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__label__cc	0.682673	0.317327	Abbye West Pates Music + Lyrics: Facebook Live, 09.20.18 A friend of mine recently experienced the deep darkness of loss, where someone died whom she loved dearly. She was young, the death was unexpected and quick. Tragic. My friend and I exchanged text messages as we watched the incoming Facebook comments of well-meaning people attempting to make sense of the tragedy. I get it. It's what we do. But I wish we'd do and say less in these moments. I won't write anymore here. Hopefully the lyrics and the song speak for itself. Click here to watch the Facebook Live where I sing this song (at roughly the 3:00 timestamp in the video). Keep reading for the lyrics. Hurt Like Hell by Abbye West Pates Some are gonna say God took her in the night So she didn’t have to put up a fight They’re gonna tell you God must have needed another soldier in his ranks But I want you to know I don’t believe that’s how it goes [CH1] I know it’s true there’s not an answer for Everything in life So, why do we try so hard to explain it all away Some will say that he gives and takes away Does that mean that he’s causin’ all the pain Someone’ll tell you it was just her time to go But I don’t know who can believe that about their 18-year old No, I’m not gonna tell you anything more I’m just gonna sit here on the living room floor While you cry your eyes out and chew on your fingernails ‘Cause it’s OK for this to hurt like hell We know it’s true there’s not an answer Don’t try too hard to explain it all [End Verse] I know you loved her almost more than life And it’s not fair, it’s not fair It’s OK for this to hurt like hell [to CH1] Some will say God gives and takes away I just want you to know he’s with you in the pain in songwriting, music + lyrics, Facebook Live	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line861
__label__wiki	0.943076	0.943076	Kamala Harris campaign cuts headquarters staff, moves some to Iowa SACRAMENTO -- Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is laying off several dozen staff members and transferring others in an effort to salvage her prospects in the Iowa caucuses. The move, which comes roughly three months before the caucuses formally usher in the Democratic contest, make the California senator the most prominent candidate so far to announce a major campaign restructuring. Harris' campaign turned to history to make the case that in order to win the leadoff caucuses, candidates sometimes have to overhaul their operations. "Plenty of winning primary campaigns, like John Kerry's in 2004 and John McCain's in 2008, have had to make tough choices on their way to the nomination, and this is no different,'' her campaign manager, Juan Rodriguez, wrote in a memo to staff that was shared by the campaign Wednesday. Politico was the first to report the overhaul. Harris had already pledged to go all-in on Iowa, joking she was moving there, and earlier Wednesday her campaign touted the 15 days she spent in the state this month as the "October Hustle.'' It was more than any of her competitors spent there in October, but she's still polling behind leading candidates such as Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren. The latest changes come a full month after Rodriguez visited Iowa to evaluate the campaign's organization and on the eve of an important Iowa Democratic fundraiser. On Friday, thousands of party activists, donors and officials - along with more than 150 members of the news media - will be listening closely to Harris' speech for signs of new energy. Among the changes outlined in the memo: Rodriguez and campaign consultants will take a pay cut, though it doesn't say by how much; several dozen people will be laid off at Baltimore headquarters; and staff from New Hampshire, Nevada, California and headquarters will be moved to Iowa. The memo also doesn't say how many people will be transferred to Iowa. Harris plans to spend significant time in Iowa again in November, including over Thanksgiving. The campaign, which has not yet run any television advertising, hopes to spend at least $1 million on a media campaign in the weeks before the Feb. 3 caucus, the memo said. Rodriguez tried to distinguish the memo from what he called "gimmicks'' by New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and former Obama Cabinet official Julian Castro, who have released urgent appeals for money in recent weeks, raising the prospect of leaving the race if they couldn't raise enough quick cash. But Harris has underperformed on the fundraising front. She hails from California, a state that is home to many of the party's most prominent donors and which has long served as an ATM for politically ambitious Democrats. That hasn't translated into success for Harris. Although she did better than her rivals in the state, she has struggled to raise money in recent months, despite keeping up an aggressive fundraising schedule. She has consistently posted middling quarterly fundraising hauls. And during the most recent quarter, which ended Sept. 30, she revealed that she spent roughly $3 million more than the $11.6 million she took in while delaying about $1 million in payments to campaign strategists. While her aides initially tried to project California as locked up in her favor, many of her rivals have found deep pockets of support among top donors there. Last spring, Democratic megadonor Susie Tompkins Buell, who was initially a top Harris fundraiser, also started to raise money for South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg. politicskamala harrispresidential racedemocrats2020 presidential election	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line863
__label__wiki	0.619339	0.619339	Board index ‹ Main Forum ‹ Coaxial The greatest TV in history is being made right now. The worst TV in history is being made right now. 597 posts • Page 10 of 12 • 1 ... 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Re: Dexter by TheBaxter on Wed Oct 28, 2009 10:13 am i don't think there's anything inherently bad about rita's character or the actress who plays her. the problem with rita, for me, is she represents things i don't like about the show, namely, the domestication and humanization of dexter. i want to see dexter remain a cold-blooded killer. but oh well, i think the overriding thrust of this show, not just this season but his arc through all the seasons up til now, is his ongoing humanization... kinda like data on star trek. it's a cliche, and will probably be the undoing of the show in the end, but in the meantime, they're still putting out good episodes. it's kinda like james remar playing harry. there's nothing wrong with his performance, it's just his "character" (if you can call it that) is unnecessary and hurts the show. by the way, if you were james remar, could that part possibly be satisfying as an actor? i guess it's an easy paycheck, show up for a couple scenes per episode in soft focus and recite your lines... but there's no character, no part, no real acting to do. at least in the flashbacks in the first couple seasons, he got to play a real person. we can only hope he loses interest and decides to leave the show for next season. by Pacino86845 on Mon Nov 02, 2009 2:42 pm Ok no spoiler tags, but there's nothing drastic to spoil this episode. Not much action, I expected more development between Dexter and Trinity, but I understand that the writers want to create a relationship between these two characters, and that will be interesting to see. Still, how does Trinity hide in the open so successfully, with his family oblivious? Is it possible that at least his wife knows about him? The highlights of the episode are pretty subtle, but welcome nonetheless: Laguerta and Miguel end their awkward romance, AND NO IN-HEAD H@RRY!!! Deb has gone from gross and overemotional to just plain gross. I still think Rita is hot and that there should be more gratuitous nudity out of her... same for the reporter chick. Over all a decent episode, not as good as the last two, but not bad. I didn't see next week's preview, dunno what's comin'. by papalazeru on Mon Nov 02, 2009 4:03 pm Pacino86845 wrote: I still think Rita is hot and that there should be more gratuitous nudity out of her... same for the reporter chick. Does one of your relatives work in TV and did they write in Lila? I couldn't hold off on reading Pacino's comments Bad Papa. Still waiting to watch this weeks. by Leckomaniac on Mon Nov 02, 2009 6:34 pm I decided to give this show a shot recently. I watched the first season and just adored it. The second season just blew nuts. I couldn't even believe I was watching the same show. And now I am a few episodes into the third season and it hasn't gotten much better. What the fuck happened? It is too bad, really, because that first season was so excellent. Leckomaniac wrote: I decided to give this show a shot recently. I disagree, the first season, as interesting as it was, was a one trick pony and it couldn't have gone down the same route again. As the show has gone on Dexter has developed and I think the 4th series is really a good one so far. As for Season 2, I found that very slow with quite a few back burning episodes which ended wtih the last 4 episodes because an awseome white knuckle ride - I adored it. Season 3 was a little awkward and too short to develop the relationship that we all wanted Dex to have with a true friend but it was still entertaining. I think this shows brilliant. I love the writing that while not always top notch, still has the ability to keep you on the edge of your seat or chewing your nails when it needs to. by TheBaxter on Thu Nov 05, 2009 12:53 pm this was a bit of a slow ep. had some good stuff, had some not-so-good stuff. i was surprised to see dexter get so close to trinity so soon. i thought he would wait a bit before trying to actually get to know him, just spy on him from afar, but nope. the dexter-trinity scenes were good, especially when he opened up the sister's ashes and trinity freaked out. you can already see dexter trying to emulate him. best part of the show? NO H@RRY! i was wondering if they finally read our comments and said, you know, they're right, ghost h@rry sucks, we should get rid of him. (spoiler from next week's preview) unfortunately, it looks like he's back next episode i also didn't care for the dexter-rita therapy sessions. not quite as bad as dexter joining the neighborhood watch, but almost. by papalazeru on Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:10 pm I would have expected a proper insensed attitude from Dex with the Neighbourhood watch, some proper sneering and hatred but then again, Dex isn't quite in touch with his human emotions as such. by TheBaxter on Mon Nov 09, 2009 12:33 pm so, i thought last night's episode was kinda lame. felt like a placeholder, nothing really happens of any importance, at least not til the very end. i really don't like the way they're making quinn into doakes. having him get suspicious of dexter, following him.... they did that whole plot in season 2, and doakes was a much better character than quinn, so if it continues it will only be a pale shadow of the dexter/doakes storyline from that season. quinn needs to get back in bed with the naked reporter chick, that's the only thing he's good for is getting us scenes with her boobz. even the dexter/trinity stuff seemed off. trinity's got a bug up his ass about something. i was thinking maybe he had caught on to dexter. and then what was up with him making that coffin? and who is it for? is it another part of his ritual, the start of a new series of killings, or something else entirely? (spoilers from next week's preview) i was suspecting the coffin might be intended for dexter, but from the scenes they showed for next weeks preview, that doesn't seem to be the case. and it also doesn't seem like trinity is on to dexter before that episode, from what dexter tells him and his reactions to it (end preview spoilers) as usual, the laguerta/angel soap opera stuff is a waste. and the scenes with rita, though at least we were spared any more therapy sessions. though to make up for that, we get in-head h@rry back. bah! the only interesting part is the very end when dexter realizes he's killed an innocent man. although, didnt he kill an innocent man last season when he killed prado's brother? that guy was a junkie, but he wasn't a killer or anything, was he? maybe it's different since dexter acted in self-defense, but it's still killing an innocent. or maybe it's not the same because this time dexter followed his code, did his research, and thought he was killing a guilty man according to his ritual, only to find out later he was innocent, and that is why it affects him the way it does. by theayatollah on Mon Nov 09, 2009 3:30 pm I finally caught up to to the most recent episode to participate in talkbacks, and I would have to agree that last night's episode was overall very weak. It honestly feels that the powers-to-be on this show are sticking to tried and true plot threads from previous seasons, almost as if they are afraid to innovate. In regards to Quinn and Dexter, they are dangerously treading toward the whole Doakes storyline. I thought maybe this would provide an opportunity for Dex to tell Deb about his secret, allowing Deb to alleviate her partner's suspicions, but having destroyed Laura Moser's CI files, maybe this renders it more difficult for Deb to believe him. If it ends up with Dex having to kill Quinn, I think it will be the wrong decision In-head H@rry is a tough call, because I think James Remar is awesome. I generally enjoy his presence, but now I think my opinion is being swayed by everyone who hates his appearances. It appears that initially they were trying to say how Dexter was distancing himself from Harry's code, but I feel that he has deviated multiple times from H@rry's code, only to realize he was wrong. This is what happens at the end of htis episode, he realizes he made a mistake, and now we get the redundant thread of "going back to H@rry's code." Nevertheless, next week's episode looks like we get some fresh new storylines. More Dexter-Trinity is needed, as those scenes are ten times more tense than his interaction with Miguel Prado ever was. Jon Lithgow really plays his part so well, especially when we see his breakdowns in contrast to his ability to stay level-headed around his family. "You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try." theayatollah by judderman on Mon Nov 09, 2009 5:16 pm I agree this ep was too similar to previous eps, but the preview certainly seems to be playing off the ending, so perhaps that's what this was, an ending with an episode attached to it. Now that Dex has killed an innocent, he's entered the same realm as Trinity. That makes his decision to kill him hypocritical, and Dex obviously knows it. It is interesting to see whether this is enough to finally push Dexter away from Harry's code and towards freedom. It's interesting that the final ep is called "The Getaway". Who is getting away, and from what? Beware the Judderman my dear, when the moon is f@t... Sharp of tongue and spindle-limbed he is, and cunning... judderman UNGRATEFUL BASTARD by Pacino86845 on Tue Nov 10, 2009 1:02 am Pretty much agree with you guys, not much more I can add to that. But don't forget, Laura Moser's picture was not destroyed, you can still see her face, part of the number on the card she's holding, and that image is now resting comfortably in Dexter's drawer... this could somehow lead to Dexter being connected to Laura without Deb's going through the tedium of an investigation. Funny though, it looked for a moment like the writers were literally shredding that plot line... As for the coffin, I wonder if Trinity wasn't somehow building it for himself? Didn't Lundy say a while back that the cycles started in Miami? And Trinity just completed his latest cycle in Miami, 30 years later... maybe that was supposed to be a last hurrah (for whatever reason, which we haven't seen yet), it would somehow explain his "tormented" demeanor this episode. by papalazeru on Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:32 am Teh Ep was really boring and Dex's in head voice pissed me off. Rita: Where are you going today Dex? Dex: Out....[In head voice] To kill. Dammit, that's getting boring. I thought Harry almost crying was well done. I will say, the monotony of the Ep was lifted by the ending. I think maybe it was constructed that way to lull you into a sense of drudgery. It made the climax all that more surprising, but yet somehow expected. Rita: Are you hungry Dex? Dex: Yes...[in head voice] for Blood. Dammit, we don't need that anymore. He's been living with serial murder for year, wouldn't he be bored of hearing his own voice? by judderman on Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:36 pm No no! We need the internal monologues! They're what keep Dexter from being another police procedural. Anyway, Dexter onscreen is just a front. It's In-Head-Dexter that is the real character. And the monologues are never that bad. by papalazeru on Tue Nov 10, 2009 6:36 pm judderman wrote: No no! We need the internal monologues! They're what keep Dexter from being another police procedural. Anyway, Dexter onscreen is just a front. It's In-Head-Dexter that is the real character. They aren't that bad no, but I just felt with this ep they were so clichéd, a bit like Sherif John Brunell and his little quips. When the ep became boring, they just seemed more prevalent that normal and grated. i'd say last night's episode was a return to form, mostly due to having a lot more dexter/trinity interaction. also, lithgow brought the funny last night. good to see some of trinity's goofy side, though his creepy side is still the best. but i LOLed at his little dance before taking dexter to his surprise in the morning, and also when he sat down with the family in the diner and started talking about his sister's death. good to see someone besides dexter doing something socially inappropriate. as for trinity's suicide attempt it makes sense. his self-hatred and self-loathing have been on display since the 1st episode and him crying in the shower. very interested in seeing how dexter responds to having saved trinity now and what that does to their relationship i hope rita cheats on dexter and he leaves her lying, cheating ass. that's one solution to her character's ongoing presence. the whole who-shot-lundy plotline could get dumb though. i've tried to think about who else it could be, but there's no one currently on the show who makes sense as the shooter if it's not trinity. they've already ruled out the vacation killer(s). and anton is at least as tall as trinity, so the same rationale to rule out trinity would rule out anton too. matsuka is short, so that leaves only chicks or short guys. so if its someone we already know, it would have to be totally out of left field. and that would suck. if it's someone not already on the show, then it was all just a pointless red herring. since lundy recognized whoever it was, the only 2 possibilities i can think of are 1) someone lundy put away in the past who got out and came back for revenge, or 2) lundy was secretly married/had a gf, and she shot him for cheating on her. Or it's the hot reporter chick! So the coffin WAS for Trinity himself! And how creepy was the preview for next week's episode? Holy fuck Trinity's son really looked fearful in that brief shot when he's about to get his finger broken, kudos to the actor! This episode was awesome in pretty subtle ways, I will concur. Again, no in-head H@rry!! WOOHOO! by TheBaxter on Tue Nov 17, 2009 2:15 am Pacino86845 wrote: Or it's the hot reporter chick! i don't know if the coffin was for trinity. it seemed to me like he was planning on starting another murder spree, when dexter showed up and it was his conversation that made him revisit all that stuff from his childhood, and thus the suicide. but maybe the suicide was his plan all along, in which case the coffin would make sense. i forgot to mention the absence of Imaginary H@rry. i'm hoping maybe that shot of him looking at dexter with sadness and disappointment after dexter learned he killed an innocent man will be his last scene on the show. it would be appropriate, since it would represent the ultimate failure of his code, which was designed as much to protect innocent people FROM dexter as it was to protect dexter himself. and that shot almost... ALMOST... made all the other h@rry scenes the last couple seasons worth it... but then i realized, how much more powerful would that shot have been if it HADN'T been preceded by all those lame imaginary-h@rry scenes? it would've been like h@rry's ghost coming back to mourn what dexter has done. oh well. there were no shots of h@rry in next week's preview, so hopefully that's representative of the show as a whole from here on.... NOW WITH 100% LESS H@RRY! also about the preview... that kid SHOULD have looked scared... i almost looked as scared watching it when i realized what he was gonna do. lithgow is awesome in how he can be so funny one minute and chilling the next. on another note though, i think i might need to start skipping the previews, 'cos they're giving away too much. as good as this episode was, too much of it was revealed in last week's preview, and this week's preview gave away too much from next week's episode. it's tough, because after a good episode, i want more, and after a bad episode, i want to see something from next week's episode to give me hope it will be better. this season has been a bit uneven, some really good episodes, but a couple of pretty bad clunkers too (last week's filler-sode, and the community watch episode, for example). uneven, but so far i'd say better than last season, especially if they can bring home the trinity storyline real good. oh, and about the reporter chick... if she is the shooter then that would be exactly the kind of out-of-left-field plot development that would resemble a leather-clad tv show icon leaping over a deadly aquatic beast. her motive would have to be to create a big news story for herself, which would be pretty evil, even for a naked news reporter chick, but also would have been a massive fail since she HAD no story on it til deb finally agreed to the interview. it's kinda far-fetched to think that was her plan all along. so if she ends up being the killer, i'll be unhappy with this show by Pacino86845 on Tue Nov 17, 2009 11:58 am TheBaxter wrote: oh, and about the reporter chick... if she is the shooter then that would be exactly the kind of out-of-left-field plot development that would resemble a leather-clad tv show icon leaping over a deadly aquatic beast. her motive would have to be to create a big news story for herself, which would be pretty evil, even for a naked news reporter chick, but also would have been a massive fail since she HAD no story on it til deb finally agreed to the interview. it's kinda far-fetched to think that was her plan all along. so if she ends up being the killer, i'll be unhappy with this show I agree, and actually when the thought crossed my mind I had just brushed aside as being a highly implausible scenario... but then my brother said it and once I thought about it a bit longer it started making "sense" in terms of what the writers would do. As for the reporter's motives, remember that she DID report on Lundy's death. She had been the one to first "break" the story of his investigation into the Trinity murders (thanks for nothing Quinn), and she was right there at the scene of the shooting. Batista even gave her the STD statement that eventually led to the "capture" of the vacation killer. And she'd been gunning for the hero piece on Debra right from the get go... and she DID get it in the end, no? Not that any of this is realistic or even rational thinking, but she does stand to benefit from Lundy's death. by TheBaxter on Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:18 pm Pacino86845 wrote: and she DID get it in the end, no? that's the scene i want to see! by theayatollah on Tue Nov 17, 2009 12:28 pm EDIT: ^LOL The one major explanation left for who is the culprit remains as Lundy's reaction to the shooter. The look on his face always seemed to me like he recognized the person, but maybe he reacted to the sight of a gun. That being said, I think you guys are right, there really is no other external character that would fit this mold. That being said, I don't really like this development either. The episode was overall okay, but they were again wasting our time with the Angel/Laguerta Hispanic Soap Opera BS and setting up Quinn as Doakes #2. alright, it's been a couple days, so i'm abandoning the spoiler tags now. i think lundy definitely recognized the shooter. i don't think it was just the gun he was reacting to. if he recognized the shooter, that's another point against it being the reporter chick. unless he was boning the reporter himself, which would also give her a better motive. but it would also make this even more soap-opera-ish, and lame. one possibility that would be kinda cool, though it wouldn't work if lundy recognized the shooter, is if trinity made his wife or one of his kids shoot him. i wouldn't be surprised, at the least, if we eventually find out that his family knows more about his killing sprees than we think they do. by judderman on Mon Nov 23, 2009 6:19 am Well, at long last, Hot Reporter has a purpose beyond being hot. Angel and Maria may be beating a horse that's been shot, left to rot, and then consumed by vultures only for its skull to appear in the foreground of a western, but at least the whole Quinn/hot reporter subplot has a purpose. And thank the maker they didn't go with Quinn as the new Doakes. Longtime fans would have insurrected. I sometimes wonder if this show would be better reduced to half an hour, instead of bulking out with all this filler. by TheBaxter on Mon Nov 23, 2009 11:30 am i kind of enjoyed this episode in spite of itself. first, imaginary h@rry was back in full force. that's never a good sign. then we have the wacky plot twist at the end. more about that in SUPER-SPOILER text below. and there was some really bad acting, especially from trinity's family, and ESPECIALLY especially from trinity's wife. the whole "my husband's a psycho, i'm on the verge of hysterics and could break down at any moment so i'm just going to smile real big and act like everything is PERFECT" act was so cliche'd and over-the-top. in fact, EVERYTHING with the trinity family thanksgiving dinner was like a massive steaming pile of cliche: the doting nervous wife, the sheltered, lolita-esque daughter coming on to dexter, the in-the-closet Dumbledore son who finally stands up to dad... and yet, somehow i enjoyed it in spite of myself, even though i realized how bad and cliche'd it was. mainly because, again, lithgow is awesome, and when we finally get to see dexter's dark side come out and the look on trinity's face when dexter unleashes the monster on him... it was worth it for that. i didn't buy dexter's reasoning for staying so long at their dinner though. he was worried what trinity would do to the son if he left. why? dexter doesn't care about people, he has no feelings. ok, he cares for his sister, for rita, for the kids, maybe even a little for his coworkers... but that's it. he doesn't care at all for other people. why would he care what happens to this kid of a killer who he barely knows? enough to stick around when he's worried about what his own kids or neighbor may have found in his shed? i didn't buy it. but still, i'll let it pass because it led to that great scene of him on top of trinity. and now about that twist... so pacino thought the hot reporter chick was lundy's killer, and i thought it might be one of trinity's family members. i guess we were BOTH right! i'm not sure how i feel about this yet... a lot will depend on next week's episode and how they explain her motivation for killing lundy. if her motivation WAS just to create a story for herself, then it's still a shark-jumping massive fail of epic proportions with a dash of x 1000 due to the extreme coincidence of trinity's daughter just happening to kill the guy investigating her dad. i can't believe the writers would plot something as dumb as that, even the Heroes writers have more sense than that. so either a) trinity put her up to it somehow, or b) she knows her dad is the killer and did it on her own to protect him. and b) doesn't make much sense either because 1) if she wanted to protect her dad, why did she then write that big front-page story about how he's still on the loose, and 2) how did she even know lundy was on the trail of her dad to begin with, only trinity himself knew that. so it has to be a) trinity put her up to it, because anything else would be stupid. but that still raises some questions. like 1) how much does she know about her dad's serial killing? if she's capable of killing herself, maybe she's his accomplice. or maybe the psycho streak got passed on genetically. if she's willing to go that far just because her dad asked her too, and seemingly not show any remorse over it, then she's got to be as fucked up as her dad. and she has to know something about how fucked up her dad is too. the bigger question for me is 2) how did lundy recognize her? i STILL say it looked like lundy recognized the shooter. but he couldn't have known she was trinity's daughter, he didn't even know who trinity was, only just saw him and had a physical description. he didn't know his name, identity, or anything about his family, so he couldn't have recognized her that way. that only leaves the possibility that lundy really was just reacting to her holding a gun pointed at him. that's kinda lame. oh well. i have to say, this season is probably the oddest season of dexter yet. TheBaxter wrote: so pacino thought the hot reporter chick was lundy's killer, and i thought it might be one of trinity's family members. i guess we were BOTH right! i'm not sure how i feel about this yet... a lot will depend on next week's episode and how they explain her motivation for killing lundy. if her motivation WAS just to create a story for herself, then it's still a shark-jumping massive fail of epic proportions with a dash of x 1000 due to the extreme coincidence of trinity's daughter just happening to kill the guy investigating her dad. i can't believe the writers would plot something as dumb as that, even the Heroes writers have more sense than that. so either a) trinity put her up to it somehow, or b) she knows her dad is the killer and did it on her own to protect him. and b) doesn't make much sense either because 1) if she wanted to protect her dad, why did she then write that big front-page story about how he's still on the loose, and 2) how did she even know lundy was on the trail of her dad to begin with, only trinity himself knew that. so it has to be a) trinity put her up to it, because anything else would be stupid. Seconded. The end of that turned the whole thing to shit. I think she's a co conspirator and they both killed Lundy and took a shot at Debs, maybe there were two guns? (I know, I know, ballistix and all that so not likely), but the conspirator thing probably is. I think she's a child from a first marriage where the mum was killed by Lithgow, the daughter suffored a kind of stockholm syndrome. Still...I think this season started out so well but then went downhill so quickly. I kinda got what I wanted with Dex becoming fascinated with the Trinity killer but the damn streak of coincidence just makes it all...as you say Bax...Heroes. by Pacino86845 on Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:31 am TheBaxter wrote: i kind of enjoyed this episode in spite of itself. Yes, concur, although Trinity's family didn't bother me too much... but I will reiterate what I said last week, the kid who play's Trinity's son is actually a pretty decent actor... he's better than a few of the main players on the series (not Dexter, of course, but look at Batista and Laqwerty). He had a couple of lame-ass cheesy lines that I thought he delivered effectively. I sort of agree, but sort of disagree too... Dexter does have a weird conscience of sorts, he just lacks emotion. H@rry's code basically tells him that in certain circumstances it's ok for Dexter to ritualistically kill people. Now Dexter has been leaving Arthur Mitchell alive on borrowed time out of curiosity, whereas his purpose is to stop killers before they harm other innocents... when Trinity finished his last cycle and Dexter saw that he was a "perfect" family man, he figured that no harm was going to come to anyone immediately so he could observe and learn more about Trinity in the mean time. However in the last episode Dexter learned that Trinity was in fact a monster in his daily life, so there would be a sense of regret in not having killed him already. Maybe Lundy had seen her before in one of his earlier Trinity investigations? Maybe the reason Lundy hadn't caught Trinity yet was in part because she had interfered with his investigations in the past? Or maybe it's just the gun... by papalazeru on Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:32 pm Still....It's a bit of a coincidence on the whole thing no? by TheBaxter on Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:01 pm so, i've been trying to figure out what the porn version of this show would be. obviously it would be called Sexter, and it would be about a serial fucker named Sexter Organ, who goes around fucking women to death (or men, if it g@y pr0n). but his father, Hairy Organ, realized he was a monster and so raised him with a code where he only fucks BAD women to death, like murderers and shit. the problem is that makes Sexter a rapist as well as a murderer, and we all know that being a murderer is ok but being a rapist is unforgivable, so somehow he'd have to persuade these evil women to have sex with him voluntarily. and then, in the process of having sex with him, they have the most massive orgasms of their life, leading to brain hemorrhage and death, or something like that. maybe i'm just overthinking this. by Retardo_Montalban on Fri Nov 27, 2009 12:08 pm Pacino86845 wrote: Her face was on the newspaper article she wrote, outing Lundy as the guy chasing the Trinity killer. Her article along with that sexy mug was laying down on Lundy's desk. Lundy was all "Oh shit, it's that bitch that tipped Trinity off to my investigation of him" BLAM BLAM! Retardo_Montalban doubleplusungood by papalazeru on Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:16 pm As fantastical as the little plot twist was, I'm still giving the writers the some leeway. They really came back and shocked me in Season 2 with their back burning story so I will give them a chance to come clean. so... trinity DIDN'T put her up to it... she figured out her dad was trinity on her own, and killed lundy to protect him. i'm ok with that... at least it wasn't the monumental coincidence i was afraid it was for a moment there. it will be interesting rewatching this season over, knowing about that from the beginning and seeing if it still holds together. it still leaves some questions though. why did she keep writing about trinity after killing lundy? unless she doesn't know her father is also the bludgeoning murderer... i can't remember if those killings were linked to the bathtub killings in her articles. also... why didn't she also kill deb? why did she leave her alive as a potential witness? and i still preferred the idea that lundy recognized his killer as trinity right after finally coming face to face with him. i guess he could have recognized the reporter from her articles, but doesn't have the same poetic quality as lundy being killed by trinity himself. mostly a good episode. plenty of forward momentum and more creepy weird trinity stuff. only two episodes left to go. hopefully a better conclusion than last year's series. from next week's preview: it looks like dexter is going to be hunted next. that should be fun to watch. although, we do have another repeating theme from season 2, this time dexter getting too close to someone who then figures out who dexter is, and ends up putting dexter's kids in danger, forcing him to come to their rescue... just like lila from season 2 They say the last moment of the season will be the biggest twist. I'm dreading what it could be. Maybe Trinity is Dexter's real dad... by TheBaxter on Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:53 pm i think the twist will be that imaginary harry isn't imaginary at all... or a ghost... but that he's actually harry's evil twin brother, but only dexter can see him because he uses magic invisibility dust. hey, at least it would give harry's continuing presence in this show a purpose! by Pacino86845 on Tue Dec 01, 2009 11:10 am ^IPAMPILASH! Great episode, despite completely useless in-head H@rry (I think I'm learning to filter him out as I watch the show). The only member of Trinity's family we see is the only one who can act: Jonah. Go Jonah!! The hot reporter chick really looked hot in this episode, even though she keeps her clothes on most of the time. In fact I sort of felt sorry for her. Trinity Plus One is creepy as fuck. I wish I didn't watch the preview for next week's episode... even though they are usually good about not revealing what "really" happens, there's still too much shown that would be better off left as a surprise: like Arthur Mitchell showing up at Miami Metro... actually, having him stalk Dexter would've been cool to see in the episode rather than knowing what to expect in advance. Still, this time Dexter has a pro stalking and threatening his family rather than Lila who was batshit crazy and yet was a criminal mastermind... at least this time it's a bit more "believable." And yet again they rekindled the Quinn/Dexter animosity, that's got to lead somewhere, no? Mmmmm, hot reporter chick. Ok she didn't do too bad of a performance, there were some key moments that she pulled off well enough, so in my book she's earned the right to be called by her character's name: hot reporter chick! by TheBaxter on Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:41 pm the only drawback to this plot development is that we are unlikely to see her naked again this season. i was kind of hoping she'd end up in the bathtub with trinity. actually, scratch that. seeing her and lithgow naked at the same time would have played tug-of-war with my libido til it snapped. by Pacino86845 on Tue Dec 01, 2009 12:55 pm It would've snap-crackle-and-popped. by papalazeru on Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:00 pm Even though it had the stupidest plot twist last ep, I'm still throughly enjoying this show; it's still able to keep the charm going. I do like how this week it's gone from cat and mouse, to a chase before the time runs out and next week it goes all Usual Suspecty with Lithgow walking into the police station. I wonder if he has Dex's family buried somewhere and the oxygen is running out? Yes, it's all a little clichéd but they have so much fun with the characters. by Pacino86845 on Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:13 pm Michael C. Hall is good as always despite the writers obviously struggling with the character, but they should give John Lithgow some sort of bonus for holding this entire season together. Points go to Special Agent Rock Star Wild Bill Lundy as well but when they killed him off so early it was all up to Lithgow and Hall. by TheBaxter on Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:47 pm Pacino86845 wrote: Michael C. Hall is good as always despite the writers obviously struggling with the character, but they should give John Lithgow some sort of bonus for holding this entire season together. Points go to Special Agent Rock Star Wild Bill Lundy as well but when they killed him off so early it was all up to Lithgow and Hall. and the hot reporter chick. by TheBaxter on Mon Dec 07, 2009 10:53 am last night's episode was pretty great. i only have a couple gripes (besides the usual fake h@rry complaints)... one. the resolution of the laguerta-angel storyline. talk about hokey and cheesy to the extreme... especially dexter's involvement. the good news is, this will put the storyline to rest for the remaining episode of this season. the bad news is, we'll have an even worse storyline next season when they break up and get a divorce. if this is what the writers have to resort to to keep the secondary characters involved and give those actors something to do, this show is going to be in trouble real soon. there are only two ways to resolve this in a way that doesn't bleed into and ruin next season. the good way would be to have them break up and divorce off-screen between the end of this season and the beginning of next season, and deal with it in a quick one-minute scene, like they did with angel and his narcotics girlfriend from last season* in the first episode this year. dexter comes in one day and says, "so how's the marriage" and angel's all like "oh, we got a divorce, but we're still good friends", dexter shrugs and WE NEVER HEAR ANOTHER WORD ABOUT IT. that's the good way. the better way is to kill off laguerta in the next episode. not only does it remove the marriage storyline, it also removes a pointless character. i know others here would rather see rita or deb get killed off, but i want to see laguerta die more than anyone. she's the most underwritten and inconsistent character on the show. one episode she's a scheming, conniving harlot, and the next she's a dedicated policewoman with a heart of gold. and it usually goes back and forth once or twice a season. the books killed her off in the first book and i think that's why the show's writers haven't really known what to do with her. after season 2, they set her up for a perfect storyline where she's suspicious of the bay harbor butcher because she doesn't believe it's doakes, and then she could get on dexter's trail, and then dexter would have to face up to the possibility of having to kill an innocent person to save himself... but maybe they thought that would be too similiar to what happened to doakes, so they didn't go there. but the last two seasons, the most convoluted and pointless plot lines have dealt with laguerta.... first her relationship with prado and her lesbian fling with that lawyer (which could have been hot except it was laguerta and that ugly lawyer, and no one wants to see either of them naked) and then this season the forced romance with angel. the best thing they can do is just kill her off, for the sake of the whole show. * by the way, i liked angel's relationship with the narc a lot better... mostly because it felt more genuine and had some sweetness to it, him courting her and all, and his awkardness. angel with laguerta though was a bust. not only because she's a bitch, but just no chemistry and the relationship feels like a forced plot line. angel is one of the better secondary characters, and i think the actor is probably the best non-dexter actor out of the regular cast. they have to give him something better to do. hey, how about some subplots for the secondary actors that DON'T involve them hooking up with someone who's a co-worker or a serial killer? ok, number two. last week's preview, once again, gave away WAY TOO MUCH. this was a really tense and well-paced episode, but it was deflated by knowing exactly where it was going... right down to the VERY LAST LINE. imagine the shock of seeing trinity track dexter right back to police HQ, actually coming right into the building himself. unfortunately, i can only imagine because i had it spoiled in last week's preview. other than showing trinity and dexter come face-to-face, they gave the whole thing away. those previews are like crack, it's hard to resist them. but this show doesn't NEED previews, at least not ones like that. it's not like a show where each episode is self-contained and people might skip an episode or two, so you show a preview to get them to come back next week. each season of this show is one long story, so if people are still watching by the 10th episode, they're going to stay around til the end. you don't need to tease them to keep them interested, and spoiling the whole episode is just going to piss people off... LIKE ME. ok. i had to get all that out of the way. now to the good stuff. like i said, a great episode, the cat-and-mouse between dexter and trinity was great to see, and to see dexter suddenly as the hunted instead of the hunter, but not even realizing it til the very end. and the last scenes when trinity shows up at police hq definitely lived up to expectations. the scene of him in the trinity investigation room, looking at all the pictures of all his kills, and the look of pride and joy on his face as he looked over his life's work... pure awesome. and then his line "mr laundry (i can't remember his name)... you've done me a solid." ok, he didn't actually say "solid", if he had it would have been 1000 times as awesome. but still, that was a great scene. and just his whole demeanor, the way he casually walks around like he owns the place. actually this reminds me of one more weakness of the episode. dexter fell for trinity's trap WAY too easily. was there ANYBODY in the audience who wasn't on to what trinity was up to as soon as dexter left to go after him? maybe the excuse was that dexter was too distracted and harried (ha, ha, get it? HARRIED!) by all the other stuff going on in his life to think it through, but i don't really buy it. dexter's too smart to fall for that. how could anyone think trinity was so dumb as to go to the one place where he's been caught by dexter before to call him, let alone to try to kidnap another boy while he's got someone blackmailing him. so that was a bit weak. but really, that, and the angel-laguerta thing, were just minor drawbacks in an otherwise great episode, and next week's finale looks like it's going to be just as good. by judderman on Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:13 pm Laguerta is the most consistently repellent character on the show, which, considering that the main character carves people up, is an achievement. I agree with everything you said, Baxter, but what really got me about the arcade scene is that Dex didn't recognise Trinity's GMC. Hasn't he seen it before? I don't remember. OK preview spoilers. How could Deb have learned about Laura Moser, learned that she died, learned that she left behind two little boys, and that one of them was Dexter, and yet not know that the other little boy happens to share the same name of her ex-fiancée, as revealed by Angel back in season 1? Has she forgotten that he wasn't actually named Rudy? From the looks of things, the cops are still on the Trinity case in the finale, which is odd since Dexter supposedly closed it. Perhaps the "big twist" is that Trinity frames Dex for his own crimes, or other crimes we don't know about, and Deb, realising Dexter's past and connection to Rudy, suddenly realises he is in fact a serial killer. And so he ends the show on the run. by TheBaxter on Mon Dec 07, 2009 6:04 pm PREVIEW SPOILERS well, brian IS a pretty common name. and it was a preview, so we don't know what else she might know or find out beyond what little was shown. i don't think dexter could be framed for trinity. he's never travelled to most if any of the other trinity kill states, and since he works with cops, would have pretty solid alibis for those timeframes. i don't remember what they showed of them still investigating trinity (i tried not to watch the preview TOO closely) but remember, they don't know that dexter killed that trucker guy, so as far as they're concerned, he's still alive and on the loose. they would still be trying to track him down. and as for the van, i know dexter has seen trinity's van, has ridden in it before even... but i don't know if it was the same van. trinity might have rented a different van. maybe he rents a new van only for as long as it takes to work on each four walls build, and doesn't own his own van. Use spoiler tags for preview spoilers!! I am pissed off, the episode turned out to be useless because it was completely ruined by last week's preview. I thought there was going to be a huge surprise/twist this episode, but it turns out it was just Trinity showing up at Miami Metro... which we already saw played out in the preview. By having the best part spoiled in advance, I began to notice the crappier elements of the episode... like Laguerta and Angel, in-head H@rry, Deb being gross (how about that plaid shirt of hers, she's gone grunge tomboy), Quinn is officially a useless moron of a character. The hot reporter chick was pretty good though... So I am totally pissed off because the coolest part of the episode had already been completely spoiled and the rest of it was useless. Urgh. No, I did not watch the preview for next week's episode. And also I'm not sure I'll come back to watch season 5. by papalazeru on Tue Dec 08, 2009 12:15 pm Pacino86845 wrote: Use spoiler tags for preview spoilers!! It's not the ending that mattered so much for me, it was the journey that had me going. I loved how Arthur became the cat instead of the mouse. They had even spoiled the "journey" in the preview, the fucks! The journey was like five minutes of episode time, and last week's preview had focused exclusively on that. Everything else in the episode was major and totally unwelcome filler. well, i'm totally with pacino on that one, like i mentioned in my post. it really did kill the suspense of the episode, like reading the last chapter of a book before reading the whole thing. i could still appreciate the tension of the chase, but having it all spoiled by last week's preview really deflated it. i don't know how much of that is the show's fault, and how much is showtime's fault. it's like when a trailer gives away big plot points to a film... is it the film's fault, or the marketing dept? i don't know how much control the showmakers have over what is or isn't shown in the previews, i'm guessing not a lot, so i'm not going to hold it against the show itself. i've just got to train myself to avoid previews in the future. especially for this show. awesome finale! i can't say this was the best season overall (season 2 was), there were a couple real clunker episodes, and the laguerta-angel story was a real distraction. but it was definitely the best finale they've ever had. there's no way to talk about the episode without going into massive spoilers, so i'll wait a few days before saying too much. all i will say right now is, the ending was... perfect. by stereosforgeeks on Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:10 pm TheBaxter wrote: awesome finale! i can't say this was the best season overall (season 2 was), there were a couple real clunker episodes, and the laguerta-angel story was a real distraction. but it was definitely the best finale they've ever had. Unfortunately yet again the writers prove they have no clue and dont know how to actually plan a season. If it was planned from the beginning with the circular nature of Harrison (despite the logical inconsistency of the timeline) I would have thought it was excellent. However, because they had a last minute "ooo this would be cool moment" and not a serious plan for the season it leaves me feeling a bit let down. But hey we did get rid of Rita!!! The crap with Deb figurin g out just enough to keep the status quo was snore inducing though. Now that would have been a true game changer. by TheBaxter on Mon Dec 14, 2009 12:25 pm ^ WOAH, SPOILERS ABOVE ^ however, or whenver, they arrived at the decision to kill rita, it worked for me. what i was REALLY worried about was that all the telegraphing of the idea that dexter would give up serial killing to try to live a normal life with his family would be followed through with. as much as that would've sucked, the alternate ending they described in that article would have been way way worse. i mean, that alt ending is so bad, i can't imagine they ever seriously considered it. one of the odd bits of that interview: Did Trinity tell Rita about Dexter before he killed her? PHILLIPS: I don’t know the answer to that question. We haven’t talked about next season. But [my gut says] I would think that he did not tell her. i posted this in TBs, but the fact is trinity DIDN'T KNOW dexter was a serial killer til the very end. so he COULDN'T have told rita anything. up to the point that dexter had him on the table, trinity just thought dexter was trying to be a vigilante when he was hunting trinity down. i hope when he thinks about that a bit more, he realizes that, or else it would be a big inconsistency if, for example, they had rita phone and tell someone, or write down somewhere, somethiing trinity told her that she couldn't have known. TheBaxter wrote: i posted this in TBs, but the fact is trinity DIDN'T KNOW dexter was a serial killer til the very end. so he COULDN'T have told rita anything. up to the point that dexter had him on the table, trinity just thought dexter was trying to be a vigilante when he was hunting trinity down. i hope when he thinks about that a bit more, he realizes that, or else it would be a big inconsistency if, for example, they had rita phone and tell someone, or write down somewhere, somethiing trinity told her that she couldn't have known. Hugely inconsistent! Though I can see them doing it. by Pacino86845 on Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:18 pm So, I just finished watching the episode... But before all that, I was casually reading a BNAT TB on the main page when some asshole cocksucker spoiled the big twist. Urgh... and I had even avoided the preview and everything, thinking I was taking every measure to avoid being spoiled. Return to Coaxial	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line868
__label__wiki	0.698445	0.698445	Getting messier with TIDieR: embracing context and complexity in intervention reporting Sarah Cotterill ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5136-390X1, Sarah Knowles2, Anne-Marie Martindale3, Rebecca Elvey3, Susan Howard4, Nia Coupe5, Paul Wilson2 & Michael Spence4 The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide was developed by an international team of experts to promote full and accurate description of trial interventions. It is now widely used in health research. The aim of this paper is to describe the experience of using TIDieR outside of trials, in a range of applied health research contexts, and make recommendations on its usefulness in such settings. We used the TIDieR template for intervention description in six applied health research projects. The six cases comprise a diverse sample in terms of clinical problems, population, settings, stage of intervention development and whether the intervention was led by researchers or the service deliverers. There was also variation in how the TIDieR description was produced in terms of contributors and time point in the project. Researchers involved in the six cases met in two workshops to identify issues and themes arising from their experience of using TIDieR. We identified four themes which capture the difficulties or complexities of using TIDieR in applied health research: (i) fidelity and adaptation: all aspects of an intervention can change over time; (ii) voice: the importance of clarity on whose voice the TIDieR description represents; (iii) communication beyond the immediate context: the usefulness of TIDieR for wider dissemination and sharing; (iv) the use of TIDieR as a research tool. We found TIDieR to be a useful tool for applied research outside the context of clinical trials and we suggest four revisions or additions to the original TIDieR which would enable it to better capture these complexities in applied health research: An additional item, ‘voice’ conveys who was involved in preparing the TIDieR template, such as researchers, service users or service deliverers. An additional item, ‘stage of implementation’ conveys what stage the intervention has reached, using a continuum of implementation research suggested by the World Health Organisation. A new column, ‘modification’ reminds authors to describe modifications to any item in the checklist. An extension of the ‘how well’ item encourages researchers to describe how contextual factors affected intervention delivery. Replicability and implementation of effective interventions is reliant upon accurate description of the intervention’s content and delivery. Indeed, it is known that the completeness of intervention description for non-pharmacological interventions is often lacking [1,2,3,4], which puts interventions at risk of being implemented incorrectly or not at all. In response to this, The Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist and guide [5] was developed by an international team of experts, to promote full and accurate description of interventions. TIDieR provides a standardised template for authors to describe all necessary elements for reporting of non-pharmacological interventions across 12 items (Table 1). Its development is linked to a wider movement towards standardising research reporting, illustrated by the growing EQUATOR network (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research), which brings together access to 351 different reporting guidelines [6, 7] and has played a major role in new guideline development. Table 1 TIDieR