prosperity comes at the cost of others.
Secondly, the government in Berlin must come to terms with an economic reality in which being overly proud of one's exports just won't cut it. In much of Germany, mobile internet access is spotty at best, and neither small- to medium-sized enterprises nor large corporations are prepared for the digital transformation and future-oriented, networked production methods. Therefore, Germany must invest in technologies and networks. It needs a new project that can be the foundation for its next economic miracle. The active, energetic pursuit of a shift toward renewables, a real energiewende would be a good place to start.
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Sat Aug 31st, 2019 at 09:01:38 PM EST
Sounds like a call for a classic Keynesian stimulus through infrastructure build.
Is that what those in the monetary-theory-know are are calling "quantitative easing" again? Lagarde loved that one. For four years her advice for EU "stimulus" played a broken record: ONE TRILLION DOLLARS. Hilarious really, to anyone standing for her encore performance with surgical, structural adjustment programming just for Germany.
Let's take a peak again at 2017
What is, more or less, that Germans are supposed to import from the US and EU26 in 2020 that it does not already?
No. What Der Speigel's editorial called for was an abandonment of the austerity mentality and the BS that Germany is so virtuous because it always has run a surplus. It encourages noting that those surpluses have been at the expense of trading partners. Classic Keynesian responses to stagnation involve deficit spending to pump profitability into the private sector and to give the economy direction.
And about goddamn time.
The world is awash with morons with too much money they don't know how to use. That cash needs to be taken away from them and put to useful, productive, purposes.
o, I guess I read something else then.
Schmiegolman picks up polemic of world hegemony where Obama's courtship with BRD dropped at the Gate before he sailed into the Panic of '08. The timing of these overtures to bi-lateral restoration lost synch with mutual interests as the administration aged out of honeymoon, out of Libya, into TTIP. Like, "three years ago"?
Schmiegolman presents a "German model" as the envy of anonymous concern trolls now that Trump steers the leader of "free trade". Austerity does not trouble that Germany. Complacency does. Growth does.
It is time to turn away from the policy of a perfectly balanced budget. Strict adherence to that policy has long provided the government with a comfortable excuse for not doing more economically and militarily.
He implies Trump is not his patron, but every talking point projects nationalist pride which evokes both ethnic stereotype and, evidently, bromides to flatter MAGA industrial exploits.
Part of having a credible foreign policy is honoring international commitments to invest more in defense and cease being a freeloader on America's dime. This is the only way Germany will ever be able to shake the accusation that its prosperity comes at the cost of others.
A "punching bag": Indeed post-WWI history has yoked German integrity (reunification) to responsibility for diverse crimes against humanity and global "financialization".
Allied resentments expressed, if not by belated demands for reparations, are "Germany is so virtuous because it always has run a surplus" (bad, bad EUR design, poor, poor PIIGS); and "those surpluses have been at the expense of trading partners" (such as paid in capital by EU27 soybean exporters? China, Canadian, Columbia, Russian creditors? Non! The US "dime" denominated in treasury bills that purchase and ship US armament, personnel, and payroll to US bases in NATO territories). Have y'all any idea how much cumulative US Keynesian debt outstanding is "pumping profitability" into private treasuries?
Schmiegolman has no Keynesian words or prescription for distributing surplus revenue in the treasury to advance HH inequity up the GINI scale or "deficit spending to pump profitability into the private sector" (of renewable energy when the coal and nuke generation winds down?). Recession is but a glimmer on his horizon, a GROWTH warning rather than a miss, reported to investor owned utilities.
The OCE "data visualization" is more meaningful than the humiliation of DB and VW to Germany's position in the JCPOA chain.
US quit the JCPOA, WTO, and Paris agreement. Remember? Schmiegolman's rather modest proposal approaches imperial adventure, "a creative drive to help it carve out a role for itself in the world" by comparison to US gov status as world-over net importer and liege. Above all, it is a superficial challenge to US posturing these many decades easily swallowed.
For despite only five surplus years in the prior 40, ie. escalating deficits, the US economic conditions are no better off, secure, or stable than Germany's. The irony is, up to the moment, Trump's war on trade balances and embrace of deficit spending scarcely repudiates the budget choices of either gov.
by Cat on Sun Sep 1st, 2019 at 05:08:36 PM EST
Bankrupt and Irrelevant: the Presidential Debates and Four Recent Studies on Pentagon Spending
"Clearly, the Democratic candidates think they have good reasons for their silence on defense spending."
The democrats are not particularly unified; there are plenty of "moderates" in congress. Recall that Obamacare was just barely passed, by one vote, using "debatable" tactics, and with numerous features required by moderates that support various for-profit organizations.
To effect a change to US policy as drastic as "cut defense spending by (say) 20%" would require a very substantial majority, which they don't have and won't be getting any time soon.
by asdf on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 11:35:19 PM EST
let's recap for real (none / 0)
o, yes, mistakes were made deliberately omnibus. They earned every letter of "the odious."
Obama had a big Dem majority in the 111th, which explains in part why he spent that political capital on the banks and ARRA logroll before the 2010 MID-TERM. oops.
H.R.3590 engrossed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act. (Rangel, Ways and Means chair)
The House passed it 10/08/2009-12:15pm (416-0, 16 NV)
The House referred H.R.3590 to the Senate, where their version was over-written by a series of instructions from diverse senate committees --notably Finance chaired by C-SPAN pharma-idol M. Baucus--as amendments famously read from the floor by H. Reid, 10/13/2009-12/23/2009.
The Senate passed H.R.3590 in its entirety "as amended" December 24, 2009, 07:05 AM (60-39, 1 NV)
Congress recessed for xmas. The enrolled NEW! "H.R. 3590" was not considered by joint reconciliation committee when it returned. This provoked some public scandal. Instead the House voted 03/21/2010-10:48pm to suspend rules providing for consideration of senate amendments to H.R. 3590 engrossing the NEW! PPACA. Roll no. 165 (219 - 212) records the House motion"to concur with Senate amendments".
Obama signed the bill next day, 22 March 2010, before anyone knew what was in it.
THEN congress had to pass a H.R.4872 - Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, 03/30/2010, to cover bad math. House vote, 220 - 207; Senate vote 56 - 43. Jubilation, recriminations, further "reconciliation acts," and litigation ensued.
by Cat on Tue Sep 3rd, 2019 at 01:30:07 PM EST
Most of those people are gone, wiped out in the 2010 debacle.
Gone? Rly? (none / 0)
Show me.
Let's start with Miss Nancy and her little ankle biter Steny whipping passage of H.R. 1 out of the UNPRECEDENTED "progressive" caucus.
Schmiegolman? Who is he and from whence came he?
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Mon Sep 2nd, 2019 at 06:22:31 PM EST
second cousin thrice removed
SPIEGEL alert Or is it?
This is probably the least Atlanticist editorial from Der Spiegel in recent memory. And quoting Krugman who has been politely ignored for decades? Calling for investments in high speed networks and renewables?
It has taken the realization of a very likely no-deal Brexit, Trump tariffs and a weakening economy, coupled with the Merkeldämmerung for some in the German elite to start questioning the dogma.
"This is probably the least Atlanticist editorial from Der Spiegel in recent memory."
Which makes it all the more a bellwether of German reaction to current circumstances, primarily declining growth and trade surplus.
Growth of what?
The GNP.
< pick teeth, suck vigorously > (none / 1)
GNP? Rly?
To explain further: GDP (gross domestic product) is, as we say on our FactCheckED.org site, "the total market value of goods and services produced within the borders of a country," regardless of the nationality of those who produce them. GNP (gross national product) is the total market value of goods and services produced by the residents of a country, even if they're living abroad. So if a U.S. resident earns money from an investment overseas, that value would be included in GNP (but not GDP). And the value of goods produced by foreign-owned businesses on U.S. land would be part of GDP (but not the other measure).
sollipsism suicide
As for which is the better indicator of economic ["]health["], GDP is the primary measure used by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The BEA says that GDP "refers to production taking place in the United States. It is, therefore, the appropriate measure for much of the short-term monitoring and analysis of the U.S. economy." Prior to 1991 [BWAH!], however, the BEA used GNP as its primary measure. When it made the switch, the BEA noted that GDP was already being used by "virtually all other countries," so making comparisons between the U.S. and other nations would be easier. GDP is also consistent with other economic indicators, such as employment [WHERE?].
Will you be quoting Germany GNP per capita in the future?
neologism
Eurostat to revise EU's annual GDP figures higher, 2014
Beijing Rethinks Formula for GDP, 2013
Changes to How the U.S. Economy is Measured Roll Out July 31, 2013
NIPA Handbook: Concepts and Methods of the U.S. National Income and Product Accounts
St. Louis Fed, GNP rate of GDP "data visualization"
archived book cooking
revisions to GDP calculation and classification of "output" by Factoryless Goods Producers [FGP] and Manufacturing Service Providers ...
The search engines are giving me trouble serving "1850 GNP". Why is that odd? ...
"short sale", German Model (none / 0)
GNP or GDP itemized accounting growth? You be the judge.
German trial looks into controversial cum-ex dividend deals
There's been no lack of superlatives used by the media when describing the criminal trial that begins Wednesday at a district court [!] in Bonn, Germany. Reporters have called it "the biggest financial fraud trial" and at the same time "the most complicated" tax case trial in modern German history.
The trial involves two British investment bankers, Martin S. (41) and Nicholas D. (38)
HOLD THE BREXIT PHONE.
in a double ROLE -- as defendants as well as the main witnesses [PLEA DEAL ALERT] in the case which centers around so-called cum-ex trading schemes that the two and many others were involved in between 2006 and 2011.
P&L statements, possibly revisions of public revenue
What exactly are cum-ex deals transactions?
Cum-ex trades are equity deals sales. Investors rely on the sale of borrowed [no interest payments?!] shares right before a given firm was slated to pay dividends [to equity owner].
To put it differently, short[!]ly before the dividend payout day, shares with ("cum") and without ("ex") dividend rights were quickly traded among various market players, resulting in double tax [!] reclaims for share traders -- reclaims that authorities now call illegitimate.
The reason why both market players and authorities are nervous about cum-ex trades is obvious -- it's the sheer amount of money that was involved.
Tax offices reimbursed capital gains tax that had never been paid at all. The cum-ex deals of the two British bankers in question eventually meant a tax loss of €400 million ($443 million). Across Europe, the damage caused by cum-ex deals in general was calculated to be a staggering €55 billion.
alrighty then. Show me the income earner.
Well, that would be a real aggiorniamento (how you say dat in German?), but it's Europe's only hope. Probably the world's.
Luckily, we have a plan.
What is the Green New Deal for Europe?
The Green New Deal for Europe is an ambitious and pragmatic plan to transition to zero greenhouse gas emissions and transform Europe in the process.
It involves an annual investment of 5% of GDP in infrastructure, agriculture, and industry, creating millions of new jobs and ending the era of austerity -- all without raising your taxes.
I ticked your box simply to register my pleasure that sumbuddy recognizes that radical, remedial action is required from "government buildings" to alter the course of human history --despite BREXIT catastrophe of BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS.
Then I read the Executive Summary. There's a lot of investment marketing material in there, literally, sales of equities and bonds cloaked in some very lofty aspirations. m'k. I let the extra layers of EC and ECJ lard on top of UN blah blah programming for the "Gobal South" slide to the finish.
Then I start reading "The Report" blah blah blah ..
The result is commonly known as Black Zero: a fanatic pursuit of 'balanced budgets' has precluded government action on scientific evidence ...
and I sez to myself, "SELF, What is the matter with these people? I'm worried. I don't see what processes, people, or things they intend to change to correct "anthropomorphic" catastrophe. Do you see what they want to change?"
by Cat on Wed Sep 4th, 2019 at 03:30:16 PM EST
AHA! (none / 0)
Luxembourg leads EU push to climate-proof Energy Charter Treaty
"The Luxembourg government is now trying to build a coalition of climate-responsible countries" in the European Union to reform the treaty and align it with the objectives of the Paris Agreement, he said, adding the EU should be "much more pro-active" in pushing the reform forward.
"I will again put it on the agenda when we meet on the 24th because I think we need to deepen this mandate," Turmes said referring to a meeting of EU energy ministers scheduled for 24 September.
The COMISH: Energy Union portfolio, 1/28
"There is a huge responsibility on the new Commission to make this energy charter one of its priorities," Turmes added, saying the reform was a question of coherence for incoming Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who promised to table a "Green Deal for Europe" during her first 100 days in office.
archived silent library
Commissioners assemble: Deadline day
'Green Deal' supporters resist idea of splitting energy and climate portfolio
OH, NOOoooooo. (none / 0)
Climate change will dramatically devalue farmland in southern Europe, EU agency reveals
Italy, Greece, Portugal, the south of France and Spain could face a reduction in the relative profitability of agriculture, which could ultimately result in the loss of agricultural land [NO. That's not iiiiiiit] and farmers abandoning the activity, the report says.
bad, climate, bad bad climate
[CAPTION CONTEST: Percentage change in farmland values projected for the period 2071-2100 compared to 1961-1990 (EEA report No 04/2019, source: Van Passel et al. 2017)]
In particular, drought frequency will increase, especially in the Mediterranean during spring and summer. In those areas, higher temperatures could also affect the livestock sector in terms of worsening animal health and reducing livestock production.
archived for the people in the back
Europe CAMPAIGN 2019
Welcome to the European Drought Observatory!
Re: < pick teeth, suck vigorously > (none / 1)
The premise of the European GND campaign is that we have to start from where we are. Paradox : DiEM25 (who is behind it, if you hadn't noticed), is dedicated to radical reform of the EU rules and institutions, but the GND is designed to work within the existing institutions and rules. For example : finessing the deficit rule. Bonds issued by the EIB do not count for the 3% government debt limit, hence they can issue 5% of EU GDP annually in debt...
The aim is to allow a wide coalition of parliamentairians and governments, from centre right to hard left, to put the money where their mouths are concerning the generally- agreed "climate emergency".
by eurogreen on Thu Sep 5th, 2019 at 10:23:41 AM EST
< squint > (none / 0)
I know a no-low tax base, "perpetual bond" scheme when I see it.
So. I'm to understand then, this GNP will become a profit-making, interest-bearing global enterprise which relies on investors with SURPLUS INCOME to purchase private and public debentures offering the highest yield. Radical. "Disaster capitalism" from one end of the report, solidarity from the other, while "landvalues" plummet more in come countries than others. Brilliant. NEW! economy.
by Cat on Thu Sep 5th, 2019 at 10:44:01 PM EST
For example, (none / 0)
Which government anywhere in the world operates OR reports a "balanced budget"?
Re: For example, (none / 0)
The Irish government has, in the last couple of years, but only because they can't get their sums and forecasts right...
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Wed Sep 4th, 2019 at 03:53:49 PM EST
< wipes tears > (none / 0)
Technical changes in global accounting standards regarding the allocation and timing of corporate tax receipts were mainly responsible for the one-off increase, Donohoe said, adding that he could not say if that related to one or more companies.
IOW (none / 0)
0 = R - C
is a "fanatcal pursuit", a BLACK ZERO,
how might GREEN people obtain "carbon neutral" industry FTW?
Sorry I did not see this post prior to posting my Green New Deal for Eurozone diary.
by ARGeezer (ARGeezer a in a circle eurotrib daught com) on Fri Sep 6th, 2019 at 05:47:54 PM EST
Germany Now Expecting ... (none / 0)
Hong Kong activists appeal for German support
Re: Germany Now Expecting ... (none / 0)
Mercedes will provide a free car (second hand diesel) to each seasoned protestor on condition they stop protesting and annoying "our friends in China".
Go to: [ European Tribune Homepage : Top of page : Top of comments ]
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Folk / Jam Band >
The Tallest Man On Earth
Kristian Matsson is a Swedish singer-songwriter who performs under the name The Tallest Man on Earth. Often compared to Bob Dylan in both song writing and lyrical delivery, he is known for recording in his own home, often with guitar and vocals laid down on the same track. His on stage persona and an endearing charisma have earned him a loyal following, and he's released mulitiple albums.
Webster Hall - New York, NY
Royale Boston - Boston, MA
The Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
9:30 Club - Washington, DC
Troubadour - West Hollywood, CA
The Historic Theater at The Music Hall - Portsmouth, NH
College Street Music Hall - New Haven, CT
Washington's - Fort Collins - Fort Collins, CO
Fremont Theater - CA - San Luis Obispo, CA
Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA
The Tallest Man On Earth Featured Events
Boston, MA - Royale Boston
Fort Collins, CO - Washington's
New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall
New York, NY - Webster Hall
Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
Portsmouth, NH - The Historic Theater at The Music Hall
San Francisco, CA - The Great American Music Hall
San Luis Obispo, CA - Fremont Theater
Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
West Hollywood, CA - Troubadour
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22.01,20. 09:36 PM (GMT+11)
الجالية
National and Inter
National News Online
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منبر عكاظ
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صفحة الاعلانات
الديوان الملكي السعودي يعلن وفاة الأمير بندر آل سعود | وزير المالية اللبناني الجديد يحذر من إفلاس البلاد في أول تصريح بعد تسلمه منصبه | مريم رجوي: أبناء الشعب الإيراني ومعاقل الانتفاضة يواصلون نضالهم حتى إنهاء الاستبداد الديني | Dust storm engulfs parts of SA, Victoria and NSW as weather bureau warns of damaging winds | Emergency warning issued for bushfire in ACT | Woman in critical condition after multi-vehicle crash on major Sydney road | Commonwealth bank clerk accused of taking $2.4m from a customer’s account in NSW | "بسبب تقبيل طفل": سائح هندي يواجه 16 عاما في السجن | مسؤولو شركة صينية يزحفون أمام موظفيهم عقابا على "فشلهم" | أزمة العراق تراوح مكانها.. والاحتجاجات في تصاعد | للمرة الثانية ..برلماني إيراني يقدم مكافأة 3 مليون دولار لمن يقتل ترامب | فائدة مفاجئة لحرائق أستراليا: كشف أقدم نظام لنقل المياه في العالم | مقتل 30 عنصراً لميليشيا أسد الطائفية شرق إدلب | جنبلاط: لنعطِ فرصة لهذه الحكومة... ولنعد الى لعبة الحكم والمعارضة | بايتون الصينية تدخل قطاع السيارات الكهربائية وتنافس تسلا الأمريكية | علوم الإيزوتيريك في محاضرة بعنوان: "نافذة على الأمل، أضواء إيزوتيريكية على الواقع المعاش" |
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National and Inter » National News Online
The Catholic Church has its own secret investigation into Pell. Here's who is running it
| 20.09,19. 12:52 AM |
Photo: Cardinal George Pell was found guilty by a jury of five offences including sexual penetration of a child. (AAP: Julian Smith)
When George Pell lost his appeal against his child sex abuse convictions last month, the Vatican noted that he still had one legal avenue remaining.
"The Holy See recalls that the Cardinal has always maintained his innocence throughout the judicial process and that it is his right to appeal to the High Court," it said after the Victorian Court of Appeal handed down its judgment.
On Tuesday, the Cardinal's legal team officially launched its bid to have his convictions quashed by Australia's highest court, but that's not the only process still underway.
In February, the Vatican announced its own investigation into the case, giving the task to the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.
That investigative body was founded in 1542 under a different name: the Sacred Roman and Universal Inquisition.
Initially a tribunal trying to uncover heretical beliefs (or false teachings)
That's why the Congregation's history is tied up with the Inquisition (note: the Spanish Inquisition was a separate institution, though the Roman Inquisition achieved its own infamy with its trial of Galileo for his belief that the Earth revolves around the Sun).
But not long after its creation, according to the Vatican, the institution's responsibilities were extended to include "everything relating directly or indirectly to faith and morals".
It had one more name change, in 1908 (the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office), before becoming the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1965.
To give a sense of its ongoing influence, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI — back when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — was the prefect, or leader, of the institution from 1981 until 2005, when he took on the papacy.
It's because of its significance that the Congregation has also been known as La Suprema (The Supreme).
One of the Congregation's major roles is outlining doctrine
High-profile recent examples include 1987's Donum Vitae ("The Instruction on Respect for Human Life in Its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation") and 2000's Dominus Iesus ("On the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and The Church").
The former ruled out IVF as being in accordance with Catholic Church teaching, while the latter caused controversy by declaring that Protestant congregations are "are not Churches in the proper sense".
As well, then-Cardinal Ratzinger was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith when he oversaw the writing of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was published 1992 as a summary of church doctrine.
The Congregation's other major role is enforcing discipline
In 2001, the Congregation was given sole jurisdiction over sins against the "sixth commandment of the Decalogue" — the Old Testament commandment against adultery — committed by clerics against minors. Previously, this was generally the responsibility of local bishops.
According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USSCB), cases can play out in a few different ways:
•The Congregation can authorise the local bishop to hold a trial
•A trial can instead be held by the Congregation in Rome
•In the "clearest and most egregious cases", the matter can be referred to the Pope for the cleric's immediate dismissal
•The Congregation can decide there is not sufficient evidence of an ecclesiastical crime
Canon law trials are held in secret and involve a defence lawyer and a prosecutor (known as a "promoter of justice"), with witnesses called to testify.
Three judges deliver a verdict and, if the accused is found guilty, a penalty.
The penalty for the sexual abuse of minors ranges from dismissal from the clergy to a "life of prayer and penance".
But in all cases, according to the USSCB, guilty clerics are no longer allowed to engage in public ministry or themselves as priests or deacons.
"Thus, even if a member of the clergy is not dismissed from the clerical state for having committed the crime of the sexual abuse of minors, his public ministry is still fully restricted in light of the gravity of the offense committed," it said.
The decision of the Congregation can be appealed, but the decision of a second panel of appeal judges is final.
One expert in politics and religion says she's not satisfied with the Vatican's approach
Professor Carolyn M Warner from the University of Nevada, Reno said the Vatican had been slow to act on cases involving priests — and even slower when the allegations were against bishops or cardinals.
"Even when [it appears] the Vatican knew of allegations years earlier, it waits until there is a secular/civil investigation and/or public scandal, such that it can't just bury the issue anymore," she said.
She says this was the case for now former cardinal Theodore McCarrick in the US as well as for Pell, who remains a cardinal.
Another problem, Professor Warner said, is that there were no provisions in canon law specifying the penalty for bishops failing to act on reports of child sexual abuse.
But she also points out that in some instances, victims are instructed by their lawyers not to speak to Catholic Church officials.
"It looks like the Church is being irresponsible, when what's really going on is that, to follow their own internal legal code, they usually have to interview the victim in order to substantiate allegations against the priest," she said.
At a practical level, Professor Warner said the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith appeared under-resourced and in need of more staff.
She also said it should take lessons from secular systems about how to interview child sex abuse victims so that the system does not re-victimise them, and ensure complainants are kept informed of the status of inquiries.
Nevertheless, Professor Warner said it was important that in addition to police and court procedures, the Vatican conduct its own investigations in order to maintain the integrity of its faith and the safety of its parishioners, as well as to deliver spiritual justice and healing.
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Vital Farms is launching a way for you to check in on the lives of the chickens that lay your eggs so you can decide if they live up to your expectations.
[Photo: Vital Farms]
By Kristin Toussaint 3 minute Read
Terms such as cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised turn up a lot when you’re shopping for eggs. But do you really know what they mean? What does a pasture-raised chicken have that a free-range one does not? Vital Farms now has the answer. The company is letting customers take a 360-degree look at the specific farm their eggs came from, as part of what it’s calling its Traceability program.
When you buy a carton of Vital Farms eggs, you’ll see the name of the specific small family farm those eggs are from (Vital Farms works with more than 200 farms across the country) on that carton. Now, you can visit the Vital Farms website, enter the name of that farm, and see a video on which you can click and drag to get a 360-degree view of the hens grazing.
“What we asked our people to do was take footage [of] the best representation of that farm, in the area of that farm that best represents the environment of that farm,” says Russell Diez-Canseco, Vital Farms president and CEO. “That will include being able to see the barn where the chickens go at night . . . it’ll include some sense of the pasture where those birds will spend their days. Some videos might show trees on some farms, some videos will show less trees.” Ultimately, customers will get the chance to “see and hear the hens that lay the eggs that they’re enjoying.”
More and more, consumers want to know where their food is coming from, and that transparency is an important part of Vital Farms, Diez-Canseco says. The company says this program to provide customers directly with a 360-degree look at their farms is an industry first. “I can’t speak to why we don’t see other companies doing this in the United States,” he says. “But it was, frankly, a pretty easy choice for us to do it because we’re proud of what we do and we’ve got nothing to hide.”
Vital Farms was founded in 2007 as an “ethical food company.” Vital Farms’ conditions are certified by an outside company, Certified Humane. There is currently no legal definition from the USDA for “pasture raised” for eggs to meet before they’re on grocery shelves, so Vital Farms worked with Certified Humane to create a pasture-raised standard: a minimum of 108 square feet of roaming room for each bird. Vital Farms is currently the only egg purveyor accredited by Certified Humane as “pasture raised.”
In the 360-degree videos, hens walk over grass and leaves, pecking at the ground and clucking periodically. There are no cages in sight. The videos are not live; they were recorded when Vital Eggs sent out teams to their farms with VR equipment—and to make sure the farmers are “meeting our high standards,” Diez-Canseco says. (These are, of course, videos approved by Vital Farms; an independent video shoot might reveal different things.)
The scene may not be surprising to regular Vital Farms customers; “I think a big reason why people choose to buy our eggs is that they expect that this is how we raise the chickens that lay those eggs,” he says. But the company has noticed that there is a lot of confusion for consumers around what they’re getting based on packaging claims, especially when it comes to eggs.
What is surprising to egg consumers, says Diez-Canseco, “is when people who buy other eggs find out that what they’re getting doesn’t look like the video version.” And it’s true that a lot of videos to come out of farms have been less than idyllic. Activists have shared footage of hens cramped in overcrowded cages and crammed into sheds. “I wish more of the videos we saw were positive,” Diez-Canseco says, “and over time we’re hoping to change that in this country.”
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Public Announcement; Pursuant To The Government In the Sunshine Act (Public Law 94-409)
A Notice by the Parole Commission on 03/12/2002
Parole Commission
Agency/Docket Number:
5 U.S.C. Section 552b
AGENCY HOLDING MEETING:
MATTERS CONSIDERED:
AGENCY CONTACT:
Department of Justice, United States Parole Commission.
10:30 a.m., Thursday, March 14, 2002.
U.S. Parole Commission, 5550 Friendship Boulevard, 4th Floor, Chevy Chase, Maryland 20815.
Closed meeting.
The following matter will be considered during the closed portion of the Commission's Business Meeting:
Appeals to the Commission involving approximately four cases decided by the National Commissioners pursuant to a reference under 28 CFR 2.27. These cases were originally heard by an examiner panel wherein inmates of Federal prisons have applied for parole and are contesting revocation of parole or mandatory release.
Sam Robertson, Case Operations, United States Parole Commission, (301) 492-5962.
Dated: March 7, 2002.
Michael Stover,
Deputy General Counsel, U.S. Parole Commission.
[FR Doc. 02-5960 Filed 3-8-02; 11:32 am]
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In the site access training, employees receive information about working at the Hanhikivi 1 site. Site access training courses for the Hanhikivi 1 site are organized every week in Pyhäjoki. Training courses also take place once every other month at Salmisaari, Helsinki.
Before enrolling for the site access training, the employer must ensure that the following are completed and appropriately recorded in Fennovoima’s Sitemanager system:
A concise security clearance has been provided for the employee by the Finnish Security Intelligence Service
The employee has successfully passed a drugs test (U Huum 5B)
The employee has a valid occupational safety card (the “green card”)
The employee has a valid occupational health card (not required of experts and office employees)
Site access training in Pyhäjoki
Site access training in Finnish take place on Mondays at 9:00–11:00 a.m and on Wednesdays at 12:00–2:00 p.m.
Site access training courses in English take place on Tuesdays at 12:00–2:00 p.m.
If participant doesn’t speak Finnish or English he/she need to have a translator with him/her. In these cases please contact [email protected] before you enroll to the training.
The site access training takes place at Fennovoima’s training building, which is located on the Hanhikivi peninsula at Hanhikiventie 340, FI-86110 Parhalahti, Finland. [map]
Participants should arrive at the training building at least 5–10 minutes before the training is scheduled to begin. Please bring with you a valid proof of identification.
Enrol at the latest two workdays prior to the training course with Fennovoima’s safety organization at [email protected]. Advance enrollment is required from all participants.
Site access training in Helsinki
Site access training courses for the Hanhikivi 1 site take place once every other month.
Wednesday 22.1. at 13.00–15.15, English
Thursday 23.1. at 12.00–14.15, Finnish
Thursday 28.5. at 9.00–11.15, Finnish
In Helsinki, the site access training courses are arranged at the Fennovoima head office in Salmisaari, address Salmisaarenaukio 1, FI-00180 Helsinki, Finland [map]. Participants should arrive at least 10 minutes before the training is scheduled to begin. Please bring with you a valid proof of identification.
Enrol at the latest two workdays prior to the training course with Fennovoima’s Training Engineer at [email protected]. Advance enrollment is required from all participants.
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Borneo’s hidden gems: Bako National Park & Santubong Peninsula, Sarawak
by James Wilmshurst February 23, 2016 2 comments
At just under an hour’s drive from Borneo’s Kuching International Airport, Bako National Park and the Santubong Peninsula offers an authentic jungle experience as soon as you’re off your flight. A favourite place for our new Borneo travel specialist, James, he gives his insights into visiting this idyllic region in the western state of Sarawak.
Mt. Santubong, Borneo, Malaysia
Walking along a trail, on my way to one of Bako National Park’s beaches, there came the most stunning view of Mount Santubong and the south China sea beyond. It’s moments like these when you know you’re on a good holiday!
Beach at Bako National Park
As the oldest and smallest national park in Borneo, Bako is often forgotten by travellers who are drawn to the more famous Mulu National Park, Kinabatangan and the Danum Valley. Similarly, the Santubong Peninsula, just west of the park itself also offers various outdoor activities, stunning beaches and wild swimming pools to boot, although not many travellers visit. This is a blessing and a curse; whilst the remote jungle atmosphere is helped by the fact there are few tourists, it also means people are missing out on a true hidden gem.
Bako National Park and the Santubong Peninsula is just under an hour’s journey by car from Kuching International Airport, so you can step off your flight and be spotting the big nosed Proboscis monekys endemic to Borneo without wasting more time on travelling to some wild area miles away.
Proboscis Monkey, Bako National Park
Bako National Park can only be reached by an additional 20 minute boat ride from the road. This has helped protect the wildlife inside and the journey offers stunning views of the landscape: Mount Santubong, various beaches and even mangroves. The park boasts some of the most varied habitats in the whole of Borneo: from rainforest, to sandy beach, to mangroves, to rocky outcrops. You can essentially see any species found in Borneo in this park, except Orangutans – but there’s plenty of opportunities for you to spot them later on your holiday. For example, just a 20 minute drive from Bako is the Semmengoh Orangutan Sanctuary where you can see rehabilitated Orangutans before they are released back into the wild.
Hanging rock on the beach on a sunny day, Bako National Park
Another benefit of Bako National Park are its hidden beaches, of which there are many. They are secluded in secret bays and give you a truly private experience. A personal favourite is Teluk Pandan Kecil beach which has the feel of a desert island. The trail to this beach is also the one that gives brilliant views over Mount Santubong and the South China Sea. Animal lovers – watch out for the characterful bearded pigs that make the sandy shores their home. They’re very relaxed and like noseying the area for bites to eat.
Bearded pig, Bako National Park
When visiting Bako National Park, you can stay overnight in simple accommodation in a lodge. There are some rooms with ensuites which I’d recommend for extra privacy, but they get booked up fast. So, book early to make sure you get your preferred type. There is usually a basic canteen attached to the lodge with food, drinks and beer.
Bako Sea Stack, Bako National Park
Staying overnight in the park also means you get the benefit of dawn treks, when lots of animals are at their most active. These include silver leaf macaques, otters, over 150 bird species, wild pigs, water monitors and around 280 resident Proboscis monkeys. There are around 16 trails along the national park suitable for all levels of fitness, so plenty to choose from. One of the treks lets you see the famous Bako Sea Stack – an islet off the peninsula eroded into the shape of a cobra ready to pounce!
Treehouse accommodation at Permai Rainforest ResortSantubong Peninsula
In the Santubong Peninsula, there is the option to stay at the Permai Rainforest Resort, accessible by car. It offers jungle lodge and treehouse accommodation at the foot of Mount Santubong. Rustic with a bouldered private beach and natural rock pools, it’s a fantastic option for those wanting plenty of outdoor activities available.
Restaurant at Permai Rainforest Resort, Santubong Peninsula
For those wanting to climb Mount Santobong, you can do so from the Permai Rainforest Resort with a guide. It’s quite hard work and involves steep cliffs and rope ladders but the views from the top are stunning. The trail ascends through the rainforest and offers fantastic wildlife spotting opportunities as well as a nice waterfall for some wild swimming to cool off.
Mount Santubong at sunrise, Bako National Park
All in all, Bako National Park and the Santubong Peninsula are my favourite hidden gems of Borneo. The area is wild, easy to get to, inspiring, intriguing and ultimately a fantastic place to immediately unwind after arriving in Borneo. I’d thoroughly recommend the experience to nature enthusiasts wanting to begin their adventure soon after landing in Kuching.
Updated: October 2017
If you’d like to see how Bako National Park and the Santubong Peninsula could be tailored into your Borneo holiday, have a look at these suggested itineraries:
Beach and Wildlife: The Classic
Borneo Adventure
Family Wildlife & Beach
Borneo, Java and Bali Adventure
Remember, these are just a starting point. All our Borneo holidays and experiences are tailor-made to suit your preferences, so we can tweak activities and hotels wherever you’d like. If you wanted talk to myself about your Borneo holiday you can always phone on 020 7924 7133 . There are absolutely no obligations and I’m here to offer advice for any stage of your holiday planning. You can always email me if that’s easier to do here.
Borneowildlife
James Wilmshurst
James first left Europe aged 19, travelling first to California and South America. But his eight-month journey through India was the travel experience that truly changed his life. During this epic voyage, he worked in the Holy City of Varanasi, volunteered in rural Kerala and learned the local lingo in Arunachal Pradesh. Since then he has returned to India at least once a year, while still managing to fit in trips to Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and more. At ETG, James is an India and Southeast Asian travel consultant and the head of India product. When he's not talking travel, you'll find him cheering on his beloved Bradford City FC and trying to play football.
Elaine Tee January 22, 2018 - 5:13 am
Hi there. Love the post, the pictures are stunning! The Bako Sea Stack caught my attention the most! May I know which trail is it located?
Amelia Curran January 23, 2018 - 12:16 pm
Thanks so much, glad you liked the post! Views of it are from the Telok Pandan Kecil & Telok Pandan Besar trek – you look down on it from a plateau. Highly recommend it if you’re planning a trip to Borneo.
The best beaches of Borneo
Sri Lanka vs England 2018
Is it safe to travel to Malaysian Borneo in 2019?
The Best Beaches of Sri Lanka
How to plan a trip to Sri Lanka
@2019 Experience Travel Group
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What is a DNS Amplification Attack?
Attackers use DNS as a weapon against unsuspecting victims to bring down their websites.
By Debbie Walkowski
Expand for more info
Attacker Motivation:
Target Industries:
Likely Impact:
Typical Threat Actors:
Terms to Know:
DNS reflection
DNS resolver
App Tiers Affected:
F5 Labs attack series education articles help you understand common attacks, how they work, and how to defend against them.
How Does a DNS Amplification Attack Work?
The Role of UDP in DNS Amplification Attacks
How to Defend Against DNS Amplification Attacks
Outbound Security
Inbound Security
Mitigating DNS Amplification Attacks
A Domain Name System (DNS) amplification attack is just one of many types of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. As with all DDoS attacks, the goal of attackers is to keep users from accessing a networked system, service, website, application, or other resource by making it slow to respond or disabling it entirely.1 Most DDoS attacks are volumetric in that they bombard a victim’s network with more traffic than it can handle. Think of it like bumper-to-bumper, stand-still traffic on a six-lane freeway near a stadium when a concert or sporting event ends. Thousands of cars crowding the freeway all at once completely impair the normal flow of traffic.
A DNS amplification attack uses different techniques to accomplish the same end goal of denying service. Instead of thousands of cars flooding the freeway at one time, imagine six wide-load trucks traveling side by side along that same six-lane freeway. The flow of traffic is completely impaired—not by a sudden onslaught of thousands of cars but by several vehicles so large that normal traffic can’t flow through. So, while most DDoS attacks work by overwhelming a system with a huge quantity of average-sized packets, a DNS amplification attack uses larger packets to achieve the same result. No analogy is perfect, however, and there are a few more wrinkles to the DNS amplification story, so let’s look more closely at the details of this attack.
In a DNS amplification attack, malicious actors take advantage of the normal operation of the Domain Name System (DNS)—the “address book” of the Internet—using it as a weapon against a targeted victim’s website. The goal is to flood the website with fake DNS lookup requests that consume network bandwidth to the point that the site fails.
To understand how the attack works, let’s revisit at a high level how DNS works. When a user types www.example.com into their browser, DNS is the Internet service that accepts that request, finds the IP address assigned to that domain name, and sends it back to the browser so the client can connect to that website.
There’s a specific process for finding that address, beginning with the user’s device checking its local cache; if not found, then querying the assigned Internet Service Provider’s (ISP’s) DNS servers (resolvers); if not found, then proceeding through a hierarchy of DNS resolvers across the Internet until the IP address is found. Internally, a corporate network typically only resolves DNS requests for its own employees, but the Internet is full of “open,” publicly accessible DNS resolvers that will resolve DNS requests for anyone—including attackers. Using these open resolvers, attackers can send many fake requests without raising any red flags.
So, what’s next for attackers? Amplification. Remember, their goal is to turn relatively small DNS requests into huge responses. A typical DNS request (just a few lines of text) is very small—usually in the tens of bytes—and returns a response that’s only slightly larger. As shown in Figure 1, a genuine (non-malicious) DNS response might have an amplification factor of 1.5 or less.
Figure 1. Standard DNS requests typically return relatively small DNS responses
To achieve their goal, attackers craft DNS requests in a way that substantially amplifies the size of the response. One way to do this is by requesting not just the IP address for a site like www.example.com, but information about the entire domain (for example, using DNS requests for the record type “ANY”), so the response might include details about subdomains, backup servers, mail servers, aliases, and more. Suddenly, a 10-byte DNS request could generate a response that’s 10, 20, even 50 times larger.
Figure 2. A specially crafted DNS request could return a response that’s 100 times larger
But, what’s still wrong with this picture? The DNS responses are being sent back to the attacker, not to the intended victim. This is where the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) lends attackers a helping hand.1
If you think about the trillions of DNS requests that are made every day across the Internet, DNS exchanges need to happen at lightning-fast speed. DNS relies on UDP for this. It’s fast because its primary job is to relay messages back and forth between sources and destinations; it doesn’t do other tasks like guaranteeing delivery or validating data. It’s also fast because it’s a connectionless protocol, meaning it doesn’t keep track of “conversations,” so it has no way of knowing if the source IP address in a request is valid.
So, in their DNS requests, attackers forge (spoof) the source IP address to that of the victim’s. This strategy both hides the attacker’s identity and ensures that all responses from the DNS resolver will be sent to the victim’s system instead of the attacker's. In this way, the DNS resolvers are acting as reflectors, “returning” responses to a victim that never requested anything.
To use a different analogy, think about someone pranking a victim by posting a fake help wanted ad on multiple websites and listing the intended victim’s email address in the contact information. If the ad service doesn’t verify the requester’s information, the victim, who never placed the ad, will soon be inundated with unwanted email responses. An “amplified” version would ask interested parties not just to respond but to attach résumés, photos, job and character references, high school and college transcripts, background check information, and so on. The “response” emails would be enormous.
Figure 3. By spoofing the source IP address in specially crafted DNS requests, the attacker amplifies the response sent to the victim
Of course, to be successful, an attacker still needs to send multiple DNS queries and likely will use multiple DNS resolvers to carry out this attack. An advantage of this type of attack is that it doesn’t require a lot of resources on the attacker’s part—a botnet isn’t necessary (although an attacker could certainly use one). With a relatively small amount of effort and resources, an attacker can craft DNS requests that will bombard a victim’s site with enough traffic to significantly impair its performance or shut it down completely.
Figure 4. An attacker’s relatively small work effort pays off big in a DNS reflected amplification attack
One wrinkle in the wide-load trucks-on-the-freeway analogy is that at a certain size, UDP packets are too large to transmit without being broken up. So, while the attacker is successful in significantly amplifying the DNS responses, when the packets reach a certain size, they will get fragmented into smaller ones. Either way, the net result of the attack is still the same—the victim’s system will still be overloaded because it must handle all of those fragmented packets and reassemble them. The other equally significant point is that the attack still requires relatively few resources on the attacker’s part.
While DNS amplification attacks are relatively easy to detect (because the victim is suddenly flooded with traffic from a single spoofed IP address), the identity of the attacker is nearly impossible to discern for the same reason—because the source IP address is spoofed. These attacks are easy for attackers to carry out because there are so many publicly accessible DNS resolvers on the Internet (some estimate millions at any given time), and the attacker’s true identity remains hidden. Because of this, these attacks are growing in popularity and unfortunately, any website or Internet-accessible service could be a potential target.
Although DNS amplification attacks result in denial of service, they cannot be defended against in the same way as traditional DDoS attacks—for instance, by blocking specific source IP addresses—because the source traffic appears to be legitimate, coming from valid, publicly accessible DNS resolvers. (Blocking all traffic from open resolvers could potentially block some legitimate requests.) Organizations can, however, take steps to help defend against such attacks.
First, organizations should ensure that all clients—from servers to IoT devices—use local internal DNS servers that are configured to only handle DNS requests from within the organization. Ultimately, no DNS traffic should ever leave the organization’s network that hasn’t originated from these internal servers.
Many attacks, such as DDoS, are possible because enterprise firewalls allow traffic destined for the Internet to use spoofed source IP addresses. Normally, when sending traffic to another system, an internal (networked) device (laptop, printer, server, etc.) would have an internal source IP address, that is, one that matches that of the internal network. In the case of compromised devices, however, an attacker might send traffic using a public IP address as the spoofed source. Poorly configured perimeter firewalls can allow this traffic to pass to the Internet unchecked. Organizations should ensure that all traffic that originates from their network, bound for the Internet, has a source IP address that actually belongs to the internal network.
Any DNS responses that come into an organization’s networks should be destined for the DNS servers that handle outbound requests, and never to any other endpoints. That way, the organization can block any DNS responses that aren’t destined for those DNS servers. Using a DNS-aware firewall can help, too, by allowing only return traffic back into the network from requests that were actually sent to the organization’s own local DNS servers. In other words, there must be a matching DNS request for every response received, otherwise the traffic will be blocked.
Organizations can also use DNS Anycast, which distributes the volume of DNS traffic across servers in many locations, effectively load balancing DNS traffic so that no single server is ever overloaded.
In addition to the above, if the amount of incoming traffic is saturating the network connection, organizations should work closely with their ISPs to block traffic upstream. While ISP solutions are often the cheapest, they are typically the least flexible. For that reason, many organizations choose to use a third-party DDoS protection (scrubbing) service, which increases the chances of an attack being stopped before it hits the organization’s network.
For an overview of other types of DDoS attacks and how to protect against them, see What is a DDoS Attack?
Mitigating DNS Amplifications Attacks
The following technical/preventative security controls are recommended to protect against DNS amplification attacks.
Configure local DNS servers to only handle DNS requests from within the organization.
Use a DNS-aware firewall to only allow DNS responses into the network that match requests sent from local DNS servers.
Use DNS Anycast to distribute traffic and avoid overloading any single DNS server.
When feasible, use a third-party DDoS protection (scrubbing) service.
Debbie Walkowski
As a Threat Research Evangelist for F5 Labs, Debbie works with F5's security engineering SMEs and malware researchers to turn raw data into credible threat intelligence in the form of blogs, articles, and comprehensive research reports. She has worked for F5 for 9 years, holds SANS GIAC Security Essentials (GSEC) and GIAC Security Fundamentals (GISF) professional certifications, and has a degree in Scientific and Technical Communication for Computer Science. She is the author of 18 technology books published by IDG Books, SAMS, QUE, and Alpha Books.
More articles from Debbie Walkowski
1 Regardless of the attack type, malicious actors ultimately violate one or more of the three foundational security principles known as the CIA triad: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. DDoS attacks are one of the most effective ways for attackers to violate availability.
2 Besides DNS, there are many other UDP-based protocols (NTP, CharGEN, Memcached, to name a few) that are also susceptible to amplification attacks, many at a far greater amplification factor. This article covers DNS amplification because it is one of the most commonly exploited UDP-based protocols.
The DNS Attacks We’re Still Seeing
The Global Playing Field is Leveling Out as Europe and Asia Take on More DDoS Attacks
Exploited Memcached Servers Lead to Record-Setting 1.3Tbps DDoS Attack
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POL Is RAD Hard
Intersil Corp.
The ISL70003SEH embarks as the industry’s first radiation-hardened 12V input point-of-load (POL) synchronous buck switching regulator capable of operating over an input range of 3V to 13.2V. Integrating upper and lower switching MOSFETs, the device employs an advanced packaging technique that eliminates the need for an external heat sink. It also uses a voltage mode control architecture with feed-forward and switches at a selectable frequency of 500 kHz or 300 kHz. Loop compensation is externally adjustable to allow for an optimum balance between stability and output dynamic performance. Other features include a ±5% voltage accuracy, ±1% reference voltage variation over line, temperature and radiation, ±3% SET performance, and a peak efficiency up to 95%. For more information, visit http://www.intersil.com/en/products/space-and-harsh-environment/rad-hard-power/rh-switching-regulators/ISL70003SEH.html. A datasheet is available at http://www.intersil.com/content/dam/Intersil/documents/isl7/isl70003seh.pdf
http://www.intersil.com
Company: Intersil Corp.
URL: http://www.intersil.com/
Networking & Communications Sensors Products Emerging Technologies Components
Google CEO calls for international regulatory approach to AI
Google CEO Sundar Pichai said EU's GDPR could be starting point for AI regulation, but urged countries to cooperate for a standard approach.
by Matt Hamblen Jan 21, 2020 12:57pm
Report: Apple Lightning cable may be phased out
Apple's Lighting cable may be phased out, according to an article on the BBC site.
China trade deal wins guarded praise from U.S. semi industry
IP theft and technology transfer are key components of eight-part deal
by Matt Hamblen Jan 15, 2020 4:25pm
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Analysts to Heska: Why has strong performance been overlooked?
by Arlene Weintraub |
Heska's HemaTrue Hematology Analyzer--Courtesy of Heska
Heska ($HSKA), a Colorado-based maker of veterinary diagnostics and specialty products, announced on Wednesday that its third-quarter revenues jumped 24% from the same period a year ago to $21.8 million, while its net income more than doubled to $513,000. Yet the analysts joining Heska's conference call after the earnings release were clearly impatient with the company's efforts to gain more visibility with both customers and investors.
"With the performance that you guys have had, the success that you have here, is there any intention or plan to maybe perhaps expand the sales team, take advantage of some of the opportunities that are out there?" asked one analyst.
"It seems like your efforts to gain attention from the Street have been fairly minimalist," noted another.
No doubt, Heska has been on a good run of late. It has spent much of the last year securing long-term contracts with veterinary clinics that buy its imaging and blood-testing equipment. It launched a new 5-part hematology instrument called Heska Element HT5. And yesterday, the company announced that it would be expanding its reach via a distribution agreement with Henry Schein Animal Health, the country's largest companion animal health distributor.
"This exciting new relationship will leverage Heska's sales team of 60 with over 300 Henry Schein field sales experts, who are trusted by thousands of veterinary hospitals that do not currently use Heska products," said CEO Kevin Wilson in the earnings release.
As for the company's visibility, its executives urged analysts on the earnings call to exercise a little more patience. On the question of expanding the sales team, Wilson replied, "I've never found that counting the numbers of sales reps is really a superaccurate way to determine our health." He added that leveraging Henry Schein's more than 300 reps would be a better strategy than expanding its own team of 60.
Chief Financial Officer Jason Napolitano chimed in on the issue of whether Heska is doing enough to attract investors, pointing out that the management team has spoken at investor conferences and paid visits to institutional investors--prompting "a shift in institutional holdings over the past year."
Investor interest in diagnostics makers has a tendency to ebb and flow, both in the public and private markets. In the third quarter, there were only 8 venture capital deals in the diagnostics industry.
On Wall Street, diagnostics companies can be especially vulnerable to investor flakiness. In March, shares of Heska hit a one-year high of $11.20 a share, prompting at least one "sell" rating and a brief swoon in the stock price. After the strong third-quarter report, however, Heska shares are now trading close to $14.
- here's Heska's earnings release
- access the earnings call transcript here
Arlene Weintraub
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UK shouldn't lament missing 4G billion
The completion of the UK’s 4G auction sets the country up for an economic boost, despite the sale netting £1 billion (€1.1 billion) less than predicted, a leading analyst claims.
Bengt Nordström, chief executive and co-founder of analyst firm Northstream, says it is wrong to lament the missed billion, because operators will more than make up for the difference by having more money to spend on deploying their 4G networks.
“The boost that 4G will contribute to UK GDP as a consequence will vastly outweigh the additional £1 billion they might have raised during this auction,” Nordström notes.
The Northstream chief also believes the timing of the auction is good, because the UK’s fiber network “is falling well short in delivering high-speed, nationwide broadband access.” The number of successful bidders is also good news, Nordström argues, because the high level of competition means operators “won’t be able to charge high premiums for 4G mobile services.”
Meanwhile, Daniel Gleeson, mobile media analyst at IHS, says the auction sets Vodafone up for a return to winning ways after being displaced as the UK’s second-largest carrier by the merger of Orange and T-Mobile. Vodafone bid the highest amount for spectrum in the auction – a move Gleeson says is a statement that the operator “intends to reclaim its former position in the market.”
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Barbara Jane Mackie
Script Writer, Composer, Director
Barbara has written the film Rumpy Pumpy! for Carnaby Films from her musical of the same name. This story of two Ladies from the Hampshire WI who go on a worldwide tour to find the perfect brothel is a comedy drama with real heart. Barbara composed all the songs and is working with Wmmy-nominated Musical Arranger John Cameron. Barbara wrote the screenplay The Last Chance Mommas, a comedy drama about a middle aged, all female Punk Band set on the Isle of Wight, and the screenplays Mimi and Cowboy Girls which was promoted by Oscar-winning Screenwriter Anthony Minghella. Anthony described Barbara's screenplay as “Bold, highly original and enormous fun.” Barbara's first screenplay Mimi was commissioned by Media II. Barbara has also written Episode One for her own TV series Sexual Healing.
At BBC Drama, Barbara was Senior Script Editor, co-creating and developing the long running police series Dangerfield, Dalziel & Pascoe, the comedy-dramas Rumble and Inspector Sheikh. Barbara produced the film Seed (BBC) and developed the award-winning two part film Bad Company which resulted in the release of the Birmingham Four. Barbara wrote original dramas Campaigners for Kudos Productions and Pelvic Floors for World Productions.
As a Producer/Director, Barbara directed Pop Promos for Harry Films and produced the BBC Documentary An Evening Without John McCarthy about the Beirut hostage. Barbara directed The Fashion Show (BSkyB) and was a Researcher on The Paranormal, The Weather (Channel 4), Producer on The Paralympics, Gold: Special Olympics, Care on the Cheap and Separate Development - for Channel 4.
Barbara’s musical Rumpy Pumpy!, which she wrote and composed, was staged at Windsor Theatre and The Union Theatre in 2016, starring Louise Jameson and Linda Nolan. Rumpy Pumpy! opened at The King’s Head Theatre in 2015 in their New Playwrights Season. The Kings Head described it as: ''London Road meets Sweet Charity meets Calendar Girls.' One critic wrote: 'This bright and bold little Musical could go a long way!' and audiences in London and Windsor were unanimous with their enjoyment of the show.
Barbara’s career began writing sketches with comedians Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson on the Comedy Fringe. Barbara has a Masters in Creative Writing from Portsmouth University, a BA Hons from Hull University and lectured in Screenwriting at Portsmouth and Southampton Solent Universities. Barbara's novel Eat The View reached the top 100 on Amazon, chosen by The Sun as their Book of the week. 'A very funny novel with lots of truly delicious characters!' Natasha Harding, Books Editor.
Barbara is on the Advisory Board of Film Expo South, a member of Women in Film, an Associate of Mercury Musicals Development and a member of the Musicians Union.
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Topwater, Trick Worm Take Brown to Victory
Derek Brown of Charlottesville, Virginia, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 18 pounds, 4 ounces, Saturday to win the FLW Bass Fishing League (BFL) Shenandoah Division tournament on the James and Chickahominy rivers presented by Navionics. For his victory, Brown took home $4,729.
“I spent the majority of the tournament in Herring Creek,” says Brown, who earned his second win in FLW competition. “I trolled along a 50-yard stretch all day, back and forth.”
Brown targeted bass near lily pads and wood, catching most of his fish from the latter.
“In the morning I used a black and white-colored Lobina Lures Rico topwater bait with the incoming tide,” says Brown. “When the tide changed around 10 a.m., the bite changed. After that I began locating bass with the Rico and catching them on a shaky-head rig with a junebug-colored Zoom Trick Worm.
“I caught seven keepers and ended up with three of my limit-fish on the Rico and two on the Trick Worm,” says Brown. “It was a great day of fishing.”
1st: Derek Brown, Charlottesville, Va., five bass, 18-4, $4,729
2nd: David Keisel, Chesapeake, Va., five bass, 15-11, $2,364
3rd: Brian Stack, Nanjemoy, Md., five bass, 15-5, $1,576
4th: David Deciucis, Chester, Va., five bass, 15-3, $1,024
5th: Brett Meyn, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 15-3, $1,729
6th: Rick McFaul, Phoenix, Md., five bass, 14-5, $867
7th: Ed Loughran, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 14-2, $788
8th: Wayne Vaughan, Chester, Va., five bass, 13-12, $709
9th: Richard Owen, Chester, Va., five bass, 13-10, $631
10th: Kelly Pratt, Williamsburg, Va., five bass, 13-9, $524
10th: Shawn Hammack, Gasburg, Va., five bass, 13-9, $524
Complete results can be found here.
Meyn caught an 8-pound, 9-ounce bass – the biggest of the tournament in the pro division – and earned the day’s Boater Big Bass award of $705.
Williams wins co-angler title
David Williams of Fredericksburg, Virginia, weighed in five bass totaling 13 pounds, 7 ounces, Saturday to win the co-angler division and earn $2,364.
1st: David Williams, Fredericksburg, Va., five bass, 13-7, $2,364
2nd: Austin Burdette, Lindside, W. Va., five bass, 12-3, $1,182
3rd: Braxton Moore, Mechanicsville, Va., five bass, 12-0, $788
4th: Ryan Johnson, Elkridge, Md., five bass, 11-13, $552
5th: Dean Gibbs, Richmond, Va., five bass, 11-11, $473
6th: Mike Gardner, South Hill, Va., five bass, 11-4, $433
7th: Tevinn Rollins, Newport News, Va., five bass, 10-12, $394
8th: Gary Peters, Surveyor, W. Va., five bass, 10-6, $355
9th: Randy Ruffin, Norfolk, Va., five bass, 10-3, $315
10th: Zachary Whitt, Newport News, Va., five bass, 9-14, $276
Jim Petrous of Stafford, Virginia, caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the co-angler division, a fish weighing 4 pounds, 2 ounces and earned the day’s Co-angler Big Bass award of $352.
The top 50 boaters and 50 co-anglers based on point standings will qualify for the Oct. 6-8 Regional Championship on Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina. Boaters will compete for a top award of a Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard and $20,000, while co-anglers will fish for a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard.
Tags: shenandoah-division james-river headline-story 2016-06-04-chickahominy-james-river
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Foliate Oak Literary Magazine
by Gary Lester
At 21, Wi Xi was admired for her quick wit and contagious smile. First in her class, and annually exceeding her parents’ academic expectations (as well as her own), she had unshakable confidence in everything she did. Her brother maintained that she was too self-assured, even smug. But this trait had supported her in getting to where she was on her life’s path. She had landed a prestigious scholarship to study international banking in the US at the University of Texas, Austin campus, where she was enrolled in Finance, Accounting, World History (a humanities course not required for her degree), and English for non-native speakers. Having two parents that learned English when they lived as graduate students in London, and who spoke the language at home, and who expected all their children to be fluent in it, she moved easily between the Queen’s English and Chinese, the language of her birth country. She excelled at languages, and had dabbled in French and Portuguese as well. An international banker must be versatile! With reference to the English class, she deemed herself “above it”, but resigned herself to the “easy A”. After all, she was the person her friends came to for translation of English words and interpretation of rules of grammar. She did not share with these people the fact that she was on the roster of such a beginner’s class, however. This was the US, after all, and this was not her native language, and there were rules, however absurd, that had to be followed.
College life was smooth-sailing, and Austin was an exciting city. It had a reputation of being a music town. Jazz, country-western, pop, and more; all were nearby. Depending on her mood, she could sip the jazz, swig the country-western, or slug the pop. She could satisfy her thirst with the genre that pleased her. Wi loved the diversity of the music, and could be found frequently in the clubs, with or without accompanying friends. Her slightly rounded porcelain face featured pronounced almond eyes and cinnabar lips, and invited much attention from young men. Her svelte figure drew potential dance partners even closer. Her smile and grasp of English often rewarded her with free drinks from bar patrons and pleasurable evenings.
One night found her without a friend in tow. She had been wowed by progressive country. It wasn’t easy to understand the songs, though she focused her attention on each syllable. The English spoken by people of Austin was a challenge! Was this English? They held their vowels, and supplemented syllables. Five dollars became fi-iv doll-erz. Nothing had prepared her for this!
She absorbed the rhythms until it was time for her to return home. It was Thursday, and tomorrow would be another day of early class. She scaled her neighborhood until she slowed to catch her breath. It was early in the evening, and laborers from nearby docks were turtling home to crimson brick dwellings saturated with their kids guzzling post-school periods. Open doors and windows spilled laughter and pot roast odors. As she passed a slight bungalow with avocado trim, the side door flung open and a corpulent woman clutching her robed midsection and fixated on the house across the drive bellowed over her shoulder “Gotta run; got loose bowels!”
Wi was baffled. “Loose vowels? I don’t know that phrase!”
Her smile did not return until next morning during English class.
Louisiana native, Gary Lester, is a good egg, who spent his career as a biologist in that state. He currently lives in Seattle, where he spends his time reading, writing, and riding his bike. His travels have taken him to 50 states and 26 countries, providing fodder for his stories.
Facebook | Twitter | Tumblr | Email
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Food Quality & Safety‘s Mission
Clean In Place
Textures & Flavors
Auditing/Validation
Supplier Programs
Hormones/Antibiotics
Pathogen Control
Foreign Object Control
Tracking & Traceability
Food Service & Retail
Guidelines & Regulations
Food Library
FQ&S
Federal Food Safety Programs Spared in Fiscal 2019 Budget
February 28, 2018 • By Ted Agres
Despite deep spending cuts to most non-military programs contained in the Trump administration’s budget request for Fiscal 2019, food safety at FDA and USDA would remain largely unscathed and would even grow slightly in the new budget year that begins October 1. As in previous years, however, federal funding would be bolstered by industry user fees, including on food producers, importers, and exporters.
A Realistic Approach to Food Safety Regulation
USDA, FDA Collaboration Will Reduce Conflicting Expectations
Food Safety Legislation Delayed
How the Industry Is Tackling Food Waste
The administration’s proposed Fiscal 2019 budget for FDA, presented to Congress in early February, would give the agency a discretionary budget of $3.25 billion, an increase of 17 percent or $473 million over the current year’s continuing resolution funding.
The proposed budget allocates $1.4 billion for food safety programs across FDA, an increase of $10 million. A total of $16 million in user fees would be collected for food safety-related activities, such as the Voluntary Qualified Importer Program ($5 million), the third-party auditor program ($1 million), export certification ($5 million), food recall ($1 million), and food re-inspection ($6 million). These levels remain unchanged from the current year.
“The food safety portfolio at FDA will continue to support important food and feed safety activities that are critical to the public in FY 2019, such as implementing mandatory standards for imported food, rapidly detecting and responding to major foodborne illness outbreaks, and striving to provide consumers with material about healthy choices using the most up-to-date science,” the FDA budget document states. “FDA will also continue support for food safety research, cosmetics safety, partnerships with academic institutes, and international capacity building.”
Many policy analysts and consumer advocates were relieved that the proposed budget did not offer cuts to federal food safety programs. Thomas Gremillon, a board member of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA and director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, praised the small increase.
“The funding of food safety programs clearly needs a boost given the FDA’s multi-year responsibility for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act and the continuing challenges in this area,” Gremillion said. “The agency needs more resources to effectively implement the law.”
USDA Funding
While USDA’s overall budget would be cut by 16 percent or $3.7 billion next year, inspection activities performed by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) would be fully funded in Fiscal 2019. This includes support for about 8,100 personnel located at more than 6,400 domestic processing and slaughter establishments for meat, poultry, and egg products.
While these inspection activities are required by federal law, the budget proposes establishment of a new $660 million annual FSIS user fee. Starting in Fiscal 2020, fees would be assessed on the meat, poultry, and egg industries to cover the costs of all domestic inspections, import re-inspections, and most of the central operations costs for federal, state, and international inspection programs for these food products. The Trump administration estimates the new fee would increase the cost of meat, poultry, and eggs for consumers by less than one cent per pound.
But starting in Fiscal 2019, new user fees would be assessed to support the Animal and Plant Health inspection Service ($23 million), the Packers and Stockyards Program ($23 million), and the Agricultural Marketing Service ($20 million).
As the administration had previously announced, the budget notes that FDA and USDA will continue to streamline regulatory and inspection activities to reduce the number of businesses that are inspected by both agencies, such as a facility preparing soup that contains both meat and vegetables.
Finally, the budget declares that Codex Alimentarius activities will be “realigned” from FSIS to USDA’s Trade and Agricultural Affairs Office, a move that had been widely criticized when proposed by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue last year. Perhaps because of this, FSIS will remain the chair of Codex, the budget adds.
Filed Under: eUpdate, Regulatory Tagged With: FDA, food inspection, Food Safety, trump budget, USDA
U.S. FDA Finalizes 2 Rules Under FSMA
About Ted Agres
Ted Agres is an award-winning writer who covers food safety regulatory and legislative issues from the nation’s capital in the Washington Report column. He has 40 years of experience in reporting on issues such as health policy, medical technology, and pharmaceutical development. He holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. He enjoys playing the piano, amateur radio, and paintball. He lives in Laurel, MD. Reach him at tedagres@yahoo.com.
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New Avengers: Endgame deleted scene gives a very different spin on the movie's biggest death
By Bradley Russell 2019-07-29T10:28:09Z
Watch the new Endgame deleted scene x3000
(Image credit: Marvel Studios/Disney)
I am… crying. The biggest, most inevitable death in Avengers: Endgame has been given a new lease of life thanks to a newly-released Avengers: Endgame deleted scene. Spoilers, of course, follow, but it’s worth watching just to see what didn’t make it into the gargantuan three-hour runtime. That’s without taking into account the attached joke, which means it was probably an easy cut rather than an overly agonising decision.
As you may have guessed, the deleted scene in question (via USA Today) revolves around Tony Stark’s final moments. As Iron Man, he vanquished Thanos with a snap of his fingers and, where the original Endgame scene saw him surrounded by Pepper, War Machine, and Peter Parker, the alternate version goes in another direction entirely. Watch it now:
We have an EXCLUSIVE @Avengers deleted scene from #Endgame that gives fans a heroic must-see moment → https://t.co/Y0tiB90wX7 pic.twitter.com/QZDxovUCT2July 26, 2019
So, instead of Iron Man going out on his back with his loved ones around him, the Avengers: Endgame deleted scene sees much of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes come together to mourn the founding father of the MCU by kneeling to honour their fallen comrade.
Hawkeye kneels. Then Black Panther. Then Captain Marvel. The Guardians of the Galaxy (who, lest we forget, barely know the guy) kneel too. It’s all a bit much – and instantly trumped by the later funeral scene, which was more of a celebration than a cookie-cutter symbolic gesture.
Plus, there’s that Gamora moment. Walking away entirely – yes, she’s still her evil 2014 self – is a bit odd given the circumstances. If it was meant as a joke to ease the tension, it doesn’t quite land, though it’s still in keeping with her character. Still, it’s a worthy send-off to Robert Downey Jr.’s character, and if anyone deserves such a big character moment, it’s Iron Man.
With the home release out in the US this week, there’s bound to be more Endgame deleted scenes worth poring over. But they probably won’t make us quite as emotional as this.
Does Endgame take top spot? Here's a complete ranking of the best superhero movies around.
Bradley Russell
GamesRadar+'s entertainment news writer. Lover of all things Nintendo, in a tortured love/hate relationship with Crystal Palace and also possesses an unhealthy knowledge of The Simpsons (which is of no use at parties).
News ents
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A Chief Justice of India says "I am sorry" but 30 years too late
Politics hidden Sep 16, 2011 17:56:22 IST
By Shanmugham D Jayan and Raghul Sudheesh
When a former Chief Justice of India apologises for a judgement, that’s big news. And Justice P N Bhagwati was not just apologising for any judgement.
He was admitting his “mistake” about a case the New York Times called close to the Indian Supreme Court’s “utter surrender” to an absolutist government.
That case was ADM Jabalpur, popularly known as the Habeas Corpus case. On 28 April, 1976, during the Emergency, the Supreme Court had to decide if the Court could entertain a writ of habeas corpus filed by a person challenging his detention. The High Courts had already said yes. But the Supreme Court went against the unanimous decision of all the High Courts and upheld the right of Indira Gandhi’s government to suspend all fundamental rights during the Emergency. Four judges ruled for the government. One of them was Justice P N Bhagwati.
The lone dissenter was Justice H R Khanna. The New York Times wrote at that time:
If India ever finds its way back to freedom and democracy that were proud hallmarks of its first eighteen years as an independent nation, someone will surely erect a monument to Justice H R Khanna of the Supreme Court. It was Justice Khanna who spoke out fearlessly and eloquently for freedom this week.
Justice Bhagwati was admitting his “mistake” about a case the NY Times called close to the Indian Supreme Court’s “utter surrender” to an absolutist government. Reuters
Now 30 years later Justice Bhagwati says in an interview with MyLaw.net his judgment was “an act of weakness.” He also says, “it was against my conscience...That judgment is not Justice Bhagwati’s.”
This might sound like a brave mea culpa on his part. But unfortunately it leaves a lot to be desired.
First of all there is Justice Bhagwati’s own track record of having his ear finely tuned to the prevailing political winds.
Justice Bhagwati has praised Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency and later criticized her during the tenure of Janata government. When Indira Gandhi came back to power, he wrote a letter congratulating her.
Here’s an excerpt from that letter:
“May I offer you my heartiest congratulations on your resounding victory in the elections and your triumphant return as the Prime Minister of India...I am sure that with your iron will and firm determination, uncanny insight and dynamic vision, great administrative capacity and vast experience, overwhelming love and affection of the people and above all, a heart which is identified with the misery of the poor and the weak, you will be able to steer the ship of the nation safely to its cherished goal.”
What this really shows is that CJI Bhagwati might have gone against his conscience but certainly not against his career trajectory. Justice H R Khanna, who dissented in that Jabalpur case should have become the CJI because of his seniority. But he paid the price for that dissent. He was superceded by Justice Beg. Justice Bhagwati would likely have met with the same fate of Justice H R Khanna had he dissented.
This is not the only issue where Justice Bhagwati has made a volte face.
Take the mysterious collegium system by which Supreme Court justices are appointed which has come under heavy criticism for being an unaccountable opaque cabal. It was Justice Verma who created the collegium system but in the First Judges Case (the SP Gupta case) Justice Bhagwati wrote about it: “There must be a collegium to make recommendation to the President in regard to appointment of a Supreme Court or High Court Judge”.
Justice Bhagwati’s mind has now changed about that as well and he says he is against the collegium system in toto.
His own track record as a judge has also raised legal eyebrows.
Noted constitutional law jurist HM Seervai has criticised Justice Bhagwati for merely copying justice Krishna Iyer’s judgment in the Som Prakash case and incorporating it into his judgment in the Ajay Hasia case.
In a landmark case of constitutional law, popularly referred to as the Minerva Mills judgment, Justice Bhagwati wrote: “Unfortunately we could not be ready with our judgment and hence 9 May,1980 being the last working day of the Court before the summer vacation we made an order expressing our conclusion but stating that we would give our reasons later.”
A judge of the Apex Court saying "I am not ready with my reasons but this is my conclusion" anyway sets a deplorable standard for the Indian judiciary.
Justice Bhagwati writes, that after the Emergency he realized the mistake of Jabalpur and he practically rewrote Part III and Part IV of the Constitution; particularly Articles 14, 19, 21 and 32. A judge claiming that he is “writing” the Constitution, as opposed to interpreting it is unorthodox to say the least.
These days Justice Bhagwati is more in the news because he is a trustee with the beleaguered Sathya Sai Trust. As financial scandals rock the Sai Baba’s spiritual empire, the trust relies on people of the eminence of a former CJI to give it some credibility. Immediately after the demise of Satya Sai Baba Justice Bhagwati was appointed as chancellor of the Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning (Deemed to be University). Recently in an interview given to The Times of India Justice Bhagwati said: “Sai Baba, my god, dictated my every single judgment”.
People will make of that what they will. But the real question now is what does this apology mean for the Indian judiciary. Some will think its proof of the self-correcting mechanism of the Indian judiciary. But it’s also proof of something much more damning - that political equations play a crucial role in the appointment of judges and the judgments these judges deliver.
What happened in the Habeas Corpus case was not a momentary lapse in judgment. It was a disgrace to the Supreme Court, and more so because Justice Bhagwati says it went against his conscience, even then.
This belated apology does not restore the faith of people in judiciary. The only way to do that is to have an independent judicial commission appoint judges and bring in transparency in every stage of their appointment.
It may save us from a Bhagwati-style apology another 30 years later.
Shanmugham D Jayan is a lawyer practising before the High Court of Kerala and he is also a visiting faculty at NUALS, Cochin.
Raghul Sudheesh is Associate Editor at Bar & Bench. You can follow him on Twitter.
Follow Firstpost on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for breaking news and views.
Updated Date: Sep 16, 2011 17:56:22 IST
Tags : Chief Justice Of India, Habeas Corpus Case, Indira Gandhi, P. N. Bhagwati, Supreme Court Of India, ThatsJustWrong
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2Delhi Assembly Election 2020: Important dates, full schedule and voting timings, a quick guide to 8 February polls
3Ahead of Delhi polls, AAP focuses on achievements in education sector, stumps rivals with silence on national issues
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5Delhi Assembly election 2020: Sonia Gandhi, Rahul, Priyanka, CMs of Congress-ruled states among list of 40 star campaigners for party
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Evangelical Elites Are Out of Touch
by Carl R. Trueman 12 . 20 . 19
Some years ago I wrote a short book in which I argued that, while political thinking was complicated, voting was not. One could agree with some parts of a politician’s manifesto while disagreeing with others. But in the voting booth, the X had to be placed bluntly and brutally next to the name of one candidate or another—no nuance, no “ifs” or “buts” allowed.
I have thought of that point many times over recent years as pundits have repeatedly expressed themselves on the matter of evangelical support for Trump. Now, I have no vote (being merely a Green Carder), nor do I consider myself an evangelical (though I do cohost a podcast for a group that uses the name). But it seems to me that the idea of passionate, unquestioning support for Trump by this rather nebulous group, the evangelicals, is greatly overplayed in the rhetoric of public discourse. I live in the heart of Trump territory and know many who voted for the Donald, almost none of whom took any pleasure in doing so. They simply felt abandoned by a Democratic party more concerned about identity politics than poor people. There was, in their minds, sadly no alternative.
This brings me to Mark Galli’s recent editorial in Christianity Today. In an impassioned appeal he summons evangelicals to dump the Donald. Indeed, he not only calls for Trump’s removal from office by impeachment or ballot box, but also declares that it is every Christian’s moral duty to support such a move.
It is hard to fault the evidence he cites in making his case. Trump is without doubt not the kind of person one would want to represent the nation. His record of infidelity, sleaze, and inappropriate attitudes is well-documented. And Galli is rightly consistent on this point, not indulging in the embarrassing (and arguably hypocritical) flip-flopping done by some members of the Religious Right, who see adultery as disqualifying for Clinton but not for Trump. His piece is also not part of the sanctimonious subgenre of self-regarding anti-Trump noise created by hokey-wokey evangelicals—those who tweet endlessly about white privilege and misogyny in between writing checks for their children’s elite private schools and knocking back Martinis and Manhattans at the country club or the art gallery opening. It is a heartfelt call for evangelicals not to give their support to a man of reprehensible character.
Galli sees the situation as urgent: “If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come?” Yet, to ask the obvious question, what is the alternative? Now, that question can be used as a lazy, rhetorical way of justifying a vote for Trump—or for any status quo, however wicked. But I intend it as a serious inquiry: When someone calls for Trump to be thrown out of office by impeachment or the ballot box, it is reasonable to ask what the available alternatives are. As Mother Theresa is unavailable for the White House, we are really looking at Biden, Warren, or Sanders. I can’t speak to the personal moral qualities of these people, but would voting for them or their policies give Christians any more credibility? Given the role of abortion and LGBTQ rights in their respective campaigns, this is surely something any Christian has to address.
Galli would no doubt rightly respond that voting cannot be seen in such simplistic terms. A vote for a Democrat no more necessarily indicates a passionate commitment to late-term abortion on the part of the one voting than a vote for Trump indicates that one finds adultery and womanizing to be an acceptable way of life. Every vote cast—perhaps especially those cast by Christians—involves a trade-off, a compromise, a ranking of the importance of moral priorities which, in an ideal world, we would not have to do. And I would agree with Galli. I have argued this myself many times.
Yet Galli cuts himself from such a move. Indeed, he goes so far as to say that he believes the removal of Trump “is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.” That is an astounding claim for the editor of Christianity Today to make, for it involves him accusing every Trump voter of heinous sin, however reluctant or conflicted he may be.
As noted above, Galli is not playing some sanctimonious Pharisee, standing in the Temple of Twitter, thanking God that he is not like other evangelicals—white supremacists, misogynists, or even this Trump supporter over here. But his editorial is symptomatic of the same underlying pathology. Evangelical elites are clearly as out of touch with the populist evangelical base as is the case in society in general. And lambasting populist evangelicals as hypocrites or dimwits will simply perpetuate the divide.
Carl R. Trueman is a professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College.
Photo by Gage Skidmore via Creative Commons. Image cropped.
More on: Evangelical, Trump, Christianity Today, Politics, Religion, Public Life
Articles by Carl R. Trueman
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Tuesday, July 29, 2014 No comments
Philip Zoubek is an Austrian pianist and composer who lives in Cologne and is part of the scene around the “Loft”, a wonderful location for improvised music and new classical music, which is run by WDR Symphony Orchestra flautist Hans Martin Müller. Zoubek is known for his extended techniques preparing his piano with pots, plastic stuff and glass jars (and many more) but for this album he has chosen to put this stuff aside (at least mostly). His trio with Benjamin Weidekamp (cl, bcl) and Christian Weber (b) refers to Jimmy Giuffre’s seminal trio with Paul Bley and Steve Swallow but Zoubek intends to continue their approach adding his own musical experiences so that the music is more than a mere homage.
“Pale Fire” lives from a constant clash of composed material and improvised passages, Zoubek wanted the improvisation to take part in a complex communicative space where all the musicians are aware what the others are doing and where roles and functions are permanently in flux.
This is less intellectual than it sounds, tracks like “Melos” are constant shapeshifters as well as to rhythm and sound, intensity and beauty. The composition starts like a classic Giuffre piece, the melodies jump like jaunty grasshoppers, there is a sense of wildlife on a summer meadow, lively, joyous, exuberant – but towards the end the atmosphere changes: the sounds of the clarinets and the bowed bass are gloomy and dark, only the piano tries keep the mood from the beginning alive. There is immediacy and subtlety, there are condensed compositional parts and extended improvised spaces and especially when the instruments seem to melt into each other, the album has its best moments – for example in “Two” (my favorite) and “Hu”, the longest track, where Zoubek comes back to prepared piano.
My friend Julia Neupert (who is also the host of the SWR radio show) was absolutely enthusiastic about the album and I have to admit that I was rather reluctant after the first listening. Yet, the music has hidden qualities that I recognized only after several attempts, it is music that needs attention.
“Pale Fire” was recorded at the “Loft”, most of the music was played live at a gig the band played after two days in the studio.
Listen to an album teaser
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Elaine Mulry
November 17, 1924 — 03/11/2011
Born: November 17 1924
Death: March 11, 2011
MULRY Elaine (DePlanche) Mulry 86 a resident of Grand Rapids passed away March 11. She was the daughter of the late Elmer and Agnes (Evans) DePlanche. Elaine was born November 17 1924 in Detroit MI. She graduated from Plymouth High School in 1943. She married Edward Mulry on October 5 1946 at St. John the Baptist Church in Ypsilanti MI. One year later they moved to Phoenix Arizona where they lived for 4 years and two of their six children were born. They returned to Michigan in 1952 and have resided in the Grand Rapids area since. Elaine and Ed lived a truly rich and satisfying life among their many dear friends on the 1900 block of Prospect Ave SE for over 20 years. Elaine was deeply involved with St. Francis Xavier Church as a member of The Altar Society Church Circle Rosalia Guild of the Little Sisters of the Poor and Junior Catholic Daughters. Together she and Ed served as leaders of the parish Youth Group for seven years. As wife mother grandmother and friend Elaines unlimited compassion caring kindness and humor are her legacy. She was a passionate sports fan who loved gathering with family to root for her Tigers Red Wings Lions and Pistons. Elaine is survived by her six children Michael and Beth (Schankler) Mulry Sue (Mulry) and George Kresovich Gail (Mulry) and Russell White Rebecca (Mulry) and Patrick Straubel Lisa (Mulry) Steele and Kerry Rasikas Patrick and Kelly (Hart) Mulry; her grandchildren Joshua Mulry Rachel (Mulry) Green Hogan Sasaki Olivia William and Joseph Finney Sara Michael and Caitlin Straubel Andrew and Adrienne Steele Devon Makaila and Collin Mulry; her nephew and his wife Jack and Mary Denise DePlanche; and her brother-in-law Jack Keenan and his 10 children. Elaine was predeceased by her husband Edward Mulry her brother Jack DePlanche and her grandson John Edward. Elaine had many words of wisdom to offer not the least of which was Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. The family extends its deepest gratitude to the loving and caring staff of Fulton Manor and Care Resources. Mass of Christian Burial will be held March 15 at St. Thomas the Apostle Church 1449 Wilcox Park Dr., SE. Rev. James A. Chelich presiding. Internment Resurrection Cemetery. Vigil service at 6:45 p.m. Visitation 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at OBrien-Eggebeen-Gerst Chapel 3980 Cascade Rd., SE. Memorial contributions may be made to CARE Resources c/o OBrien-Eggebeen-Gerst Funeral Home 3980 Cascade Rd., SE Grand Rapids MI 49546.
<< Jerry Ray Steinberg Obituaries Ralph C. Colby >>
Ralph C. Colby
Jerry Ray Steinberg
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Giva News
The Latest News & Updates from Giva
Giva, Inc. Bests BMC Track-It! by Numara Software in IT Service Desk Market
Giva Press Release - December 21, 2012
Giva® today announced a significant milestone in surpassing BMC® Track-It!™ by Numara Software head-to-head in the competitive IT service desk market. Giva benefits organizations with a strong focus on increasing first contact resolution, improving customer satisfaction, decreasing call volume with root cause analysis and exceeding service level agreements (SLAs).
IT Help Desk Cloud Dashboard
Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) December 21, 2012 - Giva® today announced a significant milestone in surpassing BMC® Track-It!™ by Numara Software head-to-head in the competitive IT service desk market. Giva benefits organizations with a strong focus on increasing first contact resolution, improving customer satisfaction, decreasing call volume with root cause analysis and exceeding service level agreements (SLAs). Giva's visual reporting tools make identifying trends and patterns easier and quicker and with less time building, running, sharing and reviewing reports. Based on comparisons from customers that have utilized both service management packages, Giva's cloud computing SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solution has moved to a leadership role for IT service management for law firms, healthcare institutions and other high visibility professional firms.
For example, Gordon & Rees, which provides IT technical support to 1200 employees in 27 offices, used BMC Track-It! for 6 years before switching to Giva. Their reported results included an 80% increase in capturing after hours calls, a 70% increase in support issue management productivity, and a 60% increase in meeting service level agreements (SLAs), among other significant improvements.
"There are many significant reasons why Giva was selected over other vendors, but the biggest differentiator is that the Giva user interface is uncomplicated, uncluttered, clean and extremely easy to use," said Floyd Withrow, Chief Information Officer.
"There are many significant reasons why Giva was selected over other vendors, but the biggest differentiator is that the Giva user interface is uncomplicated, uncluttered, clean and extremely easy to use," said Floyd Withrow, Chief Information Officer, Gordon & Rees. "My team has had a 70% increase in support issue management productivity from using the Giva dashboard, easy service request input and real-time reports. We have increased meeting our service level agreements by over 60%. Our Level 1 agents have increased their daily service request management productivity over 50% by using Giva as compared to BMC Track-It! As CIO, Giva has been an enormous help to my user support managers, training coordinators and myself. Giva allows me to deploy and justify my staffing and resource plans with metrics, trends and reports." [Click to download the case study.]
"Our real-time reports and dashboards are a significant Giva differentiator and an area in which Giva will continue to provide radical innovation," said Ron Avignone, founder of Giva, Inc. "We've built a highly differentiated cloud-based product that provides an extraordinary and easy to use experience. Giva's real-time reports and dashboards can be built without any effort, and our products can be customized without any consultants."
About Giva:
Founded in 1999, Giva was among the first companies to provide a suite of applications specifically architected for the public cloud. Now, with over a decade of refinements including thousands of enhancements, the Giva Service Management™ Suite is the most customer feedback driven cloud computing suite for the ITIL Help Desk, Customer Service/Call Center and Service Desk. Visual reporting, management dashboards and a radically intuitive service request design, make the Giva Service Management™ Suite highly differentiated from all other solutions. Customizations are all point and click with no programming or consulting necessary so Giva delivers a substantially lower total cost of ownership solution. Giva is a private company headquartered in Santa Clara, California serving delighted customers worldwide.
Email: pr@givainc.com
50% reduction in time to deploy Giva's change, incident, problem, asset management and knowledgebase modules
60% reduction in the 5 year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Saved at least 1 FTE due to lower ongoing administration
Saved 1 week per month due to easy to use reports
Increased to 90% achievement in meeting service level agreements
70% reduction in generating reports and admin; eliminated 35 hours/month
50% faster to create/assign a service request
60% increase in information captured during the initial phone call
50% increase in the number of service requests created due to intuitive design
80% increase in productivity by using Giva's dashboards and reports
60% increase in meeting service level agreements
50% increase in productivity by using Giva's integrated custom forms
45% increase in the number of the calls logged due to Giva's intuitiveness and ease of use
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How Did You and Your Guy Celebrate Easter?
A ton of Hollywood couples were out and about this holiday weekend—Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo, Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush. But my favorite story from the weekend is from a coworker who got a really, really big gift in her Easter basket. You're gonna love this...
By Lauren Bradshaw
So let's do a weekend recap...
Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo celebrated Easter with Jessica's parents and her sister Ashlee, with dinner at Beso in Hollywood. (I'm lovin' Jessica's spring-y, Easter-y orange dress and yellow handbag. But what's with the sweats, Tony? Come on, dude.)
Meanwhile, in the south, Kim Kardashian and Reggie Bush flew to New Orleans. Their plans? "Decorating eggs," according to Kim.
I'm sure these ladies enjoyed their weekends, but I don't think much can top my coworker's holiday. She woke up a couple mornings ago, and there was an Easter basket all prepped in her apartment with her favorite candy. She was a little dumbfounded, because her and her boyfriend had agreed not to swap gifts, but he went ahead and did it anyway. Well, she starts digging through it, and she finds some Yankee tickets (score!) and then there's a string mixed in with the candy...with a ring on it. Yes, that kind of ring. She told me that she didn't even realize what it was at first, because it came as such a surprise. And then, dun, dun, DUN—he popped the question! I've never heard of a guy proposing on Easter before, have you? It's not even a must-gift holiday, in my book. But how sweet is that?!
How did you spend the weekend with your guy? Did you swap Easter gifts? If so, what did he give you?
P.S. In case you missed 'em, here's what some of the other gals had to say about the holiday:
Happy Easter, Happy Friday, Happy Spring!
Happy Easter: Celebrating A Holiday As A Single Mom
In Praise of Easter Hats
Topicseasterjessica simpsonkim kardashiantony romocelebrity couplecelebrity couplesholidaysrelationshiprelationships
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Almost Impossible #blog tour
Fans of Sarah Dessen, Stephanie Perkins, and Jenny Han will delight as the fireworks spark and the secrets fly in this delicious summer romance from a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.
When Jade decided to spend the summer with her aunt in California, she thought she knew what she was getting into. But nothing could have prepared her for Quentin. Jade hasn't been in suburbia long and even she knows her annoying (and annoyingly cute) next-door neighbor spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E.
And when Quentin learns Jade plans to spend her first American summer hiding out reading books, he refuses to be ignored. Sneaking out, staying up, and even a midnight swim, Quentin is determined to give Jade days--and nights--worth remembering.
But despite their storybook-perfect romance, every time Jade moves closer, Quentin pulls away. And when rumors of a jilted ex-girlfriend come to light, Jade knows Quentin is hiding a secret--and she's determined to find out what it is.
Anything was possible. At least that’s what it felt like.
Summer seventeen was going to be one for the record books. I already knew it. I could feel it—from the nervous-excited swirl in my stomach to the buzz in the air around me. This was going to be the summer—my summer.
“Last chance to cry uncle or forever hold your peace,” Mom sang beside me in the backseat of the cab we’d caught at the airport. Her hand managed to tighten around mine even more, cutting off the last bit of my circulation. If there
was any left.
I tried to look the precise amount of unsure before answering. “So long, last chance,” I said, waving out the window.
Mom sighed, squeezing my hand harder still. It was starting to go numb now. Summer seventeen might find me one hand short if Mom didn’t ease up on the death grip.
She and her band, the Shrinking Violets, were going to be touring internationally after finally hitting it big, but she was moping because this was the first summer we wouldn't be together. Actually, it would be the first time we’d been apart ever.
I’d sold her on the idea of me staying in the States with her sister and family by going on about how badly I wanted to experience one summer as a normal, everyday American teenager before graduating from high school. One chance to
see what it was like to stay in the same place, with the same people, before I left for college. One last chance to see what life as an American teen was really like.
She bought it . . . eventually.
She’d have her bandmates and tens of thousands of adoring fans to keep her company—she could do without me for a couple of months. I hoped.
It had always been just Mom and me from day one. She had me when she was young—like young young—and even though her boyfriend pretty much bailed before the line turned pink, she’d done just fine on her own.
We’d both kind of grown up together, and I knew she’d missed out on a lot by raising me. I wanted this to be a summer for the record books for her, too. One she could really live up, not having to worry about taking care of her teenage
daughter. Plus, I wanted to give her a chance to experience what life without me would be like. Soon I’d be off to college somewhere, and I figured easing her into the empty-nester phase was a better approach than going cold turkey.
“You packed sunscreen, right?” Mom’s bracelets jingled as she leaned to look out her window, staring at the bright blue sky like it was suspect.
“SPF seventy for hot days, fifty for warm days, and thirty for overcast ones.” I toed the trusty duffel resting at my feet.It had traveled the globe with me for the past decade and had the wear to prove it.
“That’s my fair-skinned girl.” When Mom looked over at me, the crease between her eyebrows carved deeper with worry.
“You might want to check into SPF yourself. You’re not going to be in your mid thirties forever, you know?”
Mom groaned. “Don’t remind me. But I’m already beyond SPF’s help at this point. Unless it can help fix a saggy butt and crow’s-feet.” She pinched invisible wrinkles and wiggled her butt against the seat.
It was my turn to groan. It was annoying enough that people mistook us for sisters all the time, but it was worse that she could (and did) wear the same jeans as me. There should be some rule that moms aren’t allowed to takes clothes from the closets of their teenage daughters.
When the cab turned down Providence Avenue, I felt a sudden streak of panic. Not for myself, but for my mom.
Could she survive a summer when I wasn’t at her side, reminding her when the cell phone bill was due or updating her calendar so she knew where to be and when to be there? Would she be okay without me reminding her that fruits and vegetables were part of the food pyramid for a reason and
making sure everything was all set backstage?
“Hey.” Mom gave me a look, her eyes suggesting she could read my thoughts. “I’ll be okay. I’m a strong, empowered thirty-four-year-old woman.”
“Cell phone charger.” I yanked the one dangling from her oversized, metal-studded purse, which I’d wrapped in hot pink tape so it stood out. “I’ve packed you two extras to get you through the summer. When you get down to your last
one, make sure to pick up two more so you’re covered—”
“Jade, please,” she interrupted. “I’ve only lost a few. It’s not like I’ve misplaced . . .”
“Thirty-two phone chargers in the past five years?” When she opened her mouth to protest, I added, “I’ve got the receipts to prove it, too.”
Her mouth clamped closed as the cab rolled up to my aunt’s house.
“What am I going to do without you?” Mom swallowed, dropping her big black retro sunglasses over her eyes to hide the tears starting to form, to my surprise.
I was better at keeping my emotions hidden, so I didn’t dig around in my purse for sunglasses. “Um, I don’t know? Maybe rock a sold-out international tour? Six continents in three months? Fifty concerts in ninety days? That kind of
thing?”
Mom started to smile. She loved music—writing it, listening to it, playing it—and was a true musician. She hadn’t gotten into it to become famous or make the Top 40 or anything like that; she’d done it because it was who she was. She was the same person playing to a dozen people in a crowded café as she was now, the lead singer of one of the biggest bands in the world playing to an arena of thousands.
“Sounds pretty killer. All of those countries. All of that adventure.” Mom’s hand was on the door handle, but it looked more like she was trying to keep the taxi door closed than to open it. “Sure you don’t want to be a part of it?”
I smiled thinly back at my mom, her wild brown hair spilling over giant glasses. She had this boundless sense of adventure—always had and always would—so it was hard for her to comprehend how her own offspring could feel any different.
“Promise to call me every day and send me pictures?” I said, feeling the driver lingering outside my door with luggage in hand. This was it. Mom exhaled, lifting her pinkie toward me. “Promise.”
I curled my pinkie around hers and forced a smile. “Love
you, Mom.”
Her finger wound around mine as tightly as she had clenched my other hand on the ride here. “Love you no matter what.” Then she shoved her door open and crawled out, but not before I noticed one tiny tear escape her sunglasses.
By the time I’d stepped out of the cab, all signs of that tear or any others were gone. Mom did tears as often as she wrote moving love songs. In other words, never.
As she dug around in her purse for her wallet to pay the driver, I took a minute to inspect the house in front of me.
The last time we’d been here was for Thanksgiving three years ago. Or was it four? I couldn’t remember, but it was long enough to have forgotten how bright white my aunt and uncle’s house was, how the windows glowed from being so
clean and the landscaping looked almost fake it was so well kept.
It was pretty much the total opposite of the tour buses and extended-stay hotels I’d spent most of my life in. My mother, Meg Abbott, did not do tidy.
“Back zipper pocket,” I said as she struggled to find the money in her wallet.
“Aha,” she announced, freeing a few bills to hand to the driver, whose patience was wilting. After taking her luggage, she shouldered up beside me.
“So the neat-freak thing gets worse with time.” Mom gaped at the walkway leading up to the cobalt-blue front door, where a Davenport nameplate sparkled in the sunlight.
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say most of the surfaces I’d eaten off of weren’t as clean as the stretch of concrete in front of me.
“Mom . . . ,” I warned, when she shuddered after she roamed to inspect the window boxes bursting with scarlet geraniums.
“I’m not being mean,” she replied as we started down the walkway. “I’m appreciating my sister’s and my differences.
Right then, the front door whisked open and my aunt seemed to float from it, a measured smile in place, not a single hair out of place.
“Appreciating our differences,” Mom muttered under her breath as we moved closer.
I bit my lip to keep from laughing as the two sisters embraced.
Mom had long dark hair and fell just under the average-height bar like me. Aunt Julie, conversely, had light hair she kept swishing above her shoulders, and she was tall and thin. Her eyes were almost as light blue as mine, compared to Mom’s, which were almost as dark as her hair. It wasn’t only their physical differences that set them apart; it was everything. From the way they dressed Mom in some shade of dark, whereas the darkest color I’d ever seen Aunt Julie wear was periwinkle—to their taste in food, Mom was on the spicy end of the spectrum and Aunt Julie was on the mild.
Mom stared at Aunt Julie.
Aunt Julie stared back at Mom.
This went on for twenty-one seconds. I counted. The last stare-down four years ago had gone forty-nine. So this was progress.
Finally, Aunt Julie folded her hands together, her rounded nails shining from a fresh manicure. “Hello, Jade. Hello, Megan.”
Mom’s back went ramrod straight when Aunt Julie referred to her by her given name. Aunt Julie was eight years older but acted more like her mother than her sister.
“How’s it hangin’, Jules?”
Aunt Julie’s lips pursed hearing her little sister’s nickname for her. Then she stepped back and motioned inside. “Well?”
That was my cue to pick up my luggage and follow after Mom, who was tromping up the front steps. “Are we done already? Really?” she asked, nudging Aunt Julie as she passed.
“I’m taking the higher road,” Aunt Julie replied.
“What you call taking the higher road I call getting soft in your old age.” Mom hustled through the door after that, like she was afraid Aunt Julie would kick her butt or something.
The image of Aunt Julie kicking anything made me giggle to myself.
“Jade.” Aunt Julie’s smile was of the real variety this time as she took my duffel from me. “You were a girl the last time we saw you, and look at you now. All grown up.”
“Hey, Aunt Julie. Thanks again for letting me spend the summer with you guys,” I said, pausing beside her, not sure whether to hug her or keep moving. A moment of awkwardness passed before she made the decision for me by reaching out and patting my back. I continued on after that.
Aunt Julie wasn’t cold or removed; she just showed her affection differently. But I knew she cared about me and my mom. If she didn’t, she wouldn’t pick up the phone on the first ring whenever we did call every few months. She also wouldn’t have immediately said yes when Mom asked her a few months ago if I could spend the summer here.
“Let me show you to your room.” She pulled the door shut behind her and led us through the living room. “Paul and I had the guest room redone to make it more fitting for a teenage girl.”
“Instead of an eighty-year-old nun who had a thing for quilts and angel figurines?” Mom said, biting at her chipped black nail polish.
“I wouldn’t expect someone whose idea of a feng shui living space is kicking the dirty clothes under their bed to appreciate my sense of style,” Aunt Julie fired back, like she’d been anticipating Mom’s dig.
I cut in before they could get into it. “You didn’t have to do that, Aunt Julie. The guest room exactly the way it was would have been great.”
“Speaking of the saint also known as my brother-in-law, where is Paul?” Mom spun around, moving down the hall backward.
“At work.” Aunt Julie stopped outside of a room. “He wanted to be here, but his job’s been crazy lately.”
Aunt Julie snatched the porcelain angel Mom had picked up from the hall table. She carefully returned it to the exact same spot, adjusting it a hair after a moment’s consideration.
“Where are the twins?” I asked, scanning the hallway for Hannah and Hailey. The last time I’d seen them, they were in preschool but acted like they were in grad school or something. They were nice kids, just kind of freakishly well
behaved and brainy.
“At Chinese camp,” Aunt Julie answered.
“Getting to eat dim sum and make paper dragons?” Mom asked, sounding almost surprised.
Aunt Julie sighed. “Learning the Chinese language.” Aunt Julie opened a door and motioned me inside. I’d barely set one foot into the room before my eyes almost crossed from what I found.
Holy pink.
Hot pink, light pink, glittery pink, Pepto-Bismol pink—every shade, texture, and variety of pink seemed to be represented inside this square of space.
“What do you think?” Aunt Julie gushed, moving up
beside me with a giant smile.
“I love it,” I said, working up a smile. “It’s great. So great.
And so . . . pink.”
“I know, right?” Aunt Julie practically squealed. I didn’t know she was capable of anything close to that high-pitched.
“We hired a designer and everything. I told her you were a girly seventeen-year-old and let her do the rest.”
Glancing over at the full-length mirror framed in, you bet, fuchsia rhinestones, I wondered what about me led my aunt to classify me as “girly.” I shopped at vintage thrift stores, lived in faded denim and colors found in nature, not ones manufactured in the land of Oz. I was wearing sneakers, cut-offs, and a flowy olive-colored blouse, pretty much the other end of the spectrum. The last girly thing I’d done was wear makeup on Halloween. I was a zombie.
Beside me, Mom was gaping at the room like she’d walked in on a crime scene. A gruesome crime scene.
“What the . . . pink?” she edited after I dug an elbow into her.
“You shouldn’t have.” I smiled at Aunt Julie when she turned toward me, still beaming.
“Yeah, Jules. You really shouldn’t have.” Mom shook her head, flinching when she noticed the furry pink stool tucked beneath the vanity that was resting beneath a huge cotton-candy-pink chandelier.
“It’s the first real bedroom this girl’s ever had. Of course I should have. I couldn’t not.” Aunt Julie moved toward the bed, fixing the smallest fold in the comforter.
“Jade’s had plenty of bedrooms.” Mom nudged me, glancing at the window. She was giving me an out. She had no idea how much more it would take than a horrendously pink room for me to want to take it.
“Oh, please. Harry Potter had a more suitable bedroom in that closet under the stairs than Jade’s ever had. You can’t consider something that either rolls down a highway or is bolted to a hotel floor an appropriate room for a young woman.” Aunt Julie wasn’t in dig mode; she was in honest mode.
That put Mom in unleash-the-beast mode.
Her face flashed red, but before she could spew whatever
comeback she had stewing inside, I cut in front of her. “Aunt Julie, would you mind if Mom and I had a few minutes alone?
You know, to say good-bye and everything?”
As infrequently as we visited the house on Providence Avenue, I fell into my role of referee like it was second nature.
“Of course not. We’ll have lots of time to catch up.” Aunt Julie gave me another pat on the shoulder as she headed for the door. “We’ll have all summer.” She’d just disappeared when her head popped back in the doorway. “Meg, can I get you anything to drink before you have to dash?”
“Whiskey,” Mom answered intently.
Aunt Julie chuckled like she’d made a joke, continuing down the hall.
I dropped my duffel on the pink zebra-striped throw rug.
“You grew up seeing the world. Experiencing things most people will never get to in their whole lives.” Her voice was getting louder with every word. “You’ve got a million times the perspective of kids your age. A billion times more compassion and an understanding that the world doesn’t revolve around you. Who is she to make me out to be some inadequate parent when all she cares about is raising obedient, genius robots? She doesn’t know what it was like for me. How hard it was.”
“Mom,” I repeated, dropping my hands onto her shoulders as I looked her in the eye. “You did great.”
It took a minute for the red to fade from her face, then another for her posture to relax. “You’re great. I just tried not to get in the way too much and screw all that greatness up.”
“And if you must know, I’d take any of the hundreds of rooms we’ve shared over this pinktastrophe.” So it was kind of a lie, the littlest of ones. Sure, pink was on my offensive list, but the room was clean and had a door, and I would get to stay in the same place at least for the next few months. After living out of suitcases and overnight bags for most of my life, I was looking forward to discovering what drawer-and-closet living was like.
Mom threw her arms around me, pulling me in for one of those final-feeling hugs. Except this time, it kind of wasa final one. Realizing that made me feel like someone had stuffed a tennis ball down my throat.
“I love you no matter what,” she whispered into my ear again, the same words she’d sang, said, or on occasion shouted at me. Mom never just said I love you. She had something against those three words on their own. They were too open, too loosely defined, too easy to take back when something went wrong.
I love you no matter what had always been her way of telling me she loved me forever and for always. Unconditionally. She said that, before me, she’d never felt that type of love for anyone. What I’d picked up along the way on my own was that I was the only one she felt loved her back in the same way.
Squeezing my arms around my mom a little harder, I returned her final kind of hug. “I love you no matter what, too.”
Nicole Williams is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary and young adult romance, including the Crash and Lost & Found series. Her books have been published by HarperTeen and Simon & Schuster in both domestic and foreign markets, while she continues to self-publish additional titles. She is working on a new YA series with Crown Books (a division of Random House) as well. She loves romance, from the sweet to the steamy, and writes stories about characters in search of their happily even after. She grew up surrounded by books and plans on writing until the day she dies, even if it’s just for her own personal enjoyment. She still buys paperbacks because she’s all nostalgic like that, but her kindle never goes neglected for too long. When not writing, she spends her time with her husband and daughter, and whatever time’s left over she’s forced to fit too many hobbies into too little time.
Nicole is represented by Jane Dystel, of Dystel and Goderich Literary Agency.
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Home Employers BAE Systems PLC
BAE Systems PLC
At BAE Systems, we provide some of the world’s most advanced, technology-led defence, aerospace and security solutions and employ a skilled workforce of some 83,400 people in over 40 countries. Working with customers and local partners, we develop, engineer, manufacture and support products and systems to deliver military capability, protect national security and people and keep critical information and infrastructure secure. That’s work that inspires us.
As one of the world’s most innovative companies, we can offer you an exciting and challenging career. If you have the drive and enthusiasm to improve within your chosen field, you’ll receive the support you need to be creative and pioneering in all sorts of ways.
What we expect
Passion. That’s our secret. You’ll need it here to be successful. We want you to see opportunity where others see problems and find a way through challenges that others can’t navigate. You’ll use our extensive resources and the skills you’ll develop to collaborate with your team and find solutions to real problems.
We place great importance not only on what we do, but how and why we do it. We encourage our employees to take pride in their work and the role we play for our customers and our communities. Working for BAE Systems, you can go home at the end of each day knowing that what you do really makes a difference.
Apply: BAE Systems PLC scheme
Name: Alex Hewitt
Role: Graduate Development Framework - Maritime
University: Newcastle University
Degree: Naval Architecture
"I joined BAE Systems because it’s one of the few shipyards in the UK that still designs and builds ships, and I wanted my experience in the sector to include real production and operational knowledge."
"My role is to assess aspects of the vessel’s hydrodynamics performance – namely seakeeping, powering and manoeuvring. We do this using mathematical, computational and physical model tests, so a lot of my role involves having to understand the theory behind assessment methodology and ensuring that the assumptions they make are valid."
Training & Profiles
We recognise that development is key for you to fulfil your professional potential and for us to deliver on our business commitments. That’s why we’ve created a scheme where when you take ownership of your career aspirations, we’ll give you support, training and practical experience to help you succeed.
First things first: your career with us starts with an induction to welcome you to your chosen UK business. Here, you’ll meet fellow graduates and find out more about what your future holds. Then, shortly after joining, you’ll be assigned a mentor who can act as a source of advice and insight when you need it.
You’ll also participate in ‘Graduate Developing You’, a series of development modules delivered by Impact International, who are an award winning learning and development provider. The course, that brings graduates together from across the different businesses, aims to help you better understand yourself and others to drive better performance.
During the GDF you’ll also attend our UK Graduate Conference, which brings together graduates from across the globe to network, engage with a diverse range of managers and learn more about the inspiring work we do. There is also the opportunity to celebrate success through the Graduate Awards ceremony which takes place at the Gala dinner on Day 1.
All of this is designed to complement your placements, fuel your ambition, and give a depth to your training and career.
Please apply to the latest BAE Systems jobs on graduatejobs.com
Interviews BAE Systems PLC Interview Reviews
What is the starting salary at BAE Systems?
£28,000 starting salary for Graduate Development Framework and Applied Intelligence graduate scheme. £30,000 starting salary for Finance Leader Development Programme and SIGMA leadership programme.
25 days holiday per annum
Employee Referral Scheme
Pension Scheme
Jeremy Gardner Associates Limited
Technical jobs or internships will require a good degree (actual or predicted) in a STEM or related subject
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Aldermen call for mayor's resignation
Jim Schmitt was charged Wednesday with three misdemeanors related to campaign fundraising.
Aldermen call for mayor's resignation Jim Schmitt was charged Wednesday with three misdemeanors related to campaign fundraising. Check out this story on greenbaypressgazette.com: http://gbpg.net/2c7nbU1
Paul Srubas and Adam Rodewald, Green Bay Press Gazette Published 10:22 a.m. CT Sept. 7, 2016 | Updated 4:39 p.m. CT Sept. 7, 2016
Mayor Jim Schmitt speaks during a Green Bay City Council meeting.(Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo
GREEN BAY - Mayor Jim Schmitt’s political opponents are calling for him to resign in response to his agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor violations of state campaign finance laws.
Prosecutors filed the charges in Brown County Circuit Court Wednesday after a 20-month investigation that found Schmitt took thousands of dollars in illegal donations and then filed amended campaign finance reports misrepresenting the source of some of those funds.
Aldermen who brought Schmitt's fundraising irregularities to the attention of prosecutors said they believe Schmitt's actions amounted to corruption.
“These are serious charges," Alderman Andy Nicholson said. "He’s been taking illegal contributions for over a decade. He’s been cheating the system. It’s not fair to opponents that he has basically outspent two-to-one. I think he should resign with dignity."
Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf began reviewing Schmitt's campaign finances in January 2015, after Nicholson and Aldermen Guy Zima and Chris Wery accused Schmitt of accepting more than $10,000 in illegal donations. They included donations from individuals who exceeded the legal limit of $1,040 and those made by corporations, which are prohibited from giving to political campaigns.
PDF: Read the criminal complaint against Mayor Jim Schmitt
PDF: Mayor Schmitt's statement on campaign finance violations
RELATED: Schmitt's campaign report 45 days late
RELATED: Campaign probe expands to aldermen
Schmitt was charged Wednesday with making false statements on his finance reports, attempting to accept funds from someone other than the reported contributor, and attempting to accept funds in excess of the allowable individual contribution limit.
Each misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of nine months in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Schmitt said the contributions were mistakes stemming from his failure to accurately record and verify donations as well as his failure to know and comply with contribution limits.
“I should have done much better and for that I offer my heartfelt apologies to you and to everyone in the City,” Schmitt wrote in a statement to the community.
In a statement, Landgraf said a plea agreement was reached before the charges were filed. He said court proceedings will be scheduled after the case is assigned to a Brown County Circuit Court judge.
Conditions of the plea negotiations are spelled out in a letter from the prosecutor to Schmitt’s lawyer. In it, Landgraf makes it clear the charges themselves were negotiated.
“Each (charge) is pleaded as an attempt to commit a felony election law offense, making the offenses Class A misdemeanors,” Landgraf wrote. “Upon Mr. Schmitt’s plea of guilty to the charges contained in the complaint, I will recommend a disposition that does not include jail or probation. I will be otherwise free to argue for dispositions as I see fit.”
Landgraf acknowledged many findings and allegations were not formally charged, and that the three filed charges “are representative of the types of violations discovered during the investigation.” Uncharged allegations will serve as “read-ins” — items the presiding judge can consider at sentencing.
Also as part of the agreement, Schmitt must dissolve his campaign committee and forfeit all campaign funds. The campaign account balance as of June 30, 2015, was $26,545.75.
Schmitt also agreed to terminate Friends of Jim Schmitt, his campaign committee, and must, by law, organize a new one, according to Landgraf.
According to the criminal complaint:
» Schmitt reported a $5,000 contribution from Robert E. Toonen of Green Bay in August 2003 as five separate contributions, from Toonen, his wife, two daughters and a son-in law.
» Schmitt changed his record for an October 2011 contribution from Toonen for $1,000 to say it came from David Toonen. Robert Toonen told investigators he was not aware of the change, and David Toonen said he was not contacted by Schmitt's campaign about it.
» Schmitt initially reported two $25 contributions to attend a fundraising event from Cantilever Studio LLC in December 2013, a corporate contribution that is prohibited by law. After questions were raised about his finance reports, the entries were changed to indicate the contributions, initially recorded as CS, were from his brother, Carl Schmitt, who said he did not make any contributions to the campaign.
» Schmitt received a $1,250 check in June 2014 from Philip Hendrickson of Green Bay, which would have put Hendrickson over the $1,040 limit for the reporting period. The donation was recorded as $250.
» When William Lewis of Green Bay wrote a check for $1,000 in June 2014 that exceeded the contribution limits. Schmitt's campaign recorded the check as a donation of Lewis' daughter, who told investigators she only knew about the contribution because an employee of her father's company had called to ask permission to use her name.
» Schmitt altered records by adding "Jr." to two contributors, David Charles and William Kress, to prevent them from exceeding the contribution limit.
The investigation focused on Schmitt and his campaign finance records filed in 2015, when Schmitt was re-elected to a fourth term in office. Prosecutors gave particular attention to several amended campaign finance reports that Schmitt filed in 2015.
None of the contributors has been charged with a crime.
Schmitt and his lawyer, Patrick J. Knight, released statements but declined further comment.
A sentencing date has not been set.
While pleased that charges were brought, the complaining aldermen expressed anger at the negotiated settlement.
“These are felonies that have been reduced to misdemeanors,” Zima said. “I think the mayor ought to resign, myself, and that we have a special election and have the city continue on under new administration.”
He objected in particular to a line in Landgraf’s letter identifying the settlement as an act that forecloses prosecution of any other matters that could have been brought.
“I think the public has a right to know all the allegations that could have potentially been brought,” Zima said. “This has been boiled down to three. It cleans up a whole cesspool, and people should at least know what the cesspool is.”
psrubas@pressgazettemedia.com and follow him on Twitter @PGpaulsrubas
arodewal@pressgazettemedia.com and follow himon Twitter @AdamGRodewald
Read or Share this story: http://gbpg.net/2c7nbU1
KGB throws in towel, advises ally to sign bond and get out of jail
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sanctus-real
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Guitarists Matt Hammitt and Chris Rohman formed Christian rock group Sanctus Real in 1996 while both were still tenth graders at Toledo Christian School. With Hammitt handling lead vocals, the duo added drummer Mark Graalman and bassist Steve Goodrum to round out the lineup. The group released three independent albums of power pop (All This Talk of Aliens in 1998, Message for the Masses in 1999, Nothing to Lose in 2001) before signing with Sparrow Records, leading to 2002's Say It Loud, which was produced by Pete Stewart. A five-song EP supplement to Say It Loud, entitled SVERIGEEP, appeared in 2003. The band was busy in 2004, placing songs on two Sparrow anthologies ("Beautiful Day" on In the Name of Love: Artists United for Africa and "Promised Land" on Veggie Rocks!) as well as releasing a single, "Everything About You," and a second album on Sparrow, Fight the Tide, produced by Tedd T. The band continued to produce its own brand of earnestly redemptive pop on 2008's We Need Each Other and 2010's Pieces of a Real Heart.
Sanctus's Website
Sanctus on Facebook
'Unstoppable God' Sanctus Real Official Music Video
Tweets by @SanctusReal
'Unstoppable God' Sanctus Real Official Music V...
'Lazarus' Sanctus Real Official Music Video
'Jesus Loves You' Sanctus Real Official Music V...
Sanctus Real - Whatever You're Doing (Something...
Sanctus Real - Lay It Down (Acoustic Performanc...
Sanctus Real - The Dream
Sanctus Real - Lead Me (Official Music Video)
Sanctus Real - Whatever You're Doing (Official ...
Sanctus Real - Promises (The Official Lyric Vid...
Sanctus Real - Forgiven [Official Music Video]
Sanctus Real - Head In The Fight
Sanctus Real Albums
Pieces of Our Past - The Sanctus Real Anthology
You Can't Hide
Where Will They Go
Everything About You (Alternate Mix)
Everything About You
The Fight Song
Things Like You (Everyone's Everything)
Change Me
I'm Not Alright
We're Trying
Turn On the Lights
Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly)
Lay Down My Guns
Half Our Lives
Pieces of a Real Heart
I'll Show You How to Live
Keep My Heart Alive
The Way the World Turns
Lead Me
Take Over Me
I Want to Get Lost
'Til I Got to Know You
Double Take: Fight the Tide / The Face of Love
Everything About You (Alternate Version)
Things Like You
Top 5: Sanctus Real - EP
Everything About You (Fight the Tide Version)
I'm Not Alright (The Face of Love Version)
The Fight Song (Fight the Tide Version)
Alone (Fight the Tide Version)
Beautiful Day (In the Name of Love Version)
I'm Not Alright (Acoustic Bonus Digital Cut)
Fight the Tide
'Unstoppable God' Sanctus Real Official Music Video - Christian Music Videos
Christian band Sanctus Real releases the official music video for their latest single, ‘Unstoppable God.’ For two decades, this popular group has lead worship with inspiring hits such as ‘Confidence’ and ‘Lead Me.’ After changes in their lineup, the band is back and better than ever with hearts ready to share God’s message of love and hope. ‘Unstoppable God’ is the title track off of their newest album and it’s a beautiful reminder that God is greater than anything we can ever imagine. “Nothing can stop an unstoppable God He’s not afraid of impossible odds This is the promise that I’m standing on Nothing can stop an unstoppable God” Lead singer Dustin Lolli shared the inspiration behind the song with CCM Magazine. “When God wants something and He calls somebody, He’s going to make the way for them. He’s not afraid of impossible odds. He is so much greater and bigger. He’s the God who moves mountains. He’s the God who walks on water. What a great thing to plant your feet on this foundation that He is a God that nothing can stop. He is and forever will be our unstoppable God.” “Where does my help come from Where does my help come from My help comes from the Lord Nothing can stop an unstoppable God He’s not afraid of impossible odds This is the promise that I’m standing on” With the strength of the Lord by our side, there is no obstacle too big to face. What a glorious blessing that is, indeed!
'Lazarus' Sanctus Real Official Music Video 5381 views
'Jesus Loves You' Sanctus Real Official Music Video 2149 views
Sanctus Real - Whatever You're Doing (Something Heavenly) 90 views
Sanctus Real - Lay It Down (Acoustic Performance) 11095 views
Sanctus Real - The Dream 9648 views
Sanctus Real - Head In The Fight 15062 views
MirIAM Benefit Concert
Morehead City, NC 28557 07:00 PM
Unstoppable God Tour
Spartanburg, SC 29319 07:00 PM
Granger, IN 46530 07:00 PM
Watch sanctus real music videos free online! Godtube.com also provides videos with sanctus real lyrics, singles, album information and reviews. Whether you're looking for an inspirational and encouraging song for your quiet time with God or an upbeat song to praise Jesus, Godtube.com offers the largest online database of Christian music artists!
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CJS Announces Spring 2015 Bamerkaz
The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies at the Graduate Theological Union is pleased to present the Spring 2015 edition of its newsletter, Bamerkaz. To download a copy of the latest edition, featuring articles by CJS faculty and students, click here.
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies
Madrasa-Midrasha Program Offers Summer 2019 Interreligious Research Grants
The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has provided funding to the GTU in support of the Madrasa-Midrasha Program, a collaborative interreligious effort cosponsored by the Center for Islamic Studies and the Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies. We are pleased to announce research grants for GTU students and scholars working on interreligious projects related to Judaism and/or Islam. Grants will range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects, which are strongly encouraged. The following criteria will be applied to determine winning proposals: Student(s)...
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesCIS | Center for Islamic StudiesMadrasa-MidrashaWalter and Elise Haas Fund
Haas Fund Supports Student Interreligious Research on Islam and Judaism
The Walter & Elise Haas Fund has provided the GTU a grant to support the Center for Islamic Studies and the Center for Jewish Studies in their joint programming for this academic year. We are pleased to announce grants for students working on an interreligious research project related to Judaism and Islam. Grants will range from $250 to $500 for individual projects and $500 to $1000 for joint projects, which are strongly encouraged. Student must be in the GTU MA, ThD or PhD degree program focusing on Jewish Studies and/or Islamic Studies and/or have registered for a CJS or CIS class this...
The Center for Islamic Studies (CIS)The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesCIS | Center for Islamic StudiesWalter and Elise Haas FundInterreligiousMadrasa-Midrasha
Center for Jewish Studies Welcomes Deena Aranoff as Director
For immediate release, January 28, 2016 The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS) at the Graduate Theological Union is pleased to welcome Dr. Deena Aranoff as the Center’s new director. Dr. Aranoff, who has worked with CJS and served on the GTU faculty since 2006, takes over the role from Dr. Naomi Seidman, who served as CJS director for the previous 16 years. Dr. Seidman will continue to work with CJS and its students as the Graduate Theological Union’s Koret Professor of Jewish Literature. Dr. Aranoff, whose teaching specialties include rabbinic literature and medieval Jewish...
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesDeena AranoffNaomi Seidman
CTNS Turns 35—and Becomes a GTU Program!
From the Fall 2016 issue of Currents, view PDF On Tuesday, October 18, the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) celebrated its 35th anniversary—and its new beginning as an internal program of the GTU. CTNS became a GTU program unit earlier this year, after a long and successful history as an independent nonprofit affiliated with the GTU. The October 18th celebration featured a retrospective by CTNS Director Robert Russell touching on the major facets of CTNS’s eventful history, as well as words of encouragement from current and former CTNS staff, students, and colleagues. The...
The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS)
CTNS | Center for Theology and the Natural SciencesIan G. Barbour Chair in Theology and ScienceTempleton PrizeRussell Family Fellowship in Religion and ScienceCharles H. Townes Graduate Student FellowshipTheology and ScienceRiess PotterveldRobert John Russell
Naomi Seidman Is Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship
For immediate release, April 7, 2016 The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced that Dr. Naomi Seidman, Koret Professor of Jewish Culture at the Graduate Theological Union, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for 2016. Dr. Seidman is among a diverse group of 178 scholars, artists, and scientists selected to receive the prestigious award this year; Fellows for 2016 were chosen from a field of nearly 3,000 applicants. The Fellowship, granted for Dr. Seidman’s work in the field of literary criticism, will support development of her upcoming book, tentatively titled The Navel of...
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesNaomi Seidman
CTNS Gives GTU an Endowed Chair and Fellowships in Theology and Science Worth Nearly $2.1M
The Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences (CTNS) has given the Graduate Theological Union the endowed Ian G. Barbour Chair in Theology and Science and two endowed fellowships, the Russell Family Fellowship in Religion and Science and the Charles H. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship in Theology and Science. These gifts, valued at nearly $2.1M, mark the latest and most significant step in the year-long transition through which CTNS will shift from being an independently incorporated GTU affiliate to an internal program of the GTU. Founded in 1981, the Center for Theology and the Natural...
CTNS | Center for Theology and the Natural SciencesRobert John RussellRiess Potterveldscience and religionIan G. Barbour Chair in Theology and ScienceCharles H. Townes Graduate Student Fellowship
Making Memories, Taking Responsibility
From the Spring 2017 issue of CurrentsView PDF of article * View PDF of Entire Issue By Carrie Sealine Through her work at the GTU’s Center for Jewish Studies—and a surprising friendship--Lea Heitfeld is keeping cultural memory alive and helping shape a more hopeful future. Lea Heitfeld has been in the news a lot recently. The granddaughter of Nazis, the 31-year-old MA student at the GTU’s Center for Jewish Studies is the unlikely housemate of Ben Stern, a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor. Their unusual friendship has led to interviews with national and international media including the ...
CurrentsCurrents Spring 2017Lea HeitfeldCJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies
The Mysterious Journey of Barbara Green
From the Fall 2016 issue of Currents, view PDF By Doug Davidson Our 2016 Sarlo Award winner discusses theological education, diversity at the GTU, and the joys of writing Dr. Barbara Green, O.P., first heard about the Graduate Theological Union in 1964, when she entered the Dominican Convent in San Rafael, California, to begin her training to become a religious sister. “The priest who taught us would come in and, instead of focusing on Saint Thomas or whatever was scheduled for that day, he’d talk about this exciting new project up in Berkeley where Catholics and Protestants were working...
The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies (CJS)Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (DSPT)Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (JST-SCU)
Barbara GreenSarlo Excellence in Teaching AwardJesuit School of TheologyDSPT | Dominican School of Philosophy & TheologyCJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesInterreligiousDavid's Capacity for CompassionGiambattista PittoniGTU library
CJS at 50: Remembering Our Beginnings and Becomings
From the Spring 2018 issue of SKYLIGHT See a PDF of this article In 1964, just two years after the founding of the Graduate Theological Union as a partnership of Christian seminaries, the school’s dean, John Dillenberger, approached the Conservative and Reform Movements to share his interest in establishing Jewish Studies on campus “to stand in its own right in relation to other studies, and not just as an adjunct to Protestant studies.” The radical vision of the early GTU is well reflected in its desire to establish a home for Jewish studies supported rather than constrained by its...
CJS | The Richard S. Dinner Center for Jewish StudiesCJS@50Naomi Seidman
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Guitar Aficionado
The Four Most Commonly Misused Amp Descriptions and Phrases
Numerous terms related to guitar amp construction, features, and history are commonly misunderstood and misused. In fact, there are so many that it will take more than one Circuit column to cover just the ones that are most important to amp collectors.
Jackson Maxwell
By Mitch Colby
Numerous terms related to guitar amp construction, features, and history are commonly misunderstood and misused. In fact, there are so many that it will take more than one Circuit column to cover just the ones that are most important to amp collectors. Let’s start with the following four:
Point-to-point wiring: True point-to-point wiring (sometimes abbreviated “P2P”) uses rails, which are also known as terminal lug strips, without any circuit board. As a result, the electronic components are basically mounted in air. While this may be good for tone, amps that are built using true point-to-point wiring can be difficult to work on and often become a “rat’s nest” of wiring. Most vintage amps made by Valco (which includes the brands Gretsch, Montgomery Ward/Airline, National, Oahu, Sears/Silvertone, Supro, and more) were constructed this way through the mid Sixities, and some of the larger vintage Silvertone amps have wiring that is particularly messy. More recently, Matchless amps (made by noted Valco amp aficionado Mark Sampson) were wired this way.
Hand-wired: Amps with point-to-point construction are usually hand-wired as well, but the term “hand-wired” can apply to a significantly wider range of construction techniques. Totally hand-wired amps could have components mounted above phenolic or epoxy-glass boards (or wax-impregnated fiberboards) either using strip terminals (Vox), turrets (Marshall, Hiwatt), or eyelets (Fender). Most, but not all, modern “boutique” amps are wired this way. These amps are the easiest to maintain and repair as the components are easy to access for service or replacement.
However, some amps that have printed circuit boards may also be partially hand-wired. Usually this means that their pots, switches, tube sockets, and jacks are hand-wired and mounted securely directly to the chassis. This method is generally more robust and reliable than having the pots and sockets mounted directly to the circuit board for a number of reasons. Many acclaimed boutique amps use printed circuit boards (not that there is anything wrong with that) to facilitate construction and keep costs lower.
“British watts” vs. “American watts”: These terms aren’t as prevalent as they were years ago, particularly during the Seventies. The difference between the two even became the basis for an ad campaign about 35 years ago, when Rose Morris (the worldwide Marshall distributor) and Unicord (the U.S. Marshall distributor) put out advertisements that said something like “Marshall amps are louder because we use British watts, which are louder than American watts.” The terms came about because in England the people in charge of standards chose RMS (root mean square) watts as the way to measure power. Meanwhile, during the same time the U.S. used several different ways to measure power, including RMS, peak power, music power, and others.
Many companies would rate their amps using higher peak power standards, even though the amps actually put out less power than competing amps with a lower RMS power rating. One old U.K. Goodmans speaker I came across had two ratings printed on it: one in British watts and the other in American watts where the American rating was twice the British rating. The real reason that Marshalls were louder is that in the early days many of the amps that were rated at 100 watts actually delivered 100 watts without clipping. When fully driven into overdrive or distortion they could easily put out 150 or more watts, so naturally they sound louder than a distorted amp with peak power of 100 watts.