checklista Since its publication in 2014, TIDieR has been widely used to report interventions at various stages of the research process. It has most often been used within the context of randomised controlled trials, alongside the CONSORT statement [8] for reporting trial results, and the SPIRIT statement [9] for writing trial protocols. For example, Stevens et al. used TIDieR to ensure the standardised reporting of their back pain prevention intervention within the trial protocol [10]. Clear reporting of interventions at the protocol stage allows specification of the intervention prior to the start of a trial. TIDieR checklists are increasingly being included alongside the trial report, to provide a detailed account of the intervention and assist with implementation of the trial findings [11]. The quality of intervention description is important across many fields of health research. A detailed specification of the necessary components of an intervention makes it easier to determine what was actually implemented, allows replication in other settings or research studies, facilitates interpretation of the findings and clearly delineates two or more similar interventions from one another. Many journals, including the BMJ [12], BioMed Central journals [13] and Implementation Science [14] now insist that authors use appropriate reporting guidelines to accompany submitted manuscripts. Researchers already use CONSORT [8] when reporting randomised controlled trials and a recent addition is StaRI [15] for reporting implementation studies of complex interventions. Both CONSORT and StaRI explicitly recommend the use of a standardised checklist to describe the new intervention or services, and suggest TIDieR as an example. The TIDieR authors envisaged its use outside the RCT context: ‘While the emphasis of the checklist is on trials, the guidance is intended to apply across all evaluative study designs’ ([5] p1), and this is starting to happen. Watson, Greening et al. [16] used TIDieR to provide a comprehensive description of a family-based childhood obesity intervention within their service evaluation, and report that by doing so they provide a clear account of any necessary modifications made during the implementation of the intervention. They advocate the use of TIDieR to ensure transparency of intervention reporting, which is essential to those involved in its implementation. The TIDieR checklist has been adapted for use within systematic reviews as a data extraction tool and to assess the quality of reporting of interventions [2, 3, 17,18,19]. TIDieR may require adaption to improve its ability to describe specific applied interventions, and TIDieR is currently being adapted to describe quality improvement interventions [18], educational interventions for training health professionals [20] and exercise interventions [21]. Complexity in health research is widely recognised [22], not only in terms of the traditional understanding of the evaluation of multicomponent interventions but increasingly of the complexity of the context (or system) into which interventions are placed [23]. This itself highlights the apparent tensions between fidelity of replication and the need to tailor interventions to be sensitive to different contexts [24]. Furthermore, context needs to be recognised as a process involving persons, resources, perspectives and activities, and not just a place. However, the role of adaptations and evolving mechanisms of action are recognised less often than static reports of ‘barriers and facilitators’ [25]. The capacity for formal reporting tools such as TIDieR to accommodate such factors has not previously been discussed, but it is clear that a means of effectively capturing and reporting the interactions of context and intervention delivery is essential if we are to design and evaluate interventions that can be effectively delivered in practice. The aim of the paper is to reflect on our experience of applying TIDieR in six case studies, covering a variety of applied health research contexts, and debate its usefulness as a research tool outside the context of clinical trials. Case studies – tidier templates The TIDieR template was used as a tool for intervention description in six projects, summarised in Table 2. The interventions were: (i) A Diabetes Prevention Programme (DPP) for patients with a diagnosis of impaired glucose regulation (IGR), where blood glucose levels are above the normal range but are not high enough for a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. The programme consisted of telephone behavioural and motivational support from a health advisor over 9 months (Telephone DPP) [26]; (ii) Primary care referral into diabetes prevention programmes: a nurse facilitator attended selected GP practices, searched the electronic records for patients at risk of diabetes, made appointments with patients to discuss their condition, and referred appropriate patients to a local diabetes prevention programme (GP referral DPP) [27]; (iii) Community referral into diabetes prevention programmes: a community organisation and a local authority health improvement team approached members of the public in community settings, completed diabetes risk scores, offered blood tests to those at risk of diabetes and referred eligible people to local diabetes prevention programmes (Community referral DPP) [27]; (iv) A commitment based intervention to promote behaviour change for weight loss among overweight adults attending weight loss groups in low socioeconomic areas (SMART-C booklet); (v) An audit and feedback intervention in primary care which implemented audit, health professional education and processes of care (such as medication reviews) to improve management of patients after an episode of acute kidney injury (AKI) (Primary Care Management of AKI Intervention) [28]; (vi) A primary care intervention to reduce the risk of harm from acute kidney injury (AKI) in people taking certain groups of medicines, by providing information on which types of medications to stop taking temporarily whilst ill (AKI sick day guidance) [29]. TIDieR descriptions of the six interventions are included in Additional file 1: Appendix 1. All the projects were undertaken by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Greater Manchester (NIHR CLAHRC GM) which is a partnership between providers and commissioners from the NHS (including Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and hospital trusts), industry, the third sector and The University of Manchester to help facilitate research getting into practice [30]. Table 2 Summary of the interventions included in this paper and the methods used to develop the TIDieR reports Consensus workshops Eight researchers involved in the six applied health research projects that had used the TIDieR templates met in two consensus workshops. The purpose of the workshops were to share information, identify any common themes arising from their experience of using TIDieR and to consider whether any changes were warranted for using TIDieR in such settings. During the first workshop the six cases were classified by clinical problem, population, setting, stage of intervention, leadership of the intervention and the time point that TIDieR was employed (Table 2). The stage of intervention was based on a NIHR CLAHRC GM typology of studies [31], which specifies five stages of research: Exploration (finding out what is going on), Explanation (explaining something new), Development (developing and implementing interventions), Feasibility in Context (implementation of an intervention previously developed somewhere else) and Exploitation (spread of an intervention into routine practice). Leadership, referring to whether the intervention originated with NIHR CLAHRC GM or was initiated by the services or stakeholders involved in delivery, was included to enable us to consider how the TIDieR was used across the different cases. The classification of the case studies was followed by an unstructured discussion on the experience of using TIDieR in the six applied health research projects. The findings of the first workshop were written up, and discussed again at a second workshop, at which the initial ideas were clarified and developed further. The six case studies covered various clinical problems in population health and primary care, and settings across the community, local health authorities, and primary and secondary care services. TIDieR was used in different ways across the six cases. In the three diabetes prevention projects, TIDieR was a central part of the research design from the outset. We used the TIDieR checklist as a framework to structure a topic guide for 43 semi-structured interviews with key informants, purposively selected to include those involved in the conception, formation, management, design and delivery of these three interventions. We also examined relevant reports, journal articles, presentations, scripts and staff training materials to inform the TIDieR description. The data was used to produce a draft description of the intervention, which was circulated to research participants and other stakeholders for comment and subsequent revision. Our intention was to produce a thorough TIDieR description of the intervention, shared by researchers and those involved in the project. In one project (SMART-C booklet), the TIDieR template was used by researchers at an early stage to facilitate the design of a new intervention. It was used iteratively to compile relevant information and evidence from multiple sources (existing evidence, new qualitative data, systematic review and public/stakeholder involvement) for each main component of the intervention. In the two AKI projects, the template was used only within the research and implementation teams. In the AKI sick day guidance project the TIDieR template was compiled by researchers towards the end of the research process, based on their observations and data collection, with the intention of being able to summarise the intervention and describe it accurately in reports. In the AKI management project (which is ongoing at the time of writing) the researchers compiled the template during the early stages of the study, in conjunction with the implementation team. The template will be shared with other project stakeholders implementing the intervention, for comment and potential revision, during the study, as well as being used in the ways intended for the previous sick day guidance project. This approach is consistent with the findings discussed below which have indicated the value of joint input. The cases represent a variety of interventions at the stage of ‘development’ or ‘feasibility in context’, both researcher and service led, and with the TIDieR employed at different time points and with different participants. We were therefore able to consider the use and utility of the TIDieR across a diverse sample. The complexities of using TIDieR for applied health research We identified four themes which capture the difficulties or complexities of using TIDieR in applied health research: fidelity and adaptation, voice, communication beyond the immediate context, and use of TIDieR as a research tool, which are described in the results section. These are each discussed below. We also identified potential revisions or additions to the original TIDieR which would enable it to better capture and reflect key issues in applied health research, described in the discussion section. Fidelity and adaptation For health research to make a difference in the real world, beyond the confines of the immediate study, researchers must be able to report the internal and external contextual detail, local understanding and shift (defined as interventions evolving as they are implemented) at all stages of the research process. ‘This does not mean abandoning a rigorous definition of implementation in terms of completeness and ensuring high fidelity. It does, however, indicate that interventions need to be designed flexibly to allow tailoring to match the target-population characteristics and local resources’ ([32] p204). We found TIDieR to be a useful tool to capture the implementation of interventions over time and encompass the messiness of research, by which we mean those changes and adaptations that occur over the course of projects as opposed to reporting a static intervention and neglecting the evolution of interventions in context. Item 11 of TIDieR reports any strategies designed to ‘maintain or improve fidelity’ ([5] p7) and item 12 describes how well fidelity was achieved. Though listed as separate items the authors note the relationship between the two; and state that complex interventions will necessitate more complex and comprehensive assessments of fidelity, such as paying attention to training, intervention delivery and reception. ‘This item (11)—and item 12—extend beyond simple receipt of the intervention (such as how many participants were issued with the intervention drug or exercises) and refer to “how well” the intervention was received or delivered (such as how many participants took the drug/did the exercises, how much they took/did, and for how long)’ ([5] p7). Item 10 reports on modification, allowing consideration of what aspects were modified over time in this context, why when and how they were modified. For example, TIDieR was able to capture how, why and when the Community Referral DPP intervention changed from a focus on high risk communities (in terms of ethnicity and deprivation) to a more general population focus in response to perceived pressure from leaders for higher numbers of referrals. Using interview schedules guided by the TIDieR template, we elicited important information on how the staffing of the Telephone DPP service had changed over time to a service delivered solely by lay health advisors, whereas in the past there had been an initial phone call by a clinical diabetes nurse or dietician. In the AKI sick day guidance project the TIDieR clearly documented how useful facilitator observations were, as these illustrated not all practitioners had implemented the intervention as intended. Though it is challenging to explore complexity in a table format, the authors of TIDieR have made efforts to engage with the dynamic messiness of research. The shift towards more nuanced, complex reflections on potential differences between the intended and experienced, or how it was understood and valued is welcomed. Making these habitual aspects of the research cycle clear within a summarised format has the capacity to enhance future interventions through highlighting areas for more detailed reflection using additional resources. The purpose of TIDieR within the RCT setting is to enable researchers to clearly describe the interventions that are being tested, and those interventions are usually defined in the protocol at the outset. When TIDieR is used outside the context of a clinical trial, with an intervention that is being implemented by service providers and evolves over time, description becomes more complex. It becomes important to establish whose voice TIDieR represents: the research team, service deliverers or commissioners, or a combination. Effective and on-going communication between researchers and service providers, understanding of context, and building trusting relationships is linked to improved and sustained implementation [32]. As identified in Table 2, we took different approaches to the ‘voice’ when using TIDieR to describe the six interventions, dependant on the setting and context of each. In the three diabetes prevention research projects we made a deliberate attempt to involve service providers in the development of the TIDieR intervention description. The inclusion of perspectives other than the researchers’ meant that the final tool reflected a more contextualised understanding of the interventions. In the Community referral DPP intervention, the service providers emphasised that the third sector organisation delivering the community intervention not only had prior experience of health promotion but had already developed relationships with the public health commissioners. The team was therefore able to capture these ‘soft’ ingredients (relationships, experiences, attitudes) that the service providers considered as essential professional background or expertise. In the AKI sick day guidance project the TIDieR template was written by the researchers, as a summary of the research findings, during the reporting phase of the study. The researchers found the template useful in producing a concise summary of the intervention and subsequently employed it from an earlier stage in the Primary Care Management of AKI project. This project is ongoing: at the time of writing a version of the template, completed by the researchers, had been included in the research protocol. The research team are planning to share the template with the project leads at the partnering organisation (a CCG) where the intervention is running, and potentially with providers, to prompt discussion about the intervention. The SMART-C researchers used the TIDieR template to identify where there were gaps in the evidence or where certain design elements were unclear. Initial design elements were identified from the existing literature and through a systematic review. A qualitative study which collected views of both service providers and service users, as well as researcher observations, which were then also included. Elements which were still unclear could then be clarified through further stakeholder feedback with service providers and staff, and through public involvement of service users. On reflection, the inclusion of multiple voices is important because of the nature of applied health research, which is often concerned with evaluating interventions ‘owned’ by services or co-producing new interventions. Four of the six research projects were evaluations of pre-existing interventions that were designed or adapted by service leads (three diabetes prevention projects and the AKI sick day guidance). The other two (Smart- C booklet and Primary Care Management of AKI) involved co-producing new interventions between researchers and service leads. The nature of these projects meant that, unlike most trial contexts, researchers were reliant for their understanding of the interventions on seeking out the voices of those who designed them or those who would deliver and use them. In the single case where we didn’t do this it was due to lack of time, but has prompted the researchers to ensure they do this as the AKI sick day guidance study progresses. This does however raise questions about how best, and to what extent, TIDieR can be used to adequately capture multiple voices and particularly to capture areas of disagreement. In the Telephone DPP study for example, the service leads reported that motivational interviewing was a component of the intervention but the research team felt that the content may not meet requirements to be reported as formal motivational interviewing and were reluctant to describe it as such. This proved helpful in this case, as the team were able to recommend to the providers certain criteria (such as independent review of staff interactions with patients and staff completing accredited training) that would need to be met if they wished to describe the intervention as motivational interviewing. Nevertheless this demonstrates that researchers and service providers may disagree about how the intervention can be described. The research team may still need to ‘own’ the document and have final say regarding its content, and ensuring that different perspectives are sought out and included should be part of a broader collaborative strategy rather than considered inherent to completion of the tool. To support this reflection, it may help to include a preliminary section in TIDieR detailing who had input into its production and the intended audience/audiences, including prompts to consider seeking input from participants at all stages of the development, implementation and adaption of the intervention. Communicating beyond the immediate context Increasingly, there is recognition of the need to support the spread of effective interventions and achieve operation at scale. To achieve this, mechanisms are needed for effectively summarising and distributing not only descriptions of intervention components but contextualised narratives of why and how such components were chosen and realised in practice. Therefore, a clear structured summary of an intervention, such as TIDieR, has potential utility beyond the immediate research context. The TIDieR template is a useful way of describing and documenting the intervention and its context, allowing replication or roll-out. The standardised format ensures that the key information is accessible, facilitating easier comparison between different interventions. Making explicit the drivers behind why elements were chosen (for example policy priorities or resource decisions) and the inclusion of ‘soft’ ingredients (such as the need for existing collaborations) can help future implementers to consider whether the same factors apply in their context, and anticipate what tailoring or adaptation may be required. The TIDieR description we developed for the Telephone DPP intervention was adopted by local service providers, who attached the TIDieR template to their application to UK government for continued funding. However, we do not wish to imply that context can be captured through TIDieR as a simplistic and prescriptive feature of delivery. We do not think that context could or should be included as another ingredient or component that supports replication. Rather than context being part of the ‘recipe’ for delivery, its inclusion would be to ensure that in messy, complex situations in the real world, due attention is paid to how contextual factors have impacted on the intervention. This could help others interpret how their own contexts may impact on delivery, and consider broader barriers or facilitators at meso and macro levels. This could include for example whether there is professional capacity to deliver the intervention, pre-existing or planned local incentives to encourage uptake, and any existing local resource or capacity being drawn upon. For example, in the Community Referral NDPP, the research team explicitly commented that the organisations making referrals to diabetes prevention services had pre-existing established networks within local communities and community groups. TIDieR as a research design tool The process of using TIDieR to elicit the views of different stakeholders can expose disagreement about how the intervention is described and what constitutes its essential ingredients. As well as enabling the team to capture a more authentic picture of the messy reality of implementation in practice, this can highlight contested aspects of the intervention which may have an impact on effectiveness. In the Telephone DPP intervention, the iterative process of describing the intervention with stakeholders revealed tensions around moving delivery of the first steps of the intervention from the specialist diabetes team to community health advisors. Specifically, nurses and dieticians from the specialist diabetes team felt that their expertise was essential for this first step, compared to health advisors who felt their non-clinical skills could in fact be better suited to behavioural and motivational guidance work. Simply describing that the intervention was now delivered by health advisors would have masked the debate around necessary skills and expertise. Uncovering this debate prompted us to further qualitatively explore the decision making around the change of delivery and the perceptions of the staff involved regarding its impact both in terms of intervention availability (with specialist nurses being a more expensive and under demand resource) and effectiveness (with debate about the importance of clinical knowledge and experience compared to the motivational interviewing techniques employed by the health advisors). TIDieR can potentially be useful for facilitating stakeholders to reflect on what they are doing. It allows participants to see the whole picture of a service that they play a part in. In the SMART-C intervention, using TIDieR at an early stage provided a useful structure to identify what aspects of the intervention needed to be covered and where the gaps in evidence were, therefore ensuring all necessary elements of a complex and messy intervention were adequately addressed and described during the design process. The TIDieR template provided a streamlined documentation process for designing an intervention, particularly given that the evidence for the individual components of the intervention were drawn from multiple sources. Proposed changes to TIDieR Overall, having used TIDieR for intervention description in six applied health research projects, we see it as a useful and valuable tool for describing the messiness of applied health research. Our research suggests changes to TIDieR, to enhance its utility for researchers working beyond the RCT, summarised in Table 3. Table 3 Suggestions for additional items in TIDieR for use outside trials An additional item, ‘Voice’ would convey who compiled the TIDieR description and whose opinions were sought in its preparation. The addition of ‘Voice’ is not in itself a process recommendation that specifies how multiple perspectives can be included, and such a recommendation is likely to be beyond the scope of the template. Among our cases, there were different mechanisms employed for including multiple voices – directly seeking input on an initial version of a completed TIDieR template, synthesis and integration of qualitative research, and patient & public involvement input. Rather, it is intended as a prompt to encourage researchers to acknowledge if input from other stakeholders was sought or not. The TIDieR itself may then reflect multiple perspectives, but would not, for example, replace in-depth qualitative research in being able to fully capture differences in perspective. This would offer a means of explicitly incorporating insights from process-oriented qualitative data, demonstrating how they impact on delivery of the intervention itself (four of the six cases included qualitative data collection that informed the TIDieR). The issues of power and ownership however are complex and relate to interactions between the research team and the sites or people who are being researched. Explicitly prompting researchers to seek out other stakeholder views and capture or address differences could nevertheless provide a mechanism to encourage transparent reporting of these issues. It could also encourage researchers to be aware of issues locally that may impact on the implementation of an intervention. An additional item ‘Stage of Implementation’ would convey what stage the intervention has reached, using a continuum of implementation research suggested by the World Health Organisation, which has stages ranging from proof of concept studies (is it safe and does it work?) through proof of implementation (how does it work in real-world settings?) to studies focused on implementation at scale and longer term sustainability [33]. Our experience with TIDieR suggests that all aspects of the intervention can by modified during the research period, so it would be useful to change ‘Modification’ to a column, to be completed for every item on the checklist. A useful extension to the ‘How Well (actual) item would go beyond simple description of the extent to which the intervention was delivered as planned, and explain the contextual factors that contributed to any modifications or changes that took place. We have used TIDieR for systematic intervention description in six research projects. Overall we found the tool beneficial for reflection, clarification and reporting, and we have identified four amendments to enhance its utility. These amendments illuminate the need for the explicit and dynamic reporting of research contexts, agents and voices, and their combined role on knowledge production; aspects of the research process which have previously been overlooked. The next steps in taking this forward would be a systematic literature review and A Delphi exercise to identify and reach consensus on additional TIDieR items for applied health research, following guidance developed by the EQUATOR network [6]. 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CLAHRC GM; 2016. http://www.clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Evaluation-of-the-National-Health-Service-Diabetes-Prevention-Programme-demonstrator-site-in-Salford.pdf. Cotterill S, Knowles S, Humphreys J, McAvoy A, O’Donnell C, Spence M, Coupe N, Weisshaar C. Identifying the roles of community and enhanced GP referral services in the recruitment and retention of people to diabetes prevention programmes in Salford. In. CLAHRC GM; 2016. http://www.clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/CLAHRC-NDPP-Report-2-FINAL.pdf. NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester: Post-acute kidney injury care: management of patients who have had an episode of care complicated by AKI. http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/our-work/kidney-health/bury-post-aki/. Accessed 29 Dec 2017. NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester: NHS Salford CCG Sick Day Guidance Final Report. In. NIHR CLAHRC GM; 2017. http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/SalfordCCGReport-SKHIP-201-final-2.pdf. NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester. http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/. Accessed 29 Dec 2017. NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester: CLAHRC Greater Manchester Project Typology. In. 2017. http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/our-work/. Accessed 29 Dec 2017. Bopp M, Saunders RP, Lattimore D. The tug-of-war: fidelity versus adaptation throughout the health promotion program life cycle. J Prim Prev. 2013;34(3):193–207. Peters D.H, Tran NT, Adam T. Implementation research in health: a practical guide. Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, World Health Organization, 2013. http://www.who.int/alliance-hpsr/resources/implementationresearchguide/en/. This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care Greater Manchester (NIHR CLAHRC GM). The NIHR CLAHRC GM is a partnership between providers and commissioners from the NHS, industry and the third sector, as well as clinical and research staff from the University of Manchester. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, NIHR or the Department of Health. No new data was generated for this paper. Centre for Biostatistics, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester Academic Health Science Centre, Manchester, UK Sarah Cotterill Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Sarah Knowles & Paul Wilson Centre for Primary Care, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Anne-Marie Martindale & Rebecca Elvey NIHR CLAHRC Greater Manchester, Manchester, UK Susan Howard & Michael Spence Manchester Centre for Health Psychology, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Nia Coupe Search for Sarah Cotterill in: Search for Sarah Knowles in: Search for Anne-Marie Martindale in: Search for Rebecca Elvey in: Search for Susan Howard in: Search for Nia Coupe in: Search for Paul Wilson in: Search for Michael Spence in: SC came up with the initial idea for a paper on use of TIDieR outside trials. All authors took part in a series of face to face discussions to develop the arguments we put forward in the paper. SC wrote a short outline of the paper, based on those discussions. All authors contributed to developing and writing the paper, and approved the final version. Authorship of the individual TIDieR descriptions: Telephone DPP (SC, SK, NC, MS); GP Referral DPP (SK, SC, NC, MS), Community Referral DPP (SK, SC, NC, MS), SMART-C Booklet (NC, SC), Primary Care Management of AKI (RE, SH), AKI Sick Day Guidance (RE, AMM, SH). Correspondence to Sarah Cotterill. No ethical approval was needed for this paper, which does not us any personal data. Ethical approval was sought and granted, where appropriate, for the research projects which underpin the paper. Appendix 1: Completed TIDieR templates. (DOCX 58 kb) Cotterill, S., Knowles, S., Martindale, A. et al. Getting messier with TIDieR: embracing context and complexity in intervention reporting. BMC Med Res Methodol 18, 12 (2018). https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/s12874-017-0461-y DOI: https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1186/s12874-017-0461-y Intervention fidelity Research reporting standards	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line869
__label__cc	0.50667	0.49333	Read Blood on the Wood Online Authors: Gillian Linscott Blood on the Wood BOOK: Blood on the Wood The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you for your personal use only. You may not make this e-book publicly available in any way. Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author's copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy Epigraph Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Also by Gillian Linscott To Jane Jakeman, who chose a picture for Nell to steal. The Dolefull Dance and Song of Death Can you dance The Shaking of the Sheets, A dance that ev'ry one must do? Sixteenth-century ballad HE INSPECTOR LEANED FORWARD, PAINFULLY POLITE. The constable prodded at a dead butterfly with the end of his pencil, not looking at us. It must have been dead for some days on the scratched table in this stuffy little room because its wing crumbled to dust as soon as the pencil touched it. âWhat I don't entirely understandâ¦' the inspector said. He paused. âWhat I'm not entirely clear on, Miss Bray, was how you happened to find the body.' âI opened the cabinet in the studio and it was there.' Big black oak cabinet with the carvings of the murdered lady and the hanging man â not that I could see them in the dark, of course, but I could feel them in memory, knobbly and sharp under the fingers. Which wasn't relevant to what the police wanted. The butterfly had been a tortoiseshell, I think, or possibly a peacock. Hard to tell from the bright fragments that the constable was now stirring with his pencil. I looked up and met the inspector's eyes dishwater grey. âSo how did you come to be in the studio in the middle of the night?' A long silence while I tried to think of a way out. Unsuccessfully. He prompted me, âDid Mr Venn know you were in his house?' âNo.' âSo you weren't staying as a guest?' âNo. I'm down in the field with the rest of the camp.' A little wince at that, as if somebody had slid a dirty plate into the dishwater. The presence of a camp of young socialists was another complication he could have done without. âSo would you be kind enough to tell us what you were doing in Mr Venn's house in the middle of the night?' I took a deep breath, not seeing any useful alternative to the truth. âI was there to steal a picture.' Y THE END OF IT ALL , I'd got to know that picture very well. At the beginning, all I knew was its nationality. âFrench,' Emmeline said, âso you're probably the best person to handle it.' We were sitting in her cluttered little office at our headquarters in Clement's Inn, just off the Strand. It was less than a year since our organisation had moved its headquarters from Manchester to London and since then things had been moving too fast to get unpacked properly. âNot unless it talks,' I said. âI speak the language, but I don't know anything about paintings.' Emmeline disregarded that, as she tended to do with anything that got in the way of what she wanted. One of the secrets of her success. âIt's by Boucher.' She looked at me and I looked back at her. I know now that I should have sat up, looked excited and said, âYou don't mean Boucher?' But the name only rang the faintest of bells. To be honest, paintings have never been an enthusiasm. A friend says that's because I never stand still long enough to look at them, which may be true. But it wasn't time to think about that, because she was giving me my instructions. âProbate's been granted on Mrs Venn's will so there's nothing to prevent us sending somebody down to collect it. I think you should call in to Christie's first and arrange to take it straight to them for a valuation. The solicitor thinks it might be worth as much as a thousand pounds, and we certainly need the money.' The young man at Christie's was at least as beautiful as the things they sold. His hair was as fair as thistledown in the sun, hands moving when he talked as if on currents of some warm invisible sea. When I said the word âBoucher' they wafted upwards above the tooled leather top of his desk, almost breaking the surface of his languid calm. âYou're quite certain it's by Boucher? What do you know about its provenance?' I wasn't certain of anything. âIt was left to the Women's Social and Political Union by the late Mrs Philomena Venn. You've heard of her?' He hadn't, of course. Not many people outside the movement had. âShe was a pioneer,' I told him. âOne of the women who signed the suffrage petition back in 1866.' I could see that meant little if anything to the elegant young man, but we'd liked and respected Philomena Venn. She was Irish by birth and had joined the formidable band of women who'd fought for the Vote a good part of the previous century, before some of us were born. They hadn't got what they wanted but, a generation ago, they'd achieved a great step forward in the shape of the Married Women's Property Act, which meant women had a right to keep their own money instead of handing it over to their husbands. The year before, in her late sixties and already ill, Philomena had come from her home in the Cotswolds to visit us at our new headquarters and give us her blessing, from one generation to the next. She was a little grey-haired woman in an old-fashioned bonnet and black lace gloves, frail with the heart disease that would kill her within a few months, but with lively eyes, a beautiful speaking voice and a surprisingly deep and wicked laugh. Because what happened in the next few weeks was the indirect result of decisions by the late Philomena Venn, I'd like to make it clear here and now that none of it was her fault. She made her provisions with generosity, good faith and â to some extent â in blissful ignorance and couldn't possibly have foreseen the mess we were going to make of her intentions. âYes, your movement.' Christie's young man made it sound as if it were happening in some faraway country. âThe Women's Social and Political Union, I think you said.' âOr the Suffragettes, as the prefers to call us.' The hands had sunk down again and were resting lightly on his desk like things in a rock pool. âAnd Mrs Venn told you she was leaving you a Boucher?' He was frankly sceptical now. âShe didn't mention the artist's name. She thought our office needed cheering up and said she'd leave us a picture in her will. She died back in the spring and her solicitor got in touch soon afterwards.' âWhere is the picture now?' âAt her house in the Cotswolds. Her husband's still alive. I'm going down to collect it from him in the next day or two.' âHer husband beingâ¦?' âMr Oliver Venn.' His expression changed, which surprised me. All I knew about Mrs Venn's husband was that he was a committee member of the Fabian Society and the young man at Christie's hardly seemed the type to know about socialist groups, even tame ones like the Fabians. âI think I may have heard about Mr Venn. Is he an art collector?' From sceptical, he'd turned interested again. I told him I had no idea. I was already tired of the picture question and wanted to get it over. âSo shall I bring it in to you for a valuation?' âBy all means, but I should warn you, as we always warn our clients, not to set your hopes too high. It's always sad to have to disappoint people.' I didn't tell him, as I suppose I should have, that our movement was used to being disappointed â and over a much more important thing than pictures. I let him show me out and went to consult a railway timetable. HE VENNS' HOME WAS ON THE Oxfordshire edge of the Cotswolds, near the Gloucestershire border. Two days later, sitting in the train from Paddington as it left the flatlands around Oxford and started its easy climb up the low hills, I was enjoying what amounted to a day off. It was late August, harvest time, with gangs of men out in fields that were half stubble, half standing wheat. One gang was using a steam reaper and the white vapour mingled with straw dust, turning the air to a golden haze. Although the leaves hadn't started their change to autumn colours there was a hardened, almost metallic green about the hedges and copses that goes with the end of summer. It was the first time I'd been out in the country since spring. It had been a more than usually busy year for us, with the move to London and a new Liberal government that must be made to see sense, and I'd had my living to earn as well. I'm a freelance translator and the present job on hand was translating catalogues and other sales material into German for a Birmingham bicycle manufacturer. It paid quite well â or would do when they got round to handing over the fee â but working out the German for gear ratios and brake block specification tolerances was uphill work. So a simple day trip to the Cotswolds to pick up a picture was as good as a rest cure. Two days before I'd sent a reply-paid telegram to Mr Oliver Venn, asking when it would be convenient to collect the picture, and had received a lunch invitation by return. Another exchange of telegrams fixed the train I'd travel by and the assurance that the Venns' gig would be at the small railway halt that served the village to meet me. With luck, and if lunch didn't drag on too long, I might get the picture back to London in time to take it to Christie's before they closed for the evening. By taxi, not bus, we'd decided. Philomena Venn's legacy deserved that at least, even though I'd passed on the young man's warning about being prepared for disappointment. I had to kick my heels waiting for a connection at Chipping Norton Junction then travelled a few stops along the local line. The halt was no more than a wooden platform with a corrugated iron shelter, some empty milk churns, a rack for bicycles. The gig was waiting for me in the yard as promised, a smart little Lawton with the wheel spokes picked out in yellow, a strawberry roan between the shafts and a bowler-hatted groom in the driving seat. He got down to help me in â not that I needed it, but it was an occasion for ladylike manners â and we bowled along uphill between more harvest fields, trailing a light brown plume of dust behind us from the dry earth road. âThat's it, miss.' The groom pointed with his whip to a gem of a manor house, set above a stubble field and just below a wood. It was built of the local limestone that glowed gold as if generating its own light, possibly Elizabethan, with a lot of narrow windows glinting in the sun and a cheerfully disorderly roofline of gables and tall chimneypots. Although it wasn't large as manor houses go it still looked a grand place for a veteran suffrage campaigner and her Fabian husband. I reminded myself not to be prejudiced. There were people who managed to combine wealth and socialism. Logically perhaps there should be more credit given to them than to poor socialists, since they had more to lose. I couldn't bring myself to be quite as logical as that but wouldn't think less of Philomena Venn because she'd lived in a beautiful place. Exceptional by Dick Cheney Borderlands by Skye Melki-Wegner Engaging the Boss (Heirs of Damon) by Adams, Noelle Hard Target by Tibby Armstrong BSC08 Boy-Crazy Stacey by Ann M. Martin Murder on the Hoof: A Mystery (Colleen McCabe Series) by Kathryn O'Sullivan The Bourne ultimatum by Robert Ludlum Touched by a Phoenix by Sophia Byron The Christmas Cradle by Charlotte Hubbard	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line870
__label__cc	0.561338	0.438662	Read Damsels in Distress Online Authors: Joan Hess Tags: #antique BOOK: Damsels in Distress DAMSELS IN The Claire Malloy Mysteries by Joan Hess Strangled Prose The Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn Dear Miss Demeanor Roll Over and Play Dead A Diet to Die For A Really Cute Corpse Death by the Light of the Moon Poisoned Pins Closely Akin to Murder Tickled to Death A Holly, Jolly Murder A Conventional Corpse The Goodbye Body DAMSE LSIN JOAN HESS ST. MARTIN’S MINOTAUR This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. . Copyright © 2007 by Joan Hess. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. www.minotaurbooks.com Hess, Joan. Damsels in distress / Joan Hess, p. cm. 1. Malloy, Claire (Fictious character)—Fiction. 2. Women booksellers— Fiction. 3. Fairs—Fiction. 4. Arkansas—Fiction. I. Title. PS3558.E79785 D35 2007 813’.54—dc22 First Edition: April 2007 For my new King family : Janet, Reggie, Lauren, Jeremy, anJ (of course) Becca ood morrow, Kate; for that is your name, I hear. I blinked at the young man in the doorway. “Well have you heard, but something hard of hearing. They call me Claire Malloy that do talk of me.” “You lie, in faith; for you are call’d plain Kate, and bonny Kate, and sometimes Kate the curst; but Kate, the prettiest Kate in Far- berville. Kate of Kate Hall, my superdainty Kate, for dainties are all Kates, and therefore-” “Mother,” Caron said as she came out of my office, “who is This Person?” “I have no idea,” I admitted. The peculiar man came into the bookstore and bowed, one arm across his waist and the other artfully posed above his head. He was dressed in a white shirt with billowy sleeves, a fringed leather tunic, purple tights, suede boots with curled toes, and a diamond- patterned conical cap topped with a tiny bell. His brown hair dangled to his shoulders, rare among the traditionally minded Färber College students. “Perchance miladies will allow me to maketh known myself?” “This milady thinks you ought to maketh known thyself to the local police,” Caron said, edging toward me. “Start with the Sheriff of Nottingham.” He stood up and swept off his cap. “Pester the Jester, or Edward Cobbinwood, if it pleaseth you all the more.” “Not especially,” I said. “Would you care to explain further?” “Okay, I’m a grad student at the college and a member of ARSE. I was assigned to talk to all the merchants at the mall and on Thurber Street about the Renaissance Fair in two weeks. We’d like to put up fliers in the store windows and maybe some banners. Fiona is hoping you’ll let us use the portico in front of your bookstore for a stage to publicize the event.” “A Renaissance Fair? I haven’t heard anything about this.” I noticed Caron’s sharp intake of breath and glanced at her. “Have you?” She nodded. “I was going to tell you about it when you got home this evening. The AP history teacher sent a letter to everybody who’s taking her course in the fall. We have to either participate in this fair thing or write a really ghastly midterm paper. I don’t think she should be allowed to blackmail us like this. Inez and I are going to get up a petition and have everybody sign it, then take it to the school board. I mean, summer is supposed to be our vacation, not-” “I get your point,” I said. “Look not so gloomy, my fair and freckled damsel,” added Edward Cobbinwood. “It’ll be fun. We put on a couple of Ren Fairs when I was in undergraduate school. It’s like a big costume party, with all kinds of entertainment and food. ARSE will stage battles, and perhaps a gallant knight in shining armor will fight for your honor. “ Caron glared at him. “I am perfectly capable of defending my honor without the help of some guy dressed in rusty hubcaps.” “What’s ARSE?” I asked. “The Association for Renaissance Scholarship and Enlightenment. It’s not a bunch of academics who meet once a year to read dry papers and argue about royal lineage or the feudal system. Anybody can join. The country is divided into kingdoms, counties, and fiefdoms. The local group is Avalon. There are just a few members in town this summer, but when the semester starts in September, Fiona says-” “Fiona Thackery,” Caron said with a sigh, not yet willing to allow me to dismiss her imminent martyrdom. “The AP history teacher. I’m thinking about taking shop instead. I’ve always wanted to get my hands on a nail gun. Or if I take auto mechanics, I’ll learn to change tires and…tighten bolts and stuff like that. That way, when your car falls into a gazillion bits, I’ll know how to put it back together. That’s a lot more useful than memorizing the kings of England or the dates of the Napoleonic Wars.” “You’re taking AP history,” I said. “If you want to work at a garage on the weekends, that’s fine with me.” She gave me a petulant look. “Then you can write the midterm paper: ‘Compare and contrast the concepts of Hellenism and Hebraism in . Cite examples and footnote all source material. Five-thousand-word minimum. Any attempt at plagiarism from the Internet or elsewhere will result in a shaved head and six weeks in the stocks.’ “ I cupped my hand to my ear. “Do I hear the lilting melody of ‘Greensleeves’ in the distance?” “The only recorder I’m playing,” Caron said sourly, “will have a tape in it.” Edward seemed to be enjoying the exchange, but fluttered his fingers and strolled out of the Book Depot to bewilder and beguile other merchants along the street. He must have had a recorder tucked in his pocket, because we could hear tootling as he headed up the hill. It may have been “Greensleeves,” but it was hard to be sure. I hoped he wasn’t a music major. “Goodness gracious,” said Inez Thornton as she came into the bookstore. Her eyes were round behind her thick lenses. “Did you see that weirdo in the purple tights?” Inez has always been Caron’s best friend through thick and thin (aka high crimes and misdemeanors). Caron, red-haired and obstinate, faster than a speeding bullet except when her alarm clock goes off in the morning, able to leap over logic in a single bound, is the dominant force. Meek, myopic Inez is but a pale understudy in Caron’s pageant, but equally devious. Encroaching maturity tempers them at times. There are, of course, many other times. “Tell me more about the letter from your history teacher,” I said. Caron grimaced. “This Renaissance Fair sounds so juvenile. Everybody has to dress up as something and go around pretending to be a minstrel or a damsel or a pirate or something silly like that. There’s a meeting tomorrow afternoon at the high school so we can get our committee assignments. It’s like Miss Thackery thinks we’re already in her class. She shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this. It’s—it’s unconstitutional!” “That’s right,” said Inez, nodding emphatically. “Aren’t we guaranteed life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” “I’m not sure reading Chaucer and Dante will make you all that happy, but you never know,” I said. “You’ll find copies on the back shelf. Help yourselves.” Rather than take me up on my generous offer, they left. I would have felt a twinge of maternal sympathy had they not been muttering for more than a month about how bored they were. I’d never been to a Renaissance Fair, but I supposed it was similar to a carnival show, with tents, booths, and entertainment—not to mention men clad in armor made of aluminum foil, bashing each other with padded sticks. Pester the Jester did not reappear, to my relief. I’ve always been leery of men in tights, especially purple ones (tights, not men). The few customers who drifted in were dressed in standard summer wear and more interested in paperback thrillers and travel books than in Shakespeare. Business is sluggish in the summer, when most of the college students have gone home and their professors are either wandering through cavernous cathedrals in Europe or sifting sand at archeological digs. The academic community as a whole comprises nearly a quarter of Farberville’s population of twenty-five thousand semiliterate souls. Their civilian counterparts tend to do their shopping at the air-conditioned mall at the edge of town when the temperature begins to climb. Chameleon (Supernaturals) by Oram, Kelly The Proposition 5: The Ferro Family by H.M. Ward Liturgical Mysteries 02 The Baritone Wore Chiffon by Mark Schweizer The Doctor's Husband (Colorado Blues) by Ann B Harrison The Pines by Robert Dunbar Saint Steps In by Leslie Charteris The Secret: A Thriller by Young, David Haywood Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J. K. Rowling Finding Willow (Hers) by Robertson, Dawn Buried: Mystery Series (My Murder Mysteries #2) by H. B. 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__label__cc	0.549939	0.450061	Model Scale  1/72 (3)  1/100 (2) A selection of our Russian Air Force related aircraft. Beriev A-50M Mainstay A 1/200 diecast scale model of a Russian 2007 Beriev A-50M Mainstay. A Soviet airborne early warning and control aircraft, the A-50M variant is a modernized Russian version fitted with midair refueling capability. Mikoyan MiG-29 A 1/100 metal diecast scale model of the Mikoyan MiG-29 - A twin-engine jet fighter designed in the Soviet Union and developed during the 1970s to counter new U.S. fighters such as the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Falcon. SU-35 Flanker Russian Air... A 1/72 premium diecast scale model of a Russian Air Force Sukhoi SU-35 Flanker (Purple Scheme). This premium model features: Diecast metal with a minimal use of plastic Professionally painted with exceptional detail Includes landing gear which can be detached Includes a large selection of attachable armament Includes a metal display stand SU-57 / T-50 Russian Air Force A 1/72 premium diecast scale model of a Russian Air Force Sukhoi SU-57 / T-50 stealth fighter jet. This is a premium model, made primarily from diecast metal - with a minimal use of plastic. Exceptionally heavy and a great size to display anywhere. A 1/100 diecast scale model of a Russian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27. A twin-engine supermaneuverable fighter intended as a competitior for the U.S. fighters such as the F-14 Tomcat and F-15 Eagle. Sukhoi SU-34 "Fullback" A 1/72 premium diecast scale model of a Russian Air Force Sukhoi SU-34 "Fullback" Fighter Bomber - Red 21, Russian Air Force, Syria, 2015. Landing gear is detachable (display with it up or down) Optional armament provided & ECM pods Canopy can be opened or closed Includes a crew figure Includes a display stand	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line872
__label__wiki	0.567002	0.567002	Latinx Heritage Month 2018, Part II: New & Upcoming Releases September 22, 2018 September 25, 2018 ~ Alicia @ A Kernel of Nonsense Happy Latinx Heritage Month! This celebration of Latinx culture runs September 15th through October 15th. I’m taking the opportunity to share a few posts over the course of the month to help highlight Latinx authors and their books. Check out my previously post for this series where I share my top ten (eleven) reads by Latinx authors I’ve read over the last year: Latinx Heritage Month, 2018: Part I: Favorite Reads I am also running a Twitter giveaway for Latinx Heritage Month. You can win any book by a Latinx author. Head on over to this tweet for all the info. For this post, I am listing books by Latinx authors set to be released September 2018 through 2019. This is by far my favorite post for this series because we have some amazing books on the horizon. 2019 especially looks like it’s going to be a really good reading year. This is in no way a comprehensive list, but I’ve tried to include as many MG and YA titles that I could find since those are the books I read most. We’ve got debuts, sophomore novels, and books by a few seasoned authors. If you’re looking to read more books by Latinx authors throughout the year, be sure to add these to your TBR. Covers are linked to Goodreads. September 2018 through 2019 Books by Latinx Authors: 1. Citizen Illegal by José Olivarez Publication Date: September 4, 2018 “In this stunning debut, poet José Olivarez explores the stories, contradictions, joys, and sorrows that embody life in the spaces between Mexico and America. He paints vivid portraits of good kids, bad kids, families clinging to hope, life after the steel mills, gentrifying barrios, and everything in between. Drawing on the rich traditions of Latinx and Chicago writers like Sandra Cisneros and Gwendolyn Brooks, Olivarez creates a home out of life in the in-between. Combining wry humor with potent emotional force, Olivarez takes on complex issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, and immigration using an everyday language that invites the reader in. Olivarez has a unique voice that makes him a poet to watch.” 