Plexi: The Marshall “plexi” era dates from around 1965 through the end of 1969, not including reissues. What distinguishes “plexi” Marshalls from others is the material that the front and back panels are made from. The “plexi” panel is a plastic called Perspex, the trade name for an acrylic material also known by the trade names Acrylite, Lucite, and Plexiglas. “Plexi” does not mean see-through, but rather it is a description for a Perspex panel that is painted gold and has black lettering. Marshall amps built before the “plexi” models had either white panels or lettering that was screened directly on the aluminum chassis. There are some JTM45s and JTM45/100 (the first production 100-watt heads) amps that have “plexi” front panels and cream-colored back panels. The term is most commonly misused as a description for hand-wired Marshall amps from 1969 through 1972 that actually had metal panels made of aluminum. While these are very cool amps, they are not “plexi”!
Mitch Colby helped develop many Marshall and Vox amp designs and is the founder of Colby Amplification.
PRS Debuts New Maple Fretboard, Nebula Silver Sky Models
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Maxon Unveils New Apex 808 Pedal
How to Memorize Scales and Unlock the Fretboard
PRS Debuts New Private Stock 35th Anniversary Dragon Guitar
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Al Hidan power station ready to feed Al Bayt stadium
July 18 2018 11:37 PM
Qatar calls on rights body to end ordeal of siege victims
Advisory Council approves draft laws
Deputy Amir opens Institute of Criminal Studies
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QATAR electricity FIFA 2022 World Cup Kahramaa power station Al Bayt stadium
A section of Al Hidan power station.
QNA/Doha
The Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has started operating Al Hidan power station which will provide electricity to Al Bayt Stadium, completing four out of the five stations that are planned to serve the FIFA 2022 World Cup Qatar projects.
President of Kahramaa Essa Hilal al- Kuwari said the station was built at a cost of about QR 138mn and was completed in time with Qatar receiving the mantle of hosting the 2022 World Cup.
The station is built to the highest standards, using technology that ensures sustainable supply of electricity in case of emergency, he said.
The Kahramaa president confirmed the commitment of the corporation in implementing all the infrastructure as per the set schedule based on the directives of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, with the support of the government and as per the strategic plans to develop the electricity network, which serves the vital projects in the country.
He added that the new station is part of the 11th phase of the Qatar Power Transmission System Expansion Plan and one of the five main stations Kahramaa has specified for the 2022 World Cup.
The station will serve Al Bayt Stadium with a voltage of 132/11 kilo volts (kV), a capacity of 80 mega volt amp and will be fed through the South Al Khor station and Semesma with a cable holding voltage of 132 kV with a length of 20 km.
Al-Kuwari said the power station has been developed according to the required standards set by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. The requirements included a capacity of 80 mega volt amp to meet the required loads for running the stadium and other existing facilities such as training fields.
He said Kahramaa follows global standards in all its operations.
Police College to hold graduation ceremony
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QSE launches financial education competition
Doha Bank to hold Al Dana Green Run on February 15
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The William Jones Fund
Monmouth in London
Monmouth in Hong Kong
Monmouth Schools’ Charitable Trust
Previous Projects and Events
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Alumni Interviews
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Girls share their experience of volunteering at the 2016 Monmouth Literary Festival
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HMSGTV News Spring 2016
Lisa; Junior Engineer of the Year
HMSG LAX – Why is Lacrosse such a great sport?
HMSGTV visits ITV
HMSGTV News Christmas 2015 Edition
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The HMSG Renishaw STEM Challenge 2015
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HMSGTV News Christmas Edition 2014
HMSGTV – Hilston High Ropes
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Monmouth goes to St Paul’s
HMSGTV: A Sign for Sara – March 2014
HMSGTV February 2014
You are here: Home » About Us » Development & Alumnae » The William Jones Fund
The William Jones Fund will be launched later in the summer to former pupils of the Haberdashers’ Monmouth Schools. This major new bursaries campaign will be central to the future evolution of Monmouth School for Girls whilst remaining faithful to the founding principles of William Jones.
The William Jones Fund will enable donors to support girls and to choose how their donation is allocated (academic, music, sport). The first telephone campaign at Monmouth will support the launch of the Fund and encourage donors to set up direct debits for regular amounts. Those in a position to donate in excess of £1,500 per annum will have an award named after them.
The cost from September 2018 of nearly £16,000 for a day fee per annum per child is beyond the incomes of many locally. Whether you are able to contribute a small percentage of a day fee or commit to educating a child through their whole school career, all is helpful.
So many have benefited from the generosity of William Jones and his foresight over 400 years ago, but we need to build on his legacy. The endowment provides only half the money needed to meet our current bursary commitments. If Monmouth School is to remain the socially diverse place it is today it is reliant on the generosity of former pupils.
For further information please contact the Development Director, Mrs Clare Anning, development@habsmonmouth.org
The Monmouth Schools’ Charitable Trust
All donations and legacies are channelled through the Monmouth Schools’ Charitable Trust which was established in 2013 as a vehicle separate from the William Jones’s Schools Foundation (the endowment). The Trust was formed to support fundraising at both schools and to help establish a culture of philanthropic giving through donations and legacies.
Under the Monmouth Schools’ Charitable Trust, a William Jones Fund for the benefit of Monmouth School for Girls and a separate William Jones Fund for the benefit of Monmouth School for Boys have been created.
Trustees are predominantly former pupils with a vested interest in the success of fundraising. Most have directly benefited from the generosity of William Jones. We are grateful to those who give up their time to serve as trustees.
A message from Chairman of Monmouth Schools' Chartitable Trust
In the past, a Monmouth School education for girls of ability, from low-income families, was a given. Generations of girls, whether their parents could afford full fees or none, have been educated to the highest standard and gone on to play their part locally and nationally in business, academia, the arts, politics and sport. The Direct Grant system and latterly the Government Assisted Places Scheme (which ended in 1997) made Monmouth accessible for more families at different times in our history.
Over the past few years, the school has reassessed its priorities and focused on much-needed repair and renewal work around teaching and boarding and is currently building a fantastic Performing Arts Centre. This work has inevitably depleted reserves and reduced the amount available to the school from the endowment. The focus now for fundraising is very firmly on the longer term aim to build a new William Jones (Bursary and Scholarship) Fund solely to provide ‘the gift of education’ to as many girls of ability from the local area as possible. The new fund will help with fees for girls who show potential not just academically but also in music or sport.
We believe that a well-rounded education, which encourages children to become independent thinkers and leaders, is a life-changing gift. We believe that every child who is talented, willing to work hard and contribute to the ethos of the school should have access to the first-class education Monmouth provides, regardless of their personal financial circumstance. Please support Monmouth today.
David Hitchcock OBE
Chairman, Monmouth Schools’ Charitable Trust
“Winning a Jones scholarship to Monmouth School for Girls when I was 11 years old (and my family lived in a caravan) changed my life and my opportunities completely. I will never know what my path in life would have been if I had not gone to Monmouth, but I am fairly certain that I may not even have gone to university (no-one in my family had gone before me) and by inference am unlikely to have had careers in so many different areas of life – social work, education, politics, the voluntary sector. Without that scholarship my life would have been much less rich and rewarding, and I suspect I would have given much less back to society.”
Jackie Ballard
Monmouth School for Girls (1964 – 1971)
Monmouth Films - Launching Our Values are Timeless Film
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20 Wedding Don'ts That Are Actually Wedding Dos
Apparently you can wear white to the party (sometimes).
By Lauren Smith McDonough
It might feel like there are a lot of etiquette rules surrounding nuptials, but it turns out a lot of 'em are old-school and made to be broken.
Don't let the groom take over bridal duties.
Good news: According to Lizzy Elingson and Nevin Shetty, founders of Blueprint Registry, men are now more involved in the wedding process, from registry gift selection to floral arrangements. "When both the bride and the groom are involved in the process, it creates a wedding that is more truly reflective of who the couple is."
Don't take snail mail shortcuts.
It's not a wedding faux pas to save paper anymore. "In the age of paperless billing and eco-friendly weddings, evites are becoming more acceptable to send to guests," says Tiffany Hayden, owner of the wedding planning company Detailed. "Especially with resources like Paperless Post and Canva, which create and send gorgeous invitations."
Don't forget about the RSVP cards.
"Though we have not forgone paper invitations, RSVP cards are not seen as an essential component of them," says Courtney Geigle, co-owner of My Wed Style. "Many couples provide a link to a website where guests can RSVP digitally, as well as a phone number for those who aren't web literate." This also makes it easy to change the RSVP status, communicate with the couple about special dietary requests and more.
Don't go without a wedding party.
Dee Gaubert, a wedding planner in Los Angeles and owner of No Worries Event Planning, says more and more couples aren't having bridesmaids or groomsmen for several reasons: "This defuses a huge amount of tension and means no more long lists of measurements and style numbers to organize for bridesmaid gowns and tuxes for the parties."
Don't have men in your bridal party (and vice versa).
"Today it's completely normal to see a man-of-honor or a best woman at the altar next to the couple," says Anne Chertoff, editor and owner of Twirl Weddings. "And for the bride's side to have men standing and for women to stand on the groom's side." Sometimes, even pets are included (how adorable?).
Don't bring mom to the bachelorette party.
"In my experience, bringing mom, grandma or even the groom to a bachelorette has become a wedding 'do,'" says Pamela Cash, teacher at The Artful Bachelorette. "I've seen that brides have a different and much more open relationship with their families these days." She even says sometimes the mom is the wildest one in the bunch!
Don't wear white to a wedding.
Okay, this "do" is very much on a case by case basis. "Not that it's totally wrong these days, but people often have 'all white weddings,'" says Amanda Holding, wedding coordinator at La Bonne Cuisine Catering and Events in Oakland, California. "Our company owners got married recently in a destination wedding in Mexico, and all the guests wore white."
Don't have it anywhere other than the bride's hometown.
Traditionally, a big "do" used to be that the wedding should be in the bride's hometown, but Kris Konopka, president of Classic Limousines of Columbus, Inc, says he sees much less of that in today's world: "Destination weddings are becoming more and more popular and brides and grooms are picking destinations that feel important to them."
Don't let anyone see the bride before the ceremony.
There's a reason first looks and first touches have become increasingly popular: "Couples like to have their moment alone and then get some pictures out of the way before the ceremony," Hayden says.
Don't pick a wedding dress that's not white.
"There are also all kinds of color wedding dresses these days. It's not just white and Ivory," Holding says. "I see a lot of blush, I've seen hot pink, it really is whatever the bride wants to do."
Don't let bridesmaids go rogue.
According to Diane Gottsman, a National Etiquette Expert, not all bridesmaids dresses have to match — in fact, mismatched dresses have become a new trend. "Each girl can buy a dress of her choosing (with the brides approval) that she can wear again later."
Don't sit on the wrong side.
If you've seen those "pick a seat not a side" signs, you're probably aware that no longer do you have to sit on the groom's side just because you know him best. "Since the families are joining, the concept is that after the ceremony, they will all be one family anyway," Holding explains.
Don't walk down the aisle without dad.
"The tradition of the dad walking the bride down the aisle is kind of fading away," Holding says. "More often than not, I see the mom and the dad walk the bride down the aisle." Sometimes the mom and the dad of the groom walk him down the aisle too.
Don't serve alcohol before the ceremony.
"Now brides and grooms are serving Champagne before the ceremony," Elingson and Shetty say. It's not uncommon to find a small bar with signature cocktails sitting at the front of the ceremony location so guests can enjoy a beverage during the vows.
Don't party until after the receiving line.
"I think the concept of a receiving line is kind of old news," Holding says. "People often do a group picture right when the ceremony is over instead." This allows the couple to capture all of their loved ones in a snapshot right after they've said their vows.
Don't stray from the traditional tiered cake.
"Many couples have opted for alternatives to a traditional wedding cake," Chertoff says. "Today you have couples skipping the cake altogether for everything from candy bars and donuts to ice cream trucks to pastries served at the table." Hey, if it tastes good, who cares?
Don't forget to toss the bouquet.
"Many brides have decided to skip this tradition, as well as the garter toss completely," Chertoff says. "An alternative idea that became popular in the 21st century is honoring a key woman in the bride's life, such as her mom or grandmother, by calling her up and 'gifting' her the bride's bouquet in front of everyone at the reception."
Don't ask for cash on your registry.
"Many experts are still on the fence, but having a honeymoon registry is generally accepted these days," Gaubert says. "Cash registries are starting to become mainstream and are gaining acceptance." That way, guests can gift the couple what they really want.
Don't give a toast at your own wedding.
"For decades the wedding toasts were limited to dads, the best man and the maid of honor, but today's couples want to say thank you to all of their guests too," Chertoff says. This is especially common if the couple is hosting the wedding (read: paying for it).
Don't wait to go on your honeymoon.
"More couples are opting to not go on their honeymoon right after the wedding but waiting anywhere from a few weeks to a year to finally take it," Elingson and Shetty say. For some, timing just isn't right and they'll be able to enjoy their trip more if they postpone it for the future.
15 Genius Trash-to-Treasure Crafts
From: Good Housekeeping US
Lauren Smith McDonough Senior Editor Lauren is a senior editor at Hearst.
These Bird Feeders Are Totally Squirrel Proof
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> Weddings
Michelle Keegan reveals details of Mark Wright's sweet marriage proposal
November 04, 2016 - 08:32 GMT Gemma Strong Michelle Keegan reveals details of Mark Wright's proposal as she reveals pressure of high-profile marriage
It's been 17 months since Michelle Keegan and Mark Wright were married in St Mary's Church in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk on 24 May. And this week the Our Girl star reminisced about the romantic moment her husband popped the question.
"It was all planned," the 29-year-old revealed during an appearance on The Jonathan Ross Show, which airs on Friday. "It was when we were in Dubai when we were on holiday and it was four days into the holiday, so I had no idea.
Michelle Keegan has revealed details of Mark Wright's proposal in September 2013
"He did it on the beach, and there was a table set out with a waiter and candles," Michelle recalled. "When we first started speaking actually, I did say that one day I'd like to get proposed to in a white dress and all that, the fairytale.
"He told me a story that on the beach there was going to be a white party, so I got a white dress, didn't think anything of it because it was two years down the line. But he had it all planned out, so I wore the white dress, I was on the beach, it was very romantic!"
Loved-up Michelle and Mark are now enjoying the early stages of married life – but having a high-profile relationship isn't without its difficulties.
The star has revealed that coping with public scrutiny of her marriage was one of the things that helped her bond with Bobby Moore's wife Tina, who she plays in upcoming ITV drama, Tina and Bobby.
Bobby Moore pictured with his wife Tina
"I met her at the read-through and she came on set too for a day," Michelle told Jonathan. "Don't get me wrong, it's very intimidating because you want to do it well for them and you want to do the story justice, but she was lovely. She's so warm and welcoming, she was a really nice lady."
Talking about how her relationship with Mark mirrors Bobby and Tina's, the star added: "I could relate to the story and the reason why Tina found it hard."
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The British Pharmaceutical Codex 1911. > The Preparations. > Olea. Oils. >
Oleum Amygdalae, B.P., Almond Oil.
Prunus dulcis
Related entries: Bitter almond, Sweet almond - Sweet almond - Oil of Bitter Almond
Almond oil (Oleum Amygdalae Expressum, U.S.P.; Expressed Oil of Almond) is extracted by pressure from bitter or sweet almonds, in which it exists to the extent of about 40 per cent. It occurs as a clear, pale yellow, almost odourless, oily liquid, and has a bland, nutty taste. Specific gravity, 0.915 to 0.920 (0.910 to 0.915 at 25°). It should remain clear at a temperature of -10°, and should not congeal until it has been cooled to nearly -20° (absence of olive oil and lard oil). If 10 mils of the oil be mixed with 15 mils of a 15 per cent. solution of sodium hydroxide and 10 mils of alcohol, the mixture allowed to stand at a temperature of 35° to 40°, with occasional agitation, until clear, and then diluted with 100 mils of water, the clear solution thus obtained will, upon the subsequent addition of excess of hydrochloric acid, set free a layer of oleic acid, which, when separated, washed with warm water, and clarified by heating on a water-bath, will remain liquid if cooled to 15°. The fatty acid should also, on being mixed with an equal volume of alcohol (95 per cent.), yield a clear solution at 15°, and not deposit any fatty acids, nor become turbid on the further addition of one volume of alcohol (distinction from olive, arachis, cotton seed, sesame, and other fixed oils). The saponification value is from 188 to 200, and the iodine value from 95 to 100. Apricot kernel oil has a higher iodine value than almond oil, and is often substituted for it, or used to adulterate it.
Slightly soluble in alcohol, in ether (1 in 2.25), in chloroform or benzene in all proportions.
Constituents.—Almond oil consists chiefly of olein, with a small proportion of the glyceride of linolic acid, and other glycerides; it contains no stearin.
Action and Uses.—The oil is nutritive, demulcent, and laxative. It may be administered in the form of an emulsion. It is applied externally as an emollient for chapped hands and slight excoriations. It becomes rancid less readily than olive oil, and forms a whiter ointment with white wax and spermaceti; it is therefore preferred in the preparation of cold creams and similar toilet articles. It is the basis of many brilliantines and is added to lotions for the hair. Mixed with an equal quantity of lime water, one-eighth of its bulk of glycerin, and a suitable perfume, it forms "Glycerin and Lime Cream," a popular application for the hair. As a mild laxative dose for children, 4 mils (1 fluid drachm) of the oil maybe given. Sterilised almond oil is prepared by heating it for half an hour at 120° to 140° in small flasks or bottles, the necks of which are tightly plugged with cotton wool.
Dose.—4 to 16 mils (1 to 4 fluid drachms).
PREPARATIONS.
Ceratum Galeni, B.P.C.—GALEN'S CERATE. Syn.—Unguentum Refrigerans; Cold Cream; Parogen Cold Cream.
Almond oil, 50; white beeswax, 12.5; soft paraffin, white, 12.5; borax, 1; oil of rose, 0.1; rose water (undiluted), 25. Especially suitable for toilet use. If a similar preparation be required as a basis for medicaments the borax should be omitted, or preference should be given to the modification of Unguentum Aquae Rosae.
Emulsio Olei Amygdalae, B.P.C.—EMULSION OF ALMOND OIL. 1 in 8.
Used as a simple cough mixture. Dose.—8 to 30 mils (2 to 8 fluid drachms).
Lotio Crinalis, B.P.C.—HAIR LOTION.
Almond oil, 12.5; strong solution of ammonia, 12.5; oil of rosemary, 0.52; alcohol, 50; honey water to 100.
Sir Charles Locock's hair lotion or wash is prepared by mixing 120 grains of expressed oil of nutmeg or mace, 4 fluid ounces of spirit of rosemary, and 1 fluid ounce of olive oil, 2 fluid drachms of solution of ammonia, and 10 fluid ounces of rose water.
The British Pharmaceutical Codex, 1911, was published by direction of the Council of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.
‹ Oleum Amygdalae Amarae. Oil of Bitter Almond. up Oleum Anethi, B.P. Oil of Dill. ›
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EDWARD PILLING
John Brant (deceased)
Notice ID:
7th June 2012, 11:51 to 7th July 2012, 11:51
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of John Brant deceased, late of Ascot Nursing Home, Burleigh Road, Ascot, Oxon who died on the 24th December 2011, is required to send particulars thereof in writing to the undersigned solicitors for the personal representatives of the deceased on or before the 24th day of August 2012 after which date the Executor will proceed to distribute the Estate having regard only to claims and interests of which they have notice.
Dated this 31st day of May 2012.
Messrs. Edward Pilling & Co. 122 London Road, Headington, Oxford, OX3 9AG. Solicitors to the Executor
Olive Barnes Deceased
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Olive Barnes deceased, late of 70 Masons Road,
Eric Howell Thomas (otherwise Peter Thomas) Deceased
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Eric Howell Thomas (otherwise Peter Thomas)
Keith Allan Nash (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Keith Allan Nash deceased, late of 430 Marston
Donald Cecil Knott (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Donald Cecil Knott deceased, late of 22
Dorothy Joan Carter (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Dorothy Joan Carter deceased, late of 39 St.
Notice effective from Thu 10 Jan 13 to Sat 9 Feb 13
Fiona Beresford (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Fiona Beresford deceased, late of 47 Old High
June Mary Allen (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of June Mary Allen deceased, late of 27 Randolph
James Brand (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 Any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of James Brand deceased, late of 100 Gidley
Marion Taylor (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925. Any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Marion Taylor deceased, late of 14
Ernest Oliver Raymond Westell (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Ernest Oliver Raymond Westell deceased, late
Gwendoline Annie Huxstep (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 Any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Gwendoline Annie Huxstep deceased, late of
Beryl Anne Phipps (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925 Any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Beryl Anne Phipps deceased, late of 16
Ronald Smith (deceased)
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Ronald Smith deceased, late of 59 The Grates,
Notice effective from Thu 1 Dec 11 to Sat 31 Dec 11
FRED LOUIS ADLER
FRED LOUIS ADLER Deceased Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Fred Louis Adler
Notice effective from Thu 27 Oct 11 to Sat 26 Nov 11
Pauline Pricilla Murray (otherwise Pauline Pracilla Murray) Deceased
Pursuant to the Trustee Act 1925, any person having a claim against or an interest in the estate of Pauline Pricilla Murray (otherwise Pauline
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Producer Price Differential and the California Federal Milk Marketing Order
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Producer Price Differential with the California Federal Milk Marketing Order
A new concept for the California dairy industry is the Producer Price Differential (PPD).
In the Federal Milk Marketing Order system, each month dairy producers receive the value of the three components – butterfat, protein, and other solids. In addition to the component value, dairy producers receive the Producer Price Differential.
The PPD is calculated each month by the FMMO after all the reports of milk receipts and utilization have been received.
First, the FMMO calculates the value of all milk sold and used at all dairy plants that are part of the Federal order pool. The milk utilization is valued at the applicable Class prices announced for that month. The value of all the pooled milk in the FMMO is summed. That is called the “classified value.”
Next, the FMMO calculates the value of all milk received at pool plants during the month at the component values. The components are butterfat, protein, and other solids. The total value of all milk delivered from dairy farms to pool plants is called the “producer value.”
Finally, the producer value is subtracted from the classified value. The difference is divided by the total pounds of mill received at all pool plants during the month. This is the PPD.
The PPD is the method that FMMOs use to distribute the classified value of the milk to all dairy farmers. The PPD goes higher in months where there are more Class I sales. Class I is typically the highest Class price. With more Class I sales there is more money in the classified value total.
The announced PPD is for milk delivered to processing plants in Los Angeles. The location differential for Los Angeles is $2.10. There are five different location differentials for California counties. The PPD is adjusted to the location differential of the county where the receiving plant is located.
For example, the location differential in Tulare county is $1.60 per Cwt. The difference between the location differential in Los Angeles and the location differential in Tulare is $0.50 per Cwt. If the PPD is announced for a month at $0.65 per Cwt. in Los Angeles, $0.50 would be subtracted to get the PPD for milk delivered in Tulare county. The Tulare county PPD would be $0.15 per Cwt.
Dairy producers shipping milk to plans in counties with different location differentials will receive the same values per pound for their components. But they would receive different vales per Cwt. for the PPD because it is adjusted to the location differential where the plant is located.
If the producer value of milk for a month is more than the classified value the PPD will be negative. Negative PPDs are deducted from the component values that a dairy producer receives.
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Safety & Infrastructure Division
Ambulancias y servicios de emergencias sanitarias
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Enter the Support Portal
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Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure Launches Incident Command System Application
Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure has launched Intergraph Planning & Response, an application for managing major incidents and events. The system integrates and coordinates resources, procedures and communications during large-scale emergencies, natural disasters, festivals, sporting events and more. It supports individual or multiple agencies and works across jurisdictions and tiers of command.
Formerly a regional Hexagon product, Intergraph Planning & Response has been updated with new features, including a mobile app, and is now globally available. Unveiled at HxGN LIVE, Hexagon’s international conference,Intergraph Planning & Response comprehensively fulfills incident command system (ICS) requirements. It harnesses the collective capabilities of diverse responders and provides a single source of information throughout the entire life cycle for safe, efficient and effective operations.
Unlike applications that only support specific capabilities or stages of major incident and event management, Intergraph Planning & Response is a single, unified solution for allagencies, needs and stages of operation. It supports single or unified incident command: on-scene, in tactical operations centers and at emergency operations centers.
Intergraph Planning & Response enables a highly diverse group of public and private-sector agencies, which may rarely work together, to operate as a coherent team with common purpose and direction. It provides overarching command, coordination and oversight without changing the systems and processesresponders rely on in their day-to-day operations.
“The scale and complexity of major incidents and events set them apart from routine incident management. Incident command system standards and protocols provide a framework for overcoming these challenges, but agencies also need comprehensive tools to put ICS into action as efficiently as possible,” said Steve Marz, vice president of product management, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure. “Intergraph Planning & Response provides a complete application for managing the entire life cycle of operations, from planning through response and recovery.”
A web-based application, it can be hosted remotely at secure facilities or in the cloud, which promotes resilience. Users access the system via the web, which enables universal access and supports disconnected operation. A mobile app provides access to tasks, maps and messages on tablets and smartphones.
A common operating picture, organization chart and line of command, strategic objectives and action lists are integral to the system’s operation and can be adapted on the fly in response to changing needs. Intergraph Planning & Response features an interface to Intergraph Computer-Aided Dispatch (I/CAD) and can be integrated with other external systems.
The global leader in public safetyand security, Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure helps protect 1 in 12 people worldwide. Hexagon’s public safety and security solutions improve the quality, accuracy and availability of critical information, increasing performance and productivity, while reducing the total cost of ownership for mission-critical IT investments.
Emily Arnold
Huntsville, AL, United States
Email: emily.arnold@hexagonsi.com
© Hexagon AB y/o sus empresas subsidiarias. Todos los derechos reservados.
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Carl P. Leubsdorf: The White House is a mess
By Carl P. LeubsdorfThe Dallas Morning News
Accused of misleading officials about possibly illegal pre-inaugural dealings with the Russians, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned just hours after White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said President Donald Trump had "full confidence" in him.
Days earlier, Conway ran afoul of ethics rules for publicly promoting Ivanka Trump's clothing line. Press secretary Sean Spicer struggles daily to reconcile Trump's statements with the truth, and a presidential pal says the chief of staff is "in over his head."
If that were not enough, the president's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch, told senators it was "disheartening" and "demoralizing" when Trump denounced the "so-called judge" who ruled against his hurriedly issued, insufficiently vetted order halting immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.
By all accounts, Trump's nascent White House is a mess. The two main reasons: the president's often ill-considered, unverifiable comments. And the fact he created an organizational nightmare.
The first problem may be unique and insoluble. Trump's propensity to tweet and make factually wrong, politically dubious statements reflects continuing resistance to the differences between campaigning and governing.
But his organizational problems are neither unique nor insoluble. They require the recognition that, in organizing his White House, Trump made two basic errors that have hobbled other new presidents.
First, the inexperienced president-elect put an inexperienced chief of staff in charge of an inexperienced staff. Second, he gave multiple aides direct access, ensuring no single person has sufficient authority to exert discipline over the staff and its activities.
The result: contradictory comments on major issues and damaging, high-profile missteps. Even before published reports that Flynn's conversation with the Russian ambassador may have broken the law against private citizens dealing with foreign governments — and lied about it to other top officials — the Justice Department apparently warned the White House he might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
But officials did nothing until the story surfaced publicly Monday in The Washington Post. An hour after Conway professed Trump's continuing confidence in Flynn, Spicer said the president was still evaluating the situation. Six hours later, Flynn was out.
That's just the tip of the iceberg. Trump's misstatements and contradictions about his positions and intentions are complicating efforts by congressional Republicans to write complex tax reform and Obamacare revision legislation. And the Flynn affair deepens suspicions about the darkest cloud over the administration: the nature of Trump's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in the campaign and since.
The new president laid the basis for subsequent problems the day he named Steve Bannon, the former head of a conservative website, as his chief strategist and senior counselor, and Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, as chief of staff.
In giving his two top aides equal status, Trump seemed to echo former President Ronald Reagan's simultaneous choice of longtime adviser Edwin Meese as his counselor, in charge of policy, and James Baker as chief of staff, operating the White House day to day.
But Baker, a Commerce Department official before becoming a key figure in two presidential campaigns, quickly asserted his primacy over Meese, thanks to his greater efficiency, excellent staff hires and the tacit support of Michael Deaver, the No. 3 aide, and Reagan's wife, Nancy. As a result, Reagan's staff operated smoothly.
Priebus has failed to match that, prompting presidential pal Chris Ruddy to say he is "in over his head." And Trump compounded matters by giving other top advisers direct access, notably Conway, another neophyte who repeatedly touts her closeness to Trump; Flynn; and Ivanka's husband, Jared Kushner, perhaps the most powerful adviser of all.
Ironically, the most direct parallels are with two Democratic presidents, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Carter, the last president to start with no chief of staff, gave multiple aides access. It took 2 years before he gave longtime right-hand adviser, Hamilton Jordan, the title. Clinton was the most recent president whose chief of staff had minimal governmental experience. Mack McLarty, a genial fellow Arkansan, lasted 17 months until experienced Washington hand Leon Panetta replaced him.
Insider accounts indicate repeated high-level jockeying. Trump's hard-line actions suggest Bannon's dominance, abetted by policy chief Stephen Miller. But Kushner was apparently crucial in Flynn's ouster, and Conway is bolstering her position by expanding her staff.
This would matter less with a president knowledgeable on both policy details and governmental operations. It even embarrassed the most experienced person in Trump's White House, Vice President Mike Pence, who repeated misinformation from Flynn in television interviews.
Keeping Trump from being Trump may be difficult. But presidents enjoy their peak influence at the outset, and failure to correct the organizational dysfunction could hamper his ability to achieve his ambitious goals.
— Carl P. Leubsdorf is the former Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Readers may write to him via email at: carl.p.leubsdorf@gmail.com.
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HollywoodNews.com > *NEWS > Tron: Legacy and Spy Kids 3D mashup trailer
Mon, Aug 8 2011 | Published in *NEWS, CELEBS, HEADLINES, MOVIES, TV
Tron: Legacy and Spy Kids 3D mashup trailer
HollywoodNews.com: A close friend of mine put this up, so thank goodness I actually liked it… It mashes a Tron: Legacy trailer, fashioned off the first terrific teaser and uses Spy Kids 3: Game Over footage. Aside from a bit of awkward George Clooney as Bruce Boxleitner dubbing, it’s pretty successful. More importantly, as someone who really hated Tron: Legacy, this made me laugh my ass off.
Considering that Rodriguez’s 2003 sequel cost just $39 million, it’s almost offensive how much more exciting, colorful and imaginative the film was than the $200 million would-be franchise reboot that was positioned as ‘the next big thing’. Spy Kids 3D has some issues (too little of our adult stars for one), but it’s a stunningly exciting bit of family-friendly action filmmaking and it’s ahead-of-its-time 3D work still holds up, even if it is the last of the old-fashioned red-and-blue technique. The trailer accomplishes two things. It makes me hate Tron: Legacy even more while making me want to watch Spy Kids 3D again. And, as a side benefit, it reminds me to look forward to this month’s Spy Kids 4: Island of the Lost Dreams.
Photo by Walt Disney Pictures
To read more go to MENDELSON’S MEMOS
To see celebrity photo galleries click here
Tags: 3-D films, Bruce Boxleitner, Computer-animated films, Dimension films, Entertainment/Culture, film, george clooney, Human Interest, Miramax films, Spy, Spy films, Spy Kids, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Spy Kids trilogy, Tron
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If you subscribe to BBC History Magazine Print or Digital Editions then you can unlock 10 years’ worth of archived history material fully searchable by Topic, Location, Period and Person. Please enter your number below.
Elsie and Mairi go to War: Two Extraordinary Women on the Western Front
Christina Hardyment enjoys a book on women ambulance drivers of the First World War
Reviewed by: Christina Hardyment
Author: Diane Atkinson
Publisher: Random House
Price (RRP): £20
For sheer dash and gumption, it would be hard to beat the war careers of Elsie Knocker and Mairi Gooden-Chisholm.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, they were already keen motor cyclists, and met each other roaring around Hampshire and Dorset lanes competing in races and reliability trials. Having signed up as London despatch riders, they were invited to join the mobile ambulance corps which was being set up on the Belgian front line by Dr Hector Munro, a socialist vegetarian who supported both the suffragettes and nudism.
The story of their extraordinary perseverance and resource under fire close to the Belgian front line on the banks of the flooded Iser is both enthralling and, from history’s perspective, heartbreaking. Soon the only women to be allowed so close to the action, they became both ministering angels and inspirational mascots for the thousands of soldiers who passed through their care, and were treated with touching respect by the Germans themselves. The women drove ambulances out into no-man’s land and dragged wounded soldiers into them, saving countless lives. On leave, they toured Britain raising funds to pay for more ambulances and comforts for soldiers.
Diane Atkinson has used their own wartime diaries and photographs, the book that Elsie later wrote and an impressive range of other sources to map a vivid and accurate record of
their valour. She also explores the aftermath of their lives; somewhat tragic for the restless and flirtatious Elsie; friend-filled and fulfilling for the steadier Mairi.
Christina Hardyment is a regular reviewer for BBC History Magazine
Book reviews: World Wars
The final days and death of Queen Victoria
Octavia: Daughter of God
The Great Silence 1918–20: Living in the Shadow of the Great War
The Making of the First World War
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With 2 to coming regulation time long lee who tied
admin June 3, 2019
The Texans need to get more from Foreman, their third-round draft pick in 2017.That leaves just Turkey.If this kid figures prominently in the future of the sport, count us in, please.What’s the risk: Even with good seasons from Mathieu, Jackson and Reid, the Texans allowed an average of 260 passing yards per game, which ranked 28th in the NFL.
LaFell should be OK after being limited.The surge in runs ties him for the team lead with 20.The Islanders have seen their goals against go up incrementally in each of the two campaigns since Nielsen left.The pitch to Fowler worked.
Now we get ready to see what the future holds for the new WWE champ as the Superstar Shakeup looms.We kindly ask for privacy as we navigate this transition.Here’s a closer look at the safety who spent the previous three seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars: What it means: The Texans needed — and still need — to make moves in the secondary after not re-signing safety Tyrann Mathieu and defensive back Kareem Jackson earlier in the week.
You make it enjoyable and you still care for to keep it sensible.Statistically, when people raise it, it’s because they fell short on the other end.To find all players born within a certain month and year, for example all players born in December of 1985, choose the month and year with the drop down boxes and then choose the ‘Month and Year Search’ option.So all I’ll focus on now is getting some rest and pitching in five days.As fast as possible, complete all reps of each exercise before moving on to the next.
If Justin Tucker Jersey you would like to search for all players born on a certain day, for example all players born on December 25th in any year, choose the month and day with the drop down boxes and then choose the ‘Month and Day Search’ option.The Kings can’t lament about the money wasted.To search for players who were born on a certain date, for example all players born on December 25, choose the month, day and year with the drop down boxes and then choose the ‘Full Date Search’ option.And since the article is based around John Tavares, I’ll add in a trade scenario involving Tavares.In leading his New England Patriots to an AFC Championship Game victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, Brady will be making his ninth appearance in…
ET Location: Folsom Field — Boulder, Colorado TV: FS1 | Live stream: fuboTV:
�?Here we are with Q1 results in the books;
She’d never missed more than a handful of days on the court, but rehab wasn’t proceeding at the pace she’d hoped, and weeks on the bench bled into months;
Though the On Display singer told Us that the two were good in 2014, , their feud turned nasty once more in 2018 as seen in an exclusive Us trailer http://www.officialshopravensonline.com/Justin_Tucker_Jersey_Cheap for season 9 of the hit Bravo series;
MetLife Stadium is the only NFL stadium which is the home of two NFL teams.Eric Ebron takes shot at ‘Patriot way bull’ while recruiting Landon Collins Landon Collins is about to become one of the best defensive players on the free agent market, and he is already being recruited by many of his peers.
They used those draft picks to take Josh Bailey and Aaron Ness , while the Preds grabbed Colin Wilson with the seventh overall selection.Still, his bell-weathered play in net ensured that the Islanders came away with a 5 win.Al was pure hockey.Continue until prescribed number of total sets are performed Strength : Complete all sets of an exercise at http://www.bearsnflofficialsprostores.com/sherrick-mcmanis-jersey-for-sale-c-33.html the same time with rests in between.
He was replaced by Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fame and Crowded House frontman Neil Finn .Louis and spanned nine periods of play.Sharon Osbourne opens up about son, Jack’s recent attack while getting coffee last week, sharing, Chaos as usually with the family…Like they usually do, the owner wins OK, we’re on the phone and we have been on the phone with Rosen sliding beyond six.
Jeez, that’s tough, but I love how vague this question is.Clark Gillies, who was a teammate Sherrick McManis Authentic Jersey of Nystrom’s on the Islanders dynasty said that if you had an issue with playing time and you talked to Torrey, he’d tell you to talk to Arbour instead.LeBron is not about making the best of it.that exists in New Orleans because the players aren’t marooned on a franchise they no longer want to play for, but it’s obviously not an easy task to try your hardest for a club that’s openly unenthused about keeping you around.
He’d be a nice pick
21.Lamping was the president of the St.Maybe before the game they sign cornerback Tony McRae off the practice squad.For decades, the league did not recognize the threat the MLBPA posed, and by the time it did, the most powerful labor union in the United States was born.
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Flames and Flares
Thermal, Automation
Infrared measurements in an environment with flames and flares is challenging. To understand why this is, and how engineers can develop solutions in the face of this complexity, the nature of flames and flares must first be considered and applied to the key ideas of thermography.
Flames and Flares - an Overview
A flame is not an object, but more a term associated with combustion. In order for combustion to occur, you need fuel and oxidant. The chemical reactions between the two produce heat, water vapor, carbon dioxide, residues (unburned materials) and many other by-products. What we call a flame is actually the visible part of this reaction, limited by a three-dimensional fast moving envelope. Flame color depends on a lot of parameters, the first ones being blackbody radiation and spectral band of emission. For a wood fire (and other materials as well) the red part of a flame is the coolest part, then it is orange, yellow, and white. Blue appears when soot proportionally diminishes.
As well as temperature, the fuel substance in a combustion affects the visible color, for example:
Sodium - bright yellow flame
Calcium chloride - yellowish red flame
Sodium chloride - bright yellow/orange flame
Copper - bright green flame
Manganese chloride - pale yellow/green flame
On the other hand, a flare results from a pyrotechnic effect. It produces an intense and localized heat source, at a high radiance, but no explosion.
Figure 1: Thermal Monitoring of Flare
Thermography of Flames and Flares
What connects flames and flares is the fact that although they emit IR radiation, they are not objects. They are not defined by a clearly delimited external surface. As a result, there are a number of key concerns regarding the measurement of flame/flare temperature using an IR camera.
Digital values (or counts) vary linearly with radiance.
The target is opaque (no transmission through it). In this case, there are only two parameters to consider - emissivity and reflectance. A flame/flare is absolutely not an opaque target, but a semi-transparent one. There is a region in MWIR where a flame is quasi transparent (3,9µm -through flame filter). But there is no wavelength for which a flame is opaque, except maybe in the presence of a lot of unburnt particles, soot, etc.
Flames and flares radiate like a gas with some rays. An equivalent emissivity would depend on the density of CO2, the temperature and obviously the spectral transmittance. Grey hypothesis is always verified when using a narrow band filter.
The reflection at the surface of a flame or a flare can be neglected.
It should be accepted that the reflected radiation of the foreground environment (radiation which is reflected by the object) is the same from all directions, and can be expressed with a black/grey body approximation. Therefore, it can be described by a single temperature.
Similar to the flame/flare, the atmosphere contains a lot of CO2. What differs is the temperature level – low for the atmosphere vs. high for the rest. Selecting a common wavelength of absorption would make a calibration very sensitive to atmospheric CO2 content.
Constant atmospheric temperature cannot be considered on long distances.
Of particular importance is the shape of the following graph, which indictaes the radiant intensity of an exhaust plume (taken to be similar in profile to flames and flares) at different wavelengths.
From the figure above, the deep and rather broad absorption band of carbon dioxide around 4.25 µm seems to offer a good opportunity to measure the temperature of flames and flares since they contain high concentrations of CO2. However, there is an issue with this type of measurement, as the identical nature of both emission and absorption spectra means the carbon dioxide in the measurement path (i.e. the atmosphere) will absorb the emission from the carbon dioxide in the flame/flare. Also effective calibration can alleviate this problem to some extent, if the real path differs from the path used in calibration, this presents a source of error. The reasons for the difference between these paths can include; the length of the path, its CO2 concentration, or the temperature (or a combination of all three).
It might give good enough results at very short distance with a flame/flare structure that is very stable in time. In general, a narrow band filter at 4.25 µm is a good solution for detection of CO2 emission at short distances (maximum a few meters) where the atmospheric absorption is still at reasonable values. But it is not adapted for measurements.
Whatever the distance, the emission of CO2 at a high temperature is also detectable. The width of a gas absorption band – and by that the width of the emission spectrum – increases with the temperature of the gas. The hot CO2 of the flame/flare will therefore have a broader emission spectrum than the absorption spectrum of cold CO2 in the measurement path. The emission band will be attenuated, mainly in the middle, while the outskirts will be less damped. The figure above shows the measured spectral radiant intensity from an exhaust plume at a long distance. Note that the emission is completely extinguished in the middle of the CO2 band, while two narrow emission bands remain on each side. These two spikes are called Blue Spike, at 4.18 µm, and Red Spike at 4.50 µm. Obviously the second one is larger than the other.
Red Spike filter is commonly installed in cameras, and its calibration is fairly easy. A single calibration time (ca. 80 µs) is often enough to cover a range 450 °C > 1950 °C (Red Spike + ND1).
Radiance Measurement
The radiance unit is built-in for all FLIR ATS-US cameras (RBF calibration at fixed integration times). That same unit is available for FLIR ATS-FR and FLIR ATS-SWE cameras (HyperCAL calibration), once the integration time(s) is(are) determined. See RIR4 - Radiance from CNUCdata.
Note that the displayed radiance is at the camera level. For long distances, the mean atmospheric transmittance can be evaluated by software (Lowtran, Modtran, other model) and then the radiation emitted by the object can be recalculated.
If the flame is of blackbody-type, because of particles and/or soot, then its emissivity is 1. But the apparent temperature corresponds to that of the outer surface and not the core. For an evaluation (not true absolute measurement) at a very short distance (approximately 2 meters), FLIR suggests the following procedure. Two narrow-band filters are needed: one at 3.9 µm, and another one for CO2 (4.25 µm or Red Spike).
A. Make sure that the flame is spatially and temporally stable.
B. Place a thermocouple inside the flame, and take the temperature value given by its controller.
C. Select the through flame filter at 3.9 µm. Aim at the thermocouple with a ROI, and adjust the emissivity (assumed high because thermocouple is oxidized) so that camera gives the same temperature as thermocouple controller.
D. Then, switch to CO2 absorption filter. Without changing the location of the ROI, and assuming that the thermocouple and the flame have the same temperature, adjust the emissivity in order to get the same temperature as the thermocouple controller. You then get the local apparent emissivity of the CO2, which can be used elsewhere.
It must be noted here that we assume that the object is located where the flame is opaque. But this location does not exist! Then, we assume that the apparent emissivity is the same anywhere in the flame. In any case, this is more for comparing different combustion settings rather than for accurate absolute temperatures, and only in a laboratory. In the case the distance is very long, the flame duration is very short. Also, the density of CO2 is changing very quickly. It is, therefore, best to consider radiance and not temperature.
For more information, download information on a major application - flare stack monitoring: Flare_Stack_WhitePaper.pdf
Thermal, Vision
Vision, Automation
Woodchip Stock Pile Spontaneous Combustion Early Detection
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Strategy 2015-2020 Overview
Progressing the Strategy
Progress in foundations
Progress with people
Progress with partners
Progress in enablers
Core academic disciplines
Staff community
Informing decision makers
Sharing the wonder
Support, processes and technology
Acting courageously
Developing this strategy
The Enablers section sets out our commitment to strength and diversify our revenues, provide professional support, consistent processes and appropriate technology for our staff and students, and act courageously and innovatively when pursuing new opportunities.
Strengthening and diversifying our revenues
Imperial continues to seek philanthropic investment to advance our academic mission with a comprehensive strategy in place to seek support at all levels.
A £12M gift from the James Dyson Foundation is enabling the construction of a new home for the Dyson School of Design Engineering. The new building will enhance the educational experience, facilitating cross-disciplinary collaboration and inspiring entrepreneurial thinking through the provision of new teaching labs, cutting-edge fabrication and robotics workshops, real-world testing scenarios and flexible, open working spaces.
The Brahmal Vasudevan Multi Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena is the first of its kind in Europe, enabling engineers to test the next generation of aerial robotics for urban environments and extreme conditions. It was made possible thanks to a £1.25 million gift from alumnus Mr Brahmal Vasudevan (who graduated in Aeronautical Engineering in 1990).
A £2m donation from the Mohn Westlake Foundation enabled the 2017 opening of the Invention Rooms – a new community innovation space at Imperial’s White City Campus. The Invention Rooms provides hands-on prototyping and fabrication workspaces in which staff, students, entrepreneurs, school children and members of the public can come together, test their creativity and share the wonder of science and innovation.
A recent £5m gift from the Lees Charitable Foundation chaired by Dr Richard Lee (Chem Eng 1960, PhD 1964), will provide scholarships for physicians wishing to complete a PhD as part of their medical training.
Enabling talent and Letting research fly
Enabling talent
President’s Scholar Orla Williams (right) is an undergraduate medic and also serves as Chair of the Student Action for Refugees Society. In 2016-17, 1,338 donors generously gave £157,016 to the President’s Scholarship Fund, supporting 46 scholars. By relieving the financial burden on students, President’s Scholarships enable talented people to fulfil their potential at the College and enjoy a rich and varied university experience.
Letting research fly
The number of total donors supporting the College has increased from 6,276 in 2013-14 to 11,296 in 2016-17, an increase of 80%. They include a £1.25 million gift from alumnus Mr Brahmal Vasudevan, to establish the Brahmal Vasudevan Multi Terrain Aerial Robotics Arena - the first of its kind in Europe.
Acting courageously and innovatively when pursuing new opportunities
2017 saw the launch of the President’s Excellence Fund for Frontier Research and Excellence Fund for Learning and Teaching Innovation as part of Imperial’s strategic commitment to invest new funds to pursue new and risky ideas. The Fund dedicates £1 million per year to reward excellence while promoting courageous and innovative ideas in research and teaching. This is part of Imperial’s strategic commitment to invest new funds to pursue new and risky ideas. Following the success of the first cohort, the President’s Excellence Funds for Frontier Research and Education will fund six more projects in 2018.
Investment in ventures related to Imperial’s core STEM research and education mission, but which also generate a return to fund the College’s core academic mission. Milestones include the opening of the Translation & Innovation Hub (I-HUB), which provides space for companies to work alongside Imperial researchers and turn scientific and technological innovations into new products and services.
Frontier fund and Business synergies
Frontier fund
Professor Ramon Vilar from the Department of Chemistry co-led a Frontier Fund project and has made a major breakthrough which could have potential clinical implications in the future.
Business synergies
Businesses based at the I-HUB include Polymateria, a pioneering materials company and OGCI Climate Investments, a one billion dollar start-up business that is developing low-emission technologies.
Download: Multidisciplinary breakthroughs in global challenge areas [PDF]
Business School academic counted among Italy’s top young talent in the UK
Deeper understanding of irregular heartbeat may lead to more effective…
Climate change policies need to improve for UK to reduce carbon emissions
Business School honours the life and work of Professor Mike Wright
New maths reveals how diseases progress and bacteria develop drug…
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Cricket World Cup 2019, Opening Ceremony Highlights
22:28 PM IST: And the opening ceremony comes to an end with official World Cup 2019 Song Stand By' being performed by singer Loryn. So the short and sweet World Cup opening ceremony is over with some glitz and glam. There wasn't much crowd, just around 40,000 people to keep it a simple affair. Some music and some cricket in that one hour ceremony hosted by Andrew Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Shibani Dandekar. We saw some cricket greats taking up the 60 second challenge. Sir Viv Richards, Brett Lee, former India captain Anil Kumble, Mahela Jayawardene, Azhar Ali among others were wack to cricket after hanging up their boots years ago. Hosts England won that game of cricket as they are also eying the big trophy. 5-time World Champions Australia stood third with 69 runs.. sadly, India were at the bottom with just 19 runs. Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai also addressed the crowd and talked about how cricket could be a weapon to bring countries together. The ceremony came to end with the official World Cup song ''Stand By'' being performed. The countdown has begun and the real action will begin tomorrow with England taking on South Africa in the opener. That's all from the ceremony today! Stay tuned to India Today Sports for the World Cup updates! Our @cricketworldcup countdown has sadly come to an end but the real action is about to begin with the first match kicking off tomorrow Look back over our top 50 things to do in Birmingham & don't forget to share your #CWCBirmingham experiences. https://t.co/njNzDsXJV3 pic.twitter.com/FmL2VcS8hi Visit Birmingham (@visit_bham) May 29, 2019
22:23 PM IST: "England are the favourites," reckons Michael Clarke. "Australia need to continue the way they are playing for the last few months to retain the Cup," says the 2015 World Cup-winning skipper.
22:21 PM IST: Michael Clarke, the then captain of defending champions Australia, is at the Mall in London. He is taking the World Cup trophy to the stage. Accompanying him is former England off-spinner Graeme Swann.
22:19 PM IST: Iconic Malala Yousafzai asks women to engage more in cricket and cite Sana Mir's example to the young generation. "These role models are inspiring women to believe in themselves that they are capable of anything. Women should engage more in sports and we all have to contribute in that." Mala representing #Pakistan at #CWC19 opening ceremony. pic.twitter.com/poV7cBzPay Pakistan Cricket & PSL Freaks (@PslFreaks) May 29, 2019
22:13 PM IST: Engaland have scored 74 runs to beat five-time World Champions Australia in the gully game. Kevin Pietersen and Chris Hughes pip Australia’s Brett Lee and Pat Cash. India are lowest on the scoreboard with mere 19 runs. Here are the team scores: ENG - 74 AUS - 69 AFG - 52 SA - 48 WI - 47 SL - 43 PAK - 38 NZ - 32 BAN - 22 IND - 19 World Cup 2019 opening party begins at The Mallin front of Buckingham Palace in central #London!#WorldCup2019 #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/rla5ILO5Hy Rj Saksi (@saksivarnan) May 29, 2019
22:09 PM IST: Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar together score just 19 runs for crowd favourites India. Time for hosts. Let's see if they can win?
22:07 PM IST: It is South Africa's turn. Jacques Kallis makes it look so easy as he scores 48 runs
22:04 PM IST: Brett Lee has put Australia in lead with 69 runs. New Zealand managed only 32 runs in 60 seconds.
22:00 PM IST: Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar will be batting for India. Shibani Dandekar said All the best to you babe and then realised there was Kumble too and said boys #CWC19 #CWC2019 pic.twitter.com/uXJuC6ZJjy Vinesh Prabhu (@prabhu_vinesh) May 29, 2019
21:58 PM IST: Ahead of the opening ceremony, the captains from the World Cup-playing nations posed with the Queen. Picture perfect #WeHaveWeWill #CWC19 #SarfarazAhmed pic.twitter.com/YuLCvR9ek6 Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) May 29, 2019
21:54 PM IST: Bangladesh's turn to put up the fight and......... score 22 runs. Azhar Ali and Malala taking their turns and together they score 38 runs. @Malala is representing #Pakistan #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/oJ1cRRKHYh . (@Saarwarr) May 29, 2019
21:54 PM IST: Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has joined the star-studded opening ceremony in London. One former cricketer and one icon from each World Cup nation have been invited. Farhan Akhtar, Bollywood star, has joined the glittering ceremony. The 60-second challenge is right now underway. Farhan Akhtar with Malala Yousafzai at the CWC 19 opening ceremony (AP Photo)
21:53 PM IST: Viv Richards to pick up the bat for West Indies and score 47 points. Afghanistan still in the lead.
21:52 PM IST: Damayanthi Dharsha and Mahela Jayawardena score 43.
21:49 PM IST: David Boon to be umpiring the gully cricket game. He has explained the rules. Local UK boys will bowl to Afghanistan players in the 60 second challenge game. Aghanistan score 52 runs. Sri Lanka to bat next. Let's go!!
21:48 PM IST: Damayanthi Dharsha and Mahela Jayawardena walk out for Sri Lanka
21:47 PM IST: Noble peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai represents Pakistan while Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar come up for India
21:45 PM IST: Time to welcome former cricket players
21:44 PM IST: India captain Virat Kohli said he is excited to see the massive support on England's grounds. Of course, the fans will paint the stadium blue. @ICC @cricketworldcup Here comes the #Teamindia captain @imVkohli. pic.twitter.com/GM6IBBrnGN Karthick Sekaran (@karthick_1311) May 29, 2019
21:41 PM IST: India captain Virat Kohli gets the loudest cheer as he joins the other captains on the stage. Andrew Flintoff is quick to ask him about the crowd support India receives in the United Kingdom. "It's lovely to be here. We have such a huge fan base in England. The amount of people travelling from home as well. It's great to see at every stadium we play at, at least 50 per cent of the crowd is Indian fans. For us that's a thing of pressure but a thing of pride as well. Hopefully, we have got to use to the crowd support to our advantage."
21:40 PM IST: Time for some music now after the captains' welcome
21:39 PM IST: Pakistan fans can't keep calm as they are waiting to see former players Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and others at the ceremony.
21:36 PM IST: Eoin Morgan, England captain, says they are incredibly proud to host the World Cup. "Hopefully, we will be great hosts and hopefully we will do everybody proud," says Morgan. "Tomorrow, obviously is going to be a very exciting day for me, Faf (du Plessis) and both the teams," says Morgan while talking about Thursday's World Cup 2019 opener. Look who's arrived at the #CWC19 Opening Party pic.twitter.com/QJAoUEWVfl Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) May 29, 2019
21:35 PM IST: The 10 team captains are marching in on the stage with their flags. Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib came first while England Eoin Morgan was the last one to join the stage.
21:32 PM IST: Andrew Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Shibani Dandekar are hosting the World Cup 2019 opening ceremony. The Mall is flooded with cricket fans from across the globe. There are few, in fact, many India flags as well.
21:30 PM IST: Hosts England will take on South Africa in the World Cup opener tomorrow at 3 pm IST. England are hosting the World Cup after 20 years and are the favourites to win the title for the first time. Today, the British royal family met the 10 team captains ahead of the start of the showpiece event. This afternoon, The Queen and The Duke of Sussex met @cricketworldcup team captains at Buckingham Palace ahead of the start of the tournament tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/9zo05CoFbS The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 29, 2019
21:16 PM IST: Members of the British royal family are expected to make an appearance at the World Cup opening party. Drum and Bass Band Rudimental are also expected to add some flavour to the ceremony. One may also spot a Vladimir putin doppelganger at The Mall road. The World Cup just got even bigger. Vladimir putin is here. #smoulder pic.twitter.com/vRp7MTOc7F Rob Key (@robkey612) May 29, 2019
20:51 PM IST: "The Opening Party is designed for cricket fans and non-cricket fans alike. Its entertainment show format should appeal for fans around the world and we recommend that the TV broadcast will be suitable for children aged five years and over," the ICC has said in a release. Where to watch the Opening Ceremony live.
20:50 PM IST: Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and comedian Paddy McGuinness will be hosting the ceremony and events like live sport, music and entertainment for 4,000 fans will certainly make it a lavish affair. Former international cricketers of almost all 10 countries are also expected to be present at the ceremony to inaugurate the tournament. 1 hour until the #CWC19 Opening Party starts! Make sure you tune in! pic.twitter.com/SN9pAMSDm1 Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) May 29, 2019
20:46 PM IST: The fans have started thronging the Mall. The setting is brilliant. A sea of people in front of the famous Buckingham Palace cheering for the biggest cricketing event in the world. We're an hour away from the start of the opening ceremony, or as ICC wants to call it, THE OPENING PARTY! The fans are readying themselves for the start of the #CWC19 Opening Party! pic.twitter.com/cQ8gOYAYXb Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) May 29, 2019
20:42 PM IST: Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 opening ceremony from London. We are less than an hour away from the start of the opening ceremony.
London | May 29, 2019 22:52 IST
The iconic Mall in front of the Buckingham Palace in London is filled with cricket fans. Captains of th 10 World Cup teams shared their views about the tournament. A former cricketer and a celebrity from each World Cup nation have been invited.
Check Latest Updates
LORYN ends the ceremony with official World Cup song
England are favouites: Clarke
Malala Yousafzai speaks!
Hosts England win the 60 sec challenge
Malala Yousafzai joins CWC 19 opening ceremony
Time for gully cricket
We have a huge fan base in England: Virat Kohi
Unbelievably proud: Eoin Morgan
Team captains join the stage
The World Cup opening ceremony is underway
England vs South Africa to kick off the World Cup
It's time for Cricket World Cup 2019 opening ceremony
ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 opening ceremony (@cricketworldcup2019)
22:28 PM IST
Posted by Anita Jat
And the opening ceremony comes to an end with official World Cup 2019 Song Stand By' being performed by singer Loryn.
So the short and sweet World Cup opening ceremony is over with some glitz and glam. There wasn't much crowd, just around 40,000 people to keep it a simple affair. Some music and some cricket in that one hour ceremony hosted by Andrew Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Shibani Dandekar.
We saw some cricket greats taking up the 60 second challenge. Sir Viv Richards, Brett Lee, former India captain Anil Kumble, Mahela Jayawardene, Azhar Ali among others were wack to cricket after hanging up their boots years ago. Hosts England won that game of cricket as they are also eying the big trophy. 5-time World Champions Australia stood third with 69 runs.. sadly, India were at the bottom with just 19 runs.
Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai also addressed the crowd and talked about how cricket could be a weapon to bring countries together. The ceremony came to end with the official World Cup song ''Stand By'' being performed.
The countdown has begun and the real action will begin tomorrow with England taking on South Africa in the opener.
That's all from the ceremony today! Stay tuned to India Today Sports for the World Cup updates!
Our @cricketworldcup countdown has sadly come to an end but the real action is about to begin with the first match kicking off tomorrow
Look back over our top 50 things to do in Birmingham & don't forget to share your #CWCBirmingham experiences. https://t.co/njNzDsXJV3 pic.twitter.com/FmL2VcS8hi
Visit Birmingham (@visit_bham) May 29, 2019
Posted by Akshay Ramesh
"England are the favourites," reckons Michael Clarke. "Australia need to continue the way they are playing for the last few months to retain the Cup," says the 2015 World Cup-winning skipper.
Michael Clarke walks up the stage with the trophy
Michael Clarke, the then captain of defending champions Australia, is at the Mall in London. He is taking the World Cup trophy to the stage. Accompanying him is former England off-spinner Graeme Swann.
Iconic Malala Yousafzai asks women to engage more in cricket and cite Sana Mir's example to the young generation.
"These role models are inspiring women to believe in themselves that they are capable of anything. Women should engage more in sports and we all have to contribute in that."
Mala representing #Pakistan at #CWC19 opening ceremony. pic.twitter.com/poV7cBzPay
Pakistan Cricket & PSL Freaks (@PslFreaks) May 29, 2019
Engaland have scored 74 runs to beat five-time World Champions Australia in the gully game. Kevin Pietersen and Chris Hughes pip Australia’s Brett Lee and Pat Cash. India are lowest on the scoreboard with mere 19 runs.
Here are the team scores:
ENG - 74
AUS - 69
AFG - 52
SA - 48
WI - 47
SL - 43
PAK - 38
NZ - 32
BAN - 22
IND - 19
World Cup 2019 opening party begins at The Mallin front of Buckingham Palace in central #London!#WorldCup2019 #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/rla5ILO5Hy
Rj Saksi (@saksivarnan) May 29, 2019
Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar together score just 19 runs for crowd favourites India. Time for hosts. Let's see if they can win?
It is South Africa's turn. Jacques Kallis makes it look so easy as he scores 48 runs
Brett Lee has put Australia in lead with 69 runs. New Zealand managed only 32 runs in 60 seconds.
Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar taking the challenge
Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar will be batting for India.
Shibani Dandekar said All the best to you babe and then realised there was Kumble too and said boys #CWC19 #CWC2019 pic.twitter.com/uXJuC6ZJjy
Vinesh Prabhu (@prabhu_vinesh) May 29, 2019
Captains posed with the Queen
Ahead of the opening ceremony, the captains from the World Cup-playing nations posed with the Queen.
Picture perfect #WeHaveWeWill #CWC19 #SarfarazAhmed pic.twitter.com/YuLCvR9ek6
Pakistan Cricket (@TheRealPCB) May 29, 2019
Bangladesh's turn to put up the fight and......... score 22 runs. Azhar Ali and Malala taking their turns and together they score 38 runs.
@Malala is representing #Pakistan #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/oJ1cRRKHYh
. (@Saarwarr) May 29, 2019
Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai has joined the star-studded opening ceremony in London. One former cricketer and one icon from each World Cup nation have been invited. Farhan Akhtar, Bollywood star, has joined the glittering ceremony. The 60-second challenge is right now underway.
Farhan Akhtar with Malala Yousafzai at the CWC 19 opening ceremony (AP Photo)
Viv Richards to pick up the bat for West Indies and score 47 points. Afghanistan still in the lead.
Damayanthi Dharsha and Mahela Jayawardena score 43.
David Boon to be umpiring the gully cricket game. He has explained the rules. Local UK boys will bowl to Afghanistan players in the 60 second challenge game.
Aghanistan score 52 runs. Sri Lanka to bat next. Let's go!!
Damayanthi Dharsha and Mahela Jayawardena walk out for Sri Lanka
Noble peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai represents Pakistan while Anil Kumble and Farhan Akhtar come up for India
Time to welcome former cricket players
When Virat Kohli took the stage!
India captain Virat Kohli said he is excited to see the massive support on England's grounds. Of course, the fans will paint the stadium blue.
@ICC @cricketworldcup Here comes the #Teamindia captain @imVkohli. pic.twitter.com/GM6IBBrnGN
Karthick Sekaran (@karthick_1311) May 29, 2019
India captain Virat Kohli gets the loudest cheer as he joins the other captains on the stage. Andrew Flintoff is quick to ask him about the crowd support India receives in the United Kingdom.
"It's lovely to be here. We have such a huge fan base in England. The amount of people travelling from home as well. It's great to see at every stadium we play at, at least 50 per cent of the crowd is Indian fans. For us that's a thing of pressure but a thing of pride as well. Hopefully, we have got to use to the crowd support to our advantage."
Time for some music now after the captains' welcome
Pakistan fans cheering up the team
Pakistan fans can't keep calm as they are waiting to see former players Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and others at the ceremony.
Eoin Morgan, England captain, says they are incredibly proud to host the World Cup. "Hopefully, we will be great hosts and hopefully we will do everybody proud," says Morgan. "Tomorrow, obviously is going to be a very exciting day for me, Faf (du Plessis) and both the teams," says Morgan while talking about Thursday's World Cup 2019 opener.
Look who's arrived at the #CWC19 Opening Party pic.twitter.com/QJAoUEWVfl
Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) May 29, 2019
The 10 team captains are marching in on the stage with their flags. Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib came first while England Eoin Morgan was the last one to join the stage.
Andrew Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness, and Shibani Dandekar are hosting the World Cup 2019 opening ceremony. The Mall is flooded with cricket fans from across the globe. There are few, in fact, many India flags as well.
Hosts England will take on South Africa in the World Cup opener tomorrow at 3 pm IST. England are hosting the World Cup after 20 years and are the favourites to win the title for the first time.
Today, the British royal family met the 10 team captains ahead of the start of the showpiece event.
This afternoon, The Queen and The Duke of Sussex met @cricketworldcup team captains at Buckingham Palace ahead of the start of the tournament tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/9zo05CoFbS
The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) May 29, 2019
Who all are expected at the opening extravaganza?
Members of the British royal family are expected to make an appearance at the World Cup opening party.
Drum and Bass Band Rudimental are also expected to add some flavour to the ceremony. One may also spot a Vladimir putin doppelganger at The Mall road.
The World Cup just got even bigger. Vladimir putin is here. #smoulder pic.twitter.com/vRp7MTOc7F
Rob Key (@robkey612) May 29, 2019
What's all about the opening party?
"The Opening Party is designed for cricket fans and non-cricket fans alike. Its entertainment show format should appeal for fans around the world and we recommend that the TV broadcast will be suitable for children aged five years and over," the ICC has said in a release. Where to watch the Opening Ceremony live.
Andrew Flintoff, comedian Paddy McGuinness to host opening ceremony
Former England cricketer Andrew Flintoff and comedian Paddy McGuinness will be hosting the ceremony and events like live sport, music and entertainment for 4,000 fans will certainly make it a lavish affair. Former international cricketers of almost all 10 countries are also expected to be present at the ceremony to inaugurate the tournament.
1 hour until the #CWC19 Opening Party starts!
Make sure you tune in! pic.twitter.com/SN9pAMSDm1
We're an hour away from the opening ceremony
The fans have started thronging the Mall. The setting is brilliant. A sea of people in front of the famous Buckingham Palace cheering for the biggest cricketing event in the world. We're an hour away from the start of the opening ceremony, or as ICC wants to call it, THE OPENING PARTY!
The fans are readying themselves for the start of the #CWC19 Opening Party! pic.twitter.com/cQ8gOYAYXb
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 opening ceremony from London. We are less than an hour away from the start of the opening ceremony.
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Home India Kerala Snake Boat Race – Rhythm Of Action On Backwaters
Kerala Snake Boat Race – Rhythm Of Action On Backwaters
Anuradha Goyal
My earliest memory of the Snake Boat Race in Kerala is from my school textbook. I remember a picture in black and white with a longboat that almost looks like a snake with its hood raised. That image made its way to a dream in my eyes. One fine day I would visit the backwaters of Kerala to see this unique boat race with my own eyes. It took a few decades for that to materialize, but it did happen.
I was in Alappuzha or Alleppey to see the 67th Nehru Boat Race as well as the maiden race of the just-launched Champions Boat League.
History of Snake Boat Race in Kerala
Alappuzha is water dominant or a Jal Pradhan district of Kerala. It has the backwaters crisscrossing the land as they look towards the Arabian sea. No matter where you stand, you are never away from water. People grow up with water as part of their lives. They learn to swim as most of us learn to walk. Each house has a boat and everyone in the family knows how to row a boat.
Jalotsav or Water Festivals of Kerala Temples
Boat races were traditionally a part of temple festivals. Deities were taken out for a boat ride processions on the backwaters, that lasted up to 3 days. With deities as the witness, people used to have boat races. There were also a lot of water festivals that the region used to have. In good old days, the time of the boat races was decided by the astrological calculations.
Vallam Kalli is the Malayalam name of the snake boat race. Traditionally, these races are conducted around the festive season of Onam.
War Boats
About 500-600 years back, these boats were also used by neighboring kings as war boats to fight the battles.
In the 20th Avatar, a rolling trophy was announced by the then PM Nehru. Since then, Nehru boat race trophy is a coveted event among Kerala Boat racing community.
Champions Boat League
The latest avatar of Snake Boat Race in Kerala is Champions Boat League that has been launched this year in 2019. 9 teams would be auctioned in a league format and the league season would run for good 3 months when boat races would happen in water bodies across Kerala.
This format would allow more people to participate and watch the sport. It is also timed with the relatively low tourist season in the state. To allow people from outside Kerala, 25% of the team composition is allowed to be from outside the state. I did see the team members from North East India.
Kerala tourism is also planning a boat museum to complement the boat races.
Do read: Top Kerala Souvenirs you can shop at the Gods own country
Kerala Snake Boat Race Schedule
Snake Boat Race or Vallamkali
Nehru Trophy Boat Race is held at Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha. It is held on 2nd Sunday of August, though this year it was postponed due to floods.
Champakkulam Moolam boat race also in Alappuzha district is held as part of Sri Krishna Temple festival located at Ambalapuzha. It is believed that when the temple idol was being carried to the temple, it stopped here for a while. Boats lined up all around it for a darshan. The same is repeated every year even now. This is probably the oldest traditional race and also the first one that takes place in a year. It happens around June/July, just at the beginning of the monsoon season.
Aranmula Boat Race on Pampa River as part of Aranmula Parthasarthy Temple annual festival is one of the oldest water festivals. It commemorates the crossing of Pampa river by Sri Krishna.
Payippad Jalotsava or the 3 day Water Festival of Swami Subramanya Temple in Haripad. It is believed that the Murti of Ayyapa Swami was found at Kayamkulam lake and the festival celebrates the installation of the same at the temple.
Indira Gandhi Memorial Boat race, Marine Drive Ernakulam during Onam season.
President’s Trophy Boat Race in Ashtamudi lake, Kollam
Kallada Boat Race in Kallada River, Kollam
Kumarakom Boat Race
Kannetty Sree Narayana Boat Race in Karunagappally, Kollam
Thazhathangadi Boat Race, Kottayam
Gothuruth Boat Race, in the Periyar, Ernakulam
Piravom Boat Race in Piravom
I am trying to get the Tithis or lunar dates of these races so that you can calculate the dates yourself every year. Kerala Tourism publishes the dates annually on their website festival calendar.
Women in lovely Saris competing in a boat race
A list of minor boat races can be seen here.
Champions Boat League is the latest and statewide entry to this list of boat races in Kerala.
Do read: Ashtamudi Lake – A ride across lovely backwaters of Kerala
Chudan Vallam or Snake Boats
Long Snake Boat Race
What we popularly know as snake boats are called Chudam Vallam in Malayalam. It is a narrow long wooden boat anywhere between 100-150 feet in length. The rear part can rise up to 20 feet, giving it the look of a snake. The art of making these snake boats goes back to ancient Indian scriptures or Sthapatya Shastras. For example, the hull is made of wooden planks for certain size only.
Boat resting before the big race
Chudan Vallam belongs to a community, usually the whole village. They are treated with the utmost respect, to an extent, most people would remove their shoes before touching them. With proper maintenance, it lasts for generations in the community.
Boats are made with Aanjali wood that is found locally. Oars are made with Coconut wood. You can see the boats parked in the villages. A day before the race, the boats are cleaned and polished, for it is the pride of the village.
There are many other types of boats, slightly smaller in size. We saw women racing on smaller boats. Palliyodams is another name for snake boats.
Do read: Top Trivandrum tourist places you must explore
Snake Boat Race Team
We spoke to Sunil and Pramod of United Boat Club, the oldest boat club of Kerala, in existence since 1955. They are 14 times winner of Nehru Boat trophy, with 3 hattricks to their credit. In 2013, they even had a woman captain of the team called Haritha Anil. They explained to us the team structure of the boat race team.
Proud Boatman with his boat
A team has as many as 110 odd people. About 85 of them are oarsmen called Tuzhakars who row the boat with a small oar that weighs around 2-3 kgs.
There are 5 people who steer the boat from front and back called Valiyaveedu. They have long and heavy oars weighing as much as 15 kgs.
Polishing the Oar before the race
About 11 musicians called Tazhakars are on the team. This includes two drummers who play music and 9 who sing and cheer the team. Vanchipattu is the name of the boat songs sung for cheering the team. Different members of the team come from all walks of life – farmers, fishermen, students, IT professionals. Most of them are in the age group of 18-30. There are a few extra people, who act as substitutes in case needed.
You have to see the rhythm of these boats to believe it. One wonders if they are actually dancing to the music being played on the boat or really fighting a sporting battle.
Team briefings a day before the race
For roughly a month before the competition, the teams start preparing for it. They practice for 3 hours in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. Practice includes not just rowing the boat in perfect synchronization, but also building stamina through other exercises, running, weight lifting and yoga.
It is fun to see the teams practicing in the backwaters around their villages. We saw one team working on polishing their oars, another one was giving finishing touches to the paint on the boat and yet another was listening to the coach, a retired army captain.
Once the race is over, you would see the teams jumping in the water, and shouting – Aarpo-Roro or Swami-Ayyapa or Jai Sri Ram or anything that they believe in.
Rituals of Vallamkali or Snake Boat Race
The snake boat race is now taking the shape of a professional sport. However, being a traditional game, it can not be away from rituals of the land or should I say water.
Ritual Dances at the inauguration of the Champions Boat League 2019
On the day of the race, the teams visit the temple early morning around 6:30 AM. Team UBC visits the Paneckal Shivan temple but each team would visit its own temple. Post which they visit the church before having a healthy breakfast and a regular meal by 11:00 AM. By 2:00 PM they are ready for the race or Vallamkali.
At the inauguration ceremony, the traditional drums are played, kathakali and tiger dancers dance on the boats as the trophy is unveiled for the public. Puja is done on a boat carrying a small temple. An atmosphere of joy and celebration is created through colors in the sky.
Crowds line up on either side of the Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha, all along the 1.25-kilometer track of the race that finishes close to the Nehru Island in the lake.
Do read: Kalady the birthplace of Adi Shankaracharya near Kochi
Witnessing the magic of Kerala Boat Race
To watch the snake boats literally move swiftly like a snake is nothing less than magic. The music and songs of the Tazhakars or musicians dampen every other sound. The rhythmic movement of the oars as they splash the water in one go is sheer poetry in motion.
Smaller Boat Races
With everyone on a boat wearing a color-coded uniform, it is like watching the colors compete with each other. As a viewer, it did not matter who won or lost as long as I could witness this boat moving like a song being played on the waters with coconut trees being the connoisseurs enjoying their long strides.
Champions Boat League & Nehru Boat Race at Alappuzha
On the day of the Nehru Trophy boat race on Ponnumada lake, the venue was full of people and vendors selling blow horns and whistles. This time it was even more special as the Nehru Boat Race and Champions Boat league both were taking place at the same venue. Sachin Tendulkar was the guest of honor and the crowds simply went crazy as he went around on a boat waving to his fans.
Tropical Titans – Winners of first CBL Boat Race
Lake waters had colorful flags marking the tracks for racing boats to follow. Tall coconut trees stand like a curtain between the waters and the rest of the world. They embrace you in their greenery in a way that you are away from all the harsh realities of life. On the other end, houseboats were lined.
Celebrations all around
Practice to Perfect
In the morning the big and small snake boats were going up and down on the waters, most of them practicing for the big race in the afternoon. Along with them, there were Jet Skis, Motorboats and bigger boats which ferried the VIPs and ticket holders from one end to the island. Some had the security personnel on them overlooking the event.
Around 2 PM, the heats begin. Boats take around 4-5 mins to cover the distance of 1.25 km. However, depending upon where you stand, you can see only a part of the race. Fortunately, I was sitting right in front of the finish line, so I could see the photo finish of many races.
As the boats race towards the finishing line with their rhythmic oars cutting the waters, there is excitement all around. Crowds are cheering their teams, but all the action finishes in a Jiffy. Blink and you miss the action. However, the celebrations of the win make up for it as they go on for a long time after the races are over.
Smaller races happened in between like the women’s race that had women in colorful Saris rowing the boat.
Tropical Titans won this time and their celebrations were as much a treat as their photo finish.
Do read: Ponmudi Hills the southern end of western ghats in Kerala
Travel Tips for Kerala Boat Races
Nehru boat race happens on 2nd Sunday of August. For other races check the Kerala Tourism website.
Tickets are available online as well as on the venue. Price ranges from Rs 100/- to Rs 3000/-, the later lets you be on the island along with the VIPs.
The place gets very crowded, so be prepared to deal with the crowd.
Basic food is available on the venue & banana chips are never far in Kerala.
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Anirudh October 10, 2019 At 1:06 AM
Thanks for this amazing travel guide.. I was planning to visit the city next month.. Now this guide will definitely help me a lot..
Pratap October 25, 2019 At 1:49 PM
Nice article and good photograph
Naveen October 26, 2019 At 10:41 AM
Thanks for sharing the info, keep up the good work going.
Mounika November 20, 2019 At 4:07 PM
super super super !one of my favorite place Kerala and interesting info had u informed us its a great job.keep it up.
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Home / Automotive / Business & Economy / China / Mexico / B&E | Ford's China move casts new cloud on Mexican carmaking
B&E | Ford's China move casts new cloud on Mexican carmaking
IndraStra Global Monday, June 26, 2017 Automotive , Business & Economy , China , Mexico Edit
By Stefanie Eschenbacher and Dave Graham
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Ford is pictured at the 38th Bangkok International Motor Show in Bangkok, Thailand March 28, 2017. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo - RTS18CA7
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A second U-turn this year by Ford Motor Co. in Mexico has raised the specter of Chinese competition for local carmaking, adding to pressure on the industry after repeated threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to saddle it with punitive tariffs.
Ford announced on Tuesday it would move some production of its Focus small car to China instead of Mexico, a step that follows the U.S. automaker's January cancellation of a planned $1.8 billion plant in the central state of San Luis Potosi.
The scrapping of the Ford plant was a bitter blow, coming after U.S. President Donald Trump had blamed the country for hollowing out U.S manufacturing on the campaign trail, and threatened to impose hefty tariffs on cars made in Mexico.
Since then, rhetoric from the Trump administration has become more conciliatory, and Mexico and the United States have expressed confidence that the renegotiation of the NAFTA trade deal, expected to begin in August, could benefit both nations.
But the loss of the Focus business is an unwelcome reminder of competition Mexico faces from Asia at a time China's auto exports and the quality of its cars are rising.
"For a long time, the quality of vehicles coming out of China was not to global standards. There was a gap in quality that (favored) Mexico - but that is closing," said Philippe Houchois, an analyst covering the auto industry at investment bank Jefferies. "That is probably a threat to Mexico."
In the past decade, global automakers have invested heavily in Chinese factories to make them capable of building cars at quality levels that make the grade in developed markets.
Ford's decision to shift Focus production for the United States market to China from Mexico shows automakers have increasing flexibility to choose between the two countries to supply niche vehicles to American consumers or other markets.
'VERY TROUBLING'
Demand for small cars in the United States is waning and General Motors Co. faces a similar situation to Ford's with its Chevrolet Cruze compact.
Were GM to go down the same path with the Cruze and shift its production out of U.S. factories, it could give more work to its Mexican plants - but might also bring its Chinese operations in Shenyang or Yantai into play.
"The Cruze is a global product that is built in multiple GM plants around the world, including the U.S.," said GM spokesman Pat Morrissey. "Our general philosophy is that we like to build where we sell."
Studies show Mexican manufacturing is competitive, and business leaders believe that NAFTA talks between Mexico, the United States, and Canada could ultimately yield tougher regional content rules for the region that benefit local investment.
Ford said its decision balanced cheaper Chinese labor rates against pricier shipping, but that in the end, an already-planned refit of its Chinese factory saved it some $500 million over retooling both that facility and its Hermosillo plant in Mexico.
The volatile state of U.S.-Mexican trade relations also carries big risks if Trump renews his threats to impose 35-percent tariffs on cars made in Mexico.
To be sure, Trump has also threatened to levy 45-percent tariffs on Chinese goods and his Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he found Ford's China move "very troubling."
Trump's threats have battered the peso, ironically making Mexico's goods cheaper. Uncertainty over the future of NAFTA pushed the currency to a record low in January, although it has since rebounded.
That same month, the Boston Consulting Group published an assessment of manufacturing competitiveness that gave Mexico an 11-percent lead over China.
That advantage has prompted global firms to plow billions of dollars into the Mexican auto industry, pushing output to record highs. Some officials in the automotive sector painted Ford's move as a one-off decision.
"There's still a very dynamic investment and growth in plants," said Alfredo Arzola, director of the automotive cluster in Guanajuato state, one of Mexico's top carmaking hubs.
Still, there have been "significant quality improvements" in Chinese cars, consultancy J.D. Power said in a 2016 study.
Chinese car manufacturing could catch up with international standards in China by 2018 or 2019, said Jacob George, general manager of J.D. Power's Asia Pacific Operations, citing the consultancy's gauge of "hard quality", or failures.
However, when measured in terms of "perceptual" quality, China was probably still some 4 to 6 years behind, he added.
(Additional reporting by Joe White and Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Christian Plumb and Nick Zieminski)
(c) 2017 Thomson Reuters
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Reclaiming Power in Copenhagen.
R. Power | 29.12.2009 23:54 | COP15 Climate Summit 2009 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Social Struggles | Sheffield | World
A decisive step towards a global climate justice movement.
A political analysis of where we stand post-Copenhagen.
For many of us coming back from Copenhagen full of hope and energy, it was strange to see that many people who followed the summit from afar see what happened there as catastrophic. But it has been clear for some time that « at best » they were only going to impose their false (but highlyl profitable) solutions. Clear headed political analysts, like leading scientists such as James Hansen, were already saying that No Deal would be better than a Bad Deal. Finally the deal was so bad that it was impossible to impose (the so-called Copenhagen Accord was not agreed by all parties).
Appalled by our rulers’ greed and total irresponsibility, many don’t realise that this tragic farce - and the unified action of different grassroots networks - has opened a new political space where real solutions have a chance. As I write, Evo Morales's announcement of an alternative climate summit of social movements arrives. The space is widening. As one slogan put it « Who’s summit ? Our summit ! »
Reclaiming Power in Copenhagen
A decisive step towards a global climate justice movement
The French Revolution is generally said to have began when part of the clergy and minor nobilility deserted their respective assemblies, which had been convened by the king, to join the assembly of the commoners, the Third Estate. If the word gets out, perhaps the Reclaim Power and Peoples’ Assembly action of the 16th of December, will spark something as important.
That may sound pretentious. We were only a few thousand, only a handful made it briefly onto the grounds of the Bella Center and those inside were beaten back from joining us. But in Seattle too, it was just a few thousand kids who took the decisive action, and they only delayed the summit a few hours. In Copenhagen, the cops won tactically, but their violence only underscored our amazing political victory.
While the world’s powers lost all credibility, fighting among themselves to grab as much CO2 (that is to say as much production and profits) as possible, hundreds of accredited NGO delegates (our modern equivalent to the clergy of the Old Regime), and the governmental delegations of Bolivia, Venezuela and Tuvalu decided to leave the Conference in order to join the Peoples Assembly and discuss the real solutions.
That was our best case scenario.
We never dreamed that our enemies would be so stupid as to dramatise their fear of our action : excluding hundreds of NGOs that they suspected would join us, kidnapping the demo spokespersons and « leaders », seizing the sound truck and above all using clubs to drive back the demo of official delegates who tried to force their way out to join the Assembly. After the massive police infiltration, the dozens of arrests and the trumped up charges against Ya Basta people during the police attack on the assembly in Christiania two days before, the searches and seizures of all sorts of material (even bikes and banners !), this apparently irrational level of repression probably reflects how much power felt menaced by our project.
Very clearly, from the start the police plan was to disorganise our action, provoke us, then beat us up a bit and serve us to the media as a « riot ». But they hadn’t imagined that the demo- even without the sound truck or the « leaders » - would be capable of self-organising and continuing according to plan : trying to get in, assembly with speakers and small groups, compact march back, etc.
Some of the most experienced activists were disappointed that more material didn’t get to the fence, that more concerted efforts to get over didn’t happen, that the other blocks were neutralised so fast. But, although illegality and the practical efforts to break in were an absolutely essential part of our political statement, we mustn’t stay hung up on the purely concrete, tactical level. The objective was not to break in as such, it was to affirm practically our RIGHT to break in and hold an Assembly to talk of the peoples’ solutions. To make it impossible to ignore that there IS an alternative agenda. That was why holding the Assembly – be it finally just inside or just outside the fence – was the essential goal.
Most of the mainstream media had run off by the time the Assembly was held, but that didn’t affect the political importance of a march and an Assembly which brought together the northem activists of CJA with the most significant grassroots movements of the South . There were farmers movements of Via Campesina from all continents, Jubilee South and tmany other movements represented in the From Trade to Climate Caravan : the peoples of Oceania, the Philippine Fisherfolk, the landless of India, indigenous peoples of Mexico, Panama, Colombia and the Andes, etc. They are all menaced by climate change and totally reject a neo-neo-colonial aggression, which under the guise of « market solutions », seeks to make the South pay – more brutally than ever - for a new cycle of « green » capitalist expansion. But more importantly, they were there to offer real solutions, such as : food sovereignty, energy sovereignty, leaving the oil in the soil, re-localised production and another conception of « liviing well », which calls on the North to recognise its Climate Debt and radically question the capitalist project of infinite growth, over-production and over-consumption,
The critical point is that this Assembly was not a chance and fleeting moment. It marked a longer term convergence of different networks and political cultures : global networks of movements and progressive NGOs like Climate Justice Now and Our World Is Not For Sale, networks composed more of young northern activists like Climate Justice Action, the Climate Camps, old Peoples’ Global Action hands, etc. Political victories aren’t just about getting the better of the cops (and even less about the results of the official summit),. Victories are about coming out the battle more credible and more united than before. Credible : today, hopefully the people who imagined that it would be enough to pressure our rulers into a « good » deal, will better understand the necessity of building ourselves the solutions and imposing them through grass-roots popular power. United : since the Zapatistas called forth the anti-globalisation movement 13 years ago, there has never been such a broad alliance of organisations calling for « system change ».
Spontaneously, the same proposition came out ot the evaluations of CJA and CJN : organise People’s Assemblies everywhere, to tackle climate change issues at the local and regional level. These could organise against local sources of CO2 (in transport, for example) or false solutions (nuclear power, etc.), but also impose or construct directly real solutions (organising local food distribution systems). At the same time, by their links to the other assemblies, they would build a global movement, with a global day of assemblies next summer and a global day of action under the banner « System change not Climate change ! ».
So much for the ideas, but maybe its also important to talk of the spirit, the conviction and enthusiasm that made that demo and other moments in Copenhagen so magic for many. Objectively, we were practically kettled in by the cops, but it didn’t affect most people at all. There was no fear or powerlessness in the air. The march back, which had been rather dangerously announced as a « victory march », actually did rather feel like that. After eight hours in the cold and snow, the demo arrived in the center still compact and continuously belting out slogans. Even the last anti-repression demo was not only very large, it seemed to me to have an almost joyful feeling. For instance, the mother of an arrested spokesperson sang Janis Joplin and a song she had come to her during the Reclaim Power demo. People have to feel very sure of their ideas and very sure of each other for this kind of « moment of excess » to happen. As we marched through the night, a phrase came back to me again from Seattle : « We are winning .»
Now we all have to go home, get the word out and make it happen. Now its clear that we can only count on ourselves. The challenge is colossal, but everywhere there are people who know that we don’t have any other choice.
Olivier, from the Climate Caravan
The Reclaim Power action on the The Guardian’s video :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/dec/17/copenhagen-climate-change
Video of The Peoples’ Assembly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGY9ruYpx3o
And much more at http://www.climate-justice-action.org/
R. Power
Hide the following 21 comments
No more Days of Action
"At the same time, by their links to the other assemblies, they would build a global movement, with a global day of assemblies next summer and a global day of action under the banner « System change not Climate change !"
Permanent assemblies seem like a great idea but Global Days of Action just push politics into building up and burning out from usually symbolic and spectacular actions. The point of permanent assemblies would be to organise in our everyday lives and this includes networking and federating so that every day is a day of assembly and action.
It's not either or.
All very well Drongo but how do you get to the stage where "every day is a day of assembly and action"? The big problem we face is that another world doesn't seem possible to people even at a time when this world continuing seems pretty impossible itself.
You are right that the thing to work out is how do we get to the stage where anti-capitalism makes sense in everyday life and global days of action, while not enough on their own, will very likely play a role. They certainly have in the past.
Good analysis, and positive views forward
Thankyou for this post Olivier, I spent a lot of time in Copenhagen working with the caravan on the peoples assembly. It is good to hear your perspective on the outcomes, and also a call to move forward with more peoples assemblies. At the moment i'm still frustrated by what happened, but perhaps with time we will look back and see some of the significant turning points that did occur in Copenhagen.
"The objective was not to break in as such, it was to affirm practically our RIGHT to break in and hold an Assembly to talk of the peoples’ solutions."
so maybe if we were clearer about our real objectives it wouldn't look like a failure to those who aren't in the know
next time let's just say 'we're going to march a bit in the cold, shout at the police a bit, get peppersprayed a bit, then sit down by a fence in the middle of nowhere and listen to speeches by poverty professionals and self-appointed representatives of "the people"'
that's how we make the revolution
just a shame the rest of the world is indeed ignoring us altogether
da peeple
Local work around bread and butter issues is one of the answer to how we change the world. Such organsing is based in the very heart of problems and desires that manifest in our everyday lives. As such they are not activist campaigns for something that can seem like a cause or a symbolic pressure but something that comes from the daily experience of most people - housing, work, poverty, alienation, education, health, It's this work that creates very local groups that could network and turn into local assemblies.
Examples from the past in the UK that had some effect in getting things going could be the rent strikes, the massive workers resistance to austerity measures imposed due to recession and factory occupations of the 70s. Then there is the Miners Strike 84/85 and all the struggle to win fought by miners and their families and loads of people acting in solidarity. The Poll Tax struggle was based on massive and widespread non-payment organised locally by thousands of anti-poll tax groups. Other important histories are the massive demos in support of the NHS and also various feelings of support and solidarity shown to striking workers in the fire servives, the post and the transport sector. Also important are the various squatting campaigns of the 70s through to the 90's.
Looking back is inspiring but it also needs to be aware that times have changed. The social solidarity that was present in the 70's and 80's was in some sense based on knowing which side you were on. It wasn't about making a choice or a decision. It was just obvious. In these times, that sense of intuitive politics has been severely eroded by the huge increase in individualism and other factors (changes in laws, a sense of living in ahistorical times, massive increase in consumer lifestyle as opposed to collective and communal activity and so on).
But we face something that those who identify with the 'anti-capitalist' movement in Europe and the US have probably never faced before - severe austerity, massive cuts in public spending, wages cuts, redundancies, mass unemployment, harder state repression of communities. One response to this is for people to adopt a dog-eat-dog mentality of 'I've got mine' as we all scrabble around for work and houses. That would be accompanied by a increase in racism, xenophobia, domestic violence and further breakdown in any remaining social solidarity.
Another way is for people to organise in their local communities and at work to resist the recession and what it will bring. Some answers to this way of organising has always been to set up local free spaces - claimants centres, social centres, nurseries, free schools, social clubs, etc so that people begin to hang about with each other and talk and argue and raise the spirit to resist what is coming. This is what should be happening now (as does a little with some social centres despite some obvious problems of activ-ism). There is also a sense that looking at past times of struggle and resistance is useful - not necessarily the reference points of Seattle and Genoa and blah blah blah as in the main these events had little impact on most people's lives - but more so political history of where ever you live just to get a sense of how things happened before - who supported the miners, which streets had anti-poll tax groups, which different left and anarchist groups existed and what did they do that was good and what did they do that was crud. Which strikes have taken place etc. Producing radical history maps and holding radical history walks is a great way to meet people (better than public meetings!).
But, I stress again, these activities have to come out the lives people lead and this includes the daily lives of those setting things up. Otherwise it's just another round of those who think they know best usually preaching to themselves or the already converted.
i sincerely suggest we 'find' a nice piece of land,with fresh water, possibly a river and/or lake, some fields that could hold veg, some woods to sustain and steward and land to live on, then seize the land and never leave it, developing it over the years and inviting others to join us. like christiania in jokenhagen, but over here in the uk and completely barricaded from government hassle and police repression. It would mean a massive fight with the state and the land owner, it would be the greatest struggle so far, surely, if 2000 libertarians took over some land that belonged to sir such and such,who gets millions a year for his farm land but gives the people nothing........
until we seize land and buildings to start showing the world our viable alternatives, we're just going to end up sounding like we want reform and slight change instead of 100% freedom to live as we please and desire. and buying land to share will not do, as the system still gains from us if we do. a complete and utter from the ground up over throw of the land ownership is where we should go next..........lets take the land and live on it and steward it - thats what it is for!!!!!!!! i need a home and im not buying one or continuing to rent. why should i go without land to work and trees and water to live near? why should i, a being of this lush planet, be driven into a home of bricks and concrete with all the mod cons when at the same time my life is without any natural freedom? yes i can choose to live outside this system, but i am a animal and i wish to return, hassle free, to my natural habitat.
we say we are anti-capitalists and revolutionaries...but when are we going to start taking the land back and barricading the state out of our lives?
come on brothers and sisters....use your imaginations....lets seize the land back and start from there. I propose a section of land on The Duke of Westminsters land be expropriated by hundreds of us at the same time and then we live there, sustainably, if so, and we dont leave. this will doubtless inspire others to do the same.
am i alone on this?
responses please....
"yes i can choose to live outside this system, but i am a animal and i wish to return, hassle free, to my natural habitat. "
Capitalism is everywhere. It is not possible to live outside it.
Also as an animal I quite like hot water and electricity and wish to live in an anarchist society where these things are still in production and use. Ta
quick addition
here's some stuff about the duke of westminster and his land, just in case anyone was in doubt as to whether his land is a legitimate target for seizure.....
NOTE: some of this info could be wrong, and it is a few years out of date, but still....
The Duke, who lives in Eaton Hall, Eccleston, near Chester, born 22 December 1951. The billionaire Duke of Westminster owns many thousands of hectares in Britain, including the most valuable land in London, for which he receives rent of millions of pounds a week.
The Paul-Bert and Serpette flea markets in Paris are now owned by Westminster, 54, after a £35m deal. It marks another stage of the drive to expand his Grosvenor Group to international property. He also spent £35m on land for an apartment complex in Sydney, following on from a big Hong Kong development. But the group, owned by family trusts, is not neglecting its home patch. Grosvenor will start work on Bath’s Western Riverside development by the end of 2006. Westminster has vast estates in Lancashire and Cheshire, swathes of central London, in Mayfair and Belgravia, and tracts of land in Scotland, Canada and around the world. Grosvenor Group, his main property company, has net assets of £2.284 billion. About 200 acres of Belgravia are held in separate trusts worth an estimated £4 billion. He gave about £3.75m to charity in 2004, including £1m towards the upkeep of St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Taking in dividends and his art, he is worth £6.6 billion.
The Duke married Natalia Ayesha Phillips in 78. The Duchess is a direct descendant of the Russian poet Alexander S. Pushkin as well as Ibrahim Hannibal, a captive from Ethiopia who grew up at a Russian court, became a godson of Peter the Great, and married women of Greek and German origin. The Duke and Duchess have four children:
An estimated fortune of £6.6 billion ($12.23 billion) derived from property in central London, where he owns 300 acres (1.2 km²) of the most exclusive commercial and residential property in Mayfair and Belgravia (including the land on which the USA Embassy stands), as well as estates in Lancashire, Cheshire (Eaton Hall) and Scotland. In addition to managing its traditional holdings, the Duke's property company, Grosvenor Group, is an active property developer with interests around the world. It is the main developer of The Paradise Project in Liverpool.
The Duke joined the TA (Territorial Army) in 70 as a Private. After long service he became Honorary Colonel in Chief of several regiments, including The Royal Mercian and Lancastrian Yeomanry, 7th Regt. Army Air Corps, and the Canadian Royal Westminster Regiment and Colonel Commandant Yeomanry, Royal Armoured Corps. In 2004 he was appointed to the new post of Assistant Chief of Defence Staff (Reserves and Cadets) with promotion to the rank of Major-General. He is the first reservist holding such rank since the 30s. Some wonder if the job was won through his connections.
2005 Ranking 3 Worth 2005: £5,600m
2006 Ranking 3 Worth £6,600m
During the foot and mouth episode of 2001 numerous stoes brought the duke into public attention.
The Duke gave £ half a million to farming communities during the foot and mouth issue in the UK he commented on the BBC Frost show "I can't in all honesty and I'm not here to criticise government policy or whatever, but I cannot in all honesty look you in the eye and say that it is under control. Having been, as I say, through the '67 foot and mouth outbreak it is not under control and I know that you'll be hearing later from the Chief Vet and others but it is quite clear that it is out of control and it is not just a crisis" Some say the duke was doing this as political exercise to get the farming community on his side.
In 2001 the shut his beloved herd of prize bulls into an airtight barn along with a vet and a farmworker to avoid foot-and-mouth disease. The Holstein bulls, which are extremely valuable, are used to produce semen for breeding programmes in the UK, and for export to the US, Australia and Europe.
In 2001 Britain's richest landowner, the Duke of Westminster, withdrew his bid to buy the troubled Millennium Dome. Grosvenor Estate Holdings, a property company owned by the duke, had formed a consortium with developers Stanhope, Quintain Estates and Lend Lease to turn the empty site into a theme park. But Grosvenor and Stanhope pulled out of the Meridian Delta consortium, reportedly leaving scientific research charity the Wellcome Trust as the main bidder for the south London site.
In 2002 a sacked housekeeper was stopped from disclosing confidential information about the Duke of Westminster. A High Court injunction has been granted, preventing Frances Hewson, 51, breaching a confidentiality agreement. The housekeeper lost a claim for unfair dismissal from her post at the duke's 11,000-acre estate in Eccleston, near Chester.
The title of Duke of Westminster was created by Queen Victoria in 1874 and bestowed upon Richard Grosvenor, the 3rd Marquess of Westminster. The title is derived from Westminster.
The Grosvenor family was well known in the Middle Ages when it unsuccessfully disputed the right to the coat of arms Azure a Bend Or with the more prominent Scrope family. In 1677, Sir Thomas Grosvenor married Mary Davies who was heiress of 500 acres of rural land on the outskirts of London. As London grew, this property became the source of the family's immense wealth, as it was developed into the fashionable areas of Mayfair and Belgravia, which remains the basis of the family fortune
No you are not and here is not the place to talk but look here http://welovetheearthcentre.blogspot.com/ and you think we are dreaming then you do not know us get in touch what a joy to see others have come to same thought we have had for a long long time we want Anarchy not Anarchism just another Bureaucratised Revolution.
The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.
What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites.
The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.
We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?’
underclassrising.net
I'm with you there Fran if we can build some good quality houses on the land.
@ no escape
An Attempt At Freedom Smashed
Only Revolutionary Tactics Will Free Us
Land Owning Enemy Of The Earth, Duke Of Westminster
@ no escape:
it is possible to live outside the system actually, plenty of people already do it quite well. I myself have lived in relative comfort as a traveller, completely seperate from the state. So your imagination is bounded by your evident small mindedness.
I was talking about a popular uprising of revolutionary squatters to take over some land owned by an aristocrat - i said nothing of not having water and electric. im well versed in sustainable and renewable energy sources, so please dont act/comment in a way that is clearly beneath you...I like warm water, i just dont want it to LITERALLY cost me the earth. i would like to utilise non detrimental, non enviro-impacting fuels......as a primitivist, I can live easily within these parameters. cheers........
@ tich:
if the houses dont impact any surroundings detrimentally, and dont use resources that we know harm the nature around us, or come from exploitation or mean unsafe conditions,then yes, houses would probably be built. And if everyone held a consensus on the houses being built in a sustainable manner, then why the hell not? If we can get enough resources, why not? I personally wouldn't want to live in a house, but other squatters might want to build one, if they can, then good luck to them. I'd prefer a nice big, warm and cosey tee pee or tree bender, with a burner, a solar panel or wind turbine hooked up...a few plants...my family. that'd be the beginning of bliss, for me. for others,they will choose what will make them happy, and if we're all together, only a bright future awaits us. or, actually, a great big fucking militant eviction resistance and then a big legal fall out and some social unrest in London thrown in for good measure, maybe on the land of the duke of westminster himself???.....
reclaim the land
yeh great article - an interesting take on it. I have to say i just felt a bt crushed and dismayed after it all but your article pepped me up a bit.
Francesca - yeh you're right we need to reclaim the land. I've been thinking about it a lot funnily enough since I came back from cop and reached the same conclusion - its the best way of demonstrating the alternatives and turning your back on this system. If we could get enough people it ewouldbe really powerful...
Anyone know of 2,000 likeminded people?
e-mail: sonnykhan@hotmail.co.uk
Birth of a movement
Thanks for your positive write-up of the 16th. Whilst it might not have gone the way we had wanted it to, the way we'd hoped it would after hearing the rallying cries from Michael Hardt, Naomi Klein and Tadzio Mueller on the Monday in Christiania, our action wasn't that far off from succeeding either: and in the process the bike block have learned that they can easily get round a slow and heavy police blockade, and a lot of peaceful protestors are now more experienced for the next one. For me it really felt as if the Cop 15 Protest in Copenhagen was the birth of a new social movement.Looking forward to helping it mature.
Matthew Travers
e-mail: traversmatthotmail.com
Homepage: http://philosophe sans oeuvre
I really like your ideas francesca and know for a fact they are shared by many people, even if i just count me and my friends! Something like that, if executed with committment, strong numbers and good tactics, would be amazing and much needed right now.
If you really want to do this, why not start it yourself or with a community? Get together with people you know are passionate too and start from there, build a campaign/action group from where u are right now. So many of these big and wonderful ideas get lost because we're waiting for enough people, waiting for the masses to assemble before charging for freedom. Someone always has to be first, every idea, every beautiful seed of revolt starts somewhere, each is capable of amazing things but few make it to fruition. I am sure that if something like this started happening and was not shut down too fast then activists and free-thinkers would flock to get involved but it won't happen by itself.
Keep going...x x
also...re. reclaiming land/community building
I also think its really important not to disengage from the issues here i.e capitalism, climate change etc because while building new sustainable communities is a HUGELY positive thing to do, we can't just find a nice little corner of the world and pretend the shit isn't hitting the fan. It would be selfish to think that building sustainable/alternative communities for ourselves is enough when what is really needed is revolution and system change (regardless of how huge that challenge is). While capitalism still reigns 'supreme' you can't truly exist outside of the system without isolating your existence and wellbeing from the rest of humanity...it's still happening, even if you do life a right-on idyllic zero-carbon teepee life. If you're not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
When such movements and actions are part of a wider strategy then I think it's a good base for change but the fight has to continue on the front-line even if you and your community have reached a positive solution.
State, Capitalism, Revolution etc
There's a big difference between living 'outside of the state' and living outside of capitalism although the former is usually just as impossible as the latter even for people who live a traveller lifestyle. Most travellers rely on money at some point in their existence. It's unavoidable.
As for setting up free land sites, all of the resources needed to function from turbines, solar panels, bricks, piping, plates, shoes etc are all produced somewhere by someone. That's the capitalist social relation that you can't live outside of. There is no escape unless a revolution takes all the resources and production into it's own hands.
But this isn't to suggest that we have to wait for some mythical revolution to descend from the heavens to save us. Land occupations are a great idea if a bit doomed in the UK unless 1000's of people occupy land all over at the same time and there is some form of popular defense from within and without.
I'm sure that most people will not want to live in benders in the countryside but will want to stay in the cities so any revolutionary activities has to bare this mind and have a relevance to most people.
Myself I'm not a primitivist and quite like to think that a revolution that expropriates everything and gets rid of private property will then begin the task of collectivising the cities that most people live in. This would be in terms of land, production, housing, transport and a million other ways of actually living together that would be joyous and life-affirming and sustainable.
Also the initial debate on 'where now after COP15' has kind of been lost here. I thought it was a good post with a lot to chew on regarding how some people thought the People's Assembly heralded a whole new more joined-up anti-capitalism and others though it was a piece of shit and Reclaim Power was a disaster.
This Land is ours..
Now one is over the fuck up of Matilda (the failed social centre in Sheffield) I have awoken with the same thought as when Matilda gave birth to the nightmare she become, of course taking land is one way to do this, but all so would be to simply buy the fucking land, friends in Sheffield have done just this, watch this space there are some serious thoughts for a big land take over here in The North and we begin in earnest to make this happen in 2010 lessons learned from the past we come back stronger this is no repeat of Matilda other failed projects I agree with some of the comments here and following Matilda have been in a part squat with four people but this is not enough this land is ours lets take it back with whatever means we have.
the fallacy of escape
When squatters or travellers insist they live out side of the system, it makes me cringe. Both lives styles are dependant and parasitic on 'the system', they are not free or independent of it.
Travellers need two things (among others), roads and fuel - both of which are supplied by the system. All those aggregate mines, oil wars, the pollution, the taxation etc. those are just parts of the system which make those roads and fuel available.
Squatters (in the developed world at least) depend on the crazy economic inequalities which result in buildings being deliberately left empty by their owners, and (in the UK at least) depend on the law to prevent those owner from simply smashing in the doors and kicking squatters heads in. Those laws which enable squatting are part of the system, those empty properties have been built and left empty by the system. All that skipped food and other street treasures, they too are only available because of the capitalist system.
So what of claiming some land and escaping the system? Well, yes, possibly, assuming the state didn't crush you, then assuming the land is large and diverse enough to support all your needs and that you say goodbye to anything requiring money (or yes, remember, no state benefits), all external medical treatments (no NHS or BUPA), all external drugs and alcohol, all electronic communications be it phone or internet (you can have radio assuming you made all the components yourself and don't listen to the BBC ;-), all external products (shoes, clothes, bikes etc) except those traded with other 'free' spaces. The perhaps you might be able to say you've broken free of the system.
But even if you managed it, breaking free doesn't suddenly make you immune to the illness of the system such as runaway climate change...
Thats right. And the very system that they complain so bitterly about is what actually allows and enables them to protest about things.
It would make a great TV programme. Put a load of them on an Island and see what happens over the duration of a year.I bet common sense and necessity would prevail
iou
for those that know
for those that understand what ive commented on, in relation to how we feel after joke-15, id like to say this to the nay-sayers and deniers and reactionary "types":
taking the land in a spectacular manner, say a chunk of land owned by a toff, would be an advertisement, if you will, a tool of the system, used to say" hey, rest of the world, lets take back the land and change this whole shitty system...lets start here, lets start now"
either you get it, or you dont.
i wasn't saying lets live on one little band of land forever, all holding hands and living off hippy wishes and childs thoughts for fuel whilst harvesting fairies and elves to do all the work for us...for fucks sake. we need to over throw the "system" and have to start seriously confronting the state and elitists at the top. that means expropriation of what they have and hold so dear....land, housing, means of production, energy, health care and schooling.
lets start with the land.
have you taken it yet?
When are you going to do it?
loou
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New Releases Reviews
by Chris Latta December 13, 2019 December 13, 2019 0
Sordid Songs for a Cold Grey Sun, the first EP released by Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf after two full-length albums, begins with a fascinating cover of Black Sabbath’s “Wheels of Confusion.” But while the original recording was the entrance to a psychedelic haze, the version here reminds me more of The Cure’s “Plainsong” in execution. The riff set has mutated into a claustrophobic yet ethereal drone that sets up a detached vocal delivery. At the very least, it sets the tone for this EP quite nicely.
From there, the other three songs live up to the experimental nature that Dyerwulf established on the albums proper. “The Graveless Soul” puts in a downright jolly chug that thankfully doesn’t wear out its welcome, contrasting the fuzzy bass ambience of “Hollow Heart.” The latter track probably could’ve been a bit shorter, but it isn’t too intrusive and flows smoothly into the appropriately gloomy “Sad Stormy Sunday.”
Sordid Songs for a Cold Grey Sun by Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf
Through it all, the duo is tighter and more expressive than they were previously. The bass puts in a much broader dynamic range, exercising tinny abrasion on the heavier tracks and calmer textures toward the softer segments. The drums reflect this in turn; the beats don’t get too aggressive, but the jazzy flourish on “Sad Stormy Sunday” is especially enjoyable. I must say the vocals still feel a little flat at times, but they stay pretty focused and never get grating.
Overall, Tommy Stewart’s Dyerwulf shows considerable improvement on this EP. While the shorter format arguably allows a more manageable environment for the group’s quirky tendencies, the songs presented are better constructed, and the musicianship is more coherent than it had been before. It is nice to see the group getting closer to achieving the potential of their unique approach to doom. I hope they can keep up this consistency for the next full-length that is on the horizon.
“Wheels of Confusion”
“Sad Stormy Sunday”
AtlantadoomDoom Metalexperimental metalGeorgiaSordid Songs for a Cold Grey Sunstoner metalstoner rockTommy Stewart's Dyerwulf
Top 10 Albums of 2019: The Max Edition
Chris Latta
I went to Ball State University and graduated with a BA in Creative Writing. Currently specializing in writing album reviews when I should be working at my day job. My Grading Scale A: An essential classic regardless of genre preference B: A good album recommended to fans of a given genre C: A flawed album with elements that are still enjoyable D: A dull album that may only be redeemable for fans F: It is a goal of mine to never review an album like this I also play in a couple different bands and take it as much as I dish it out. Feel free to check them out! http://spiritdivision.bandcamp.com http://lavaborne.bandcamp.com http://christophersteve.bandcamp.com
Album Review: Shi – Depressive Suicidal Stoner Doom
EP Review: Blood Spore – Fungal Warfare Upon All Life
Beneath the Vault #19: An Exploration of Metal
Nigel Holloway January 3, 2020 January 3, 2020
Top 20 Albums of 2019: The Frasier Edition
Sean Frasier December 17, 2019 December 17, 2019
Top 10 Albums of 2019: The Ian Edition
Ian Lovdahl December 16, 2019 December 16, 2019
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UPDATE: Deceased identified as 22-year-old woman from Burlington
Police investigating dead body found in Burlington
Police conducting investigation in Burlington
More snow coming to Oakville, Burlington, and Milton this weekend
Downtown Burlington nearing major reduction in max building height
Here’s How Much You Need to Make an Hour to Afford an Apartment in Halton
by Ashley Newport on July 23, 2019
Can you survive on minimum wage in the Halton Region?
The short answer is no.
Over the past few years, the growing gap between wages and shelter costs has been dominating headlines and prompting serious discussions at all levels of government. In fact a recent report revealed that Burlington specifically is a pricey place for renters.
Now, a recently-released study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives indicates that minimum wage earners (such as Ontario residents who earn $14 an hour) absolutely cannot afford apartments in Canada’s major cities-- the Halton Region included.
The new report maps rental affordability in neighbourhoods across Canada by calculating the “rental wage,” which is the hourly wage needed to afford an average apartment without spending more than 30 per cent of one’s earnings.
The study finds that across all of Canada, the average wage needed to afford a two-bedroom apartment is $22.40 an hour, or $20.20 an hour for an average one-bedroom.
However, the study broke things down a little bit further.
When it comes to the Halton Region specifically, here's what the study revealed.
The rental wage in Burlington northwest is $24.86 an hour, meaning that a full-time minimum-wage worker would need to clock 71 hours a week to afford their rent. In Burlington east, the rental wage is $33.01 an hour, a full-time minimum-wage worker would need to clock 94 hours a week. In southwest Burlington, the rental wage is $27.11 an hour (77 hours a week). And in Aldershot, the rental wage is $26.93 (77 hours a week).
In Milton and Halton Hills, the rental wage is $26.17 (75 hours a week).
In Oakville (excluding Bronte) the rental wage is $31.75 an hour (91 hours a week), and in Bronte, the wage is $33.73 (96 hours a week).
“In no GTA neighbourhood could a full-time minimum-wage worker find an affordable one or two-bedroom apartment to rent,” the study says.
However, Halton residents are not alone.
The study points out that the rental wage is much higher than the Canadian average in a host of cities.
A full-time worker in Vancouver would need to make $35.43 an hour to afford an average-priced two-bedroom apartment. That means a minimum-wage worker in Vancouver would have to work 84 hours a week to afford the average-priced one-bedroom apartment or 112 hours a week for a two-bedroom apartment.
The next highest average rental wages are found in Toronto ($33.70/hr), Victoria, BC ($28.47/hr), Calgary ($26.97/hr) and Ottawa ($26.08/hr).
In Ontario, minimum wage workers across the province would have to make $27.34 an hour to afford a two-bedroom unit (that’s almost double what they’re earning right now).
To afford a unit in Ontario, lower-income earners would need to work 78 hours a week.
So, where can minimum-wage earners get by?
There are only 24 of 795 neighbourhoods (3 per cent) in Canada where a full-time minimum-wage worker can afford to rent an average two-bedroom apartment, and in only 70 neighbourhoods (9 per cent) can they afford a one-bedroom.
One in four Canadians earn within $3 of their province’s minimum wage.
There are no neighbourhoods in Canada’s biggest cities (Greater Toronto Area and Metro Vancouver) where a full-time minimum-wage worker could afford either a modest one- or two-bedroom apartment.
Outside of Sudbury and St. Catharines (both in Ontario) affordable neighbourhoods are all located in smaller Quebec cities. Some of those cities include Sherbrooke, Saguenay and Trois-Rivieres.
The situation, the report notes, is very serious--especially since two-bedroom units are often sought by single-parent families.
“Everyone deserves a decent place to live. The two-bedroom apartment therefore serves as a proxy for various family types in Canada, since it offers a modest amount of room for multiple living arrangements,” the report reads.
“Many households rely on only one income but contain more than one person—single-parent families, for example, or an adult caring for a senior. A sole income earner working full time should be able to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment for their family in a country as rich as Canada. But in most Canadian cities, including Canada’s largest metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver, there are no neighbourhoods where it is possible to afford a one- or two-bedroom unit on a single minimum wage.”
While the data is concerning, an important question remains: What can be done to address--and ultimately fix--the mounting affordability crisis sweeping across the country?
The short answer: Produce more rental housing.
Fortunately for Canadians who are struggling, various levels of government are working to alleviate the pressure.
The report notes that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has introduced four long-term programs devoted to new affordable units: the National Housing Co-investment Fund, the Rental Construction Financing Initiative, the Affordable Housing Innovation Fund, and the Federal Lands Initiative.
These programs jointly promise to deliver more than 110,500 new units by 2027-28.
The report says that combined with other provincial and federal programs, 15,100 and 16,600 new affordable units received commitments in 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively—three-quarters of the 20,000 affordable units built each year between 1970 and the early 1990s.
The report also says the new Canada Housing Benefit—a cash supplement to low-income renters—could take the edge off housing cost increases for some renters while the country waits for federally funded construction programs to kick into gear.
That said, the report argues that the benefit’s tight budget cap and strict eligibility requirements will push most low-income renters from the queue.
“In the long term, rental subsidies are no substitute for the construction of new affordable housing, which would increase vacancy rates, cool rental prices and allow more people to live closer to where they work,” the report notes.
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Gabbiano Azzurro Hotel & Suites: Sardinian Style in Golfo Aranci [Review]
Love is unexplainable. But when you have found it, you know it.
That may sound like hyperbole for the beginning of a hotel review. However, after having stayed in dozens of hotels across Italy and the world, from modest B&Bs to 5-star luxury suites, I have a sixth sense about what feels right. And few have ever given me that instant, love-at-first-sight feeling the way that Gabbiano Azzurro Hotel & Suites did.
Granted, Sardinia had me smitten from the start. So by the time I arrived in Golfo Aranci for the second part of a 10-day visit to the island, I was already relaxed and in one of the best moods I had been in in a long time. But the hotel, with its exceptionally chic accommodations and amiable atmosphere, delivered and kept me flying high throughout my stay.
Gabbiano Azzurro means “Blue Seagull” in Italian, which may explain why I felt like I was floating on a cloud during my time there. Or maybe, after more than 50 years in business, the hotel had figured out the formula for an ideal vacation.
Perfectly Situated: On the Beach and In Town
Gabbiano Azzurro’s private beach right outside the hotel / Photo courtesy of the hotel
Gabbiano Azzurro Hotel & Suites sits on its own private beach on the Terza Spiaggia, the “third beach” of the city of Golfo Aranci. The white sand strand, arranged with thatched umbrellas and sunbeds, has views of the emerald sea and Gallura‘s distinctive Isola Tavolara and can give you a sense of luxurious isolation.
But, if you’re like me, you also crave to see what life is like beyond the beachfront. Within a few blocks of the hotel are restaurants, bars, and shops, catering to locals and tourists alike. Walk a little further and you encounter the Prima and Secunda beaches; the harbor, full of colorful fishing boats; and the “Dolce Vita” shopping street, which is a promenade of pop-up shops open during the tourist season.
There is also art.
I was mesmerized by the photography of Marianne Sin-Pfältzer, a German photographer whose images of post-WWII Sardinian coastal life were displayed prominently on the sides of buildings in the heart of Golfo Aranci. The open-air gallery was both elegant and poignant, a bridge between this town’s fishing village past and its present as a classy, international destination.
Sardinia-Inspired Design
A sitting area in the lobby of Gabbiano Azzurro Hotel & Suites / Photo courtesy of the hotel
Successful hotel design will give you a strong sense of place as well as make you rethink how you decorate your own life.
What I really liked about Gabbiano Azzurro is how the geography, colors, and culture of Sardinia were echoed in the design. The turquoise and white of the sky, sea, and waves showed up in patterns on the furniture, bedding, and objets d’arts. Dark-wood baskets, arranged in small clusters on the wall, and tree stumps, painted and refashioned as table bases, were alluring contrasting elements — a way to bring the outdoors in and vice versa.
Superlative Suites
The interior of one of the luxury pool suites. Yes, that is a working bathtub in the middle of it all. / Photo © Melanie Renzulli
Gabbiano Azzurro owes much of its aesthetic to architect Mauro Fenzi, who began working with the hotel in 2017 to redesign its main pool and to develop its sophisticated suites. In conceptualizing Gabbiano Azzurro’s new suites, Fenzi used only local materials, such as marble made from pebbles and shells. He also found inspiration in the stazzo, the traditional northern Sardinian farmhouse, and the surrounding islands and coves of Gallura. Fenzi’s suites honor the curvature of windswept stones and the spaciousness of the landscape.
Put simply, these suites rock.
Junior Suite Cala Sabina, located on the second floor of the main building, has a window wall onto the sea. The suite opened in 2019. / Photo courtesy of the hotel
The suites, each with its own dedicated staircase to access to the rooftop pool, are ideal for honeymoons. But they could also be a practical option for small groups (such as two couples) or families who want to bask in the Sardinian sunshine in surroundings that are both posh and private.
A private infinity pool on the roof of one of Gabbiano Azzurro’s pool suites. / Photo courtesy of the hotel
Gabbiano Azzurro is split into two sections, with the main hotel building housing the majority of the property’s 80 rooms. The pool suites are located in an adjacent building with a private entrance.
One of the main tenets of travel is to eat where the locals eat. This is doubly true in Italy. And if you apply the theory here in Golfo Aranci, you will end up at Gabbiano Azzurro’s Blù Restaurant, one of two restaurants on the premises.
Helmed by Chef Daniele Sechi, Blù has been recognized as one of the best restaurants in Sardinia by the L’Espresso restaurant and wine guide, a sort of Michelin guide for restaurants in Italy. Sechi and his team focus on Sardinian ingredients, including regional pasta varieties, like fregola, the restaurant’s signature dish, and su filindeu; fish, including Sardinia’s famous bottarga; and seafood, such as mussels and squid.
Family Touch
The Datome Family of Gabbiano Azzurro / Photo courtesy of the hotel
Gabbiano Azzurro has been welcoming guests — many of them return clients — since 1968. Of course, the superb location within reach of the Costa Smeralda draws guests here. But it is the hospitality of the Datome family that brings them back.
The heart, soul, and face of the hotel is Antonella Datome. She and her husband Sergio built up this hotel together after the property was left to them by Sergio’s father. Also involved are Sergio’s brother Marco, a co-owner, and Sergio and Antonella’s eldest son Tullio. During the season, all of the family live with their respective spouses and children in a separate part of the hotel in order to stay involved with all aspects of the business. Indeed, Antonella was attentive to so many guests — greeting them at dinner, sharing a mirto liqueur with them in the lobby — it was easy to forget this was a hotel and not a cozy, single-family mansion.
Gabbiano Azzurro’s rooftop solarium, scheduled to open in 2020 / Artistic rendering by Daniele Mario Careddu
I love the idea of a secluded beach vacation, one that lets me escape the news of the world. But I also love to immerse myself in a place and see how the locals live. Gabbiano Azzurro gave me the chance to do both.
I was also touched by how Gabbiano Azzurro struck a balance between being both a luxury hotel and a family-friendly resort. So many hotels these days feel soulless, leaving a traveler to choose between cookie-cutter rooms or increasingly corporatized AirBnbs. Gabbiano Azzurro manages to be a part of the fabric of Golfo Aranci while providing high-quality accommodations, activities, and hospitality to those who want to experience the best that Sardinia has to offer.
You can make reservations at Gabbiano Azzurro Hotel & Suites directly on the hotel’s website.
Disclosure: I was invited to stay at the hotel mentioned in this post and was provided with free lodging and meals. Opinions expressed here are my own.
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Italy In Your Inbox
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Home & Decorating
Exclusive! Take a Tour of Carolina Herrera’s Elegant New York City Home
By InStyle Staff
This feature originally appeared in the March issue of InStyle. For more features like this, subscribe to the magazine now.
When you ring the doorbell to Carolina Herrera's elegant town house on Manhattan's Upper East Side, a few moments elapse before there's any sign of life. The door opens to reveal a man in a white butler's jacket, complete with black epaulets and brass buttons—a vision from another era. He greets you warmly, and as you stand in the softly lit foyer with a black-and-white checkerboard floor, you're immediately enveloped by the scent of jasmine flowers. It is, you learn later, a fragrance with personal meaning for Herrera, who designed a candle to capture the bouquet: "It reminds me of my childhood," says the supremely regal designer, dressed in a signature crisp white shirt and black pants. "There was a jasmine vine outside my bedroom window in Venezuela. The blossoms open in the evening, and the smell," she exclaims with a gasp, "it is so good!"
For the designer, whose clothes are favored by the likes of Jessica Alba, Sandra Bullock, and First Lady Michelle Obama, adding personal details to her New York abode was key. "My home is very personal. I love everything that's in it," she says in InStyle's March issue, on newsstands now.
She gave us an exclusive tour of her town house, which brims with a Proustian array of gilded furniture, textured fabrics, and delicious fragrances. See it now.
• At Home With Kelly Wearstler
• Stars Show Off Their Closets
• Nicole Kidman in the March InStyle: "I'm Very Country at Heart"
[instyle_context_cmad url="http://img2.timeinc.net/instyle/images/2014/WRN/021314-march-issue-digit..."]
The Sitting Room
"Most of the furniture in this home was brought over from our house in Caracas," says Herrera, shown here in one of her many sitting rooms. Her husband Reinaldo designed the striped chaises for the space.
A painting by 17th-century Dutch landscape artist Jan Hackert hangs above a pair of 18th-century Italian chairs. The wooden floor was handpainted to look like geometric inlays of green, black, and gold marble.
The Stairway Landing
Beneath the Warhol portrait on a stairway landing are photos of her daughter Patricia's children, taken by William Wegman.
A dressing table in the toile-covered bedroom displays family snaps and an inherited collection of antique silver hairbrushes.
Tiger prints punctuate the home, as seen here in a sitting room: "I love animal prints but prefer not to wear them," says Herrera. "I like them on cushions!"
In the library, a pastel portrait of Reinaldo's mother, Mimi Herrera, hangs over the fireplace. This feature originally appeared in the March issue of InStyle. For more features like this, subscribe to the magazine now.
1 of 6 The Sitting Room
2 of 6 The Dining Room
3 of 6 The Stairway Landing
4 of 6 The Bedroom
6 of 6 The Library
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Core Avionics & Industrial logs twenty-fifth avionics design win
MUNICH, 22 March 2012. CoreAVI announced the twenty-fifth avionics design win for its temperature-screened AMD Radeon E4690 GPU.
Courtney E. Howard
MUNICH, 22 March 2012. CoreAVI announced the 25th avionics design win for its temperature-screened AMD Radeon E4690 GPU.
CoreAVI’s turnkey solution for mil-aero graphics components is the result of several years of close collaboration with AMD, says a company spokesperson.
In order to completely address mil-aero program requirements, CoreAVI’s product offering also includes 20-year component availability, drivers for leading real-time operating systems from vendors, such as Wind River, Green Hills, and DDC-I, and now, a complete DO-178C / EUROCAE ED-12C driver and certification package.
“As DO-178C was just released in Jan. 2012, CoreAVI's OpenGL driver certification package will be one of the first DO-178C/ED-12C compliant software packages available in the industry,” says Marty Gasiorowski, DER and president of Worldwide Certification Services.
“CoreAVI is committed to the development of products and services that enable our avionics customers to reduce design and development efforts and lower overall program costs,” says Lee Melatti, CEO of CoreAVI. “That commitment includes enabling the deployment of AMD graphics into mil-aero platforms through temperature screening, the development of drivers for real-time operating systems, and DO-178C certification support. The E4690 represents the beginning of our product offering with additional announcements expected over the coming months.”