2. Seventh Born by Monica Sanz “Abomination. Curse. Murderer. All names hurled at eighteen-year-old Seraphina Dovetail. As the seventh-born daughter to a witch, she’s the cause of her mother losing her powers and, in turn, her life. Abandoned as a child, Sera dreams of becoming an inspector and finding her family. To do that, she must be referred into the Advanced Studies Program at the Aetherium’s Witchling Academy. Her birth order, quick temper, and tendency to set things on fire, however, have left her an outcast with failing marks…and just what Professor Nikolai Barrington is looking for. The tall, brooding, yet exceedingly handsome young professor makes her a proposition: become his assistant and he’ll give her the referral she needs. Sera is quickly thrust into a world where witches are being kidnapped, bodies are raised from the dead, and someone is burning seventhborns alive. As Sera and Barrington grow ever closer, she’ll discover that some secrets are best left buried…and fire isn’t the only thing that makes a witch burn.” 3. Tight by Torrey Maldonado “Tight: Lately, Bryan’s been feeling it in all kinds of ways . . . Bryan knows what’s tight for him–reading comics, drawing superheroes, and hanging out with no drama. But drama is every day where he’s from, and that gets him tight, wound up. And now Bryan’s friend Mike pressures him with ideas of fun that are crazy risky. At first, it’s a rush following Mike, hopping turnstiles, subway surfing, and getting into all kinds of trouble. But Bryan never really feels right acting so wrong, and drama really isn’t him. So which way will he go, especially when his dad tells him it’s better to be hard and feared than liked? But if there’s one thing Bryan’s gotten from his comic heroes, it’s that he has power–to stand up for what he feels . . . Torrey Maldonado delivers a fast-paced, insightful, dynamic story capturing urban community life. Readers will connect with Bryan’s journey as he navigates a tough world with a heartfelt desire for a different life.” 4. Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina “Merci Suarez knew that sixth grade would be different, but she had no idea just how different. For starters, Merci has never been like the other kids at her private school in Florida, because she and her older brother, Roli, are scholarship students. They don’t have a big house or a fancy boat, and they have to do extra community service to make up for their free tuition. So when bossy Edna Santos sets her sights on the new boy who happens to be Merci’s school-assigned Sunshine Buddy, Merci becomes the target of Edna’s jealousy. Things aren’t going well at home, either: Merci’s grandfather and most trusted ally, Lolo, has been acting strangely lately — forgetting important things, falling from his bike, and getting angry over nothing. No one in her family will tell Merci what’s going on, so she’s left to her own worries, while also feeling all on her own at school. In a coming-of-age tale full of humor and wisdom, award-winning author Meg Medina gets to the heart of the confusion and constant change that defines middle school — and the steadfast connection that defines family.” 5. Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older “It’s 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker. Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community–a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it’s too late?” 6. All the Stars Denied by Guadalupe García McCall “In a companion novel to her critically acclaimed Shame the Stars, Guadalupe Garcia McCall tackles the hidden history of the United States and its first mass deportation event that swept up hundreds of thousands of Mexican American citizens during the Great Depression.” 7. Analee in Real Life by Janelle Milanes “Ever since her mom died three years ago, Analee Echevarria has had trouble saying out loud the weird thoughts that sit in her head. With a best friend who hates her and a dad who’s marrying a yogi she can’t stand, Analee spends most of her time avoiding reality and role-playing as Kiri, the night elf hunter at the center of her favorite online game. Through Kiri, Analee is able to express everything real-life Analee cannot: her bravery, her strength, her inner warrior. The one thing both Kiri and Analee can’t do, though, is work up the nerve to confess her romantic feelings for Kiri’s partner-in-crime, Xolkar—aka a teen boy named Harris whom Analee has never actually met in person. So when high school heartthrob Seb Matias asks Analee to pose as his girlfriend in an attempt to make his ex jealous, Analee agrees. Sure, Seb seems kind of obnoxious, but Analee could use some practice connecting with people in real life. In fact, it’d maybe even help her with Harris. But the more Seb tries to coax Analee out of her comfort zone, the more she starts to wonder if her anxious, invisible self is even ready for the real world. Can Analee figure it all out without losing herself in the process?” 8. Pride by Ibi Zoboi “Zuri Benitez has pride. Brooklyn pride, family pride, and pride in her Afro-Latino roots. But pride might not be enough to save her rapidly gentrifying neighborhood from becoming unrecognizable. When the wealthy Darcy family moves in across the street, Zuri wants nothing to do with their two teenage sons, even as her older sister, Janae, starts to fall for the charming Ainsley. She especially can’t stand the judgmental and arrogant Darius. Yet as Zuri and Darius are forced to find common ground, their initial dislike shifts into an unexpected understanding. But with four wild sisters pulling her in different directions, cute boy Warren vying for her attention, and college applications hovering on the horizon, Zuri fights to find her place in Bushwick’s changing landscape, or lose it all. In a timely update of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, critically acclaimed author Ibi Zoboi skillfully balances cultural identity, class, and gentrification against the heady magic of first love in her vibrant reimagining of this beloved classic.” 9. The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes “Zane has always enjoyed exploring the dormant volcano near his home in New Mexico, even though hiking it is challenging. He’d much rather hang out there with his dog, Rosie, than go to middle school, where kids call him Sir Limps a Lot, McGimpster, or Uno—for his one good leg. What Zane doesn’t know is that the volcano is a gateway to another world and he is at the center of a powerful prophecy. A new girl at school, Brooks, informs him that he’s destined to release an evil god from the ancient Maya relic he is imprisoned in—unless she can find and remove it first. Together they return to the volcano, where all kinds of crazy happens. Brooks turns into a hawk, a demon attacks them in a cave, and Rosie gives her all while trying to protect Zane. When Zane decides to save his dog no matter the cost, he is thrust into an adventure full of surprising discoveries, dangerous secrets, and an all-out war between the gods, one of whom happens to be his father. To survive, Zane will have to become the Storm Runner. But how can he run when he can’t even walk well without a cane? Feisty heroes, tricky gods, murderous demons, and spirited giants are just some of the pleasures that await in this fresh and funny take on Maya mythology, as rich and delicious as a mug of authentic hot chocolate.” 10. American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott “With a strong, loving family, an incredibly loyal best friend, and a budding romance with the girl of his dreams, life shows promise for seventeen-year-old Teodoro “T” Avila. But he takes some hard hits the summer before his senior year when his nearly perfect brother Manny returns from a tour in Iraq with a devastating case of PTSD. In a desperate effort to save Manny from himself and pull their family back together, T’s fiery sister Xochitl hoodwinks her brothers into a road trip with many stops along the road to visit loved ones from their past.” 11. The Wind Called My Name by Mary Louise Sanchez “Some days, ten-year-old Margaríta Sandoval feels as if the wind might blow her away. The country has been gripped by the Great Depression, so times are hard everywhere. Then she has to leave her família in New Mexico — especially her beloved Abuelita — to move to Fort Steele, Wyoming, where her father has taken a job on the railroad. When Margaríta meets Evangeline, she’s excited to have a friend her own age in Wyoming. But it often seems like Evangeline, like many other people in town, doesn’t understand or appreciate the Sandovals’ Hispanic heritage. At the same time, the Sandovals discover they might lose Abuelita’s land and their ancestral home unless they can pay off her tax bill. Can Margaríta keep her friend, help her family in New Mexico, and find a place in Fort Steele for good?” 12. They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid’s Poems by David Bowles “Twelve-year-old Güero is Mexican American, at home with Spanish or English and on both sides of the river. He’s starting 7th grade with a woke English teacher who knows how to make poetry cool. In Spanish, “Güero” is a nickname for guys with pale skin, Latino or Anglo. But make no mistake: our red-headed, freckled hero is puro mexicano, like Canelo Álvarez, the Mexican boxer. Güero is also a nerd—reader, gamer, musician—who runs with a squad of misfits like him, Los Bobbys. Sure, they get in trouble like anybody else, and like other middle-school boys, they discover girls. Watch out for Joanna! She’s tough as nails. But trusting in his family’s traditions, his trusty accordion and his bookworm squad, he faces seventh grade with book smarts and a big heart. Life is tough for a border kid, but Güero has figured out how to cope. He writes poetry.” 13. Ana Maria Reyes Does Not Live in a Castle by Hilda Eunice Burgos “Her last name may mean “kings,” but Ana Maria Reyes REALLY does not live in a castle. Rather, she’s stuck in a tiny apartment with two parents (way too lovey-dovey), three sisters (way too dramatic), everyone’s friends (way too often), and a piano (which she never gets to practice). And when her parents announce a new baby is coming, that means they’ll have even less time for Ana Maria. Then she hears about the Eleanor School, New York City’s best private academy. If Ana Maria can win a scholarship, she’ll be able to get out of her Washington Heights neighborhood school and achieve the education she’s longed for. To stand out, she’ll need to nail her piano piece at the upcoming city showcase, which means she has to practice through her sisters’ hijinks, the neighbors’ visits, a family trip to the Dominican Republic . . . right up until the baby’s birth! But some new friends and honest conversations help her figure out what truly matters, and know that she can succeed no matter what. Ana Maria Reyes may not be royal, but she’s certain to come out on top.” 14. Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore “The biggest lie of all is the story you think you already know. The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they’re also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan. But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans’ spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them. Blanca & Roja is the captivating story of sisters, friendship, love, hatred, and the price we pay to protect our hearts.”</span 15. Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria “In the city of Eldra, people are ruled by ancient prophecies. For centuries, the high council has stayed in power by virtue of the prophecies of the elder seers. After the last infallible prophecy came to pass, growing unrest led to murders and an eventual rebellion that raged for more than a decade. In the present day, Cassa, the orphaned daughter of rebels, is determined to fight back against the high council, which governs Eldra from behind the walls of the citadel. Her only allies are no-nonsense Alys, easygoing Evander, and perpetually underestimated Newt, and Cassa struggles to come to terms with the legacy of rebellion her dead parents have left her — and the fear that she may be inadequate to shoulder the burden. But by the time Cassa and her friends uncover the mystery of the final infallible prophecy, it may be too late to save the city — or themselves.” 16. What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera (with Becky Albertalli) “Arthur is only in New York for the summer, but if Broadway has taught him anything, it’s that the universe can deliver a showstopping romance when you least expect it. Ben thinks the universe needs to mind its business. If the universe had his back, he wouldn’t be on his way to the post office carrying a box of his ex-boyfriend’s things. But when Arthur and Ben meet-cute at the post office, what exactly does the universe have in store for them? Maybe nothing. After all, they get separated. Maybe everything. After all, they get reunited. But what if they can’t quite nail a first date . . . or a second first date . . . or a third? What if Arthur tries too hard to make it work . . . and Ben doesn’t try hard enough? What if life really isn’t like a Broadway play? But what if it is?” 17. Charlie Hernández and the League of Shadows by Ryan Calejo “Charlie Hernández has always been proud of his Latin American heritage. He loves the culture, the art, and especially the myths. Thanks to his abuela’s stories, Charlie possesses an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the monsters and ghouls who have spent the last five hundred years haunting the imaginations of children all across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Central and South America. And even though his grandmother sometimes hinted that the tales might be more than mere myth, Charlie’s always been a pragmatist. Even barely out of diapers, he knew the stories were just make-believe—nothing more than intricately woven fables meant to keep little kids from misbehaving. But when Charlie begins to experience freaky bodily manifestations—ones all too similar to those described by his grandma in his favorite legend—he is suddenly swept up in a world where the mythical beings he’s spent his entire life hearing about seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Hispanic folklore and into his life. And even stranger, they seem to know more about him than he knows about himself. Soon, Charlie finds himself in the middle of an ancient battle between La Liga, a secret society of legendary mythological beings sworn to protect the Land of the Living, and La Mano Negra (a.k.a. the Black Hand), a cabal of evil spirits determined to rule mankind. With only the help of his lifelong crush, Violet Rey, and his grandmother’s stories to guide him, Charlie must navigate a world where monsters and brujas rule and things he couldn’t possibly imagine go bump in the night. That is, if he has any hope of discovering what’s happening to him and saving his missing parents (oh, and maybe even the world). No pressure, muchacho.” 18. welcome to ghost town by Gretchen Gomez “these are the stories of people i once knew. they have come and gone like ghosts in the night. you might not be a part of my life anymore but you’re still the ghosts who haunt me. – welcome to ghost town” 19. the Chaos inside Me by Elisabet Salas “the Chaos inside Me, is a journey of self discovery. It is a story about owning the emotions that live inside the heart and the head. It is the cathartic experience of pain and loss but also the bittersweet feelings of joy and the complexity of beauty. Elisabet expresses the unraveling of herself and the complexity of emotions that stemmed from heartache, her own mental health and the struggles of growing up and into a world with no precedence for a first generation child. This is the accumulation of three years of tears and long nights figuring out that chaos isn’t always a bad thing.” 20. The Resolutions by Mia Garcia “New Years are for fresh starts, but Jess just wants everything to go back to the way it was. From hiking trips, to four-person birthday parties, to never-ending group texts, Jess, Lee, Ryan, and Nora have always been inseparable—and unstoppable. But now, with senior year on the horizon, they’ve been splintering off and growing apart. And so, as always, Jess makes a plan. Reinstating their usual tradition of making resolutions together on New Year’s Eve, Jess adds a new twist: instead of making their own resolutions, the four friends assign them for each other—dares like kiss someone you know is wrong for you, show your paintings, learn Spanish, say yes to everything. But not even the best laid plans can take into account the uncertainties of life. As the year unfolds, Jess, Ryan, Nora, and Lee each test the bonds that hold them together. And amid first loves, heart breaks, and life-changing decisions, beginning again is never as simple as it seems.” 21. Blizzard Besties by Yamile Saied Méndez Publication Date: December 26, 2018 “Vanesa Campos can’t wait for winter vacation. Skiing on the slopes, sipping hot cocoa . . . her week at Pinecloud Lodge promises to be cozy and perfect. And maybe she can make some new friends! Never mind that glamorous Beck writes off Vanesa right away; twins Emma and Eric are ready to join the fun out in the snow. But when the flakes start falling, everything changes. Vanesa’s little brother, Hunter, might be stranded out in the blizzard! Vanesa will have to team up with all the kids — plus one giant dog — to rescue him. Can she save her brother and discover which real friends will weather the storm with her?” 22. A Sprinkle of Spirits by Anna Meriano Publication Date: February 5, 2019 “Leonora Logroño has finally been introduced to her family’s bakery bruja magic—but that doesn’t mean everything is all sugar and spice. Her special power hasn’t shown up yet, her family still won’t let her perform her own spells, and they now act rude every time Caroline comes by to help Leo with her magic training. She knows that the family magic should be kept secret, but Caroline is her best friend, and she’s been feeling lonely ever since her mom passed away. Why should Leo have to choose between being a good bruja and a good friend? In the midst of her confusion, Leo wakes up one morning to a startling sight: her dead grandmother, standing in her room, looking as alive as she ever was. Both Leo and her abuela realize this might mean trouble—especially once they discover that Abuela isn’t the only person in town who has been pulled back to life from the other side. Spirits are popping up all over town, causing all sorts of trouble! Is this Leo’s fault? And can she reverse the spell before it’s too late? Anna Meriano’s unforgettable family of brujas returns in a new story featuring a heaping helping of amor, azúcar, and magia.” 23. The Moon Within by Aida Salazar “Celi Rivera’s life swirls with questions. About her changing body. Her first attraction to a boy. And her best friend’s exploration of what it means to be genderfluid. But most of all, her mother’s insistence she have a moon ceremony when her first period arrives. It’s an ancestral Mexica ritual that Mima and her community have reclaimed, but Celi promises she will NOT be participating. Can she find the power within herself to take a stand for who she wants to be? A dazzling story told with the sensitivity, humor, and brilliant verse of debut talent Aida Salazar.” 24. We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia 25. The Last 8 by Laura Pohl “Clover Martinez has always been a survivor, which is the only reason she isn’t among the dead when aliens invade and destroy Earth as she knows it. When Clover hears an inexplicable radio message, she’s shocked to learn there are other survivors—and that they’re all at the former Area 51. When she arrives, she’s greeted by a band of misfits who call themselves The Last Teenagers on Earth. Only they aren’t the ragtag group of heroes Clover was expecting. The group seems more interested in hiding than fighting back, and Clover starts to wonder if she was better off alone. But then she finds a hidden spaceship, and she doesn’t know what to believe…or who to trust.” 26. Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera “At night, Las Mal Criadas own these streets. Nalah leads the fiercest all-girl crew in Mega City. That roles brings with it violent throw downs and access to the hottest boydega clubs, but the sixteen-year-old grows weary of the life. Her dream is to get off the streets and make a home in the exclusive Mega Towers, in which only a chosen few get to live. To make it to the Mega towers, Nalah must prove her loyalty to the city’s benevolent founder and cross the border in a search for a mysterious gang the Ashé Ryders. Led by a reluctant guide, Nalah battles other crews and her own doubts, but the closer she gets to her goal, the more she loses sight of everything—and everyone— she cares about. Nalah must do the unspeakable to get what she wants—a place to call home. But is a home just where you live? Or who you choose to protect?” 27. Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez “Juan has plans. He’s going to get out of El Paso, Texas, on a basketball scholarship and make something of himself—or at least find something better than his mom Fabi’s cruddy apartment, her string of loser boyfriends, and a dead dad. Basketball is going to be his ticket out, his ticket up. He just needs to make it happen. His best friend JD has plans, too. He’s going to be a filmmaker one day, like Quinten Tarantino or Guillermo del Toro (NOT Steven Spielberg). He’s got a camera and he’s got passion—what else could he need? Fabi doesn’t have a plan anymore. When you get pregnant at sixteen and have been stuck bartending to make ends meet for the past seventeen years, you realize plans don’t always pan out, and that there some things you just can’t plan for… Like Juan’s run-in with the police, like a sprained ankle, and a tanking math grade that will likely ruin his chance at a scholarship. Like JD causing the implosion of his family. Like letters from a man named Mando on death row. Like finding out this man could be the father your mother said was dead. Soon Juan and JD are embarking on a Thelma and Louise–like road trip to visit Mando. Juan will finally meet his dad, JD has a perfect subject for his documentary, and Fabi is desperate to stop them. But, as we already know, there are some things you just can’t plan for…” 28. Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez “How did a raw chicken get inside Yasmany’s locker? When Sal Vidon meets Gabi Real for the first time, it isn’t under the best of circumstances. Sal is in the principal’s office for the third time in three days, and it’s still the first week of school. Gabi, student council president and editor of the school paper, is there to support her friend Yasmany, who just picked a fight with Sal. She is determined to prove that somehow, Sal planted a raw chicken in Yasmany’s locker, even though nobody saw him do it and the bloody poultry has since mysteriously disappeared. Sal prides himself on being an excellent magician, but for this sleight of hand, he relied on a talent no one would guess . . . except maybe Gabi, whose sharp eyes never miss a trick. When Gabi learns that he’s capable of conjuring things much bigger than a chicken–including his dead mother–and she takes it all in stride, Sal knows that she is someone he can work with. There’s only one slight problem: their manipulation of time and space could put the entire universe at risk. A sassy entropy sweeper, a documentary about wedgies, a principal who wears a Venetian bauta mask, and heaping platefuls of Cuban food are just some of the delights that await in his mind-blowing novel gift-wrapped in love and laughter.” 29. Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine “Indigenous Latina women living in the American West take center stage in this debut collection of stories–a powerful meditation on friendship, mothers and daughters, and the deep-rooted truths of our homelands. Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s magnetic debut story collection breathes life into her Indigenous Latina characters and the land they inhabit. Set against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado–a place that is as fierce as it is exquisite–these women navigate the land the way they navigate their own lives: with caution, grace, and quiet force. In ‘Sugar Babies,’ ancestry and heritage are hidden inside the earth, but have the tendency to ascend during land disputes. ‘Any Further West’ follows a sex worker and her daughter as they leave their ancestral home in southern Colorado only to find a foreign and hostile land in California. In “Tomi,” a woman returns home from prison, finding herself in a gentrified city that is a shadow of the one she remembers from her childhood. And in the title story, ‘Sabrina & Corina,’ a Denver family falls into a cycle of violence against women, coming together only through ritual. Sabrina & Corina is an exploration of the universal experiences of abandonment, heritage, and an eternal sense of home; and a moving narrative of unrelenting feminine power.” 30. Brief Chronicles of Another Stupid Heartbreak by Adi Alsaid “The summer after senior year is not going as eighteen-year-old Lu Charles expected: after her longtime boyfriend unexpectedly breaks up with her, Lu can’t write a single word, despite the fact that her college scholarship is tied to her columnist job at hip online magazine Misnomer. Then, she meets Cal. Cal’s ever-practical girlfriend Iris is looking ahead to her first year of college, and her plans do not include a long-distance boyfriend. When Lu learns that Cal and Iris have planned to end their relationship at the end of the summer, she becomes fascinated and decides to chronicle the last months the couple will spend together. The closer she gets to the couple, the more she likes them, and the more she wants to write about them. The summer unfurls, and Lu discovers what it really means to be in love. On the page, or off it. The book is touching exploration of love and how it shapes us both during a relationship and after it has ended.” 31. Silver Meadows Summer by Emma Otheguy “Eleven-year-old Carolina’s summer–and life as she knows it–is upended when Papi loses his job, and she and her family must move from Puerto Rico to her Tía Cuca and Uncle Porter’s house in upstate New York. Now Carolina must attend Silver Meadows camp, where her bossy older cousin Gabriela rules the social scene. Just as Carolina worries she’ll have to spend the entire summer in Gabriela’s shadow, she makes a friend of her own in Jennifer, a fellow artist. Carolina gets another welcome surprise when she stumbles upon a long-abandoned cottage in the woods near the campsite and immediately sees its potential as a creative haven for making art. There, with Jennifer, Carolina begins to reclaim the parts of the life she loved in Puerto Rico and forget about how her relationship with Mami has changed and how distant Papi has become. But when the future of Silver Meadows and the cottage is thrown into jeopardy, Carolina and–to everyone’s surprise–Gabriela come up with a plan to save them. Will it work?” 32. Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno “Rosa is cursed by the sea–at least that’s what they say. Dating her is bad news, especially if you’re a boy with a boat. But Rosa feels more caught than cursed. Caught between cultures and choices. Between her abuela, a beloved healer and pillar of their community, and her mother, an artist who crashes in and out of her life like a hurricane. Between Port Coral, the quirky South Florida town they call home, and Cuba, the island her abuela refuses to talk abou As her college decision looms, Rosa collides—literally—with Alex Aquino, the mysterious boy with tattoos of the ocean whose family owns the marina. With her heart, her family, and her future on the line, can Rosa break a curse and find her place beyond the horizon?” 33. The Tesla Legacy by K.K. Pérez “THE TESLA LEGACY follows a precocious young scientist named Lucy Phelps whose fateful encounter in the Tesla Suite of the New Yorker Hotel unlocks her dormant electrical powers. As Lucy struggles to understand her new abilities through scientific experimentation, she is thrust into a centuries old battle between rival alchemical societies. One side wants her help and the other wants her dead, but both believe she is the next step in human evolution. Unfortunately, carriers of the genetic mutation—including Nikola Tesla—have a greatly reduced life expectancy. Even if Lucy can outrun her enemies, she can’t outrun herself. “ The Following Titles Do Not Have Covers Yet/Have Tentative Release Dates (Titles linked to Goodreads) 34. The Grief Keeper by Alex Villasante “Seventeen-year-old Marisol Morales and her little sister Gabi are detainees of the United States government. They were caught crossing the U.S. border, to escape the gang violence in their country after their brother was murdered. When Marisol learns that the old family friend who had offered them refuge in America has died and they are going to be sent home, they flee. They hitchhike, snagging a ride with an unassuming woman who agrees to drive them to New Jersey, but when Marisol wakes up in D.C. she learns the woman is actually a government agent. Indranie Patel has a proposal for Marisol: she wants Marisol to be a Grief Keeper, someone who will take another’s grief into their body. It’s a dangerous experimental study, but if Marisol agrees she and Gabi will be allowed to stay in the United States. If the experiment fails the girls will be sent home, which is a death sentence. Things become more complicated when Marisol meets Rey, the wealthy daughter of a D.C. Senator, and the girl she’s helping to heal. Marisol likes Rey’s short hair and sarcastic attitude. But she didn’t expect the connection from their shared grief to erupt into a powerful love. Suddenly being forced from the United States isn’t just a matter of life and death, but a matter of the heart.” 35. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia “A dark fantasy set in 1920s Mexico inspired by Mayan mythology, about a provincial girl who undertakes a perilous quest to restore the throne of the underworld of a death god.” 36. Hollow Crown by Zoraida Córdova “When the royal family of Puerto Leones sets out to destroy magic through a grand and terrible inquisition, spy and memory-thief Renata seeks to kill the prince, leader of the King’s Justice, who plans to use a terrible new weapon to wipe out the magic of the Moria…” 37. Nocturna by Maya Motayne “To Finn Voy, magic is two things. The first: a knife to hold under the chin of anyone who crosses her. The second: a disguise she shrugs on as easily as others pull on cloaks. A talented shapeshifter, it’s been years since Finn has seen her own face, and that’s exactly how she likes it. But when Finn gets caught by a powerful mobster she’s indebted to, she’s forced into an impossible mission—steal a legendary treasure from the palace or lose her shapeshifting magic forever. After the murder of his older brother, Prince Alfehr is first in line for the Castallan throne. But Alfie can’t help but feel that he will never live up to his brother’s legacy. Riddled with grief, Alfie is obsessed with finding a way to bring his brother back, even if it means dabbling in forbidden magic. In a cruel twist of fate, Alfie’s best friend is nearly killed in the crossfire of Finn’s heist, and Alfie accidentally unlocks a terrible, ancient magic to save him—a magic, which, if not contained, will devour the world. Alfie and Finn race to vanquish what they have unleashed. But to do so, they each must contend with the darkness hiding in their pasts. Set in a Latin-inspired kingdom based in part on the author’s own Dominican heritage, A Forgery of Magic uses a society built on incredibly inventive magic to highlight real-world themes such as culture in the aftermath of colonialism and the anxiety of those who stand to inherit that legacy.” 38. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo “With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, in which teen mom Emoni dreams of turning her talent for cooking into a career.” 39. Five Midnights by Ann Dávila Cardinal “Five friends cursed. Five deadly fates. Five nights of retribución. If Lupe Dávila and Javier Utierre can survive each other’s company, together they can solve a series of grisly murders sweeping though Puerto Rico. But the clues lead them out of the real world and into the realm of myths and legends. And if they want to catch the killer, they’ll have to step into the shadows to see what’s lurking there—murderer, or monster?” 40. All of Us with Wings by Michelle Ruiz Keil “All of Us With Wings, Michelle Ruiz Keil’s mythology-inspired #OwnVoices debut is a post-punk San Francisco fairytale about a seventeen-year-old Latinx governess, her tween genius charge, the girl’s rockstar family, and a pair of ancient children bound to right the wrongs of her stolen childhood. Seventeen-year-old Xochi loves her job as live-in governess for tween genius Pallas, enchanted by the girl’s pagan rockstar parents and the storybook Victorian mansion they share with their band, Lady Frieda. Determined to deserve the fairytale life she’s fallen into, Xochi does her best to put Pallas’s needs before her own–ignoring the grief that lingers from her grandmother’s death and rejecting her growing attraction to Pallas’s guitar player dad, who shares her half Mexican heritage and troubled past. Then, on the night of the Vernal Equinox with a party raging in the house below, Xochi and Pallas perform a riot-grrrl ritual that unintentionally summons the Waterbabies. When her new life and past traumas collide, Xochi must come to terms with her complicated feelings for Pallas’s father, save the mother who abandoned her and find a way to send the Waterbabies home before the San Francisco fog extinguishes their fierce magic.” 41. Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega “Coco meets Stranger Things in Claribel Ortega’s middle grade debut, based on Dominican folklore in which 12-year-old girl Lucely Luna must save the ghosts of her lost loved ones, living as fireflies, with the help of her best friend Syd and her witch grandmother Babette, before evil spirits haunting St. Augustine destroy them and the only home she’s ever known.” 42. Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes “An #ownvoices space opera where a mercenary space captain risks her life and crew to save her sister from a secret galactic organization.” 43. Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez “An #OwnVoices Bolivian-inspired political fantasy. A magically gifted weaver plays the role of double agent to restore her queen to a troubled throne, but upon confronting a masked vigilante and a warm-hearted princess, she discovers that corruption comes in all forms.” 44. Untitled (Brooklyn Brujas, #3) by Zoraida Córdova No synopsis currently. 45. Color Me In by Natasha Diaz “A YA novel based on the author’s own story, is about a mixed-race Jewish girl as she faces coming-of-age issues before she has decided who she is and where she fits within her two very different worlds—one in Harlem and the other in Westchester County. Publication is set for spring 2019.” 46. Children of the River Ghost by Alexandra Aceves “A YA horror novel in which 16-year-old Katie, reeling from bullying after her last relationship, moves to New Mexico and falls for a mysterious, beautiful girl who may be the ghost La Llorona. Publication is set for spring 2019.” 47. The Book of Love by NoNieqa Ramos “Lerner/Carolrhoda Lab has acquired The Book of Love, a standalone novel by NoNieqa Ramos. Overachiever Verdad is struggling to process her best friend’s death while meeting her mother’s high expectations. When she falls for a classmate—who happens to be trans—their romance forces her to confront her demons and figure out who she really is. Publication is planned for fall 2019.” 48. Paperback Midnight by Laura Taylor Namey “Lauren Smulski at Inkyard Press has bought debut author Laura Taylor Namey’s YA novel, Paperback Midnight, pitched as Amber Smith meets Hoarders, about a young woman striving to find a balance between the ordinary life she wants and the reality of living with her hoarding mother. Publication is slated for fall 2019; Natascha Morris at BookEnds Literary Agency negotiated the deal for world rights.” 49. This Just In by Maritza Moulite and Maika Moulite “Quick-witted high school journalist Alaine Beauparlant gets booted from her elite private school after an intricate prank goes cruelly awry. She warily accepts an invitation from her aunt to spend her suspension at the family’s estate in Haiti–where her estranged mom is recuperating from a political fiasco. In her homeland for the first time, Alaine is immediately put to work at her aunt’s start-up helping native children in need. Alaine meets locals, interacts with kids connected to donors, and is shown the ropes by Jason, a fellow intern whose charming ways are making work a bit more challenging. What she doesn’t expect to find are letters, articles, emails, and diary entries that she compiles into a final project that will not only save her academic standing in school, but also help her finally know the mother she’s never really understood.” 50. They Could Have Named Her Anything by Stephanie Jimenez “Fulbright recipient Stephanie Jimenez’s THEY COULD HAVE NAMED HER ANYTHING, the story of two teenaged girls—one Latina and one white—questioning what it means to live up to the name you’ve been given and how far you’ll go for the life you’ve always dreamed of living, grappling with racism, class privilege, female friendship, and familial expectations, to Vivian Lee at Little A.” 51. Becoming Beatriz by Tami Charles No Goodreads page or synopsis at this time. Check out her website here. Are any of these title on your TBR? Any that caught your eye? Something I’ve missed that you’re excited about? Let’s discuss in the comments. Posted in Book Chatter, Latinx Heritage Month 2018 Latinx Heritage Month2019 Latinx booksLatinx TBR booksNew & Upcoming Releases ‹ PreviousThe Friday 56: Every Heart a Doorway Next ›Top Ten Tuesday: Books By Favorite Authors I Still Haven’t Read 30 thoughts on “Latinx Heritage Month 2018, Part II: New & Upcoming Releases” Wonderful collection. I’ve been wanting to check out Storm runner too to use as a good children’s intro to ancient civilizations. Will have to investigate these books some more for sure! Thank you. Yes, I love the sound of The Storm Runner so much. Sounds like a fantastic MG. Yay! I had most of the YA on my TBR already, but you introduced me to some incredible sounding MG. The Resolutions is up for me soon, and I can’t wait to read it. I have been seeing some great reviews! Yay, I’m so glad to hear it! The Resolutions sound wonderful, love that it focuses on a friend group. Hope we both end up loving it. WOW this is an amazing list you have there! The one I am most excited about is Pride! Thank you so much! Pride sounds fantastic. I have it on my shelf and it is just calling me name. So many great suggestions here! I have to say I don’t find that many books by latinx authors around, unfortunately, so this post is incredibly important and relevant. Thanks so much for sharing, Alicia, as I’ll be sure to check some of these out – I already had The Storm Runner and Blanca & Roja on my radar so I’m happy to get a couple more on my TBR 🙂 Also, I hope you’re enjoying Blance & Roja! ❤ I’m so glad I can help point you toward more Latinx authors. I am enjoying Blanca & Roja. I’m not very far in, but it is just as beautiful as her other novels. Holy wow, that’s a lot of books. Are you going to read all Latinx bold in 2019. It could be quite the challenge for your blog! I’m looking forward to the second memoir by Reyna Grande, A Dream Called Home. I also have a collection I need to read, edited by Celia Correas de Zapata, called Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real. *Latinx books This post took me so long to put together. I was even adding a few books the night before. Making the list has definitely got me thinking. I’m mulling over a few ideas. I like the sound of the latter of your upcoming reads. I just finished the short story collection Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado which I really enjoyed and may be looking for other short story collections to try. The one I have looks to be magical realism, at which Latinx authors excel. Wow. So many great looking books to have on my radar! I still need to read my copy of Beneath the Citadel. Yay, hope you add a bunch! Hope you end up loving Beneath the Citadel. Cristina @ Girl in the Pages says: Alicia, this list is SO helpful! I am so excited for Blanca y Roja, and I have an ARC of Seventh Born and I’m excited to see if the protagonist is portrayed as Latinx too. Thanks for compiling this list! I’m so glad, Cristina! I am reading Blanca y Roja (thanks for that) and it is wonderful. Hope Seventh Born ends up being a good read! Wow, what a great post. I’ve found about 7-8 here that I need to add to my wishlist. I can’t express how much I appreciate all the hard work you must have put into this! THANKS! Thanks, Barb! So glad you found some titles to add to your TBR. Thank you so much. It was worth all the hard work. Woah, so many books! I’m excited for the third Brooklyn Brjua book, and What If It’s Us. I’ve heard good things about Pride too! I have Pride on my shelf right now and am so stoked for it! Awesome list! So many of them look great. I will definitely check out Gods of Jade and Shadow which sounds like a great fantasy set in Mexico 🙂 Dinh @ Arlene’s Book Club Thanks! Yes, I am ready for more Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Great list, a lot of these sound really good, will be adding them to my TBR ASAP 😀💜 Yay, I’m happy to hear it! Wow. That’s a great list. I didn’t know many of the titles. Thanks for taking out the time to read it. I am interested in Sabrina and Corina and Dealing with Dreams.. I would be checking this list very frequently x That cover for Sabrina and Corina is the first thing that caught my attention. I’m really looking forward to Dealing in Dreams as well. Lauren Stoolfire (@SunSoar25) says: Wow! Thanks for introducing me to so many wonderful sounding books! 🙂 It’s my pleasure, Lauren! Thank you so much for including my book on this incredible list, Alicia! Can’t wait to share it with you! It’s my pleasure! I can’t wait for They Could Have Named Her Anything.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line874
__label__wiki	0.55991	0.55991	Who spoiled Toronto's miraculous ethnic transformation? What a difference a decade or so makes. This is from a 1996 National Geographic article on Toronto by Richard Conniff: you may be under the impression that it is a white-bread kind of town, largely Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Indeed, a lot of people in Toronto were under that impression until recently, and they are typically bemused and delighted by the miraculous ethnic transformation that has taken place in their city during the past 25 years. "I grew up when you went to Sunday school and dropped your pennies in the box for the missionaries to convert the pagans and the heathens," one older Torontonian told me. That was back before World War II, when the biggest parade in Toronto was the Orange Order's July celebration of Protestant supremacy. Then, in that agreeably noncommittal tone Canadians have perfected, he said, "Now the pagans and the heathens have moved in here, and they're quite nice people, eh?" Not only have the Orangemen receded, but their children now boast that Toronto is the most ethnically and racially diverse city on earth. It has six Chinese newspapers. Its Caribbean community celebrates a huge two-week-long Mardi Gras-style festival (permanently scheduled in summer on account of weather), It has a radio station, CHIN, which broadcasts in 32 different languages. Asked which language is playing at the moment, the station's owner, Johnny Lombardi, looks at his watch: "It's 11:45am. So..yeah, that's Croation. About a third of the 230,000 immigrants who arrive in Canada each year end up in the Toronto area. Refugees arrive in sychrony with the latest international nightmare -- Tamils from Sri Lanka, Hutus from Rwanda, Chechens from the former Soviet Union. Not only have they turned out to be quite nice people, but they have also made Toronto an infinitely nicer city. Wow, all those closures on the Gardiner freeway and mass protests that demand the Canadian government take a side [possibly the wrong side, but who cares? -ed] in their civil war have really made Toronto "infinitely" nicer haven't they? Remember the bad old days when cars drove down roads? How about the non-Tamil ethnic groups...? I've written before about Sudan's ethnic problems following them to Edmonton, but Jamaican gun violence is a routine fact of life in Hogtown these days. Speaking of Edmonton problems, it is to laugh that just 3 years before Edmonton's Boxing Day slaying at West Edmonton Mall you could have read this bit: It occured to me that Toronto has remained law-abiding partly because so many newcomers, arriving from places like Vietname in the 1970s and '80s, have seen how bad the world can get when order slips away to madness. Like Tran, they are usually middle-class. Canadian immigration policy encourages what critics call designer immigrants. Yep, designer immigrants. Imagine how great things could be if, like the critics request, we just did it blindly! Speaking of blindly, here's Wayne Hayes from Ontario Welcome House: "Canadians appreciate order, and we are willing to sacrifice certain freedoms to have that order. So we don't carry handguns. We readily give this up. Canadians believe in lining up. You wait your turn, whether it's for a movie or a bank teller. Or healthcare. Hey, do you remember that time you went to a movie in Buffalo and you never got in because reams of black men kept shoving ahead of you in line? What, that doesn't happen? Go figure. Well, you'd think this massive immigration worry was all a figment of your imagination. Don't dispair: after talking to regular people who support immigration I'm sure a National Geographic writer would then find ordinary people or perhaps academics and professionals who have valid and reasoned concerns about assimilation. I went to visit 56-year-old Ernst Zundel, one of the leading neo-Nazi propagandists in the world. See, I told you he'd find a reasoned criticism and not go to the most discredited crank he could find! Zundel, an immigrant from Germany, lives in a gentrified Toronto neighborhood on a street with Caribbean, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, and Spanish restaurants. His house was crammed with too much narrative, in the form of the books and videotapes he sells, with titled like Did Six Million Really Die? "Canadians deserve all the problems that are coming with immigration," he said. I asked him which problems, and he mentioned drive-by shootings, rapes, robberies. Which immigrants did he blame? "Blacks," he said. "I'm objecting to allowing hordes of racially unabsorbable populations to invade the living space of a specific race." But if it was easy to dismiss Zundel, it was also easy to detect a developing racial tension beneath the city's genteel surface. Other Torontonians spoke euphemistically, but with unmistakable edginess, about how the population of 241,000 blacks, mainly Caribbean immigrants, is fitting in." Ask Jane Creba's family, for example. Today with the Caribbean immigrants causing huge amounts of violence in Toronto's streets it seems like despite the distasteful titles of his tomes Zundel was onto something... in 1996, for example. Drive-by shootings by non-blacks in Toronto...quick, somebody name the last time that happened. Was Capone still alive? Naturally the article is quick to go to blacks claiming police harassment and employment discrimination. Wait, I thought "Canadian immigration policy encourages what critics call designer immigrants" just a few paragraphs ago? Whoops, guess not. Elsewhere in the article we can find reference to our favourite of creatures,the "community organizer". Oh hey, forced marriages make an appearance too: In one paper there were brokered marriage proposals: "Punjabi Khatri Hindu/Kayasta parents seek suitable match for their beautiful daughter, Canadian born...doing Master's in Education. But hey, that's just another great aspect of the Toronto melting pot...like those wonderful Tamil Tigers that a 'restrictive' immigration policy brought in. Labels: #roft, Investigation and Research, Race Religion and Sex Realtor from Toronto said... Very nice post, I live in Toronto and I see all the aspects you've mentioned. Sometimes I do love that Toronto is such a diverse city with countless communities each showing us their unique style of living and cultures that would otherwise be a mystery to us. But on the other hand, I too see many disadvantages in this especially when those nice and friendly communities turn "bad" and start demanding stupid requests and bothering the average folk with their problems. Seems a bit unfair to me sometimes... Take care, Elli Once you descend to the vulgarity of voting for B... "Dairy Causes Diarrhea, Chunky Creamy Butter Chee... George W. Bush Video Countdown, #9 So was it green jobs or dirty jobs? Liberals from the East telling Conservatives in th... (rare) Things I didn't know Keeping track of what Regressive Democrats say Who spoiled Toronto's miraculous ethnic transforma... We'll always have weird holodeck simulations American Unilateralism You heard it here...er...6 months late Somehow I just know there's a catch... The lyrics are only the second best part Backdoor Angels You're kidding me, right? What a difference a year makes: Conservative and N... Danielle Smith's snowball of support Why Stephen Harper will still be the Prime Ministe... Everything queer is new again Baby you can drive my czar as others pick up my slack I keep meaning to buy one of those "Just let me have my fun tonight. A'ight?" "Man, I'd pay money to skip this line." "Uh, you j... George W. Bush Video Countdown, #10 Send Ed a message...er, another one. Louder. No Fat Chicks V I C T O R Y It's true: a gayfish just can't live in the outsid... I'll Bury Those Cock-a-roaches Bush coming to Edmonton and to think I've been doing it for free! Alberta Government departments that can be cut Eight years ago... The planets all align and Lara Croft saves us, or ... What a difference a year makes: Stephen Harper and... Saskatchewan Driving Tips You make the call Corporate failures in the new media world	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line879
__label__cc	0.74749	0.25251	Sonia Benito Hola, I am Sonia! Life style Aey catcher I work as a professional magician and a dancer. You can always find me creating new inventive ways of performing classic and modern magic that is heavily influenced by my personal style and background as a dancer. I have worked for brands such as Rimmel London, Samsung, Maryland Cookies, ITV and Little woods... helping to create their vision using choreography, and a touch of magic to make it unique! I believe magic is a life style, magic is everywhere! Just like Aey Catcher. Why I Work At AEY Catcher I came across Aey Catcher on Instagram last year and I immediately knew I wanted to work with them. I really like magic to push boundaries and challenge the 'traditional' and Aey Catcher's designs do just that. So, I wrote directly to Lukas and showed him my work. I offered to take some cool shots with Aey Catcher cards that were authentic to my style, I wanted to support his creativity and bring some new ideas. After that... I was asked to become an ambassador (YAY!) and so continued to create more content with Hannah Clarke, who is my photographer! Sonia is originally from a (very!) small city in Spain called Palencia. She moved to London when she was 19 years old to follow her dreams! She began performing magic on the stage in Spain at 15, and once she moved to London she started to work as a close up magician. Alongside this, she was training as a dancer and worked for big artists such as Rihanna, Pharrell Williams...etc Sonia is currently is focusing in creating new magic merging this with movement. To her, magic and dance are a lifestyle. Her work considers every small detail of an effect and the aim is to always make it as true to herself as she can. She self-directs and creates with the help of her parter Hannah Clarke, who produces and films most of her work. Sonia started to work with Aey Catcher a year ago, helping to create content and promoting Aey Catcher products. \|MAGIC AND MOVEMENT\| www.soniabenito.com Instagram: soniabenito	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line883
__label__cc	0.748045	0.251955	News and Events 2017 Alias @ Neue Raeume 2017 Displaying its iconic projects and innovative products, Alias showcases its story at Neue Räume 2017The high-end interior design experience takes the stage in Zürich, from 15 to 19 November Alias, the leading Italian design brand, puts on display the experience of contemporary interior design at the ninth edition of Neue Räume. The prestigious trade fair to take place in Zürich from 15 to 19 November gives Alias an opportunity to share with visitors the values with which the company has established its credibility: stylistic innovation, design quality, experimentation with avant-garde materials. The collections styled by internationally celebrated designers embody the salient traits of Alias design: the lines are precise and essential, absolutely timeless; natural materials such as wood and highly technological materials get together in a perfect balance. Thanks to this approach, Alias has been a protagonist in the debate on quality design since 1979, the year it was founded. In Zürich, the brand uses a congenial, comfortable space to display its new products intermingled with iconic projects that, over time, have been awarded prestigious recognitions, such as the Compasso d’Oro and the Red Dot Design Award. Defined by warm grey tones ranging from the darkest hues to the most brilliant nuances, the setting consists of a small private stage where moments of day-to-day life - in the living room, the bedroom, the dining room and the studio - are proposed in a minimal concept. Among the products of new design, Alias unveils the linearity of the hiwood table styled by Gabriele and Oscar Buratti. Pride of place is given to creations by British design duo PearsonLloyd: their slim lounge armchairs characterised by light, fluid lines, slim profiles and soft padding, and their twelve sofa, with its compact design and extreme visual purity. The rigorous elegance of the aline bookcase by Dante Bonuccelli and the clean shape of legnoletto, the wooden bed by Alfredo Häberli, invite the guests to discover the history of Alias through the projects that in less than 40 years of activity have enabled the brand to take up a leading position in the world of quality design. An architectural backdrop gives depth to the exhibition space and accommodates, in a checkerboard system, some of the iconic seats produced by Alias: from the legendary laleggera by Riccardo Blumer, recipient of the Compasso d'Oro Award in 1998, which is now on display in many international museums, to Alfredo Häberli's segesta & taormina, from the elements in the frame line by Alberto Meda to the new version of Patrick Norguet's kobi stool drawing inspiration from the iron chairs of the 1950s. At Neue Räume, Alias reveals its vision of Italian-made interior design through creations by the outstanding designers who were able to translate the philosophy of the company into tangible form and offer a fresh, innovative and eminently practical interpretation of contemporary furniture design. Neue Räume 15-19 November 2017 ABB Eventhalle 550, Oerlikon Zürich Wednesday 14 - Friday 17: 12:00 to 9:00 PM Saturday 18: 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM Alias_Savethedate_NeueRaume_2017	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line888
__label__cc	0.689991	0.310009	Down With Big Scooter Filed to:big scooter Illustration: Sam Woolley (GMG) Today, we’re talking about Chewbacca pooping, Trump, dinosaur fights, sneezing, and more. Your letters! I bought the scooter a few weeks ago to shorten my hellish commute. Yesterday, I was stopped at a crosswalk when a car waved for me to cross. I ‘floored’ the scooter, straight into a curb I hadn’t seen, and did a violent somersault over the handlebars, ending up flat on my back in the middle of the road. Somehow my old and decrepit 42-year-old body sustained no injuries, although my helmet got all scrapped up. I did not die (yet), but if I did die, I’m glad the headline would have been, ‘Man Dies From Unexplained Brain Embolism’ instead of ‘Man Dies In Scooter Accident Just Like His Wife Said Would Happen’. Could you rank for me the most embarrassing ways to die? There’s no need to rank them because the No. 1 answer is to die while being caught masturbating. Sure, there are a lot of stupid, Darwin-award worthy ways to die. Every five seconds, someone in Florida dies because they challenged an alligator to a biting contest. I myself nearly drowned a couple years ago and it would have been entirely my fault. But it’s not really THAT embarrassing to die at your own hand. What is embarrassing is having your pants around your ankles and you dick in your hand, staring at a fucking MILF video buffering while you have a stroke. It’s my greatest fear, and it has been since I was like 13. In my dreams, I am naked in public. I don’t know why I’m naked in public, and no one else in the dream does either! And then I’m like OH GOD I GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE! EVERYONE CAN SEE MY DICK! But then I don’t get out of there! I end up getting on like, a plane instead. While nude! Then I wake up and have to pee! It’s horrible. I don’t want to die nude and horny. I don’t think it’s a lot to ask. Every other potential death takes a backseat to it, even if said death involves you eating the curb while riding a fucking Lime scooter. By the way, I went to Nashville a couple weeks ago and, like D.C. and San Fran, Nashville has been infected with scooter bros whizzing by on fucking Birds. The streets there are littered with souped-up Razors. And I really do mean “littered.” People who use Scooter sharing apps just leave them lying in the middle of the fucking sidewalk, like my five-year-old dropping a candy wrapper on the floor. They don’t even bother to stand them up. All these scooters are gonna make scooter babies and pretty soon the roads will be choked with enormous piles of orphaned scooters and we’ll need a bulldozer-sharing app just to get anywhere. I hate BIG SCOOTER. Someone regulate these two-wheeled dipshits! Walking ain’t that hard! How many McDonald’s menu items could Trump name? Well let’s see… he definitely knows the Big Mac, right? We all love the Big Mac, right folks? A lot of people say to me, “Are we gonna bring the Big Mac back?” because you never, ever heard Obama talk about the Big Mac. Well I’ve been talking about the Big Mac for YEARS, and I’m proud to report that it’s back. You look at that hamburger and it’s a really, really BIG hamburger folks, maybe the biggest mac there is. And then there are the French fries. Let me ask you folks something: when did it become politically incorrect to eat French fries? I had a woman say to me, “Oh Mr. Trump, I used to love French fries, but then a bunch of liberal protesters saw me eating them and told me I was racist.” And that’s so wrong and incredibly disgusting, and I’m gonna hire a special prosecutor to look into that. We’re gonna be a nation that says “You want fries with that?” again, believe me. Then there are the McNuggets. I had a guy come up to me the other day. Big, strong guy. This guy, he says to me, “Sir, I’ve never cried in my life. But the day you became President, I got a 20-piece McNugget on sale, and that never would have happened if Hillary had won.” And then he cries right in front of me. And this is a proud guy. Really huge. I mean he could probably be huge even down there, right folks? That’s nothing to cry about. Who’d win in an average fight between a Triceratops and a T-Rex? This is tough because a cursory Google search suggests that those two animals were similar in mass (with the T-Rex potentially topping out a bit heavier), but that the T-Rex was five to 10 feet taller than its dino counterpart. ME GRIMLOCK WIN TALE OF TAPE! So then it’s a question of whether or not you think the low man wins. I could see the triceratops just ramming away at the T-Rex, cutting out its legs over and over again. And what’s the T-Rex gonna do about it? It’s got those little boy arms. All the T-Rex can do is bend down and pull a Marv Albert on the triceratops’ back. I’m not sure that’s enough. However … it’s worth noting here that the triceratops was vegetarian. And, as well all know, vegetarians are SOFT. The triceratops may shy away from battle to go pick daisies, and that’s when the T-Rex can really take advantage. I say the T-Rex wins because CARNIVORES WANT IT MORE. This may all end up being moot because we’re just a year or two away from scientists being like, “Actually, the triceratops didn’t exist,” or, “Actually, the T-Rex was more peacockian in nature.” Because science ruins everything, the bulk of our anthropological resources are now being used to make dinosaurs shitty. I’m sick of it. I don’t want the historical record corrected on dinosaurs. This planet only has a few years left and I’d rather that all the paleontologists of the world focus their energies on finding treasure, buried aliens, or MEGA dinosaurs. That’s it. If you’re digging around just so you can pull a Neil DeGrasse Tyson and smarm the good dinosaurs out of existence, you haven’t helped anyone at all. “This discovery about pterodactyls actually being a type of housefly could be a MAJOR discovery!” Bullshit. All bullshit. Find Xenu’s bones or get out. Dinosaurs Suck Now If there’s one thing that really upsets me, it is the scientific community’s continued insistence… Justin: The other day I was interrupted right before sneezing and didn’t sneeze and now I have, like, this mental block where I can’t sneeze. It’s been 4 days since my last sneeze. Sometimes I feel like I have to and nothing comes of it. Is this how I die? Humans NEED to sneeze right? I’m fucked, aren’t I? I think you’re fine. If you’re freaking out over not sneezing, just go ahead and pluck a nose hair. I do this from time to time—because I’m a psychopath, you see—and the resulting sneeze shows up on local seismometers. I think you’ll be pleased with the result. I can also personally induce sneezing by eating anchovies (whuh?) and very dark chocolate. You should see my sleeve after the latter occurs. It looks like I just won a dirt bike rally. But no, you do not NEED to sneeze in order to live. It’s not a vital function. Hell, I’d pay to never sneeze. When I sneeze, it sounds like a bilge pump factory exploded. Heads turn. It’s awful. Never sneezing is a far better fate than the opposite scenario. Take this girl in Texas who sneezed 12,000 times a day. You want fear? Fear THAT. That poor girl has no mucus lining left in her system and sounds like a fucking car alarm all day and night. I fear endless sneezing fits and endless hiccup fits in equal measure, and so should you. By the way, kudos to Justin for this sentence: “It’s been 4 days since my last sneeze.” You sound like a reformed sneezing addict. “Sneezing cost me my marriage.” Keith: Did you know Patrick Mahomes puts ketchup on his steaks? Yeah yeah, I heard all about that. I don’t give a shit. I swear to you on my life that I don’t care. My enjoyment of Patrick Mahomes’s football skills last night were not wholly dependent on whether or not he has good foodie habits. If my man wants to ketchup his steak, let him ketchup his fucking steak. I don’t get mad at a Pete Wells restaurant review because he’s got a shitty jump shot! Besides, I can guarantee you that there are athletes out there with much much much worse food habits than Patrick Mahomes (as I recently discovered, ketchup on a steak isn’t an optimal way to enjoy steak but that doesn’t mean it tastes BAD). Allen Iverson lived on nothing but beer and Skittles for decades. It’s fine. It did not detract from the joy I got watching him, certainly not as much as other factors might have. My mission to ruin a $250 Wagyu steak nearly destroyed my family This is a story about me and a steak. A 24-oz. A5 Wagyu ribeye steak, to be more specific. If… I am guilty, along with the rest of the internet, of impugning people’s greater character because of a food opinion they hold. That’s a fair thing to do if you’re talking about an actual food writer, or the President. I don’t like people whose limited food tastes almost certainly hint at a greater lack of curiosity. And I can make fun of Tom Brady turning his nose up at strawberries because it gets at what a prissy weirdo he is. But if I judged everyone on whether or not they had one bad food take, I’d only like roughly six people. There’s only so much I can control in this world, and the way in which Patrick Mahomes enjoys a ribeye is not one of them. I don’t need him to be a flawless sophisticate. I just need him to keep cranking the fucking deep balls. How does Chewbacca shit? I don’t think he craps like a dog. My guess is he uses the toilet on the Millennium Falcon or whatever, but wiping must be a nightmare with all that fur. And you have to imagine Han Solo has to cut dingleberries out of Chewie’s matted ass pelt at least a couple times a week, right? Nah, I don’t think they have that kind of relationship. Chewie isn’t Han’s pet. Han doesn’t take Chewie to the groomer to get his anal glands expressed twice a month. If Chewie has dingleberries, that’s his problem. Han isn’t the type to go lovingly comb them out. I assume there’s an entire EU novel series out there dedicated to Wookiees and their sanitary habits, but I’m not gonna consult any of those books because I want to enjoy being alive. I think Chewie shits on the toilet, and then gets up and leaves. That’s it. I don’t think he bothers to wipe because his paws would pick up too much stray poop, and because he doesn’t care about smelling. He’s a giant sasquatch. Sasquatches don’t get huffy about air quality. Maybe Han tried a few times to get Chewie to do a little rinse after going, like using a space bidet. But I assume those requests fell on deaf ears. Moving the Chiefs/Rams game to LA because of field conditions was just a ploy to get Mexico City to build a new taxpayer-funded stadium, right? No, I think it was genuinely because the field sucked. Did you see those photos? That field looked like it had just hosted a dinosaur fight. I don’t think Roger Goodell was exactly thrilled at the prospect of having to refund tickets and rearrange months of event planning at the last second just to make sure no one tore a kidney out on that field. That probably vexed him greatly. As much as I enjoy reading and circulating Goodell-related conspiracy theories, I really do think this was a simple case of the league having to move in haste because they were too fucking stupid to notice that the stadium had longstanding turf issues. The fact that actual Rams fans showed up last night is a happy accident. Regardless, Mexico isn’t getting a team. In fact, it’s telling that the NFL constantly uses London as a stadium bargaining chip when Mexico City is much closer and has a very large, built-in fanbase for NFL football (the Cowboys, in particular). And yet, the NFL almost never talks about formally expanding south of the border. I wonder why that might be… “You have two NFL franchises in an area that I don’t know how stable the geological plates that were below us [were], but nothing happened, so that was good.” You see, London is wealthy and sophisticated and worthy of being duped into giving the NFL an obscenely favorable land deal, whereas Mexico is a land of altar sacrifices and strange tremors and smoke demons and terrifying POVERTY GRASS. You can’t seriously expect the NFL to take such a place seriously. Peter: Dinner or Supper? Dinner! What am I, a Puritan? Do you see me wearing a bonnet and finding witches to burn? In this house, we eat dinner. Supper is for people who still use napkin rings. In all seriousness, my mom used to use the word “supper,” but only for big event meals and/or when she was serious about us needing to come to the table. Calling it supper was the nagging equivalent of calling you by your full name. JETHRO CLEATUS FELTERSNATCH, YOU COME DOWN FOR SUPPER THIS INSTANT YOUNG MAN! How long should a sports station be able to flash the “Breaking News” graphic on their bottom line after said news has happened? Alex Smith broke his leg during the 12:00 games yesterday and they were still calling it “Breaking News” through the end of the afternoon games, without updated information. Would the duration differ for a normal news station? I’m already on record as saying that they should just ditch the ticker altogether. There’s no need for a ticker when you have one in your pocket already. The whole world knew about Smith’s injury before he even got carted away. Twitter absolutely obliterates television when it comes to breaking news, which makes it all the more glaring when ESPN is like BREAKING: ALEX SMITH’S LEG SNAPPED IN HALF AND USED AS DRY TINDER at 10 a.m. the next morning. Who is this for? If I’m watching ESPN, there’s a good chance that I already enjoy paying attention to sports, in which case I don’t need ESPN to feed me old-ass news for 36 straight hours. I’m of the mind that BREAKING should only be used for something so new that it just happened … something so new that no full article about it has been filed yet. And it has to be earth-shattering news, like the following: Sudden death of someone important Nuclear attack Alien nuclear attack Pee tape Jesus back Really big NBA locker room fight That’s it. That’s the list, and you only get two hours to flash that across the screen before it gets relegated to being its own ALIENS tab in the crawl. But you and I know that ESPN and general news networks will never ever stop abusing the BREAKING chyron because it works. The second I see that word, my Pavlovian response sets in and I prick up my ears only to be let down with some shit like, “Former CIA director says President Trump a bad role model.” It’s the worst. Zach: I recently found out my wife is having an affair (YAY!), but they have ended things and now we’re both just a couple of blubbering idiots. I’m obviously not happy, and she’s moving in with her parents, but we have agreed to wait before running off to the lawyer’s office. We have two kids, a great house, make good money between the two of us… am I crazy for considering putting this behind us and trying again? No, I don’t think you’re crazy. You don’t want to break up your family and reboot your entire life. I’d say that’s a fairly natural response, even in the wake of such a terrible act of betrayal. My wife could go on a seven-state killing spree and I’d be like, “Well that’s completely evil and unacceptable … but do I really want to move?” Then I would be like, “Well now, if you wanna stay together, I get to go on a killing spree too. It’s only fair, missy!” Couples reconcile all the time … sometimes out of love, sometimes out of convenience, sometimes because Melania will be ass-deep in legal bills if she ever leaves the President. If you sincerely believe that your wife will make an effort to build trust back up, repair the marriage and save your family, then I get why you’d consider staying together. The odds aren’t great, and you’re gonna need counseling because there are probably a lot of issues apart from the infidelity that you need to address. You may end up feeling like a sucker again. But I dunno, I’d rather risk being a sucker than let pride dictate every single thing I do. Too many guys these days base major life decisions over whether or not Reddit will call them a cuck. Also, I never want to see the inside of a lawyer’s office, ever. No thank you. Why the hell are so many restaurants trying to upscale standard bar/casual dining fare? If I want to watch a game and get a bite I have to choose between a roach-infested health code abomination by the highway, or paying an extra $5 for my burger because it has the word “aioli” in it and fucking “frites” next to it. Is this the world we’re leaving for our kids? All I know is: do NOT order the fish tacos. Every fucking bar in the world now has fish tacos on the menu, and they’re ALL terrible. For five seconds I’m like, “Ooooh! Fish tacos!” before remembering that I’m in Iowa City. Every bar reacts with warp speed to the bastardization of some local food trend gone global, and fish tacos may be the worst offender. Stay the fuck away from that mahi-mahi, man. Don’t be like me and get suckered into spending $15 on a fish stick and sliced radish wrap. You’ll regret it for days. Whenever you look at a fancied up bar menu, be sure to do your homework and ask yourself, “Can this place pull this kind of dish off?” Most of the time, the answer is no. Most of the time, you should order a burger and walk away with your limited winnings. Don’t gamble on a Gordon Biersch paella. You will lose everything. Clay: Just got splash back on my dick and balls from a port-a-john. So horrible. Feel like I’ll never be clean again. Gonna barf. You’ll be fine. Just take a shower and have a drink. It’ll go away. It all goes away eventually. One time I had to barehand a dog turd. I got over it, and so will you. Pooing or pooping, who ya got? As someone who appreciates the full spectrum of softcore scatological profanities, I use both terms. But I definitely use poop more. It’s more satisfying to say POOP. When you say “poo,” it just kinda lingers there on your tongue, like a fecal chunk that hasn’t dropped into the bowl yet. So gross. Poop is closer to the sound a good, satisfying poop makes, so that’s why I use it. How many states should the average American visit over the course of their life? I would say all of them but let’s be honest: more than a few are optional. Let’s run down the list real quick and make snap judgments based on pure ignorance: Alabama – Yes. Looks very pretty. Alaska – Yes. Very big, lots of wilderness. Arizona – Yes. Grand Canyon. Arkansas – Optional. Apparently Fayetteville is cool, but it’s not like I’ll be on my deathbed, lamenting never going to fucking Arkansas. California – Yes. Colorado – Yes. Connecticut – Yes, because pizza. Delaware – Yes, because the beaches are nice. Florida – Yes. Georgia – Ugh. Yes? I think the deep South is beautiful, but I don’t know if I need to see ALL of it. Hawaii – No question. Idaho – Yes. Illinois – Yes because Chicago rules. Indiana – Nope. Throughly optional. Iowa – Same. Kansas – Also optional. Good run here! Kentucky – Not optional. I genuinely wish to see Kentucky, and not just because I want to get drunk and pass out under the Derby bleachers. Louisiana – Not optional. Maine – Yes, but make sure you visit during the five nice days of weather they get per annum. Maryland – Yes because Annapolis. Massachusetts – Ugh, yes. Michigan – Yes. Minnesota – Yes, but I’m biased. Mississippi – Yes. Who says no to blues AND racism? Not me. Missouri – No. Come on. It’s Missouri. It sucks. Montana – HELL YES. Go right now. It’s like living inside Sam Elliott’s voice. Nebraska – No. Nevada – Yes, because Vegas. New Hampshire – I like New Hampshire just fine, but you can probably stick to just Vermont and not really miss anything. New Jersey – Let’s say no just to be dickish. New Mexico – Yes. I’m told there’s art. New York – Yes. North Carolina – Yes. Asheville is one of those places where you’re like, “Hey, I could live here!” even though you definitely never will. North Dakota – Nope. Ohio – No. Someone asked me why I always goof on Ohio, and I feel like its inherent Ohio-ness is the only justification I require. It’s Ohio. It’s a bowl of stale pretzels someone left in the center of the nation. Oklahoma – LOL no. I know OKC has become an officially interesting city, but that’s not enough. Oregon – Yes. Pennsylvania – Yes. Rhode Island – Not really. Newport is pretty if you like assholes with sailboats. South Carolina – I’m gonna say yes even though the interior of South Carolina is a fucking wasteland. If you enjoy driving on highways made of old sidewalk rubble, this is the state for you. South Dakota – Yes because of Mt. Rushmore. Tennessee – Yes. Texas – 1000 percent yes. Utah – Yes. Utah and Kentucky are neck and neck on my “I have an unreasonable urge to witness this state in person” list. Vermont – Yes. Virginia – I guess so. The Griffon at Busch Gardens is a bitchin’ coaster. Washington – Yep. West Virginia – Yeah! I’ve been to West Fuckin’ Virginia, but only Harpers Ferry, which doesn’t count. I wanna go deeper into the country, do some moonshinin’. Wisconsin – They give you beer at toll booths in this state, so yes. Wyoming – Yes. Okay, let’s tally them up. I listed a dozen states as optional, so that leave 38 states that the average American should try to set foot in at least once. That seems like a fair number, maybe even a bit too ambitious. Turns out that I have personally been to 38 states (fancy how the math worked out exactly parallel to my personal history), and I can tell you that I’m deeply proud to have gotten drunk and masturbated in all of them. No regrets. SEE THE WORLD, EVERYONE! About a month ago the company I work for hired a new receptionist. First time I met her, I did the standard chitchat and quickly realized that this girl looked very familiar. I then went back to my office and looked her name up on Facebook to realize that yes she looked familiar because we went to high school together. I’ve been out of high school for 13 years and because of this don’t have much of a memory of her, but something tells me I should remember something or at least mention, “Hey I think we went to high school together”. Since I first said hi to her, we have exchanged hellos and goodbyes dozens of times. It is getting to the point now where I don’t know if I should never say anything to her, or admit that yes I realized we did go to high school together but was too awkward to say something for a month. How do I play this? The latter. Tell her you thought she went to high school with you but you were too shy to say anything, and then she’ll say OMG ME TOO! And then you’ll end up married two years later. It’s so obvious. DUH. Please God Bring Back Vine For Sports Candy Versus Booze: Who Ya Got?! Cook For Yourself	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line904
__label__cc	0.70928	0.29072	Pre-Workout Static Stretching Can Sabotage Your Strength and Muscle Gains Start your strength training session with a dynamic warm-up. Stretching can play an important role in athletic development. Maintaining normal, controlled range of motion is essential to feeling healthy, performing well and avoiding injury. We all know it should be done, but the question is when? For athletes looking to build muscle, pre-workout stretching could actually be holding you back. A recent study published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology investigated this phenomena. Let's take a closer look at this study and give you the most important takeaways. The study featured nine untrained males. As opposed to breaking up the participants into two separate groups, each participant had one leg assigned to a different group (perhaps because of the small number of total participants). One leg followed an "RT" program that consisted of resistance training with no stretching while the other leg followed a "FLEX-RT" program which consisted of resistance training immediately after stretching. The RT program consisted of four sets of leg extensions to failure at 80% of the participants' one-rep max. The FLEX-RT program consisted of the same, but featured two sets of 25 seconds of intense static stretching for the quadriceps pro to the exercise. This training was performed twice a week for 10 consecutive weeks. Measures of muscle cross-sectional area, one-rep max, and flexibility were taken at baseline, at halfway through the program, and at the conclusion of the program. The researchers found that the total number of reps and total training volume were roughly 20% higher in the RT group than the FLEX-RT group. That's to say the group who did not perform the intense static stretching prior to exercise performed roughly 20% more reps than the group who did. Additionally, the cross-sectional area of the vastus lateralis (the largest and most powerful muscle in the quadriceps group) increased by 12.7% in the RT group but just 7.4% in the FLEX-RT group. One-rep max increased similarly. Flexibility, however, did increase by 10.1% in the FLEX-RT group and just 2.1% in the RT group. The researchers concluded that "these results show performing flexibility training immediately before resistance training can contribute to a lower number of repetitions, total volume, and muscle hypertrophy." If you're interested in gaining muscle size, hold off on the static stretching prior to strength training. Instead, perform a general dynamic warm-up that could look something like this: Jump rope: 3 minutes Bodyweight Squat x 5 Reverse Lunge to Knee Drive x 5 each Leg Cradle to Lateral Lunge x 3 each Crossunder Lunge to Knee Drive x 3 each Push Up to Downward Dog x 5 each Front Plank x 10 second Side Plank x 5 second The post-workout period is a good time for static stretching, as it can lower heart rate, accelerate recovery, and won't interfere with the volume you need to do in the weight room. Photo Credit: Liderina/iStock Topics: WARM-UP \| STRETCHING Jake Tuura - Jake is a collegiate strength and conditioning coach at Youngstown State University where he heads the programs for Men's and Women's Basketball, Women's Soccer, Women's Swim/Dive, and Men's and Women's Golf. He specializes in athlete performance and lean muscle gain. Perform Lying Cable Bicep Curls to Build Bigger Arms Kansas Softball's Warm-Up Routine Calf Exercises That Work Why You Should Add Depth Jumps to Your Workouts 4 Best Glute Exercises You're Not Doing Basketball Team Shooting Drills for Your Next Practice Ankle Talk: Rehabbing an Eversion Ankle Sprain Fastpitch Hitting Drills for Beginners Should Athletes Train With Equipment Like Weight Belts, Lifting Straps and Knee Wraps? Stretch, Engage, Activate: The 3 Things You Should Do Before Every Workout 7 Safe and Effective Bodyweight Exercises for Pre-Teen Athletes Progressive Overload Is the Concept You Must Understand to Make Consistent Gains in the Weight Room Create an Effective 3-Day Workout Routine With This Template More About Warm-Up A Fast, Effective Youth Soccer Team Warm-Up 4 Ways to Increase the Quality of Your Workout Without Adding Reps Coaches Can Use These 2 Methods to Greatly Improve the Effectiveness ofTeam Warm-Ups Perform These 3 Movements Every Morning to Increase Energy and Athleticism	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line906
__label__wiki	0.94139	0.94139	We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful, to better understand how they are used and to tailor advertising. You can read more and make your cookie choices here. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this. IndexBOX Table Dashboard Report Banana Market Overview in Greece Most Promising Products for Diversification Most Promising Supplying Countries Most Promising Overseas Markets Update: Jan 16, 2020 17:00 The revenue of the banana market in Greece amounted to $25M in 2010, waning by -75.4% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers' margins, which will be included in the final consumer price). Over the period under review, banana consumption continues to indicate a dramatic reduction. The pace of growth appeared the most rapid in 2008 when the market value increased by 75% y-o-y. In that year, the banana market attained its peak level of $104M. From 2009 to 2010, the growth of the banana market remained at a somewhat lower figure. In value terms, banana production stood at $4.3M in 2010 estimated in export prices. The total output value increased at an average annual rate of +7.8% from 2007 to 2010; the trend pattern remained relatively stable, with only minor fluctuations over the period under review. The pace of growth appeared the most rapid in 2008 with an increase of 22% y-o-y. Over the period under review, banana production reached its maximum level in 2010 and is likely to continue its growth in the near future. In 2010, the average banana yield in Greece totaled 25 tonne per ha, increasing by 18% against the previous year. The yield figure increased at an average annual rate of +6.8% over the period from 2007 to 2010; the trend pattern remained relatively stable, with only minor fluctuations over the period under review. The most prominent rate of growth was recorded in 2010 when yield increased by 18% against the previous year. In that year, the average banana yield attained its peak level and is likely to continue its growth in the immediate term. Despite the increased use of modern agricultural techniques and methods, future yield figures may still be impacted by adverse weather conditions. In 2010, the banana harvested area in Greece totaled 166 ha, standing approx. at the previous year. Over the period under review, the banana harvested area continues to indicate a mild deduction. Banana harvested area peaked at 174 ha in 2007; however, from 2008 to 2010, harvested area stood at a somewhat lower figure. {"0": {"data": {"2008": 104.31, "2009": 101.84, "2010": 25.08, "2007": 59.75}, "type": "combochart", "header": "Market Value (million USD)"}} In 2010, approx. 41K tonnes of bananas were consumed in Greece; reducing by -79.3% against the previous year. Overall, banana consumption continues to indicate a precipitous descent. The pace of growth was the most pronounced in 2008 with an increase of 110% year-to-year. In that year, the banana consumption reached its peak volume of 202K tonnes. From 2009 to 2010, the growth of the banana consumption failed to regain its momentum. The revenue of the banana market in Greece amounted to $25M in 2010, shrinking by -75.4% against the previous year. This figure reflects the total revenues of producers and importers (excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs, and retailers' margins, which will be included in the final consumer price). In general, banana consumption continues to indicate a precipitous downturn. The most prominent rate of growth was recorded in 2008 with an increase of 75% year-to-year. In that year, the banana market attained its peak level of $104M. From 2009 to 2010, the growth of the banana market remained at a lower figure. {"0": {"data": {"2008": 202.26, "2009": 197.38, "2010": 40.91, "2007": 96.31}, "type": "combochart", "header": "Market Volume (thousand tonnes)"}} Driven by rising demand for banana in Greece, the market is expected to start an upward consumption trend over the next fifteen-year period. The performance of the market is forecast to increase slightly, with an anticipated CAGR of + % for the fifteen-year period from 2010 to , which is projected to bring the market volume to tonnes by the end of . {"0": {"data": {"2016": 136.79, "2017": 113.62, "2018": 115.45, "2019": 105.88, "2020": 97.11, "2021": 89.07, "2022": 81.69, "2023": 74.93, "2024": 68.72, "2025": 63.03, "2007": 96.31, "2008": 202.26, "2009": 197.38, "2010": 40.91, "2011": 116.69, "2012": 73.86, "2013": 145.66, "2014": 149.97, "2015": 137.76}, "type": "combochart", "header": "Market Volume (thousand tonnes)"}} Driven by a growing demand, the share of imports in total supply in Greece increased significantly over the last three years (from 109% to 140%). {"0": {"units": "%", "data": {"2008": 104.8880171976441, "2009": 107.0043025278865, "2010": 140.42937772124827, "2007": 109.32880837856538}, "type": "combochart", "header": "Share of Imports in Consumption (%)"}, "1": {"units": "%", "data": {"2008": 105.20771238549256, "2009": 107.33778449797418, "2010": 144.79372317013957, "2007": 112.92059924053672}, "type": "combochart", "header": "Share of Imports in Consumption (%)"}} Greece remains a net importer of banana; in physical and value terms, imports consistently exceeded exports from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, there was a significant trade deficit of 37K tonnes, which was equal to $15M. This tangible trade deficit reflects the fact that the market remains dependent on imports, which is likely to continue in the medium term. {"0": {"units": "thousand tonnes", "data": {"Imports": {"2008": 212.0, "2009": 211.0, "2010": 57.0, "2007": 105.0}, "Exports": {"2008": 14.0, "2009": 17.0, "2010": 21.0, "2007": 13.0}, "Balance": {"2008": 199.0, "2009": 194.0, "2010": 37.0, "2007": 93.0}}, "type": "linechart", "header": "Trade Balance (thousand tonnes)"}, "1": {"units": "million USD", "data": {"Imports": {"2008": 110.0, "2009": 109.0, "2010": 36.0, "2007": 67.0}, "Exports": {"2008": 16.0, "2009": 18.0, "2010": 21.0, "2007": 12.0}, "Balance": {"2008": 94.0, "2009": 91.0, "2010": 15.0, "2007": 55.0}}, "type": "linechart", "header": "Trade Balance (million USD)"}} Consumption By Country Consumption By Type Production By Country Production By Type Harvested Area Harvested Area By Country Harvested Area By Type Producing Animals Producing Animals By Country Producing Animals By Type Yield By Country Yield By Type Imports By State Imports By Type Import Prices By State Import Prices By Type Import Prices By Country Exports By State Exports By Type Export Prices By State Export Prices By Type Export Prices By Country Top Products To Diversify Your Business Most Consumed Product Most Traded Product Most Profitable Product for Export Top Countries To Source Your Product Top Producing Countries Countries With Top Yields Top Exporting Countries Low-cost Exporting Countries Top Overseas Markets For Exporting Your Product Top Consuming Markets Unsaturated Markets Top Importing Markets Most Profitable Markets Download DOCX Download XLSX Download all the data in the form of a report << Previous Chapter Next Chapter >> Upload XLSX Upload an updated .xlsx to customize your report Sign Up & Unlock 2007-2010 FREE 2011-2018 PREMIUM Select all (11 years maximum) 340 S Lemon Ave #6008, Walnut, CA 91789 Support Privacy Policy Cookies Terms Of Service Pricing Plan Metadata and Definitions Metadata and Definitions © 2019 IndexBox, Inc. By clicking "Send", you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. We'll occasionally send you account related emails.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line908
__label__cc	0.576758	0.423242	This app is available only on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. VLC for Mobile 4+ #160 in Photo & Video 3.0, 1.2K Ratings VLC for iOS is a port of the free VLC media player to iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.\nIt can play all your movies, shows and music in most formats directly without conversion. It allows file synchronization with Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Box, iCloud Drive, iTunes, direct downloads and through WiFi sharing as well as streaming from SMB, FTP, UPnP/DLNA media servers and the web. VLC offers support for advanced subtitles including full SSA compatibility, multi-track audio, and playback speed control. VLC for iOS is completely free and open source. · Fix media title display · Fix Box session storage 1.2K Ratings iSamDC , 09/28/2019 Dig the update (now), but . . . . . . not diggin’ the small thumbnail view of the playlists’ videos page. Personally, I’d love for: - a similar (larger thumbnail) view of the playlist(s) videos page, similar to the “Video” page. Real estate is valuable on handheld devices, and making the thumbnails smaller makes one work harder when seemingly unnecessary. At least provide an option to switch between views. From a UX vantage point, it’s unnecessarily jarring, rather than having the user easily familiarize themselves with the updated interface/aesthetic. I can appreciate more priority given to the text/text size, but still . . . - the “Sort by” functionality should really retain the modified setting from use to use. Needless to say, it’s frustrating having to set it in each instance. Not sure if this is the intended functionality, but not a fan . . . - an icon change to the “Rename” pencil icon. I clicked on the pencil assuming it was some sort of weird “edit” functionality to the video itself, only to learn that it was for file renaming—which I’m very glad is there—but which I found initially confusing. My (unsolicited) suggestion would be for something like an “A” . . . which would more easily denote that it’s something text-related . . . like “Rename”. Just sayin . . . Otherwise, love the app, and keep up the great work! Thanks a lot for your detailed and helpful feedback. We definitely consider it for subsequent releases of the app. soonergrrrl , 09/23/2019 Version 3.2.0 ruined it Update: my previous issue was resolved, but unfortunately, I really REALLY wish I could revert back to before I updated to this latest version (3.2.0). Now, TV shows are no longer grouped together, and my video tab just looks like a huge mess! It seems like in this update you spent too much time focusing on how the music part works, especially for a VIDEO player. I never really understood why there was a music option anyway to be honest. I don't like the new playlist system because as someone else said, the main screen is still wicked cluttered. Also, when I tried to just put a tv show into its own playlist, they are all kinds of out of order and no way to organize them. BOO. This does not feel like an update, but a way to turn the video player into a music player. So now I have no way to get files off the main screen, no way to group episodes of a tv show together, and I have to hunt and hunt through all these video files to find what I'm looking for, but boy...that empty music section sure looks fancy. Now the app no longer responds to my touch. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling but to no avail. I don't know how to use an app on a touch device that doesn't respond to touch. It is useless now. Too bad because it was the reigning champ of video players for so long... Pjdale , 11/04/2019 Worst Update Ever This has got to be the worst update for an app that I have ever seen. 1) when I scroll to select a video and click on the weird little icon in the top right (that looks like I’m about to write a note - which I had to figure out by trial and error) all of my videos jump around, the pictures become smaller (and harder to see) and I have to scroll around again to find the one that I want to delete. I hate doing it every time. 2) with the old version, in my main view, all of my titles that were from the same series were automatically grouped and the ones that weren’t were there right beside the ‘video groups’ It was very intuitive. I could see all of my groups and all of my single titles in one group. Now, with the update, I have to choose between seeing the groups (which don’t have my individual titles) or seeing every single episode of every show that I have and scroll around like crazy to find the ones that I want. There should be a view (like in the old version) where I can see my groups and my single titles in one view. This way is awful and makes it take extra long to find the show I want to watch. In all, there are no improvements in this new version and I wish that I could go back to the old version. Also, I don’t normally write reviews, but this one is just so bad that I had to. I hope these things get fixed quickly, or you can be sure that I am already looking to another app to play all my videos. Requires iOS 9.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Apple TV. English, Afrikaans, Arabic, Belarusian, Bosnian, Breton, Cambodian, Catalan, Corsican, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Faeroese, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Malay, Marathi, Norwegian Bokmål, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Sardinian, Simplified Chinese, Singhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish, Ukrainian © VideoLAN and authors Photoshop Express Photo Editor Private Photo Vault - Pic Safe PhotoGrid Collage maker editor BeautyPlus -Snap, Edit, Filter VivaVideo - Video Maker&Editor	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line910
__label__cc	0.688317	0.311683	أسعار الديزل أسعار غاز البترول المسال أسعار الغاز الطبيعي عن الأسعار جهات الاتصال Global petrol prices news digest Retail market regulations Fuel supply and demand Traffic & Driving Electricity prices World: Oil and gas firms invest less than 1% in green energy 22-Jan-2020 by Economic Times While certain oil and gas majors have sought to burnish their green credentials, overall less than one percent of the sector's total investment is going into clean energy projects, a report said Monday. more information Liberia: ‘Artificial shortage’ of gasoline? 21-Jan-2020 by Daily Observer The Daily Observer has reliably learned that major distributors of petroleum products, particularly gasoline, have shut down their facilities with signs placed at hundreds of fueling stations stating, “no gas for now.” more information USA: EIA expects U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions to decrease annually through 2021 20-Jan-2020 by U.S. Energy Information Administration In its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), released on January 14, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts year-over-year decreases in energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through 2021. After decreasing by 2.1% in 2019, energy-related CO2 emissions will decrease by 2.0% in 2020 and again by 1.5% in 2021 for a third consecutive year of declines. more information Canada: Тop court rejects bid by British Columbia to regulate oil pipeline 17-Jan-2020 by BOE Report The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday quickly dismissed an attempt by the western province of British Columbia to regulate what can be transported in a major crude oil pipeline crossing its territory. more information Ghana: Illegal activities in the petroleum sector cost US$200m yearly 16-Jan-2020 by Business Insider Ghana’s Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has lamented about the high revenue loss in the petroleum sector due to illegal activities. more information Russia: The country risks gasoline price surge 15-Jan-2020 by OilPrice.com Although the Russian Government and oil companies suspended the agreement on fixing fuel prices last summer, gasoline rose in price much more slowly in 2019 than in 2018. more information World: Gasoline explained Gasoline is a fuel made from crude oil and other petroleum liquids. Gasoline is mainly used as an engine fuel in vehicles. Petroleum refineries and blending facilities produce motor gasoline for sale at retail gasoline fueling stations. more information Mexico: Shell brings fuel to Mexico in push for 15% of retail market 09-Jan-2020 by Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc is seeking a bigger share of Mexico’s fuel market, even as regulatory changes make it harder for foreign companies to compete. more information USA: EIA expects U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions to fall in 2019 31-Dec-2019 by U.S. Energy Information Administration After a 2.7% increase in U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2018, EIA’s July Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) forecasts a 2.2% decrease in CO2 emissions for 2019. Nearly all of the forecast decrease is due to fewer emissions from coal consumption. Forecast natural gas CO2 emissions increase and petroleum CO2 emissions remain virtually unchanged. more information USA: In 2018, the United States consumed more energy than ever before Primary energy consumption in the United States reached a record high of 101.3 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2018, up 4% from 2017 and 0.3% above the previous record set in 2007. The increase in 2018 was the largest increase in energy consumption, in both absolute and percentage terms, since 2010. more information Iran: Amnesty says Iran protests death toll now at 304, will rise further 17-Dec-2019 by VOA Amnesty International says its documented death toll from Iran’s recent anti-government protests will rise again from the group’s latest report that at least 304 demonstrators were killed by security forces. more information Malaysia: Petronas to award more jobs in next three years 16-Dec-2019 by The Edge Markets etroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), the locomotive of the domestic oil and gas (O&G) industry, is expected to award more jobs in the next three years, bringing hope that the recovery of the domestic O&G industry, hit hard by the severe downturn, could be gaining strength. more information Europe: Diesel margins sag before new shipping fuel rules 12-Dec-2019 by Hellenic Shipping News European diesel refining profit margins have tumbled as a slowing global economy has hit fuel demand harder than forecast despite expectations of a boost from new fuel shipping rules. more information India: Fuel demand growth hits 23-month high in November 11-Dec-2019 by The Economic Times India's fuel demand grew by 10.5% in November from a year earlier, its fastest pace since January 2018, driven by higher consumption of transport fuels gasoil and gasoline, and cooking gas. more information India: Why diesel demand is contracting 05-Dec-2019 by Live Mint India's demand for diesel is slowing as the country's car fleet shifts predominantly to petrol, trucks get more efficient and solar pumps displace diesel-fed units across the countryside. more information الصفحة الرئيسية Privacy policy Data API عن جهات الاتصال	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line913
__label__cc	0.661644	0.338356	Inspiring stories: Motherhood made me powerful with Mela Murder Home › Inspiring Stories › Inspiring stories: Motherhood made me powerful with Mela Murder Have you heard of Mela Murder? Well you should have. Not only is she a dancer, actress and making music but since becoming a mother she's been documenting life as a single parent in all it's honesty. With two daughters under two, she's a strong advocate for the single mother community and is constantly striving to empower females. We spoke to her about these aspects of her life and more.... - You've become a rising star not only for your amazing work within the film and dance industry but also for sharing your honest motherhood experiences. Why did you decide to document this part of your life? I suffer from imposter syndrome.. I think it's due to the fact at a really young age I was given an opportunity which totally transformed my life but my fate of it all was in the hands of a man. Coming up in a male-dominated industry I often felt small... stupid... like I didn’t really belong. It wasn’t until I became a mother and was forced to deal with parts of myself I kept hidden from the surface for many years... When I became a mother I reclaimed my power as a woman because I recognized the power that is and was always within me. All that I experienced during my first pregnancy the pain and heartache left me feeling extremely alone I decided to come forward with how I truly felt it was raw and ugly and intense and everything I needed to release in order to lift the chains of voicelessness. My story resonated with so many women, Women from all over the world who had gone through similar situations but would've never known about had I kept my story to myself. Since then I've created a community of strong single mothers, a sisterhood I am forever grateful for. - What do you find the hardest part of being a single mother? Being alone. Not having anyone with me to experience the joys and hardships that I go through daily with my daughters. Not being able to collapse into a hug after fighting with my 2-year-old or someone there to say “I got this.. go nap, go for a walk, go have a day for yourself” Its all me by myself every single day. I'm the woman and man of the house, I'm the nurturer and the disciplinary I cook I clean I throw out the trash change the diapers gives the baths pump the gas buy to food pay the bills all while pursuing my dreams on my own. It's just something I never imagined experiencing as a mother. I always ALWAYS thought I would raise children with both mommy and daddy in the picture. Its really hard sometimes but I get it all done every single day by myself and for that fact I know I am stronger then I give myself credit for. - Do you feel there is still a stigma attached to being a single parent? I've never experienced disgrace of any kind from others when they learn I'm a single parent. The energy is often like wow you're badass. I'm sure it exists for many women and its so unfair for single mothers to be put in that kind of light because of all that we do. Men should be throwing rose petals at our feet and thanking their gods for strong women like single mothers. We are the true heroes in the world. - What does female empowerment mean to you? To be a woman who is empowered is a woman who is fearless in standing in her truth. It takes a lot of courage to accept all the parts of her being her past and present her mistakes her flaws her thoughts and say okay this is me now that was me then and I am okay with all of me I love me entirely and I'm excited to evolve into the woman I aspire to be. - How are you teaching your little ones to be an advocate of female empowerment I believe knowledge is power. I am constantly teaching Amethyst (my 2-year-old) many things... preparing her for the world now in subtle ways such as learning multiple languages, reading, and expression through dance and art, so that she won’t struggle later on, so that she won’t feel stupid or voiceless. She’ll have the knowledge as well as the confidence to know her worth and speak up for what she stands for and accomplish her passions so that she'll know her place in this world is meaningful. I encourage her every single day to be her full authentic self. I shower both of my daughters with love hugs and kisses and tell them they are Goddesses and they have a purpose and they are beautiful and blessed and that mommy loves them so so much. With that love, they will grow to be women of love and share it with the world. - What advice would you give to young women? TAKE YOUR TIME. Young women in this generation seem soooooo desperate for love and they are constantly seeking validation in men. It's so sad... A man's attention to you does not determine your worth and it is so important for young women to really fully understand what that means and apply it to their lives. Learn who you are and why you feel the need to seek this validation and when you do find the ways to heal yourself so that eventually you can love yourself enough to put yourself first. Like actually first. Easier said then done but definitely not impossible. Know that you are special and beautiful in your own unique way. Lift yourself up. You are worth it. - How do you think being a female has changed in the last 10 years? More and more women are advocating for themselves now. Women are speaking up all around the world and they are demanding to be seen and heard. We aren’t with playing along with quiet games anymore which so many women are coming forward about their female experiences like what age a woman should have a child or whether a woman should choose between her career or a child, or the pressure of how we should look what we wear how we raise our kids how we interact with men or abuse of any kind being shamed for being vocal about it.. Women have had enough and it's beautiful and necessary. We are demanding respect. Download your free sleep guide Expert sleep advice from pregnancy to parenthood to help the whole family get a better night's sleep. Just enter your email address, click the below button and your download link will appear.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line926
__label__wiki	0.606807	0.606807	Articles with non-canon elements, 2015 technology Bionic implant Griff overpowers Marty with his bionically enhanced arm. "Oh, Marty, be careful around that Griff character. He's got a few short circuits in his bionic implants." A bionic implant was the term to describe a modification to the human body by replacing certain body parts with robotic pieces by 2015. Some implants had the capability of enhanced strength, height modification, and an automatic system to block punches despite the implantee not knowing, though they were less adept at blocking attacks below the belt. Griff Tannen had such implants — resulting in mechanical sounds every time he moved — and, according to Dr. Emmett Brown, these had "a few short circuits"; whether this was true or just a figure of speech is unclear. A newspaper from 2015 implied these implants were illegal, although proposals were around to legalize them. Some posters in 2015 urged voters to "Vote Yes on Proposition 237" in order to "Legalize Bionics". According to the Newsline column on the front page of the October 22, 2015 issue of USA Today, a pitcher had been suspended for the use of a bionic arm "without calibration", while the photo that accompanied the story GANG JAILED — Hoverboard Rampage Destroys Courthouse bore the caption "Gang Leader had Bionic Overloads". Note: The following section is considered non-canon or is disputed in canonicity. By 2035, Proposition 237 had apparently been passed, as a bank teller called Doc a "back-to-nature clown" when a scan showed he had no implants. Non-canon or disputable information ends here. The bionic implants were a reference to Universal Studios' TV show The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-78) and its spin-off, The Bionic Woman (1977-78). At the moment, bionic implants are still in very early stages, and not as advanced as those which Griff is seen to have in Back to the Future Part II. Back to the Future: Continuum Conundrum Back to the Future 10: Continuum Conundrum Part 5 Bionics on Wikipedia Bionic Implants - Back to the Predictions Retrieved from "https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Bionic_implant?oldid=55324" Articles with non-canon elements 2015 technology	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line928
__label__cc	0.623266	0.376734	Premier League (Week 5) : Man City beats Watford 6-0 Athlet.org (AMP©) Français, Español, Deutsch, Italiano, Português, 中文 Posted on 16 September 2017 17:00 ENGLAND, Sep. 16, 2017 (AMP) — Premier League / Match day 5: Three wins in a row for Manchester City. After their success against Bournemouth and Liverpool, the Citizens continued their sensational form in the Premier League with a 6-0 victory over Watford this Saturday. Sergio Agüero scored tripple goals Manchester City dominated the first half thanks to goals from Agüero ('27, '31) and Jesus Gabriel ('37). Leading 3-0 at the break, the Citizens further widened their lead in the second period by scoring three times (Otamendi Nicolas '63, Agüero '81 and Sterling '89/penalty). Manchester City FC climbed to first place with 13 points from 5 games, a 3-point lead over runner-up Manchester United FC, which has a game in hand. View : Full Premier League table (as of September 16, 2017) » 1 Manchester City 5 4 1 0 16 2 14 13 2 Manchester United 4 3 1 0 12 2 10 10 3 Chelsea 4 3 0 1 8 5 3 9 4 Newcastle 5 3 0 2 6 4 2 9 5 Huddersfield Town 5 2 2 1 5 3 2 8 6 Burnley 5 2 2 1 6 5 1 8 7 Liverpool 5 2 2 1 9 9 0 8 8 Southampton 5 2 2 1 4 4 0 8 8 West Brom 5 2 2 1 4 4 0 8 10 Watford 5 2 2 1 7 9 -2 8 11 Tottenham 4 2 1 1 7 3 4 7 12 Arsenal 4 2 0 2 7 8 -1 6 13 Stoke City 5 1 2 2 5 6 -1 5 14 Leicester 5 1 1 3 7 9 -2 4 15 Brighton & Hove Albion 5 1 1 3 4 7 -3 4 16 Swansea 4 1 1 2 2 5 -3 4 17 Everton 4 1 1 2 2 6 -4 4 18 West Ham 5 1 1 3 4 10 -6 4 19 Bournemouth 5 1 0 4 3 9 -6 3 20 Crystal Palace 5 0 0 5 0 8 -8 0 Fixtures and Results : Premier League 2017-2018 Best performance of the season: Southampton 0-2 Watford (9 Sep.) Previous game: Next game: Swansea - Watford (23 Sep.) Position: 1 Watford 0-6 Manchester City (16 Sep.) Manchester City 5-0 Liverpool (9 Sep.) Manchester City - Crystal Palace (23 Sep.) 1 Manchester City 13 2 Manchester United 10 3 Chelsea 9 4 Newcastle 9 5 Huddersfield Town 8 View full Premier League table Week 5 Results Bournemouth 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion Crystal Palace 0-1 Southampton West Brom 0-0 West Ham Newcastle 2-1 Stoke City Liverpool 1-1 Burnley Watford 0-6 Manchester City Huddersfield Town 1-1 Leicester Tottenham 17:30 Swansea Chelsea 13:30 Arsenal Manchester United 16:00 Everton Mr. Stats Notebooks Poland Ukraine 2012 License/buy our content \| Privacy policy \| Terms & conditions \| Advertising guide \| Accessibility \| A-Z index \| Inside the Athlet blog \| About us \| Work for us © 2015-2016 Athlet.org (US) Sports News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. page served in 0.19s (4,9)	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line932
__label__wiki	0.646569	0.646569	Anthony Carter, 3 résultats 3 University of British Columbia, 3 résultats 3 Totem Park, 3 résultats 3 Material Culture, 1 résultats 1 Carvings, 1 résultats 1 Anthony Carter British Columbia University of British Columbia Avec objets numériques Charlie James totem pole [197?] Image of totem pole carved by Charles James. The pole was re-adzed and re-painted by Kwakwaka'wakw carver Mungo Martin before shipping to UBC in 1947. Repainted and repaired by Ellen Neel (1949) and by Mungo Martin (1950-51). It stood at Totem Pole Park, UBC Campus until it was re-located to the Museum's Great Hall ca. 1976. George Hunt Sr. pole (Kwakwaka’wakw) Image of totem pole carved by George Hunt Sr. The pole is now part of the museum's collection. This pole was originally carved for the Edward S. Curtis film "In the Land of the War Canoes" which was originally titled "In the Land of the Head Hunters". The pole was repaired and re-painted by carvers Ellen Neel in 1949 and Mungo Martin in 1950-51. It stood at Totem Park, UBC Campus until it was re-located to the Museum's Great Hall in 1976. Bill Reid’s 7waasru (Wasgo ) Image of carving by Bill Reid, 7waasru (Wasgo). The carving was commissioned by the University of British Columbia for display in Totem Park, originally. The sculpture was moved to the Museum of Anthropology in 1978.