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Indonesia airline brings live music to the skies
Travel News / 10 January 2019, 10:33am / AFP
Musicians performing aboard a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Bali, a new entertainment service introduced by the airline. (Photo: AFP)
Jakarta - Indonesian national flag carrier Garuda is bringing music to the skies with a series of live acoustic concerts on domestic flights, the airline said.
Passengers will be serenaded at 35,000 feet in a scheme aimed at wooing millennials "who want a different flight experience", says airline spokesman M. Ikhsan Rosan.
The carrier held its first in-flight concert on Wednesday, when two musicians performed for a captive audience aboard a flight between the capital, Jakarta, and the holiday island of Bali.
Garuda said sets would last 10 to 15 minutes on select flights, and there would be a focus on promoting upcoming talent.
While it may prove an unforgettable flying experience for some, it may not be everyone’s idea of a good time.
In 2017, US airline Southwest introduced live shows on some flights to a mixed reaction from passengers.
Some travellers said they preferred minimum human interaction while flying and said music would distract them from sleeping or reading.
Indonesia is one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets, but it has come under fresh scrutiny since a fatal Lion Air crash in October last year that killed all 189 people on board.
Garuda said it had embarked on extensive consultation to ensure the concerts posed no threat to safety or security.
"If there is the potential of turbulence, the singer will be directed back to sit in his chair," Rosan said.
AirAsia crash ‘due to faulty part’
Data recovered from crashed Lion Air plane, search extended
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The inclusion of this statement in your website legal documents will not in itself satisfy the requirements of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (as amended) concerning consent to the use of cookies. Guidance concerning methods of obtaining such consent is included on the Information Commissioner's website (http://www.ico.gov.uk).
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What does the licence allow the website operator to do with user content?
Optional element. Should the website operator be granted a right to bring proceedings in respect of third party infringements?
Optional element. Should users be asked to waive their moral rights (such as the right of paternity and the right to object to derogatory treatment) in the content they submit to the website?
Optional element. Can users edit their own content after it has been posted to the website?
Section 10: Your content: rules
Section 10.2
This very general prohibition against unlawful user content may be supplemented by rules relating to specific kinds of illegality, as well as prohibitions upon lawful but undesirable content.
Do you want to expressly prohibit the publication by users of information about how to commit crimes and the promotion of criminal activities?
Should the depiction of violence be prohibited?
Should the prohibition on depicting violence be limited to explicit etc violence?
Should pornographic material be prohibited?
Should the prohibition on pornographic material be supplemented with a prohibition on lewd, suggestive or sexually explicit material?
Should untrue, false, inaccurate or misleading content be prohibited?
Should potentially dangerous advice be prohibited?
Should spam be prohibited?
Should offensive etc material be prohibited?
Should annoying etc material be prohibited?
Section 11: Limited warranties
Section 12: Limitations and exclusions of liability
Contractual limitations and exclusions of liability are regulated and controlled by law, and the courts may rule that particular limitations and exclusions of liability in contracts are unenforceable. The courts are particularly likely to intervene where a party is seeking to rely on a limitation or exclusion of liability in its standard terms and conditions, but will also sometimes intervene where a term has been individually negotiated. The courts may be more likely to rule that provisions excluding liability, as opposed to those merely limiting liability, are unenforceable. If there is a risk that any particular limitation or exclusion of liability will be found to be unenforceable by the courts, that provision should be drafted as an independent term, and be numbered separately from the other provisions. It may improve the chances of a limitation or exclusion of liability being found to be enforceable if the party seeking to rely upon it specifically drew it to the attention of the other party before the contract was entered into.
Exclusions and limitations of liability in UK contracts are primarily regulated by the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 ("UCTA"). Contracts regulated by UCTA cannot exclude or restrict a party's liability for death or personal injury resulting from negligence (Section 2(1), UCTA). Except insofar as the relevant term satisfies the requirements of reasonableness, such contracts cannot exclude or restrict liability: (i) for negligence (which includes a breach of an express or implied contractual obligation to take reasonable care or exercise reasonable skill) (Section 2(2), UCTA); or (ii) for misrepresentation (Section 3, Misrepresentation Act 1967). In addition, if a contract is regulated by UCTA, and one of the parties is dealing on the other's written standard terms of business, then except insofar as the relevant contractual term satisfies the requirements of reasonableness the other party cannot: (i) exclude or restrict his liability in respect of a breach of contract; or (ii) claim to be entitled to render a contractual performance substantially different from that which was reasonably expected of him; or (iii) claim to be entitled, in respect of the whole or any part of his contractual obligation, to render no contractual performance at all (see Section 3, UCTA). UCTA includes various other restrictions, particularly in the case of contracts for the sale of goods and contracts under which possession or ownership of goods passes. If you wish to try to limit/exclude for liability in respect of reckless, deliberate, personal and/or repudiatory breaches of contract, you should specify this in relation to the relevant provision (for example, using the following wording: "The limitations and exclusions of liability in this Clause [number] will apply whether or not the liability in question arises out of any reckless, deliberate, personal and/or repudiatory conduct or breach of contract"). In many circumstances, however, the courts will find these types of limitations and exclusions to be unenforceable. Somewhat different rules apply to limitations of liability in contracts with consumers, and these provisions should not be used in relation to such contracts. These guidance notes provide a very incomplete and basic overview of a complex subject. Accordingly, you should take legal advice if you may wish to rely upon a limitation or exclusion of liability.
Do not delete this provision (except upon legal advice). Without this provision, the specific limitations and exclusions of liability in the document are more likely to be unenforceable.
Optional element. Do you want to attempt to exclude all liability for free services and information?
This sort of exclusion is quite common, but unlikely to be enforceable in court.
"Consequential loss" has a special meaning in English law: it means any loss that, whilst not arising naturally from the breach, was specifically in the contemplation of the parties when the contract was made.
Optional element. If the website operator is a limited liability entity (eg a limited company), do you want to expressly exclude liability on the part of officers and employees?
Section 13: Breaches of these terms and conditions
Will account suspension or deletion be a possibility here?
Do you wish to specify types of action that are prohibited here?
Detail the types of action which are prohibited by this provision.
Section 14: Variation
Changes to legal documents published on a website will not generally be retrospectively effective, and variations without notice to and/or consent from relevant users may be ineffective.
Will website users be notified of changes to the document?
Optional element. Will registered users be required to consent to variations?
Section 17: Third party rights
This provision is designed to exclude any rights a third party may have under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
Section 18: Entire agreement
What other documents govern the use of the website?
Section 19: Law and jurisdiction
The questions of which law governs a document and where disputes relating to the document may be litigated are two distinct questions.
This document has been drafted to comply with English law, and the governing law provision should not be changed without obtaining expert advice from a lawyer qualified in the appropriate jurisdiction. In some circumstances the courts will apply provisions of their local law, such as local competition law or consumer protection law, irrespective of a choice of law clause.
Which law should govern the document?
In some circumstances your jurisdiction clause may be overridden by the courts.
Should the jurisdiction granted be exclusive or non-exclusive? Choose "non-exclusive" jurisdiction if you may want to enforce the terms and conditions against users outside England and Wales. Otherwise, choose "exclusive jurisdiction".
The courts of which country or jurisdiction should adjudicate disputes under the document?
Section 20: Statutory and regulatory disclosures
Do the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 apply to the website or is the website operator registered for VAT?
This section can be deleted where website operator is not registered for VAT and the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 do not apply. Generally, those Regulations will apply unless a website is entirely non-commercial, i.e. where a website does not offer any goods or services and does not involve any remuneration (which includes remuneration for carrying AdSense or other advertising).
Optional element. Is the website operator registered in a trade or similar register that is available to the public?
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 provide that if you are "registered in a trade or similar register available to the public", you must provide "details of the register in which the service provider is entered and his registration number, or equivalent means of identification in that register".
What is the name of the trade register?
At what URL can the trade register be found?
What is the website operator's registration number?
Optional element. Is the website operator subject to an authorisation scheme (eg under financial services legislation)?
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 provide that "where the provision of the service is subject to an authorisation scheme" you must provide "the particulars of the relevant supervisory authority".
What is the name of the authorisation scheme to which the website operator is subject?
What authority supervises the authorisation scheme?
Optional element. Is the service provider a member of a regulated profession (eg solicitors)?
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 provide that if "the service provider exercises a regulated profession", it must provide "(i) the details of any professional body or similar institution with which the service provider is registered; (ii) his professional title and the member State where that title has been granted; (iii) a reference to the professional rules applicable to the service provider in the member State of establishment and the means to access them".
What is the website operator's professional title?
Which professional body regulates the website operator?
In which jurisdiction was the professional title granted?
What is the name of the document containing the rules governing the profession?
At what URL can the rules be found?
Optional element. Does the website operator subscribe to any codes of conduct?
The Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 provide that "a service provider shall indicate which relevant codes of conduct he subscribes to and give information on how those codes can be consulted electronically".
Identify the codes of conduct in question.
Where can the codes be viewed?
Optional element. Is the website operator registered for VAT?
What is the website operator's VAT number?
Section 21: Our details
UK companies must provide their corporate names, their registration numbers, their place of registration and their registered office address on their websites (although not necessarily in this document).
Sole traders and partnerships that carry on a business in the UK under a "business name" (i.e. a name which is not the name of the trader/names of the partners or certain other specified classes of name) must also make certain website disclosures: (i) in the case of a sole trader, the individual's name; (ii) in the case of a partnership, the name of each member of the partnership; and (iii) in either case, in relation to each person named, an address in the UK at which service of any document relating in any way to the business will be effective. All websites covered by the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 must provide a geographic address (not a PO Box number) and an email address. All website operators covered by the Provision of Services Regulations 2009 must also provide a telephone number.
What is the name of the company, partnership, individual or other legal person or entity that owns and operates the website?
Optional element. Is the relevant person a company?
In what jurisdiction is the company registered?
What is the company's registration number or equivalent?
Where is the company's registered address?
Where is the relevant person's head office or principal place of business?
By what means may the relevant person be contacted?
Where is the relevant person's postal address published?
Either specify a telephone number or give details of where the relevant number may be found.
Either specify an email address or give details of where the relevant email address may be found.
Trenoweth
TR21 0NS
As we don't have a receptionist (so more funds can go to nature); do you need to call?
If so you'll need to leave a message and we will get back to you when we can.
Better to use:
Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust Limited. Reg. Charity No.1097807 Reg. Company No. 04726698
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Absence reduction
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Ben Warrender, grad IOSH, health and safety co-ordinator, GTH Construction
When I was a boy we would go on family holidays to the Lake District, doing walks and climbing small mountains, and my love of hiking grew from there. After learning to drive, I went walking with friends. We completed the Three Peaks Challenge to raise money for Help for Heroes: you climb the highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales, all within 24 hours – including driving between the three.
Article date:
For the past six years I’ve spent a week each November in the Lake District. My girlfriend has also developed a love of the mountains. We’ve been to Wales, Shropshire, the Malvern Hills and the Peak District, but the Lake District is our favourite.
Alfred Wainwright wrote seven pictorial guides to the fells of the Lake District. The 214 peaks he described are known as “Wainwrights”. I bought a map that lists the Wainwrights so you can tick off the ones you’ve walked and log the dates. I walked some of them as a kid, but around four or five years ago my girlfriend and I decided we would set a goal to walk them all.
I prefer walking in winter to summer when you have to carry more water – and the views of a snowy mountain are hard to beat. We visit in November because each year on Remembrance Sunday the Fell and Rock-climbing Club holds a religious service at the summit of Great Gable [in the heart of the Lake District] to remember members of the club who died in the armed services. Around 200 to 300 people go up for the service. It is an unusual experience: normally when you’re walking in winter you’ll see two or three other people at most on a mountain, and sometimes you won’t see anyone.
We had originally planned to go to the service every November but, after five consecutive years, last year we climbed Great Carrs instead to see the wreckage of a Canadian Halifax bomber that crashed there in October 1944.
Last year we climbed Great Carrs to see the wreckage of a Canadian Halifax bomber that crashed there in October 1944
I’ve walked 58 of the Wainwrights – around half of those more than once – and we’ve now decided not to walk mountains we’ve already visited. By the end of the year, we hope to have walked more than 70. We’ve walked most in the central and eastern fells; our favourite place in the Lake District is Grasmere, so we tend to gravitate there after a walk. That’s one of the best things: having been cold and wet and then sitting with a beer by a pub fire.
What I get out of mountain walking is perspective. When you’re on top of a mountain looking out over these deep valleys, surrounded by mountains, you realise any worries you may have are insignificant. Mountain walking isn’t always easy, but what makes it worthwhile is the satisfaction you feel when you get to the bottom and you can look at the photographs you’ve taken and relive the walk.
I have some great memories from walks in the past: there’s a photo of my mum, my dad, my sister, me and our dog on a ridge walk we did when I was around 12 on Striding Edge, Helvellyn.
These days, my girlfriend and I will sometimes take a lightweight tent with us, sleep on the mountain and come down the next day; it’s a real escape.
In terms of fitness, I can go three or four months between walks and it’s still OK when I next go up. Some of it will be hard, but if you want to stop, you just stop.
Many walkers don’t appreciate the risks. I follow various mountain rescue teams on social media and you see news of rescues of people who had gone up in sandals or without waterproofs. People think it’s “just” walking, but it’s dangerous: it’s not uncommon for people to fall, and there are multiple fatalities every year.
Since I’ve worked in safety and health, the way I prepare for a walk has changed. It’s not just a case now of picking up a map and away I go. I research the weather more, using the Mountain Weather Information Service, which enables me to plan my equipment and clothing to suit the conditions. It’s a lot like what I would do at work: selecting suitable PPE for a task.
I also research the route – if I can visualise it, it’s easier if the clouds come in. I take a map, compass, GPS unit, my phone (which has Ordnance Survey maps loaded) and a spare battery pack so I can navigate even when one method or device fails. After a walk, we evaluate what happened: if we made a mistake, we’ll sit down and work out where we went wrong, and how we could prevent it happening again.
You see all ages when you’re walking. I love doing it, but one thing I always keep in mind is that the mountains won’t go away: they’ll always be there. So, if I’m not feeling comfortable, I’ll turn around rather than try to tick one off. The first time we tried to climb Great Carrs, the weather came in and we couldn’t see more than a few metres so we turned back. After all, if you’re going up to see the views…
David Wright CMIOSH, part-time lecturer and retired health and safety manager, University of Portsmouth
Tony Barron, Grad IOSH, Health and safety consultant, Safety Management Services Europe (SMS Europe)
Johnnie Walker Grad IOSH, QHSE adviser, Ricardo Global Automotive (EMEA)
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Lonely Planet declares Dublin city Best in Travel
See & Do Attractions The Ha'penny Bridge
It’s official! Lonely Planet has named Dublin as one of its Top 10 cities in the world to visit. Here, we look at five ways Dublin shines.
1 “Life-changing experiences”
Dublin really wants to meet you. The proof? The city’s been hailed as the friendliest city in Europe not once, but twice. In fact, the people of Dublin are so friendly that meeting a local has been turned into something real, with the City of a Thousand Welcomes initiative.
An ordinary Dubliner will tell you about their home town over a free drink in a local pub.
Of course, another great way to strike up a chat with a local is to pick any one of the city’s charming pubs and pull up a stool. You’ll find every nook and corner of Dublin’s pubs are filled with friendly chatter and quirky characters – and we’re always happy to say hello. Try the Brazen Head, one of the oldest pubs in Dublin, or J.W. Sweetman's, for a pint of freshly brewed craft beer and perhaps even a tutorial in microbrewing. And when it comes to festivals, Ireland goes all out: St Patrick’s Day and New Year’s Festival are celebrated in Dublin every year in style, with thousands of people descending upon the city for an epic festival party.
Meet a friendly local in…
The Stag's Head
Toners Pub
2 “The Liffey’s bustling banks”
At its heart, Dublin is a Viking city and its streets are an eclectic mix of the historic and contemporary. Take a walk around the city and you’ll stumble upon ancient history at every turn: descend into a medieval crypt in Christ Church Cathedral and get to grips with Viking history at Dublin Castle.
Trail around key sites where nation-forming events took place, such as the GPO, Kilmainham Gaol and Dublin Castle.
Meanwhile, Trinity College, Custom House and the vibrantly coloured doors adorning red brick buildings are beautiful examples of the city’s Georgian legacy. Along the city’s water-edged runway of architecture lining the River Liffey, you’ll find the iconic hotspot of St James’ Gate, home of Guinness, and the docklands, where the Jeanie Johnston, a replica of the tall ship that carried 2,500 Irish emigrants to new lives in America, resides. If you really want to dig deep into the city’s remarkable history, try the Dublin Discovery Trails app and explore the ancient streets on foot.
Famine Memorial
3 The city’s green spaces and beyond the pale
Tucked away among the city’s cobbled streets are Dublin’s parks, a little haven of green away from the hustle and bustle. Take Phoenix Park, the largest urban park in Europe: home to Áras an Uachtaráin (the residence of the President of Ireland), a herd of fallow deer and Dublin Zoo.
Dublin has a healthy hue, with people embracing its inner green spaces and exploring the wild outdoor arenas along the coast and ‘beyond the pale
Then there’s St Stephen’s Green, an oasis of serenity, and a popular lunchtime spot for locals, its monuments, ornamental lakes and Victorian features make this a little slice of city heaven. And don’t miss the majestic Iveagh Gardens, one of Dublin’s best-kept secrets. Of course, outside the city – or beyond the pale – only 15 minutes away, you can “Plunge into the Irish Sea at the Forty Foot in Sandycove”. Bliss for those who dare.
National Botanic Gardens
Merrion Square
Glasnevin Cemetery Museum
4 A century of new beginnings
For such a small city, Dublin’s got a BIG past. The iconic city has survived Viking attacks, a devastating fire, and even the plague. It’s also founded of one of the oldest universities in Europe, Trinity College, and is home to Ireland’s legendary brew, Guinness.
Exploring five themes – remembrance, reconciliation, imagination, presentation and celebration – planned events range from art exhibitions in the Little Museum to a memorial service at Arbour Hill
Visit Kilmainham Gaol, the biggest unoccupied jail in Europe, and admire the Viking defense bank and stony medieval Undercroft at Dublin Castle. Don’t miss the General Post Office (GPO) on O’Connell Street: the beautifully restored original features and iconic exterior pillars are a treat – not to mention the history held within its walls. Of course, there are plenty of historic walking trails to choose from. As Lonely Planet says: “Dublin deserves to be imbibed at walking pace.”
Celebrate history at...
St Stephen’s Green
5 Where art collides with Dublin wit
There are few cities that boast a literary legacy like Dublin. After all, Dublin is only the fourth UNESCO City of Literature in the WORLD, and it’s home to three of Ireland’s four Nobel Prize winners for literature. Dublin’s literary legacy is written into the very fabric of the city, with bridges named after wordsmiths Samuel Beckett and Sean O’Casey, while literary giants Jonathan Swift, Oscar Wilde and James Joyce all cite Dublin as their inspiration.
From the Tart with the Cart (Molly Malone statue) and the Stiletto in the Ghetto (Spire of Light, O’Connell St)… in Dublin, public art collides with irreverent street humour like nowhere else.
The city’s creative – and sometimes quirky – spirit is everywhere: pop into one of Dublin’s literary pubs and get inspired where James Joyce once mused over a pint. Try the Dublin Literary Walking Tour, led by witty and informed guides performing works from Dublin’s best-known writers. Maybe don a boater hat and get to grips with the epic tome Ulysses at the annual Bloomsday festival.
Exciting, inspiring, creative: start your adventure in Dublin.
Also Visit...
Marsh’s Library
Dublin Writers’ Museum
James Joyce Centre
See why Lonely Planet fell in love with Dublin
Dublin: creative culture
Literature, theatre, live music, contemporary and traditional crafts all blend together to form Dublin’s rich creative culture
Dublin: outside the city
Take a gentle stroll, an island cruise or browse around the local farmers’ markets in a city sandwiched between land and sea.
Dublin: see, do, experience
Explore a UNESCO City of Literature, buzzing with traditional pubs and home to some of the friendliest locals on the planet
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Pascoe Law Firm
1414 S. Friendswood Dr., STE 120
railroad injuries
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Home › Injury Types › Personal Injury › Railroad & FELA Claims
Railroad Injury Lawyer
Working on the railroad is a dangerous profession and have a high risk and rate of injury associated with the occupation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012 the fatality rate for railroad workers is over double of all other work related deaths for the period of January to November. Additionally, in 2012 there were 3,583 injury cases involving employees and 15 deaths of railroad workers. These numbers are shocking when one looks at the size of the railroad industry. The railroad industry only employees around 300,000 workers and these numbers suggest that there is a high risk of injury for a relatively small industry compared to other industrial professions.
Photo Property Owner, Allison Ullrich
Our railroad accident attorney fights to protect the rights of injured railroad workers in Texas and beyond including those working on the railroad, building or repairing tracks, maintaining trains, or the handling cargo. Working on rails has always been a hazardous job. In recognition of the dangers, injured railroad employees are granted special protection under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). Despite the specific rights mandated under FELA, we know that railway workers often encounter obstacles to medical coverage and rightful compensation. Our railroad accident attorney represents railroad workers in Galveston, Houston, and throughout Texas and the nation. Our railroad injury lawyer represents victims of train crashes, common railroad worker injuries, and those needing to file a FELA claim. Call us today at 713-829-4317 to get your legal questions answered.
Justice William Douglas of the United States Supreme Court once said,"[t]he Federal Employers Liability Act was designed to put on the railroad industry some of the costs of the legs, arms, eyes, and lives which it consumed in its operation. Not all these costs were imposed, for the Act did not make the employer an insurer. The liability which it imposed was the liability for negligence.”
In 1908, the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA) legislation was passed by Congress. The legislative intent behind the FELA act was to help protect those injured while working for the railroad or on the railways due to the high rate of death from the occupation in the late 19th century. A FELA claim allows a railroad worker to seek damages that are not covered by regular workers compensation laws. FELA allows for compensation for pain and suffering and looks at the negligence involved. This is different than having a pre decided amount that workers compensation might have provided. A FELA claim requires that the railroad worker prove that the railroad company was negligent in their actions in some part or action and this caused or contributed to the injury. Once negligence is established the injured worker may recover for their full damages sustained.
Furthermore, the FELA has several other differences with workers compensation. Under workers compensation one does not have to prove the negligence of their employer to make a claim. Having to prove liability in a FELA claim makes the Federal Employers Liability Act like a traditional personal injury or tort based claim. An injured railroad worker does not have to prove that their employer was entirely responsible for the injury, only partially. FELA damages that are awarded are typically higher than that one would receive with a work comp claim. As a result, railroad accident and railroad injury cases can involve and require a complex legal understanding of the act and injury law. If you have been injured while working for the railroad it might be in your best interest to speak with a railroad injury lawyer who can help protect your legal rights after a railroad accident occurs.
Common Causes of A Railroad Injury and Railroad Accidents
Our railroad injury lawyer and person injury attorney represents railroad employees who have been injured on the job. Our rail road accident attorney handles a wide range of FELA injury cases, including some of the more common railroad accidents and injuries, including:
Train crashes and falls from trains,
Fires and burns working around diesel engines,
Slip and fall injuries- such as slipping on ballast while fixing rails,
Back injuries from lifting,
Carpal tunnel syndrome from hammering rail spikes,
Whole body vibration syndrome from riding on rail-cars,
Illness from exposure to creosote in rail ties, and
Toxic freight spills.
Whether you or a loved one worked in the rail yards at Fort Worth, on the docks at Galveston, at the shops in Arkansas or in a desk job at headquarters, your on-the-job injury is covered under FELA. The railroad accident attorney of the Pascoe Law Firm can represent your rights if you suffered serious injury on the job. There are many causes of railroad worker injury. Many injuries might not actually involve the train and be related to other aspects of the railroad industry or the transportation of objects. Another common cause of railroad injury include hearing damage. Trains can be extremely loud and hearing damage is listed as another common injury seen in association with injured railroad workers. No matter what time of railroad injury you or a loved one has received please feel free to call our railroad accident attorney to discuss your legal options available.
Lawyer for Railroad Accidents and Railroad Injuries
Speak with our railroad injury lawyer about a possible FELA claims, these can be brought directly to the railroad company or employer, or as lawsuits in state or federal court. Unlike workers' compensation, which is a "no fault" system, a FELA suit requires the injured worker to prove negligence. The defense can also counterclaim your contributory negligence, which would reduce your compensation. FELA is a specialized and complex area of federal law, with notice requirements, deadlines and rules for submitting claims. For all these reasons, it is in your best interests to immediately contact an attorney who regularly handles these claims. Mr. Pascoe goes beyond the obvious to maximize all available damages, such as lost wages and future earnings, medical bills and future treatment, pain and suffering, permanent disability and mental distress. The Pascoe Law Firm provides free consultations for injured railroad employees and for the families of workers killed in railroad accidents. Contact us to talk to our railroad accident attorney about your unique case. Hablamos Español.
Railroad Injury - Research and Reports - Galveston County / League City
Railroad Related Work Injury Fatalities
Federal Railroad Safety Administration- One Year Accident / Incident Overview
Compensating Injured Railroad Workers Under the Federal Employer's Liability Act
Federal Employee Liability Act
Overview of FELA
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Player Driven. Tour Proven.
Created by renowned shaft designer Kim Braly and forged from Tour player feedback, the KBS Tour Series features the most advanced steel shaft technology in the industry. Since its inception in 2008, KBS has set a new standard in steel shafts with its unprecedented growth and acclaim. KBS shafts are utilized in leading club manufacturer’s irons, accepted in every manufacturer’s custom department and adopted by over 150 professionals.
At KBS, we’re focused on maximizing the performance of your irons by providing the most technologically advanced steel golf shafts. Learn why we are the fastest growing steel shaft brand in the industry.
KIM BRALY
director of r+d
PIONEERING THE VISION OF GOLF CLUB DESIGN
Wanting to pioneer a fresh vision of golf shaft performance and design, FST America Corporation sought the most experienced golf shaft design minds in the golf equipment industry that could integrate innovative designs with our state-of the-art manufacturing facility. Our objective was to produce premium high-performance golf shafts a cut above the rest.
FST introduced Kim Braly Signature (KBS) shafts in early 2008. That first year, several players quickly converted to KBS Tour shafts and multiple wins were recorded that same year. Citing this early success on the PGA Tour and other professional tours worldwide, a clear path was opened for FST’s fresh KBS products to get out to custom fitters and club builders. The number of tour players playing KBS grew since that first year and so did the number of wins on Tour, including several majors. KBS rapidly became the fastest growing steel shaft brand in the industry and has earned a significant share of the market.
Golf Shaft expert Kim Braly joined our team 10 years ago to lead our Research and Development Team on Tour. Throughout his career, Kim has made significant contributions to the golf industry and continues to do so as Head of Director of Research and Development and Tour Operations at KBS. Kim’s lifelong passion for golf and personal involvement with all professional golf tours have resulted in numerous accomplishments that are well documented. For decades, Kim has used the best golfers in the world to validate his designs and assist in the development of new products. During his career, Kim Braly designed innovative golf shafts still being used by club builders and touring professionals throughout the world.
Combining FST’s state-of-the-art manufacturing with Kim’s design expertise, the current KBS Line of golf shafts offers a range of new performance options for junior golfers to the touring professional. Proven on all worldwide tours including the PGA Tour, and most importantly, by our passionate KBS Golf Shaft users worldwide. Player Driven. Tour Proven.
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Growth Industry: Native Foods and White Australia
Growth Industry
Marketed as ‘superfoods’ and ‘reinvented’ by international chefs, demand for Australian native foods has exploded in recent years. But in an industry built on millennia of Indigenous knowledge, why aren’t Indigenous growers and suppliers reaping more of the benefits?
By Drew Rooke
7th Oct, 2019
Conversation with Eleanor Catton
Bethanie Blanchard
Edges, Centres and Futures
Ambelin Kwaymullina
Giddy and Tingling All Over: Revisiting The Professionals
Fiona Scott-Norman
Image: Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
‘Here – try this.’
Aunty Fran Bodkin smiles as she hands me a freshly-picked fruit which resembles a kumquat. The only thing that’s different is the deep purple colour of the skin. I peel it and place the flesh whole in my mouth. As I chew, hundreds of tiny sacs pop and release a delicious citrus juice. ‘Native lime,’ she says, as she hands me another to enjoy.
Aunty Fran is a descendant of the Dharawal people of the Bidiagal clan and an esteemed botanist. She is showing me around the Australian Botanical Gardens at Yandel’ora, alternatively known as Mount Annan, in western Sydney. She knows the gardens well; she helped found them back in the 1980s.
It’s a sunny winter morning, the air clear and crisp, and birds sing to each other in the trees. Aunty Fran continues walking. She stops regularly to share more of her vast knowledge about the native food plants that we pass: Tetragonia tetragonoides (warrigal greens), Dianella caerulea (blue-flax lily), Prostanthera ovalifolia (mint bush), Einadia hastata (berry saltbush), Carpobrotus glaucescens (pigface), and Commelina cyanea (scurvy weed).
These and many other native foods have been central to Aunty Fran’s diet ever since she was a young girl. Her Mum and Nan imbued in her a love of the natural world and taught her which plants and fruits were edible, and how the different plant communities they are found in affect their growth and flavour. She used this knowledge to survive when she was stolen from her family, ran away from her white foster carers, and lived off the land as she made her way back home. This happened twelve times.
These days Aunty Fran still primarily eats native foods. As well as being enormously culturally significant for her, she cites another, more practical reason: ‘I just prefer the taste of the Australian bush.’ She harvests many plants and fruits from her own property and the bushland surrounding it, making sure to never take more than half of what’s available. The sandpaper fig is one of her favourites, but she knows never to eat more than three at a time. ‘Otherwise you’ll be sitting on the toilet for a long time,’ she laughs.
‘Up until now, native plants have been seen as a nuisance. But if everybody starts using them, maybe they’ll start to value them.’
More and more non-Aboriginal people in Australia and around the world are starting to develop a taste for the Australian bush. In fact, the native food industry has boomed in recent years – so much so that many suppliers are unable to keep up with demand. Estimates put the value of the industry at approximately $20 million (excluding macadamia, which alone is a $200 million industry). Over 15 native species have already been commercially developed – largely thanks to the vast Aboriginal knowledge about them – and some are being hailed as global superfoods. A recent headline in The Conversation, for example, read, ‘Meet the Kakadu plum: An international superfood thousands of years in the making’, while another on the ABC declared, ‘Quandong – the versatile outback superfood that can cure a toothache’.
But Aunty Fran is neither worried nor excited about the growing public appetite for native foods. Bluntly, she says she has only one thought about it: ‘About bloody time.’
‘Because I think that’s the way our bushland is going to survive,’ she continues. ‘Up until now, native plants have been seen as a nuisance. But if everybody starts using them, maybe they’ll start to value them.’
Across the Australian continent there are an estimated 6,000 edible plants, 2,000 truffles or subterranean mushrooms, numerous game birds, mammals and marsupials, and a plethora of seafood. These foods sustained and were maintained by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years prior to European invasion in 1788.
The foods that were available pre-invasion differed across the continent, but the variety was generally very high. As John Newton writes in The Oldest Foods on Earth: A History of Australian Native Foods:
In the Western Desert, the Aboriginal people chose from a seasonal menu of 150 different foods a year. In the tropical north, that figure jumps to 750 a year… By contrast, the average European Australian today will choose from between fifty and a hundred foods a year, while largely ignoring even the (European imposed) seasonality of food.
Early European arrivals brought their own crops and stock to plant and run across the new land they found themselves in. Many were disgusted by and dismissive of the native foods available – but others, either out of necessity, curiosity or a sense of culinary adventure, were more willing to experiment. Describing life in the early days of the colony, First Fleet diarist Watkin Tench wrote in 1789 that ‘a few wild fruits are sometimes procured’, including a ‘small purple apple’ and ‘a fruit which has the appearance of a grape, though in taste more like a green gooseberry,’. He said emu meat ‘tasted like beef’ and the meat of a young kangaroo ‘eats tender and well flavoured, tasting like veal’.
Finger limes. Image: Jon Fisher, Flickr (CC BY NC-ND 2.0)
Throughout the nineteenth century a selection of native foods were exported and introduced to Britain for consumption and cultivation, and some European Australian cookbook writers enthused about native ingredients and included them in their recipes.
Mina Rawson was one. She lived in Boonooroo on Butchulla country in Queensland, and in 1895 published the Antipodean Cookery Book and Kitchen Companion with the aim of meeting ‘the wants and circumstances of those living in the far Bush’ – referring, in this case, specifically to white women. She praised the flavour of witchetty grubs, comparing them favourably to oysters; the book included recipes for fried eel, stewed parrots, jugged wallaby, rosella jam, and rosella pickles, and recommended using native vegetables as substitutes for more familiar ones.
She may have been, in her own words, ‘beholden’ to Aboriginal people for ‘nearly all’ of her knowledge about edible flora and fauna, but Rawson still firmly believed in white sovereignty over the land and white racial superiority over its Traditional Owners. Author Shannon Woodcock has observed that ‘animal lives were valuable to her only insofar as they could be used for her profit’ and ‘Aboriginal people themselves were rendered invisible in the prescribed processes of food preparation.’ In Rawson’s memoirs, serialised in a local newspaper between 1919 and 1926, she even wrote proudly about shooting at and whipping Aboriginal people, whom she described as a ‘deadly menace’, ‘great thieves’ and ‘lawless people…not to be judged by any known standards.’
Even though some Europeans undoubtedly consumed and experimented with native foods in this early colonial period, they were still heavily stigmatised within white society, representing, according to author and food historian Colin Bannerman, ‘failure: depletion of store, extreme poverty, or separation from the society of “home”.’
Over time, as colonisation intensified and European-style agriculture and infrastructure expanded, Aboriginal cultures and foodways were further devastated and even fewer non-Aboriginal Australians ate or were interested in native foods. By the mid-twentieth century they had, Bannerman writes, ‘virtually disappeared from cookery books and… from most tables.’
But a shift came in the 1980s and 1990s when a small number of Australian chefs turned to native ingredients in an attempt to construct a more ‘authentic’ national cuisine that wasn’t just built around a spreadable yeast extract or mincemeat-filled puff pastry. Around the same time, the ABC helped mainstream native foods with its series Bush Tucker Man, fronted by Les Hiddins, who took viewers on a (white) journey around Australia, promoting the many foods that could be sourced from the land.
Since then, word has continued to spread about the unique flavours and huge health benefits of native Australian foods. For example, kangaroo meat – which could only be legally sold as pet food in New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria until 1993 – has only 2 per cent fat and a high concentration of conjugated linoleic acid and omega 3. A 2009 study of thirteen native herbs, spices and fruit found they ‘exhibited superior antioxidant capacity as compared to the Blueberry standard, renowned worldwide as the “health-promoting fruit”‘, and contained very high levels of vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin B, magnesium, zinc and calcium.
A key moment in the recent boom of the native food industry came in 2016 when award-winning – and trend-setting – chef Rene Redzepi opened a 10-week Sydney pop-up of his acclaimed Danish restaurant, Noma, to showcase native Australian ingredients. On the menu were dishes like green macadamia nuts in a chilled broth, native berries dusted with Kakadu plum, and abalone schnitzel served with bunya nuts, finger lime, sea grape and mat rush. Diners forked out $485 for the meal. All tables were sold out just minutes after bookings were opened, with the waiting list exceeding 27,000 people.
Wild fruit and seaweed #NomaAustralia
A post shared by Rene Redzepi (@reneredzepinoma) on Jan 26, 2016 at 3:35am PST
John Lethlean, food writer for The Australian, described Redzepi’s venture as ‘an important milestone in Australia’s self-discovery as a food nation’. This has proved true, with demand for native Australian ingredients among both chefs and everyday consumers soaring ever since.
But it is a sad irony that it took a European chef opening a restaurant in Sydney for non-Aboriginal Australia to start to seriously value the foods of the oldest continuing cultures on earth.
‘At the moment the bush food industry is massive, but when you look at how much money funnels back into Aboriginal communities and benefits Aboriginal people, it’s just such a small percentage that it’s fucking laughable,’ Clarence Slockee says.
A Bundjalung man from northern New South Wales, Slockee is sitting in a small room overlooking Yerrabingin, Australia’s first native rooftop farm located in the inner Sydney suburb of Eveleigh. According to an ongoing research project by Bushfood Sensations, an alliance of businesses that promote Aboriginal foods, only 1 per cent of the native food dollar value is currently generated by Aboriginal people, whose vast, ancient ecological knowledge makes the industry viable in the first place.
Slocklee and Christian Hampson founded Yerrabingin, which is entirely Aboriginal owned and run, partly to address this issue of Aboriginal underrepresentation and marginalisation in the industry. Less than a year old, the 500-square-metre farm – which supplies local restaurants and bars, and doubles as a community space hosting workshops on bush foods, permaculture, weaving and art – contains over 2,000 plants from 34 species, carefully chosen for their cultural significance for staff as well as their ability to withstand the harsh, windy rooftop conditions. Most are suitable for human consumption, including finger limes, native raspberries, warrigal greens, midgen berries and muntries, but Yerrabingin’s permaculturalist and project manager Matthew McKay insists that even those that are not are still food for the insects that are essential to the farm’s ongoing survival. ‘We’ve got to invite the pollinators in,’ he says.
Only 1 per cent of the native food dollar value is currently generated by Aboriginal people, whose vast, ancient ecological knowledge makes the industry viable in the first place.
Along with Yerrabingin, there is a growing number of other Aboriginal-owned-and-run organisations, cooperatives and businesses including Maningrida Wild Foods (NT) and IndigiGrow (NSW) which are striving to lift the number of Aboriginal people involved in and benefiting from the native food industry. But there are other industry-wide issues impacting Aboriginal peoples’ interests, cultures, and rights that concern Slockee just as much – in particular, the demand-saturated state of the current market.
Although demand shows no sign of decreasing – especially given the ‘superfood’ status attached to many native foods – supply is severely limited because so much of the total amount of native produce is currently wild-harvested. This is largely why native foods are so expensive: even commercially-produced finger limes, for example, can sell for between $40 and $45 per kilogram.
This means that while a wealthy few get to enjoy new gourmet meals, many Aboriginal people, if not in a position to wild-harvest themselves, simply cannot afford to buy their traditional foods. It also means that there is a strong economic incentive for disadvantaged Aboriginal communities involved in wild harvesting to sell more and consume less of their traditional foods – which, Slockee says, ‘is happening right now in our communities and is completely changing people’s diets’ – and a growing risk of a native food black market. Indeed, in 2016 approximately 600 kilograms of gabinge (or Kakadu plum) worth $12,000 was stolen from the Milari Aboriginal Corporation in Broome. Slockee has heard other stories of trees being illegally destroyed so people can quickly harvest the lucrative fruit to sell and avoid getting caught. ‘If that’s happening,’ he says, ‘it’s fucking heartbreaking, because some of those trees are 50, 100 years old.’
Yerrabingin rooftop farm in Sydney. Image: Facebook/Yerrabingin
Equally concerning is the fact that the rich Aboriginal heritage intertwined with native foods isn’t being properly recognised – and in some instances, Aboriginal ecological knowledge is even being stolen by non-Aboriginal people for huge commercial gain.
One illustrative case involves a plant known as Gumby Gumby which, in the language of the Ghungalu people from central Queensland, means ‘woman woman medicine’. Known in Western science as Pittosporum phillyraeoides, it has been used by Aboriginal people across the continent for millennia to treat a range of illnesses.
In 2006, German-born Yeppoon-based couple Katja Amato and Klaus-Otto Von Gliszczynski established their business, GumbyGumby.com, which sells a range of products derived from the plant. According to their website, in 1999 an Aboriginal elder they met wrote the name of the tree in dust as ‘Cumpi Cumpi’. They claim they then ‘invented’ the word ‘Gumby Gumby’.
In 2008, the couple applied for and were granted a patent over the exclusive production of leaf extracts of Pittosporum phillyraeoides and its use in medicine. They then proceeded to send cease-and-desist letters to Aboriginal-owned businesses that also traded in Gumby Gumby-based products. More recently, they applied for an exclusive trademark over the name ‘Gumby Gumby’. A final decision on this application is imminent.
Lee Doherty, a Palawa woman who runs a business called Bushfoods With Benefits, which also sells products derived from Gumby Gumby, was one of those who received a cease-and-desist letter from Amato and Von Gliszczynski. She fought back and has been able to continue operating, but tells me she is ‘appalled’ by the recent trademark application.
‘It’s cultural appropriation, plain and simple,’ she says. ‘No one should be able to trademark an Indigenous word. Enough has been taken away from First Nations people in Australia. Now they’re trying to take our language.’
Some attempts are already being made to improve the situation.
In 2001, supermarket giant Coles established the Indigenous Food Fund to help support the growth of Aboriginal businesses involved in the supply of native foods. As of 2016, the fund had contributed $2 million to Aboriginal communities and enterprises across Australia. (For comparison, the supermarket generated $1.86 billion in earnings in 2016 alone.)
The Orana Foundation has a similar mission. Founded by Jock Zonfrillo, the owner and chef of the famed Adelaide restaurant, Orana, it seeks to not only help Aboriginal communities research, commercialise, and promote their traditional foods but also to alleviate social and economic disadvantage through skills training and employment opportunities. In 2017, the Foundation entered into a research partnership with the South Australian government as part of a $1.25 million grant to directly consult with Aboriginal communities and study and document traditional food practices.
These are positive developments. But alone they are not enough to fix the pervasive problems within the industry. In order to build an ethical, sustainable industry which has Aboriginal interests and self-determination at its core, far more systemic changes are required.
In order to build an ethical, sustainable industry which has Aboriginal interests and self-determination at its core, far more systemic changes are required.
A good first step would be for the Australian government to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, which it signed in January 2012. A supplementary agreement to the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity, its objective is to ensure ‘the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilisation of genetic resources.’ It specifically stipulates that genetic knowledge held by Indigenous communities is accessed with their ‘prior and informed consent or approval and involvement, and that mutually agreed terms have been established.’ The protocol also requires that those wanting to use Indigenous-owned genetic resources must consider customary laws, community protocols and procedures, and ensure ‘the fair and equitable sharing of benefits’ from using traditional knowledge.
According to Terri Janke, a Wuthathi and Meriam woman from Cairns and an expert on Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, ‘for Indigenous Australians, the Protocol opens the door for access and benefit sharing arrangements by requiring prior informed consent when Indigenous resources are being utilised.’
Part of the ratification process might involve introducing new legislation that gives specific protection to Aboriginal ecological knowledge, and decolonising Australia’s existing intellectual property laws. As it stands, the existing legal framework makes it possible – as the Gumby Gumby controversy sadly demonstrates – for any Australian individual or company, Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal, to be granted exclusive rights to Aboriginal products or language. This issue was also highlighted earlier this year when it was revealed that non-Indigenous company WAM Clothing holds worldwide exclusive rights to the Aboriginal flag and has issued infringement notices to numerous Aboriginal companies and not-for-profit organisations that use it.
The existing legal framework also prioritises documented, individual knowledge and ideas. As Janke says: ‘Given that Indigenous Knowledge is often orally transferred, and may be nurtured and handed down through many generations, it may not meet the requirements of copyright protection.’
Slockee would also like to see Australian governments follow the lead of The Orana Foundation and Coles’ Indigenous Food Fund and ‘help Aboriginal communities in developing a much better way forward in commercialising particular species.’ This would, he believes, ‘shrink the wild harvest and take some of the current heat out of the market.’
But change at a legislative and government level can be difficult, complex, and delayed. With this in mind, in 2011 the Merne Altyerre-ipenhe (Food from the Creation time) Reference Group, alongside Josie Douglas and Fiona Walsh, published a set of voluntary ethical guidelines for bush foods researchers, enterprise leaders, workers and professionals. Among other matters, they relate to the fair and equitable benefits for Aboriginal people, increased participation throughout the supply chain of Aboriginal people, and restoring country, ecology and bush food species through natural and cultural resource management and landcare.
If followed, these guidelines would likely help to create an industry – and, to a lesser extent, a country – that is fairer, more equitable, and more inclusive of Aboriginal people.
But us individual eaters – especially non-Aboriginal ones – can also help by following two simple steps.
Firstly: Buy native foods, and when doing so, support businesses that are run by and benefit Aboriginal people.
Secondly: when eating native foods, don’t just admire their delicious flavours and nutritional benefits.
Remember their history, remember the history of who they belong to.
Remember they are imbued not just with tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal knowledge, spirituality and cultural heritage, but also the racism, frontier violence, theft of land and children, and massacres that have defined this continent’s more recent past.
As Bunurong, Yuin and Tasmanian author Bruce Pascoe has said: ‘You can’t eat our food if you can’t swallow our history.’
Drew Rooke is a freelance journalist based in Sydney. His work deals with contemporary political and cultural issues and has appeared in publications such as The Saturday Paper, Meanjin and The Sydney Morning Herald. Drew was a finalist in the 2015 Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers and One Last Spin is his first book.
More from Drew Rooke
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New Fiction — Myfanwy McDonald
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Adil Rashid treated like an English leg spinner
England are going to have to watch this. It’s not deliberate, but if you had to design some tactics to erode a player’s confidence, what they’re doing to Adil Rashid might be what you’d come up with.
In the summer, Rashid started the one-day series against Australia well and promptly got dropped. He got one over in the second Twenty20 match against South Africa, got carted and from then Alastair Cook opted for Joe Denly ahead of him. Yesterday, he got three overs, got a little bit of welly and was then demoted below Jonathan Trott in the bowling hierarchy.
This is what the English do with leg spinners. If you’re a seam bowler and you go for a few runs, you quite often get a chance to make amends with a few more overs – because at least you’re shit in a predictable way. If you’re a leg spinner, there are no second chances.
Even Shane Warne said that his only aim in his first over was just to stay on. Leg spin bowling isn’t something that you can switch on and switch off. It’s not a light switch or your brain when you’re at work.
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Maz@BoomBoomCricket
He is far overrated. Just because of the rarity of a leg spinners presence in English cricket. He has been woeful thus far in international cricket.
Nevertheless, England won yesterday.
He isn’t useless, but it is too early to be bringing him on. However, if they feel they don’t have anyone else, I suppose they’ll just have to stick with him.
I don’t know that his confidence is that easily eroded. He doesn’t seem a fool. And if he is serious about leg-spinning, he’ll have to learn to wear it some days all his career.
By the way, all the fuss that was made about his good game against Oz was very misleading. If you look at the stats, most of his bowling was at Michael Clarke.
Michael Clarke has a strike rate of 67 this year in ODI’s. In other words, it doesn’ t matter who bowls at him, he still can’t get it off the freakin’ square.
He’s a batsman who bowls a bit according to a load of Yorkshire journalists. Yet he’s touted as The Saviour.
That said, in English cricket at all levels, you cannot be an ‘okay’ legspinner. There are plenty of ‘okay’ offspinners and medium pacers playing at clubs, counties and for the country.
But as a wristspinner if you are not an immediate world-beating, game-changing hero, you’ll get taken off after three overs.
It doesn’t really make sense.
D Charlton, it’s the Warne complex. You think it’s bad here, you should see it in Aus. Hence the one test, suck it and see approach to practically any slow bowler who can turn their arm over.
Dwayne Smith makes use of his beach cowboy expertise
England are a team utterly without breadth
West Indies crack as the gradient steepens
Monty Panesar’s dimension
Wicketkeeper scores hundred
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Audioguide of Comillas
What to see in Comillas
Certainly, someone has already told you that when in Cantabria you must go to see Comillas without a doubt. And they are right because this is not just a picturesque town like the many others along the Cantabrian coast.
To find the reasons for this fame we will have to go back to the end of the nineteenth century, although, three centuries before, the people of the village had already left a good story to tell. Fed up with the abuse from the parish priest and the Duke on duty, they rebelled and decided altogether, not to enter the church anymore. Of course, the priest was angry and threatened to excommunicate everyone as well as denying them the sacraments for about a year. But finally the Mayor mediated, and it was agreed to build a new temple in which there would be no privileges, while the old church was abandoned and nowadays is a cemetery which we recommend a visit.
We’ll leave the dead ones in peace now, and we’ll move to precisely the 6 of August 1881, when King Alfonso XII was about to arrive in Comillas. What was he looking for here?
To be truthful, not much actually. That was the result of the insistence of Antonio López y López, a local who, like many others, had emigrated to America and, like very few, had come back very rich. After he gained the King’s friendship, he persuaded him to come to Comillas, his hometown, to spend the summers here. López hoped that after the king, the Court would follow, and, after the Court, more sophisticated people. This would place the town at the same level as San Sebastian or at least Zarautz.
The businessman was so anxious for everything to go well that, by that August day, he had even brought the new electric light to the town’s streetlights. The monarch liked the place and convinced himself to spend the summers here. So, López’s dreams, as in the fairy tales, became a reality. And they were happy ever after…Comillas was filled with modernist buildings, distinguished holidaymakers and with a discreet splendour that is still present in the town.
As well as the Casa Palacio de Ocejo, where Alfonso XII took his Royal naps, you can see, at a distance, the Pontifical University. All this is the result of López’s efforts and the money of other indianos who, like Máximo Díaz de Quijano, wanted to leave evidence of their success here.
Díaz de Quijano got his impressive Capricho (whim) built by a young man named Antonio Gaudí, who between 1883 and 1885, left some of his artistic genius in this town. Only, for this reason, you will understand if we tell you that you are already taking too long to go and visit El Capricho.
At its side, you will find another impressive building for such a small town: the Sobrellano Palace, or Marques de Comillas Palace. Antonio López y López received the title of Marquis after a successful career which, in reality, had a very dark start: the slave trade.
Calle Joaquín del Piélago, 1 (Oficina de Turismo)
39520 Comillas
Tags: Baroque art, Coast, Gothic Art, Modernism
Other audioguides of places you must see near Comillas
San Vicente de la Barquera Cantabria 8.9 Km
Santillana del Mar Cantabria 15 Km
El Astillero Cantabria 38 Km
Santander Cantabria 40 Km
Liérganes Cantabria 44 Km
Puentedey y Ojo Guareña Merindad de Valdeporres, Burgos 67 Km
Santoña Cantabria 68 Km
Espinosa de los Monteros Burgos 69 Km
Valderredible Cantabria 71 Km
Orbaneja del Castillo Valle de Sedano, Burgos 74 Km
Las Arenas, Getxo, Neguri and Punta Galea Bilbao, Bizkaia 103 Km
Hanging Bridge Getxo, Bizkaia 103 Km
Frías Burgos 107 Km
San Mames Stadium Bilbao, Bizkaia 110 Km
Bridge and University of Deusto Bilbao, Bizkaia 110 Km
Museum of Fine Arts Bilbao, Bizkaia 110 Km
Azkuna Center (The Alhóndiga) Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Chávarri Palace Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Provincial Council building and monument of John Adams Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Campos Eliseos Theatre Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Iruña Cafe Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Abando-Indalecio Prieto and La Concordia stations Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Gardoqui’s House Bilbao, Bizkaia 111 Km
Arriaga Theatre Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
Bilbao Bizkaia 112 Km
Town Hall Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
Ribera Market Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
Santiago’s Cathedral Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
Saint Nicolas de Bari Church Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
New Square Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
Saint Anton Church and Bridge Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
Basilica of Begoña Bilbao, Bizkaia 112 Km
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You are here: Home / Links / Democrats and Drug Pricing
Democrats and Drug Pricing
Consider this your insider’s guide to the 2020 Democratic candidates and their plans to overhaul the drug industry. From the mildest moderates to the staunchest progressives, nearly every Democrat seeking the party’s nomination for president next year has made drug pricing a central element of his or her campaign.
This 100-page report profiles each of the Democratic hopefuls running for president in 2020 — including long-shot candidates who may nevertheless be seen as picks for vice president or cabinet roles — and analyzes their positions on drug pricing and reforming the biopharma industry writ large. It aims to help policymakers, industry executives, lobbyists, investors, and consultants navigate the sweeping proposals put forth by the candidates. It also looks to provide a comprehensive overview of how the election is likely to influence public policy debates around the country in the coming year, and what a change of party in the White House could mean for the industry overall.
Analysis of the 2020 candidates’ histories and policy platforms related to drug pricing, including shifts in their public positions, key bills they’ve introduced, and major votes they’ve taken. We’ve also included similar analysis of the Democratic candidates who have already exited the race, since many continue to serve in Congress or as governors, and could potentially be future vice presidential candidates or cabinet members.
Unreported detail about campaign infrastructure as it relates to drug pricing, including information about key staff members who are shaping each candidates’ views on this issue.
A Q&A between Democratic strategist and former senior Obama administration adviser David Axelrod and our executive editor, Rick Berke, who for more than a decade was the chief political correspondent of the New York Times.
An essay about the 2020 election’s likely impact on the pharmaceutical industry by senior writer Matt Herper.
Expert analysis from STAT’s authoritative beat reporters and editors about how leading candidates are viewed in the industry and the impact they could have if elected.
Click here for more information about this report.
The Global Use of Medicine in 2019 and Outlook to 2023 01/29/2019
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Colonial (266)
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Decorative Arts (38)
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Folkart (127)
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34º PANORAMA DA ARTE BRASILEIRA, 2015: DA PEDRA DA TERRA DAQUI.; Curadora = curator: Aracy Amaral. Curador adjunto = Adjunct curator: Paulo Miyada
São Paulo: Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, 3 de outubro a 12 de dezembro de 2015. b/w and color plates, plan, tbls., cat., bibliographical references, color pict. fldg. wrps. This 34th Panorama da Arte Brasileira organized by MAM is focused in prehistoric stone carvings and its legacy to.....
ANALES DEL INSTITUTO DE ARTE AMERICANO E INVESTIGACIONES ESTÉTICAS. NO. 6
Buenos Aires: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Estéticas, Facultad de Arquitectura, 1953. b/w plates, wrappers. Excellent art and architectural journal. Nicely illustrated. Priced each.
ARCHAEOLOGY IN MEXICO TODAY
México: Petroleos Mexicanos, 1961. b/w plates, illus., bibl., plus loose fldg. map, color pict. wrps. Tourist booklet prepared and distributed free by Petroleos Mexicanos through the Pemex Travel Club.
EL CAMINO DE LOS ESPAÑOLES. APROXIMACIONES HISTÓRICAS Y ARQUEOLÓGICAS AL CAMINO REAL CARACAS - LA GUAIRA EN LA ÉPOCA COLONIAL.; Emanuele Amodio, et al.
Caracas: Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural, 1997. color and b/w plates, illus., maps, fldg. maps, plans, drws., meas. drws., facs., appens., bibl., color pict. d.w. Study of the history and archaeology of the Camino Real in Venezuela. Much on the development of Venezuela during the early colonial period as evidenced by.....
HISTORIA PREHISPÁNICA DE CÓRDOBA.; Beatriz Bixio; Eduardo E Berberián; Sebastián Pastor. Colección Arqueología Argentina, 2
Córdoba: Brujas Editorial, 2010. color & b/w plates, tbls., diags., chrts., maps, bibliographical references (pages [83]-[86]), illus. endpapers, color pict. fldg. wrps. Social, artistic and cultural processes of the original inhabitants of Córdoba, Argentina are analyzed and explained from the first settlers who arrived more than 10,000 years ago to.....
NOTES FROM A CERAMIC LABORATORY, NOS. 1-4.; Anna O. Shepard... et al.
Washington, D.C. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1962-1971. b/w illus., frontis., tbls., grphs., maps, wrps. No. 1 - "Maya Blue: Alternative Hypotheses". 1962, 18p. No. 2 - "Beginnings of Ceramic Industrialization: An Example from the Oaxaca Valley".1963,24p. No. 3 - "Imitation Jade Ornaments from Czibilchaltun, Yucatan". 1963, 13p. No. 4 -.....
XIV SIMPOSIO DE INVESTIGACIONES ARQUEOLÓGICAS EN GUATEMALA: 2000; Museo Nacional de Arqueologia y Etnologia. Editores: Juan Pedro Laporte, et al.
Guatemala: Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes, Instituto de Antropologia e Historia, Asociacion Tikal, 2001. b/w and plates, maps, illus., plans, grphs., chts., meas. draws., tbls., wrps. Some highlights include:1. La regionalización en la costa del Pacífico: sus primeros pobladores. Barbara Arroyo.2. Concepto para la intervención del recurso cultural prehispánico en.....
ZULIA; Colección Cuadernos del Patrimonio Cultural; Serie Inventarios, Zulia, no. 1.
Caracas: Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural, 1997. duotone and b/w plates, meas. drws., maps, bibls., color pict. fldg. wrps. An inventory of the artistic, architectural, and archaeological patrimony for the Venezuelan state of Zulia.
Botiva Contreras, Álvaro
ARTE RUPESTRE EN CUNDINAMARCA: PATRIMONIO CULTURAL DE LA NACIÓN
Bogotá: Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia, 2002. CD-Rom in plastic case. First interactive media on the Pre-Columbian rock art of Cundinamaraca, Colombia.
Bustamante Delgado, Edgar (Ed)
CHIMALTENANGO.; Max González Girón, et al. Fotografías de Ricardo Mata. Colección Guatemala
Barcelona, Guatemala: Bancafé, (2004). ind., map, tbl., color plates, ports., illus. endpapers, color pict. boards, d.j. An illustrated survey of Chimaltenango, district of Guatemala, presenting portraits of political and social present key personages, beautiful images of their volcanic geography, their traditional Maya colorful textiles and folkart and illustrated reviews of.....
IZABAL.; Eugenio Gobbato, et al. Fotografías de Ricardo Mata. Colección Guatemala
Guatemala: Bancafé, (2004). ind., tbl., map, color plates, ports., illus. endpapers, color pict. boards, d.j. An illustrated survey of Izabal, a district in Guatemala, presenting portraits of political and social present key personages, beautiful images of exotic flora and fauna of the Caribbean's region, the Maya archeological site of Quiriguá.....
Dias, Cristiane
RUPESTRA 10+ :[PINTURA RUPESTRE E DESIGN NA SERRA DA CAPIVARA].
Brasilia: Senac Distrito Federal, 2014. color & b/w plates, illust., maps, facs., chart., diags., bibliographical references,gloss., color pict. wrps. The book presents the history of "Ruspestra", a ceramic inspired in the prehistoric rock paintings of the Serra da Capivara (Piauí), the largest archaeological site of Brazil, a world heritage site.....
Duque Gomez, Luis
COLOMBIA; MONUMENTOS HISTORICOS Y ARQUEOLOGICOS.; Libro Segundo: Arte Colonial Neogranadino. Publ. No. 72.
México: Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, 1955. b/w plates, illus., map, wrps.
Graham, John A.
HIEROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTIONS AND MONUMENTAL ART OF ALTAR DE SACRIFICIOS; Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard Univ. Vol. 64, No. 2
Cambridge: Peabody Museum, 1972. b/w plates, illus., plans, tbls., wrps.
Hernández Pons, Elsa (Coord)
ANTIGUA CASA DEL MARQUES DEL APARTADO: ARQUEOLOGÍA E HISTORIA.; Colección Científica, Serie Arqueología, 329
México: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, INAH, 1997. b/w plates, plans (some facs.), illus., tbls., facs. ltrs., apen., bibl., plus 11 fldg. tbls., 17 fldg. plans, wrps. Building in the neo-classical style designed/built by Manuel Tolsa. It is located on a site that contains Pre-Columbian vestiges. This is a......
Menéndez, C. Zevallos.
CAMARAS FUNERARIAS DEL CERRO BELLAVISTA; Pub. del Sub-Comite Ecuatoriano de Antropologia Dependiente del Inst. Panamericano de Geografía e Hist.
Guayaquil-Ecuador: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, 1961. plus b/w plates, wrps.
Morley, Sylvanus Griswold.
INSCRIPTIONS OF PETEN.; Carnegie publication # 437.
Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washginton, 1938. b/w plates, 40 fldg. maps, b/w plates, bibl., ind., wrps, sig. FIRST EDITION of classic work on Peten. Morley was in Guatemala for almost 40 years studying many of the subjects associated with archaeology especially Maya Hieroglyphs. He was a pioneer in the discovery.....
Robertson, Merle Greene.
SCULPTURE OF PALENQUE. VOL. III. THE EARLY BUILDINGS OF THE PALACE AND WALL PAINTINGS.; The Early Buildings of the Palace and Wall Paintings.
Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1985. ind., bibl., appens., plus 296 b/w and color plates, plans (1 fldg.), illus., color pict. d.j.
Rubín de la Borbolla, Daniel F. y Hugo Cerezo.
GUATEMALA: MONUMENTOS HISTORICOS Y ARQUEOLOGICOS; Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia
Mexico: Comisión de Historia, 42. Monumentos Históricos y Arqueológicos VI. Méx., Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia, 1953. b/w plates, indices, bibl., plus fldg. map, fldg. pict. wrps.
Téllez Sánchez, Vicente
AL SUR DE RONDA: HISTORIA, DESCRIPCIÓN E INVENTARIO DEL PATRIMONIO HISTÓRICO-ARTÍSTICO DE LOS VALLES DEL GENAL Y GUADIANO
Ronda, Málaga: Editorial La Serranía, 2003. b/w and color plates, illus., maps, tbls., draws., indice, bibl., color pict. fldg. wrps. History and descriptive inventory of the historic-artistic patrimony of the towns located in the valleys south of the city of Ronda. The valleys of Genal and the Guadiaro, located in.....
Townsend, Richard Fraser.
STATE AND COSMOS IN THE ART OF TENOCHTITLAN. STUDIES IN PRE-COLUMBIAN ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, NUMBER 20.
Washington, D.C. Dumbarton Oaks, 1979. b/w plates, illus., map, wrps.
Uriarte, María Teresa (Dir)
LA PINTURA MURAL PREHISPÁNICA EN MÉXICO, V: CACAXTLA, TOMO II, ESTUDIOS, TOMO III, ESTUDIOS.; Directora del proyecto... Coordinadoras María Teresa Uriarte Castañeda, Fernanda Salazar Gil. Fundadora del Proyecto Beatriz de la Fuente
México, D.F: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, UNAM- IIE, 2013. b/w and color plates, color fontis, maps, plans, draws, facs., meas. indices, bibliographical references (p. [777]-818), ind., color pict. fldg. wrps., in cardboard splicase. OCLC: 34901595. With a new scientific script and updated museology that puts.....
Vernon, Edward W.
MISIONES ANTIGUAS: THE SPANISH MISSIONS OF BAJA CALIFORNIA, 1683-1855
Santa Barbara: Viejo Press, University of New Mexico, 2002. b/w and color plates, mps., plans, tbls., bibl., ind., pict. endpapers, color pict. d.j. Handsome presentation of the location, history, and present condition of all the sites of the little-known missions of Baja California. Numerous maps and plates illustrate this informative.....
Walters, Gary Rex.
SAN AGUSTIN ACASAGUASTLAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT. REPORT ON THE 1979 SEASON NO. 25.
Columbia: University of Missouri, 1980. b/w illus., maps, tbls., pict. wrps.
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Issue published June 15, 1998
Volume 101, Issue 12, Pages 2613-2919
Previous Issue | Next Issue
Go to section:
Research Articles (33)
An ongoing debate over phenylalanine hydroxylase deficiency in phenylketonuria.
C R Scriver
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 1998;101(12):2613-2614. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI3928.
Plasmid DNA encoding transforming growth factor-beta1 suppresses chronic disease in a streptococcal cell wall-induced arthritis model.
X Y Song, … , D M Klinman, S M Wahl
Transforming growth factor beta is a potent immunomodulator with both pro- and antiinflammatory activities. Based on its immunosuppressive actions, exogenous TGF-beta has been shown to inhibit autoimmune and chronic inflammatory diseases. To further explore the potential therapeutic role of TGF-beta, we administered a plasmid DNA encoding human TGF-beta1 intramuscularly to rats with streptococcal cell wall-induced arthritis. A single dose of 300 microg plasmid DNA encoding TGF-beta1, but not vector DNA, administered at the peak of the acute phase profoundly suppressed the subsequent evolution of chronic erosive disease typified by disabling joint swelling and deformity (articular index = 8.17+/-0. 17 vs. 1.25+/-0.76, n = 6, day 26, P < 0.01). Moreover, delivery of the TGF-beta1 DNA even as the chronic phase commenced virtually eliminated subsequent inflammation and arthritis. Both radiologic and histopathologic as well as molecular evidence supported the marked inhibitory effect of TGF-beta1 DNA on synovial pathology, with decreases in the inflammatory cell infiltration, pannus formation, cartilage and bone destruction, and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines that characterize this model. Increases in TGF-beta1 protein were detected in the circulation of TGF-beta1 DNA-treated animals, consistent with the observed therapeutic effects being TGF-beta1 dependent. These observations provide the first evidence that gene transfer of plasmid DNA encoding TGF-beta1 provides a mechanism to deliver this potent cytokine that effectively suppresses ongoing inflammatory pathology in arthritis.
X Y Song, M Gu, W W Jin, D M Klinman, S M Wahl
Androgens stimulate early stages of follicular growth in the primate ovary.
K A Vendola, … , S J Weil, C A Bondy
The concept that androgens are atretogenic, derived from murine ovary studies, is difficult to reconcile with the fact that hyperandrogenic women have more developing follicles than normal-cycling women. To evaluate androgen's effects on primate follicular growth and survival, normal-cycling rhesus monkeys were treated with placebo-, testosterone-(T), or dihydrotestosterone-sustained release implants, and ovaries were taken for histological analysis after 3-10 d of treatment. Growing preantral and small antral follicles up to 1 mm in diameter were significantly and progressively increased in number and thecal layer thickness in T-treated monkeys from 3-10 d. Granulosa and thecal cell proliferation, as determined by immunodetection of the Ki67 antigen, were significantly increased in these follicles. Preovulatory follicles (> 1 mm), however, were not increased in number in androgen-treated animals. Follicular atresia was not increased and there were actually significantly fewer apoptotic granulosa cells in the T-treated groups. Dihydrotestosterone treatment had identical effects, indicating that these growth-promoting actions are mediated by the androgen receptor. These findings show that, over the short term at least, androgens are not atretogenic and actually enhance follicular growth and survival in the primate. These new data provide a plausible explanation for the pathogenesis of "polycystic" ovaries in hyperandrogenism.
K A Vendola, J Zhou, O O Adesanya, S J Weil, C A Bondy
Functional significance of cardiac myosin essential light chain isoform switching in transgenic mice.
J G Fewell, … , D Maughan, J Robbins
The different functions of the ventricular- and atrial-specific essential myosin light chains are unknown. Using transgenesis, cardiac-specific overexpression of proteins can be accomplished. The transgenic paradigm is more useful than originally expected, in that the mammalian heart rigorously controls sarcomeric protein stoichiometries. In a clinical subpopulation suffering from heart disease caused by congenital malformations of the outflow tract, an ELC1v-->ELC1a isoform shift correlated with increases in cross-bridge cycling kinetics as measured in skinned fibers derived from the diseased muscle. We have used transgenesis to replace the ventricular isoform of the essential myosin light chain with the atrial isoform. The ELC1v--> ELC1a shift in the ventricle resulted in similar functional alterations. Unloaded velocities as measured by the ability of the myosin to translocate actin filaments in the in vitro motility assay were significantly increased as a result of the isoform substitution. Unloaded shortening velocity was also increased in skinned muscle fibers, and at the whole organ level, both contractility and relaxation were significantly increased. This increase in cardiac function occurred in the absence of a hypertrophic response. Thus, ELC1a expression in the ventricle appears to be advantageous to the heart, resulting in increased cardiac function.
J G Fewell, T E Hewett, A Sanbe, R Klevitsky, E Hayes, D Warshaw, D Maughan, J Robbins
Vaccination with a recombinant fragment of collagen adhesin provides protection against Staphylococcus aureus-mediated septic death.
I M Nilsson, … , M Höök, A Tarkowski
Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. Morbidity and mortality due to infections such as sepsis, osteomyelitis, septic arthritis, and invasive endocarditis remain high despite the use of antibiotics. The emergence of antibiotic resistant super bugs mandates that alternative strategies for the prevention and treatment of S. aureus infections are developed. We investigated the ability of vaccination with a recombinant fragment of the S. aureus collagen adhesin to protect mice against sepsis-induced death. Actively immunized NMRI mice were intravenously inoculated with the S. aureus clinical isolate strain Phillips. 14 d after inoculation, mortality in the collagen adhesin-vaccinated group was only 13%, compared with 87% in the control antigen immunized group (P < 0.001). To determine if the protective effect was antibody mediated, we passively immunized naive mice with collagen adhesin-specific antibodies. Similar to the active immunization strategy, passive transfer of collagen adhesin-specific antibodies protected mice against sepsis-induced death. In vitro experiments indicated that S. aureus opsonized with sera from collagen adhesin immunized mice promoted phagocytic uptake and enhanced intracellular killing compared with bacteria opsonized with sera from control animals. These results indicate that the collagen adhesin is a viable target in the development of immunotherapeutics against S. aureus.
I M Nilsson, J M Patti, T Bremell, M Höök, A Tarkowski
Regulation of proliferation of human colonic subepithelial myofibroblasts by mediators important in intestinal inflammation.
T M Jobson, … , C K Billington, I P Hall
An increase in myofibroblast number may be necessary for wound healing but may also lead to postinflammatory scarring. We have, therefore, studied the role of mediators important in inflammatory bowel disease in regulating proliferation of human colonic myofibroblasts. Using primary cultures of these cells, we have shown increases in [3H]thymidine incorporation in response to platelet-derived growth factor (EC50 = 14 ng/ml), basic fibroblast growth factor (EC50 = 2.2 ng/ml), and epidermal growth factor (EC50 = 1.1 ng/ml). Coulter counting of cell suspensions demonstrated increases in cell number with these growth factors along with insulin-like growth factor-I and -II. In addition the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1beta and TNF-alpha produced increases in [3H]thymidine incorporation. IL-1beta and platelet-derived growth factor together produced an increase in [3H]thymidine greater than either agonist alone; this effect was not, however, seen when we examined changes in cell numbers. Finally, we demonstrate a mechanism whereby these responses may be downregulated: vasoactive intestinal peptide (1 microM) elevates cyclic AwMP in these cells 4. 2-fold over control and produces a dose-related inhibition of platelet-derived growth factor-driven proliferation with a maximum inhibition of 33% at 1 microM.
T M Jobson, C K Billington, I P Hall
Identification of the principal proteoglycan-binding site in LDL. A single-point mutation in apo-B100 severely affects proteoglycan interaction without affecting LDL receptor binding.
J Borén, … , T N Wight, T L Innerarity
The subendothelial retention of LDLs through their interaction with proteoglycans has been proposed to be a key process in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. In vitro studies have identified eight clusters of basic amino acids in delipidated apo-B100, the protein moiety of LDL, that bind the negatively charged proteoglycans. To determine which of these sites is functional on the surface of LDL particles, we analyzed the proteoglycan-binding activity of recombinant human LDL isolated from transgenic mice. Substitution of neutral amino acids for the basic amino acids residues in site B (residues 3359-3369) abolished both the receptor-binding and the proteoglycan-binding activities of the recombinant LDL. Chemical modification of the remaining basic residues caused only a marginal further reduction in proteoglycan binding, indicating that site B is the primary proteoglycan-binding site of LDL. Although site B was essential for normal receptor-binding and proteoglycan-binding activities, these activities could be separated in recombinant LDL containing single-point mutation. Recombinant LDL with a K3363E mutation, in which a glutamic acid had been inserted into the basic cluster RKR in site B, had normal receptor binding but interacted defectively with proteoglycans; in contrast, another mutant LDL, R3500Q, displayed defective receptor binding but interacted normally with proteoglycans. LDL with normal receptor-binding activity but with severely impaired proteoglycan binding will be a unique resource for analyzing the importance of LDL- proteoglycan interaction in atherogenesis. If the subendothelial retention of LDL by proteoglycans is the initial event in early atherosclerosis, then LDL with defective proteoglycan binding may have little or no atherogenic potential.
J Borén, K Olin, I Lee, A Chait, T N Wight, T L Innerarity
Stimulation of bile duct epithelial secretion by glybenclamide in normal and cholestatic rat liver.
M H Nathanson, … , J A Dranoff, L Rios-Velez
Cholestasis is a cardinal complication of liver disease, but most treatments are merely supportive. Here we report that the sulfonylurea glybenclamide potently stimulates bile flow and bicarbonate excretion in the isolated perfused rat liver. Video-microscopic studies of isolated hepatocyte couplets and isolated bile duct segments show that this stimulatory effect occurs at the level of the bile duct epithelium, rather than through hepatocytes. Measurements of cAMP, cytosolic pH, and Ca2+ in isolated bile duct cells suggest that glybenclamide directly activates Na+-K+-2Cl- cotransport, rather than other transporters or conventional second-messenger systems that link to secretory pathways in these cells. Finally, studies in livers from rats with endotoxin- or estrogen-induced cholestasis show that glybenclamide retains its stimulatory effects on bile flow and bicarbonate excretion even under these conditions. These findings suggest that bile duct epithelia may represent an important new therapeutic target for treatment of cholestatic disorders.
M H Nathanson, A D Burgstahler, A Mennone, J A Dranoff, L Rios-Velez
Gender differences in ethanol preference and ingestion in rats. The role of the gonadal steroid environment.
O F Almeida, … , M H Darwish, V K Patchev
An ethanol oral self administration paradigm showed the existence of gender differences in alcohol preference in rats: whereas males and females initiated alcohol drinking at similar rates, females maintained their preference for ethanol over a longer duration. Neonatal estrogenization of females, which effectively confers a male phenotype on a genetically female brain, resulted in patterns of drinking that were similar to those displayed by intact male rats, indicating that gender differences in alcohol drinking patterns may be, at least partially, accounted for by sexual differentiation of the brain. To test whether gonadal steroids also exert activational effects on ethanol-seeking behavior, we also examined the effects of gonadectomy alone, or in combination with gonadal steroid replacement therapy. Castration did not significantly alter ethanol consumption in males, although treatment of castrated rats with dihydrotestosterone resulted in a significant inhibition of this parameter. As compared with the situation in intact female rats, ethanol ingestion was significantly reduced in ovariectomized female rats receiving estradiol (E2) and in ovariectomized female rats receiving combined E2 and progesterone replacement therapy. However, neither ovariectomy nor progesterone replacement in ovariectomized rats resulted in ethanol drinking patterns that were different compared to those observed in intact female controls. Thus, dihydrotestosterone and E2, respectively, appear to exert modulatory influences on the male and female rats' preference for ethanol, but further investigations are necessary to determine to what extent these effects result from activational actions on the brain.
O F Almeida, M Shoaib, J Deicke, D Fischer, M H Darwish, V K Patchev
In vitro generation of human cytomegalovirus pp65 antigenemia, viremia, and leukoDNAemia.
M G Revello, … , S Sozzani, G Gerna
Immunocompromised patients with disseminated human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection have circulating PMN carrying HCMV pp65 (antigenemia), infectious virus (viremia), and viral DNA (leukoDNAemia). Because HCMV does not fully replicate in PMN, it is generally hypothesized that virions and viral materials are taken up by phagocytosis from fully permissive HCMV-infected endothelial cells. However, no experimental evidence has ever been provided for these PMN-endothelium interactions. PMN from 11 donors were cocultured with endothelial cells infected with an endothelium-adapted HCMV strain and with human fibroblasts infected with low-passaged clinical and laboratory-adapted HCMV strains. pp65-positive PMN were detected after coculture with both HCMV-infected endothelial and fibroblast cells, provided that wild and not laboratory-adapted strains were used. In addition, cocultured PMN carried infectious virus as demonstrated by virus isolation and presence of complete virus particles by electron microscopy. Moreover, high levels of viral DNA were consistently detected by quantitative PCR in cocultured PMN. Thus, we have generated in vitro the three most important viral parameters detected in patients with disseminated HCMV infection (antigenemia, viremia, and leukoDNAemia). The failure of laboratory-adapted HCMV strain to induce this phenomenon demonstrates that important modifications have occurred in attenuated viral strains affecting basic biological functions.
M G Revello, E Percivalle, E Arbustini, R Pardi, S Sozzani, G Gerna
Inhibition of intracellular degradation increases secretion of a mutant form of alpha1-antitrypsin associated with profound deficiency.
N Novoradovskaya, … , V J Ferrans, M Brantly
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 1998;101(12):2693-2701. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI549.
The mutant Z form of alpha1-antitrypsin (alpha1AT) is responsible for > 95% of all individuals with alpha1AT deficiency, an important inherited cause of emphysema and liver disease. Since secreted Z alpha1AT is a functional antiprotease, we hypothesized that interrupting catabolism of retained Z alpha1AT might increase its transport out of cells, causing an increase in extracellular protease protection. Both the protein translation inhibitor cycloheximide and the specific inhibitor of proteasome function, lactacystin, prevented intracellular degradation of Z alpha1AT. Moreover, this inhibition of degradation was associated with partial restoration of Z alpha1AT vesicular transport. This effect was observed in a model system of transfected CHO cells as well as in human alveolar macrophages synthesizing Z alpha1AT. This study supports the hypothesis that altering the intracellular fate of a mutant protein may be an option in the treatment of diseases associated with misfolded but potentially functional proteins.
N Novoradovskaya, J Lee, Z X Yu, V J Ferrans, M Brantly
Heterozygous osteopetrotic (op) mutation reduces atherosclerosis in LDL receptor- deficient mice.
T Rajavashisth, … , P Libby, A Lusis
Citation Information: J Clin Invest. 1998;101(12):2702-2710. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI119891.
Previous studies of osteopetrotic (op) mice lacking macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) have revealed an inhibition of atherosclerosis development in the apolipoprotein E (apo E)-deficient model and in a diet-induced model. Using LDL receptor-deficient mice, we now show that atheroma development depends on M-CSF concentration, as not only did homozygous osteopetrotic (op/op) mice have dramatically reduced lesions (approximately 0.3% of control lesion size) but heterozygous (op/+) mice had lesions < 1% of controls. Mice heterozygous for the op mutation (op/+) had plasma levels of M-CSF about half those in controls (+/+). The finding that an approximately 2-fold reduction in M-CSF expression reduced lesion size approximately 100-fold suggests the requirement for a threshold level of M-CSF. The effect of M-CSF on atherosclerosis did not appear to be mediated either by changes in plasma lipoprotein levels or alterations in the number of circulating monocytes, since both op/op and op/+ mice exhibited higher levels of atherogenic lipoprotein particles and (op/+) mice showed a near normal number of circulating monocytes. LDL receptor-null littermates of genotypes from op/op, op/+, to +/+ showed monocyte differentials of approximately 4.5, 8, and 10%, respectively. Taken together, these results suggest that the effects of M-CSF on atherogenesis may not be mediated by expression of M-CSF systemically or by modulation of the number of circulating monocytes. These studies support the conclusion that M-CSF participates critically in fatty streak formation and progression to a complex fibrous lesion.
T Rajavashisth, J H Qiao, S Tripathi, J Tripathi, N Mishra, M Hua, X P Wang, A Loussararian, S Clinton, P Libby, A Lusis
Effects of the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase inhibitors, atorvastatin and simvastatin, on the expression of endothelin-1 and endothelial nitric oxide synthase in vascular endothelial cells.
O Hernández-Perera, … , C Díaz, S Lamas
Endothelial dysfunction associated with atherosclerosis has been attributed to alterations in the L-arginine-nitric oxide (NO)-cGMP pathway or to an excess of endothelin-1 (ET-1). The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) have been shown to ameliorate endothelial function. However, the physiological basis of this observation is largely unknown. We investigated the effects of Atorvastatin and Simvastatin on the pre-proET-1 mRNA expression and ET-1 synthesis and on the endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) transcript and protein levels in bovine aortic endothelial cells. These agents inhibited pre-proET-1 mRNA expression in a concentration- and time-dependent fashion (60-70% maximum inhibition) and reduced immunoreactive ET-1 levels (25-50%). This inhibitory effect was maintained in the presence of oxidized LDL (1-50 microg/ml). No significant modification of pre-proET-1 mRNA half-life was observed. In addition, mevalonate, but not cholesterol, reversed the statin-mediated decrease of pre-proET-1 mRNA levels. eNOS mRNA expression was reduced by oxidized LDL in a dose-dependent fashion (up to 57% inhibition), whereas native LDL had no effect. Statins were able to prevent the inhibitory action exerted by oxidized LDL on eNOS mRNA and protein levels. Hence, these drugs might influence vascular tone by modulating the expression of endothelial vasoactive factors.
O Hernández-Perera, D Pérez-Sala, J Navarro-Antolín, R Sánchez-Pascuala, G Hernández, C Díaz, S Lamas
beta2-Microglobulin mutations, HLA class I antigen loss, and tumor progression in melanoma.
D J Hicklin, … , G Parmiani, S Ferrone
The potential negative impact of HLA class I antigen abnormalities on the outcome of T cell-based immunotherapy of melanoma has prompted us to investigate the mechanisms underlying lack of HLA class I antigen expression by melanoma cell lines Me18105, Me9923, and Me1386. Distinct mutations in the beta2-microglobulin (beta2m) gene were identified in each cell line which result in loss of functional beta2m. In Me18105 cells, an aberrant splicing mechanism caused by an A--> G point mutation in the splice acceptor site of intron 1 of the beta2m gene, deletes 11 bp from the beta2m mRNA creating a shift in the reading frame. In Me9923 cells a 14-bp deletion in exon 2 and in Me1386 cells a CT deletion in exon 1 of the beta2m gene produce a frameshift mutation. The beta2m gene mutations identified in Me18105, Me9923, and Me1386 cells were also detected in the surgically removed melanoma lesions from which the cell lines originated. Transfection of each melanoma cell line with a wild-type beta2m gene restored HLA class I antigen expression and, in Me18105 cells, recognition by Melan-A/MART-1-specific, HLA-A2-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Interestingly, the beta2m mutation present in Me9923 cells that were derived from a metastatic lesion was also found in the Me9923P cell line that originated from the autologous primary lesion. These data suggest that beta2m mutations in melanoma cells may be an early event in progression to the malignant phenotype.
D J Hicklin, Z Wang, F Arienti, L Rivoltini, G Parmiani, S Ferrone
Time-dependent changes in the density and hemoglobin F content of biotin-labeled sickle cells.
R S Franco, … , M Weiner, D L Rucknagel
Sickle red blood cells (RBC) are subject to a number of important cellular changes and selection pressures. In this study, we validated a biotin RBC label by comparison to the standard 51Cr label, and used it to study changes that occur in sickle cells as they age. Sickle RBC had a much shorter lifespan than normal RBC, but the two labels gave equivalent results for each cell type. A variable number of sickle, but not normal, RBC disappeared from the circulation during the first few hours after reinfusion. The number of biotinylated sickle reticulocytes was decreased by 50% after 24 h and 75% after 48 h, with a gradual decrease in the amount of reticulum per cell. The labeled sickle cells exhibited major density increases during the first 4-6 d after reinfusion, with smaller changes thereafter. A small population of very light, labeled sickle RBC was essentially constant in number after the first few days. Fetal hemoglobin (HbF) content was determined in isolated biotinylated sickle RBC after reinfusion, allowing an estimate of lifespan for RBC containing HbF (F cells) and non-F cells. The lifespan of sickle biotinylated RBC lacking HbF was estimated to be approximately 2 wk, whereas F cells survived 6-8 wk.
R S Franco, J Lohmann, E B Silberstein, G Mayfield-Pratt, M Palascak, T A Nemeth, C H Joiner, M Weiner, D L Rucknagel
Mutations causing Liddle syndrome reduce sodium-dependent downregulation of the epithelial sodium channel in the Xenopus oocyte expression system.
S Kellenberger, … , B C Rossier, L Schild
Liddle syndrome is an autosomal dominant form of hypertension resulting from deletion or missense mutations of a PPPxY motif in the cytoplasmic COOH terminus of either the beta or gamma subunit of the epithelial Na channel (ENaC). These mutations lead to increased channel activity. In this study we show that wild-type ENaC is downregulated by intracellular Na+, and that Liddle mutants decrease the channel sensitivity to inhibition by intracellular Na+. This event results at high intracellular Na+ activity in 1.2-2.4-fold higher cell surface expression, and 2.8-3.5-fold higher average current per channel in Liddle mutants compared with the wild type. In addition, we show that a rapid increase in the intracellular Na+ activity induced downregulation of the activity of wild-type ENaC, but not Liddle mutants, on a time scale of minutes, which was directly correlated to the magnitude of the Na+ influx into the oocytes. Feedback inhibition of ENaC by intracellular Na+ likely represents an important cellular mechanism for controlling Na+ reabsorption in the distal nephron that has important implications for the pathogenesis of hypertension.
S Kellenberger, I Gautschi, B C Rossier, L Schild
Association and direct activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription1alpha by platelet-derived growth factor receptor.
G G Choudhury, … , N Ghosh-Choudhury, H E Abboud
PDGF stimulates tyrosine phosphorylation of Janus kinase 1 (JAK1) and the signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1alpha). However, it is not known whether JAKs are required for STAT1alpha phosphorylation or if the PDGF receptor itself can directly tyrosine phosphorylate and activate STAT1alpha. In vitro immunecomplex kinase assay of PDGF beta receptor (PDGFR) or STAT1alpha immunoprecipitates from lysates of mesangial cells treated with PDGF showed phosphorylation of a 91- and an 185-kD protein. Incubation of lysates prepared from quiescent mesangial cells with purified PDGFR resulted in STAT1alpha activation. Immunodepletion of Janus kinases from the cell lysate before incubation with the purified PDGFR showed no effect on STAT1alpha activation. Moreover, lysates from mesangial cells treated with JAK2 inhibitor, retained significant STAT1alpha activity. To confirm that STAT1alpha is a substrate for PDGFR, STAT1alpha protein was prepared by in vitro transcription and translation. The addition of purified PDGFR to the translated STAT1alpha resulted in its phosphorylation. This in vitro phosphorylated and activated protein also forms a specific protein-DNA complex. Dimerization of the translated STAT1alpha protein was also required for its DNA binding. Incubation of pure STAT1alpha with autophosphorylated PDGFR resulted in physical association of the two proteins. These data indicate that activated PDGFR may be sufficient to tyrosine phosphorylate and thus directly activate STAT1alpha.
G G Choudhury, N Ghosh-Choudhury, H E Abboud
Delta-aminolevulinic acid transport by intestinal and renal peptide transporters and its physiological and clinical implications.
F Döring, … , W Clauss, H Daniel
Delta-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is the precursor of porphyrin synthesis and has been recently used in vitro and in clinical studies as an endogenous photosensitizer for photodynamic therapy in the treatment of various tumors. For this purpose, ALA is given topically, systemically, or orally. When administered by the oral route, it shows excellent intestinal absorption. ALA is also efficiently reabsorbed in the renal proximal tubule after glomerular filtration. However, the pathways and mechanisms for its transmembrane transport into epithelial cells of intestine and kidney are unknown. Here we demonstrate that ALA uses the intestinal and renal apical peptide transporters for entering into epithelial cells. Kinetics and characteristics of ALA transport were determined in Xenopus laevis ooyctes and Pichia pastoris yeast cells expressing either the cloned intestinal peptide transporter PEPT1 or the renal form PEPT2. By using radiolabeled ALA and electrophysiological techniques in these heterologous expression systems, we established that: (a) PEPT1 and PEPT2 translocate 3H-ALA by saturable and pH-dependent transport mechanisms, (b) that ALA and di-/tripeptides, but not GABA or related amino acids, compete at the same substrate-binding site of the carriers, and (c) that ALA transport is electrogenic in nature as a consequence of H+/ALA cotransport. Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis performed with specific primers for PEPT1 and PEPT2 in rabbit tissues demonstrates that, in particular, the PEPT2 mRNA is expressed in a variety of other tissues including lung, brain, and mammary gland, which have been shown to accumulate ALA. This suggests that these tissues could take up the porphyrin precusor via expressed peptide transporters, providing the endogenous photosensitizers for efficient photodynamic therapy.
F Döring, J Walter, J Will, M Föcking, M Boll, S Amasheh, W Clauss, H Daniel
Hypertonicity regulates the function of human neutrophils by modulating chemoattractant receptor signaling and activating mitogen-activated protein kinase p38.
W G Junger, … , W Loomis, A Altman
Excessive neutrophil activation causes posttraumatic complications, which may be reduced with hypertonic saline (HS) resuscitation. We tested if this is because of modulated neutrophil function by HS. Clinically relevant hypertonicity (10-25 mM) suppressed degranulation and superoxide formation in response to fMLP and blocked the activation of the mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPK) ERK1/2 and p38, but did not affect Ca2+ mobilization. HS did not suppress oxidative burst in response to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). This indicates that HS suppresses neutrophil function by intercepting signal pathways upstream of or apart from PKC. HS activated p38 by itself and enhanced degranulation in response to PKC activation. This enhancement was reduced by inhibition of p38 with SB203580, suggesting that p38 up-regulation participates in HS-induced enhancements of degranulation. HS had similar effects on the degranulation of cells that were previously stimulated with fMLP, but had no effect on its own, suggesting that HS enhancement of degranulation requires another signal. We conclude that depending on other stimuli, HS can suppress neutrophil activation by intercepting multiple receptor signals or augment degranulation by enhancing p38 signaling. In patients HS resuscitation may reduce posttraumatic complications by preventing neutrophil activation via chemotactic factors released during reperfusion.
W G Junger, D B Hoyt, R E Davis, C Herdon-Remelius, S Namiki, H Junger, W Loomis, A Altman
Nitric oxide inhibition induces early activation of type I collagen gene in renal resistance vessels and glomeruli in transgenic mice. Role of endothelin.
C Chatziantoniou, … , R Ardaillou, J C Dussaule
Hypertension is often associated with the development of nephroangio- and glomerulo-sclerosis. This pathophysiological process is due to increased extracellular matrix protein, particularly type I collagen, accumulation. This study investigated whether nitric oxide (NO) synthesis is involved in the mechanism(s) regulating activation of the collagen I gene in afferent arterioles and glomeruli. Experiments were performed on transgenic mice harboring the luciferase gene under the control of the collagen I-alpha2 chain promoter [procolalpha2(I)]. Measurements of luciferase activity provide highly sensitive estimates of collagen I gene activation. NO synthesis was inhibited by NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) (20 mg/kg per day) for a period of up to 14 wk. Systolic blood pressure was increased after 6 wk of treatment (117+/-2 versus 129+/-2 mmHg, P < 0.01) and reached a plateau after 10 wk (around 160 mmHg). Luciferase activity was increased in freshly isolated afferent arterioles and glomeruli as early as week 4 of L-NAME treatment (150 and 200% of baseline, P < 0.01, respectively). The activation of procolalpha2(I) became more pronounced with time, and at 14 wk increased four- and tenfold compared with controls in afferent arterioles and glomeruli, respectively (P < 0.001). In contrast, luciferase activity remained unchanged in aorta and heart up to 8 wk and was increased thereafter. Increased histochemical staining for extracellular matrix deposition, and particularly of collagen I, was detected in afferent arterioles and glomeruli after 10 wk of L-NAME treatment. This fibrogenic process was accompanied by an increased urinary excretion rate of endothelin. In separate experiments, the stimulatory effect of L-NAME on collagen I gene activation was abolished when animals were treated with bosentan, an endothelin receptor antagonist. Similarly, bosentan reduced the increased extracellular matrix deposition in afferent arterioles and glomeruli during NO inhibition. Interestingly, bosentan had no effect on the L-NAME- induced increase of systolic pressure. These data indicate that NO inhibition induces an early activation of the collagen I gene in afferent arterioles and glomeruli. This activation in the kidney precedes the increase in blood pressure and the procolalpha2(I) activation in heart and aorta, suggesting a specific renal effect of NO blockade on collagen I gene expression that is independent of increased blood pressure and, at least partly, mediated through stimulation of the endothelin receptor. Use of procolalpha2(I) transgenic mice provides a novel and efficient model to study the pathophysiological mechanism(s) regulating renal fibrosis.
C Chatziantoniou, J J Boffa, R Ardaillou, J C Dussaule
A novel role for ursodeoxycholic acid in inhibiting apoptosis by modulating mitochondrial membrane perturbation.
C M Rodrigues, … , B T Kren, C J Steer
The hydrophilic bile salt ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) protects against the membrane-damaging effects associated with hydrophobic bile acids. This study was undertaken to (a) determine if UDCA inhibits apoptosis from deoxycholic acid (DCA), as well as from ethanol, TGF-beta1, Fas ligand, and okadaic acid; and to (b) determine whether mitochondrial membrane perturbation is modulated by UDCA. DCA induced significant hepatocyte apoptosis in vivo and in isolated hepatocytes determined by terminal transferase-mediated dUTP-digoxigenin nick end-labeling assay and nuclear staining, respectively (P < 0.001). Apoptosis in isolated rat hepatocytes increased 12-fold after incubation with 0.5% ethanol (P < 0.001). HuH-7 cells exhibited increased apoptosis with 1 nM TGF-beta1 (P < 0. 001) or DCA at >/= 100 microM (P < 0.001), as did Hep G2 cells after incubation with anti-Fas antibody (P < 0.001). Finally, incubation with okadaic acid induced significant apoptosis in HuH-7, Saos-2, Cos-7, and HeLa cells. Coadministration of UDCA with each of the apoptosis-inducing agents was associated with a 50-100% inhibition of apoptotic changes (P < 0.001) in all the cell types. Also, UDCA reduced the mitochondrial membrane permeability transition (MPT) in isolated mitochondria associated with both DCA and phenylarsine oxide by > 40 and 50%, respectively (P < 0.001). FACS(R) analysis revealed that the apoptosis-inducing agents decreased the mitochondrial transmembrane potential and increased reactive oxygen species production (P < 0.05). Coadministration of UDCA was associated with significant prevention of mitochondrial membrane alterations in all cell types. The results suggest that UDCA plays a central role in modulating the apoptotic threshold in both hepatocytes and nonliver cells, and inhibition of MPT is at least one pathway by which UDCA protects against apoptosis.
C M Rodrigues, G Fan, X Ma, B T Kren, C J Steer
A truncated cardiac troponin T molecule in transgenic mice suggests multiple cellular mechanisms for familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
J C Tardiff, … , J Robbins, L A Leinwand
Mutations in multiple cardiac sarcomeric proteins including myosin heavy chain (MyHC) and cardiac troponin T (cTnT) cause a dominant genetic heart disease, familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC). Patients with mutations in these two genes have quite distinct clinical characteristics. Those with MyHC mutations demonstrate more significant and uniform cardiac hypertrophy and a variable frequency of sudden death. Patients with cTnT mutations generally exhibit mild or no hypertrophy, but a high frequency of sudden death at an early age. To understand the basis for these distinctions and to study the pathogenesis of the disease, we have created transgenic mice expressing a truncated mouse cTnT allele analogous to one found in FHC patients. Mice expressing truncated cTnT at low (< 5%) levels develop cardiomyopathy and their hearts are significantly smaller (18-27%) than wild type. These animals also exhibit significant diastolic dysfunction and milder systolic dysfunction. Animals that express higher levels of transgene protein die within 24 h of birth. Transgenic mouse hearts demonstrate myocellular disarray and have a reduced number of cardiac myocytes that are smaller in size. These studies suggest that multiple cellular mechanisms result in the human disease, which is generally characterized by mild hypertrophy, but, also, frequent sudden death.
J C Tardiff, S M Factor, B D Tompkins, T E Hewett, B M Palmer, R L Moore, S Schwartz, J Robbins, L A Leinwand
Regulation of murine fetal-placental calcium metabolism by the calcium-sensing receptor.
C S Kovacs, … , C E Seidman, H M Kronenberg
The calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) regulates PTH secretion to control the extracellular calcium concentration in adults, but its role in fetal life is unknown. We used CaSR gene knockout mice to investigate the role of the CaSR in regulating fetal calcium metabolism. The normal calcium concentration in fetal blood is raised above the maternal level, an increase that depends upon PTH-related peptide (PTHrP). Heterozygous (+/-) and homozygous (-/-) disruption of the CaSR caused a further increase in the fetal calcium level. This increase was modestly blunted by concomitant disruption of the PTHrP gene and completely reversed by disruption of the PTH/ PTHrP receptor gene. Serum levels of PTH and 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D were substantially increased above the normal low fetal levels by disruption of the CaSR. The free deoxypyridinoline level was increased in the amniotic fluid (urine) of CaSR-/- fetuses; this result suggests that fetal bone resorption is increased. Placental calcium transfer was reduced, and renal calcium excretion was increased, by disruption of the CaSR. These studies indicate that the CaSR normally suppresses PTH secretion in the presence of the normal raised (and PTHrP-dependent) fetal calcium level. Disruption of the CaSR causes fetal hyperparathyroidism and hypercalcemia, with additional effects on placental calcium transfer.
C S Kovacs, C L Ho-Pao, J L Hunzelman, B Lanske, J Fox, J G Seidman, C E Seidman, H M Kronenberg
Characterization of a CD38-like 78-kilodalton soluble protein released from B cell lines derived from patients with X-linked agammaglobulinemia.
R Mallone, … , L D Notarangelo, F Malavasi
Studies on murine B lymphocytes showed that Bruton's tyrosine kinase mediates signal transduction induced via CD38, a nonlineage-restricted 45-kD ectoenzyme. This signaling is defective in B cells from X-linked immunodeficient mice affected with the analogue of human X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA). We performed a structural and functional analysis of CD38 in XLA and other immunodeficiencies, using EBV-immortalized B cells derived from such patients. Membrane CD38 was not significantly different from controls in structure, epitope density, enzymatic activity, and internalization upon binding of agonistic mAbs. Meanwhile, an increased release of soluble CD38 from XLA cells was observed: immunoprecipitation from XLA culture media yielded a protein of approximately 78 kD (p78), reacting also in Western blot and displaying both enzymatic activities and a peptide map similar to membrane CD38. Soluble forms and homotypic aggregations of CD38 were documented in different cell models and by crystallographic analysis of the Aplysia ADP-ribosyl cyclase, the ancestor of human CD38. p78 might represent the product of an altered turn-over of membrane CD38, a starting point for studying its association with Bruton's tyrosine kinase and its role in XLA and other B cell immunodeficiencies.
R Mallone, S Ferrua, M Morra, E Zocchi, K Mehta, L D Notarangelo, F Malavasi
Therapeutic levels of human protein C in rats after retroviral vector-mediated hepatic gene therapy.
S R Cai, … , M W Flye, K P Ponder
Protein C deficiency results in a thrombotic disorder that might be treated by expressing a normal human protein C (hPC) gene in patients. An amphotropic retroviral vector with a liver-specific promoter and the hPC cDNA was delivered to rat hepatocytes in vivo during liver regeneration. Expression of hPC varied from 55 to 203 ng/ml (1.3-5.0% of normal) for 2 wk after transduction. Expression increased to an average of 900 ng/ml (22% of normal) in some rats and was maintained at stable levels for 1 yr. All of these rats developed anti-hPC antibodies and exhibited a prolonged hPC half-life in vivo. The hPC was functional as determined by a chromogenic substrate assay after immunoprecipitation. We conclude that most rats achieved hPC levels that would prevent purpura fulminans, and that hepatic gene therapy might become a viable treatment for patients with severe homozygous hPC deficiency. Anti-hPC antibodies increased the hPC half-life and plasma levels in some rats, but did not interfere with its functional activity. Thus, the development of antibodies against a plasma protein does not necessarily abrogate its biological effect in gene therapy experiments.
S R Cai, S C Kennedy, W M Bowling, M W Flye, K P Ponder
Cisplatin-induced apoptosis in rat dorsal root ganglion neurons is associated with attempted entry into the cell cycle.
J S Gill, A J Windebank
Platinum compounds induce apoptosis in malignant cells and are used extensively in the treatment of cancer. Total dose is limited by development of a sensory neuropathy. We now demonstrate that when rats are administered cisplatin (2 mg/kg i.p. for 5 d), primary sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglion die by apoptosis. This was reproduced by exposure of dorsal root ganglion neurons and PC12 cells to cisplatin (3 microg/ml) in vitro. Apoptosis was confirmed by electron microscopy, DNA laddering, and inhibition by the caspase inhibitor z-VAD.fmk (100 microM). Cell death in vitro was preceded by upregulation of cyclin D1, cdk4, and increased phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein; all are indicators of cell cycle advancement. The level of p16(INK4a), an endogenous inhibitor of the cyclin D1/cdk4 complex decreased. Exposure of PC12 cells and dorsal root ganglion neurons to increased levels of nerve growth factor (100 ng/ ml) prevented both apoptosis and upregulation of the cell cycle markers. Cancer cells without nerve growth factor receptors (gp140TrkA) were not protected by the neurotrophin. This indicated that cisplatin may kill cancer cells and neurons by a similar mechanism. In postmitotic neurons, this involves an attempt to re-enter the cell cycle resulting in apoptosis which is specifically prevented by nerve growth factor.
Growth factor activation of the estrogen receptor in vascular cells occurs via a mitogen-activated protein kinase-independent pathway.
R H Karas, … , W E Baur, M E Mendelsohn
The classical estrogen receptor ERalpha mediates many of the known cardiovascular effects of estrogen and is expressed in male and female vascular cells. Estrogen-independent activation of ERalpha is known to occur in cells from reproductive tissues, but has not been investigated previously in vascular cells. In this study, transient transfection assays in human saphenous vein smooth muscle cells (HSVSMC) and pulmonary vein endothelial cells (PVEC) demonstrated ERalpha-dependent activation of estrogen response element-based, and vascular endothelial growth factor-based reporter plasmids by both estrogen-deficient FBS (ED-FBS) and EGF. In nonvascular cells, ERalpha-mediated gene expression can be activated via mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase- induced phosphorylation of serine 118 of ERalpha. However, in vascular cells, we found that pharmacologic inhibition of MAP kinase did not alter EGF-mediated ERalpha activation. In addition, a mutant ER containing an alanine-for-serine substitution at position 118 was activated to the same degree as the wild-type receptor by ED-FBS and EGF in both HSVSMC and PVEC. Furthermore, constitutively active MAP kinase kinase (MAPKK) activated ERalpha in Cos1 cells as expected, but MAPKK inhibited ER activation in PVEC. We conclude that growth factors also stimulate ERalpha-mediated gene expression in vascular cells, but find that this occurs via a MAP kinase-independent pathway distinct from that reported previously in nonvascular cells.
R H Karas, E A Gauer, H E Bieber, W E Baur, M E Mendelsohn
Right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia due to a somatic cell mutation in G protein subunitalphai2.
B B Lerman, … , J Linden, D F Catanzaro
Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia is a generic term that describes the various forms of ventricular arrhythmias that occur in patients without structural heart disease and in the absence of the long QT syndrome. Many of these tachycardias are focal in origin, localize to the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT), terminate in response to beta blockers, verapamil, vagal maneuvers, and adenosine, and are thought to result from cAMP-mediated triggered activity. DNA was prepared from biopsy samples obtained from myocardial tissue from a patient with adenosine-insensitive idiopathic ventricular tachycardia arising from the RVOT. Genomic sequences of the inhibitory G protein Galphai2 were determined after amplification by PCR and subcloning. A point mutation (F200L) in the GTP binding domain of the inhibitory G protein Galphai2 was identified in a biopsy sample from the arrhythmogenic focus. This mutation was shown to increase intracellular cAMP concentration and inhibit suppression of cAMP by adenosine. No mutations were detected in Galphai2 sequences from myocardial tissue sampled from regions remote from the origin of tachycardia, or from peripheral lymphocytes. These findings suggest that somatic cell mutations in the cAMP-dependent signal transduction pathway occurring during myocardial development may be responsible for some forms of idiopathic ventricular tachycardia.
B B Lerman, B Dong, K M Stein, S M Markowitz, J Linden, D F Catanzaro
Human circulating eosinophils secrete macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF). Potential role in asthma.
A G Rossi, … , R Bucala, S C Donnelly
Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a potent proinflammatory mediator that has been shown to potentiate lethal endotoxemia and to play a potentially important regulatory role in human acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We have investigated whether eosinophils are an important source of MIF and whether MIF may be involved in the pathophysiology of asthma. Unstimulated human circulating eosinophils were found to contain preformed MIF. Stimulation of human eosinophils with phorbol myristate acetate in vitro yielded significant release of MIF protein. For example, eosinophils stimulated with phorbol myristate acetate (100 nM, 8 h, 37 degreesC) released 1,539+/-435 pg/10(6) cells of MIF, whereas unstimulated cells released barely detectable levels (< 142 pg/10(6) cells, mean+/-SEM, n = 8). This stimulated release was shown to be (a) concentration- and time-dependent, (b) partially blocked by the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide, and (c) significantly inhibited by the protein kinase C inhibitor Ro-31,8220. In addition, we show that the physiological stimuli C5a and IL-5 also cause significant MIF release. Furthermore, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid obtained from asthmatic patients contains significantly elevated levels of MIF as compared to nonatopic normal volunteers (asthmatic, 797.5+/-92 pg/ml; controls, 274+/-91 pg/ml). These results highlight the potential importance of MIF in asthma and other eosinophil-dependent inflammatory disorders.
A G Rossi, C Haslett, N Hirani, A P Greening, I Rahman, C N Metz, R Bucala, S C Donnelly
Phenylketonuria. The in vivo hydroxylation rate of phenylalanine into tyrosine is decreased.
F J van Spronsen, … , R Berger, H S Heymans
In phenylketonuria (PKU), the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase is deficient, resulting in a decreased conversion of phenylalanine (Phe) into tyrosine (Tyr). The severity of the disease is expressed as the tolerance for Phe at 5 yr of age. In PKU patients it is assumed that the decreased conversion of Phe into Tyr is directly correlated with the tolerance for Phe. We investigated this correlation by an in vivo stable isotope study. The in vivo residual hydroxylation was quantitated using a primed continuous infusion of L-[ring- 2H5]Phe and L-[1-13C]Tyr and the determination of the isotopic enrichments of L-[ring-2H5]Phe, L-[ring-2H4]Tyr, and L-[1-13C]Tyr in plasma. Previous reports by Thompson and coworkers (Thompson, G.N., and D. Halliday. 1990. J. Clin. Invest. 86:317-322; Thompson, G.N., J.H. Walter, J.V. Leonard, and D. Halliday. 1990. Metabolism. 39:799-807; Treacy, E., J.J. Pitt, K. Seller, G.N. Thompson, S. Ramus, and R.G.H. Cotton. 1996. J. Inherited Metab. Dis. 19:595- 602), applying the same technique, showed normal in vivo hydroxylation rates of Phe in almost all PKU patients. Therefore, our study was divided up in two parts. First, the method was re-evaluated. Second, the correlation between the in vivo hydroxylation of Phe and the tolerance for Phe was tested in seven classical PKU patients. Very low (0.13- 0.95 micromol/kg per hour) and normal (4.11 and 6.33 micromol/kg per hour) conversion rates were found in patients and controls, respectively. Performing the infusion study twice in the same patient and wash-out studies of the labels at the end of the experiment in a patient and control showed that the method is applicable in PKU patients and gives consistent data. No significant correlation was observed between the in vivo hydroxylation rates and the tolerances. The results of this study, therefore, showed that within the group of patients with classical PKU, the tolerance does not depend on the in vivo hydroxylation.
F J van Spronsen, D J Reijngoud, G P Smit, G T Nagel, F Stellaard, R Berger, H S Heymans
Endothelin-1 is synthesized and inhibits cyclic adenosine monophosphate- dependent anion secretion by an autocrine/paracrine mechanism in gallbladder epithelial cells.
L Fouassier, … , V Barbu, C Housset
Ion and fluid transport across the biliary epithelium contributes to bile secretion. Since endothelin (ET)-1 affects ion transport activities and is released by human gallbladder- derived biliary epithelial cells in primary culture, we examined the expression of ET peptides and ET receptors and the influence of ET-1 on ion transport in this epithelium ex vivo. In freshly isolated gallbladder epithelial cells, preproET-1, -2, and -3 mRNAs were detected by reverse transcription PCR and ET-1 isopeptide was identified by chromatography. The cells also displayed ET receptor mRNAs and high-affinity binding sites for ET-1, mostly of the ETB type. Electrogenic anion secretion across intact gallbladder mucosa was stimulated by forskolin, secretin, and exogenous ATP, as assessed by short-circuit current (Isc) increases in Ussing-type chambers. ET-1 inhibited forskolin- and secretin-induced changes in Isc, without affecting baseline Isc or ATP-induced changes. Accordingly, ET-1 significantly reduced the accumulation of intracellular cAMP elicited by forskolin and secretin in the epithelial cells, and this effect was abolished by pertussis toxin. This is the first evidence that ET-1 is synthesized and inhibits, via a Gi protein-coupled receptor, cAMP-dependent anion secretion in human gallbladder epithelium, indicating a role in the control of bile secretion by an autocrine/paracrine mechanism.
L Fouassier, T Chinet, B Robert, A Carayon, P Balladur, M Mergey, A Paul, R Poupon, J Capeau, V Barbu, C Housset
Tolerance induction ameliorates allograft vasculopathy in rat aortic transplants. Influence of Fas-mediated apoptosis.
L M Akyürek, … , K Funa, G Tufveson
Based on successful induction of donor-specific unresponsiveness by alloantigenic stimulation in several animal models of acute rejection, we hypothesized that similar immune manipulations would also inhibit the evolution of chronic rejection and transplant vasculopathy. To induce immune tolerance, DA rats received a PVG heart allograft and were immunosuppressed with cyclosporine for 30 d. At day 100 the animals were challenged with a PVG aortic allograft after either 1 or 18 h of cold ischemia. 8 wk after the aortic transplantation, the grafts were investigated for morphological changes, infiltrating cells, apoptosis, and Fas-Fas ligand expression. Control allografts showed advanced transplant arteriosclerosis, whereas tolerance-induced aortic allografts displayed reduced neointimal formation, less medial atrophy, fewer apoptotic cells, and fewer Fas- and FasL-expressing cells. Prolonged ischemic storage time did not profoundly alter the morphological changes of the allografts. Fas expression was found in T cells, macrophages, vascular smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells, whereas FasL was expressed mainly by T cells and macrophages. FasL mRNA expression was evident throughout the entire allograft wall. In conclusion, induction of allospecific tolerance can effectively prevent transplant arteriosclerosis. Cold ischemia damage does not abrogate the beneficial effect of tolerance, but creates a separate identity of mainly endothelial lesions. Furthermore, Fas-mediated apoptosis appears to be involved in the pathological lesions seen in chronic rejection.
L M Akyürek, C Johnsson, D Lange, P Georgii-Hemming, E Larsson, B C Fellström, K Funa, G Tufveson
A novel form of hereditary myeloperoxidase deficiency linked to endoplasmic reticulum/proteasome degradation.
F R DeLeo, … , S J McCormick, W M Nauseef
Myeloperoxidase (MPO) deficiency is a common inherited disorder linked to increased susceptibility to infection and malignancy. We identified a novel missense mutation in the MPO gene at codon 173 whereby tyrosine is replaced with cysteine (Y173C) that is associated with MPO deficiency and assessed its impact on MPO processing and targeting in transfectants expressing normal or mutant proteins. Although the precursor synthesized by cells expressing the Y173C mutation (MPOY173C) was glycosylated, associated with the molecular chaperones calreticulin and calnexin, and acquired heme, it was neither proteolytically processed to mature MPO subunits nor secreted. After prolonged association with calreticulin and calnexin in the endoplasmic reticulum, MPOY173C was degraded. Furthermore, the 20S proteasome inhibitor N-acetyl-L-leucinyl-L-leucinyl-L-norleucinyl inhibited its degradation, suggesting that the proteasome mediates proteolysis of MPOY173C and, thus, participates in quality control in this novel form of hereditary MPO deficiency.
F R DeLeo, M Goedken, S J McCormick, W M Nauseef
Polyclonal antibody directed against human RANTES ameliorates disease in the Lewis rat adjuvant-induced arthritis model.
D A Barnes, … , R Horuk, H D Perez
Adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) is one of many animal models of rheumatoid arthritis, a disease characterized by a T-lymphocyte and macrophage cellular infiltrate. We have characterized the development of this disease model with respect to chemokine expression. Increased levels of two chemokines, RANTES, a T-lymphocyte and monocyte chemo-attractant, and KC a chemoattractant for neutrophils, were found in whole blood and in the joint. Surprisingly, levels of MIP-1alpha, another T-lymphocyte and monocyte chemoattractant, were unchanged throughout the course of the disease in whole blood and only slightly elevated in the joint. RANTES expression plays an important role in the disease since a polyclonal antibody to RANTES greatly ameliorated symptoms in animals induced for AIA and was found to be as efficacious as treatment with indomethacin, a non-steroidal anti inflammatory. Polyclonal antibodies to either MIP-1alpha or KC were ineffective. This is the first report to show the importance of RANTES in the development of AIA.
D A Barnes, J Tse, M Kaufhold, M Owen, J Hesselgesser, R Strieter, R Horuk, H D Perez
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JoCoHistory.org
Lanesfield Historic Site
The limestone schoolhouse, the last remaining structure in the former town of Lanesfield, is the oldest operating schoolhouse in Johnson County. Students attended from 1869 - 1963 when the school closed. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The site today includes the original schoolhouse, four outbuildings, and a modern visitors center that houses the exhibit One-Room Schools in Kansas, a museum store, and restrooms.
NEW! -- A re you good at solving mysteries? Test your skills at the Lanesfield Escape Room! Perfect for groups of 4-6 people who love to solve a good mystery. A recent escapee shared, "This escape room is a hidden gem! Clues involve arithmetic, literature, history and geography. Each proved challenging but not impossible to solve." Book your experience today!
The site also feat ures seven interpretive panels on the grounds that tell the story of the schoolhouse, the town of Lanesfield and its connection with General and U.S. Senator James H. Lane, the reasons for the town's eventual decline, Santa Fe Trail history, stories of the local Border War, and the agricutural experience in Johnson County. An accompanying audio tour is also available. Visitors are welcome to tour site grounds during daylight hours. National Park Service Passport Stamps are available outside the Visitor Center entrance.
Lanesfield School Historic Site
18745 S Dillie Road
Edgerton, KS 66021
18745 S Dillie Road Edgerton KS 66021
Hours at Lanesfield School are Friday and Saturday, 1:00 - 5:00 p.m. and by appointment.
New Prices and Rates Coming January 2020
Becoming Johnson County
KidScape
AT JOCOHISTORY.ORG
JCPRD Administration Building
7900 Renner Road
Shawnee Mission, KS 66219-9723
Q: What does it cost to visit the Johnson County Museum?
Can we go through the museum on our own?
What are the museum's hours?
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Electrodeposition of AuPt Alloy Nanostructures on a Biotemplate with Hierarchically Assembled M13 Virus Film Used for Methanol Oxidation Reaction
Shanmugam Manivannan, Yeji Seo, Kyuwon Kim
Manivannan, Seo, and Kim: Electrodeposition of AuPt Alloy Nanostructures on a Biotemplate with Hierarchically Assembled M13 Virus Film Used for Methanol Oxidation Reaction
Published online: August 2, 2019
Shanmugam Manivannan*, Yeji Seo, Kyuwon Kim*
Electrochemistry Laboratory for Sensors & Energy (ELSE), Department of Chemistry, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Republic of Korea
*E-mail address: smanivannan1982@yahoo.com, kyuwon_kim@inu.ac.kr
Received February 13, 2019 Accepted March 19, 2019
Herein, we report an electrode surface with a hierarchical assembly of wild-type M13 virus nanofibers (M13) to nucleate the AuPt alloy nanostructures by electrodeposition. M13 was pulled on the electrode surface to produce a virus film, and then a layer of sol–gel matrix (SSG) was wrapped over the surface to protect the film, thereby a bio-template was constructed. Blending of metal binding domains of M13 and amine groups of the SSG of the bio-template were effectively nucleate and directed the growth of nanostructures (NSs) such as Au, Pt and AuPt alloy onto the modified electrode surface by electrodeposition. An electrocatalytic activity of the modified electrode toward methanol oxidation in alkaline medium was investigated and found an enhanced mass activity (534 mA/mgPt) relative to its controlled experiments. This bio-templated growth of NSs with precise composition could expedite the intention of new alloy materials with tuneable properties and will have efficacy in green energy, catalytic, and energy storage applications.
Keywords: Bio-template, Metal Electrodeposition, M13 Virus, Methanol Oxidation, Surface Functionalization
Bio-templates assisted synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials is attracting the generous interest in the contemporary nanoscience research due to its unlimited and potential applications in the industrial and medical fields [1–3]. In the bio-template, biomolecule is a key component and it is widely exploited to assemble and formulate variety of nanomaterials on its bio-functional domains [4,5]. In comparison with the conventional chemical methods, bio-template assisted synthetic approaches have various benefits for making the nanoscale materials. Such benefits arouse from the distinctive functionalities of biomolecules [3]. Especially, carboxyl and amine groups’ functionalized biomolecules can facilitate the effective interaction between the biomolecules and the nanomaterial precursors [6]. In addition, to maintain the charge neutrality and express their specific affinities; biomolecules do prefer to assemble and align in a specific outline. Such outline can be used as a scaffold to derive the functional nanomaterials. Moreover, mimicking a nature based bio-template model system to derive technologically important nanoscale materials become a current area of research in recent years [7]. So, the bio-templating approaches could provide absolutely distinctive, less expensive routes for nanomaterials synthesis [8,9]. M13 bacteriophage is a filamentous virus that infects bacteria host cells and having a dimension of 860 nm in length and 6.5 nm in diameter [10,11]. Large-scale production of M13 bacteriophage is a feasible process since, infected bacteria is the starting material (E. coli) and is highly abundant in nature. The schematic structure of the wild-type M13 bacteriophage (M13) used in this study is given in Fig. 1. The helically arrayed major coat protein capsid; pVIII is responsible for the filamentous body of the M13. Head of the filamentous body consists of five copies of pIX and pVII proteins and they are responsible for the rounded cap-sids. Tail portion consists of remaining minor coat proteins of pIII and pVI and they are responsible to infect the host bacteria (E.coli). The functionality of M13’s subunit proteins has a good binding affinity and specificity towards target molecules. Hence, M13 based bio-templates might be suitable bio-alternative to traditional material-based templates to obtain the functional nanoscale materials. Deriving the templates on solid surfaces, suitable surface coating techniques need to be applied. A pulling method, a kind of dip coating method, has been usually employed to construct the M13 multilayer biofilms on solid surfaces. [12].
Extensive research has shown the utility of gold (Au), platinum (Pt) and AuPt alloy nanoparticles (NPs) as the highly active and stable catalytic materials for various applications [13–16]. In particular, AuPt NPs are of widely studied as catalysts for fuel cells, hydrogenation and oxidation of organic compounds, degrading the environment pollutants and electrochemical oxidation of small organic molecules which are suitable for fuel cell applications [10]. Hence, to decrease the usage of expensive Pt loading in the catalytic systems, synthesis of AuPt core/shell or alloy nanostructures (NSs) with the controlled structural features are highly desired [16]. A substantial task in this research is the development of synthetic approaches which are capable of producing uniform and structurally tuned core/shell or alloy NSs with controlled size, morphology and composition for practical electrochemical applications. Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) operating in alkaline medium offers the less corrosive environment for the metal based catalysts and obviously exhibits improved reaction kinetics as well, and can proceed at lower potential too [16,17].
Here we report a facile fabrication technique to obtain the bio-templated AuPt alloy NSs via electrodeposition and their electro-catalytic activity of MOR in alkaline medium. Highly porous and distinctive AuPt alloy NSs were resulted from the combination of M13 and amine-functionalized silicate sol-gel matrix (SSG). To construct the bio-template, M13 were successfully pulled from its stock solution onto the ITO surface subsequently, a layer of SSG was wrapped over it and was used for electrodepositing the AuPt NSs. The electro-catalytic activity of the fabricated modified electrode toward methanol oxidation (MOR) in alkaline medium was investigated. Present fabrication approach has the following advantages; (i) a bio-template with a M13 film prepared by the pulling method offer effective nucleation and growth of AuPt NSs from their corresponding precursors, (ii) integration of SSG into this bio-system, protects M13, assist and regulate the nucleation and growth of AuPt NSs, (iii) distinctive AuPt alloy NSs can be synthesized where the porosity, morphology and loading amount can be finely tuned by the pulling time, mode of introducing SSG, and concentration of the metal precursors.
2.1 Materials
Gold(III) chloride hydrate (HAuCl4.3H2O), chloroplatinic acid hexahydrate (H2PtCl6.6H2O) and N1-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl) diethylenetriamine (silane monomer used to prepare the SSG; silicate sol–gel matrix) were received from Sigma-Aldrich. Methanol (MeOH) was obtained from DaeJung chemicals. Indium tin oxide (ITO, dimension 3 × 1 cm) and its modified forms were used as working electrodes. Pt wire was used as a counter electrode, and Ag/AgCl (in 3 M NaCl solution) was used as a reference electrode. Electrochemical experiments were conducted in a single-compartment three-electrode cell using an Ivium Technologies electrochemical workstation. Nitrogen (N2) was bubbled for 30 min prior to each experiment.
2.2 Wild-type M13 Virus Preparation
Wild-type M13 virus (M13) was grown and purified by following the standard biochemical protocols [10, 11]. Briefly, one colony of E. coli XL-1 blue was grown in 3 mL of LB media to mid log phase (E. coli XL-1 blue culture) and infected with 10 μL of wild-type M13 virus. The culture was incubated at 37°C with shaking for 12 h and then centrifuged to remove E. coli. The M13 was collected by PEG/NaCl (20% PEG and 2.5 mol/L NaCl) precipitation and reconstituted in Tris-buffered saline (10 mM). The typical yield was ~20 mg/L of M13. The final concentration was determined spectrophotometrically using an extinction coefficient of 3.84 cm2/mg at 269 nm.
2.3 Preparation of SSG
Homogeneous 1 mM SSG solution was prepared by adding 10 μL of 1 M SSG silane monomer (N1-(3-trimethoxysilylpropyl)diethylenetriamine) into 10 mL of aqueous solution under vigorous stirring and the stirring was continued for another 60 min.
2.4 Fabrication of Modified Electrodes
M13-assembled films were constructed [18] with a commercial syringe pump (KD Scientific, USA). The built-in software of the syringe pump was used to adjust pulling speeds. A cleaned ITO electrode was immersed in a M13 solution (0.1 mg/mL), subsequently subjected to the pulling method for 5 or 10 or 20 h. Subsequently, after the immersion period the ITO electrode was taken out and carefully rinsed and dried with N2. In the next step, 50 μL of the preformed SSG solution (1 mM) was carefully drop-casted on the M13-pulled ITO surface and allowed to dry in an incubator at 37°C for 2 h. The dried electrode was soaked for 10 min in an electrolyte solution (mixture of 1.5 mM H2PtCl6 and HAuCl4 or 3 mM H2PtCl6 or 3 mM HAuCl4 in 0.5 M H2SO4) for electrodepositing AuPt or Pt or Au NSs by applying a potential of −0.2 V (Ag/AgCl) for 500 s. Fabricated electrodes were denoted as ITO/M13/SSG/AuPt or ITO/M13/SSG/Pt or ITO/M13/SSG/Au. As a controlled experiments, mixture of M13+SSG, M13, SSG and only ITO surfaces were used for the electrodeposition of AuPt and fabricated electrodes were denoted as ITO/M13+SSG/AuPt, ITO/M13/AuPt, ITO/SSG/AuPt and ITO/AuPt, respectively.
2.5 Electrochemical Studies
The electrochemically active surface areas (ECSA) of fabricated electrodes were derived by using the curve-fitting tool of the MATLAB software package by integrating “Q” of hydrogen adsorption curve. Prior to curve fitting the non-faradaic current was eliminated. To obtain the hydrogen adsorption curve, cyclic voltammograms (CVs) were recorded in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution (saturated with nitrogen) at a scan rate of 50 mV/s from −0.4 to 1.2 V. The methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) was studied by recording CVs in 0.1 M KOH and 0.1 M CH3OH solution at a scan rate of 50 mV/s from −1 to 0.6 V. Furthermore, stability of the fabricated electrodes was assessed by recording a continuous cycling test and an amperometric i-t curve under an applied potential of −0.3 V for 1500 s. The mass of the Pt was calculated as follows; at first current was monitored during deposition and charge (Q) was used to estimate specific mass (M) of Pt using the eq 1.