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line935
__label__cc	0.72842	0.27158	Aussie Madness During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act… You are here: Home / Islam / ISIL (Islamic State) flag ‘nothing to do with ISIL (Islamic State)’ ISIL (Islamic State) flag ‘nothing to do with ISIL (Islamic State)’ 8 September, 2014 by Aussie Madness The mainstream media seem to be pretty clear: this is an ISIL flag And anyone who says otherwise will be beheaded by the Religion of Peace. The flag goes back to the 7th century and, despite the fact that non-Muslims would not have even been aware of its existence until ISIL (Islamic State) brought it to the world’s attention about six months ago, it’s pure coincidence that a Liverpool mosque decides to auction one right now, at the time when the flag has become synonymous with barbaric violence as the backdrop to countless ISIL (Islamic State) photos and video including beheadings of American journalists. And while we are on the subject of asserting our superiority over the infidels, we also object to the filthy kafir’s grammatically incorrect use of an Arabic word… This isn’t a joke by the way. The bullshit meter just went off the scale. Here’s the pompous press release by the religion of the perpetually offended, which, as you would expect, (a) disgracefully fails to condemn the vicious and medieval acts of violence which are carried out under that flag, and (b) fails to acknowledge that it may have been just a teensy-weensy insensitive to the thousands of people murdered by ISIL over the past six months to be auctioning a flag, in an Australian mosque, which (while technically not an ISIL flag) is in fact, really, er, an ISIL flag: The Daily Telegraph newspaper this morning accused the Markaz Imam Ahmad (MIA) in Liverpool of supporting terrorism by auctioning a “jihadist” flag. This accusation is unfounded and defamatory. The News Corporation paper is engaging in the worst kind of sensationalism as part of a scare campaign to sell papers. The black and white flag being referred to is an important symbol in Islam which contains the first pillar of the Muslim creed, the testimony of faith (shahaadah) that “there is no god except God and Muhammad is His Messenger”; and the seal of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him). This flag has been in existence for more than a thousand years, long before any terrorist organisation misappropriated it for its own political goals. In addition, the newspaper’s use of the term “jihadist” is false and inappropriate. The unusual combination of an Arabic word with an English suffix negatively stereotypes the noble Islamic concept of striving for what is better. The frequent misuse of this term by sensationalist media only serves to promote hatred of Muslims and Islam. Er, no, actually. The thing that ‘promotes hatred of Muslims and Islam’ is the ever present suspicion aroused by the constant reluctance by organisations like MIA to acknowledge that groups like Islamic State justify their violent ideology by reference to the Qur’an, and then issue disdainful and patronising press releases which fail to make any apology for the despicable acts carried out in the name of the religion they practise. And just in case you haven’t got the message, it finishes with a veiled threat of further violence: “We reject any attempts to tarnish the good reputation of our centre and pledge to stand firm against the current wave of Islamophobia. We also believe that scapegoating and fear mongering has the serious potential of radicalising disaffected youth,” said the head of MIA, Sheikh Abu Adnan.” Wow. I don’t think there’s any point in bothering to engage this community any more. Filed Under: Islam Tagged With: 'Nothing to do with Islam', Australian Muslims, Excuses, MIA « UK: Bears to be taught not to shit in the woods Islamic arrogance » luisadownunder says: Ah, the poor radicalized and disaffected youth. They have now been welcomed into the warm embrace of the Islamic community….so they can join ISIL, where radicalized and disaffected youth go. But it has nothing to do with Islam, mind. No, because we strive for what is better: the radicalizing of disaffected youth so they can carry out jihad. And we take that seriously! Interesting to read in this ABC piece that the new UN High Commissioner for Human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein doesn’t actually appear to condemn outright, the actions of ISIS/ISIL anywhere in his speech, just describes the horrors we already know about, and warns of what may lie ahead, and says the ‘international community’ needs to focus on the “increasingly conjoined” conflict. I presume by “international community” he means everyone but the middle east, as is usually the case. Mind you, I don’t claim to have read a full transcript, so it could well be the ABC leaving out any sort of condemnation for fear of being labelled Islamophobic, even if it’s in the context of a quote, but whoever is at fault, it’s a pretty poor performance by someone, somewhere… “You think they make this shit up? It’s all in the book. Their f***ing book. The only book they ever read. They read it all the time. They never stop. They’re there for one reason and one reason only. To die for the caliphate and usher in a world without infidels. That’s their strategy, and it’s been that way since the 7th century.” Peter Quinn, Homeland Follow Aussie Madness on Facebook Follow Aussie Madness on Twitter Archives Select Month November 2019 (1) March 2019 (1) January 2018 (2) December 2017 (7) July 2017 (2) June 2017 (3) March 2017 (4) February 2017 (9) January 2017 (5) December 2016 (7) November 2016 (10) October 2016 (4) September 2016 (2) August 2016 (3) July 2016 (15) June 2016 (20) May 2016 (8) April 2016 (7) March 2016 (9) February 2016 (11) January 2016 (24) December 2015 (21) November 2015 (10) October 2015 (14) September 2015 (14) August 2015 (9) July 2015 (21) June 2015 (10) May 2015 (7) April 2015 (4) March 2015 (21) February 2015 (22) January 2015 (1) November 2014 (1) October 2014 (13) September 2014 (33) August 2014 (33) 'Nothing to do with Islam' 'tiny minority of extremists' ABC Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Anne Aly apologists Australian Election 2016 Australian Muslims Barack Obama bias Bill Shorten Brexit 2016 Canada Christianity Christmas climate Coalition Leadership 2015 David Cameron Death of Europe denial educayshun Euro Migrant Crisis 2015 Europe Excuses Fairfax Germany Grand Mufti Hillary Clinton Hizb ut-Tahrir humour Hypocrisy ISIS Islamic Council of Victoria Islamic State Islamic theology Islamic violence Islamophobia Israel It's our fault jihad John Kerry Julie Bishop kafir kafirphobia Labions Labor Leftism Malcolm Turnbull Melbourne Attack 2017 Multi-culti Orlando June 2016 Paris Attacks 2015 Parramatta Shooting 2015 QOTD Qur'an Radicalisation Ramadan Relativism Religion of Peace San Bernardino shooting 2015 Sharia Supremacism Sydney taqiyya Team Australia Terrorism Tony Abbott TURC UK Unions US Useful Idiots US Election 2016 victimhood Video	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line940
__label__wiki	0.655784	0.655784	archaeolink.com Social Studies & History Massachusetts People History Social Studies State by State Social Studies Alabama - Alaska - Arizona - Arkansas - California - Colorado - Connecticut - Delaware - Florida - Georgia - Hawaii - Idaho - Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Kansas - Kentucky - Louisiana - Maine - Maryland - Massachusetts - Michigan - Minnesota - Mississippi - Missouri - Montana - Nebraska - Nevada - New Hampshire - New Jersey - New Mexico - New York - North Carolina - North Dakota - Ohio - Oklahoma - Oregon - Pennsylvania - Rhode Island - South Carolina - South Dakota - Tennessee -Texas - Utah - Vermont - Virginia - Washington - West Virginia - Wisconsin - Wyoming Go to Massachusetts Social Studies - Massachusetts History - Capital City Boston, Massachusetts - Massachusetts Tourism - Massachusetts Disasters - Massachusetts Geography - Massachusetts Lesson Plans - Massachusetts Colleges and Universities Introduction to Massachusetts - The United States of America __ "Massachusetts gained statehood in 1788, and has sent three of her own and one adopted son to become President of the United States: John F. Kennedy, John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Calvin Coolidge. Though born in Vermont, Calvin Coolidge served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1919-1921 and went on to be elected President of the United States in 1924." Much more to find here. - illustrated - From Netstate.com - http://www.netstate.com/states/intro/ma_intro.htm map of massachusetts and massachusetts map and information page __ You will find Massachusetts maps and resources for Massachusetts maps. - From worldatlas.com - http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/usstates/ma.htm Map of Massachusetts \| Massachusetts Rivers \| Massachusetts Geology __ Here is a map of Massachusetts with important information about rivers, streams, rocks, minerals, earthquakes and more. - From geology.com - http://geology.com/states/massachusetts.shtml Massachusetts __ A great resource including history, culture, statistics, famous people, and good links. - illustrated - From Infoplease - http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0108225.html Massachusetts Economy at a Glance __ Labor force data, nonfarm wage and salary employment, manufacturing, construction, trade, transportation, utilities, professional and business services, leisure, hospitality and much more. - From US Bureau of Labor - http://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.MA.htm Massachusetts Geography __ "Massachusetts is characterized by a jagged indented coast from Rhode Island around Cape Cod. The land rises upward to the west with stony upland pastures in the central part of Massachusetts and gentle hill country in the west." You will find a lot of variety in this rather small state. - illustrated - From Netstate.com - http://www.netstate.com/states/geography/ma_geography.htm Massachusetts Historical Society __ Learn about the work of the Massachusetts Historical Society. You will find museum information, programs, educational materials for both student and teacher plus a lot more. - illustrated - From Massachusetts Historical Society - http://www.masshist.org/welcome/ Massachusetts Map, Map of Massachusetts __ " Welcome to the InfoHub Massachusetts map page. Here you will find a treasure of information with regard to map of Massachusetts as well as a wealth of information on the subject of Massachusetts maps." - From infohub.com - http://www.infohub.com/Maps/massachusetts_map_276.html Massachusetts Old Photos.... faces and places in the past __ "Old family photographs, postcards, historical pictures, and genealogy about the people and places." - illustrated - From familyoldphotos.com - http://www.familyoldphotos.com/ma/ Massachusetts Photos __ Galleries of annotated click-to-enlarge Massachusetts photos. Massachusetts pictures. - illustrated - From trekearth.com - http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/Northeast/Massachusetts/ Massachusetts Photos: Photos of Massachusetts, United States __ You will find several click-to-view galleries of Massachusetts photos. - From worldweb.com - http://www.massachusetts.worldweb.com/Photos/ Massachusetts Pictures __ You will find a photo tour of Massachusetts. Click on the region you want to visit to access galleries of click-to-enlarge Massachusetts pictures. Massachusetts photos. - illustrated - From masstraveljournal.com - http://www.masstraveljournal.com/scrapbook/photos.html Massachusetts pictures, Massachusetts images __ "Pictures of Massachusetts. Welcome to the InfoHub Massachusetts pictures and images page. Here you will find a treasure of information with regard to the pictures of Massachusetts as well as a wealth of information on the subject of Massachusetts images and photos." - From infohub.com - http://www.infohub.com/pictures/images_massachusetts_276.html Massachusetts Pictures - Pictures of Massachusetts __ "This collection of Massachusetts pictures will allow you to visit this historic New England state virtually. If you are planning a Massachusetts vacation, these pictures provide a preview of what you'll see." A collection of Massachusetts picture resources. - From about.com - http://gonewengland.about.com/od/massachusettspictures/Massachusetts_Pictures.htm Massachusetts QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau __ Population figures and changes over time - From US Census - http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25000.html Massachusetts road maps, city street maps __ You will find a wide variety of Massachusetts map resources. - From mapathon.com - http://www.mapathon.com/ma.shtml Massachusetts - Secretary of the Commonwealth's Kids Zone __ Find out the state facts, including state symbols and statistics. - illustrated - From State of Massachusetts - http://www.state.ma.us/sec/cis/ciskid/kididx.htm Massachusetts State Map - Cities, Roads, Counties, Rivers, Lakes __ You will find a collection of Massachusetts state maps showing Massachusetts counties, roads, highways, cities, rivers, topographic features, lakes and more. - From geology.com - http://geology.com/state-map/massachusetts.shtml Massachusetts State Parks __ Official State Park website. You will find information about attractions, location, fees, camping, boating, hiking trails, fishing, golf, cabin rentals, conference and meeting facilities and more. - illustrated - From State of Massachusetts - http://www.state.ma.us/dem/forparks.htm Massachusetts State Symbols Capital Constitution Flags Maps Song __ You will find everything listed in the title plus a whole lot more. - illustrated - From Pike Street Industries, Inc. - http://www.50states.com/massachu.htm Massachusetts Wildlife & Outdoor Recreation __ Hunting and fishing information for the state of Massachusetts. Learn about wildlife viewing, rules and regulations, licensing information and a lot more. - illustrated - From state of Massachusetts - http://www.state.ma.us/dfwele/dfw/dfwrec.htm Newspapers in Massachusetts __ You will find 63 here - From Global Computing - http://www.globalcomputing.com/GetNews_Map1.cfm?stateid=MA Pictures of Massachusetts __ Here are pages of annotated click-to-enlarge pictures of Massachusetts. Massachusetts photos. - illustrated - From planetware.com - http://www.planetware.com/pictures/massachusetts-usma.htm A Tour of Massachusetts History and Trivia __ You will find material covering everything from pre-contact history to current events. There is a lot of reading here. - From masshome.com - http://www.masshome.com/tour.html#Original	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line947
__label__cc	0.549825	0.450175	Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction: Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue Kenneth W. Mahaffey, Thomas E. Raya, Gregory D. Pennock, Eugene Morkin, Steven Goldman Background: Because the rat postinfarction model differs from human heart failure with respect to the composition of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms and other contractile proteins, alternative animal models are needed for the development of new treatments for human heart failure. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to test the feasibility of using the V3(β,β) rabbit postinfarction model for the study of heart failure by characterizing the effects of chronic coronary artery occlusion on the left ventricle; (2) to determine whether the thyroid hormone analogue 3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid (DITPA) produces improvements in left ventricular function; and (3) to determine the effects of myocardial infarction and treatment with DITPA on MHC protein isoforms. Methods and Results: Male New Zealand White rabbits underwent proximal circumflex coronary artery ligation. After infarction, rabbits were treated with DITPA (3.75 mg/kg body wt) or placebo for 21 days and then underwent conscious and open-chest hemodynamic studies. In separate groups of rabbits, β- and α-MHC isoforms were separated, and relative proportions were measured using gradient sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and laser densitometry. Infarction resulted in increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and prolonged left ventricular relaxation (τ) (P=.001 for both variables). Postinfarction treatment with DITPA decreased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and τ (P=.002 and P=.001, respectively) and increased maximum positive and negative dP/dt (P=.002 and P=.016, respectively). Infarcted rabbits treated with DITPA had no significant changes in heart rate or left ventricular systolic pressure compared with untreated rabbits with infarction. There were no significant differences in heart rate, positive dP/dt, peak systolic pressure, or τ between sham-operated rabbits and sham-operated rabbits treated with DITPA. Although infarction resulted in increased left ventricular diameter, there were no effects of DITPA on left ventricular remodeling. Neither myocardial infarction nor treatment with DITPA altered the ratio of MHC isoforms. Conclusions: Rabbits that survive occlusion of the circumflex artery will develop myocardial dysfunction and left ventricular remodeling. Therapy with DITPA, a thyroid hormone analogue, produces improvement in ventricular performance and reduces end-diastolic pressure. The hemodynamic effects of DITPA were not associated with alterations of MHC isoforms. Whether DITPA represents the prototype of a previously undescribed class of agents for the treatment of heart failure will need to be determined by clinical trials. Ventricular Remodeling Myosin Heavy Chains Coronary Vessels Contractile Proteins Densitometry Coronary Occlusion Ventricular Pressure Treatment Failure Left Ventricular Function 3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid Ventricles Mahaffey, K. W., Raya, T. E., Pennock, G. D., Morkin, E., & Goldman, S. (1995). Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction: Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue. Circulation, 91(3), 794-801. Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction : Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue. / Mahaffey, Kenneth W.; Raya, Thomas E.; Pennock, Gregory D.; Morkin, Eugene; Goldman, Steven. In: Circulation, Vol. 91, No. 3, 01.02.1995, p. 794-801. Mahaffey, KW, Raya, TE, Pennock, GD, Morkin, E & Goldman, S 1995, 'Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction: Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue', Circulation, vol. 91, no. 3, pp. 794-801. Mahaffey KW, Raya TE, Pennock GD, Morkin E, Goldman S. Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction: Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue. Circulation. 1995 Feb 1;91(3):794-801. Mahaffey, Kenneth W. ; Raya, Thomas E. ; Pennock, Gregory D. ; Morkin, Eugene ; Goldman, Steven. / Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction : Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue. In: Circulation. 1995 ; Vol. 91, No. 3. pp. 794-801. @article{36478c20c1334380b23386ae8e77d80e, title = "Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction: Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue", abstract = "Background: Because the rat postinfarction model differs from human heart failure with respect to the composition of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms and other contractile proteins, alternative animal models are needed for the development of new treatments for human heart failure. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to test the feasibility of using the V3(β,β) rabbit postinfarction model for the study of heart failure by characterizing the effects of chronic coronary artery occlusion on the left ventricle; (2) to determine whether the thyroid hormone analogue 3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid (DITPA) produces improvements in left ventricular function; and (3) to determine the effects of myocardial infarction and treatment with DITPA on MHC protein isoforms. Methods and Results: Male New Zealand White rabbits underwent proximal circumflex coronary artery ligation. After infarction, rabbits were treated with DITPA (3.75 mg/kg body wt) or placebo for 21 days and then underwent conscious and open-chest hemodynamic studies. In separate groups of rabbits, β- and α-MHC isoforms were separated, and relative proportions were measured using gradient sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and laser densitometry. Infarction resulted in increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and prolonged left ventricular relaxation (τ) (P=.001 for both variables). Postinfarction treatment with DITPA decreased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and τ (P=.002 and P=.001, respectively) and increased maximum positive and negative dP/dt (P=.002 and P=.016, respectively). Infarcted rabbits treated with DITPA had no significant changes in heart rate or left ventricular systolic pressure compared with untreated rabbits with infarction. There were no significant differences in heart rate, positive dP/dt, peak systolic pressure, or τ between sham-operated rabbits and sham-operated rabbits treated with DITPA. Although infarction resulted in increased left ventricular diameter, there were no effects of DITPA on left ventricular remodeling. Neither myocardial infarction nor treatment with DITPA altered the ratio of MHC isoforms. Conclusions: Rabbits that survive occlusion of the circumflex artery will develop myocardial dysfunction and left ventricular remodeling. Therapy with DITPA, a thyroid hormone analogue, produces improvement in ventricular performance and reduces end-diastolic pressure. The hemodynamic effects of DITPA were not associated with alterations of MHC isoforms. Whether DITPA represents the prototype of a previously undescribed class of agents for the treatment of heart failure will need to be determined by clinical trials.", keywords = "3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid, Heart failure, Thyroid, Ventricles", author = "Mahaffey, {Kenneth W.} and Raya, {Thomas E.} and Pennock, {Gregory D.} and Eugene Morkin and Steven Goldman", T1 - Left ventricular performance and remodeling in rabbits after myocardial infarction T2 - Effects of a thyroid hormone analogue AU - Mahaffey, Kenneth W. AU - Raya, Thomas E. AU - Pennock, Gregory D. AU - Morkin, Eugene AU - Goldman, Steven N2 - Background: Because the rat postinfarction model differs from human heart failure with respect to the composition of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms and other contractile proteins, alternative animal models are needed for the development of new treatments for human heart failure. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to test the feasibility of using the V3(β,β) rabbit postinfarction model for the study of heart failure by characterizing the effects of chronic coronary artery occlusion on the left ventricle; (2) to determine whether the thyroid hormone analogue 3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid (DITPA) produces improvements in left ventricular function; and (3) to determine the effects of myocardial infarction and treatment with DITPA on MHC protein isoforms. Methods and Results: Male New Zealand White rabbits underwent proximal circumflex coronary artery ligation. After infarction, rabbits were treated with DITPA (3.75 mg/kg body wt) or placebo for 21 days and then underwent conscious and open-chest hemodynamic studies. In separate groups of rabbits, β- and α-MHC isoforms were separated, and relative proportions were measured using gradient sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and laser densitometry. Infarction resulted in increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and prolonged left ventricular relaxation (τ) (P=.001 for both variables). Postinfarction treatment with DITPA decreased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and τ (P=.002 and P=.001, respectively) and increased maximum positive and negative dP/dt (P=.002 and P=.016, respectively). Infarcted rabbits treated with DITPA had no significant changes in heart rate or left ventricular systolic pressure compared with untreated rabbits with infarction. There were no significant differences in heart rate, positive dP/dt, peak systolic pressure, or τ between sham-operated rabbits and sham-operated rabbits treated with DITPA. Although infarction resulted in increased left ventricular diameter, there were no effects of DITPA on left ventricular remodeling. Neither myocardial infarction nor treatment with DITPA altered the ratio of MHC isoforms. Conclusions: Rabbits that survive occlusion of the circumflex artery will develop myocardial dysfunction and left ventricular remodeling. Therapy with DITPA, a thyroid hormone analogue, produces improvement in ventricular performance and reduces end-diastolic pressure. The hemodynamic effects of DITPA were not associated with alterations of MHC isoforms. Whether DITPA represents the prototype of a previously undescribed class of agents for the treatment of heart failure will need to be determined by clinical trials. AB - Background: Because the rat postinfarction model differs from human heart failure with respect to the composition of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms and other contractile proteins, alternative animal models are needed for the development of new treatments for human heart failure. The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) to test the feasibility of using the V3(β,β) rabbit postinfarction model for the study of heart failure by characterizing the effects of chronic coronary artery occlusion on the left ventricle; (2) to determine whether the thyroid hormone analogue 3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid (DITPA) produces improvements in left ventricular function; and (3) to determine the effects of myocardial infarction and treatment with DITPA on MHC protein isoforms. Methods and Results: Male New Zealand White rabbits underwent proximal circumflex coronary artery ligation. After infarction, rabbits were treated with DITPA (3.75 mg/kg body wt) or placebo for 21 days and then underwent conscious and open-chest hemodynamic studies. In separate groups of rabbits, β- and α-MHC isoforms were separated, and relative proportions were measured using gradient sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and laser densitometry. Infarction resulted in increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and prolonged left ventricular relaxation (τ) (P=.001 for both variables). Postinfarction treatment with DITPA decreased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and τ (P=.002 and P=.001, respectively) and increased maximum positive and negative dP/dt (P=.002 and P=.016, respectively). Infarcted rabbits treated with DITPA had no significant changes in heart rate or left ventricular systolic pressure compared with untreated rabbits with infarction. There were no significant differences in heart rate, positive dP/dt, peak systolic pressure, or τ between sham-operated rabbits and sham-operated rabbits treated with DITPA. Although infarction resulted in increased left ventricular diameter, there were no effects of DITPA on left ventricular remodeling. Neither myocardial infarction nor treatment with DITPA altered the ratio of MHC isoforms. Conclusions: Rabbits that survive occlusion of the circumflex artery will develop myocardial dysfunction and left ventricular remodeling. Therapy with DITPA, a thyroid hormone analogue, produces improvement in ventricular performance and reduces end-diastolic pressure. The hemodynamic effects of DITPA were not associated with alterations of MHC isoforms. Whether DITPA represents the prototype of a previously undescribed class of agents for the treatment of heart failure will need to be determined by clinical trials. KW - 3,5-diiodothyropropionic acid KW - Heart failure KW - Thyroid KW - Ventricles	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line949
__label__wiki	0.652438	0.652438	Primary Principal Message Greek School Sports School Programme Learning Support Center Limassol School Greek School (11-18 y.o.) Boarding School (11-18 y.o.) Sport Results Interview & Assessment Before you begin School Performing & Fine Arts American Academy > History > Limassol School “OUR SCHOOL IS ONE OF THE OLDEST EDUCATIONAL ESTABLISHMENTS IN CYPRUS” History and Current Status of the Organisation In 1986 the American Academy opened its doors in Despina Pattichi Street Limassol to both primary and secondary school pupils with an initial enrolment of 50 pupils. (PICTURE) By 1990 the primary school moved to its current location Lefkas street to fit the growing number of enrolments for both schools. In the year 2000, the school management was busy opening its first Nursery and Reception classes, creating boarding facilities to cater to international students as well as expanded its educational influence by creating an Educational Learning Center to assist students with extra lessons and top-up subjects as well as dealing with students which have learning difficulties such as Dyslexia. In 2001 recognizing the demand for Private Greek education, the American Academy in Limassol started a Greek secondary school. In 2006 – 2008 an additional floor was built in the Limassol Secondary school to satisfy increase in demand for students. By 2008 a new Nursery was established in Limassol. 2010 A management agreement was signed with Tanafoua Group of Companies for the establishment and operation of a series of schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2011 Accredited by City and Guilds to become an on-line English Examination Centre 2013 Negotiations are under way to move into Tertiary education by offering first year pathway courses	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line952
__label__wiki	0.807207	0.807207	American-Scottish Foundation® a bridge between two great countries Back to ASF Main Site ASF Events Associate Events Scotland-Tartan Week Travel in Scotland Tag Archives: Daily Record The story behind Ken Pattersons photographic exhibit, “In the Footsteps of John Muir”, currently on show at Federal Hall, Wall Street, New York – through July 8th, 2016. Daily Record reporter, Paul English, recently spoke to Scottish photographer Ken Patterson of how his current photographic exhibit, “In the Footsteps of John Muir” came together and his journey to seeing it now a part of the Centennial Celebrations at Federal Hall, Wall Street, NYC As Patterson notes … “All of America’s national park system came out of this determination by Roosevelt to preserve America’s wild places for future generations. “John Muir had a very strong belief that by going outdoors, you actually went into something. He was quite spiritual, he referred to nature as God’s cathedral.” AT THE heart of world finance on Wall Street, Americans are lining up to pay tribute to the Scotsman they regard as a hero for changing their country for the better. Yet back in his homeland, the name of the man they regard as the father of modern environmentalism remains in relative obscurity. A photography exhibition is being held in Federal Hall, a historic building in the centre of the financial zone, celebrating the life and legacy of a man who measured riches in nature’s bounty, not stocks and shares. Muir was born in Dunbar, East Lothian , in 1838, crossing the Atlantic with his family 11 years later, landing in Wisconsin and growing up to become the father of the US National Park Service, who celebrate their centenary in August. Fifer Ken Paterson’s exhibition in Manhattan is one among many events planned to mark it. Ken’s show, In The Footsteps of John Muir, features the work of a Scottish photographer on whose life Muir had a profound and transformative impact many years after his death in 1914. Ken has had a lifelong enthusiasm for outdoor activities, propelling him into the mountains around the world as a keen walker, rock and ice climber. But it wasn’t until he was recuperating from a brain tumour in 2001 that he encountered the work of Muir, and grew to appreciate the restorative power of the Scot’s mantra. Ken said: “Although I obviously had many difficulties, the experience of the brain tumour ultimately proved to be a positive one. When I got out of the hospital, I had to learn how to walk and obviously I couldn’t climb either. “My thinking processes were fairly limited in those days. I went on the internet and typed in Yosemite, because it was a world centre of rock climbing, and every time I did that, I kept coming across the name of John Muir Yosemite valley from tunnel view, Yosemite National Park, California, USA “I was staggered when I came to realise I had lived my whole life mainly in Edinburgh, had been passionate about climbing and the outdoors, and yet I hadn’t heard of this guy. “It made me think, ‘What is wrong with Scotland? Why are we singing songs about Bonnie Prince Charlie rather than John Muir?” As his rehabilitation progressed, former newspaper photographer Ken took a trip to the footsteps of the revered conservationist, heading to Yosemite, the vast national park in California, in which the seeds of Muir’s legacy were sewn Enthused by the wilderness, Ken found a way to reconnect with nature, a passion represented in the photos of his trip. And in a bid to draw a connection between the American luminary and his Scottish heritage, Ken approached the American Scottish Foundation, co-organisers of the annual New York Tartan Week celebrations. The photographs became part of the program of events in the 2005 jamboree, being exhibited in Central Park’s Arsenal Gallery and twice since then, including during Muir’s centenary and again this year. Dad-of-two Ken, 59, said: “The outdoors played such an important part in my life and, after illness, getting back to that was very important to me. “It was looking at Muir, reading about what he had done, which rekindled my passion and determination to get back out there and do it. “Muir talks about his childhood and the various things he did, climbing on to the roof of his house. I did that when I was young. He got himself stuck at the top of a mountain in a storm and the same thing happened to me in the Alps.” Photographer Ken Patterson : his photography exhibition In The Footsteps of John Muir opens in New York this month. Ken’s recovery affirmed a wider pondering on notions of Scottish identity, at home and abroad, and eventually led to him establishing a website, The Famous Scots Project, an ongoing study into the work of influential Scots. He said: “After illness I became philosophical. I started to look at life in a slightly different way. I decided that the strength of the nation lies in its sense of community, the heart in its people and the soul in its history. “Cicero said that not to know where you come from is to forever remain a child. Scotland needs to move on a wee bit and get a better sense of depth of its own history beyond Culloden and all that. “We’ve lost sight of our history. We get caught up in stuff like Bonnie Prince Charlie, and yet there are these incredible stories about people like Muir, scientist James Clerk Maxwell, explorer David Livingstone, the list goes on and on.” In 1903, Muir guided president Theodore Roosevelt through Yosemite, camping out for three nights during which Muir lobbied by the campfire, impressing upon him the need to set aside key areas for preservation and appreciation by future generations. A natural rock arch in the Alabama Hills beside Lone Pine in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, John Muir’s ‘Range of Light’ in California. It worked. Roosevelt instigated five national parks in office. There are now 58. Muir’s profile in Scotland has been bolstered in recent years, principally with the 2014 inception of the John Muir Way, a 130-mile east-west walk from Dunbar to Helensburgh, echoing a 211-mile trail named for the Scot through the American Sierra Nevada. Schoolchildren also take part in the John Muir Award, an environmental education scheme encouraging young people to forge an appreciation of nature. Ricky Ross weighed in on the legacy of the man described by Statesiders as a “wilderness prophet”, writing the tune For John Muir as a tribute on Deacon Blue’s 2014 album A New House. The Bristlecone Pine can live for 3000 years making it one of the longest living organisms on the planet. Situated on one side of the Owens valley in California the Inyo mountain range have several sites of bristlecone forests. Ken said: “All of America’s national park system came out of this determination by Roosevelt to preserve America’s wild places for future generations. Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/honouring-scots-king-wild-frontiers-7913745#297tBvPH6vAfwWZM.99 This entry was posted in ASF Events, Initiatives and tagged American Scottish Foundation, Daily Record, Federal Hall, John Muir, Ken Patterson, NPS Centennial Celebration, Paul English on May 7, 2016 by Camilla Hellman. ASF Community Calendar of upcoming events – October 10 and 18 – Collectio Musicorum early Scottish music performances. ASF Community Calendar of upcoming events – October 19 : A Celebration of Scottish Culture with Alan Cumming OBE and special guests ASF Community Calendar of upcoming events – October 10 : Scottish Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis in Concert ASF Community Calendar of upcoming events – October 16 : Scotland’s Picts, the Lost People of Europe ASF Community Calendar of upcoming events – October 18 : Tartan Talk	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line953
__label__wiki	0.552731	0.552731	JavaScript: The Modern Parts In the last few months, I have learned a lot about modern JavaScript and CSS development with a local toolchain powered by Node 8, Webpack 4, and Babel 7. As part of that, I am doing my second “re-introduction to JavaScript”. I first learned JS in 1998. Then relearned it from scratch in 2008, in the era of “The Good Parts”, Firebug, jQuery, IE6-compatibility, and eventually the then-fledgling Node ecosystem. In that era, I wrote one of the most widely deployed pieces of JavaScript on the web, and maintained a system powered by it. Now I am re-learning it in the era of ECMAScript (ES6 / ES2017), transpilation, formal support for libraries and modularization, and, mobile web performance with things like PWAs, code splitting, and WebWorkers / ServiceWorkers. I am also pleasantly surprised that JS, via the ECMAScript standard and Babel, has evolved into a pretty good programming language, all things considered. To solidify all this stuff, I am using webpack/babel to build all static assets for a simple Python/Flask web app, which ends up deployed as a multi-hundred-page static site. One weekend, I ported everything from Flask-Assets to webpack, and to play around with ES2017 features, as well as explore the Sass CSS preprocessor and some D3.js examples. And boy, did that send me down a yak shaving rabbit hole. Let’s start from the beginning! JavaScript in 1998 I first learned JavaScript in 1998. It’s hard to believe that this was 20 years — two decades! — ago. This post will chart the two decades since — covering JavaScript in 1998, 2008, and 2018. The focus of the article will be on “modern” JavaScript, as of my understanding in 2018/2019, and, in particular, what a non-JavaScript programmer should know about how the language — and its associated tooling and runtime — have dramatically evolved. If you’re the kind of programmer who thinks, “I code in Python/Java/Ruby/C/whatever, and thus I have no use for JavaScript and don’t need to know anything about it”, you’re wrong, and I’ll describe why. Incidentally, you were right in 1998, you could get by without it in 2008, and you are dead wrong in 2018. Further, if you are the kind of programmer who thinks, “JavaScript is a tire fire I’d rather avoid because it lacks basic infrastructure we take for granted in ‘real’ programming languages”, then you are also wrong. I’ll be able to show you how “not taking JavaScript seriously” is the 2018 equivalent of the skeptical 2008-era programmer not taking Python or Ruby seriously. JavaScript is a language that is not only here to stay, but has already — and will continue to — take over the world in several important areas. To be a serious programmer, you’ll have to know JavaScript’s Modern and Good Parts — as well as some other server-side language, like Python, Ruby, Go, Elixir, Clojure, Java, and so on. But, though you can swap one backend language for the other, you can’t avoid JavaScript: it’s pervasive in every kind of web deployment scenario. And, the developer tooling has fully caught up to your expectations. JavaScript during The Browser Wars Browsers were a harsh environment to target for development; not only was Internet adoption low and not only were internet connections slow, but the browser wars — mainly between Netscape and Microsoft — were creating a lot of confusion. Netscape Navigator 4 was released in 1997, and Internet Explorer 5 was released in 1998. The web was still trying to make sense of HTML and CSS; after all, CSS1 had only been released a year earlier. In this environment, the definitive web development book of the era was “JavaScript: The Definitive Guide”, which weighed in at over 500 pages. Note that, in 1998, the most widely used programming languages were C, C++, and Java, as well as Microsoft Visual Basic for Windows programmers. So expectations about “what programming was” were framed mostly around these languages. In this sense, JavaScript was quite, quite different. There was no compiler. There was no debugger (at least, not very good ones). There was no way to “run a JavaScript program”, except to write scripts in your browser, and see if they ran. Development tools for JavaScript were still primitive or inexistent. There was certainly not much of an open source community around JS; to figure out how to do things, you would typically “view source” on other people’s websites. Plus, much of the discussion in the programming community of web developers was how JavaScript represented a compatibility and security nightmare. Not only differing implementations across browsers, but also many ways for you to compromise the security of your web application by relying upon JavaScript too directly. A common security bug in that era was to validate forms with JavaScript, but still allow invalid (and insecure) values to be passed to the server. Or, to password-protect a system, but in a way that inspection of JavaScript code could itself crack access to that system. Combined with the lack of a proper development environment, the “real web programmers” used JavaScript as nothing more than a last resort — a way to inject a little bit of client-side code and logic into pages where doing it server-side made no sense. I remember one of the most common use cases for JavaScript at the time was nothing more than changing an image upon hover, as a stylistic effect, or implementing a basic on-hover menu on a complex multi-tab form. These days, these tasks can be achieved with vanilla CSS, but, at the time, JavaScript DOM manipulation was your only option. Fast forward 10 years. In 2008, Douglas Crockford released the book, “JavaScript: The Good Parts”. By using a language subsetting approach, Crockford pointed out that, not only was JavaScript not a bad language, it was actually a good language, well-designed, with certain key features that made it stand out vs competitors. Around this time, several JavaScript libraries were becoming popular, notably jQuery, Prototype, YUI, and Dojo. These libraries attempted to provide JavaScript with something it was missing: a cross-browser compatibility layer and programming model for doing dynamic manipulation of pages inside the browser, and especially for a new model of JavaScript programming that was emerging, with the moniker AJAX. This was the beginning of the trend of rich internet applications, “dynamic” web apps, single-page applications, and the like. JavaScript’s Tooling Leaps The developer tooling for JavaScript also took some important leaps. In 2006, the Firefox team released Firebug, a JavaScript and DOM debugger for Firefox, which was then one of the world’s most popular web browsers, and open source. Two years later, Google would make the first release of Google Chrome, which bundled some developer tooling. Around the same time that Chrome was released, Google also released V8, the JavaScript engine that was embedded inside of Chrome. That marked the first time that the world had seen a full-fledged, performant open source implementation of the JavaScript language that was not completely tied to a browser. Firefox’s JS engine, SpiderMonkey, was part of its source tree, but was not necessarily marketed to be modularized and used outside the context of the Firefox browser. I remember that aside from Crockford’s work on identifying the good parts of JavaScript, and aside from the new (and better) developer tooling, a specific essay on Mozilla’s website helped me re-appreciate the language, and throw away my 1998 conception. That article was called “A Reintroduction to JavaScript”. It showed how JavaScript was actually a real programming language, once you got past the tooling bumps. A little under-powered in its standard library, thus you had to rely upon frameworks (like jQuery) to give you some tools, and little micro-libraries beyond that. A year after reading that essay, I wrote my own about JavaScript, which was called “Real, Functional Programs with JavaScript” (archived PDF here). It described how JavaScript was, quite surprisingly, more of a functional language than Java 8 or Python 2.7. And that with a little focus on understanding the functional core, really good programs could be written. I recently converted this essay into a set of instructional slides with the name, “Lambda JavaScript” (archived notes here), which I now use to teach new designers/developers the language from first principles. But, let’s return to history. Only a year after the release of Chrome, in 2009, we saw the first release of NodeJS, which took the V8 JavaScript engine and embedded it into a server-side environment, which could be used to experiment with JavaScript on a REPL, to write scripts, and even to write HTTP servers on a performant event loop. People began to experiment with command-line tools written in JavaScript, and with web frameworks written in JavaScript. It was at this point that the pace of development in the JavaScript community accelerated. In 2010, npm — the Node Package Manager — was released, and it and its package registry quickly grew to represent the full JavaScript open source community. Over the next few years, the browser vendors of Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Microsoft engaged in the “JavaScript Engine Wars”, with each developing SpiderMonkey, V8, Nitro, and Chakra to new heights. Meanwhile, NodeJS and V8 became the “standard” JS engine running on developer’s machines from the command line. Though developers still had to target old “ECMAScript 3” browsers (such as IE6), and thus had to write restrained JavaScript code, the “evergreen” (auto-updating) browsers from Mozilla, Google, and Apple gained support for ECMAScript 5 and beyond, and mobile web browsing went into ascendancy, thus making Chrome and Safari dominant in market share especially on smartphones. I remember in 2012, I gave a presentation at a local tech conference entitled, “Writing Real Programs… with JavaScript!?”. The “!?” punctuation was intentional. That was the general zeitgeist I remember in a room full of developers: that is, “is writing real programs with JavaScript… actually possible!?” It’s funny to review those slides as a historical relic. I spent the first half of the talk convincing the audience that JavaScript’s functional core was actually pretty good. And then I spent the second half convincing them that NodeJS might… it just might… create a developer tooling ecosystem and standard library for JavaScript. There are also a few funny “detour” slides in there around things like Comet vs Ajax, a debate that didn’t really amount to much (but it’s good to remind one of fashion trends in tech). Zooming ahead a few years, in all of this noise of web 2.0, cloud, and mobile, we finally reached “mobilegeddon” in 2015, where mobile traffic surpassed desktop traffic, and we also saw several desktop operating systems move to a mostly-evergreen model, such as Windows 10, Mac OS X, and ChromeOS. As a result, as early as 2015 — but certainly by 2018 — JavaScript became the most widely deployed and performant programming language with “built-in support” on almost every desktop and mobile computer in the world. In other words, if you wanted your code to be “write once, run everywhere” in 2015 or so (but even as far back as 2009), your best option was JavaScript. Well, that’s even more true today. The solid choice for widespread distribution of your code continues to be JavaScript. As Crockford predicted in 2008: “It is better to be lucky than smart.” JavaScript in 2018-2019 In 2018-2019, several things have changed about the JavaScript community. Development tools are no longer fledgling, but are, instead, mature. There are built-in development tools in all of Safari, Firefox, and Chrome browsers (and the Firebug project is mostly deprecated). There are also ways to debug mobile web browsers using mobile development tools. NodeJS and npm are mature projects that are shared infrastructure for the whole JavaScript community. What’s more, JavaScript, as a language, has evolved. It’s no longer just the kernel language we knew in 1998, nor the “good parts” we knew in 2008, but instead the “modern parts” of JavaScript include several new language features that go by the name “ES6” (ECMAScript v6) or “ES2017” (ECMAScript 2017 Edition), and beyond. Some concepts in HTML have evolved, such as HTML5 video and audio elements. CSS, too, has evolved, with the CSS2 and CSS3 specifications being ratified and widely adopted. JSON has all but entirely replaced XML as an interchange format and is, of course, JavaScript-based. The V8 engine has also gotten a ton of performance-oriented development. It is now a JIT compiled language with speedy startup times and speedy near-native performance for CPU-bound blocks. Modern web performance techniques are almost entirely based on a speedy JavaScript engine and the ability to script different elements of a web application’s loading approach. The language itself has become comfortable with something akin to “compiler” and “command line” toolchains you might find in Python, Ruby, C, and Java communities. In lieu of a JavaScript “compiler”, we have node, JavaScript unit testing frameworks like Mocha/Jest, as well as eslint and babel for syntax checking. (More on this later.) In lieu of a “debugger”, we have the devtools built into our favorite browser, like Chrome or Firefox. This includes rich debuggers, REPLs/consoles, and visual inspection tools. Scriptable remote connections to a node environment or a browser process (via new tools like Puppeteer) further close the development loop. To use JavaScript in 2018/2019, therefore, is to adopt a system that has achieved 2008-era maturity that you would see in programming ecosystems like Python, Ruby, and Java. But, in many ways, JavaScript has surpassed those communities. For example, where Python 3’s reference implementation, CPython, is certainly fast as far as dynamic languages go, JavaScript’s reference implementation, V8, is optimized by JIT and hotspot optimization techniques that are only found in much more mature programming communities, such as Java’s (which received millions of dollars of commercial support in applied/advanced compiler techniques in the Sun era). That means that unmodified, hotspot JavaScript code can be optimized into native code automatically by the Node runtime and by browsers such as Chrome. Whereas Java and C users may still have debates about where, exactly, open source projects should publish their releases, that issue is settled in the JavaScript community: it’s npm, which operates similarly to PyPI and pip in the Python community. Some essential developer tooling issues were only recently settled. For example, because modern JavaScript (such as code written using ES2017 features) needs to target older browsers, a “transpilation” toolchain is necessary, to compile ES2017 code into ES3 or ES5 JavaScript code, suitable for older browsers. Because “old JavaScript” is a Turing complete, functional programming language, we know we can translate almost any new “syntactic sugar” to the old language, and, indeed, the designers of the new language features are being careful to only introduce syntax that can be safely transpiled. What this means, however, is that to do JavaScript development “The Modern Way”, while adopting its new features, you simply must use a local transpiler toolchain. The community standard for this at the moment is known as babel, and it’s likely to remain the community standard well into the future. Another issue that plagued 2008-era JavaScript was build tooling and modularization. In the 2008-2012 era, ad-hoc tools like make were used to concatenate JavaScript modules together, and often Java-based tools such as Google’s Closure Compiler or UglifyJS were used to assemble JavaScript projects into modules that could be included onto pages. In 2012, the Grunt tool was released as a JavaScript build tool, written atop NodeJS, runnable from the command-line, and configurable using a JavaScript “Gruntfile”. A whole slew of build tools similar to this were released in the period, creating a whole lot of code churn and confusion. Thankfully, today, Single Page Application frameworks like React have largely solved this problem, with the ascendancy of webpack and the reliance on npm run-script. Today, the webpack community has come up with a sane approach to JavaScript modularization that relies upon the modern JS support for modules, and then development-time tooling, provided mainly through the webpack CLI tool, allow for local development and production builds. This can all be scripted and wired together with simple npm run-script commands. And since webpack can be itself installed by npm, this keeps the entire development stack self-contained in a way that doesn’t feel too dissimilar from what you might enjoy with lein in Clojure or python/pip in Python. Yes, it has taken 20 years, but JavaScript is now just as viable a choice for your backend and CLI tooling projects as Python was in the past. And, for web frontends, it’s your only choice. So, if you are a programmer who cares, at all, about distribution of your code to users, it’s time to care about JavaScript! In a future post, I plan to go even deeper on JavaScript, covering: How to structure your first “modern” JavaScript project Using Modern JS with Python’s Flask web framework for simple static sites Understanding webpack, and why it’s important Modules, modules, modules. Why JS modules matter. Understanding babel, and why it’s important Transpilation, and how to think about evolving JS/ES features and “compilation” Using eslint for bonus points Using sourcemaps for debugging Using console.assert and console for debugging Production minification with uglify Building automated tests with jest Understanding the value of Chrome scripting and puppeteer Want me to keep going? Let me know via @amontalenti on Twitter. Posted on August 10, 2019 August 24, 2019 Author Andrew MontalentiCategories Open Source, Programming, Technology 11 thoughts on “JavaScript: The Modern Parts” Great article, very useful. Looking forward to the next part. Great article! Additionally Typescript is also on its way to becoming a de-facto standard for non-trivial projects as of 2019. https://dev.to/nickytonline/is-2019-the-year-of-typescript-18p2 Micah Geisel says: Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I’d suggest discussing the potential impact of web assembly on the JavaScript front-end monopoly, too. We might not be stuck with JavaScript in the front-end, anymore! Also, languages with no runtime errors, like Elm, are another opportunity to do complex frontend stuff without ever needing to know (and debug) JavaScript. Looking forward to the next article! Michael Holroyd says: Nice reflection as always! It is fun to think back to the “early” days, JS devs have it so much better now 🙂 Andrew Montalenti says: 100% agree! Though, with all that extra infrastructure comes a bit more initial learning curve and complexity. Guillaume Claret (@guillaumeclaret) says: Thanks for doing this summary as someone who has known JavaScript since 1998! great! earlier I was intimidated by things people said about JS and though of avoiding it at any cost(now that seems irrational, I should conduct my own research before coming to conclusions). I have already started to learn JS now. Jim Russell says: Keep going. I give up, is that a real book? Looked for it on O’reilly but failed. amontalenti says: @Jim “JavaScript: The Good Parts” is a real book, very much worth reading, and published in 2009 by Crockford. A more modern update to this style of book is probably “You Don’t Know JavaScript” (YDKJS) by Kyle Simpson, which is 4 years old. Tiago Sousa says: Great article. Any idea for when its coming the next “chapters”? jimjsr says: Thanks. I was looking for “JavaScript: The ‘Modern’ Parts”. I’ll look for YDKJS just as soon as I master the J language. Previous Previous post: Parse.ly’s brand refresh Next Next post: Work is a Queue of Queues	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line958
__label__wiki	0.763667	0.763667	September 27, 2017 September 27, 2017 Michelle Swope 13 Questions With Producer Tim Wu, Imitation Girl Cinematographer and producer Tim Wu is well-known in horror circles for films such as Imitation Girl (2017), Darling (2015), and Pod (2015). Travis Tips was the cinematographer on Imitation Girl and Tim was the camera operator. An independent science fiction film starring Lauren Ashley Carter, Imitation Girl has been making a splash on the film festival rounds this year. I had a chance to talk with Tim from the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival (AKA the PUFF Film Festival) where Imitation Girl premieres on Thursday, September 28th. Michelle: Hi Tim, thank you for taking the time to talk with me! I just screened Imitation Girl and it’s a really beautiful film. What appealed to you the most about this project? Tim: Thanks! Well, Natasha is one of my business partners at Illium Pictures so I’m obligated to automatically like everything she puts in front of me — but I’m lucky because everything she puts in front of me is pretty. Damn. Great. So, outside of all the usual things (awesome script, great director, extraordinary talent, etc. etc. etc. other assorted compliments about Natasha and co.), the big thing for me was that Imitation Girl was our first fully original feature and marked our company’s move into the wonderful, wonderful, high-risk, low-return world of independent feature filmmaking. Michelle: You have an impressive history as a cinematographer. How challenging was it to do both camera work and act as co-producer on this film? Tim: OH, STAHP. The ‘ol producer/cam-op combo … yeah, #DoNotRecommend. Forrest McClain honestly did most of the heavy lifting for the film (he still had hair when we first started the project). I was there to help out with the logistics wherever he needed, but I was actually still producing a lot of the commercial stuff we were doing at the company while shooting Imitation Girl because that stuff is what was (quite literally) keeping the lights on. Michelle: Natasha Kermani is an exceptionally talented writer and director. What was it like working with her on this project? Tim: Natasha and I have worked together for about a million billion years now (give or take a few years), so of course it was a great experience working with her. I think we’ve always worked well with each other because we don’t take anything TOO seriously which tends to keep the stress at bay. I mean, at the end of the day, it’s just movies. This business is so intimate — a good 90% of our hiring decisions stem from “well, who do we want to hang out with for 12 hours a day?” There are really objectively talented and accomplished people that I just won’t work with because they’re a pain the ass on set or are too high and mighty about themselves. Our crew on Imitation Girl were all just people we liked hanging out with who happen to be really really good at what they do. Michelle: This isn’t your first horror/science fiction film. Do you prefer working with one genre over another? Tim: I’d say as a camera operator, horror can be a lot of fun (sometimes) but as a producer, holy crap would I prefer science fiction. I’d take a controlled spaceship set any day of the week over night exteriors in the woods (although our next movie is almost entirely outdoor night exteriors in the woods, so … thanks, Natasha). Michelle: The visuals are amazing in this film. There is a noticeable difference in atmosphere in the scenes with Imitation and the scenes with Julianna. How did you achieve the two different moods for characters in terms of cinematography? Tim: Oh that’s 100% Travis Tips, our uber-talented DP on the film. All I did was push the little red button on the side of the camera and point it at the set. The color palettes he and the gaffer, James Herron (our third partner at Illium), crafted for the different locations were really something. I particularly loved the warmth of the brother’s bar in New Mexico. Michelle: Did you have a preferred camera for this film and, if so, why? Tim: The camera we used for the film was the Sony F55, which Travis actually owned. So Producer Tim preferred that because it was the cost-effective choice, haha. Objectively, though, the range on that camera is really impressive and, in combo with the older Cooke S2’s, I thought gave the film a great natural warmth and grain. Michelle: I’m a big fan of Lauren Ashley Carter. This is the third film you’ve worked on with her. What do you like most about working with her as an actress? Tim: Oh, it’s always incredible watching her work — she’s by far one of the best actresses I’ve ever worked with. (I mean, she learned Farsi for the role in a matter of months.) Especially with this film, it was great seeing her branch out from horror because the first two films I worked with her on (Pod and Darling) were 12 hours a day of her screaming at a trillion decibels straight into camera with me less than a foot away. What I like about working with her, though, circles back to what makes Natasha and I work well together — she’s just truly easy to work with (which can definitely be a rare trait for actors). Michelle: What was it like working with Lauren as she was playing two very different roles? Tim: There was actually a good block of time between shooting the New Mexico portion and the New York portion, so, in many ways, it felt like shooting two entirely different movies since none of the other characters overlapped. There were only a couple days where Lauren had to Jekyll & Hyde it and pop back and forth between the two characters, which was super impressive to watch but also kind of a logistical nightmare because of the wardrobe, hair, and make-up changes involved. Michelle: Do you have a favorite behind the scenes moment from when you were shooting the film? Tim: I’d say it was when I made Natasha drink green chile flavored white wine from a Wal-Mart when we wrapped the New Mexico portion of the shoot. There’s a video of it deep in my Instagram that’s probably my finest work. Michelle: I understand you shot in New Mexico. Was it a challenge to achieve some of the stunning scenery we see in the film? Tim: Ohhhhhhhh the weather in New Mexico… It was absolutely gorgeous but, yeah, there was a day where it’d go from perfectly sunny to torrential hail within a matter of seconds and just keep going back and forth and back and forth. There was a day where the rain had turned the only road to our location into a mudpit and a couple of our vans got trapped. There was a day where the wind was kicking up so much sand and dirt I had to operate through sunglasses. SO YEAH, I HAD A GREAT TIME. Real kudos to Lauren, though, because she had to go through all the same shit but, you know, also act. Michelle: This isn’t just a science fiction film, this is a film with a message. What do you hope people take away from the film when they leave the theater? Tim: I hope people walk away from the film thinking “Oh man, these guys are like, really good at making movies. I’ve been looking for something to do with this extra $20 million in cash I have lying around. I’m gonna give it to these guys tax and paper trail-free to make more movies.” Michelle: I’ve been hearing a lot of good buzz about the film, even before I saw the screener. What has it been like screening Imitation Girl at film festivals this year? Tim: It’s truly been surreal to watch the film make the rounds and hear people’s reactions to it, especially at these horror and genre festivals. When we got invited to FrightFest in London, my first thought was honestly “Um, they watched it, right? The most bloodshed is her pricking her finger while washing dishes. And even then she just puts on a band-aid on and goes on with her day.” My favorite, though, has been reading each festival programmer’s version of the synopsis of the film in the programs and Natasha and I going “Oh man, we’re definitely stealing that description for the press kit.” Michelle: Are you working on any new projects that you can tell us about? Tim: Star Wars: Episode X, but it’s been stuck in development hell for a while now, something about the studio wanting to replace Natasha as the director with Tyler Perry. Until that gets sorted out though, we’re in pre-production for our next film which is going to be a period thriller set in 15th century Cornwall, UK. We actually did a scout down there after Frightfest in London, which may or may not have just been an excuse to visit the sets of Poldark (it was definitely an excuse to visit the sets of Poldark). You can follow the production company Illium Pictures on Twitter and Instagram at @IlliumPictures and follow them on facebook at Illium Pictures. Like this? Pass it on: Published by Michelle Swope Michelle is a Contributing writer/Interviewer at HorrorGeekLife.com, Nightmarish Conjurings, Dread Central, and Horrornews.net. Her favorite things are indie horror, macabre art, and pastel hair color. You can follow her on twitter @RedheadfromMars. View all posts by Michelle Swope Previous Squad Talk: Stephen King’s IT Next From Alberta to Wyoming: The AOAS Guide to October	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line959
__label__cc	0.741667	0.258333	With Spotify, you can play millions of songs for free. Listen to the songs you love and enjoy music from all over the world. Spotify Ltd. Version May 31, 2019 Requirements Varies with device Get it on With Spotify Premium Apk, you can play millions of songs for free. Listen to the songs you love and enjoy music from all over the world. Search for your favorite song, artist, or album Discover a world of new music, videos, and podcasts Enjoy playlists made just for you Make and share your own playlists Find music for any mood and activity Listen on your mobile, tablet, desktop, PlayStation, Chromecast, TV, and speakers Download Spotify Premium Apk to stream content for every mood or moment. Play music and much more – Spotify Premium Apk also has thousands of podcasts, including originals that you can’t find anywhere else. You can also enjoy ad-free music and download songs with a Premium subscription. Want to find new music? With Spotify Premium Apk, you can access a world of new music and podcasts. Listen to music, artists, and albums, or create your own personal playlist of your favorite songs. Choose a ready-made playlist that suits your mood or get personalized recommendations. With Spotify Premium Apk, you can find new music, the latest podcasts, and your favorite artists and albums. Listen to music for free on mobile Play music on shuffle mode. Any artist, album, song, or playlist. Listen for free on tablet Play music. That means any song, any time, anywhere. Spotify Premium Apk Premium features: Play music at any time, on any device Filter by genre to find music, albums, playlists, and artists for any mood Download music for offline listening and enjoy millions of songs for free Create a radio station based on the artists and songs you love Listen to music and enjoy the amazing sound quality Discover music with our Daily Mix recommendations Find new music you love and then build a customized playlist library Download music for when you’re listening on the move No ads when you’re listening to your favorite albums – just uninterrupted music No commitment – cancel any time you like Love Spotify Premium? Download today to discover music and playlists made just for you. Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Spotify Please note: This app features Nielsen’s audience measurement software which will allow you to contribute to market research, such as Nielsen’s Audio Measurement. If you don’t want to participate, you can opt-out within the app settings. To learn more about our digital audience measurement products and your choices in regard to them, please visit http://www.nielsen.com/digitalprivacy for more information. We’re always making changes and improvements to Spotify. To make sure you don’t miss a thing, just keep your Updates turned on.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line963
__label__wiki	0.837175	0.837175	Arthur Keleti CYBER-SECRET FUTURIST Book: The Imperfect Secret Ank November 30, 2016 Uncategorized National Lottery accounts feared hacked About 26,500 National Lottery accounts are feared to have been hacked, according to its operator Camelot. The firm said it did not believe its own systems had been compromised, but rather that the players’ login details had been stolen from elsewhere. The company said that no money had been taken from or added to the compromised accounts. But it added that there had been other suspicious activity on fewer than 50 of them. The Information Commissioner’s Office said it had launched an investigation into the matter. “Camelot submitted a breach report to us last night which we have reviewed. We will be talking to Camelot today,” said a spokeswoman. “The Data Protection Act requires organisations to do all they can to keep personal data secure – that includes protecting it from cyberattacks. Where we find this has not happened, we can take action. “Organisations should be reminded that cybersecurity is a matter for the boardroom, not just the IT department.” Camelot said it became aware of the problem on Sunday. “We are currently taking all the necessary steps to fully understand what has happened, but we believe that the email address and password used on the National Lottery website may have been stolen from another website where affected players use the same details,” it said in a statement. “We do not hold full debit card or bank account details in National Lottery players’ online accounts and no money has been taken or deposited. “However, we do believe that this attack may have resulted in some of the personal information that the affected players hold in their online account being accessed.” A spokeswoman added that the accounts represented a small fraction of the draw’s 9.5 million registered online players. Camelot is contacting the owners of the accounts thought to have been compromised and instructing them to change their passwords. One security expert said there had been many recent attacks where logins stolen from one platform had been tested and used to breach another. But he still had concerns about Camelot’s explanation. “If there’s 26,500 accounts here and they are saying the credentials are correct but they didn’t come from us, they still let an attacker log in 26,500 times,” said Troy Hunt. “That alone is something that illustrates a deficiency.” Camelot has defended its systems. “We do have extremely robust systems in place. However, cybercriminals are very persistent and, in this case, used multiple, different IP [internet protocol] addresses over a short period of time. “As soon as we detected [a] significant increase in both attempted and failed log-ins, we were able to quickly take action to block them.” Other recent attacks targeted at the UK public include: Deliveroo – users of the takeaway food app said their accounts had been billed for food they had not ordered. The firm said the hacks had been carried out using passwords stolen from elsewhere Sony PlayStation Network – hundreds of gamers complained about being locked out of their online accounts. Many said that once Sony had restored their access, they had found that funds were missing. The firm suggested the users might have had their credential stolen by a phishing campaign Tesco Bank – a total of £2.5m was stolen from about 9,000 of the bank’s online accounts. The firm has said it was a “systematic, sophisticated attack” but has not provided further detail The University of Surrey’s Prof Alan Woodward says these rules should be observed when setting an online password: Don’t choose one obviously associated with you Hackers can find out a lot about you from social media so if they are targeting you specifically and you choose, say, your pet’s name you’re in trouble. Choose words that don’t appear in a dictionary Hackers can precalculate the encrypted forms of whole dictionaries and easily reverse engineer your password. Use a mixture of unusual characters You can use a word or phrase that you can easily remember but where characters are substituted, eg, Myd0gha2B1g3ars! You can make this even stronger by adding in some random characters, eg Myd0g*ha2B1g$3ars!, if you can remember them. But don’t be tempted to make the phrase simpler and shorter in order to help you recall it. Have different passwords for different sites and systems If hackers compromise one system you do not want them having the key to unlock all your other accounts. As we all have so many accounts, you should consider using a password manager. This has the added advantage that it will suggest strong passwords. Via: BBC http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-38155710 Arthur Keleti Cyber-Secret Futurist Reader’s Subscriber Page The Imperfect Secret Secret Europol terror data found online Will net neutrality survive Donald Trump?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line965
__label__cc	0.722445	0.277555	Top Rhodiola Benefits Prenatal Supplements Can Decrease Autism Rates Weekly Health Quiz: Nutrients, Fertilization and Spinach Rhodiola is an ancient, flowering plant with a wide variety of related uses, from reducing depression, anxiety and physical, chemical and environmental stress to elevating your mood Mechanisms for rhodiola’s mood-improving effectiveness stem in part from its ability to enhance your brain’s serotonin levels by optimizing its passage through the blood-brain barrier Rhodiola is known as a nootropic, or a substance that enhances brain function, as well as an adaptogen, meaning they can provide different effects depending on what your body needs Salidroside, rosavin and tyrosol are three of more than 140 different and powerful organic compounds related to health that have been identified in rhodiola, and three of the most important Scientists around the world have been keenly studying the attributes of a root plant known as rhodiola, which is a tough perennial that produces beautiful, chrysanthemum-like flowers. Beyond its attractive appearance, though, rhodiola has a number of highly valuable qualities for health. Rhodiola thrives in cold mountainous regions and barren sea cliffs such as those in Northern Asia, Europe and North America. Closely related species also used in traditional medicine include Rhodiola imbricata, Rhodiola algida and Rhodiola crenulata. Because its history harkens as far back as the Vikings, rhodiola has several different monikers. Besides the scientific name Rhodiola rosea, it's also known as golden root, rose root, king's crown and hóng jǐng tiān, depending on where it's found. For millennia, people familiar with the plant used its extracts to improve strength and virility. For instance, Siberian brides were given rhodiola sprigs to increase their physical endurance to face long, sub-zero winters, fend off anxiety and depression, and increase fertility.1 A renowned Greek text known as De Materia Medica, written in 77 A.D., describes numerous medicinal properties from the plant's stem. According to Swedish Medical Center,2 rhodiola was long ago integrated into the traditional medicines of Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Russia. Recent history supports many of even the most ancient claims. Introduced to a body that's flagging due to prolonged or higher-than-normal stress, rhodiola has been proven to relieve both physical and mental fatigue, soothe frazzled nerves and even improve the ability to concentrate.3 Wide-Ranging Benefits of Rhodiola Impact Your Body and Mind Rhodiola boasts an extensive list of vitality-boosting abilities found in the stem, roots and leaves of the plant, such as boosting your immunity from disease, positively impacting brain, organ, nerve, sexual4 and neurological functions, and helping to prevent damage to all of the above.5,6,7,8,9 Some studies suggest it can even increase your lifespan.10 One study notes: "Studies on isolated organs, tissues, cells and enzymes have revealed that Rhodiola preparations exhibit adaptogenic effect including, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, antifatigue, antidepressive, anxiolytic, nootropic, life-span increasing effects and CNS (central nervous system) stimulating activity. A number of clinical trials demonstrate that repeated administration of R. rosea extract SHR-5 exerts an antifatigue effect that increases mental performance (particularly the ability to concentrate in healthy subjects), and reduces burnout in patients with fatigue syndrome. Encouraging results exist for the use of Rhodiola in mild to moderate depression, and generalized anxiety. Several mechanisms of action possibly contributing to the clinical effect have been identified for Rhodiola extracts."11 One way the compounds in rhodiola are beneficial is that they support your body's ability to stave off another type of stress: oxidative. It also helps fight infection and burn energy, while simultaneously helping to decrease inflammation, increase energy, prevent fat buildup, protect your heart and lungs, reduce pain and improve your mood. The latter benefit explains why rhodiola is known as a nootropic, described as a substance that enhances brain function. Rhodiola has its own benefits in this regard, as it stimulates brain activity and has been found to be directly responsible for activating four important neurotransmitters: Each of these is significant as depression is strongly linked to low dopamine. Studies note that working together, these neurotransmitters are important for memory, concentration and learning.12 Rhodiola also improves wakefulness and reduces both physical and mental fatigue, as well as anxiety. Further, rhodiola may be a possible safe alternative to SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs)13 or antidepressants such as sertraline, also known as Zoloft.14 The Powerful Benefits of the Rhodiola Compound Salidroside Where do all these incredible benefits come from? The rose-like fragrance is due to the presence of geraniol essential oil, but more than 140 different and powerful organic compounds related to health have been identified in rhodiola. Three of the most important, noted for having adaptogenic properties (meaning they can provide different effects depending on what your body needs) are: Salidroside, also known as rhodioloside, considered by many experts to be the plant's most important bioactive molecule, and likely responsible for its protective and stimulant effects on the brain.15 Rosavin, which has many of the same properties and mechanisms as salidroside, but requires a higher dose to produce the same effect.16 Tyrosol, which is one of the antioxidant elements in rhodiola extracts, but while it may contribute to its benefits, it often goes unlabeled on commercial supplements.17 One study shows salidroside helps restore the balance between free radicals and antioxidants, and protects your brain against poor blood flow and subsequent stroke (aka ischemia).18 Due to its antibacterial strength, salidroside has also been used successfully to treat acne. While standard acne treatments can trigger antibiotic resistance and even worse problems, salidroside can get rid of the thin, slimy layer of bacterial cells known as biofilm that is difficult to eradicate.19 Its antioxidant activity may help fight aging, although the mechanisms are not well-studied in humans. It is well-known, though, that high oxidative stress underlies many chronic diseases and age-related health problems.20 Pathways and Mechanisms Connected to Salidroside How does it manage all these benefits? It turns out that salidroside is responsible for the activation of several crucial pathways to exert many of the rhodiola plant's most important benefits. One is the Nrf2 pathway, a genetic pathway that turns on protective genes, increases antioxidant proteins and protects cells, leading the authors of one study to posit that salidroside may be useful in treating ischemic stroke.21 Rhodiola also activates AMPK, which boosts antioxidant protein production, prevents insulin resistance, reduces inflammation, controls your blood sugar and prevents fat buildup in your liver.22,23 Cytokines are signaling molecules secreted by certain immune system cells, which affect other cells, including those in relation to inflammation and immunity. Referred to as the "bad guys" that are high in chronic inflammation, in acute infections, the right balance of cytokines are needed to mount a successful attack. However, Th1 dominance may occur for people with chronic inflammation and/or autoimmune diseases when this pathway is over-activated. Certain inflammatory cytokines may be selectively decreased when rhodiola extracts are applied, such as when one study showed that mice injected with E. coli, then given a large dose of rhodiola extract, experienced "significantly" lower kidney and brain inflammation.24 Rhodiola's Effects on Stress Here's one way rhodiola can be worth its weight in gold for the way it boosts your energy and allows you to thrive even in the midst of stress: "Stress may allow the body more energy at the moment, but this is not a sustainable energy solution. After prolonged periods of stress, the very processes and neurochemicals needed for efficient energy are compromised. For example, dopamine and serotonin keep the mind focused and positive for hours on end and fight off tension and impulsiveness. Stress robs the body of these neurotransmitters essential to extended thought processing. It also interferes with the thyroid and its stimulating hormones and decreases the body's metabolism. Try and be productive without the body's energy assimilation process in proper function — you won't last long."25 Salidroside also acts on the HPA axis — the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal gland — comprising a system of glands that control many of the body's stress responses — such as the release of cortisol, another study notes.26 Salidroside is an example of an adaptogen that facilitates the expression of Hsp70, a "heat-shock protein" that helps cells adapt to repeated exposure to the same stressors.27 It may also increase tolerance to both emotional and physical stress, decrease Hsp70 expression in stomach cancer cells, specifically related to its effect on colon cancer cells, as the extract also: "Inhibits cell proliferation and induces cell apoptosis in various cells and cell lines, including human urinary bladder cancer cell lines, breast cancer cell lines, colorectal cancer cells, gastric cancer cells, glioma cells, lung cancer cells, and sarcoma."28 For example, osteoporosis, a disease that causes bone density to decrease, is partially caused by oxidative stress. Salidroside's antioxidant effects may help prevent osteoporosis and maintain bone health later in life. Salidroside's antioxidant effects may even augment future bone health.29 Rhodiola Caveats, Disclosures and Supplementation Use caution in combining rhodiola with certain prescription medications. Monoamine oxidase inhibitors shouldn't be combined with substances that increase dopamine or norepinephrine.30 Don't take rhodiola with SSRIs, drugs for high blood pressure, diabetes CYP2C9 substrates, phenytoin and warfarin or antidepressants without the advice of your physician. At least one study has found that rhodiola may reduce chronic fatigue symptoms at doses of 400 milligrams (mg) day, with few or no side effects.31 Rhodiola rosea supplements come in the form of caplets, tea or liquid extracts, but high-quality extracts should contain at least 3 percent rosavins and 1 percent salidroside. Other species of rhodiola, such as R. crenulata, might have much higher concentrations of salidrosides.32 1 BMC Complement Altern Med. May 29, 2012 2 Swedish Medical Center 1999-2019 3 Planta Med. February 2009 ;75(2):105-12 4 Institute for Women’s Health and Body November 21, 2018 5 PLOS One January 10, 2013 6, 9 Cent Eur J Immunol. August 3, 2015;40(2): 249–262 7 Eksp Klin Farmakol. November-December 1994;57(6):61-3 8 Patol Fizio Eksp Ter. October-December 1997;(4):22-4 10 J Int Soc Sports Nutr. March 15, 2018 11 Phytomedicine June 2010;;17(7):481-93 12, 16 Front Pharmacol. 2018; 9: 425 13 Penn Medicine News March 16, 2015 14 Anxiety.org September 13, 2016 15 Phytomedicine January 2008;15(1-2):84-91 17 J Food Drug Anal. September 2015;23(3):359-369 18, 21 Neural Regen Res. December 2015c;10(12):1989-96 19 Phytomedicine. March 15, 2012 ;19(5):409-12 20, 28 Curr Pharmacol Rep. December 1, 2018 22 J Mol Med. July 2011;89(7): 667–676 23 Mol Med Rep. April 2018;17(4): 5007–5012 24 Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2013; 2013: 514049 25 MONQ February 20, 2019 26 Pharmaceuticals (Basel).January 2010;3(1): 188–224 27 PLoS One. April 2, 2014 29 PLoS One February 2, 2013 ; 8(2): e57251 30 Pharmacotherapy. April 2015 ;35(4):433-49 31 Complement Med Res 2017;24:46-52 32 Biomed Res Int. June 10, 2018 Previous Article Prenatal Supplements Can Decrease Autism Rates Next Article Weekly Health Quiz: Nutrients, Fertilization and Spinach	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line966
__label__cc	0.706433	0.293567	The Artist's Road Patrick Ross on Creativity, Writing, and an Art-Committed Life Meet Patrick Stop Super-Sizing the English Language! On October 31, 2012 November 4, 2012 By Patrick RossIn Humor, Journalism Hurricane Sandy has come and gone, and I sit here in Alexandria, Virginia, once again marveling at our collective ability to over-hype. I don’t mean to play down the impact of this storm, just because I never saw the high winds and tree losses the experts had predicted for my area; plenty of folks on the Jersey shore, lower Manhattan and Long Island, West Virginia and elsewhere experienced historic devastation. But since when did the word “hurricane” prove insufficient to describe a powerful act of weather? I recognize that it morphed into a post-tropical cyclone. But why does it have to be a “Superstorm?” Or, Heaven forbid, a “Frankenstorm?” I’m sorry, does a hurricane this massive really need a cute name to signify its magnitude? (Image courtesy NOAA) I’d blame this verbal escalation on the 24-hour news channels that provide us 24 minutes of news recycled all day, but they are too easy a target. We viewers adopt those over-hyped labels. Here in northern Virginia two years ago I survived a “Snowpocalypse.” I’m pretty sure the end of the world is going to involve more than 18 inches of snow and a few airport closures. Folks in L.A. have twice now been told that the temporary closing of a freeway would lead to “Carmageddon.” The final battle of good and evil, played out over cars? Oh Lord, I feel another Transformers movie coming on. We have been doing this for some time, taking words that already encompass significant scale or impact–like “hurricane”–and modifying or replacing them with no good reason. Take “unique.” The word means “being without a like or equal.” Yet how often do we hear an interesting individual called “pretty unique,” or a rare item called “very unique”? How can you be degrees of unique? Why do we feel the need to insert a modifier in front of an absolute? But I haven’t mentioned yet the nails-on-a-blackboard abomination that has permeated popular culture and, I fear, could find its way into permanent usage. Tell, me, honestly, why do we need the word “ginormous”? With “gigantic” we “are exceeding the usual or expected,” and with “enormous” we are “marked by extraordinarily great size, number, or degree.” I have yet to hear anything referred to as “ginormous” that could not have been fully described with one of these two words. This word inflation is a gigantic cultural problem, and its implications are enormous. But perhaps this goes far deeper than simply word choice. We inflate the importance of individuals (I’m sorry, I care about Tom Cruise’s marital challenges why again?) and events (Kim Kardashian’s wedding ceremony affects me how?). Those 24-hour news channels and their brethren up and down the TV dial need fresh content to feed us, but we happily consume it. Each and every offering tastes totally unique. It’s been ten years since Eric Schlosser shamed us with Fast Food Nation, highlighting how McDonald’s captures children with devious brand loyalty techniques. (Any parent knows this without reading any book.) It’s been eight years since Morgan Spurlock released Super Size Me, a documentary in which his constant consumption of oversized burger meals nearly killed him. I’ll confess that I still occasionally hit the McDonald’s, and I do sometimes super-size my Double Quarter Pounder meal (I’m sorry, Mayor Bloomberg, I can’t get enough Diet Coke). But at least I feel guilty when I do so, and perhaps I do it less than I might have before Schlosser’s book and Spurlock’s film. What had been billed as a modest rainstorm in September 2011 formed a small creek in my back yard. I have no “Superstorm Sandy” devastation photos to share, because all we ended up with was a few damp leaves in our driveway. Is our society even capable of shame anymore? “The Learning Channel,” after all, gives us a pudgy beauty-pageant toddler drinking “go-go juice,” and we make it one of the highest rated shows on television. That show may be the sign that the “Wordpocalypse” is here, with a character named “Honey Boo Boo” and the producer’s decision to include subtitles so that the show participants’ fractured English can be understood by its viewers. Ah, maybe that’s the solution? Maybe those smarties in Silicon Valley can develop a broad-based closed captioning usable on any show that converts super-sized speech to words that still convey the proper meaning without losing perspective? I want that feature whenever The Weather Channel’s Jim Cantore is on the screen. (Oh, and can we tell these jackalopes to stop telling viewers–who, because they are watching on cable TV, are likely inside–to stay inside during a storm, while they stand outside modeling the very behavior they are warning against? If we can’t rein in their rhetoric, then at least sweep one out to sea and give him a ginormous scare.) But proportional-language closed-captioning on TV won’t go far enough. I hear these terms everywhere I go. We use them. We abuse them. There are now “Google Goggles” that allow you to surf the Web while you wear them (and you thought texting while driving was a problem.) I want glasses that auto-caption the speech of those around me. Don’t be offended if you see me put in ear plugs. I’m “hearing” you just fine. But are you hearing me? Do you share my oversized angst? Or am I howling at the wind, which even at half the speed predicted by the TV talking heads is still pretty fierce? [This post was revised to distinguish between Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me.] UPDATE NOV. 4: Many thanks to Andrew Sullivan for highlighting this post on The Daily Beast. Andrew’s post guided me to an interesting follow-up post to this one by Kevin Staley-Joyce on First Things Magazine. carmageddonEnglish usagefast food nationginormousGoogle Goggleshurricane sandysnowpocalypsesuperstorm sandy How to Neither Show Nor Tell in Your Writing When the End of the Road is Just the Beginning 58 thoughts on “Stop Super-Sizing the English Language!” Wanted to write a somewhat sarcastic set of exaggerated comments to agree with you, but since I do agree with you, I decided to delete them. And you can add in when people give 110%…. Really annoying. I often wonder where they acquire the other 10% from. 🙂 Think I must be in a picky mood today. Posted a picky post too! Patrick Ross And a fun rant it is, Pat! More grammar-related blogging, all: http://patwoodblogging.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/weekly-writing-challenge-i-wish-i-were/ Up the ranters. Now how about that for a word. Does it exist? Hmm. Maybe not really, but hey ho, I just used it. Rant away all! The more the language used to describe something becomes bloated and draws attention to itself, the less the object of that description is being noticed. Language then becomes a distraction from what is being told. That’s why more and more insanities and idiocies are allowed to come sit with us on the couch — they’re eased into our homes and minds through distracting language. Not that convoluted and exaggerated language isn’t fun, it certainly is. But mostly unintentionally so. Great post, Patrick. Glad the storm left you unscathed. 🙂 Hi Vero! First, thanks for the well wishes. Yes, we become inured to the true impact of things, almost like a drug addict keeps escalating their use to feel the same level of buzz. But I fear I may be over-inflating the harm of this trend by comparing it to something that can kill. So be it! margo roby I wish I could send this to every one I ever taught. I banned two words from both written and spoken discussion and assignments: tragic and evil. When we talked about Oedipus, tragic was allowed in, but evil never saw air, not even for Macbeth. It drives me nuts to hear that everything is tragic, when I watch television. If that were so, then what word do we use for ultimate situations. Sad is a perfectly good word, but we’ve lost it somewhere. So many speak in ultimates, that when a storm like Sandy comes along they are left grasping for beyond ultimate. Whew! I feel cleansed! I went through my entire classroom rant in my head while responding. Good for you, Margo! I hadn’t really thought about the over-use of those words, but yes, I see it now. My current Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA advisor strikes out my every use of the word “share” or “sharing,” as in providing a window on yourself (not passing the plate of bacon, which I am loathe to do). She says the word is over-used to the point of having lost its meaning. I think she is right, but it still tells the reader exactly what you are trying to convey. So be it. As the author of award-winning memoirs (Sue Silverman) I cede to her wisdom! ravenswingpoetry If we commit ourselves to being good writers — even just good communicators — I think it requires us to use language in a nuanced way. The three most common problems I see in the modern usage of American English are: the misuse of existing words, the overuse of superlatives, and other words being used too frequently and hence given an overly simplified connotation — like “evil” and “tragic” in your own experience. As an autistic individual, I have struggled to communicate in a manner in which conveys my thoughts and messages as accurately as possible. I love the difference nuances of words, the shades of difference in meaning between them. How do we combat exaggerated hyperbole and oversimplification? Nicole, I just read this. Will respond tomorrow when I haven’t got a glass of Spanish Red inside me and may be more articulate [no guarantee]. There you are. I knew I wanted to get back to this and then didn’t remember where it was. I think for our generations, we have lost the war, but can still win battles. As with everything it has to start with parents and it should be carried on by teachers. That’s where we are losing. No one is teaching the parents and teachers what it is that is needed. I don’t think there are many editors around who know what it is they should be looking for and doing, when they have a manuscript of any sort. I see too much go by that an editor should have caught. My mother shakes her head and says there are too many people. No one has time or a strategy for so many people. I think we keep on battling where we can. I feel increasingly cornered. Sue Mitchell Devil’s advocate: Playing with words and exaggeration are fun. Since the goal of language is communication, then if the idea was communicated, the way the language was used was successful. I agree about hyperbole creating a need for more and more extreme phrasing, but only writers, with their exacting word choice, really care. The rest of the world has larger fish to fry…or should I say “more awesomely ginormous fish to grill”? Hi Sue! Great to see you here again. I could not agree more that only writers care. Thus the “shouting into the wind” metaphor! 🙂 And your point is well taken that if the goal is simply to communicate, then success was achieved. I think some writers set higher goals. I’m curious how you would articulate those “higher goals” some writers have beyond word play and communication. I think that would get to the heart of the discomfort with sensational writing we’re talking about. sorrygnat A barometer of where general culture is? Americans have to be enteertained, they play. Not all for sure. There are many thoughtful, perceptive and discening Americans, but the general press promotes an Adult Sesame Street tone – when my husband and I returned from Russia (a 3ish year stint), we were astounded by the weather people – all to entetain! go figure Go figure indeed! Thanks for that perspective; I can imagine there were a lot of shocks when you came back from three years in Russia, but I’m not surprised that was one of them. I wrote a book Without A Net: A Sojourn in Russia, on amazon or in my garage (smile); popular; i also have another book unrelated, but i like it more, You Carry the Heavy Stuff, Lulu, and Amazon; i haven’t figured out why I don’t get checks from amazon, and I have to investigate-best to you David August Very interesting. You call people in Silicon Valley “smarties” in the middle of shouting “get off my linguistic lawn!” Pot to kettle, come in kettle. Language revolves through many things, including exaggeration. The word “reek” once meant sweet smelling, and used in extreme ironic exaggeration now means its opposite. ‘Twas ever thus. Evolves. Autocorrect, now there is a scourge on language. Indeed autocorrect is a “scourge,” but also a source of amusement, like many of the gifts that Silicon Valley gives us! 🙂 I think one of the problems is that people want all-day news to give them a high, cheer up their humdrum days, and make them feel they’re living in exciting times. And so every time a news bulletin is read in that false, excited, rah-rah voice, they need to ramp up the excitement level with these huge exaggerations…And I also feel that people who are involved in these money raising 24 hour programmes and trying to get sales for newspapers, never let good taste get in their way… And in the end, standards. whether in language, politics, food, art, building, -whatever -, matter. This is probably old fashioned… Valerie, I’ve been told I was born old-fashioned, so bring it on! Yes, I agree with your flow chart there. Having spent most of my life in the media, I know it’s a free enterprise. Outlets are in competition with other media and an increasing number of distractions for dollars. And good taste doesn’t always sell, which is why many countries have a Ministry of Culture to support the arts (we in the US have a much more limited support system of public broadcasting subsidies and NEA and NEH grants). And yes, standards matter, but it can feel like a losing battle, and not every battle is worth winning. I have a hardcover 1959 “revised” version of Emily Post’s Etiquette. There’s a lot to learn about proper behavior in there, but there are also lines like this, a description of a woman’s “shortcomings” in the workplace: “Mood, temper, jealousy, especially when induced by a “crush on” her employer or a fellow worker–these are the chief flaws of the woman in business and a constant source of annoyance in every office where she exists. The greatest handicap to woman’s advancement in business is her inability to leave her personal feelings and affairs at home.” Wow! Okay, it looks like I may be starting a new post! Pingback: On Supersized Words » First Thoughts \| A First Things Blog dignitarysretreat Loved this piece, Patrick! I have shuddered at the use of “Very unique” repeatedly or, “terrible tragedy.” Good grief! I think the drive to over-dramatize our language goes to the American predilection for “bigger and better.” The result of which is to desensitize us to the impact of perfectly good words (or reasonably sized hamburgers) and, further, to lose the use of words’ impacts because they have been poorly and over used. A tragedy is what happened to Jerry Sandusky’s victims but not the fact that the PSU football program has been decimated in the process. Fantastic analogy between PSU’s former defensive coordinator and the program, a distinction it would seem PSU administrators couldn’t parse. Great to have you visit once again, and thanks as always for your readership! Anne Da Vigo A rant, Patrick, but a classy, erudite rant! Thank you, Anne! Inion N. Mathair Great post Patrick. I try to limit my news intake and told my mother, that it’s become more like the soap operas. You can watch it on Monday, and come back on Friday and your just about in the same place with a few new faces and one scene change. Perhaps the inventive words they like to merge to create one descriptive title, was inspired by what they do with famous couples now. I understand that this was brought on for the purpose of shortening things down, to text. Tom-Kat, K-Pat. There is no longer one individual name for each person, but two merged shorty’s to make one name for both. I hate this as well. And when they bust up, and find someone knew, they get a brand new name….hmm I wonder if that might be the culprit behind half the break-ups? It’s not, “what’s your sign?” anymore…”what do you like to do?” It’s will their name make a good couple-name with mine? Ah yes, Tom-Kat, K-Pat, great example! Very tweetable, too, so few characters. Of course, now, you and your daughter have a combined pen name, so there are times where a combined name works! 🙂 Augis Barkov (@RedHotRussia) If journalists don’t produce the juicy titles – they will lose, because their competitors will. Besides, the readers are already desensitized and will not react to objective wording. Thanks for the input, Augis. I’m not convinced most viewers say, “Oh, I’m not going to watch this news channel, they haven’t come up with a goofy name for this deadly storm,” but perhaps I overestimate the viewer. Pingback: The Arrival Of Frankenwords \| The Penn Ave Post “Ginormous” is apparently older than my dad, and I know I learned it from a movie in 1986. Probably time to throw in that towel, Patrick. This surprised me, Zack, so I did a quick search and, yes, it dates back to at least 1948 and is in at least one dictionary: http://www.newser.com/story/4127/merriam-makes-ginormous-addition.html The point remains, however. There is no utility to using it, other than to overstate. As we become inoculated to that word to be oversized, we’ll have to come up with a new one. The larger issue here isn’t the use of the word, but our seemingly pathological need to overstate. You wrote that, “It’s been ten years since Eric Schlosser shamed us with Fast Food Nation, mocking our obsession with super-sized burger meals by nearly killing himself by consuming them.” I think that you’ve confused Fast Food Nation, journalist Eric Schlosser’s 2002 book criticizing the American fast food industry, with Super Size Me, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary in which he ate McDonald’s for a month. I stand (well, I’m sitting right now) mortified. You are correct, Andrew. I’ve revised the post and indicated I have done so. Did you even follow the news coverage that annoyed you so greatly? The reason “hurricane” was an “insufficient” descriptor was that there was concern that Sandy would merge with an oncoming cold front, creating a unique weather phenomenon. And why do we need “ginormous”? For grins. Go watch Will Ferrell’s “Elf”, and then try _not_ to smile to yourself every time you hear it used thereafter. Hmm. Did you see this in my opening paragraph? “I recognize that it morphed into a post-tropical cyclone.” The post-tropical cyclone is what you refer to as a “unique weather phenomenon,” a warm-weather tropical hurricane confronting a cold front. Why not call it what it is, rather than a “Frankenstorm”? Yes, but your argument (multiple times in fact), was that it should have simply been termed “hurricane”. Do you still stand by “But since when did the word ‘hurricane’ prove insufficient to describe a powerful act of weather?”, et al? I do. Words should convey both meaning and accuracy. I noticed at least one meteorologist used “hurricane” up until about an hour before landfall, then shifted to “post-tropical cyclone.” That is the ultimate in accuracy, but perhaps lacks meaning for those of us (yes, that includes me) who only learned the term “post-tropical cyclone” that night. So I think, given the history of other storms we laymen are familiar with–see Hurricanes Katrina and Charlie below, for starters–“hurricane” conveys both meaning and accuracy for most of us. “Superstorm” is a manufactured word, and thus pales on the accuracy meter, because there is no historical context in which to interpret it. If you’re parsing my wording (you certainly have a right to do so, particularly since I’m parsing others) you should note this in my conclusion: “Or am I howling at the wind, which even at half the speed predicted by the TV talking heads is still pretty fierce?” I asked that rhetorically, because I know I am howling at the wind. Even if I had actual influence on societal opinion (I’m just an art-committed blogger without that reach) I know that this train is in motion, and has been for a long time. Note also this from the opening of the third paragraph: “We have been doing this for some time…” You are defending both where we are now and where we are going. And you will prevail, if only because you have sided with inevitability. But I stand true to what I wish were our future. And I do so using my own name. I’m currently out of the country, and wasn’t following Sandy at all. The use of “Frankenstorm” piqued my interest and caused me to look into it. The resulting news articles were filled with discussion of what exacerbated fears — that Sandy would merge with a winter storm, creating something worse than either. (Google “Frankenstorm” for numerous examples.) If you were never aware of that, or only became aware as Sandy made landfall, then you missed out on a key point of interest and concern. That may be attributable to your tendency to see worthless exaggeration in creative usage, rather than to be curious as to what underlies that usage. egyptsteve I’m curious — at what point do you believe the English language became perfect? At what point would you like to see it frozen? Should we roll it back to Middle English, or Old English? Why not roll it back to proto-Indo-European? Of course, if we did that, every word we spoke would have to have an asterisk in front of it. I think you should accept that language changes, and that it’s changing now in exactly the way way that it has changed since the days of the cavemen. If a language stops changing, it dies. Hi egyptsteve, I’ll explain below how you seem to have missed the point of this essay, but first, thank you for a good example of the exaggeration I am seeing in today’s rhetoric, the larger point this essay addresses. I cited an example of how two words have been combined to form a new word that brings no new value, and another word that is losing its impact due to unnecessary modification, and you claim in response I believe our language is perfect? Language evolves, and should. I do not adhere to the French model of issuing proclamations against anything that would change what French is. But this issue is less about language and more about what these particular changes in our language mean. Language is a reflection of society. As society changes, language changes to reflect it. So I ask you: What conclusions do you draw from this societal obsession with exaggeration? Butting in here…the new value that is added when combining enormous and gigantic is humor. Not to say I’m not irritated by the overuse of words like “massive,” “phenomenal,” “awesome,” etc. because that does continually up the ante and render those words nearly meaningless. But Frankenstorm and ginormous are funny. “Frankenstorm” was particularly appropriate because it was the biggest storm in East Coast recorded history (a combination of two storm systems, actually, and combined with a high tide), threatened our most populous city upon which we all depend, and occurred just before Halloween. It was a monster of a storm, and Frankenstorm was the perfect way to describe it, and I got a kick out of it. “Hurricane” simply did not describe this particular storm adequately. Oh, Sue! You know I have tremendous respect for you, and we’ll agree to disagree here. I hear “ginormous” used with some frequency, and (other than the commenter who points out its use in the movie Elf, above) I do not always hear it used for humorous effect, but often for dramatic effect. There is a difference between those two. (At least to me.) I’m a bit lost on your defense of Frankenstorm. I noticed that, once the storm’s true damage became clear, news agencies by and large dropped the name, perhaps because it was too humorous, and risked making light of the inevitable fatalities. They went instead with “Superstorm,” which suggests heightened size but abandons attempts at levity. I would also guess that survivors of Hurricane Katrina, or Hurricane Charlie (my in-laws hid in their closet while that storm tore the roof off of their Florida house) somehow do not believe that Sandy deserves a more dramatic name than the plain old hurricanes they survived. But perhaps I am mistaken. I have never heard ginormous used in any way but a humorous one, so I’m surprised to hear that it is, especially in a place as sober as WDC. As for Frankenstorm, you are absolutely right that it is no laughing matter, but in the days before we even knew for sure if it was going to materialize as predicted, it seemed a clever name that added a little humor at a time when many of us were ready to scream with frustration over the election coverage. No minimizing of other hurricanes was implied. And yes, at least the media had the good sense to quit using the term when it did turn out to be the “terrible tragedy” that it was. ;-D I disagree with you on “ginormous.” It’s slang, and as such has the usual utility of slang: if I use it in a sentence, my audience can tell that I am speaking informally and that I belong to a such a group as would use a word like “ginormous”. I would not get such effects out of “gigantic” or “enormous.” Jeff, you raise a good point as to context. I feel, however, I should invite you to travel in some of the D.C. policy circles I often find myself in; the word is gaining traction as a true escalator of “gigantic” and “enormous,” said without irony or attempt at levity or informality. I will confess that if you were to get a good doublebock beer or two in me and then record my speech, there would likely be much fodder there to ridicule in a post such as this. But context is key here, methinks. “Take “unique.” The word means “being without a like or equal.” Yet how often do we hear an interesting individual called “pretty unique,” or a rare item called “very unique”? How can you be degrees of unique?” Easy, Patrick. Every single object in the universe is unique: it is itself and nothing else. But although, for instance, every person is unique, Andy Warhol or Mother Teresa are more unique than the average person. How can a smart person genuinely not get this? “Every single object in the universe is unique: it is itself and nothing else.” That is an excellent point, Gene, and I cede it. But your examples fall into the broader convention of using a modified “unique” as a synonym of special or extraordinary. What is wrong with calling Andy Warhol “special” or Mother Teresa “extraordinary”? I maintain those convey both meaning and accuracy (see my lengthy response to “joke” above. Why dilute the awesome power of a word like “unique” to the point that it falls into slang, such that my teenagers call things “totally unique” when they really mean “totally cool”? I admire your intellectual approach, but I think I could have been clearer in my resistance to the manner in which a modified form of “unique” is used most frequently in society. Patrick, I think you missed my inquiry above about what higher goals you have for language beyond communication, but you have indirectly answered it: meaning and accuracy. I agree that meaning and accuracy are excellent goals for language, of course. Nevertheless, if you do not have your audience’s attention, no communication occurs, no matter how precise your word choice. If no communication occurs, what’s the point? It’s just howling at the wind, as you say. (Which you are clearing not, or there would not be all these comments.) The term “hurricane” might not have gotten people’s attention because November regularly brings many hurricanes and most do not require our immediate attention. “Post-tropical cyclone” may have been highly accurate, but, as you pointed out, it was meaningless to the general public. But look at all the attention “Frankenstorm” and “superstorm” are getting, even right here on The Artist’s Road! Success! We have the audience’s attention and the general meaning is conveyed, regardless of their education level. No easy feat during a heated election season. To return to your question about what it says about our society that we are so exaggeration-prone, I would guess that it reflects the fact that we are saturated with communications. There is so much language competing for our attention that sometimes only “very unique” phrases are going to grab our focus enough to allow any communication to occur. sarahwbartlett Super-sizing language is just one of the many ways language has gotten distorted, removed from meaning; adds to the cultural angst; polarizes and distances; . . . Well, I could go on. Thank you, Patrick, for sticking your wording neck out. Obviously has touched many a nerve out here!!! Thank you, Sarah! Yes, it has touched a nerve, it seems. I figured some language lovers would agree with me at least in part, and others would shrug and move on. I’m a bit surprised at how quickly many were to defend the super-sizing, and in some cases doing so anonymously. I know anonymous commenting is common online, but we don’t usually see that here at The Artist’s Road. (Kudos to Sue Mitchell and the few others who provided thought-out responses under their own names.) It’s been interesting! Monty Johnston I vote for playing with words and against getting upset about things that aren’t very important. A reasonable position, Monty! Despite this post, I am normally a believer in only stressing about what is in your control. Pingback: When the End of the Road is Just the Beginning \| The Artist's Road Pingback: What Would You Like to See on The Artist’s Road? \| The Artist's Road Pingback: Kudos to the Artist’s Road Commenters of 2012 \| The Artist's Road Pingback: Poetics Serendipity \| Margo Roby: Wordgathering Chime in! Cancel reply I'm an on-and-off creative writer, currently on. Follow The Artist's Road on WordPress.com Art AWP Bacon Biography Bipolar Disorder Blogging Charlie Sheen Civility Coconut Collaboration Committed: A Memoir Copyright Creativity Editing Education Facebook Fiction Goodreads Guest Blog Humor Innovation Inspiration Internet Journalism Literary Journals Maps Memoir MFA Monkeys Music Parenting Performance Pinterest Publishing Residency RoadTrip Self-employment Social media Storytelling Teaching Technology Twitter Visual Art Writing	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line967
__label__cc	0.561216	0.438784	research.gruntarchives.org 1986: Brewery Creek Project 1991: Masque of the Red Death 1994: Mount Pleasant Community Fence 1996: The Mattering Map 1997: POSITIVE+ 2005: The Nova Library 2007: Live in Public: the Art of Engagement Conference 2008: nikamon ohci askiy : songs because of the land 2011: ATSA The Pigeons Club Paula Jardine: The Role of Celebration Arts Melanie Fernandez: Community and Art A Runaway History Oliver Kellhammer: Botanical Interventions Caffyn Kelly: Better Than Sex Glenn Alteen: ATSA Dystopian Realities Chris Bose: The Other Side of the River, Engaged Arts on the Rez Devora Neumark: How At Home Are We Really? Art, Diversity, and Dwelling in Canada's Multicultural Landscape Tania Willard: Access All Areas: Conversations on Engaged Arts Creating the Fence Mount Pleasant Community Fence project was conceived by Pat Beaton and Lycia Trouton and was produced by project team members Beaton, Haruko Okano, Merle Addison, and Charmian Bullen. The Mount Pleasant Community Fence built a picket fence around the Community Garden at Fraser and 8th, each one designed and carved by members of the community. The project consisted of workshops, an exhibition of the completed pickets, and the installation and opening of the fence. It was an early example of community-engaged practice in Vancouver and was lauded for both its process and its product. The Fraser Street Community Gardens existed in one of the most economically disadvantaged communities outside the DTES. Because of the multicultural nature of the community, promotion for the workshops was published in six languages and there were translators on hand to aid in the process. The team managed to bring together a very diverse community in its realization and it became an important model for much of the work that developed later. Working with community groups, the Community Centre and Neighborhood House, they were able to reach deep inside the community. The project is still the biggest community engaged project grunt has attempted and put us inside communities that were definitely outside the arts community. Because it was the first (and only) permanent work, it raised many challenges in the process of working with City Hall. Artists Pat Beaton, Lycia Trouton and Haruko Okano went on to develop practices in community-engaged arts which continue to this day. The Fence remains intact after seventeen years. It quickly became a much loved community feature and even in that neighborhood suffered very little vandalism. It was amazing example of how the arts can make a difference in communities and a big step in the development of engaged practices in Vancouver. 