M=Q×MW/(n FA)
where ‘M’ is specific mass after electrodeposition, ‘Q’ is charge consumed for electrodeposition, ‘MW’ is the molecular mass of Pt, ‘n’ is number of electrons (4) transferred for electrodeposition, ‘F’ is Faraday constant and ‘A’ is geometrical area (0.44 cm2) of the electrode (‘O’ ring). Percentage composition of the AuPt alloy was derived from the SEM-EDX analysis, according to the Pt composition; corresponding ‘Q’ was used to derive its mass as reported in our previous study.2 The mass of Pt was used to calculate the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) and normalizing the current to obtain current density plots. The ECSA of the modified electrodes were calculated by integrating (MATLAB curve fitting tool) the Q of hydrogen adsorption curve after eliminating non-faradaic current, which was recorded in 0.5 M H2SO4 solution (saturated with nitrogen) scanned at 50 mV/s from −0.4 to 1.2 V.
3.1 Surface characterization of the modified electrodes
Both plant and animal viruses have been previously documented for the interaction, assembly and growth of functional nanoscale materials. As represented in Fig. 1, capsid proteins of the M13 nanofibers can facilitate the interaction between peptides present on M13 surface and nanomaterial precursors hence; they are ideal candidates for nanomaterial fabrication [19–21], and for drug and gene delivery, and tissue engineering fields [22]. In this study, bio-mineralization of Au and Pt metal precursors was achieved through electrodeposition at the fabricated bio-template (M13/SSG); such process would offer the secure electrical pathways by connecting the electrodeposited NSs. On contrary, M13-assisted bio-mineralization by the chemical deposition method, often suffers with the lack of electrical pathways which are essential for fuel cell applications such as DMFCs.
In order to explore the metal precursor nucleating ability of the M13, we have designed three types of bio-template; (i). M13-pulled onto a bare ITO surface (ITO/M13); (ii) M13-pulled from a mixture of M13 and SSG onto a ITO surface (ITO/M13+SSG); (iii) wrapping a layer of SSG over a M13-pulled ITO surface (ITO/M13/SSG). With these bio-templates, M13 pulling time was varied as 5, 10 and 20 h; more the pulling time, more number of M13 will be pulled onto the electrode surface; we had encountered a conductivity problem with the 20 h pulled sample hence, it is limited for the further studies. AFM images of the M13-pulled (10 h) surfaces are representing bundles like structures [23,24] and it can be attributed to the presence of M13 attached with the each other’s [25,26] (Fig. 2A–C). Fabricated bio-templates were subjected to the nucleation and growth of AuPt NSs through electrodeposition. After the deposition process, fabricated electrodes were carefully rinsed with DI water and their surface morphology was analysed by SEM studies as shown in Fig. 2. A close inspection reveals that at the ITO/M13 (5 and 10 h) and ITO/M13+SSG (5 and 10 h) bio-templates, AuPt NSs were nucleated and grown well and the particles size is around 1 μm and the particles were well separated with each other (Fig. 2D, E, G and H). On contrary, at the ITO/M13/SSG (5 and 10 h) bio-template, network of AuPt NSs are clearly seen (Fig. 2F and I). In addition, the wrapped SSG acted as a solid support and protects the pulled M13 beneath it and made effective nucleation and growth process [27]. As an impact highly porous and network structures are obtained. Such surfaces are more suitable candidates for the efficient mass transport. Hence, condition optimized to fabricate the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG was 10 h of pulling time, and the similar experimental conditions were applied for the controlled experiments such as depositing mono-metallic Au and Pt NSs and without SSG and the studied SEM images are summarized in Fig. 3. Interestingly, the monometallic Au and Pt NSs did not prefer to form network-like structures, instead dendritic and porous plate-like structures (Fig. 3A and B) were obtained, respectively and they do match with our previous report [10]. Furthermore, in the absence of both M13 and SSG (Fig. C) and in the absence of SSG (Fig. 3D); sphere-like particles are observed and they are well separated too. When there is M13 at the bio-template, still the network-like structures are formed (Fig. 3E). Comparison of the controlled experiments reveals that, both M13 and SSG’ contributions at the bio-template are essential to lead such highly porous and network-like structures. Furthermore, Fig. 3F represents several fold smaller particles as its constituents. Fig. 3G–I demonstrate the SEM-EDX analysis of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode.
To analyze the crystal planes and elements composition, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) studies were carried out and the obtained results are summarized in Fig. 4. As can be seen from the Fig. 4A, XRD patterns of the mono-and bi-metallic ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Au, ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt and ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes were compared. XRD peaks marked with the asterisk symbol at 30.5°, 35.3°, 50.9°, and 60.4° (JCPDS card number 39-1058) can be assigned to the bare ITO surface [28] and are neglected in the analysis. Peaks observed at 38.1°, 44.2°, 64.5°, and 77.5°, in Fig. 4A(a) are attributed to the presence of Au with an fcc structure and are corresponds to the crystal planes of (1 1 1), (2 0 0), (2 2 0), and (3 1 1), respectively (JCPDS card number 65-2870). For Pt (Fig. 4A(a)), peaks were witnessed at 39.9°, 46.4°, and 67.8° (JCPDS card number 04-0802), and are corresponds to (1 1 1), (2 0 0), and (2 2 0) crystal planes, respectively, and belongs to fcc crystal structure. The XRD pattern of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode showed peaks at 38.6°, 45.2°, 65.8°, and 78.9°, and are corresponds to (1 1 1), (2 0 0), (2 2 0), and (3 1 1) crystal planes of the AuPt NSs. Due to the atomic level mixing and interdiffusion of Pt atoms to the Au unit cells; slight shits in comparison with mono-metallic Au and Pt NSs are noticed and are characteristic of the AuPt alloy NSs. Fig. 4B and C represents the XPS analysis of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode. From the survey spectrum (Fig. 4B), existence of elemental Au, Pt, Si, N, and O are confirmed. In addition, core-level spectra of AuPt region was obtained and de-convoluted as shown in Fig. 4C; doublet peaks for Pt0 at 70.9 eV (Pt 4f7/2) and 74.2 eV (Pt 4f5/2), and Au0 at 84.3 eV (Au 4f7/2) and 87.7 eV (Au 4f5/2), are noticed and confirms that both Au and Pt are in their zero oxidation states and are atomically mixed with each other with no phase separation.
3.2. Electro-catalytic activity
To explore the electro-catalytic activity of the fabricated electrodes, Methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) [29–31] in alkaline medium was used as a model system and obtained results are summarized in Figs. 5,–8 and Table 1. The rational design of the bimetallic AuPt alloy NSs are always preferred to lower the consumption of the precious Pt metal, in addition combination with the suitable bio-template would help in nucleating the AuPt NSs in an unique way thereby the resulting catalyst will be rich in catalytic activity.[10] To assess the ECSA of the fabricated electrodes, CVs were carried out in the H2SO4 medium; by integrating the area of the hydrogen adsorption behaviour of Pt, ECSA values were in terms of ECSA (m2/g Pt) and specific mass (mgPt/cm2) and are given in Table 1. From the Fig. 5A, fabricated electrodes exhibit the characteristic hydrogen adsorption (forward scan) and desorption (reverse scan) peaks between −0.2 and 0 V. The electro-catalytic activities of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Au, ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt, ITO/M13-(10)/AuPt, ITO/SSG/AuP and ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes toward MOR were evaluated by recording CVs (Fig. 5B) and amperometric i-t curves (Fig. 5C) in 0.1 M CH3OH + 0.1 M KOH and are given in Fig. 5B and C. Results from the both studies reveals that, in terms of mass activity, ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode exhibits (Fig. 5B(e) and 5C(e)) enhanced electro-catalytic activity in comparison with the remaining catalysts. Various electrochemical parameters were derived from the Fig. 5A and B and are summarized the Table 1.
In addition, Fig. 5D represents the comparison of ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode in the (a) absence and (b) presence of 0.1 M CH3OH in the electrolyte; in the absence of CH3OH, catalytic current was not observed which demonstrates the catalytic activity of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode. Further controlled experiments were carried out to reveal the role of bio-template’s components and M13 pulling time as summarized in Fig. 6. As can be seen from Fig. 6A, in the absence of SSG; lower catalytic activities are observed for both 5 and 10 h of pulling time since there is no solid support (SSG). At the ITO/M13+SSG bio-template, little improvement is noticed then the previous one, when compared to 5 h pulling time M13+SSG mixture pulled for 10 h exhibits higher catalytic activity. On contrary, ITO/M13/SSG bio-template demonstrates the several fold higher catalytic activity then the rest. Furthermore, 10 h pulled electrode demonstrates much better performance than the 5 h; it can be attributed that during the elongated pulling time, M13 were assembled well in an ordered manner by compensating their charge. Kinetics studies (Fig. 7) were carried out using ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt and ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes and the studies revealing that peak potentials are linearly shifted to more positive region while scale-up the scan rate, which is indicative of irreversible process of MOR. Relationships of anodic peak current (jp) and peak potential (Ep) as a function of different scan rates (ν) were plotted using the parameters derived from the CVs; forward scans. Both Pt and AuPt catalysts exhibits linear relationship (Fig. 7C) between log j and log ν and the slope approximated at 0.209 and 0.208, respectively and which are characteristic of the diffusion controlled process. Besides, irreversible charge transfer process at the both Pt and AuPt catalysts are verified from the linear relationship (Fig. 7D) between Ep and log (ν). To determine the stability of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode, 100 continuous CVs were recorded for MOR (Fig. 8A) and it is noticed that after 100 continuous cycles around 40.6% decrement in the peak current was observed and it indicates that the present catalyst showed moderate stability towards MOR.
Efficient nucleating ability of the ITO/M13/SSG bio-template and improved catalytic activity of the ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode can be justified by analysing various aspects based on the observed results. (i) From the structural viewpoint, in comparison with the other bio-templates, granular-like, highly porous and networked AuPt NSs are obtained (Fig. 2I) and such structural features were responsible for the higher ECSA. (ii) Comparison of ITO/M13+SSG and ITO/M13/SSG bio-templates; pulling M13 from the M13+SSG mixture seems not an efficient way to assemble the M13 onto the ITO surface, presence of SSG might neutralize its charge and disturb its capillary action hence, number of M13 molecules and the ordered assembly might be quenched. On the other hand, subsequent introduction of the M13 and SSG onto the ITO surface lead to the distinctive assembly of M13 and the wrapped SSG layer efficiently protects the M13 as well as acts as an ideal solid-support for the electrodeposition of AuPt alloy. In addition the porosity of the SSG layer improves the mass diffusion as well as facilitates the OHads-rich environment during the MOR. (iii) Synergistic catalytic effect of the AuPt; electronic effects associated with Au and Pt accompanied with the bio-template, altogether results in an enhanced oxidation of CH3OH. Above mentioned factors supports that the proposed ITO/M13/SSG bio-template and ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt catalyst are having beneficial structural features that would convey improved catalytic oxidation of CH3OH. Hence, pulling M13 nanofibers onto an electrode surface was evidently promoting to nucleation, growth, and catalytic activity. Such fabrication approach is suitable candidate for constructing the efficient bio-template to nucleate and mineralise the variety of inorganic nanoscale materials.
Pulling M13 nanofibers onto the electrode surface to construct a bio-template, and then applying it for the nucleation and growth of AuPt NSs have greatly enhanced the surface structure of as-synthesized AuPt catalyst. The synergistic ability ITO/M13/SSG bio-template was revealed from the analysis of various controlled experiments. The wrapped SSG layer at the bio-template had better served as suitable solid-support for the nucleation and growth as well as facilitating OHads-rich environment for the CH3OH oxidation. The pulling time of the M13 nanofibers onto the electrode surface had greatly affect the catalytic activity. The advantages we claim for these facile bio-templated AuPt alloy fuel cell catalysts are: (i) Human friendly M13 nanofibers can be easily prepared in a laboratory simply by infecting the bacteria (E. coli) there by the production cost of the biomolecules can be lowered. (ii) For the first-time M13-pulled electrode surface was used as a substrate for the electrodeposition of the noble metal NSs. (iii) Major coat proteins of the M13 nanofibers in association with the SSG had shown specific affinity towards the Au and Pt metal precursors. This facile methodology might be extended to other metals and metal oxides, and the designed bio-template should offer capable scaffolds for energy harvesting and storage applications.
This work was supported by the Incheon National University Research Grant in 2014.
Schematic representation of the fabrication of ITO/M13/SSG/AuPt electrode.
(A–C) AFM images of M13-pulled surfaces; pulling time: 10 h. SEM images of (D, G) ITO/M13/AuPt, (E, H) ITO/M13+SSG/AuPt, and (F, I) ITO/M13/SSG/AuPt electrodes. M13 pulling time were (D, E and F) 5 h and (G, H and I) 10 h.
SEM images of (A) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Au, (B) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt, (C) ITO/AuPt, (D) ITO/M13-(10)/AuPt, (E) ITO/SSG/AuPt and (F) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes. SEM-EDX analysis of (F).
(A) XRD patterns of (a) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Au electrode, (b) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt electrode and ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes. XPS analysis of ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode: (B) Survey spectrum and enlarged spectra for (C) Au–Pt 4f regions of the modified electrode.
(A, B, C) CVs of (a) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Au, (b) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt, (c) ITO/M13-(10)/AuPt, (d) ITO/SSG/AuPt and (e) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes in (A) 0.5 M H2SO4 and in (B) 0.1 M CH3OH + 0.1 M KOH at a scan rate of 50 mV/s. (C) Amperometric i–t curves observed for A(a–e) in 0.1 M CH3OH + 0.1 M KOH at an applied potential of – 0.3 V. (D) comparison of ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode in the (a) absence and (b) presence of 0.1 M CH3OH in 0.1 M KOH at a scan rate of 50 mV/s.
CVs recorded at (A) ITO/M13/AuPt, (B) ITO/M13+SSG/AuPt and (C) ITO/M13/SSG/AuPt electrodes prepared by M13 pulling time of (a) 5 h and (b) 10 h and in (A, B and C) 0.1 M CH3OH + 0.1 M KOH at a scan rate of 50 mV/s.
CVs of (A) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Pt and (B) ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrodes for 0.1 M CH3OH + 0.1 M KOH at different scan rates (30, 50, 80, 120, 160, 200, 250, and 300 mV/s from inner to outer). C(a, b) Corresponding relationship of log j vs. log (ν). D(a, b) Corresponding relationship of peak potential Ep vs. log (ν).
(A) CVs obtained at ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/AuPt electrode in 0.1 M CH3OH + 0.1 M KOH at the scan rate of 50 mV/s with 1 to 100 cycles. (B) Corresponding calibration plot.
Electrochemical parameters of MOR derived at the various modified electrodes.
Modified electrodes
specific mass (mg Pt/cm2)
ECSA (cm2)
ECSA (m2/g Pt)
onset potential (V)
anodic peak potential (V)
mass activity (mA/mg Pt)
ITO/M13-(5)/(Au59.5–Pt40.5) 0.0041 0.33 8.04 −0.423 −0.089 21.00
ITO/M13-(10)/(Au61–Pt39) 0.013 0.51 3.92 −0.490 −0.081 11.10
ITO/M13-(5)+SSG/(Au61–Pt39) 0.0949 0.41 0.432 −0.467 0.151 8.50
ITO/M13-(10)+SSG/(Au60.5–Pt39.5) 0.0022 0.27 12.27 −0.482 −0.057 106.90
ITO/M13-(5)/SSG/(Au61–Pt39) 0.0055 0.35 6.36 −0.507 0.138 112.10
ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/(Au62–Pt38) 0.00086 0.29 33.72 −0.608 0.003 534.00
ITO/SSG/(Au64–Pt36) 0.0078 0.243 3.119 −0.487 −0.045 31.90
ITO/(Au62–Pt38) 0.0036 0.415 11.54 −0.481 0.045 129.00
ITO/M13-(10)/SSG/Au 0.0070 - - - - -
ITO//M13-(10)/SSG/Pt 0.0057 0.31 5.52 −0.493 −0.195 11.00
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[8] DA. Bricarello, JT. Smilowitz, AM. Zivkovic, JB. German and AN. Parikh, ACS Nano., 2010, 5(1), 42–57.
[9] UB. Sleytr, P. Messner, D. Pum and M. Sára, Angew Chem Int Ed., 1999, 38(8), 1034–1054.
[10] S. Manivannan, I. Kang, Y. Seo, HE. Jin, SW. Lee and K. Kim, ACS Appl Mater Interfaces., 2017, 9(38), 32965–32976.
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Scammers target new homeowners but their tactics are easy to see through
By: Sarah Plake
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — New homeowners usually need all the help they can get. It can be a stressful, overwhelming time. Scammers use that to their advantage.
Scammers are targeting 41 Action News reporter Sarah Plake, whose mailbox has been flooded with letters from unknown institutions urging her to buy a mortgage protection insurance plan.
"It's not terribly shocking, unfortunately. As soon as you close on a home, the title company files the deed and your information becomes public," said realtor Jessica Magaha.
The scammers will bait you with emotion—raising concern about what will happen to your mortgage in case you die.
Magaha said if that were a real product, you'd have already talked about it with the institution you worked with.
"If you're reading through the letter and something just feels a little off, always, always go back to the professional you worked with in the field," Magaha said.
The letters Sarah received have the name of her bank on it, her address, everything.
But when you open the letters and really start looking at it, you can see several red flags.
Aaron Reese with the Better Business Bureau of Greater Kansas City said it's all about the graphics.
"If it's off-centered, the logo is cut off, things just look wrong with the document, or it looks sloppy, if it's on thin paper, looks like it's been copied. Just things like that. Chances are it's not from your mortgage company," Reese said.
And the letters should go straight in the trash.
Another way to tell is to compare the letter to the actual mortgage company's logo. Sometimes scammers won't use the exact logo, or they'll omit letters from the name. For example, instead of "Bank" it will be "Bnk"
Reese said these types of scams are usually run by organized crime groups overseas. The scammers get a lead list together of addresses and go from there.
"They have access to public records. They have people doing that for them a lot of the time, so then they have different people emailing. A lot of the time they employ bots. Just robots that would go out, crawl the internet for information and then send those emails. A lot of automation. A lot of ways to get a lot of contact without a lot of work," Reese said.
The return address on one letter read: "Customer Service Department, Mortgage Protection Division, PO Box 1737, Owasso, OK 74055."
A quick Google search showed those people have been issued at least two cease-and-desist orders from the New Hampshire Banking Department and the West Virginia Division of Financial Institutions. The documents say the Mortgage Protection Division was ordered to stop posing as other financial institutions.
Is what the scammers doing legal?
"It would be mail fraud. So, they're not allowed to. It's against the law. If you turned them over to the United States Postal Inspection Service, they will probably open an investigation," Reese said.
Experts say the only institution who should be asking you for more money after you close on the home is your mortgage lender so that you make your monthly payments.
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Lamp and Owl
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A One To One With… Pete Williams of Birkbeck Libraries
December 30, 2016 Lynsey Ford Leave a comment
Pete Williams is the Assistant Director for User Support, Academic Liaison and Collections across the Malet Street and Stratford Campuses of Birkbeck. Here, Pete explains some of the challenges faced to support students across the libraries:
‘Birkbeck Library provides three main things: collections (print and online); a space to study; and practical support to our users.
My advice to new students would be go to your library introductory talk but if you miss that, or need more help, you can always make an appointment with your Subject Librarian – the purpose of their job is to support you!
Our Subject Librarians meet with academic staff all the time but we’d really like to improve our communication with our students, either through the Student Union or through other channels including social media.
There is a Library Advisory Group, consisting of staff from each department, which meets twice a year usually in March and November. Its remit is to offer advice on library policy and to monitor our performance.
Birkbeck students studying in Stratford have full access to UEL’s Stratford Campus Library. They can borrow any of the books housed in that library and their Birkbeck ID card automatically lets them in through the turnstiles. We have dedicated members of library staff based out there and they work both in the UEL Library and also in the USS Building, where there is a study area with PCs called the Weston Learning Centre. Stratford-based Birkbeck students can also use all the Malet Street facilities.
Compared to taught postgraduate students, research students need a greater range of library materials as there is no reading list for a PhD. To really succeed, they also need to understand the wider information landscape by which I mean a greater knowledge of the information resources available and the different ways scholarly work is published and disseminated.
There are plenty of challenges but perhaps the main one is limited space. We are constantly balancing the need to provide an adequate number of study spaces with the fact that our collections are crammed into a relatively small amount of space. We realise that the Library is still becoming completely full up in the afternoons, and that this is a highly unsatisfactory situation, and we are currently exploring options for creating significantly more study spaces in summer 2017.
We’re currently reorganising the way we staff the Library at evenings and weekends to make sure students coming in at these times get as good a service as possible. We have a ‘back to the floor’ policy and all library staff (including the Director) work on the helpdesk at least once a week. In October, the library opened a new group study area.
Like all Birkbeck departments, we receive an annual budget which covers everything we do, including all the information resources (books, journals) we purchase. However, for more substantial one-off refurbishment work, such as the creation of the new group study area and the Accessibility Centre that happened this summer, we have to make a business case to Birkbeck’s Estates Committee for additional funding.
We hope to develop better links with the SU, but we are also trying out other methods, including focus groups, greater engagement through Twitter and Facebook and making sure we attend any student/staff forums in individual departments.
In February we will be conducting some ‘ethnographic’ research into how students use the library. In September 2016 we received about £4,000 from the Birkbeck Alumni Fund to do this. We will be employing Birkbeck students to help us, so look out for people with clipboards observing you when you use the Library!
For other upcoming developments, please take a look at our annual Operational Plan which lists in full the various projects we are currently engaged in. Our mission is “to put students at the heart of everything we do”.
I think Birkbeck has a strong identity as London’s Evening University, which both its students and staff buy into.’
Images courtesy of Birkbeck Library and Wikimedia Commons
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Preservation /
Caring For Your Personal Collections
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Home / Preservation / Caring For Your Personal Collections
Preservation Websites | Preservation Books | Selecting a Conservator
The following resources provide advice on preserving your personal collections of books, photographs, and recordings.
Preservation Websites
Caring for Your Treasures
How to care for your family photographs, documents, textiles, art and more from the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works.
Collections Care -- Library of Congress
Tips on storing, handling, and preserving personal collections from the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate. Also, includes information on emergency preparedness and response as well as collections care.
Caring for Your Family Archives
Frequently asked questions about family archives answered by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
Home Film Preservation Guide
Simple guidelines for preserving motion picture films with a focus on storage at home from the Association of Moving Image Archivists.
Care of objects and collections
How to care for a variety of personal collections from the Canadian Conservation Institute.
Your Old Books
A guide to frequently asked questions about rare books and rare book values published by the Rare Book and Manuscripts Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries
Preservation Books
Landry, Gregory J., et al. The Winterthur Guide to Caring for Your Collection. 2000.
Covers a wide range of materials from books and photographs to ceramics and metals to textiles, furniture, and gilded frames. Nicely illustrated.
Long, Jane S. and Richard W. Long, et al. Caring for Your Family Treasures. 2000.
Also covers a wide range of materials including film and videotape, clocks and watches, toys, musical instruments, and tips on making new scrapbooks or albums. Nicely illustrated.
Williams, Don and Louisa Jaggar. Saving Stuff: How to Care for and Preserve Your Collectibles, Heirlooms, and Other Prized Possessions. 2005.
From the Smithsonian's Senior Conservator, this book takes a more irreverent approach and covers the widest range of materials (including how to preserve your child's macaroni artwork) with sections on the "Museum of You," "Saving Family Stuff," "Pop Culture," and "Preserving Really Valuable Stuff."
Selecting a Conservator
How to choose a qualified conservator from the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works.
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“No Gas Shortage in Liberia”
Minister Tweah Optimistic about Liberia’s Economic Recovery
UAE, Belgium, Poland, Ethiopia, Others to Present Letters of Credence to…
IG Sudue Arrested, but Released by Court
Vendors Laud PCC for Removal of Waste
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Fisheries Sector Attracts US$40M to Boost Revenue
Enjoining Issues with Senator Darius Dillon
Drawing Lessons From the Henry Costa Fiasco
Liberian Supreme Court: A Need to Restore Public Confidence
Legality and Logic – Seven Reasons Why Sierra Leone Will Not…
FIFA 2022 World Cup Qualifiers: Liberia Paired Against Nigeria, Cape Verde,…
2020 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup Qualifiers: Liberia 3-0 Guinea
Guinean Border Security Beats Liberian Counterpart in Friendly
National County Sports Meet Quarter-finals Kick-Off Saturday
Chevening Scholar, Gwen Myers, Earns MA in Int’l Politics and Human…
McArthur Foundation Calls for Investment in Tourism, Culture
Lappa Fashion Night Out Set For Jan. 18
Home News Legal ‘UP Discovered, Acknowledged, Participated in Wrongs’
‘UP Discovered, Acknowledged, Participated in Wrongs’
David S. Menjor
UP chairman Wilmot Paye (seated), testifying against NEC at the Commission's headquarters on Saturday November 11, 2017
-Cllr. F. Musa Dean asserts, as UP chairman Paye admits voting, though his name was not on Final Register Roll
As the ongoing Unity Party’s intervention hearing case has begun producing witnesses and pieces of evidence, the party’s national chairman, Wilmot Paye, admitted that he voted on October 10 even though he knew that the National Elections Commission was wrong by making an addendum (additional lists) as part of the electoral process.
Paye, who took the witness stand over the weekend to testify against the NEC, said his name was not found on the Final Register Roll (FRR) at his voting center in Nimba Electoral District #4, but was persuaded by the NEC staff to accept the placement of his name on the addendum list so he could vote.
“My name was not found on the FRR after a long period of search, but I was asked by the Presiding Officer that my name must be written on the addendum list they had there so I could vote, even though I knew that was a very bad practice introduced in our electoral system,” he said.
He said October 10 polls were marred by irregularities and frauds only because the FRR was not credible. “An election cannot be credible in the absence of a credible final voter roll. What the NEC gave us as a party and part of the electoral process was incorrect and did not reflect the actual work done by NEC at the time of the voter registration period,” he noted.
The UP chairman said his party took note of the flaws in the FRR immediately upon receiving it and called on the Commission to do all it could to correct them.
“They promised us that the mistakes discovered in the FRR were going to be corrected before elections day but unfortunately our expectation was not met. People voted without their names found on the final voter roll and many polling places were opened later than the constitutional time of 8 a.m.,” he said.
Paye noted that his party has in its possession records of some polling places having more number of voters than the required number or the actual number of registered voters at those centers. Although he was not specific in providing evidence on said polling centers, the hearing officer noted his claim.
When asked by the NEC chief hearing officer, Cllr. Muana S. Ville, as to whether his party agents signed all tally sheets and records of counts after the conduct of the disputed elections, Paye answered affirmative but clarified that the NEC later produced different records rather than what his party agents affixed their signatures to.
NEC chief hearing officer, Cllr. Muana S. Ville
Arguing for the NEC, Cllr. Frank Musa Dean said UP is not being fair to the public. “This is very unfortunate. Isn’t it this same UP among all qualified political parties that received the FRR from NEC 30 days prior to the conduct of the October 10 elections? Is it not this same UP that discovered the wrong, acknowledged it and yet participated in doing the same wrong? Was it not announced by this Commission that owing to the fact that the voter registration process was faced with challenges there was a need to accommodate all registered voters who have valid voting cards? Did UP object to that by saying let there be no elections until all names were included in the NEC database system? Mr. Hearing officer, the best thing UP could have done was to abstain from the process as CDC abstained from the 2011 presidential runoff on allegations that there were frauds,” Dean rested.
Dean said UP is crying foul, far beyond reality and in particular more than the principal complainant, the Liberty Party (LP).
“The Supreme Court gave us five days to adjudicate the LP’s case and if the party is not satisfied, may take an appeal to the Supreme Court but here is where we are. Over a week has passed and we are still being challenged by UP who refused to obey the law of intervention or complaint at the NEC, should one feel aggrieved. They bypassed the seven days constituted period of complaints and, by technicalities, succeeded in being accepted to intervene. Now, they are the very party over-delaying the presidential runoff which should have taken place on November 7 this year,” he pointed out.
He said after the October 10 polls UP did not file in any complaint but wrote the NEC requesting a discussion on the challenges uncovered at the polls. “They wrote the NEC on October 23, requesting time for a sitting to discuss but now the case is different. They appear now to be the main complainant and responsible for the intentional delay of the planned presidential runoff,” Dean noted.
For his part, Cllr. H. Varney G. Sherman said UP is doing nothing wrong and that the party is only interested in seeing the wrongs corrected by the NEC. “It doesn’t matter how long it takes us. All we want is justice and justice we shall receive,” he said.
Cllr. Ville, who recently denied and dismissed UP’s motions for additional third-party representation at the hearing, adjoined the hearing to Monday, Nov. 13, with six other witnesses from UP expected to testify.
Previous article“Traditional Elections More Transparent Than Western”
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David S. Menjor is a Liberian journalist whose work, mainly in the print media has given so much meaning to the world of balanced and credible mass communication. David is married and interestingly he is also knowledgeable in the area of education since he has received some primary teacher training from the Kakata Rural Teacher Training Institute (KRTTI). David, after leaving Radio Five, a broadcast media outlet, in 2016, he took on the challenge to venture into the print media affairs with the Dailly Observer Newspaper. Since then he has created his own enviable space. He is a student at the University of Liberia.
Mambu B Momo November 13, 2017 At 7:16 am
I hope Liberians far and near are observing the process of delay created by people who have been terribly selfish throughout their public life to the Liberian people. History is again bringing them to book as educated trouble makers. But thank God for the mindset He, God has placed in our ravaged and desperate citizens for been so tolerance, patient and peaceful in this time of our nation’s history making, where the transferation of presidential power is yet to happen. The ruling Unity Party has turned itself to a rebellious political opposition party instead of been in the vanguard of nurturing the peace we have as a ruling party, has become a violator and an under miner of election laws and to confuse the process becoming a wolf in sheep clothing opposition and a complainant. To be very precise, one of the figure involve in this impasse has a track record of never been there for the poor masses-Varney G. Sherman, a corporate lawyer has live his life pleading for the elite or wealthy at the expense of the poor who could afford the fees of justice. Wilmot Page ruling party National Chairman is a scapegoat in this impasse, just to gain some relevance given his testimony and admittance of voting at the wrong location, he is highly knowledgeable of the election laws but decided to confuse the process in order to hold the Liberian people hostage after these October 10, elections. However, I hope Liberty party who is the principal complainant in this matter is observing the party it has alliance itself with in this case-A criminal mind, preconceived motive to cause or stir trouble, knowing fully well that the Liberian people has lost confidence in its leadership and made a decision to vote them out of office. I can emphatically say here, that Liberians are no more fools, though some educated ones called them illiterate and uneducated but simple sense is sometime better than too much book. The world is watching and Liberians have resolved to make this decision of democratic change of leadership, no interim government or rerun, their tricks has been exposed. Your money or time finishes park your bags and go home.
Henry Freeman November 13, 2017 At 7:49 am
M. B; you are very bias with your assessments. Get Real! Back track and look at the whole process. Indeed! There are many irregularities. First of all, an ELECTIONS COMMISSION should be INDEPENDENT; in the best interest of all political parties. J.G. Korkoya a LAWYER, knowing that, should have never had tolerated certain behavior(s).
Jarta Tatee November 13, 2017 At 8:09 am
He, God is observing all… 😬
Liberian is crying 😢 for peace✌ ✌
RODNEY CHESSON November 13, 2017 At 10:00 am
1. THOSE ADMITTING TO “ELECTION FRAUD” SHOULD BE CHARGED AND PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTEND, ASAP! 2. NEC STAFF INVOLVED IN CORRUPTING THE ELECTION PROCESS SHOULD BE DISMISSED AND PROSECUTED SEVERELY! 3. QUESTION: DOES ADMISSION AS SUCH TRULY IMPACT THE RECENT LIB ELECTION RESULT? I FIRMLY BELIEVE NOT! PERFORMANCES OF THE RESPECTIVE PARTIES IN THE OCT. 10TH ELECTION, AND IN THE PAST ELECTIONS, WOULD DEMONSTRATE THAT CDC AND UP WOULD, AND ARE, PROBABLY THE RIGHTFUL PARTIES THAT WOULD EVENTUALLY END UP IN THE RUN-OFF! LP’S PAST PERFORMANCES DO NOT GUARANTEE IT ANY RUN-OFF POSITION, AS IT AFFORDS CDC. AS I PREVIOUSLY STATED, ALL LIBERIANS, PARTIES, NEC, AND SUPREME COURT ANTICIPATED SOME FORM OF FRAUDULENT ACTIONS OCCURRING. HOWEVER, THE PRIMARY ISSUE HERE IS: “THE IMPACT IT HAD ON THE ELECTION ITSELF? ARE THE FRAUDULENT ACTIONS SO GRAVE AS TO WARRANT THE ENTIRE PROCESS BEING ANNULLED? I DO NOT BELIEVE THA IT IS! ALL ASPECTS OF FRAUD ATTESTED TO IN THE NEC’S CURRENT INVESTIGATION, COULD SERVE AS PREVENTATIVE MEASURE FOR THE “RUN-OFF”. FURTHERMORE, THOSE ADMITTING TO SUCH FRAUDULENT ACTS DURING THE PAST ELECTION, SHOULD BE SEVERELY PROSECUTED AND PUNISHED AS DETERRENTS, EXAMPLES, AND SETTING THE STANDARD FOR THE NEXT ELECTIONS; OF WHAT WILL OCCUR TO THOSE WHO ATTEMPT TO, DEFRAUD, OR ILLEGALLY TAMPER WITH LIB’S ELECTION PROCESS.
Darlaygbay G. Zuo November 13, 2017 At 10:17 am
We will follow this until the end.
Let justice prevail…
A Concerned Liberian November 13, 2017 At 10:24 am
I don’t know if Liberian laws allow those who are not on the voter registration list to vote. In other countries, including the United States, voters are not turned away simply because their names are not on the list. They are allowed to vote “Provisionally”. The “Provisional” ballot in the state in which I live is kept in a separate envelope and taken to headquarters where the identity of the voter is checked against the main voter registration list. It then becomes the work or task of the electoral body to qualify or disqualify that vote. In some American states, the electoral commission has 21 days to validate that result, which is typically not included in the preliminary results announced. So electoral officials are not wrong to allow everyone who claims to be a genuine registered voter to vote, as long as there was already a system set in place to keep “provisional ballots” separate from those on the list at each voting site. If there was a system already set in place for provisional ballots, then the election officials did nothing wrong to allow someone who is claiming today to be an unregistered voter to vote. But if allowing anyone who was not on the precinct list to vote was illegal, then a crime has been committed and the authorities must give an account for their action. The voter could also be prosecuted for fraud. Can someone educate me on the what was allowed under Liberian voting laws during the Liberian election? Is the law written and available online? Thank you.
philip N WEAH November 13, 2017 At 10:35 am
am philip n weah jr cordinator for the ruuling uniity party in grand county district # 1 all paye said is turth this acually three polling places in trehn 1 wetenken public school cent code 18005 wilsonville fortakop nafia and i as a coodinator immedaitely reported this to t hhe election margistrate mr wesseh who were assigned and give us the order to vote
F. Hney November 13, 2017 At 11:55 am
A very good number of the Liberian people went to the polls to vote freely and fairly on October 10. As we are finding out, a certain number of unpatriotic Liberians went out to vote fraudulently. One by one, the fraudsters are coming out to let the world know how they fraudulently played their part on October 10. I that it is fair to say that the incompetence of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s presidency has caused the mess that we find ourselves in today.
I continue to ask……where do we go from here?
Allan White, the war crimes prosecutor has thrown a bomshell in Liberia. White states that Johnson-Sirleaf is not in the dark as it relates to some of the mess that we find ourselves in today. A particular reference is made by White that pits CDC’s Weah to Robert Sirleaf.
The Deal…..
If Weah had won the presidency, Weah’s senatorial vacated seat would go to Robert Sirleaf. The fire storm from the explosion of White’s bombshell was extinguished by Lenn Nagbe, a minister in Sirleaf’s government.
It is fact of life that more bombshells will explode.
sarra November 13, 2017 At 1:08 pm
I’ve learned to always be mindful and precise about what you know and what you don’t.
Kelvin Leo Seneh November 13, 2017 At 6:54 pm
No one needs a rocket scientist to prove that the October 10 presidential election was free of fraud as the results practically reflected opinion polls before the election. So sad that shameless politicians, most of whom are very corrupt, are taking advantage of the peaceful people of Liberia in the name of rule of law. Mr. Paye claimed to have voted illegally but crying for rule of law. So disappointed in so called politicians!
DTJ November 13, 2017 At 8:53 pm
OPTIONAL: UP steps aside and let LP and CDC have run-off. Alternative: Re-run entire Presidential election. The Liberian accruals will pay for all the new ballots. enough time. You better decide something now while the silent majority got the country instruments on your asses and the Liberian supreme Jurisprudence awaits its constitutional deadline given NEC to interpret the nation’s laws to the Liberian people. Tell the Liberian people. Do not reply this box.
Gone to 57% to fix banana bread.
Leave a Reply to Darlaygbay G. Zuo Cancel reply
UNITY PARTY MEMBER on UP Chairman Paye Suspended
Petarus Dolo on Minister Tweah Optimistic about Liberia’s Economic Recovery
Petarus Dolo on World Bank Enhances Manpower Development at Liberia’s A.M. Dogliotti College of Medicine
Petarus Dolo on UP Chairman Paye Suspended
Petarus Dolo on IG Sudue Arrested, but Released by Court
Matilda Witherspoon on UP Chairman Paye Suspended
Petarus Dolo on “No Gas Shortage in Liberia”
Petarus Dolo on UAE, Belgium, Poland, Ethiopia, Others to Present Letters of Credence to Weah
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Archive for category: family
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Three Words for a New Year
January 1, 2015 /0 Comments/in faith, family, goals, life, productivity, women, writing /by Laura
Do you make new year's resolutions? Or set ambitious goals at the beginning of the year?
I'm one who finds myself drawn to milestone days–the first of the year, the first of a month, a birthday, an anniversary. I use those milestone days as reminders to look back, and look forward, to take stock, re-evaluate the path I'm on, and make adjustments. In past years I've used the last week or so of the year to make lists of resolutions, some of which I've kept and others of which have faded before the calendar turned to February. The past couple of years I've found meaning in the “One Word” trend, with my words being grace one year, gratitude another.
This year I've modified that approach a bit. Inspired by some articles written by writer/thinker/business coach Chris Brogan, I've instead settled on three words that will serve as guides and touchstones for 2015. I encourage you to click on Chris's name (or here) for his post explaining the concept behind this approach. The gist of it is that the three words create focus for the goals I set, the choices I make, and the projects I undertake for this year.
I spent much of December 2014 thinking and praying about this new year, and seeking guidance for what my three words should be.
The three words that I chose are: Connect. Build. Simplify.
Each of these words has many meanings and applications for me. Some are deeply personal and won't be shared with anybody. But as examples of how they are shaping my thinking, here are some of the ways I see these words being applied in my life in 2015:
Connect with Mike – communicate better, travel together, be more intentional about making time for each other
Connect with God – more time reading the Bible, praying, listening
Connect with clients – better and more focused service, more thoughtfully targeted business development activities
Connect with the TPW (The Productive Woman) community (listeners, prospective guests, other podcasters)
Connect with friends – travel to visit? more intentional and consistent communications
Connect with myself – my passions (what do I really want?), my fears (what am I really afraid of and trying to avoid facing?)
Connect with the present – be in the moment more, celebrating and enjoying my life and experiences as I'm in the middle of them, instead of always looking for something different or looking to the future)
Connect with family
Build my faith
Build my character – do the right things more consistently, exercise self-control
Build my relationships
Build my health
Build a sustainable life (by being more realistic and disciplined in spending time and money)
Build a writing career
Start weeding out stuff
Focus on the people and things that really matter
Identify what matters, and pursue that, letting everything else drop away
By connecting with my true passions and fears (see above), I can quit filling up my life and mind and time with things that (inadequately) compensate for not pursuing my passions and that (ineffectively) distract from the things I'm afraid of
The lists above are not my goals. They are my thoughts on how each of the words can be applied in my life. These are the source–as I said above, the touchstones–to which I will return regularly as I formulate and evaluate my goals for this year.
I've written these words on sticky notes and put them in various places to remind me of my focus. I've written them at the top of the big year-at-a-glance calendar posted on the wall near my computer. I will be thinking about them often, journaling about them as I draw out exactly what each means for me, this year.
Do you make new year's resolutions? Choose a word? Some other approach to starting the new year off right? If you want to, share in the comments so we can encourage each other. Or send me an email.
I look forward to hearing from you, and to sharing the adventure of life with you in 2015.
I Was Just Thinking . . .
Podcast: The Productive Woman
Legal Blog: Real Estate Law Blog
Twitter: @LauraMcMom
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The Productive Woman 014 – Conquering Clutter [podcast]
October 8, 2014 /4 Comments/in family, home, life, organization, podcast, productivity, women /by Laura
How do you feel about the stuff you own? Is every possession in your life something meaningful to you, or is your space overwhelmed with too much stuff? If you're like most people, it's likely the latter. In this episode we begin looking at the clutter of possessions in our lives, what it does to us, and what we can do about it.
Tip of the Week:
Make sure to protect the precious photos you've taken with your smart phone by backing them up and/or downloading them to a safer location.
Set up your iPhone to automatically back up to iCloud
Periodically back up your iPhone to iTunes
Sync your photos from your iPhone to the photos app on your computer
Activate Camera Upload in Dropbox
Back up photos from your Android phone to Google
Topic of the Week: Why do we have so much stuff?!
Costs of Having So Much Stuff
Focus and serenity
“When your house is full of things from your past, things that only remind you of who you were, you very literally have no room for who you are now and who you are becoming.”
Why Do We Have All This Stuff?
Want to be prepared. (End up over-prepared?)
Need for abundance/fear of scarcity
Sentimental attachment
The “for now” disease
Need for distraction
What Can We Gain By Decluttering?
Recover energy
Better focus and more serene life
Satisfaction of helping others
Find more motivation at Simple Life Together with Dan & Vanessa Hayes (podcast, website, and many other resources)
Some Tips to Get You Started
Create a vision for the space you want, and work toward that.
Sort into three boxes/bags: things to keep, things to trash, things to donate.
Set parameters before you start.
Make a pact: for every new thing you bring into your space, discard or donate one (or two!).
Make items earn their space in your life.
Digitize photos and other mementos.
Tool of the Week:
Organized Simplicity: The Clutter-Free Approach to Intentional Living – a great book by Tsh Oxenreider.
I reviewed it on my blog. You can get more info and insight on Tsh's website.
Some great resources to look at:
“Clutter Control: Is Too Much ‘Stuff' Draining You?” by Kathleen Doheny on WebMD.com.
“You Probably Have Too Much Stuff,” by Carl Richards in the New York Times online, August 13, 2012.
“Do You Have Too Much Stuff?” by Cynthia Ramnarace on DailyWorth.com, July 2, 2013.
“Too Much Old Stuff: How to Bust the Clutter,” by Linda Abbit on SeniorPlanet.org, October 8, 2013.
Organizing from the Inside Out, by Julie Morganstern.
Your turn: What's your biggest clutter challenge, or your best tip for conquering clutter? What will you do this week to start conquering the clutter in your life? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Subscribe to The Productive Woman in iTunes or subscribe in Stitcher, and join the conversation at The Productive Woman on Facebook. And don't forget to check out the other podcasts that make you think, laugh, and succeed at Noodle.mx!
Greenville, Texas
https://www.lauramcclellan.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/TPW_blog.jpg 184 184 Laura https://www.lauramcclellan.me/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo.png Laura2014-10-08 23:25:372014-10-07 21:26:40The Productive Woman 014 - Conquering Clutter [podcast]
What Does It Mean to Forgive?
May 27, 2014 /3 Comments/in faith, family, life, women /by Laura
Forgiveness: the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven.
When someone you care about hurts you, or you hurt them, the wounded person has a choice:
forgive,
stay and punish the offender, or
walk away.
If the relationship is worth keeping, then forgiveness is the only choice.
But what does it mean to forgive?
The dictionary tells us that to forgive means to “stop feeling angry or resentful toward (someone) for an offense, flaw, or mistake” or to “cancel a debt.”
Wikipedia says that “Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well.”
Both of these definitions refer to a change in feelings–the giving up of anger and resentment. Not easy at all. Human emotions are powerful things.
It's a process.
It's a choice. Intentional and voluntary.
And once the heat of initial hurt and anger are past, the choice to forgive–which is the choice to preserve the relationship–is relatively easy. (That is, the choice to begin the process of forgiving is easy. Certainly it takes time, intention, and effort.)
The harder question, though, is whether the memory of the “forgiven” offense will change the nature of the relationship going forward.
How often have you heard someone say, “I've forgiven, but I haven't forgotten”? How often have you said it yourself? I know I have. Usually what we mean is we “forgive” the person who's hurt us, but we won't let ourselves forget, because we must protect ourselves against future hurt. We're not going to demand justice and we're going to stay in the relationship, but we'll make darned sure that person doesn't hurt us again. By definition, we are putting up walls intended to protect ourself against this person we care about enough to keep him or her in our life.
But what does that act of self-preservation do to the relationship? Is the relationship forever changed? Are we keeping that person at a distance in order to protect ourselves against pain?
When we say “I forgive, but I don’t forget,” are we really forgiving?
Does truly forgiving an offense really mean we don’t take it into account at all in our interactions with the “forgiven” person?
That’s how God forgives—when his holy nature is offended by my sin, he chooses to forgive and to forget.
Heb. 8:12: “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Psalm 103:11-12: “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
When God forgives, the offense no longer has any effect on the relationship between the forgiver (God) and the forgiven (us).
In Isaiah 43:25, God tells his people this: “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sin no more.” He says he does this for his own sake (maybe because he values the relationship and wants to sustain it?)–he chooses to not just forgive, but to blot out the offenses and remember them no more.
Is there a difference between forgetting and “remembering no more”? Is it that forgetting is something that happens to you, an almost involuntary event that occurs as time passes, but to “remember no more” is a voluntary act, just like the act of forgiving? God chooses to remember no more. He chooses to put the memory of the offense away and never look at it again. That's so different from the way we act–we allow the memory to return, and we rehearse it, turn it over in our minds, actually relive it.
If our standard of behavior is God (rather than each other), it's reasonable to assume that his approach is how we should respond when someone wrongs us: forgive and forget. But are we humans even capable of this? Certainly we can make the choice to forgive, to do the hard, hard work of purposely surrendering our anger and resentment, to welcome the offender into our lives and to actually stop thinking of him/her as an offender. These things are an act of the will, and we can control our will. We can choose. It's a process, certainly. Because we are human, the wounds continue to hurt, and we must choose, over and over again, to forgive, to let the feelings of hurt go.
But even if we've done that, can we follow God's example and forgive to the extent that we no longer take the (forgiven) offense into account in our interactions with that person, that it no longer colors our perceptions of who this person is and where this person fits in our life and in our heart?
But what’s the alternative? If we can’t truly forgive, can the relationship survive? Or does it become something else, something less than it was before the offense occurred?
And if so, are we okay with that?
What do you think? How do you deal with the process of forgiving (and forgetting?) the offenses of the people you love? What happens to a relationship if we choose to forgive but not forget?
Forgiving a Wrong May Actually Make It Easier to Forget
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September 10, 2013 /4 Comments/in aging, family /by Laura
Although the calendar now reads the second week of September, in north Texas the daytime temps are still in the 90s. Summer is rolling over into fall and school has resumed, but in this part of the country the air conditioning is still running and it’s not yet time to put away the shorts and sleeveless dresses. That makes it hard to remember that one season has ended and a new season is beginning.
A new season has just begun in my family’s life as well. Late last week, my husband’s mother died suddenly and unexpectedly. My husband, his brother and sister, and their father are still processing her abrupt departure, and our grown children are grieving the loss of their beloved grandmother and trying to explain to their own young children why their great grandmother is no longer with us.
I have nothing profound to say about any of this, but thought I’d share a few random things I’ve pondered as we’re working out way through this experience.
We really never know how long the people we love will be with us. In the busyness of life, it’s easy to let that truth fade from our thinking. Mike's first comment to me after telling me of his mother's death was that it was surreal. The woman who gave him life, a constant in his life literally from his birth, was there and then . . . she wasn't.
Perhaps the hardest thing about the way Mike’s mother died is the fact that no one got to say goodbye. She collapsed almost without warning after supper and was gone long before morning, without ever recovering consciousness. There was no farewell moment at her bedside, no chance to say “I love you” or “thank you” one last time–not for her grown children, and not for her husband. More than fifty years of their life together ended all too abruptly. I can’t even imagine the loss and pain he must be feeling. Every one of us left behind has to deal with the regret of unspoken words.
There is some small comfort in knowing that, as difficult as it is for those left behind, her sudden departure means that she did not suffer a prolonged and pain-filled decline. As I’m approaching my mid–50s, I find myself pondering how my own life will end, and whether there is such a thing as a “better” way to go.
Like most families these days, our extended family is spread out across the country, so we seldom get to see each other in person. As it happens, though, over the course of this past spring and summer, each of my boys separately had the opportunity to make a trip to western Washington and spend a day or two with Mike’s parents. Our oldest son took his two little boys for their first, and now only, visit to their paternal great-grandparents. Those visits now are cherished memories for which we are all grateful.
This past weekend, when I watched Mike playing his fiddle with the band he joined recently, I felt sad as I realized how much Mike’s mom would have loved to see him play. Like any mother, she was his biggest fan. When he was a kid, she drove him from one bluegrass festival to another in support of his talent, and I think she always regretted that he had “abandoned” the instrument for thirty years in favor of other musical (and non-musical) pursuits. I am thankful that in what turned out to be her last days, through the miracle of technology, she got to see him play his fiddle again after all those years, via videos posted on Facebook.
Like I said, I have nothing profound to say about all this, and certainly nothing new. But pondering the things that have happened over the past week, and the conversations we’ve had about it, I am reminded of the same cliches that often are spoken in the wake of death: Treasure the people you love while you have them with you. Don’t take them for granted, and don’t assume there’ll be time later to speak your heart to them. Celebrate every moment you have together, and take every opportunity to create memories to sustain you when they are gone.
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The Limits of Patriotism
July 21, 2013 /4 Comments/in family, life, women /by Laura
Last week my husband and I made a quick trip to Fort Jackson in South Carolina to attend our middle son’s graduation from Army boot camp. (Benjamin served six years in the US Navy, with two deployments on two different ships. He left the Navy in December 2012, married his best friend–whom he had met while they both served on the same ship–on February 27, 2013, and then they both enlisted in the Army Reserves. He left in May to start the ten-week basic training cycle; she followed him in late June. They won’t see each other again until she graduates in September.)
About a thousand young men and women officially became soldiers during the ceremony last week. As I sat in the stands, watching these young people march in formation onto the field and stand at attention in front of the assembled crowd, I realized that each person on that field was somebody’s little boy or little girl. Soldiers, yes. Trained in combat skills, yes. But still, somebody’s baby. Every one of them has someone who feels about him or her the way I feel about Benjamin.
At one point all one-thousand-plus of them recited, loud and proud, the Soldier’s Creed:
I am an American Soldier. I am a warrior and a member of a team. I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values. I will always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I will never leave a fallen comrade. I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills. I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself. I am an expert and I am a professional. I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. I am an American Soldier.
I’m proud of Benjamin, of course.
But I have mixed feelings about his choice to serve in the Army reserves. As I watched the graduation ceremony, my fears were particularly stirred by the line I’ve bolded above: “I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.” This mission is, in my mind at least, what distinguishes the Army from the Navy, where my son and his new wife both have served. Close combat.
While he was in the Navy, I of course realized that he could be in harm’s way. But I consoled myself with the belief that it was unlikely that he’d ever be on the ground with a gun in his hand. I no longer have that consolation, because the Army’s job is precisely that: to be on the ground, with guns, ready to engage the enemy in close combat.
During the ceremony their commander addressed the troops, expressing his pride in their accomplishments and exhorting them to maintain their preparedness going forward. He reminded them that, as we all learned on 9/11, there is no longer a front line. Our enemies, he said, are everywhere, and the US soldier must always stand ready to “deploy, engage, and destroy” them wherever they may be found.
As I watched the ceremony, as I listened to the Army band play, as I observed the ranks of new soldiers, what I kept thinking, over and over, was, “Please, God. Please, please, please don’t send my little boy into battle.”
And I felt ashamed.
I am an ardent patriot, a student of our history, proud to be an American, proud of the way our country was founded and the values that gave it birth. I am deeply grateful for every man and woman who has served our country in the armed forces, whether during war or in peacetime. And I’m proud of Benjamin–and his wife and his older brother, who currently serves in the Navy–for choosing to enlist in the US armed forces.
But it appears that my patriotism reaches its outer limits at the prospect of my son going into battle. And that shames me a little. Yet I suspect every soldier’s mother has prayed the same prayer I did. Perhaps that’s just the natural tension between patriotism and motherhood. A mother's protective instincts, it seems, don't fade just because her baby is grown and on his own and taller than her.
I wish I could keep Benjamin (and Jennifer and Matthew and all my children and their spouses) safe under my wing, but of course that's not my job anymore. Now that they're grown, my job is to support and encourage them–and pray for them.
But that doesn't mean I can't sometimes long for the days when they were tiny and safe in my arms.
What do you think? Do you have (or have you had) loved ones serving in the military? How do you think we can best support our young soldiers and sailors and airmen–and their families?
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Critical Thinking & Problem Solving >
Effective Reasoning
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Define: Rubrics
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Questioning: The Roadmap to Learning
By: Elaine Hou, Instructional Guide
When you think back to your first years in the world, what kinds of questions did you ask? Were they narrow questions with one set answer, or big questions with endless possibilities? Children at a young age naturally bring a big curiosity about the world around them and inside them. They don’t usually ask “What color is the sky?” but rather, “Why is the sky blue?” They first ask, “How did we get here?”, only to later let the fear of not having an answer make their questions smaller. “How did we get here?” becomes “It is because it must be so. How do I replicate what I’ve been told must be so?”
Now think about the types of questions you asked and encountered in your experiences, especially in the subject of mathematics. Was your math story characterized mostly by broad questions such as “Why do we have numbers?” and “What is addition?”, or by narrow questions such as “What number is this?” and “What is 3+2?” The type of questions we ask ourselves as learners shapes the types of questions we ask our children. The power of asking bigger questions determines the richness of the worlds that we help them discover around and within them.
There is a lovely children’s book titled “Toby Shoots for Infinity,” that takes us to the heart of questioning in math and in life. In the story, Toby, a young boy brimming with curiosity, ventures on a journey to discover what is at the end of infinity. Toby’s father, aptly named Professor Copernicus, tells him that infinity is a kind of magic number in mathematics, used by engineers to build dams, make cake pans, and send rocket ships into space. While Toby is confused that an idea in mathematics could be used to create actual things, he is equally determined to find out just what infinity is. He sets out with a group of close friends, vigilantly named “The Conquerors of Infinity,” to pave a way to the end of infinity using numbers. They take turns passing the baton of counting higher and higher, until they get tired and come to a realization that “infinity is too big to fit in our heads.” Toby then has a mini-existentialist crisis at the age of 8 when he makes the following lament: “Yesterday, I learned that there was no fence at the end of the time. Today, I learned that there was no answer at the end of my questions.”
At one time in our learning journeys, we had a small Toby inside of us, not afraid to ask big questions. If we were lucky enough, we had someone in our lives, whether it was a teacher or family member, who saw the spark in our questions and celebrated the asking itself more than correct answering. Unfortunately, many of our learning stories, especially the way we learned math in schools, involved a series of rote tasks that had pre-determined answers rather than an exploration of the history and beauty of the subject itself. Our textbooks were our teachers’ teaching bibles, dimming the bright world of mathematics, science, literature, history, and even the arts to only a shadow of what it could be with endless practice problem drills and basic recall questions. When the Tobys inside of us tried to ask why and how, our first timid steps into infinite possibilities were stopped and redirected toward memorizing formulas, procedures, and right vs. wrong answers.
With our own Tobys never fully cultivated, it is easy to become the same replicators of a soul-less learning story for our own students and children. And rather than traveling toward an infinity of possibilities and new discoveries, we find ourselves in a sad cycle of hating a certain subject because we never got the “right answers,” or loving that subject only because we never took risks and experienced failure that could actually lead to deeper learning. To limit ourselves to these two dichotomies prevents us from really understanding what learning actually is and could be. In fact, true learning means being equipped to find our own answers to the larger questions of the 21st century.
How do we break this cycle as educators and parents? We start with our own learning again, whether it’s developing our own math capacities or re-discovering a familiar work of art using a new perspective. In the grown-up season of our lives, we begin to think like young children again and find the Toby within us. We learn to ask bigger questions again. Where did the concept of infinity come from? What mathematical patterns can we see in nature? How do formulas describe the beauty and order of the world around us?
At the end of the story, Toby’s mom brings hope back into his math story. While she does not have an iconic name like Professor Copernicus, she does work as a nurse in an emergency ward where “people arrive in bits and pieces.” Toby’s mom nurses Toby’s fragmented state of mind back to health by reminding him that his questions are the beginning of a beautiful journey. While the world with its infinite possibilities is both scary and exciting, Toby’s mom comforts him with the idea that the moon is really just one big nightlight. As we help our children search for the answers to bigger questions, we bring light to a much bigger world they can be active participants in, and help them pave their own ways to understanding.
We each have a Toby, a Professor Copernicus, and a Life Nurse in all of us. As parents, educators, and learners, let’s ponder this simple yet wise dialogue as we embark on learning journeys with our own children:
Toby: “Dad, I’m tired of living in a world where no one knows anything.”
Dad: “If we knew everything, the world would be boring.”
Here is a list of beautiful children’s books that inspire rich questioning. Please feel free to suggest others!
Small Stories that Inspire Big Questions
Toby Shoots for Infinity by Jean Lemieux
The Three Questions by John Muth
The Curious Child by Donyell Floyd
Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge by Mem Fox
The Kids’ Book of Questions by Gregory Stock
Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
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Learn With Two Rivers is supported by a generous grant from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to support the dissemination of best practices with DC-area educators.
All content on this site is subject to the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license which lets users remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as Two Rivers is credited and the new creations are licensed under identical terms.
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Croton teen filmed men in health club shower, had child porn, cops say
CORTLANDT – A Cortlandt teen faces felony charges after he filmed men surreptitiously in the locker room and shower ...
Croton teen filmed men in health club shower, had child porn, cops say CORTLANDT – A Cortlandt teen faces felony charges after he filmed men surreptitiously in the locker room and shower ... Check out this story on lohud.com: http://lohud.us/1c5YJM5
TJN Published 1:35 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2013 | Updated 8:49 p.m. ET Nov. 8, 2013
Daniel Winsten
CORTLANDT – A Cortlandt teen faces felony charges after he filmed men surreptitiously in the locker room and shower of a local health club and had child pornography on his home computer, state police said Friday.
Investigators from the Cortlandt barracks arrested Daniel “Max” Winsten, 19, of Croton-on-Hudson on Friday after a four-month investigation.
Investigator Sean J. Morgan said Winsten filmed men “in various states of undress” in the locker room and shower area of the unidentified Cortlandt club, which, he said, cooperated with the investigation. Police believe he used a cellphone to tape the men.
Police obtained a search warrant for Winsten’s home, where they seized several computer items and found images of child pornography on them, Morgan said.
Winsten was charged with second-degree unlawful surveillance and possessing an obscene performance by a child, felonies. He could face up to four years in state prison if convicted.
Winsten was arraigned Friday in Cortlandt Town Court and released without bail. He was ordered to stay away from the health club and stay off computers. Morgan said the investigation is continuing and more charges are possible. The state police Regional Computer Crimes Unit, Croton-on-Hudson police and the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation.
Read or Share this story: http://lohud.us/1c5YJM5
Man robs New Rochelle bodega the day after he's released under bail reform: Cops
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Researching soldiers of the British Army in the Great War of 1914-1919
Welcome to the Long, Long Trail
From website author, Chris Baker
I am very pleased to welcome you to the Long, Long Trail, my site dedicated to helping you discover the British army and its soldiers of the First World War.
Researching soldiers
Volunteers, conscripts. Gunners, sappers, infantrymen, machine gunners and cavalry. Research them. Understand their life in the army. Find out where they went and how they fought.
Review of “The first and the last of the Sheffield City Battalion”
Review of digital services from Naval & Military Press
Review of “A vital endeavour”
Online information service providers for researching British soldiers – which is best?
Researching the Army
Regiments, Divisions, Corps, Orders of Battle, Units, Regulations and how the army actually worked. The bewildering technicalities of Britain's largest-ever organisation all explained.More
Researching the Battles
The British Army fought in numerous theatres of war during WW1, and in each of them a number of battles and engagements took place. Find out what and when, who took part and what happened.More
The work of the transport section of an infantry battalion
New article on a much-visited location: Brandhoek
Battlefields and legacy
Where were the battlefields of the Great War? What are they like today? What is the best way of visiting them?
Struggling to find information about your soldier ancestor? Benefit from my professional service: fourteeneighteen
The Long, Long Trail is pleased to recommend Battle Honours, the UK’s leading company offering battlefield tours, with the ability and experience to arrange tours for groups of all sizes
For army service records and much more, the Long, Long Trail recommends findmypast
Imperial War Museum photograph Q10613. A wiring party of the 12th (Service) Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment, 31st Division, passing along a communication trench near Roclincourt, Arras, in January 1918.
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If you have enjoyed using this site and found it valuable, please consider making a donation towards its running costs using the Paypal button below.
Copyright 2020 | Chris Baker | Leamington Spa UK
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© 2015 by LOS BANDIDOS DEL ARTE, LLC.
All imagery, media, and text on this website are the exclusive intellectual property of Los Bandidos del Arte and are protected under United States and International Copyright Laws.
Words For Art's Sake Series 1/1: An Interview with Mindy Solomon
Los Bandidos del Arte present the inaugural piece in a series that features exclusive interviews with key players in the Miami art scene. We intend to offer an intimate portrait of the perspectives these individuals offer their craft and to showcase the particular impact that they have here in Miami.