1995 Ethics in Action Award, Vancouver City Savings Credit Union and the Workplace Ministry, awarded to the grunt gallery for the Mount Pleasant Community Fence Project Chose to create opportunities for people in Mount Pleasant to meet each other, explore their creativity, and build something together for their community. By helping to construct a fence, the grunt gallery, a co-operatively run storefront art gallery in East Vancouver, bridged the gap between the gallery and its neighbourhood. Aware that many people are puzzled and intimidated by contemporary art, the grunt group chose to demystify the art-making process by inviting people who live and work in the neighbourhood to explore their own creative talents. To this end, the gallery's director and several local artists helped people living and working in Mount Pleasant to decorate fence pickets. More than 400 people participated in the project, carving and painting pickets for a 200-foot redwood fence. Result: a handsome fence now protects and beautifies the Mount Pleasant Community Garden, and hundreds of area residents have discovered previously untapped talents. The Mount Pleasant Community Fence Project grunt gallery at the grunt gallery Feb. 9th thru 26th workshop hours: Wed., Thurs. 2-6 & 7-9 Fri. 2-6 Sat. 12-6 Please call Haruko or Pat to register All Workshops and Materials are Free! About the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Garden The Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Garden is at Fraser St. and East 8th Ave. The garden has become a place where people meet and share stories about gardening, the neighbourhood and themselves. The Mount Pleasant Community Fence Project The Community Fence will be built at the north and south ends of the Neighbourhood Garden. A series of workshops will be held to get the people of Mount Pleasant involved in the carving of the fence. The fence will show our pride in this community. We hope that working with the Community can make art a part of everyday life. We also hope to bring people from different communities together. Participation in the Community Fence Project We want everyone to come work on the fence. Everyone is welcome! The project has three stages of development: design, carving and building the fence. The fence is made of many pieces of cedar pickets. We want you to come and carve pickets. The pickets can be carved by yourself or with others. If you need help there will be people to help you. People with their own tools may work at home. Before carving your picket, please read the rules for the picket carving. Please register with Pat or Haruko. We will need your name, address and telephone number. Design/carving workshops will be set up around Mount Pleasant, including the grunt gallery. Here are some of our guidelines for carving the pickets: No sharp points on the tops The pickets must be at least 3 inches wide Any holes cut must not be wider than 3/4 inches The front of the picket must not stick out more than 1 inch The bottom 12 inches must be left blank Only use epoxy glue (supplied by the project) to glue wooden objects onto the picket. Wood cuts can be no more than 1/4 inch deep No painting or use of wood preservatives except raw linseed oil in some areas Project workers and helpers will help with cutting and carving carving with woodcarving chisels gluing wood on wood cutting out holes and small shapes shaping the sides of the picket drawing with a woodburning tool sealing areas of your carved picket with raw linseed oil to change the colour. If you or your group would like to carve or design pickets for the fence, please call Pat or Haruko at 604-875-9516, 12 - 6 PM, Tuesday to Friday. The grunt gallery gratefully acknowledges the sponsorship for the Fence Project of the Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood Association Ready or Not Committee; the B.C Provincial Community Tourism Employment Training Program; Van City Savings Credit Union; The Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation; Mount Pleasant Community Centre and the support of The Mt. Pleasant Neighbourhood House; Industrial Formulators; Woodchips Carving Supplies; Ilford Anitec (Canada) Ltd.; United Civic Savings Credit Union; Western Front; Agfa Canada Ltd; Lee Valley Tools; MATRIX Professional Video Systems Inc.; and especially the residents of Mt. Pleasant. Grunt acknowledges the financial assistance of the Canada Council, the Government of B.C. through the Ministry of Tourism & the Ministry Responsible for Culture, the City Of Vancouver, our sponsors and membership. Pat Beaton Lycia Trouton Haruko Okano Merle Addison Charmian Bullen Marla Guppy, who was instrumental in inspiring the fence project 1001 Cups of Tea - video of Fence Project Means of Production Oliver Kellhammer Mosaic Creek Park Dunbar Anniversary Garden	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line968
__label__cc	0.74702	0.25298	As They Are: Exploring the National Parks List of Parks Out In The Parks: Images for Sale Kings Canyon National Park: That Time When We Sang to the Bear, and After Just before 3pm on July 4, Sean and I departed Mist Falls and began the hike down Paradise Valley. The Falls marked the farthest into the heart of the Sierra Nevada that we would reach on this trip. The following day we would continue on to the third part of our California trip: three nights in San Diego and Andrew and Yesi’s wedding. Lanceleaf Goldenweed (?) Sugar Pine cone South Fork Kings River The hike down was swift, and soon we were at the point where views to the south opened up along the series of granite terraces. Out ahead of us and across Kings Canyon proper, the Sphinx showed the way. Buck Mountain Glacier Monument Image: Sean M. Santos Broadleaf Lupine In less than an hour, we were back on the floor of Kings Canyon. Instead of taking the westerly trail on the north side of the river, we crossed a bridge to return along the south side. It was a bit longer, but since we’d made such good time coming down, we thought it would be nice to see things we hadn’t already seen. Among the first things we saw from the bridge were two figures, a scantily clad young couple likely getting their Instagram lifestyle shots of the afternoon. We crossed the bridge and headed west at a fork immediately on the other side. A couple was at the fork having just descended from the direction of Bubbs Creek. They opted for the shorter route on the north side of the river, but they had traveled much further than we. Avalanche Creek A little way on, we crossed Avalanche Creek on a makeshift bridge of downed timber. We continued through a ghostly stretch of fire-scorched standing dead trees. The quiet was reinforced by our only passing one other hiking couple on the entire trail on the south side of the Kings River. So we were walking along. Sean was slightly ahead of me, and I was fussing with pulling my GPS out of my bag to get a sense of how far away we were from the bridge to the parking area. It actually went through my head, something like “What if we saw a bear right now.” And sure enough. Sean stopped short and said, “There’s a bear.” A small American Black Bear was walking along the trail ahead of us, going the same direction we were. “What should we do?” Sean asked. “Well. I suppose we should let it know we’re here so we don’t surprise it. It won’t hurt us, but we should make it aware of us. “I guess we should sing.” I started in on “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer,” but Sean stopped me. He suggested that since it was the Fourth of July we should sing patriotic songs. And so we sang patriotic songs to the bear. We sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” “It’s a Grand Old Flag,” and “This Land is Your Land.” The bear did not care for our singing. Actually, the bear didn’t seem to care one way or the other, but instead went down to the bank of the Kings River to continue looking for some lunch. We paused and watched it as we passed by on the trail. We were still singing, but by now “This Land is Your Land” had devolved into This bear is your bear…this bear is my bear…bear bear bear bear bear… We said goodbye to the bear and continued on our way. Here the floor of Kings Canyon on the south side of the river was very similar to the other side, which we’d hiked through early in the afternoon. I couldn’t help but dwell a bit on the impending drive out of the canyon. I daydreamed about being put out with a horse tranquilizer while someone else drove us back out on that road. But in the meantime, we weren’t there yet, and I tried to enjoy the hike. The river came close to the canyon’s southern wall, and the trail ran above water. Here South Fork Kings was calm and seemed almost still. The trail on the south side led a little way beyond the Roads End parking area before reaching the bridge to cross the river. As the trail led through an ancient rockfall, I was beginning to wonder if we’d missed the bridge. Bridge Penstemon But no, suddenly there it was. North Mountain After the bridge, a narrow path led back to the parking area. Western Gray Squirrel We reached the parking area a touch after 5pm, making for a total hiking time of about four and a half hours. A good, solid, gorgeous day hike. But it was far too short a time in Kings Canyon. It and its sister park, Sequoia, deserve weeks of exploration. Soon we were back in the car and driving out of the canyon. The first portion along the narrow walls above the river was fine. Sean turned on some problematic vintage 70s Cher. But when we got to the twelve-mile stretch that climbed out and up, I asked him to turn on something else. Madonna mostly helped, I guess. The drive out was worse in that we were on the outside, drop-off side of the road. But it was actually better in two keys ways: everyone was going more slowly on the steep grade and I had a sense of what to expect. By the time we got to the top, my palms were sweaty and I could feel the stress in my body. But I knew I could do it again to return to Kings Canyon. We stopped in Grant Grove Village to get some kombucha. Sean also got a hot dog. And I went to the gift shop to get the two little stuffed animals for these Parks (we always get a stuffed animal of a creature we see in each National Park): a Mule Deer for Sequoia and a Black Bear for Kings Canyon. We returned to Three Rivers the way we’d come, out through the National Forest and down into the foothills. Near the yurts of the Seven Circles Retreat Center (which is a cult or something, right?), we saw a piglet cross the road. Otherwise the drive as uneventful, if lovely. Moro Rock, Sequoia National Park Back in Three Rivers, under the watchful eye of Moro Rock, we grilled up some steaks and portobello mushrooms. We showered and relaxed, packed and cleaned up a bit, and read. We were amused by the party disco lamp in the cabin. And the night sounds, particularly the frogs, were great to fall asleep to. https://parksproject.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/three-rivers-night.mp3 Next morning, Thursday, July 5, we were up at 6am and out the door by 7:30. We had a long drive to San Diego ahead of us. And we were functioning as a sort of remote mission control for the Detroiters coming in for the wedding. We stopped at the post office and dropped of postcards, some of which were for people we would actually see later that day. There was some sort of emergency happening because multiple fire trucks and other emergency vehicles were headed to Three Rivers from neighboring towns. In the Central Valley, we had good cell service again, and Sean was able to be in touch with Andy and Terry. Their flight got in early, so we suggested that they go downtown, check their bags at a hotel, and go see some things while they waited for the rest of us to arrive and be able to check into our AirB&B. My parents had considerably more drama. My Dad had chipped a tooth the day before and had arranged to see a dentist in San Diego after they landed. So that was their agenda for the afternoon while they waited for us. We, meanwhile, listened to the entire three-season soundtrack of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the drive. We made good time to LA, stopped at an In-and-Out Burger for lunch, and continued down the coast. There was a terrible back-up in Oceanside, so in exasperation, we stopped at a Target and got some supplies for the weekend. By now everyone was on the ground in San Diego. When we finally got in, I dropped Sean and our bags at the AirB&B and then went to fetch my parents and the boys. Back at the AirB&B, everyone was pleased. It was actually two cottages (a studio for my parents and a two-bedroom for the rest of us) with a shared patio. From the outside they didn’t look like much, but inside they were bright and clean. They were also around the block from (and above) San Diego’s International Restaurant Row. Everyone else had had some food, so Sean and went down to the walk-up ceviche window and got our dinner. We also got some desserts from a gelato place on the corner. Back up on the patio, we had cocktails and noshed, gabbing until late. Then we said goodnight to my parents, and the four of us got ready for bed. Terry and I left Sean and Andy on the couch watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on Netflix. Watching TNG continued the next morning, Friday, July 6. Our group went to breakfast at Farmer’s Bottega in Mission Hills, near our AirB&B. Then we spent the early afternoon relaxing before dressing for the wedding. The ceremony took place in Centennial Park on Coronado Island across from downtown San Diego. The groom was nervous, but dapper. Andrew and my Mother, the groom and his godmother Congratulations Yesenia and Andrew! After the ceremony, a Navy ship floated past, which was appropriate because of Andrew’s near-two decades in the Service. The reception was at a part of San Diego that had been part of a naval base, but was now converted to residential and commercial use. The mariachi band was great! We toasted, we ate, we danced. We caught up and reminisced with cousins we hadn’t seen in forever. And pooped, we returned to the AirB&B around 10:30pm. We said goodnight to my parents…and watched some TNG before bed. Next day, Saturday, July 7, we had coffee and pastries on the patio at the AirB&B before heading out to a neighborhood north of the city for brunch. (San Diego is so sprawling that I’m unsure if we were still in the city proper.) It was at the house that Yesi and her family had rented for the wedding week. Unfortunately, Andy, Terry, Sean, and I had to head out early (after having some of the amazing feast of Mexican food) for a pre-planned afternoon adventure. We grabbed a Lyft to La Jolla for a sea kayaking and snorkeling tour. Kudos to Terry for suggesting it, particularly since he’s uneasy about both snorkeling and being in water over his head. Sean too is uncomfortable snorkeling. Our guide, Blaine, was great, particularly after his partner guide had to return to the beach with some paddlers who were having trouble. We paddled to an area of sea caves where a bunch of sea lions were resting. Both Terry and Sean got in the water for a successful snorkel. Image: Blaine Unfortunately, Sean’s iPhone and my sunglasses weren’t didn’t fare so well. The gladware bag Sean used as a dry sack didn’t work, and his phone drowned. My sunglasses broke in the surf as I returned to the beach in my kayak. Afterward, though, we celebrated with a drink and a nosh in La Jolla before rejoining my parents in San Diego. That evening, we went to a so-so restaurant downtown, Glassdoor, before walking over to Extraordinary Desserts. We returned to the AirB&B with our bounty of delicious pies and pastries and celebrated the final evening of our trip. Sean got some rice to attempt to save his phone, but it didn’t work. Then we watched more TNG before bed. Next morning, Sunday, July 8. We six had breakfast again at Farmers’ Bottega before Andy and Terry headed to the airport. My parents and I hung out at Andrew’s condo with Aunt Karen, Andrew, and Yesi. We had mango and leftover wedding cake for lunch while we watched Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. Then Sean and I said goodbye to everyone (my parents were returning to Detroit on a redeye flight that night) and drove to San Diego International. We returned the Cadillac to Enterprise, rode the shuttle to the terminal, and soon were on our flight to Chicago. From the Pacific Ocean to Lake Michigan. And when we got home, Elsa was pleased to see us. This entry was posted in Journey and tagged California, Day Hike, Kings Canyon on September 28, 2018 by Brandon Hayes. ← Kings Canyon National Park: Mist Falls Glacier National Park: Planning → 2 thoughts on “Kings Canyon National Park: That Time When We Sang to the Bear, and After” Kurt A. October 1, 2018 at 12:00 pm Hey, a bear! And he was unpatriotic…. Awesome photos as usual…..what a great place! Brandon Hayes Post author October 2, 2018 at 6:46 am The bear was not having it. Thanks, Kurt!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line974
__label__wiki	0.687482	0.687482	Genesis 5:1–32 From Adam to Noah 5 This is the written accountt of Adam’s family line.u When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.v 2 He created themw male and femalex and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind”a when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image;y and he named him Seth.z 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.a 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the fatherb of Enosh.b 7 After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan.c 10 After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel.d 13 After he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared.e 16 After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died. 18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.f 19 After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.g 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with Godh 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God;i then he was no more, because God took him away.j 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech.k 26 After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noahc l and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.m” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old,n he became the father of Shem,o Ham and Japheth.p Ge 2:4 1 Ch 1:1 Ge 1:27 Col 3:10 Ge 1:28 Ge 1:27 Mt 19:4 Mk 10:6 Ga 3:28 Hebrew adam Ge 1:26 1 Co 15:49 Ge 4:25 Lk 3:38 Ge 2:17 Heb 9:27 Father may mean ancestor; also in verses 7–26. 1 Ch 1:2 Lk 3:37 1 Ch 1:3 Lk 3:37 Jud 14 Ge 5:24 Ge 6:9 Ge 17:1 Ge 24:40 Ge 48:15 2 Ki 20:3 Ps 116:9 Mic 6:8 Mal 2:6 2 Ki 2:1 2 Ki 2:11 Ps 49:15 Ps 73:24 Ps 89:48 Heb 11:5 Noah sounds like the Hebrew for comfort. Ge 3:17 Ro 8:20 Ge 7:6 Ge 7:11 Ge 8:13 Ge 6:10 Ge 9:18 Ge 10:1 1 Ch 1:4 Is 65:20	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line979
__label__cc	0.734411	0.265589	TelexFree Court Status – 25th April 2014 Apr.26, 2014 in TelexFree The 25th saw the hearing in Massachusetts for a preliminary injunction against TelexFree Faith Sloan, Santiago De La Rosa, Randy Crosby, Sann Rodrigues and Steve Labriola. Further objections and notices were also filed in the Nevada Chapter 11 bankruptcy case too. As of April 25th, here’s where we’re at. Motions Filed 1. Objection to Application to expedite hearing of TelexFree’s TRO objection (SEC, April 25th) TelexFree filed an application to expedite a hearing on their “certain parts of the TRO are void” motion filed yesterday (see #1 on the “Motions Filed” list for April 24th). This motion was filed ex-parte. The SEC have objected to this application on the grounds that, by virtue of granting the TRO, the Massachusetts court has already nullified the argument that the TRO will ’cause irreparable harm to (TelexFree’s) business operations’. They SEC are asking a hearing be set as per normal scheduling, so that they might be given adequate time to reply to the motion. 2. Application for expedited hearing for DoJ’s request that a Chapter 11 Trustee be appointed (United States Trustee (DoJ), April 25th) The Department of Justice have requested that an expedited hearing be set for their application that a Chapter 11 Trustee be appointed in TelexFree’s bankruptcy application. You can read more about the specifics of the DoJ’s request here. The shortened time is necessary because of the serious nature of the allegations of securities fraud and gross mismanagement contained in the complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) against (TelexFree). The DoJ are asking the motion be heard on May the 2nd, a hearing date already scheduled during which a number of other motions and applications are to be heard. 3. Objection to TelexFree’s proposed interim orders (United States Trustee (DoJ), April 25th) The Department of Justice has filed an objection to a number of recent applications and motions filed and/or granted to TelexFree. There’s a few interim orders they’re objecting to, so I’ve listed them below along with the DoJ’s arguments against them. Order Authorizing Joint Administration of Chapter 11 Cases In this order the DoJ are objecting to the recently made joint administration order (see #3 in the “orders” list for April 24th updates). This order contains the following statements: finds that the Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334. this is a core matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b)(2) (the) venue is proper in this district pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1408 and 1409 notice of the Motion and the Hearing were sufficient under the circumstances and that no further notice need be given The DoJ argue that according to audio transcripts of the First Day Motions hearings, the Court never actually found any of the above. Interim Order (I) Authorizing the Debtors to Pay Prepetition Income, Franchise and Similar Taxes and Regulatory Fees in the ordinary Course of Business, and (II) Authorizing Banks and Financial Institutions to Honor and Process Checks and Transfers Related Thereto In this order the DoJ are objecting to the following statements finds that the Court has jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334 venue in this district is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1408 and 1409 such relief is necessary to avoid immediate and irreparable harm to the Debtors’ business and estates The DoJ again argue that according to audio transcripts of the First Day Motions hearings, the Court never actually found any of the above. Interim Order (A) Authorizing Debtors to Pay (I) All Prepetition Employee Obligations, (II) the Independent Contractors’ Fees and (III) the Contracting Agencies’ Fees and (B) Directing the Disbursing Bank to Honor Related Transfers In this order the DoJ object to the following statements: and the Court having jurisdiction to consider the Motion, and the relief requested therein in accordance with 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334 and consideration of the Motion and the relief requested therein being a core proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b) and venue being proper before this Court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1408 and 1409 and due and proper notice of the Motion having been provided; and it appearing that no other or further notice need be provided The DoJ argue that the Court never actually found any of the above. Interim Order Approving Motion of the Debtors Pursuant to Section 105(a) of the Bankruptcy Code , Bankruptcy Rules 1007, 2002(l), 2002(m) and 9007, Local Rule 2002 For Entry of an Order Approving Notice Procedures it appearing that this Court has jurisdiction to consider the Motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 157 and 1334 and it appearing that venue of these Chapter 11 Cases and the Motion in this district is proper pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §§ 1408 and 1409 and it appearing that this matter is a core proceeding pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 157(b) and this Court having determined that the relief requested in the Motion is in the best interests of the Debtors, their estates, their creditors and other parties in interest and it appearing that proper and adequate notice of the Motion has been given and that no other or further notice is necessary Again, the DoJ argue that the Court never actually found any of the above. All four objections are supported by a declaration by Anabel Santos, an employee of the US Trustee, who reviewed audio recordings of the First Day Motions proceeding held on April 17th. In place of the orders being made, the DoJ are asking that they be made interim orders, to be heard and ultimately decided upon at the May 2nd Nevada bankruptcy court hearing. 1. Granting of expedited hearing for TelexFree’s objections to the TRO (April 25th) TelexFree’s “Certain Portions of the TRO violate the automatic stay that comes with a Chapter 11 filing” objection (see #1 under “Motions Filed” in the April 24th Update), has been granted. The motion is to be heard on May 2nd 2014, along with several other motions, applications and objections. 2. Granting of expedited hearing for SEC’s request to move bankruptcy application to Massachusetts (April 25th) The SEC’s request for an expedited hearing on their motion to change the venue of the proceedings to Massachusetts has been granted. It will now be heard on May 2nd, along with several other motions, applications and objections. 3. TRO Interim Orders (April 25th) A hearing was held in Massachusetts to decide whether or not a preliminary injunction should be granted against TelexFree, Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa. The court has taken this matter under advisement, with an order expected to be made on April 30th. The court has urged the SEC and Crosby and De La Rosa ‘to resolve the matter’ before the 30th, failing which a decision will be made. The issue of a preliminary injunction against Faith Sloan and Sann Rodrigues has been moved to May 7th, on which a hearing has already been scheduled to decide whether the same injunction should be granted against TelexFree, Carlos Wanzeler, Jim Merrill and Joe Craft. April 30th (Massachusetts) – Expected decision on a preliminary injunction against Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa May 2nd (Nevada) – Mammoth hearing to decide on SEC’s request to move bankruptcy proceedings to Massachusetts, DoJ’s request that a Chapter 11 Trustee be appointed, TelexFree’s objections to the TRO, the final First Day Orders and ‘whether the interests of creditors and the various debtors are better served by the suspension of all (bankruptcy) proceedings in these jointly administered cases‘ May 7th (Massachusetts) – Hearing in the SEC case to decide on whether a preliminary injunction will be granted against TelexFree, Carlos Wanzeler, Jim Merrill, Joe Craft, Faith Sloan and Sann Rodrigues May 22nd (Nevada) – First meeting of TelexFree creditors May 28th (Nevada) – Hearing to decide on TelexFree’s motion for employment of their lawyers The cases and back and forth between the parties and the courts is getting quite complicated, but I think it’s safe to say May the 2nd is shaping up to be a big day of decisions. As I’m reading it, the Judge is piling up every emergency motion for this date, upon which the DoJ, SEC and TelexFree are going to battle it out in court. My prediction is that either the SEC’s “venue-change” motion or DoJ’s “appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee” request are going to be granted. Both of which effectively nullify TelexFree’s use of the bankruptcy court to negate their liability for running a Ponzi scheme. A third possibility exists, that being a Judge suspend the proceedings altogether. According to the Judge, this is to be decided based on whether or not the bankruptcy proceedings are in the best interests of the creditors. Ignoring the fact that it’s monopoly money that doesn’t exist, how victims of TelexFree being told to suck eggs (if TelexFree are granted Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection), is in their best interests is beyond me. The outcome of the discussion is far from certain however, as the Judge also mentions the best interests of the debtors (TelexFree). Naturally bankruptcy proceedings are in the best interest of the company as it absolves them of both liability for their Ponzi scheme and the $1 billion dollars in ROIs they promised their affiliates. One other interesting point is the separation of Randy Crosby and Santiago De La Rosa from the other defendants in the SEC preliminary injunction motions. I initially thought this might be due to a lack of co-operation but according to declarations filed, both Crosby and De La Rosa have refused to hand over financial information and co-operate with the SEC (as previously ordered by the court). Faith Sloan didn’t sound too co-operative in the same declarations (she hung up on the SEC when they called her), and there’s been no word on Sann Rodrigues. It could be the other way around, with these two co-operating with the SEC, however given TelexFree’s determination to abuse Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings to get away with securities fraud, this seems unlikely (Rodrigues and Sloan have been grouped together with TelexFree, its owners and inner-management). One aspect of the problematic nature of so many motions, objections and applications being filed can be seen in the request for an expedited hearing on TelexFree’s TRO objections on April 24th. The SEC filed their objection to the expedition motion on April 25th, with a Judge later that same day approving TelexFree’s initial motion. Whether the Judge saw the SEC’s objection before making the ruling is unclear (there’s no mention of it in the order). That means there’s a possibility things might change early next week. Things are getting a bit messy but hopefully today’s update will make the current situation a bit easier to follow. TelexFree Court Status – 24th April 2014 - Apr 25th, 2014 TelexFree Court Status – 30th April 2014 - May 1st, 2014 TelexFree Court Status – 1st May 2014 - May 2nd, 2014 Scheduling for May 2nd TelexFree bankruptcy case - May 2nd, 2014 129 Comments on “TelexFree Court Status – 25th April 2014” Apr 26th, 2014 at 1:25 pm dali(Q) Telexfree keeps breaking the law, now getting in trouble with IRS. Telexfree sending 1099 with false incomes of victims. The Marlborough phone-service company that regulators allege ran a global Ponzi scheme delivered a parting shot to many of its investors — sending out tax forms claiming to have paid them money they say they never received. http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/04/25/telexfree-inc-sends-alleged-victims-parting-shot-potential-tax-liability/zIIHhlnVMxAaNGEBwzodhJ/story.html Apr 26th, 2014 at 1:36 pm Oz(Q) How annoying. I’ve hit the Boston Globe 10 articles a month limit. I imagine I won’t be the only one this month. (Ozedit: Chrome incognito seems to get around the limit) Looks like the Dominican Republic has some competition in TelexFree management’s escape plan.. An alleged pyramid scheme that may have defrauded Brazilians and Americans out of more than a billion dollars has surfaced in B.C.. The discovery comes after U.S. regulators shut down the U.S. headquarters of the company behind the alleged scam, which purported to sell voice over internet (VoIP) phone services. CBC has discovered that TelexFREE has set up in Richmond, B.C., as a registered business, with its company address listed as the offices of a lawyer who incorporates new businesses. Two of the individuals listed as the company’s directors in Canada, James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler, are two of the people charged in the U.S. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/telexfree-alleged-pyramid-scheme-shut-down-in-u-s-sets-up-in-canada-1.2622163 Apr 26th, 2014 at 1:50 pm Diego(Q) Oz: Two of the individuals listed as the company’s directors in Canada, James Merrill and Carlos Wanzeler, are two of the people charged in the U.S. I knew it would come the day to blame it on Canada! They have more lives than a cat. K. Chang Apr 26th, 2014 at 2:13 pm K. Chang(Q) Dali: They have more lives than a cat. That’s because they are clones. I declare May the 2nd, as May Day for telexfree. Jamil Junior Apr 26th, 2014 at 4:12 pm Jamil Junior(Q) The more time the indicted and their inner-group have, the higher the possibility they are shifting money around. Given the fact that all these legal proceeding will likely take months (a la proceedings in Brazil), they might all be buying the time they need to escape. Brazil has no extradition policy if Brazilian citizens go back home. Unless other criminal charges are filed on each individual and their immediate network, these guys will like walk under BK law (chapter 11) and retain enough money to make the company legal under MLM laws and then fold because they have no real marketable product to sell anyway. Then the close the doors, creditors in the U.S. get a little money back, affiliates will see ZERO money, or 1 cent on the dollar max, and the ringleaders walk away with their money and retire. Hopefully there is more dirt to uncover that pin the culprits with felonies, tax and wiring fraud, conspiracy against the U.S., immigration violations, money laundering, tax evasion, while collar crimes, organize crime, theft by deception and other charges, otherwise, they will simply slip away when all this court stuff and the lawyers have battled it out. Restelo's Old Man Apr 26th, 2014 at 8:31 pm Restelo's Old Man(Q) This is very amusing, looking at Anabel Santos declaration with transcripts from the 17th Apr hearing at Nevada, we can now understand what generated the “news” being spammed everywhere later that day by Telexbots. It seems “his neighbors dog who has fleas that supposedly attended the tax hearing” actually was there! Just compare the hearing with the spam (e.g., telexfreecanada.net/tag/telexfree-hearing/). Judge ‘s attitude was very positive towards the company , and everything went in a understanding atmosphere , listened to the lawyers and all the exposure by the company was very successful. This actually is true. In the transcript you can perceive the judge being generally favourable to TF, with TF lawyer even saying to the judge at some point that he went “his way”. Out of the 9 that were presented against TelexFREE 5 were resolved and dismissed , there are only 4 points to be argued in a more comprehensive way , those 4 points are to be addressed in upcoming hearings. We now know that more than the eye has caught was decided in that 17th Apr hearing. Specifically, they were authorized to do some payments, subject to the SEC TRO (and recommended to meanwhile “find a way out of the [SEC] wood”). Indeed, I could count 9 emergency motions filled by TF 13 Apr. Of those, it seems quite possible that 5 have been effectively addressed by the judge at this 17 hearing. This was initially misinterpreted by Telexbots as “against Telexfree”, but corrected in later versions of the spam as requests from TF (with each of those 9 points being described in a fantasious way). TelexFREE was accused of tax evasion, the lawyers vehemently defended providing consistent data that shows paid taxes in Brazil and in the United States. From Anabel Santos transcript, we can see that TF tax payments were actually discussed, and that the judge approved a number of tax payments by TF, stating his concern with the additional problems and complications to the company that would arise if they are unable to pay them (being currently under the TRO). This seem to have been misinterpreted by Telexbots as some “ops, sorry Your Honor, we forgot to pay those, we’ll never do it again, promise!” These tax payment approvals were quickly interpreted by Telexbots as “See? We are legit! Only legit companies pay taxes!”. Quite a ludicrous consideration, given that the reason Al Capone went to prison was precisely tax evasion. The weird tale about five judges deciding 3 against 2 Telexfree is not a Ponzi scheme is hard to explain, but it may possibly root in something like TF Lawyer – (…) so, despite what Ms. Lavigna says and the SEC charges, we maintain Telexfree is not a Ponzi scheme. Judge Landis – Ok. Apr 26th, 2014 at 9:51 pm Goodbrain(Q) It seems to me from seeing the figures being posted here that Telexfree had enough money to at least pay their promoters back when they filed for bankruptcy. There are many people who got on early in this that made their money back and then some, plus others who made a lot of money. So the questions is – why couldn’t they have paid the promoters who didn’t recover their investment in TF, not the ones that did and continue doing business ? I understand that millions came into the company just before they changed to the new comp plan, surely they had enough to at least pay their investment back. Or did they do this only to escape SEC fraud charges that were imminent and seek protection that way. I’ve also wondered how TF was getting fresh money when most promoters were signing people up from their BO with money they had already made. In this case, you can see where the scam was probably going to fall apart as the early promoters were owed a ton of money by TF but they were cashing out as new promoters came in but TF wasn’t seeing any new capital coming in, hence the Chapter 11. There’s probably some truth that they were running out of money but they knew that it was going to happen anyway at some point. The chapter 11 parachute was in place and ready to be executed at any time. I think in their crooked brains and under the disguise of “restructuring” they’ve found a graceful way out of the mess and in the process come off to their promoters (victims) like they were really trying. Apr 26th, 2014 at 10:53 pm Restelo's Old Man(Q) Goodbrain: Because all those recent millions had come precisely from “promoters who didn’t recover their investment in TF”. Millions come, millions go, the balance is zero. Therefore you have a zero balance respecting all those recent millions, but you still owe many millions more to the people who joined/invested since January or so, many of them with total loss. There’s no way out of a Ponzi scheme. Apr 27th, 2014 at 5:05 am K. Chang(Q) Goodbrain: Telexfree had enough money to at least pay their promoters back when they filed for bankruptcy No they don’t. Think about it. 2 years, only sold over 1 million in VOIP. Let’s be generous and call it 2 million. Let’s even say DiskAvontade gave VOIP service to TelexFree for FREE. 2 million profit. (all ridiculous, but… wait) How many million do you think have been paid out already to all the promoters? We know at least 1 million went to Sann Rodrigues (unless you think he was lying all along “First Millionaire TeelxFree”) Do you think other people for months BEFORE 2014, have recieved at least one million altogether? Of course they did. They got a lot more than 1 million. That means they were paid with money from OTHER promoters. If they gain money, other must lose money. Money don’t grow automagically. So far we can only account for maybe 50 million (or so) of TelexFree assets. Plus or minus ten or twenty million. That’s out of 300+ million paid in by promoters, according to SEC. It’s not hard to guess that the rest of the money had already been paid out to the early promoters. There really isn’t much left of TelexFree. A typical Ponzi scheme will often payout 50% to 75% of income to the promoters to encourage them to talk up the scheme and recruit even more people to join. Some even enjoy backroom “commission” if they recruit more. Apr 27th, 2014 at 2:11 pm hoss(Q) Oz and Chang. I refound the Chinese (?) characters I previously mentioned finding in the KCC Telexfree Bankruptcy Press Release. I downloaded and then opened the Press Release file with Adobe Reader,(not Microsoft Reader or some other) checked the properties and saw that the PDF Producer is in Chinese characters. Press Release no longer available on their website. Want to get a screenshot? I can tell you at least if it’s just garbage or actually mean something. Apr 27th, 2014 at 4:23 pm Frontier(Q) For the first time, this weekend, the Canadian media publishes a story about Telexfree opening an office in BC-Canada: The response of the affiliate website “Telexfree Canada” was almost immediate, and it has been shutdown: telexfreecanada.net This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service. For more information and to contact us please read this support document. Telexfree Canada facebook page is also frenetically deleting all negative comments, which have appeared following the story, and trying to play the “we are only victims” card: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=266608940187941&id=147904882058348&stream_ref=10 @Kasey http://www.kccllc.net/telexfree/document/1412524140413000000000005 I’m using whatever the default Win8 reader is, no properties options so I can’t confirm. K. Chang: Press Release no longer available on their website. Sent to Oz via “contact” link. Hopefully he will forward to you. Apparently it contains information about the engine that produced the file. Apr 27th, 2014 at 10:11 pm Goodbrain(Q) K. Chang: I was referring to the fact that millions came in the last 2-3 weeks before the plan changed on top of the millions they already made. Sure they had enough to at least pay the latest promoters. It takes 14 weeks to get your money back. They had at least that long to figure out how they can continue to do business without filing Chapter 11. This is what many people thought they were going to do as TF announced 2 weeks prior, pay back all promoters who haven’t received their investment amount yet. Not the ones that already made a profit. Don’t forget that it takes 3 weeks to be able to draw money from your positions, so all that money that came in before the new plan changed is now with TF. They didn’t pay out one cent of all that money. If they really wanted to they could’ve found a way to keep it going at least for a while longer without attracting the attention of the SEC and DoJ with their bankruptcy filing and the damage to their name with all the negative media. They could’ve shut down on their own and restructured if that was their true intentions or cut a deal with W. Galvin about paying back all promoters. According to TF, the new comp plan was 100% legal so all they had to address was the old comp plan. My point is that they had enough money to keep it going but decided to go this route which was their plan all along. M_Norway Apr 27th, 2014 at 11:13 pm M_Norway(Q) It takes 14 weeks to get your money back. They had at least that long to figure out how they can continue to do business without filing Chapter 11. Monies from new investors are used to pay old investors. The “14 weeks reserve” is extremely hypothetical, it doesn’t reflect the reality. Apr 28th, 2014 at 12:43 am hoss(Q) Maybe you should take into account that Brazil froze bank accounts containing about eleventy million dollars of Telexfree/Ympactus money almost a year ago. Whoever supplied those funds has not been paid back. To suggest that Telexfree should have made whole Massachusetts residents, or those in the United States, at the expense of their Brazilian, (Rwandan, Madeiran, Dominican) counterparts is a political and legal non-starter even if Telex had enough free cash to do so. Goodbrain: if they really wanted to they could’ve found a way to keep it going at least for a while longer without attracting the attention of the SEC and DoJ with their bankruptcy filing I think you have put the cart before the horse here. In my view this bankruptcy filing is the financial fraud equivalent of a medieval thief dragging himself into a church and hoping for “Sanctuary!” The SEC and Massachusetts were well aware of Telexfree’s methods (hard to miss considering what’s been going on in Brazil) so to me it looks like TF filed bankruptcy primarily for the purpose of preempting, disrupting and thwarting the impending SEC/MA actions. That’s the SEC/MA view as well, according to Court filings. Apr 28th, 2014 at 1:28 am Goodbrain(Q) hoss: The SEC and Massachusetts were well aware of Telexfree’s methods (hard to miss considering what’s been going on in Brazil) soto me it looks likeTF filed bankruptcy primarily for the purpose of preempting, disrupting and thwarting the impendingSEC/MA actions. That’s the SEC/MA view as well, according to Court filings. I don’t think the DoJ and SEC were involved before the filing. It was the SEC of MA, W. Galvin that was after them. You could say that it was reason enough to do what they did but it would’ve been easier at that point to negotiate a deal without the “now” nationwide negative coverage of TF’s filing. Now with what they did, they look real guilty whereas before they only were exposed to the people who knew about TF, not the general public. It’s out there big time now, cat’s out of the bag, genie’s out of the bottle and any other metaphor you want to use here. I think they screwed up doing what they did, now they looked much worse than before in everybody’s eye. If you ask any promoter who lost money in TF, they’ll tell you that they would’ve taken any other deal, maybe a 2 year payout or anything else to recover their money instead of this. And like I said, maybe this plan was in place all along, who knows… Apr 28th, 2014 at 3:36 am hoss(Q) Goodbrain: I don’t think the DoJ and SEC were involved before the filing. The Bankruptcy was file late Sunday night April 13 and both the SEC and Mass filed complaints on Tuesday April 15th. On the same day the SEC obtained a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) against seven or eight individuals as well as Telexfree and its affiliate companies. The TRO was filed under seal (not made public) in order to keep the principals of Telexfree unaware so to better secure assets that were identified in 31 (!) different banks. The TRO was filed under seal and was not made public until on or about the 17th. After obtaining the TRO on April 15th officers of Homeland Security of the FBI (not Massachusetts Troopers) raided the Telexfree offices and surprised (as they intended) CFO, Craft who tried to steal away with $37 Million in cashiers checks and a personal computer. Those are the facts as per filings with the Court. Based on that it is virtually impossible for me to believe that the SEC was not tracking Telexfree for an extended period of time. A TRO can not be obtained without substantial credible proof. Goodbrain: Now with what they did, they look real guilty If the shoe fits… Actually they are. You forgot that Bill Galvin stated specifically that other agencies asked him NOT TO ACT so they can continue tracing the assets. When TelexFree declared bankruptcy, he can’t wait any longer. I can’t find the reference now, but I know I read it. During its investigation, the secretary’s office became aware of the separate federal investigations of the company. Those agencies requested Galvin not file a complaint, he said, “because they were worried about asset protection.” http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/article/20140415/News/140417784 goodbrain: If you ask any promoter who lost money in TF, they’ll tell you that they would’ve taken any other deal, maybe a 2 year payout or anything else to recover their money instead of this. Of course they would but its not in the cards. The SEC indicates they have not yet been able to trace the whereabouts of $300 Million. How is Telexfree supposed to pay anybody back in two years with that size of hole in their balance sheet. If the SEC can’t find it, can you really convince yourself that Telex intended to pay back the investors with money that was hidden that well? Even in a hundred years? Goodbrain: If you ask any promoter who lost money in TF, they’ll tell you that they would’ve taken any other deal, maybe a 2 year payout or anything else to recover their money instead of this Given that TelexFree only took in 1.2 mil over TWO YEARS on sales of 99TelexFree, and that’s revenue, not profit, and you know VAST majority of people will have left so revenue will be drop like a rock off a cliff… It’ll be a DECADES if they can get back their money if TelexFree can be, overnight, turned into a “real” and “legitimate” company. And I’m not even talking about the Ponzi payout of 1 billion. Apr 28th, 2014 at 11:18 am Citizen(Q) Telexfree leaders in Brazil (UPLINER’s) are panicking because of the form of the SEC (Massachusetts)… Lol! TTL DF Apr 28th, 2014 at 11:30 am TTL DF(Q) They are not only the leaders of Brazil and Brazilian’m not put the link on my page on facebook leaders in the United States aki ta all crazy I have had death threats for y’all have notion. Apr 28th, 2014 at 11:44 am Diego(Q) Citizen: Telexfree leaders in Brazil are panicking because of the form of the SEC They are spreading all over Facebook and their blogs that people should not fill the form because it is a “trap” and that SEC is not to be trusted. LOL! Diego: They are spreading all over Facebook and their blogs that people should not fill the form because it is a “trap” and that SEC is not to be trusted. LOL! And it IS a trap… To catch those uplines. 