For our very first interview, we sat down with curator and gallerist Mindy Solomon at her gallery, which she warmly refers to as her “little corner of the universe” in Little River.
It’s the Wednesday before the opening reception for the Geandy Pavón: Political Fold & José Manuel Mesías: About the Absolute Truth exhibition at the Mindy Solomon Gallery. Some pieces have already arrived while others are streaming through the door. Mindy is in contemplation with one artist regarding placement of the paintings within the gallery. Their voices echo off of the white walls as they dance around the narrative context of the work, as well as aesthetic and the conceptual considerations. And before this interview and without a single question being asked, Mindy Solomon’s dedication to and flair for her craft were made apparent.
Mindy Solomon’s inclination towards art is overwhelmingly intrinsic since, as she puts it, she was a “little toddler weirdo.” She exudes a warm, if not bubbly, excitement as she describes books like “Mindy’s World of Fashion” that she composed as a child. Most in the art world would describe themselves as visual people but for Mindy this connection to the visual world is something that allows her to experience life on a much more intense level: “I see the world through a visual lens; it keeps me optimistic… It’s a sense of enjoying everything like, ‘Look! That pattern on the concrete sidewalk is kind of cool!,'” she exclaims.
The conversation quickly turns towards curation where Mindy offered a personal anecdote. “I’m very particular, like my husband always jokes that I send cocktails back--a lot,” she chuckles. But on a serious note, she is able to define curatorial skills and “good editing” as one and the same. As Mindy puts it, “there are just so many things that you really don’t need.”
For Mindy, the skills and process involved in curating are by no means stagnant. In her experience, how she curates can evolve as life evolves. She credits being informed by her peers and a Miami energy and aesthetic for the continued evolution of her practice. Mindy continues to hone her craft by taking recommendations from those that she knows and respects. Additionally, she stays abreast of the scene by reading periodicals and through social media, although she readily admits to staying away from “trends” when she curates shows.
Although her love of ceramics and objects is apparent, Mindy loves anything that genuinely resonates with her. As such, the Mindy Solomon Gallery displays an array of art from sculpture to painting and photography to video. More specifically, Mindy sheds a little more light on what strikes a chord for her: “Humor and irony are things that I like. Finding things that are authentic, things that feel authentic and fresh,” she says. Her background in teaching also lends itself to her being keen on craftsmanship and the consistency of fabrication and finish in the works that she shows.
While Mindy could recall that she has always been involved in art, both teaching and collecting the stuff, her journey as a gallerist and curator started at her first gallery in St. Petersburg, a thriving art center for that part of Florida. However, after spending 4 years in that space she began to feel a bit isolated professionally. She seriously looked at a potential move to NYC but found it to be too impractical with her family being based in Florida. As luck would have it, she settled on a space in Wynwood where she spent 2 years before being one of the first galleries to relocate to the Little River Art District.
As rising rents facilitated a trend that saw many galleries fleeing Wynwood for the “greener pastures” of Little River and Little Haiti one could truly consider the Mindy Solomon Gallery as one of the pioneering spaces in the neighborhood. However, it is only in hindsight that Mindy would consider herself a trailblazer. At the time she merely felt that relocating wasn’t that big of a deal; there wasn’t such a tremendous amount of foot traffic in Wynwood that she felt that she’d be missing out on. While she admits the Little River neighborhood is relatively nascent and will take some time, she just assumed that loyal patrons, collectors and art aficionados alike would make their way to her new space., “If anyone is going to come here, they are just going to come.” She continued, “I would rather have people come in that are truly interested in the work and having those conversations versus a constant flow of people.”
“Miami as a gallery city has nothing but potential, and that’s a nice way to put it,” Mindy states when asked to opine about the Magic City’s developing yet viable art scene. “Miami is special because it has the opportunity to be inclusive,” she continues. However, you get the sense from talking to her that for whatever it is that Miami is possibly lacking can be viewed positively. It’s an evolution heading in the right direction with tons of ripe opportunities. It seems that Miami is well on its way to fostering a newfound culture of collecting. “Miami has such rich, diverse cultural aspects to embrace and be included,” Mindy reflects. She also was clear to express her excitement about the “grassroots creativity”, as she refers to it, of the Little River/Little Haiti neighborhoods; an energy and effort that might get lost in the shuffle of more solidified art cities like New York. Mindy is a self-proclaimed “mama bear” of her current locale as she offers support to a lot of the younger galleries and project spaces popping up around her.
If there were to be one takeaway from the conversation regarding Mindy’s character it would probably be the emphasis that she places on integrity and trust regarding her interaction with artists that she shows or represents specifically, and how she manages the affairs at her gallery, generally. She stresses the importance of honesty and genuine support between the artist and the gallerist. Mindy believes that artists should have absolute faith that the person selling their work believes in them. This sense of integrity also carries over to her role within the art community. As she puts it, “I believe in a community of art dealers that work together. There is a lot of poaching that can go on and I refuse to be a part of that. I like to have the respect of my peers. I really value my integrity; at the end of the day it’s all you’ve got.” Lastly, Mindy feels a moral obligation towards collectors and enthusiasts alike. “I have a client, the public, to answer to [so that they] see artists that really care about their finished art,” she affirms.
I’ll leave it to Mindy to sum it up best: “I don’t necessarily view myself as formidable or anything, but I can go the distance.” Los Bandidos is willing to venture that Miami is ready and waiting to embark on that journey and stay the course with her.
The Mindy Solomon Gallery is located at 8397 NE 2nd Ave, Miami, FL 33138.
Open Tues-Sat 11:00am-5:00pm or by appointment.
The current exhibition runs through 13 August 2016.
© Los Bandidos del Arte. 2016.
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Home » Song Analysis » Hip Hop » Chris Brown Says “Sorry” to Karrueche Tran on Rick Ross’s New Single
Chris Brown Says “Sorry” to Karrueche Tran on Rick Ross’s New Single
by Alexandru Oct 19, 2015
Chris Brown and Karrueche Tran
It seems like no famous person can keep a relationship together nowadays. Chris Brown’s love life has been all over the media for years and now it seems to be the theme of a new song featuring no one other than Rick Ross. Part of ‘Black Market’ – Rozay’s upcoming album – “Sorry” features one of the most sincere performance coming from Chris while he opens up on what seems to be his last and final breakup with Lira Mercer.
Sorry is a Honest and Personal Record Says Chris Brown and Rick Ross
The temptation is hard to deal with when being famous and if you have a celebrity status you will most likely face girls trying to trap you at any time of the day. Chris had an honest attempt to change, leave this all behind and take his relationship with Karrueche Tran seriously but he ended up cheating because there was simply too much pressure on his shoulders. Even if he was blessed with great talent, Chris is still a human being so he can make mistakes just like anyone of us. Nevertheless, no one can turn back time so Chris remains single but with a beautiful daughter from a past nightstand.
Rick Ross, on the other hand, didn’t have to face this much drama with women in the past but he takes the opportunity to apologize if he did any harm. The timing is perfect if we consider that he recently got engaged so this song will clear the way for a fresh and honest start. The table has turned so going from having a thug’s mentality Rozay now changed and decided to stay faithful to his current fiancé Lira Mercer. He firmly tells her she deserves a winner and that he’s ready to provide everything a woman should have. All that remains for Lira is to say the big “yes”.
Rick Ross – Sorry ft. Chris Brown Music Video
Tags: Black Market Chris Brown Karrueche Tran Rick Ross Rozay Sorry
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Judiciary proposes fee ban and new name for McKenzie Friends
McKenzie Friends would be renamed “court supporters”
England and Wales should follow the example of Scotland in banning McKenzie Friends from charging fees, the Judicial Executive Board (JEB) has proposed.
The JEB also said in a consultation paper today that McKenzie Friends should be renamed “court supporters”.
On fees, the JEB said a ban would protect the public interest, while providing protection to “vulnerable litigants” who would otherwise be exposed to “unregulated and uninsured individuals of varying and generally unverifiable competence carrying out otherwise reserved legal activities before the courts”.
The JEB went on: “Reform should prohibit recovery of expenses and fees incurred by McKenzie Friends.
“It should do so through providing that the provision of reasonable assistance in court, the exercise of a right of audience or of a right to conduct litigation should only be permitted where the McKenzie Friend is neither directly nor indirectly in receipt of remuneration.”
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has supported recognition of fee-charging McKenzie Friends as a “legitimate feature of the evolving legal services market”, as long there are safeguards. The LSB was responding to a favourable report from the Legal Services Consumer Panel.
The JEB said the title McKenzie Friend was confusing for litigants in person (LiPs), and could lead to an expectation or belief that they would be able to address the court. “It has led to situations where there is an expectation that by dint of the title ‘McKenzie Friend’ an individual has a right of audience.”
The JEB said the term ‘court supporter’ was “straightforward” and “captures the nature” of the role of giving reasonable assistance.
“It also avoids any connotation that the individual is eligible or likely to be granted a right of audience or a right to conduct litigation. Rather than create further titles, which might give rise to the problems identified above, it could be made clear that such further rights may only be granted on application to the court by the LiP.”
The JEB argued that the existing practice guidance for McKenzie Friends should be replaced with formal rules of court.
LiPs would inform courts in advance, through a standard form notice, if they intended to use a McKenzie Friend. The notice would include background information on the McKenzie Friend and a standard code of conduct.
McKenzie Friends would acknowledge that they owed both a duty to the court and a duty of confidentiality in respect of the litigation, and sign a statement of truth.
A judicial working group, chaired by Mrs Justice Asplin, drew up the consultation paper, following a joint request from the Lord Chief Justice and the JEB.
A year ago the justice select committee called on the government to consult on whether there should be formal regulation of McKenzie Friends, whether or not they charge fees.
The committee said it was concerned by increasing numbers of McKenzie Friends in the courts and said encouraging their use “may in some circumstances amount to a counsel of despair”.
Chantal-Aimée Doerries QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said: “McKenzie friends are unregulated, uninsured and mostly unqualified, and the Bar Council agrees that they should not be allowed to charge people for legal services.
“An unfortunate consequence of legal aid cuts is that paid McKenzie Friends, who are not regulated or insured and are rarely legally qualified, have been charging up to £90 an hour to represent people in court.
“We have already seen one McKenzie friend banned from court for intimidating witnesses and legal representatives, and another jailed for defrauding his clients.
“Those who instruct a paid McKenzie Friend would be better off employing a junior barrister or solicitor.”
Judicial Executive Board
Litigants-in-person
Richard Gray says:
Its an unfortunate consequence of the attitude of successive governments to qualified lawyers in an effort to undermine them in the eyes of the public to justify fee cuts. No other profession would have suffered this for so long. The reaction of other professions however is far more pro-active in asserting their position – see for example Junior Doctors. To think Gove wants lawyers to work for free no wonder its chaotic. Has he asked any other profession to work for free for example Hospital Consultants? errrrr well actually now you mention it – No! Thats the root of the problem no respect.
A Barrister says:
In my experience, Mc K friends can include struck-off or failed lawyers and the like and many cannot be trusted. Without a professional standards regime there is nothing to stop them massaging or withholding evidence etc. I would favour a ban on all, paid or unpaid, except those with a close link to the LIP, e.g. friends, relatives and voluntary organisations e.g. charities with an interest in the issues in dispute.
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Byfield and Cubism Law co-found PR and legal crisis management service
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A new international regulatory investi-gations and crisis manage-ment service was launched today by leading white collar crime specialists Cubism Law and crisis management and litigation PR specialists Byfield Consultancy in the UK and Infinite Public Relations in the US.
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Focused on the management and resolution of internal regulatory issues and external investigations, from both a PR and legal perspective, PressLegal has substantial experience of dawn raids, insider dealing, allegations of bribery and corruption, money laundering, director’s misfeasance, health and safety breaches, product recalls and major corporate investigations. PressLegal acts for both companies and individuals across a full range of sectors and professions.
Often where regulatory investigations are instigated against a company or their employees, in-house legal and PR departments require additional specialist support. In such a scenario, a panel law firm may be conflicted from working for a director implicated and similarly the director’s law firm may be conflicted from working for the company implicated. PressLegal offers an immediate solution to these issues.
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Richard Elsen, head of PR, UK at PressLegal said: “PressLegal provides essential support at a critical time, to safeguard companies’ and individuals’ reputations and legal positions. Companies are now subjected to the media glare for even the smallest alleged misdemeanour so having proper support in place is crucial to protect your reputation in a time of crisis. Through this relationship we are able to dovetail media strategy with legal strategy on a domestic and international footing.”
Jamie Diaferia, head of PR, US at PressLegal said: “This collaboration comes at a time of greater cooperation between international regulators, especially in the US and UK. Clearly the UK has become more like the US in its aggressive stance towards investigating and prosecuting allegations of corporate wrongdoing. In this kind of pressurised environment, PressLegal offers a joint approach that quickly and effectively tackles legal and regulatory issues.”
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2015 holiday wishlist: DNA
by Judy G. Russell | Dec 22, 2015 | General | 35 comments
The Legal Genealogist is dismayed.
Disappointed.
Distressed, even.
And you know what happens when somebody with a law degree gets distressed, don’t you?
You have heard of the cause of action called intentional infliction of emotional distress, haven’t you?
Even negligent infliction of emotional distress can be actionable.
But Santa, I really don’t want to file suit against you.
I just want you to deliver the goods. I’m sure it was an oversight, but I know you can do better.
So how about we begin with just a few samples of DNA, okay, Santa? Not a whole lot, really. Just from some very specific target families.
One sample — just one! — from one person — just one! — from each of these lines:
• The Faures of Manakin Town, Virginia (YDNA): I’m still trying to nail this one down, Santa, and I sure could use some help here. My third great grandfather Jesse Fore was probably born in South Carolina, and served in the militia there in the War of 1812.1 But I can’t trace him back any farther.
We’ve already YDNA tested, oh, about a kazillion members of the Fore family that I descend from2 and everybody in our group matches each other. But we all run out of paper trail before we reach the immigrant ancestor — whoever he was.
Our theory is that our Fores are related to the Widow Faure and her children who were part of the Huguenot migration to the New World in the very early days of the 18th century.3 She and her children settled in Manakin Town, Virginia, and her sons and grandsons included Daniel, Jean (John) and Pierre (Peter), and later James, Joseph and Archelaus. The surname is recorded as Faure, Foure, Four, Fore and Ford.
What we need, Santa, is one man — just one! — who can document his descent in an unbroken male line (father to son to son) from one of these Manakin Town Faure males. If you can just wrap up his email address and leave it under my tree, I will happily — happily — pick up the tab for his YDNA testing.
• Philip Shew (YDNA): And you also forgot my earliest known Shew ancestor last year, Santa. C’mon… A little help here, okay?
You know we have no idea where my fifth great grandfather Phillip Shew (c1750 – 1832) was born. You know we’re not sure where he was before he showed up on the census in Guilford County, North Carolina, in 1790.4 He was in Wilkes County, North Carolina, by 1810,5 and still there in 18206 and 1830.7 His will was proved in the Wilkes County court in the October term 1832.8
From the name and other evidence of the language spoken at home, we’re pretty sure Philip was German — the last name may well have originally been Schuh — and we need a documented male descendant to YDNA test. I know I’ve got a kazillion Shew cousins out there — so, c’mon, Santa,… wrap me up just one who’s willing to test, okay?
• John Jones (YDNA): And you didn’t deliver a single solitary hint, Santa, that’d help with this one Virginia-and-North-Carolina line, and seriously you can’t let me down here. I mean, seriously… Jones? John Jones? C’mon, Santa, baby… you have to come through for me, all right?
We’re pretty sure John was born in Virginia around 1750, and he married Elizabeth Pettypool in North Carolina (Granville or Rutherford County) in 1771.9 He was kind enough to leave a will naming his daughter, my fourth great grandmother Elizabeth Buchanan, among his children.10 But we don’t know who his parents were, and with a name like John Jones — where do we even start? So how about a nice neatly documented direct male line descendant, huh? That shouldn’t be too much to ask, is it?
I’m willing to pay for it, Santa. Oh, not with good behavior. You know me better than that. But for the testing, okay? Seriously. If you could just find me one person in each of these categories, I’ll pay for the test — all the person has to do is email me.
C’mon, Santa.
I’ve been good.
Well… good enough, right?
I’d really hate to have to trot out those papers for emotional distress…
Declaration of Soldier, 27 March 1871, Jesse Fore (Fifer, Capt. Gaffney’s South Carolina Militia, War of 1812), soldier’s pension application no. 4553, certificate no. 7041; Case Files of Pension and Bounty Land Applications Based on Service Between 1812 and 1855; Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, 1800-1960; Department of Veterans Affairs, Record Group 15; National Archives, Washington, D.C. ↩
Oh, all right, so eight or nine at any rate. ↩
See Judy G. Russell, “Wanted: Faure / Fore / Ford DNA,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 28 Jan 2012 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 21 Dec 2015). ↩
1790 U.S. census, Guilford County, North Carolina, p. 505 (penned), col. 1, line 17, Philip Shoe; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 July 2002); citing National Archive microfilm publication M637, roll 7. ↩
1810 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, p. 865 (penned), line 10, Phillip Shew; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 July 2002); citing National Archive microfilm publication M252, roll 43. ↩
1820 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, population schedule, p. 530 (stamped), Phillip Shew; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 August 2002); citing National Archive microfilm publication M33, roll 83. ↩
1830 U.S. census, Wilkes County, North Carolina, p. 383 (stamped), Phillip Shew; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 14 July 2002); citing National Archive microfilm publication M19, roll 125. ↩
Wilkes County, North Carolina, Will Book 4:159; North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh. ↩
We’re sure of that since he was kind enough to sell land Elizabeth inherited from her father, creating a document that named John, Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s father. See Granville County, NC, Deed Book W: 89, Examination of Elizabeth Jones (1813); North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh. ↩
Rutherford County, North Carolina, Record Book C:159, Will of John Jones, 15 September 1819; North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh. ↩
Sue Mullane on December 22, 2015 at 11:35 am
Try having a surname like MOORE if folks want emotional distress. Its similar to Jones or Smith. We had our ONE remaining male in the family Y-DNA tested to the 67 marker. Unfortunately there aren’t any direct line folks with Family Tree Y-DNA who match up exactly. They are all 1 or 2 markers off-whatever that means. All we know is THEY go back to a James Moore who died in 1705 in So. Carolina. Still stuck at my “Moore” great grandfather who skipped out on his young family. And, even harder is finding the WIVES of ancestors. I have lots of folks who share DNA with me on Ancestry but we are unable to know where the matching ancestor is. And, now I have a man named CORN who Ancestry says is an ancestor but I have no idea how. Have never seen that surname before. So even when you test, DNA is still a mystery.
Judy G. Russell on December 22, 2015 at 11:42 am
I do have a Moore, Sue! The family history of my Robertsons is that William M. Robertson (b. NC c. 1790, d. MS 1864) married a Moore — and there is a marriage record for a William Robertson and a Delilah Moore in the right part of Mississippi at the right time. DNA is starting to say that is the right Moore family, but there’s more work to be done for sure.
Dave Mitchell on December 22, 2015 at 1:34 pm
Judy, When I’m back home after Christmas/New Year, I will scan and send to you an article on the ancestry of the South African Faure family — Antoine Alexandre FAURE came to the Cape of Good Hope in 1714, to give religious instruction to the Huguenot families who had come to the Cape. He was born in France in 1685, and his parents were Pierre Faure and Justina Pointy. An extensive article on his roots in Europe was published in our Huguenot Society Magzine during this last year. With a bit of luck, we might be able to find a proven South African male line fellow to do a Y-DNA test. IT would be a magical find for international (and Huguenot) genealogy if we could find some DNA matching through this exercise. One Pierre Faure is a good friend of mine from a long time back. Seasons greetings! Dave Mitchell, Cape Town, South Africa and life member, Huguenot Society of SA.
Judy G. Russell on December 22, 2015 at 1:38 pm
That’d be terrific, Dave! And oh what a wonderful thing it would be to link those families! I’d be happy to underwrite a YDNA test for a direct male line descendant of that branch too!
Greenhill39 on December 22, 2015 at 1:40 pm
Not all people with paper trails are willing to play. There are two probably distant cousins with my surname that have not accepted my hints or invitations to participate in DNA testing. I know of other genealogists in the same position. Folks with paper trails do not have the same drive to run DNA testing.
I understand only too well… but I can hope, can’t I? 🙂
Lana Porter on December 22, 2015 at 11:49 pm
Remember to specify in your list to Santa not to tease you further by having those elusive cousins take DNA tests if they are named “Anonymous” ’cause you know as well as I do that is almost equally or even more frustrating to know they are right there but just beyond your reach!
It’s like getting a Christmas present wrapped beautifully with a shiny bow on top but being told you can never open it..
Judy G. Russell on December 23, 2015 at 9:23 am
Couldn’t agree more — I have both a first and a second cousin at 23andMe who don’t respond…
In the meantime, look at
http://faurefamily.yolasite.com/resources/BIOG%20Antoine%20Faure%201685-1736%20APF.pdf
http://www.faure.co.za/fcpdf/book_7_antoines_story_1685-1736.pdf
Ernie Thode on December 22, 2015 at 1:50 pm
Before my retirement I had a library genealogy patron named Peter Shew. I forget where Shew/Schuh family was from Pennsylvania or Virginia or where, but he is definitely interested in his family history. He is Peter L Shew of Stockport, OH. You can find him on one of the online sites or e-mail me privately for his contact information.
Thanks, Ernie! I’m pretty sure this is the Pete Shew who descends from Godfrey of New York. May be related, but… no paper trail.
Sara on December 22, 2015 at 2:21 pm
I’d love to be able to help you with this but I’m not on the Y line! I descend from various Manakin Hugenots, mainly the Chastain line but also Martin, Soblet, and Faure. Anne Ford/Faure (1737-1810) is my 6th great grandmother. Her grandparents were supposedly the immigrants Pierre Faure and Mary Agee. Of course, I am researching other families so I haven’t done any of the paper chasing on this line(I sort of assumed a bunch of other people are already working on it!) Sounds like we might be cousins though 🙂
I sure hope so, Sara — but I really need a documented male in that line to be sure!!!
William Chapman on December 28, 2015 at 1:41 am
Here’s a link to a land title to Hugenot immigrants including Peter Foure granted in 1716.
If you have any problems with this link send me a suitable email address and I will send you a copy of the image.
Also, there is an associated statement that say that Pierre Faure changed his name to Peter Ford soon after arrival in the US.
Thanks. The name variations included Faure, Foure, Ford and Fore. Such fun…
Ray on December 22, 2015 at 2:30 pm
You think you have a wish list. For starters, Ancestry after three try’s was not able to complete the test. So I am hoping that Santa will bring a completed Family Finder test from FamilyTreeDNA. It would also be nice if there was a match to my Y DNA test taken years ago. I’d even settle for a long form Haplogroupe match. Hope I’m not asking for to much this Christmas.
A lot of people have trouble with the spit test, Ray. You shouldn’t have any trouble with the swab test.
Marian Corya on December 22, 2015 at 3:26 pm
Thanks! Happy holidays!
Bev on December 22, 2015 at 3:26 pm
I for one stumbled across my Manakin Town, VA French Huguenots ancestors because I was so puzzled as to why I was getting higher than expected French/German ethnic estimates from my DNA tests. I descend from Magdalena Ford and never suspected for the longest time that her father James Ford was actually Jacques Faure/Foure/Fore until I ran across the Manakin Town, VA French Huguenot Society website. Magdalena’s birth name was Magdeleine Faure. Jacques Faure/James Ford was married to Ann Elizabeth Marie Bondurant if the Huguenot Society’s genealogies are correct. Jacques was apparently the son of John Pierre Faure and Mary/Marie Elizabeth Agee. Magdalena/Magdeleine was apparently born in the Manakin Town area about 1736 and died about 1805 in Stokes County, NC. I am kin, through actual descent or intermarriages to practically everyone in Stokes, NC whose ancestor/ancestors arrived there circa 1800. Endogamy and Pedigree Collapse are rampant in my tree.
Unfortunately, with regards to ydna, Magdalena/Magdeleine was a female, and I have not found any further Manakin Town ancestors in my tree…yet.
Well, you sure know who to contact when you do find one, right? 🙂
You bet! In my DNA matches, especially at Ancestry, I occasionally run across matches whose ancestors were located primarily in South Carolina who have Manakin Town surnames in their trees. You never know…heck, it’s also been a really big surprise to me that Agee’s, Fuqua’s, and others I went to school with, and I share the historic Manakin Town background.
Candace Cox on December 22, 2015 at 4:04 pm
John Jones. I feel your pain. I was on a research trip in Franklin County, MO, looking for information on my maternal grandfather’s line – the Joneses. My gr-gr grandfather was John Jones, and I was looking for clues to his father. I didn’t find anything there, but several months later I did find his father’s 1795 will in Harrison County, KY. He had named one son John and another Jonathan. I’m sure he did that to torment future family researchers….
When I finished up in Franklin County, I headed over to Jersey County, IL where I was meeting a cousin from my maternal grandmother’s side. We were meeting in a cemetery to look for the gravestone of a woman we knew was buried there. As I pulled into the cemetery, I saw a prominent marker with the name JOHN JONES, chuckled to myself, and parked next to it. We didn’t find the stone we were looking for and soon left. It wasn’t until I did some later research that I discovered John Jones was married to the granddaughter of the woman who’s stone we had been seeking.
John Jones. Got ’em on both sides of my mother’s family.
Seriously, how hard would it have been for these guys to name their sons Melchezidek? I mean, really…
My wishlist is entirely about giving the FTDNA folks super powers over the holiday in order to get the kits everyone is ordering done speedily. My order says its expected 1/27-2/10 next year.
It’s my hope that we show something interesting with my one and only match for the Y-DNA kit I have on file with them, in that it shows soundly that we are or are not related (it’s held up through Y-37 and the R1b SNP pack). Because it will be one heck of an interesting year if my project is to figure out how my Italians are related to Croatians just across the Adriatic.
Fingers crossed for you (my brother has NO close matches at all — he’s an E-V13 …).
Connie on December 23, 2015 at 9:36 am
The new haplogroup numbers are so interesting! My Y kit is an R-Z9.
Yeah, my brother used to be an E1b1 something or other and is now E-V13. MUCH easier to say and remember!
Sean on December 23, 2015 at 3:05 am
Now all I can think of are the interesting conflict of laws issues this raises. What if Santa doesn’t deliver because he never enters your forum? Will the courts of your state take jurisdiction, or will you have to sue in the courts where Santa resides? If so, whose jurisdiction is that, given the overlapping claims for the North Pole? What’s the the lex causae by which the court will decide the matter? Will there be an anti-suit injunction?
Sorry, I find conflicts of law to be as interesting as genealogy. I’d be as happy working out a scenario for renvoi to apply to this problem as I would be trying to figure out the degrees of separation between Saint Nick and me. 🙂
Merry Christmas, I hope Santa delivers!
You, sir, are as big a geek as I am. Which is sayin’ somethin’! Merry Christmas to you and yours! 🙂
Mike on December 23, 2015 at 9:17 pm
Just in case Santa doesn’t deliver, can you take things into your own hands and stock up on FTDNA Y-DNA test kits to take advantage of their year-end sale + mystery rewards?
I’m hoping to test paternal ancestors in the new year (still wooing them), and have been wondering about whether I could order a kit now and list the name as ‘TBD’ until I have a taker. I assume the kits have a reasonable shelf life. Any reason this wouldn’t work?
Karen Lemelin on December 24, 2015 at 12:11 pm
OK, now I am going to have to do some more research and documentation. My 4th great grandfather was Jessie Foree (1761-1851), son of Peter Foree or Faure, or Fore, or Ford. He was the father of Sara Elizabeth Fore. The hunt goes on. Let me know if Santa responds. Karen
Judy G. Russell on December 24, 2015 at 11:01 pm
Ooooh… just one… just ONE direct documented male line descendant!!!
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Liza O'Connor - Author
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HIS BROTHER’S WIFE (Willow Creek Series) by Lily Graison
When Grace Kingston accepts a wedding proposal through a mail-order bride agency and travels across country to be married, she has no idea her bridegroom is a fourteen-year-old boy. There’s no way she can accept his offer but with depleted funds, and winter coming on, Grace has little choice but to stay. Things go from bad to worse when she meets Jesse’s older brother, Rafe. The attraction is immediate. He’s surly, rude and downright pig-headed but he makes her pulse race with a single glance.
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TAME A WILD WIND (Tame Series) by Cynthia Woolf
Catherine Evans fell in love when she was three years old, head-over-heels, forever kind of love. The very first moment she saw twelve-year-old Duncan McKenzie, she told God and her pony that she was going to marry that boy. He was handsome. He was kind. He was strong and smart and all the good things a boy should be. For thirteen years she loved him with every beat of her heart. And on her sixteenth birthday he walked away from her father's ranch, and from her. He didn't look back over his shoulder. Not even once. And from that day forward, Catherine Evans swore off all men. Her heart turned to stone, her will to iron, and her vow to God changed. She'd run her father's ranch. She'd succeed. She'd survive. And she would never, ever love another man as long as she lived.
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A Straight-Laced Spinster…
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To claim the family fortune, smooth-dealing Burke O’Shaughnessy has to find his brother Patrick, despite being saddled with an angry spinster. But when Lexie shows an astounding talent for counting cards and calculating odds, he figures she might be useful after all. Can he draw the queen of hearts?
A HERO’S HEART by Sylvia McDaniel
Wade Ketchum is searching for his only surviving sibling when he finds a ready-made family.
Rachel Cooke is stranded on the Oregon trail with three orphans and a rebellious sister, until gambler Wade Ketchum rescues them. The hardened cowboy is searching to find his long lost brother, is out of cash and has no time for a praying spinster. When Rachel runs out of options, she makes a deal. Wade must pretend to be her husband and help her reach Oregon. But somewhere along the trail, pretending becomes real. Can she help Wade realize that he still has a heart capable of love?
LAYING CLAIM (Halsey Homecoming Series) by Paty Jager
Jeremy Duncan commits to haul one last load of supplies across the great interior of the Yukon before heading home. But, he has to trade his pack animals for sled dogs and leave Skagway in the middle of a blizzard due to one strong-willed, business-minded beauty.
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SARAH SUNSHINE (A Montana Romance) by Merry Farmer
She was done with her shameful past…
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His future is only a heartbeat away…
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Only love can stop history from repeating itself before it’s too late…
CHASING THE DEAD (Bannister Brothers) by Keta Diablo
The Apache kidnapped me to dispel an evil ghost from their village. If I tell them I don't possess the same skills my madre did, they'll cut my throat and feed me to the dogs. Celesta was the best spirit chaser in all of New Mexico before she died.
The most I can hope for is that Emmett, my fiancé, will rescue me. Is he capable of such a thing? Poppy must not have thought so because he sent Deacon Bannister to save me. Deacon…the man who walked away days before our wedding a year ago. The man who still melts my bones after one look.
We're running for our lives from Uday, the vaporous ghoul tracking us. He lusts after Sacheen, the beautiful maiden banished from the Apache village who travels with us. The warrior killed her father when Sacheen refused to marry him, and then Sacheen's brother killed Uday.
The ghost's powers grow stronger every minute on our journey back to El Vaquero...and so does my love for Deacon.
THE MOST UNSUITABLE COURTSHIP (Kincaid Series) by Caroline Clemmons
Storm Kincaid wants justice; Rena Dmitriev wants vengeance.
When Storm’s best friend and the friend’s wife are murdered, Storm secures a temporary appointment as Federal Marshal so he can trail and capture the killers. He follows them to twenty one year old Rena’s home, which is in flames when he arrives. She has surived by following her elderly husband’s instuctions while the men murdered the him. Storm intends to take her to the nearest town where she will be safe. She can identify the men who killed the person who had been her husband in name only and like a grandfather to her, and she vows to kill at least one of them. Whether or not Storm allows her to accompany him, she assures him she will go after the murderers. She is the only person alive who can identify the evil foursome whose policy has been to leave no witnesses. Storm agrees to take her with him. She’ll be safer with him to protect her than she would riding alone.
As a powerful and passionate love blossoms, they unite to rescue three orphaned children, fight the elements, and encounter the killers. Will their love be enough to protect them?
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Debra Holland wears several hats when it comes to writing. As a psychotherapist, she writes nonfiction books. The Essential Guide to Grief and Grieving is her first nonfiction book. More nonfiction books about grieving, boundary setting with difficult people, and relationships, are forthcoming.
Debra also writes fiction--Historial Western Romance, Contemporary Romance, Fantasy Romance, and Science Fiction. Her Montana Sky series, sweet historical Western romances, is published by Amazon Montlake. The Gods' Dream Trilogy (fantasy romance) is available on Kindle.
Debra lives in Southern California and has one dog and two cats. She's a second degree blackbelt and teaches martial arts. She also is a corporate crisis/grief counselor. You can join her newsletter subscription list or learn more about her at www.drdebraholland.com.
★✯★
USA Today bestselling author Kirsten Osbourne knows how to write romance. Each book is an experience that transplants the reader, indulging them in decadence, intense emotion and sweeping love.
Hailing from the state of Wisconsin, she has lived in Texas for over thirty years as a mother, writer, and wife. Married to the love of her life for more than fifteen years, she knows that true love exists and shares that vision with the world.
She writes contemporary and historical romance as well and also ventures into the realm of paranormal romance. She invites you to join her in her world of fantasy, love, and make believe, no matter the location, where there is always a happily ever after at the end.
USA TODAY bestselling author Lily Graison writes historical western romances and dabbles in contemporary and paranormal romance. First published in 2005, Lily has written over a dozen romance novels that range from sweet to spicy.
She lives in Hickory, North Carolina with her husband, three high-strung Yorkies and more cats than she can count and is mother of two and grandmother of three. On occasion, she can be found at her sewing machine creating 1800's period clothing or participating in civil war reenactments and area living history events. When not portraying a southern belle, you can find her at a nearby store feeding her obsession for all things resembling office supplies.
Cynthia Woolf is the author of fifteen historical western romance books and one short story, and one novella with more books on the way. She was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden. She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.
Their closest neighbor was one quarter of a mile away, so her little brother was her playmate and her best friend. That fierce friendship lasted until his death in 2006.
Cynthia is an avid reader. Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week. This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug. She wrote her first story at the age of ten. A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.
Cynthia loves writing and reading romance. Her first western romance Tame A Wild Heart, was inspired by the story her mother told her of meeting Cynthia's father on a ranch in Creede, Colorado. Although Tame A Wild Heart takes place in Creede that is the only similarity between the stories. Her father was a cowboy not a bounty hunter and her mother was a nursemaid (called a nanny now) not the ranch owner.
Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and the great friends she's made at Colorado Romance Writers for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.
Jacquie Rogers - I'm a former software designer, campaign manager, deli clerk, and cow milker, but always a bookworm. Reading is my passion--westerns, fantasies, historicals of any era, and all with a dash of romance. If an author can make me laugh, I'll buy every book he/she ever wrote.
While I'm a country girl by birth, I currently live in suburbia with my very patient husband (important point: we are the staff of one cat) I don't think you can ever take the country out of a girl's heart. That's probably why my stories often take place in Idaho where I grew up. (Hearts of Owyhee series and some of my short stories, too.)
On my website at www.JacquieRogers.com you can find lots of Bonus Features for my stories and other fun stuff. Please let me know if you've posted a review and I'll give you a sneak peek into my next book.
Sylvia McDaniel is a best-selling, award-winning author of western historical romance and contemporary romance novels. Known for her sweet, funny, family-oriented romances, Sylvia is the author of The Burnett Brides a historical western series, The Cuvier Widows, a Louisiana historical series, Lipstick and Lead, a western historical series and several short contemporary romances.
Former President of the Dallas Area Romance Authors, a member of the Romance Writers of America®, and a member of Novelists Inc, her novel, A Hero's Heart was a 1996 Golden Heart Finalist. Several other books have placed or won in the San Antonio Romance Authors Contest, LERA Contest, and she was a Golden Network Finalist.
Married for nearly twenty years to her best friend, they have one dachshund that is Queen Supreme Dog in the house and a good-looking, grown son who thinks there's no place like home. She loves gardening, hiking, shopping, knitting and football (Cowboys and Bronco's fan), but not necessarily in that order.
Award-winning author Paty Jager and her husband raise alfalfa hay in rural eastern Oregon. On her road to publication she wrote freelance articles for two local newspapers and enjoyed her job with the County Extension service as a 4-H Program Assistant. Raising hay and cattle, riding horses, and battling rattlesnakes, she not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.
All her work has Western or Native American elements in them along with hints of humor and engaging characters. Her penchant for research takes her on side trips that eventually turn into yet another story.
Merry Farmer lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats, Butterfly and Torpedo. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always having something to write about. Today she walks along the cutting edge of Indie Publishing, writing Historical Romance and Women's Sci-Fi. She is also passionate about blogging, knitting, and cricket and is working towards becoming an internationally certified cricket scorer.
Keta Diablo lives in the Midwest part of the United States on six acres of woodland. When she isn't writing or gardening she loves to commune with nature. She adores animals and has made it her mission in life to help feed hungry children in the USA. Greatly disturbed by the statistic that one in every five children goes to bed hungry, she donates her time and support to local food and animal shelters.
Keta is a multi-published author in both erotic romance and gay fiction. Her erotica novel Decadent Deceptions was a finalist in the MOLLY contest sponsored by Romance Writers of America and has been nominated for a Red Carpet Award in 2014. Her paranormal novel Where the Rain Is Made has been nominated for a Bookie Award by Authors After Dark. Her historical novel Sky Tinted Water has been nominated for a RONE Award by Ind'Tale Magazine. Keta's books have received numerous Top Pick, Book of the Month, and Recommended Read awards from the top professional review sites.
Caroline Clemmons is an Amazon bestselling and award winning author of historical and contemporary western romances. A frequent speaker at conferences and seminars, she has taught workshops on characterization, point of view, and layering a novel.
Caroline and her husband live in the heart of Texas cowboy country with their menagerie of rescued pets. When she’s not indulging her passion for writing, Caroline enjoys family, reading, travel, antiquing, genealogy, painting, and getting together with friends. Subscribe to her newsletter here to receive a FREE novella.
Posted by Liza O'Connor at 12:00 AM
Labels: Courting the West Boxset, sweet to spicy romance
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Dewan Rakyat grants three MPs more time to declare assets
Thursday, 12 Dec 2019 07:12 AM MYT
Mohamad Arif said the three MPs had requested an extension. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 12 — Dewan Rakyat has granted an extension of time to three Members of Parliament (MPs) from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), to declare their assets, said its Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.
Mohamad Arif said the three MPs had requested an extension and the house allowed it, while the remaining MPs did not ask for the same.
“If they feel that they need a bit more time for some reason or other, we’re not terribly unkind. But for those who do not want to declare their assets, that is something else,” he told reporters at the ‘Dinner with Chairmen of the Parliamentary Special Select Committees and Media: Reform and The Way Forward for the Parliament of Malaysia 2020’ here last night.
On December 5, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong said that all 139 Pakatan Harapan (PH) MPs had submitted their statutory declarations of assets to Dewan Rakyat.
Liew said they were among 160 MPs who had submitted their statutory declarations, apart from three from Barisan Nasional (BN), and 14 from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), with three others from Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS).
A total of 62 MPs have not submitted their declaration forms, namely 38 from BN, PAS (18), GPS (three), STAR (one) and two Independents. — Bernama
MACSA supports declaration of assets by members of Parliament — Lukman Sheriff Alias
MACC chief suggests asset confiscation could be ‘next step’ for MPs living beyond their means
Sim thanks MACC for correcting asset declaration mistake on website
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Learning from LEGO: 4 Pillars to Resilient Brands
HomeEN › Blog-en › Learning from LEGO: 4 Pillars to Resilient Brands
August 23, 2016 Peter Ramsenthaler Share on
Stories of Failures & Triumphs
After decades of success, LEGO was in deep crisis during the early and mid-naughties. Ten years later, the family-owned company topped the Brand Finance Index of the world’s most powerful brands in 2015, before being knocked to number 2 by Walt Disney in 2016. How did LEGO manage to rise out of a financial cesspit and into marketing olymp? And what are the lessons for Marketers?
(Image source: https://www.lego.com/)
LEGO bricks have been around since 1949. A staple in children’s rooms for decades, the seemingly “old-fashioned” toy lost ground to video consoles and computer games. LEGO reacted by more and more diversification into lifestyle products, leisure parks, shops and many more. Until, in 2004, the family-owned business from Denmark was stuck in a deep crisis, with a take-over by competitor Mattel looming. That was when the newly appointed CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp launched a new strategy, including four defining decisions.
Back to the core
LEGO bricks are creative, durable and endlessly extendable. They allow us to build our own world. A simple but ingenious brand essence, which was diluted over years by uncontrolled diversification. The new strategy radically outsourced or completely cut out products and projects which were not true to LEGO’s brand essence.
Lesson: the brand’s essence should always be the base on which products and services are built.
Using the customer’s creative mind
“Everyone” knows LEGO, and the brand is dear to both to the young and the young-at-heart. This loyal fanbase became a rich source of new product ideas for the company using a crowdsourcing approach: Once a suggestion achieves 10,000 online votes, it goes into production. Whoever submitted the winning suggestion, will receive 1% of the generated profit for their idea.
Lesson: Customers who love your brand often are full of creative ideas. Listen to them.
Creative co-operation and synergies
Instead of throwing money at attempts to create new trends themselves, LEGO co-operates with powerful partners to expand their target groups and create synergies. Recent examples are the smash hit LEGO Movie (2nd movie planned for 2018), as well as the co-operations with LucasFilm (Star Wars) and 20th Century Fox (The Simpsons).
Lesson: Co-operate with partners to utilize (brand relevant) synergies.
A product for life
LEGO is making the most out of the loyalty of their now-grown customers from past decades. From complex building sets to collector’s editions of sweet childhood memories (such as VW Beetle, Mini Cooper), they offer a lot to a target group that was sadly neglected in past years. Which makes the LEGO brand a product for life – for the whole family.
Lesson: Nurture the emotional bond between the customer and your brand – and keep in touch.
Read on:
http://www.strategiesforgrowth.com/optimise/rebuilding-lego-the-ultimate-toy-story/
http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/the-venture/five-lessons-from-lego-20150408-1mgqcm.html
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A Modern, Intimate Wedding at the Groom's Family Home in Connecticut
By Emily Platt
Samm Blake
This outdoor celebration put a focus on family.
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Eden and Jack
Brooklynites Eden Cale and Jack Levinson met while traveling in 2011—on Virgin America's flight 406 from LAX to JFK, to be exact. "We were seated next to each other and didn't stop talking the whole flight, much to the chagrin of everyone around us," Jack shares. The two exchanged emails, but were both in relationships at the time, and lived across the country from each other. They didn't begin dating until 2014, when Jack moved from Los Angeles to New York City and they both found themselves unattached.
In November 2016, the couple planned a trip to see the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. They spent the weekend in Washington, D.C., and the morning after the concert, Jack (who works in film and television production on projects like Amazon's The Tick and Netflix's The Defenders) insisted on visiting the National Arboretum. "As we're walking around, I kind of felt something electric in the air," Eden (the co-founder of digital media agency Hiraeth Media) recalls. "All the sudden, he's down on his knee, asking me to be his wife." Eden said "yes" in the middle of the National Capital Columns among the autumn leaves.
Jack's parents have a lovely home in New Canaan, Connecticut, which "seemed like the natural spot for the vibe we wanted," says Jack. "We had originally planned for a nearly year-long engagement, but we really wanted to have an outdoor wedding at the house, which had real limitations when it came to weather," he adds. So, the couple cut their engagement short, and married on June 10, 2017.
On the warm, late-spring day, Eden and Jack tied the knot with a customized Jewish ceremony in front of 50 guests. "Everyone looked great, the weather was perfect, even the bugs stayed away," Jack says of the celebration. Eden adds that it was "the most magical, perfect day."
The Stationery
The Loveliest Watercolor Wedding Invitations
According to Eden, the wedding's theme was entirely based on the invitations. "I know that sounds insane, but I was struggling, wading through Pinterest board after Pinterest board trying to find an example of what I had in my head," she explains. Finally, she found exactly what she'd envisioned, in the form of a photo of stationery. There was no credit associated with the picture, so Eden did some digging. "After a reverse Google image search, I was led to a blog that featured those very beautiful invitations, and I tracked down the designers," she shares.The "magical" team at The Wells Makery—who Eden calls "the most talented people I've never met"—was enlisted to design these moody, watercolor paper goods. The suite included a formal invitation, a custom map that spotlighted places that are meaningful to the couple, and the weekend's details printed on vellum, all in shades of blush, white, and grayish-blue.
How to Throw a Home Wedding Without Losing Your Mind
The wedding was held at Jack's parents' home. "It's a gorgeous property that lies on the Silvermine River, and has great sunsets and natural scenery," Jack says. "We always knew we eventually wanted to get married there," Eden adds.
The Attire
Jack opted for traditional attire, and wore a black Paul Smith suit, a black Balenciaga tie, and black Crockett & Jones shoes. Eden purchased her Yaki Ravid wedding dress straight off the rack. The plunging neckline and long sleeves provided the balance she was looking for. "It was sexy but still demure enough that I wouldn't look back on myself with regret," she explains.The bride accessorized with pearl Mikimoto earrings that her dad once gave her mom, plus a veil handmade by Gina Pappas. She also borrowed a family ring from one of her sisters-in-law, Ashley. "I'm so grateful, as an only child, to now have an amazing group of women to call my sisters," she says, recognizing the kind gesture.
Practical Pumps
Eden's dress was unique and ornate, so she chose to stick with classic shoes. These nude, patent-leather Christian Louboutin heels fit the bill, and are simple enough that she plans to wear them again.
See More Peony Wedding Bouquets
Peonies are Eden's favorite flower, so Rosehip's Pola Rebisz made them the star of the arrangement. The big, lush blooms were paired with blush-pink tea roses, ranunculus, and greenery.
The Bridal Party
The couple chose not to have bridesmaids or groomsmen. Eden's oldest friend, Annie, served as her maid of honor, and wore a sleeveless pink dress from Parker. Meanwhile, Jack's best man was his brother Sam.
Stylish Attendants
Why You Should Have Kids in Your Wedding
Jack's niece, Lila, acted as flower girl, and wore a pink Ieena for Mac Duggal dress. She carried a bouquet of white flowers and eucalyptus, and accessorized with a flower crown.Also pictured is Lila's brother, Atticus. The siblings were two of four children in attendance.
The ceremony began at sunset to fully embrace the venue's natural beauty. For the processional, Jack walked with both of his parents to the popular "Canon in D." When it was Eden's turn, a string quartet played "Moon River," and both of her parents escorted her, too. "Watching Eden walk down the aisle in that dress was stunning," Jack remembers.
The picturesque ceremony was held right on the river, and guests were seated in simple white chairs. The chuppah was made of wood, greenery, and muted flowers that matched Eden's bouquet. "It's a really surreal moment when you look out to all of the familiar faces you've known throughout your life in one spot," Jack notes.
Modernized Rituals
Jewish Wedding Traditions for Your Big Day
A rabbi led the couple through a contemporary Jewish ceremony. "Eden and I aren't that religious, but we wanted a ceremony that would pay respect to our ancestors," Jack explains. They customized the blessings to better represent their relationship, and used a Kiddush cup from Jack's father's bar mitzvah. Eden is part Welsh, so a wool shawl in clan tartan replaced a traditional tallit. One of her Welsh friends, Mared, also recited the e.e. cummings poem "[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]."For the recessional, a string version of "Tenderness" by General Public played. According to Eden, it was chosen just for her maid of honor, and was "an ode to our obsession with Clueless as children." "The moment right after the ceremony where you look at each other and ask, 'Did this just happen?'" was another great moment for Jack.
At the cocktail hour on the back patio, guests snacked on passed canapés, including beef tartare, barbecue clams, and smoked trout dip.
Guest of Honor
These Dogs at Weddings Are So Cute, We Can't Take It
The couple's beagle, Kingsley, made an appearance at the event. "We got him a special bowtie collar and leash from CrewLaLa just for the occasion, so he looked even more dapper than usual that evening," says Eden.
Tent Decorating Ideas to Upgrade Your Wedding Reception
At their tented reception, the couple offered locally-sourced fare, including a salad with lettuce, spring onions, mint, beets, and roasted sesame; followed by artisan burrata with fennel honey, sugar snap peas, and almonds. For the main course, guests dined on roasted chicken and roasted fish, plus seasonal grains and vegetables. "Convincing chef Bill Taibe to cater the wedding meant that our food was delicious," Eden says."Eat the food," Jack advises future newlyweds. "You'll be talking the whole time, and next thing you know your plates are being taken."
Candle Centerpieces That Will Light Up Your Reception
The meal was served family style at long farm tables. The cross-back chairs had ivory cushions, the runners were made of un-hemmed linen, and the candles were placed in silver candlesticks. Tableware included pink goblets ("that were something I absolutely couldn't live without for some reason," says Eden), etched-crystal wine glasses and champagne flutes, and classic white dishes. The place settings also featured vintage silverware and linen napkins. Later, dessert was eaten off of vintage-style, eggshell-blue plates.
The Centerpieces
Silver mercury-glass vessels held centerpieces of roses and eucalyptus. Eden decided to step away from the softer tones featured in the rest of their arrangements, and instead "went full on pink for the tables."
Traditional Trinkets
Alternatives to Traditional Paper Place Cards
"In Wales, it's customary to give a love spoon to newly-engaged or newly-married couples, and I thought it would be nice to give them to our guests as a token to take home with them," says Eden. Bespoke Laser UK cut the couple's names and wedding date into the favors, which were set atop calligraphed place cards and menus by Wells Makery.
During the festivities, Eden's dad (a founding member of the Velvet Underground) played one of his songs—"I Keep a Close Watch"—while she sat beside him at the piano. Jack considers the meaningful moment one of his favorites from the wedding. So does Eden. "It was a special moment for me and my dad, and now it's a special song for me and my husband. I was grateful that he was able to perform," the bride shares.Eden and her dad also danced to "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra, while Jack and his mom took a spin to "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. "Strangers" by the Kinks played for the couple's first dance, which was Eden’s favorite moment. "It was so sweet because we actually managed to tune everyone out for three minutes and focus on each other," she says.
A Naked Cake
See More Naked Cakes
Jack and Eden worked with Amy Berger of Luckybird Bakery for their wedding cake. The top tier was lemon cake with cream-cheese frosting and raspberries, the middle tier was red velvet cake with cream-cheese frosting and hidden Belgian-chocolate shavings, and the bottom tier was almond cake with vanilla buttercream and more chocolate shavings. Rosehip decorated the confection with blush and white blooms.
Photography, Samm Blake of The Wedding Artist Collective
Event planning, Lovely Event Planning
Catering, The Whelk Westport
Flowers, Rosehip
Officiant, Rabbi Linda Portnoy Goldberg
Stationery, The Wells Makery
Calligraphy, Marissa Chen
Cake, Luckybird Bakery
Music, Aristo Strings NYC (ceremony and cocktail hour); Julliard (reception)
Rentals, Durkin's Tent Rental; Smith Party Rentals
Bride's gown, Yaki Ravid
Bride's accessories, Mikimoto earrings; Christian Louboutin shoes
Hair and makeup, Joshua Ristaino
Bridesmaid's dress, Parker
Flower girl's dress, Ieena for Mac Duggal
Groom's suit, Paul Smith
Groom's accessories, Balenciaga tie; Crockett & Jones shoes
Lighting, Luminescence Lighting
1 of 20 Eden and Jack
2 of 20 The Stationery
3 of 20 Home Sweet Home
4 of 20 The Attire
5 of 20 Practical Pumps
6 of 20 The Bouquet
7 of 20 The Bridal Party
8 of 20 Stylish Attendants
9 of 20 Hand in Hand
10 of 20 The Ceremony
11 of 20 Modernized Rituals
12 of 20 The Cocktail Hour
13 of 20 Guest of Honor
14 of 20 The Reception
15 of 20 The Tables
16 of 20 The Centerpieces
17 of 20 Traditional Trinkets
18 of 20 Song and Dance
19 of 20 A Naked Cake
20 of 20 Sources
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Interview with PHILISTINE Author Steven Shrewsbury
March 5, 2014 Michael Blog Tours, Interviews 1
Philistine by Steven Shrewsbury
Series: A Story of Goliath #1
The Philistines, a mysterious warrior people known now for mainly one man: Goliath. The giant.
Goliath. A name grander than even the man himself. You’ve heard of his infamous end at the hands of a shepherd as written in a famous book, but what of the life of the man himself? What book tells his tale?
A warrior among warriors, a son of a god, a living legend. Goliath, the warrior champion of the Philistines. On the battlefield, he runs like a horse, wields killing instruments no normal man may heft, and revels in the fear his presence evokes. Off the field, his will is immutable, his trust invaluable, and his appetites unbearable. Goliath. This man knows no challenge.
But such a reputation will not discourage all men. Scheming rulers and generals, prophetic priests and powerful cults, dauntless warriors looking to make their own legend. Monsters. Gods. For one seemingly unkillable, at the very least, these things can ruin an otherwise pleasant day.
Along with his shield bearer, Abimelech, and soldiers more in awe than they are useful, Goliath will set out on missions for kings, face foul magic users, and walk in the shadows of mysterious halls. History tells us Goliath died at the hands of an Israelite. Goliath may have something to say about that.
Interview with Author Steven Shrewsbury
Can you talk a little about what the book is about?
PHILISTINE is a brutal fantasy yarn featuring Goliath, champion of the Philistine folk in ancient Canaan. This isn’t about his death or Biblical account, but a peek into the realm of forgotten pages of history where the last giant battled dark wizards, conflicting gods, demons and an unseen force out to destroy him. We see the anti-hero Goliath, bored with the world, nasty but infectious in his ways and attitudes, and never boring. His troop of soldiers and his shield bearer, Abimelech, encounter all manner of monsters and dire people while a civil war brews amongst his own folk. The tome is large, rich with history, pagan faiths of the time, bloody action and dark humor.
The book was announced in February 2013 for a summer release. Was it delayed due to editing, rewrites, etc.?
Most of the delay was due to unforeseen personal issues with some folks, but I completely understand. There are some things in life more important than books.
Where did you get the idea for the book?
I’ve wanted to write a book about Goliath since I was a teen, mainly inspired by the line “he’s a man of war since his youth” but maturity and research let me arrive at a time when I could pull the work off. I never could’ve written PHILISTINE in my 20s or 30s.
What message do you want readers to get from reading the book?
History isn’t exactly what we know it to be and life is short, so enjoy.
How long did it take to write the book?
First draft spread over 5 months, but I revised and redid it a few months a year for the past four years. I worked on many other things at the same time, but kept going back to walk through it again.
Who is your favorite character, or what character was the most fun to write?
Well, Goliath was great fun, more of a bored with the world guy than a total anti-hero; In creating His shield bearer, Abimelech, I really enjoyed his POV and story.
Can you talk about how you wrote it? Did you do any outlining? Did it take you in any unexpected directions?
I had it planned out pretty well, but my works always work themselves out in different directions as I go. This was the first book I ever had a list of places and stuff to follow as it became more and more intense as I went. Many a weird thing volunteered in the book and I surprised myself at times.
If you could go back and change anything in the novel, what would it be?
Nothing, it is what it is. I’m very proud of it as I always wanted to write it.
How did you come up with the cover?
Oddly enough, I was really vexed over it and trying to talk it out when a good friend, B.j McPherson, suggested something akin to what the FC came out like, with the wheel of virgins around Goliath, and Matt did a super job on it.
I’ve been telling stories since I was able to talk, like my 9 year old now, who I cannot recall not speaking. Playing in the sandbox or with legos & tinkertoys, I had Tarzan in the Bible battles a few times as a 6 year old.
What was the first story that you ever wrote?
A story about the Vision and Captain America. I typed it single spaced on an aged typewriter and my brother ripped it in half. He still won’t read what I write.
What are you favorite books and authors?
BLOOD STONE by Karl Edward Wagner, SOLOMON KANE collection by Robert E.Howard, SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonngeut, GODFATHER by Mario Puzo. Howard is my fave for all time. Joe Abecrombie nowadays rocks.
About Steven Shrewsbury
STEVEN L. SHREWSBURY lives, works, and writes in rural Illinois. Over 360 of his short stories have appeared in print or electronic media along with over 100 poems. 9 of his novels have been released, with more on the way. His books run from sword & sorcery (PHILISTINE, OVERKILL, THRALL, BEDLAM UNLEASHED) to historical fantasy (GODFORSAKEN) extreme horror (HAWG, TORMENTOR, STRONGER THAN DEATH) to horror-westerns (HELL BILLY, BAD MAGICK, and the forthcoming LAST MAN SCREAMING).
He loves books, British TV, guns, movies, politics, sports and hanging out with his sons. He’s frequently outdoors, looking for brightness wherever it may hide.
Blog | Facebook | Goodreads
Earthman Jack vs. The Secret Army
Destiny Rising by Siobhan Davis
Interview with R.E. Carter, author of The Blood Guard series
Interview with Rival Gates
Review of The Adventures of Tom Stranger
Review of The Time That’s Given
Interview With Author Guy Martland, Author of The Scion
Interview With David Michael Slater, Author of The Book of Nonsense
The Occassional Diamond Thief Tour
Interview with Siobhan Davis, author of Beyond Reach
One Response to “Interview with PHILISTINE Author Steven Shrewsbury”
I love your comment that you “couldn’t” have written it in your youth. All those youthful dreams that we can’t follow until we’ve been there.
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Manchester City Transfer News
Pep Guardiola's Man City transfer approach will pay off
Manchester City are closing in on transfers to sign Riyad Marhez and Jorginho.
Ian Cheeseman
Anyone who was a little underwhelmed by the prospect of Manchester City signing Riyad Mahrez shouldn’t be.
Instead of being linked with random players, with different names cropping up each week, it seems to have settled down to when City will sign Mahrez and fellow target Jorginho.
Although nothing has been completed yet, both transfers should be concluded sooner rather than later.
One rumour is that City have offered Oleksandr Zinchenko to Napoli as part of the deal to sign Jorginho. Although the young Ukrainian hasn’t convinced me he’s ready to play in the biggest games for City yet, it would be sad to see a player with such potential heading away from the Etihad.
I’ve seen much more of Mahrez than Jorginho , as I suspect most City fans have.
And I see the Algerian as an excellent addition to the squad. I felt he was Leicester’s key player during their title season, and he would offer something different to Pep Guardiola’s team.
Five Man City youngsters with a big summer ahead
A recent poll on the MEN’s @ManCityMEN Twitter page showed the fans who voted would have preferred Isco, Kylian Mbappe or Eden Hazard.
They are all fine players but Mahrez is a Premier League champions and a player of the season and as more teams are likely to park the bus against the Blues next season, so the youthful pace of Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling might benefit from having the craftier, more studious approach of Mahrez alongside it.
Where will Mahrez play? These days, especially under the stewardship of Pep, it’s not something I’d be too concerned about.
Riyad Mahrez.
I see City’s front five of six as being interchangeable, indeed I’d argue that’s the great strength of this squad, and the addition of a couple more alternatives can only add to the flexibility on offer.
I couldn’t quite believe what I read on Monday morning when the final Germany squad was named for the World Cup finals and Sane was left out.
I know there will be Blues fans who’re quietly delighted because the PFA young player of the year can be fully rested for City’s pre-season trip to the USA and the new Premier League season but how can Sane be surplus to requirements for Germany?
All I can say is that they must have one hell of a squad if he can’t get in it.
Man City target Jorginho has plenty of admirers
If City’s first team could be entered in the World Cup finals, would they win it?
I believe there’s a good chance they would, with Sane, as the song goes, tearing opponents apart.
I know the World Cup warm-up matches are almost meaningless at this stage but with Kyle Walker playing on the right of a back-three for England and Danilo playing at right-back for Brazil against Croatia, it also makes me wonder if we might see Walker in that role for City next season. I certainly expect Pep to play with a back-three in many games next season, with a fully fit Benjamin Mendy available again.
Meanwhile, as summer 2018 kicks fully into gear, many City fans have told me they don’t enjoy this time of the year. I’ve tried to help ease the pain by producing a ‘best of’ documentary-length version of my Youtube vlogs – Ian Cheeseman – Forever Blue . Check it out.
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UPS, pilots reach tentative agreement on labor contract
By Ana Campoy
Published: June 30, 2006 5:13 p.m. ET
AnaCampoy
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- United Parcel Service Inc.'s UPS, -1.02% after Friday's closing bell said its UPS Airlines unit has reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with the Independent Pilots Association Airlines. The proposed deal provides for wage and pension improvements and a variety of changes to work rules, the Atlanta-based package delivery company said. UPS said the parties would not disclose the details of the contract before the pilot's association presents it to all UPS pilots. The contract must be ratified by a majority of UPS's 2,700 pilots. The pilot's association expects the vote to be completed by mid-September.
United Parcel Service Inc. Cl B U.S.: NYSE: UPS
Volume 3.0M
Open $118.21
High $118.54
Low $116.75
Market Cap 101.7B
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White Mountains boosts storm loss estimates by $203 million
By Michael Baron
Published: June 16, 2006 9:08 a.m. ET
MichaelBaron
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. WTM, +0.39% increased the gross loss estimates related to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma for its Folksamerica Reinsurance Co. unit by $203 million. The company said $143 million of the loss is to be ceded to Olympus Resinsurance Co. under the terms of Folksamerica's quota share reinsurance treaty with Olympus. This will, however, exhaust the bulk of Olympus' capital so White Mountains has entered talks with Olympus and its two biggest shareholders about possibly reimbursing Olympus for up to $137 million of the ceded losses and a waiver of over-ride commissions of about $8 million due from Olympus after March 31. If the companies reach a deal on the reimbursement, White Mountains estimates it would record a related charge of $128 million, or $12 per common share, in the second quarter. If the companies don't reach a deal, the impact on White Mountains would be reduced but the company noted Folksamerica wouldn't expect to be able to recover in the future significant amounts arising from losses on exposures that have been ceded to Olympus due to Olympus' financial position. White Mountains' shares closed Thursday at $516.50, up 5.3%.
White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd. U.S.: NYSE: WTM
Open $1,109
High $1,120
Low $1,109
Market Cap 3.5B
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