🙂 Apr 28th, 2014 at 3:02 pm Gon(Q) Does anybody know where can we find that SEC form? Is that one of kcc “proof of claim”? We want to inform as much people as we can. Thanks for this page, it is the only trustable place where im finding true information about telexfree. Who is going to go to prison or deported after all is said and done? How deep is the scam under EACH indicted promoter? No doubt San Rodrigues is the ‘head’ behind TelexFree. I bet that he is at the top of each new country opened and most downlines flow directly to him at the top. Top Brazilian promoters have already bailed out of TelexFree and are promoting other MLMs. Apr 28th, 2014 at 3:47 pm M_Norway(Q) Gon: Does anybody know where can we find that SEC form? I found some information here: patrickpretty.com/2014/04/25/bulletin-massachusetts-securities-division-issues-telexfree-complaint-form-commonwealth-secretary-william-galvin-publishes-brochure-on-how-to-steer-clear-of-pyramid-schemes/ Here’s the direct link: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/InvestorComplaint/telexfree.aspx Gon: Does anybody know where can we find that SEC form? Is that one of kcc “proof of claim”? It is true that a generic Bankruptcy Proof of Claim Form may be downloaded from the KCC website. However, it is NOT an SEC form and the website is NOT run by the SEC. So what is KCC? KCC is a private company that provides claims processing and noticing services for bankruptcy proceedings all across the United States. Why is this relevant? Its very possible that this private company will NOT be handling the claims. They DO NOT have final approval to do so. What should you do? Slow down. Don’t spread misleading information. Wait for confirmation. The last thing you want to do is “file and forget it” with the wrong company. M_Norway: Here’s the direct link: This link is NOT for making a claim for lost investment. Its designed to collect the personal experiences that investors had with Telexfree. We want to inform as much people as we can. Here’s the questions from the form: Name, address, etc. Information about your investment How much money did you invest? When did you invest? How many packages did you purchase? Which types of packages? What is your user name? Did you use the VoIP program? How many VoIP programs did you sell? Who introduced you to TelexFREE? Have you started formal legal action or retained an attorney to represent you? Please provide any other information that you think may be helpful to the Securities Division: They’re asking for information about the investments, VOIP use or sales, your position in the network, other info. I can specify some examples for that “Other info”, but people must use their own brains there. * If people had multiple accounts, identify it. * If people generated fake customers to qualify for binary commission. * If people paid directly to sponsor, rather than to Telexfree. * If people reinvested some of the payouts, buying more AdCentrals. * If people paid internal invoices from the back office (VOIP, AdCentrals) * e-Wallet transactions? I’m trying to identify the flow of money here. SEC already know that those details exist, but it wasn’t clearly described in the complaint. I’m trying to separate between INTERNAL TRANSACTIONS and real monetary transactions. Multiple accounts can probably be described under “Which types of packages?” rather than under “Other info”. Reinvestment and internal payments are partly about the same, i.e. people used payouts to the back office to generate new accounts and buy more AdCentral. Fake customers and internal payments are partly about the same, i.e. people generated customers to qualify for binary commissions, paying directly from the back office. hoss: I gave him the link to Galvin’s complaint form, not the KCC proof of claims. i.e. don’t call the cops! And what was it about them having before, said that the government in the US was so good, so much better than the US, eh? OOps, that should have been “so much better than Brazil” M_Norway: I gave him the link to Galvin’s complaint form, not the KCC proof of claims. He asked about an SEC Form and the bankruptcy proof of claim on the KCC website. The link you provided has nothing to do with either of those things since it links to a State of Massachusetts complaint form. He asked about an SEC Form and the bankruptcy proof of claim on the KCC website. The SEC form is probably the Galvin form? I interpreted it in context with the other posts here, where other people were talking about a SEC form. Post #29 pointed in that direction. Post #29: And it IS a trap… To catch those uplines “Where can we find that SEC form?” “Is that one of the KCC proof of claims?” “We want to inform …” Gon: Does anybody know where can we find that SEC form? Is that one of kcc “proof of claim”? We want to inform as much people as we can. The State of Massachusetts Division of Securities (“MA”) has filed a complaint asking the Court to prohibit Telexfree from selling unlicensed securities in the State. The link M_Norway provided connects you to the Secretary of Massachusetts website. It permits you to provide information that may be used as evidence by Massachusetts. It is NOT for filing claims for loss of investment. The United States Security and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) “seeks a permanent injunction and disgorgement” based on Telexfree’s “fraud, deceit, or deliberate or reckless disregard of regulatory requirements, which has resulted in substantial loss….to other persons.” Should the SEC get what it seeks, Telexfree may not be afforded bankruptcy protection and in that event KCC might not remain the claims administrator. So wait. M_Norway: I interpreted it in context Your interpreted it wrong and your just going to confuse people. M_Norway: The SEC form is probably the Galvin form? StewGreen Apr 28th, 2014 at 6:19 pm StewGreen(Q) Remember a strong factor in the Madeira connection is the thought that TF was a taxfree income as many people here think tax is the government stealing from them (though they are not calling for cuts in bloated gov services), so they are not shouting about their TF losses for fear of drawing the taxman’s attention K. Chang: Diego: They are spreading all over Facebook and their blogs that people should not fill the form because it is a “trap” and that SEC is not to be trusted. LOL! There is little doubt that Massachusetts is collecting information with a purpose in mind but there are a lot of jilted investors out there who will want to file complaints. Naturally the petty promoters do not want anyone to complain and report the bullshit they have been pulling on people. F%K ’em. Note that the form is about INFORMATION, not about “proof”. You can post information relatively safely, but it must be TRUE. If it had been about “proof”, they would also have asked for documentation and some specific details about transactions. The information will most likely be used to stop the bankruptcy case, e.g. to show that TelexFree didn’t have any significant VOIP sale. They have just “cooked the books”. They’re asking for phone numbers to be able to contact people. Some people may probably be contacted and be asked for a signed statement. It’s better to give them GOOD information rather than recommending MANY people to post info. I tried to identify some points. Apr 28th, 2014 at 7:09 pm Dorothy(Q) Of course Telexfree’s lawyers are expecting to get their piece of the pie. They have already let the court know what the bill is for now and it’s alot of pie. If bank accounts etc… of all the ponzie punks have been frozen then how do they pay “their” lawyers? Or bills, or mortgages or even groceries? “You’re going to confuse ME” is probably more correct than “confuse PEOPLE”? Gon didn’t specify which SEC form he was asking for. The only SEC form mentioned in the comments was the Massachusetts SEC form. The same SEC form was mentioned by Patrickpretty (a link to it). It’s clearly about investigation, not about proof of claims: Thank you for your submission. We rely on citizens such as yourself to alert us to fraudulent activity. An investigator from the Enforcement Section will be contacting you after reviewing your complaint. It will most likely be used to stop the bankruptcy. SOME people might be interested, so it isn’t really important if I have misinterpreted the questtion. The focus should be on whether the information is RELEVANT. littleroundman Apr 28th, 2014 at 7:38 pm littleroundman(Q) The document in .PDF format can be viewed here: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2014/comp-pr2014-79.pdf The SEC Litigation release can be viewed here: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/2014/lr22974.htm A court may impose a pre-trial freeze upon a defendant’s assets in a SEC enforcement case. This freeze is appropriate even in light of a “defendant’s claim that the asset freeze precludes him from obtaining counsel in a related criminal case”. Id. at 3. Courts have consistently held that “a defendant is not entitled to foot his legal bill with funds that are tainted by fraud.” Id. (citing SEC v. Quinn, 991 F.2d 287, 289 (7th Cir. 1993)). Will the lawyers have to wait to be paid? M_Norway: Gon didn’t specify which SEC form he was asking for. The only SEC form mentioned in the comments was the Massachusetts SEC form. The same SEC form was mentioned by Patrickpretty (a link to it). Please quit arguing out of ignorance. There is no Massachusetts SEC. The SEC is the United States Security and Exchange Commission headed by Chairman Mary Schapiro. On the other hand Massachusetts has an Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, SECURITIES DIVISION headed by Secretary Francis Galvin. The link you pulled from Patrick Pretty is to an electronic Massachusetts Complaint form. It has nothing to with proofs of claims, the US Bankruptcy Court proceedings, KCC, or the SEC. Dorothy: Will the lawyers have to wait to be paid? That’s an interesting question. The BK lawyers have already received a huge retainer and if they can defeat the SEC action and keep Telexfree in BK will be able to draw their compensation from the gross assets of the estate. If this gets tossed out of BK it will be because the SEC has virtually won their case. At that point I think the BK lawyers would have to disgorge most of their retainer and the defendants would capitulate to a permanent injunction and disgorgement of whatever they have. If there is a criminal action the opinion you cited implies the defendants could pay their attorneys with “untainted” funds. Where untainted funds might come from here is hard to say but my gut tells me that someone out there has enough “untainted” money to supply a gift to their friends in need. littleroundman: The document in .PDF format can be viewed here: http://www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2014/comp-pr2014-79.pdf Document 2 pretty much tells the story perfectly. After reading that, how can the SEC or DoJ not seek criminal charges and put these guys in jail is beyond me. Apr 28th, 2014 at 10:10 pm hoss(Q) littleroundman: Gon: Does anybody know where can we find that SEC form? Is that one of kcc “proof of claim”? We want to inform as much people as we can. The document in .PDF format can be viewed here: sec.gov/litigation/complaints/2014/comp-pr2014-79.pdf Your link is to the SEC COMPLAINT…. NOT a “form” For God sakes men he is asking about a proof of claim form and thinks its something that comes from the SEC instead of the Bankruptcy Court. There is no Massachusetts SEC. Explain that to Citizen in post #29, to Diego and Old Man in post #31 and #32? Citizen: They were probably talking about the same. I didn’t focus on small details, e.g. “there’s no Massachusetts SEC”. I tried to identify what the question really was about, and tried to give an answer to that. Very few of us are actually using “Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, SECURITIES DIVISION” in normal dialogues. Apr 28th, 2014 at 11:19 pm littleroundman(Q) hoss: Your link is to the SEC COMPLAINT…. NOT a “form”For God sakes men he is asking about a proof of claim form and thinks its something that comes from the SECinstead of the Bankruptcy Court. I do apologize, but you have to realize I’m perhaps not as clairvoyant as you apparently are. My reasoning was, there is no point linking to a “proof of claim” document when there has not yet been any declaration of bankruptcy, ESPECIALLY when said “form” is a generic document which eventually may not be applicable anyway. A point I would have made, once the post linking to the documants was released from it’s “waiting for moderation” status. All that is known, with any certainty is what is contained within the SEC and Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth,Securities Division documents. Everything else is complete speculation. littleroundman: My reasoning was, there is no point linking to a “proof of claim” document when there has not yet been any declaration of bankruptcy, Telex filed for and is in bankruptcy… but even so I agree with you that it is premature to file a proof of claim because the bankruptcy may get dismissed within a short tiem and there may be a completely different claim process than what KCC anticipates. Still it is true that KCC has placed the Bankruptcy Proof of Claim on their website and people seem to know about it and want to take a look. What they may not know is that the Form is generic and used in bankruptcies in every case and court throughout the US and there is nothing unique about it. They can get it by doing a google search or visiting any federal bankruptcy court website. Unless and until the claims period opens they should not be able to file a claim even if they had a form. M_Norway: Explain that to Citizen in post #29, to Diego and Old Man in post #31 and #32? You were answering Gon. Apr 29th, 2014 at 12:33 am Restelo's Old Man(Q) The claims period seem to be opened, the Court declared it was accepting Claims of Proof until 90 days after 22 May, and they should be sent via mail post to KCC. It has not stated anywhere that they should be sent after some given date, as far as I know. Indeed, there’s already 1 PC waiting there. It was filled 15 Apr., just one day after the bankruptcy filling was made public (Apsan is innocent on this). I wonder if submitting a Proof of Claim before the 22 May creditor meeting entitles you to be present at that meeting as Telexfree creditor? M_Norway: I didn’t focus on small details, e.g. “there’s no Massachusetts SEC” That’s why you rarely know what you are talking about.There is a MAJOR difference between the SEC and the Mass Securities Division. One has national and international reach and the other is basically local. One obtained a TRO, seeks an injunction, and disgorgements, sent in agents and is actively contesting the Bankruptcy and the other is putting up a website that really only applies to Massachusetts residents. If those are small details then you have the brain of a colossus. Massachusetts has an Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, SECURITIES DIVISION headed by Secretary Francis Galvin. When that “Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, securities division” uses material hosted in “www.sec.state.ma.us” , it is easy to understand why people refer to it as Mass SEC. If it is correct or not, I don’t know. hoss:the other is putting up a website that really only applies to Massachusetts residents. Why do you say it only applies to Massachusetts residents? It even has a field to fill the State, and I presume they accept from outside US as well. Isn’t it fair to expect that such investigations can and will be escalated to federal SEC, or joined with the ones already in course, so that it’s worthwhile for Telexfree victims outside Mass. to fill it? Apr 29th, 2014 at 12:54 am littleroundman(Q) Restelo's Old Man: When that “Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, securities division” uses material hosted in “www.sec.state.ma.us” , it is easy to understand why people refer to it as Mass SEC. If it is correct or not, I don’t know. “sec” in this case is an abbreviation of “Secretary” not “Securities” Apr 29th, 2014 at 1:01 am Restelo's Old Man(Q) littleroundman: “sec” in this case is an abbreviation of “Secretary” not “Securities” LOL thanks for confirming it, I feared it was just that as soon as I’ve hit the “add comment” button. But it confused me, indeed. 😀 Apr 29th, 2014 at 1:04 am M_Norway(Q) So Gon would have used “Office of the Secretary of Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Security Division”, if he really had asked about that? The point was that the others used “SEC (Massachusetts)” and “SEC”, not which post I was responding too. Your ideas are too “constructed”. None of us can know for sure what he really was asking for, since he didn’t specify which SEC form. I made a qualified guess, supported by those 3 comments before his post, supported by search results (Facebook). I prefer my interpretation rather than your’s. But you can clearly keep your own interpretation. Restelo's Old Man: The claims period seem to be opened It beats me how someone could hear about the Bankruptcy no earlier than the 14th (Telex filed late on the 13th) and then mail a proof of claim that was received by the 15th. That’s pretty fast work. I think the entry is a dummy for test and set up purposes but who knows. Personally I would not file until I was sure this whole situation was going to stay in Bankruptcy because I would not want to do everything twice. Restelo's Old Man: the Court declared it was accepting Claims of Proof I am sorry I have not seen this. I only saw that the claim window ended 90 days after the first Creditor’s meeting, which has been scheduled, but which may be rescheduled or extended, or not occur at all under certain conditions. Restelo's Old Man: I wonder if submitting a Proof of Claim before the 22 May creditor meeting entitles you to be present at that meeting as Telexfree creditor? Creditor’s meetings are open to all creditors. You need not have filed a proof of claim to attend. Restelo's Old Man: Why do you say it only applies to Massachusetts residents? Maybe it doesn’t. I am sure anyone can chime in but my guess is that the Secretary is looking for the saddest most exemplary tales of woe and deceit among all the various Complaints, He will then compile them as exhibits in evidence for the court. Since he represents the citizens of Mass I assume that he will be most interested in information supplied by Massachusetts residents and would prefer testimony by them over all others. Restelo's Old Man: Isn’t it fair to expect that such investigations can and will be escalated to federal SEC, or joined with the ones already in course, so that it’s worthwhile for Telexfree victims outside Mass. to fill it? I don’t think it needs to be escalated as the SEC is already on board. News article indicate that Mass was asked not to file against Telexfree because the SEC was busily doing their own investigation which included aspects that Mass could never have handled on its own (tracing international money flows for example) They did not choose the timing but both filed on the 15th because TF filed BK in Vegas on the 13th. If you are suggesting that information gleaned from filing a Massachusetts complaint may find its way into evidence presented by the SEC then yes it could happen. If you believe that the state of Massachusetts is going to be piecing together a picture board showing the organizational structure of Telexfree then I suppose it could happen. In the end I think there will be a few “choice” stories culled from the many thousands of complaints that will be used as exemplars in the SEC case. Because pursuing both cases simultaneously seems redundant, I would expect Mass to cooperate where appropriate (supplying evidence and exhibits) but let the SEC do the heavy work. Mass may mostly file joinders in support. (What are known as “me too” filings) M_Norway: I prefer my interpretation rather than your’s You can piddle off in any direction you want. Restelo's Old Man: I’m pretty sure they will accept information from others too. But the complaint form is about investigation. The focus should be on giving correct and useful information, about investment vs. VOIP sale/purchase. People shouldn’t file the complaint if they don’t feel comfortable with the method. I BELIEVE it will be used in the bankruptcy case, but it will probably be used for other parts of the case too. I found some “Terms and Conditions”, but they seem to be some “standard T&C” posted on every page. M_Norway: since he didn’t specify which SEC form. There is no SEC form. Haven’t you figured that out YET? So you believe people have panicked because of a non existing form, and that Gon was asking for the same? Your ideas have gradually become weirder and weirder, that’s why I decided to stop the discussion. Does anybody know where can we find that SEC form? Is that one of kcc “proof of claim”? “Does anyoneknow where to find the SEC form?”. You can try to tell him that the form doesn’t exist, people have simply panicked for no reason. “Is that one of the kcc proof of claim?”. You can decide the answer there yourself. M_Norway: So you believe people have panicked because of a non existing form I don’t know what panics these people. I did not reply to them. I replied to Gon and I gave him my best answer. Your Massachusetts Divsision of Securities is the same as the SEC bullshit just wasted space. Apr 29th, 2014 at 3:17 am Gon(Q) Ufffff guys so much information! Thx a lot to all… Well what i was looking for was some way to recover money invested in telexfree if they loose the trial (is it a trial really?) because nobody really knows whats gonna happen. Last i heard was they established in BC canada but who knows what are they planning to do. Thanks for this page again, have to tell you guys the info shown here may be the most trustable right now… M_Norway: So you believe people have panicked because of a non existing form, Show me the SEC form. Link me to it.. If you can’t do then STFU Apr 29th, 2014 at 3:27 am oPO(Q) c’mon .. calm down ladies… oPO: What are you? the middle child. telexfree if they loose the trial (is it a trial really?) In May 2nd? No, no, it’s just an hearing. But they will decide a lot of important things there, like: -No more bankruptcy court? -Bankruptcy court goes to Boston? -No more Wanzeler, Merrill, Macmillan and Craft running Telexfree? -Is SEC TRO invalid? (LOL good luck on this one…) -Can we (Telexfree) please void all contracts we currently have with our promoters? and some other smaller things. Show me the SEC form. Link me to it What people call “Massachusetts SEC form” or “SEC complaint form” or “SEC form” is this one: sec.state.ma.us/InvestorComplaint/telexfree.aspx It’s the same link I posted in post #35, and copied parts of into post #38. Lets call it a Banana SEC form, or SuperDopey SEC Form. I prefer to call it a cow. Maybe someone wants to call it a Brazilian paper plate M_Norway: sec.state.ma.us/InvestorComplaint/telexfree.aspx Your link is not to an SEC Form. STFU. Apr 29th, 2014 at 4:59 am bubba(Q) Hoss and Norway: you guys are becoming bloody annoying. Stop hijacking the comment section. TemTrouxaPraTudo Apr 29th, 2014 at 7:33 am TemTrouxaPraTudo(Q) While the justice system decides what to do with the crooks: I wonder how much this is going to auction for. bubba: Hoss and Norway: you guys are becoming bloody annoying. Stop hijacking the comment section. I agree Totally sick of this BS Here’s something factual. 53 Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton: ELECTRONIC ORDER entered. “With respect to the May 7, 2014, hearing on a preliminary injunction as to defendants Joseph Craft, Steven Labriola, James Merrill, Carlos Wanzeler, Sanderley Rodrigues de Vasconcelos, Faith Sloan, Telexfree, Inc., Telexfree, LLC, TelexFree Financial, Inc., TelexElectric, LLC and TelexFree Mobile Holdings, Inc., the Securities and Exchange Commission is directed to submit its updated motion and supporting memorandum on or before Wednesday, April 30, 2014, and those defendants are directed to respond on or before Friday, May 2, 2014.” (Patch, Christine) (Entered: 04/28/2014) Apr 29th, 2014 at 7:44 am Oz(Q) Note on the claims form, the court ordered nothing be filed until after the creditor meeting. From the 24th April court update: A meeting of TelexFree’s creditors (parties they owe money to) has been set for May 22nd. Creditors are advised they have 90 days to file a proof of claim after the May 22nd meeting. I don’t get why such a fuss is being made over the form now. Apr 29th, 2014 at 10:28 am mike(Q) i am trying to fill my prof of claim. i had 9 packages shall i make a claim for each package or just one? thanks Apr 29th, 2014 at 10:44 am Oz(Q) I haven’t looked at the claim form but I imagine if it was under 1 account you’d claim all the packages under that account. At some point all of this information is going to get cross-referenced with TelexFree’s database in any case, so I wouldn’t worry too much. Oz: I don’t get why such a fuss is being made over the form now. I think its because there was an idea going around that creditors needed to obtain an SEC form on the KCC website so that they could file a Bankruptcy Proof of Claim with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Security and Exchange Commission. Apparently this panicked some promoters on Facebook who recognized a “trap” when they saw one and urged their downlines not to file complaints online. Now you know as much as I do. mike: i am trying to fill my prof of claim. i had 9 packages shall i make a claim for each package or just one? thanks You should not even be doing this yet. You’ve got more than three months before the Claims Bar Date. Are you in a rush to be the first one to do it wrong? Wait, there may be instructions. Well by all means file the Securities Division form (the SEC already has access to your TelexFree information, so there’s nothing to hide). The notion that any of this is a “trap” meanwhile is rather absurd. TelexFree aren’t paying anyone back, so there’s nothing to trap anyone on. Anyone suggesting the SEC needs additional input from affiliates to build their case obviously hasn’t read the complaint and subsequent filings. Oz: I’m not sure to what extent the direct sales between promoters, which constituted the vast majority of money transactions outside of the US, and at least to some extent inside the US, are visible in BO data. I’m not sure if SEC can really know this reality without the complaints… I’m not sure how the shadyness is going to play out yet. I don’t think a claim form that can’t be independently verified (you bought investment positions directly from your upline) will result in anything. Maybe if they can verify it by checking the movement of positions through the backoffice, but then they still need to recover and verify the money was paid. It’s a nightmare either way and I certainly don’t envy the SEC. All the more reason meanwhile why the penalties here need to be severe. As for the forms to fill out There are current 2 forms A) a Bankruptcy claims form at KCCLLC B) an information form at Massachusetts Secretary of State Regarding A) Do NOT fill it out yet. Bankruptcy is NOT EVEN FINALIZED. There are NO INSTRUCTIONS. If you fill one out now you’ll likely do it wrong. You can afford to wait a few more weeks. And this is going to Bankruptcy agent, NOT to SEC or Mass state. Regarding B) This is going to Mass State only. If you have information, you may as well fill it out now, and yes, it will be used by law enforcement to prosecute the perps. Anyone suggesting the SEC needs additional input from affiliates to build their case obviously hasn’t read the complaint and subsequent filings. They probably need it for some reason, or else they wouldn’t have bothered to put it up in the first place. I mentioned some factors in post #38: M_Norway: TelexFree / Joe Craft have probably “cooked the books” to come up with acceptable statistics for VOIP sales, to slip under the regulatory radar. Input from real users will show THAT it has been done, HOW it has been done, WHERE it has been done, etc. TELEXFREE CLAIMS TelexFree claims to have “millions of VOIP users” (or hundred thousands of active users), “millions of VOIP minutes”, “millions in revenue from VOIP sale”, etc. THE REALITY Most VOIP customers were fake customers, generated on a monthly basis to qualify for binary commissions from sub accounts / downline. Most VOIP purchases was done by using internal funds (Ponzi points) to pay for the invoices = no monetary transaction = no business revenue or profit. Many AdCentral purchases were paid directly to the recruiting sponsor, while the sponsor used internal funds to pay for the invoice = no monetary transaction between new promoter and TelexFree = no REGISTERED business revenue or profit. That system was highly ORGANIZED to benefit people high up in the system, e.g. they could transfer internal Ponzi points downwards in the system and get real money in exchange from newly recruited promoters (via the downline). THE REALITY – CREDIT CARD TRANSACTIONS CC transactions IN to TelexFree August 2012 – March 2013: 202,000 transactions AdCentral Family, ~$287,500,000 48,000 transactions single AdCentral, ~ $13,872,000 26,300 transactions VOIP subscriptions,~ $1,315,000 The amounts are my own calculations, based on the SEC complaint page 21, point 50. THE BANKRUPTCY CASE Credit card transactions alone isn’t good enough evidence to get the bankruptcy case denied. The court will need much more solid evidence than that. Input from real users are actually needed. TelexFree has cooked the books and manipulated data to prove real business activity based on VOIP sales. They have also concealed revenue generated in the system. INPUT FROM REAL USERS There’s a need for factual information, e.g. about how people have paid, what they have paid for, when they paid and to whom (TelexFree or a promoter). People should separate between internal purchases (invoices paid using back office funds) and purchases paid with real money. The Mass-Sec doesn’t ask for information about payouts or withdrawals. People shouldn’t add that information either, other than to clarify what the internal purchases are about. BACK OFFICE FUNDS != MONEY Back office funds have NEVER been about real money. It doesn’t matter what the payouts are called, e.g. “Commissions”, “profit share”, “Hong Kong dollars”, “TelexCredit”, “$ US dollars”, “€ Euro”, “JubiBuck$”, “VIP points”, “Bonus” or whatever. It will always be NUMBERS ON A SCREEN rather than real money. It doesn’t matter how the funds are being stored, e.g. as a “withdrawable amount” in a back office, in internal e-Wallets, or if the funds are invested in “contracts”, “AdCentrals”, “Units”, “VIP points” or whatever they can be invested in or stored as. THIRD PARTY E-WALLETS == FUNDS MADE AVAILABLE Withdrawals to third party e-Wallets generates a taxable event. You can be TAXED for the amounts you receive to an e-Wallet, but you haven’t received the money yet. The funds are only made AVAILABLE for withdrawals, but they’re not in your possession. If the funds are made UNAVAILABLE again during the same tax year, it’s no longer taxable. That rule should apply to assets freeze cases, e.g. to third party e-Wallets frozen by a court order. People should separate between the different types of funds / payment methods / investment methods. THE MASS-SEC FORM How much money did you invest? Only real money. When did you invest? Separate dates if more than one. How many packages did you purchase? Only the ones you paid for Which types of packages? Here you can specify details What is your user name? MAIN user name, if more than one account Did you use the VoIP program? Yes or No How many VoIP programs did you sell? Only the ones SOLD, don’t include the ones purchased by yourself here. Other information. Some additional info to the Mass-SEC form … DATE SYSTEMS Americans use: Month / Day / Year mmddyyyy 04-29-2014 Europeans use: Day / Month / Year ddmmyyyy 29-04-2014 Military date: Year / Month / Day yyyymmdd 2014-04-29 The differences between American and European date systems will typically cause confusion. The military date system doesn’t cause the same type of confusion, it will be identified and translated correctly by computer programs if entered into a form. Try to avoid confusions, but HOW people do it will be up to themselves to decide. FlockyGlow Apr 29th, 2014 at 7:15 pm FlockyGlow(Q) hoss: What are you? the middle child. haha someone is PMSing.. I have tested the Mass-Sec form, tried to put in data for amount invested, when invested, types of packages purchased. Here’s one example: How much money did you invest? $7,125 When did you invest? 2013-12-21; 2014-01-14 How many packages did you purchase? 5 1 Adcentral Family, main account, 2013-12-21, wire transfer, $1,425 4 AdCentral Family, 4 sub accounts, 2014-01-14, Credit Card, $5,700 1 AdCentral Family, 1 sub account, 2014-01-21 (internal funds) Total: 9 AdCentral Family The initial $1,425 investment was paid directly to my sponsor FastCash21’s bank account. I have simply tried to identify the different purchases correctly. If people have paid directly to sponsor, they should identify that too (to avoid misunderstandings). What did you put in this box? I didn’t put anything there, I focused only on the investment part. I can produce an example: I bought appr. 36 VOIP subscriptions, bought to qualify for binary commissions for sub accounts, using internal funds to pay for the subscriptions. Those subscriptions were given away for free to anyone interested. Net costs in internal funds 36 5 = 180 I had 1 active VOIP account the first month, but I didn’t use it. It was included in the $50 membership fee. MY 8 SUB ACCOUNTS (user names) SlowCash2, SlowCash3, SlowCash4, SlowCash5, SlowCash6, SlowCash7, SlowCash8, SlowCash9. People must use their own brains anyway. I managed to put the most important information about my hypothetical investment in 9 AdCentral Family under “Which types of packages?”. Separating real money and internal funds actually made it much easier to sort information. Apr 29th, 2014 at 10:21 pm Dorothy(Q) I was wondering, how would Telexfree continue doing business if ipayout has stopped doing transactions for them? (that is if everyone loses there mind and lets them continue doing business) Also, will we hear more about ipayout and if there is an investigation into their relationship with Telexfree? Apr 29th, 2014 at 11:38 pm zoe(Q) OMG – just checked out a FB page and there are people posting in the last few hours who believe that Telexfree will still be in business on the other side of this. I know that people don’t like facing the truth, especially when their money is at stake, but I am shocked that people are still in such denial. Based on past experience, long after Telexfree is permanently closed and those behind it prosecuted, there will STILL be people hoping and praying it re opens and reminiscing about the “good ol” days when Telexfree was paying. @Oz … what would be the reason for TelexFREE to be online and available for access to tb BO if they can’t operate? is the TRO still up? put in simple .. is anyone getting a dime from TF ?? Sorry it may sound stupid, but i cant see a reason for having the website up (faking business activity) if you cant conduct business… oPO: i cant see a reason for having the website up (faking business activity) if you cant conduct business… “The Debtors (as defined in the Motion) entered into various enrollment agreements with over 700,000 parties allowing these parties to utilize and/or promote the Company’s services. A vast majority of these Counterparties are located overseas and have not provided Debtors with a physical mailing address, making traditional mail notice virtually impossible by Debtors on a timely basis.” IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that when the Debtors are obligated to notice the various Counterparties pursuant to the Bankruptcy Rules, the Debtors shall be authorized to serve the Counterparties via (a) electronic mail at the email address provided to the Debtors and/or (b) through the Back Office.” hoss: electronic mail at the email address provided to the Debtors and/or (b) through the Back Office.” Got it! thanks man!! Darkbotic Apr 30th, 2014 at 2:52 am Darkbotic(Q) The court just granted the Ex Parte Motion of the United States Trustee for Order Shortening Time for Hearing on the United States Trustee’s Motion for Order Directing the Appointment of a Chapter 11 Trustee. The date and time will be… Yep, you guessed it: May 2nd at 9:30 AM. kccllc.net/telexfree/document/1412524140429000000000001 Apr 30th, 2014 at 3:43 am Naz(Q) My personal experience is that the telexfree website is up, but when I log in, I see the bankruptcy notice and cannot proceed any further to the Back Office. So, that is basically useless to me. I’m curious if others are actually able to access the BO and how. At any rate, I seriously doubt that anyone is getting a dime from TF (except for the money that is being stashed away by TF management and top promoters). In addition to having the website up for communicating with affiliates as stated in comment #107, I think that another possible theory is that TF is allowing retail activity (ie. sales of VOIP) to continue to show that this is their main focus. But, in reality, as you say they, I think TF is just faking business activity and continuing to do its usual shady practices (which nobody really minded 3 months ago when they were making money). In terms of the TRO, I am curious myself. I know that there were some extensions of the TRO that were granted, but I don’t know what the latest is on that topic. It is a little confusing since the defendants are doing separate defenses. Apr 30th, 2014 at 3:49 am Dorothy(Q) @Dark Wow your fast. : ) Thanks for the new news. I’m not sure if that counts as a “dime”, but people can activate their VOIPs in their client BO, as it is. So, yes, they are still conducting business, but not breaching the TRO, which was only about the Ponzi part. Yeah. The slimmed down version of the TRO is that named individuals and the company can not sell or promote what the SEC alleges are illegal securities…. and the company can’t spend or access funds. VOIP is not even mentioned. The SEC is attempting to convert the TRO into an injunction which if approved will apply to virtually ALL promoters everywhere. In addition to enjoining sales and solicitation of the alleged securities, the SEC requests the Court order all earnings in the promoter’ s possession be immediately returned to the registry of the Court until final determination on the merits of their case. Those who say the SEC has been ineffective or slow do not understand the burden that is placed on the government. They have to make a compelling showing to get the TRO, an even stronger showing to get a preliminary injunction and then be prepared to win a full blown trial to obtain a permanent injunction. New cookie at KCC… Seems that grotesque Telexfree motion trying to void the Boston TRO in the Nevada court possibly will not even make it to May 2. Citing a pre-1998 law to make their case? What do they took that Landis judge for, an UniversoMLM team member? Seriously, what were they thinking? :O Restelo's Old Man: So, yes, they are still conducting business, but not breaching the TRO, which was only about the Ponzi part. As a result of the Warrant, the Debtors’ business operations were temporarily halted. Thereafter, the Debtors quickly utilized their IT department to rebuild the Company’s servers by utilizing the “cloud” and certain servers located outside of Massachusetts. See id. 26. Due to the Debtors’ immediate efforts and the servers located outside of Massachusetts, the Debtors’ VoIP service, website, and Back Office3 are operational on a limited basis and the Debtors are proceeding with business operations and continuing to proceed with their reorganization efforts. Omar Vale Apr 30th, 2014 at 8:41 am Omar Vale(Q) I don’t understand who in their right mind would want to pay 49.90 for a piece of crap VOIP service, specially now that it does not contribute for their ponzi ROI. I have found some more info about the Mass-Sec complaint form. The info is general, for all types of investor complaints forms. The information was too general to be useful, but I copied 2 of the points. sec.state.ma.us/InvestorComplaint/ Investor complaint form instructions •Fill out the information as completely as possible. The information you file with the Enforcement Section must be true, complete, and absolutely accurate. If you are not sure, you should not guess. You may write “unsure” or a similar response. •Important notice about Internet security… Electronic transmissions on the Internet are not always secure. You may decide to file only the basic information about your complaint to us using the Internet, and send confidential information by regular mail. (posts #100 and #102) None of the information I tested as examples were really “sensitive”, so I would have ignored the second point if I had to send in a complaint form. “A complaint must be true, complete and absolutely accurate”. I partially ignored that in my description of VOIP purchases, I used “appr. 36 VOIP subscriptons”. I’m pretty sure that would have been accepted, because that information wasn’t about anything important. Important parts Important parts are all those which involves monetary transactions. That’s why I clearly separated and listed the different TYPES of transactions so they could be identified as different types. * Wire transfer, paid directly to my sponsor’s bank account. * Credit Card, paid directly to Telexfree. * Internal funds (non-monetary transactions). Important additional information The complaint form was clearly focusing on 2 specific aspects: * AdCentral investments * VOIP sale It’s generally a good habit trying to answer what people really are asking for, so I included some information about my personal (hypothetical) use of the VOIP service. They didn’t literally ask for it, but I used my own knowledge about the program to include it. The form didn’t ask for detailed information (e.g. bank account numbers), so I didn’t include any either. It’s not a “proof of claims” form, so there’s no need for that type of information. People must use their own brains anyway, so I didn’t try to come up with any exact methods. This Stu Macmillan declaration certainly has a lot of new data… Via PPBlog: Montana issued cease and desist to TelexFree http://patrickpretty.com/2014/04/29/bulletin-montana-halts-telexfree-state-says-firm-supplied-incomplete-inaccurate-information-and-continued-to-operate-after-claiming-it-had-pulled-out/ For only $70.000 and 34 promoters they issued a C&D… And here we are in this disgrace of a country with tenths of thousands of promoters and millions $$ scammed, and the government completely oblivious to this case. 🙁 I’m going through the new docs now, will have a 30th update out soon. Where have Carlos Costa and Steve Labriola been? MIA already? LOL Apr 30th, 2014 at 10:41 am K. Chang(Q) Restelo's Old Man: For only $70.000 and 34 promoters they (Montana) issued a C&D Yes, Montana has a pretty low threshold for issuing these C&Ds. Zeek hit a bump in Montana first, IIRC. Apr 30th, 2014 at 10:51 am M_Norway(Q) For only $70.000 and 34 promoters they issued a C&D… The interesting thing is to note the dates: * July 2013 – TelexFree sought for registration. * August 2013 – Montana asked for complete information. * October 2013 – Montana received very incomplete information. * October 2013 – TelexFree informed that it had ceased operations there. The restrictions didn’t completely prevent TelexFree from operating in Montana, they only made it more difficult to operate openly. But they did it 4 – 6 months before Massachusetts launched a probe. M_Norway: It’s not a “proof of claims” form, somebody have an epiphany? You can’t expect the same question from me. I will only ask questions people realisticly can be believed to be able to answer. 🙂 I have always identified it as a complaint form, e.g. in post #39 (“I gave him the link to Galvin’s complaint form, not the KCC proof of claims“). It has probably been repeated several times, directly or indirectly in many different ways. I don’t expect any “Eureka! I’ve got it!” this time either. It’s more like “I cleaned house, like they hired me to do (and what the court would probably want me to do. Can you let me continue or must you appoint someone to do what I’m going to do any way?” Labriola’s still there, and there has been no attempt by TelexFree to distance itself from the promoters charged thus far. IMHO, MacMillan is just going through the motions of “I didn’t know they were such crooks, not my fault”, and he’s covering his own arse as he don’t want to be accused of aiding and abetting alleged criminals. He has to say he opposes the government’s move of venue and appointment, though IMHO, bankruptcy trustee is almost a certainty, given MacMillan’s actions. The question is will it be in Nevada or Massachusetts. Of course, there’s also the possibility that “firing” of Wanzeler is just an act and this is just elaborate charade for the court and SEC and Mass SecState, to oppose the trustee appointment and change of venue. Probability, IMHO, is low as that Runge guy and MacMillan are unlikely to ruin their reputation by participating in this sort of behavior for little gain. Both have already receive their pay and can rightfully file a claim against the estate for services rendered. There is little reason for them to attempt to restructure a Ponzi scheme.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line990
__label__cc	0.569667	0.430333	Churt Kingsclere Cocktail Masterclasses Delicious Reading #FishFridays The Finest Fizz REDEFINING CHAMPAGNE “Champagne is more than a sparkling wine. It is a place and can be a very special place at that.” We share these sentiments of wine experts Laurent-Perrier, believing that an occasion for champagne should be an occasion to remember and cherish. There are many champagne houses from which to choose however Laurent-Perrier or L-P, as we affectionately call them, tick every box. They are one of the world’s leading champagne brands and continue to produce a unique range of pioneering champagnes from the finest growths. While Laurent–Perrier is a 200-year-old company, its story is really one of a modern renaissance that dates from 1948 when upon his return from WW2, a former French Resistance fighter named Bernard de Nonacourt took over running the struggling champagne house purchased by his mother Madame Louise Lanson de Nonanacourt in 1939. No slave to tradition, Bernard began challenging closely held conventions to redefine how champagne was produced and consumed. This spirit of independence, of doing things their way, still defines everything they stand for as a House. And it’s the difference you can taste today. On Our Menu… Their newest champagne, La Cuvée, defies the typical understanding of what constitutes a ‘Champagne occasion’, finding the magic in everyday moments and enjoying La Cuvée to mark them. These moments can be anything from having fish & chips, paired with a bottle of La Cuvée, enjoying a glass after a busy week, or at an impromptu gathering with friends in the garden. Ultra Brut is a totally natural champagne made without the addition of dosage in the form of the liqueur d’expédition as is the case with other champagne styles. Ultra Brut tends to be made from grapes grown in vintage years with the current cuvée being based on the 2009 vintage, which Michel at L-P describes as ‘round and very fresh’. In the good old days every bottle of Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé was pre-sold on allocation, be you Waitrose or The Dorchester and today, still, it is an indulgent champagne that is enjoyed to celebrate exceptional occasions and romantic moments, with its uniquely distinctive bottle and iconic feminine curvaceous lines. Keep in touch & GDPR Privacy Policy 2018 Title Mr Miss Mrs Ms Why is this needed? This is primarily so we can ensure that we are not marketing alcohol to minors. It also allows us to offer age appropriate rewards, see how people of different ages are using Bel & The Dragon and check that we’re making something for everyone. Find out more about how we use your data. Nearest Bel & The Dragon Churt Cookham Kingsclere Odiham Reading Windsor By providing your details, you will become a Friend of Bel & The Dragon to receive rewards and offers by email straight to your email inbox. To find out more about our rewards and offers, click here. Please click here to view our Privacy Policy which was last updated on 18th July 2018. We will of course keep your information safe and secure and you can unsubscribe from our emails at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of our emails or by emailing [email protected]	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line991
__label__wiki	0.739367	0.739367	Larks 24/7 Entertainment Mandan News Dakota Adventures Legislative committee to seek public input on Legacy Fund Sen. Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, right, and Rep. Chet Pollert, R-Carrington, are leading a legislative study to identify potential uses of earnings from the state's Legacy Fund oil tax savings account. Tom Stromme This is Up and Down, where we give a brief thumbs up or thumbs down on the issues from the past week. Interim legislative committees were busy last week, including one that plans to seek public input for using North Dakota’s oil tax savings account. The interim Legacy Fund Earnings Committee is studying how the earnings should be used. The committee plans to hold meetings in two cities, one each in eastern and western North Dakota. These are public dollars and getting input is critical. The voter-approved account contains $6.2 billion. Traveling around the state to seek comments is a good move. The committee should also look for ways to encourage public participation, including using technology to make it as easy as possible for people to comment. The $69 million Burleigh Morton Detention Center is already in need of repairs two years after the facility opened. The issues include chipping paint, a problem with the coating in the showers and an electrical problem in the sally port. The paint issue will take time to resolve because it will have to be repaired in sections. We hope the additional costs don’t fall to taxpayers. The baseball team from Eagle Pass, Texas, along with coaches, volunteers and host families, took time out during the Babe Ruth World Series to volunteer at Heavens Helpers Soup Cafe in Bismarck. The team, which earned third place in the tournament, also received the sportsmanship award. As North Dakota oil production returned to record volumes in June, so did natural gas flaring. The volume burned off due to inadequate infrastructure jumped to 687 million cubic feet per day, or 24% of the natural gas produced statewide. The increase was attributed to shutdowns of several natural gas processing facilities and pipelines earlier this summer. The National Weather Service has completed upgrades to the Doppler radar northeast of Minot after a deadly tornado in Watford City raised awareness about gaps in weather radar coverage. The $65,000 software upgrade is money well spent if it improves radar coverage for western North Dakota and gives people additional warning of dangerous storms. Tribune editorial: Tamara’s story shows failed Native policy Not everyone will agree with Byron Dorgan’s conclusions in his latest book, “The Girl in the Photograph.” The former U.S. senator covers a lot… Tribune editorial: Improvements to roads need to be a priority While traffic fatalities were down last year, fewer than 100, the oil patch remains an area of concern. It’s vastly safer than during the peak… Tribune editorial: ND benefits if curiosity gets visitors While North Dakota doesn’t draw as many visitors as most states, tourism plays a big role in the state. It remains the third-largest industry … Eminently quotable: 'We gave him a fighting chance' "You lose somebody at that age ... there's definitely going to be a void. You wake up everyday and it's like, 'Why?'" Tribune editorial: Conference improves ties with tribes Tribune editorial: Leak detection advancements a positive step Tribune editorial: Running red lights stupid and dangerous Some months ago, the Tribune editorial board scolded drivers in the Bismarck area for ignoring red lights. Since that time, Bismarck has crack… Eminently quotable: 'I think God put them in my life' "Obviously we have had a very intense investigation that has unfolded very rapidly." Tribune editorial: Pardon policy on marijuana makes sense The state's new policy providing pardons for low-level marijuana offenses makes sense. It appears Gov. Doug Burgum is being judicious in how h… Tribune editorial: State, tribe need to train for oil spill The state needs to collaborate with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the private sector on a training exercise to respond to a potential oil … Dakota Classifieds Dakota Trails Jeans Day Circulation/Subscriptions © Copyright 2020 The Bismarck Tribune, 707 E. Front Ave Bismarck, ND \| Terms of Use \| Privacy Policy	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line992
__label__wiki	0.687543	0.687543	Tag Archives: GST Headline, News, Operations The Most Comprehensive Compilation of GST Issues #India September 7, 2017 bizeditors Leave a comment Latest reports indicate that about 44 lakh businesses have filed GST returns taking revenue collections from GST to about Rs 94,000 crore. As business owners, entrepreneurs, tax professionals and accountants grapple with various issues, here is an attempt to present a comprehensive compilation of various GST Issues in India – both policy as well as implementation issues. If we have missed some issues, please email to admin@bizvidya.com to have those issues added to this list. [A] GST Implementation Issues Digital Signature Issues: A seemingly simple but essential aspect of filing returns led to considerable delays. Under GST, all returns have to be signed electronically with a digital signature certificate (DSC). Jigar Doshi (SKP Group) pointed out that many of his clients were unable to attach DSC due to technical issues. Pratik Jain (PWC) said the DSC was not getting accepted for authentication of returns, despite being valid and functioning and it took multiple attempts to authenticate the returns by using DSC (5). A particular company could not pay tax, as the CFO of the company holding the digital signature had resigned. The new signatory could not be added until the old signatory allowed the use of his digital signature to include new signatory. The situation gets worse in cases where the signatory has expired or has moved out of the country (4). TRAN 1: Taxpayers who intend to carry forward transitional credits – from the pre-GST regime – can file form TRAN 1 till September 28. But those who intended to use the transitional credits to offset their tax liability in July had to fill this form by August 28. To fill out this form, the Goods and Services Tax Network had promised an offline utility tool. But the GSTN failed to deliver on its promise (5). With the August 28 (Monday) deadline looming for filing returns and ensuring GST compliance, corporates are a deeply concerned lot. The offline utility for GST TRAN 1 form — to be used to claim input tax credit for the pre-GST regime — was not available till Sunday, leaving just a day for filing returns and causing a weekend rush (8). E-cash ledger An e-cash ledger works like a wallet for GST purposes. It reflects the amount deposited towards GST liability and debits made to pay tax, interest or penalty. In the GSTN system, the cash ledger for all the laws – Central, State and Integrated GST – is maintained separately, Pratik Jain (PWC) said. But there is no facility to transfer funds from one cash ledger to another, he added. The balances in electronic cash ledger belong to the taxpayers and so, transfer of balances between different heads in electronic cash ledger should ideally be allowed, he added. Besides this, multiple entries are shown in the electronic cash ledger and sometimes credits made available are more or even less than actually claimed in TRAN-1; obviously these are system errors, Jigaar Doshi (SKP Group) pointed out (5). Handling data errors: A another aspect that continues to confound taxpayers about TRAN -1 is whether they can submit a revised TRAN-1 before September 28. A few tweets from government handles suggest that TRAN-1 can be revised; however, there is no clarity on this (5). There have also been cases where companies have deposited cash under the wrong tax head or have submitted the return with wrong information only to realise it later but with no recourse to change it (4). Jain pointed out that the GSTN did not allow any rectification or modification in the return once it was submitted. In some cases, the tax liability of the assessees increased by crores of rupees, just due to inadvertent punching of an extra digit in the form, he added. Much to the relief of assesses, the government has now addressed this concern and notified that changes in the summary returns can be made through GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 (5). Invoice Date Issues: Some taxpayers are facing errors when the invoice date is before the customers’ registration date (1). “Since this is the first time of filing GST returns taxpayers are struggling with how to report information under different sections of the GSTR-1. Some are confused and are reporting the same invoice under separate sections of GSTR-1. Some taxpayers are seeing errors where invoice date is before the date of registration of the supplier,” says ClearTax, Founder and CEO (2). Data Required Mismatch with Notified Rules: The additional data and columns that the GSTR-1 has is different from the format which was notified. For example, there is a column which asks the reasons for giving a debit note. It even asks if the debit note is corresponding to pre-GST or post-GST time frame. This is not there in the notified rule, but when you go online to file the return, such additional data gets thrown up. (2) Auto-Checks: There are times when companies are uploading invoices, but the system automatically says the invoices cannot be from the pre-GST regime. What has stumped many is the auto-checks the system has been built around. Any divergence and the system refuses to take an entry. “Taxpayers are navigating through a complex web of auto checks, which many a time is not allowing valid transactions, keeping them at tenterhooks. For instance, supplies to SEZ has an IGST component, but the system is not allowing IGST if the supplier is in the same state,” says KPMG, Partner, Priyajit Ghosh. (2) [B] GST Policy Issues Hand Crafted Goods ignored: A note prepared on behalf of the hand-made goods segment and shared with the Prime Minister’s Office draws attention to the fact that the word ‘hand’ (as in, for instance, hand-made or handicraft) is entirely missing from the GST list of items – except for a perfunctory reference to ‘handloom machinery’. This implies that the concepts of ‘handwork’, ‘handicraft’, and ‘hand skills’ have not been acknowledged at all in the GST framework (6). Small Sellers required to register if selling inter-state: Every supplier, howsoever small, is required to register under GST when making inter-State supply, which adds to the compliance burden forvery small players like artisans. For example, they may be selling to online portals or those who conduct fairs in various States (6). Small Exporters: Small exporters are disadvantaged vis-a-vis big players like those with coveted star trading house tag as they are being asked to furnish bonds and Letter of Undertaking (LUT) to local commissioners unlike the latter (3). What is more, exporters are running between the offices of customs commissioners and assistant customs commissioners who have been officially delegated powers to accept bonds and LUT but are reluctant to use the new authority for some reason, industry sources said (3). Credit on Business Expenses: It is recommended to allow credit on all business expenses rather than restricting some of them. The negative list is still quite big and open to interpretations (4). Credit linked to Recipient making Payment: It is recommended that Credit should not be linked to the recipient making payment to the supplier. Business exigencies may require holding back payments or business transactions may require not paying the supplier at all. The government need not walk into the realm of business transactions, especially when online matching ensures that the tax on the underlying transaction is paid (4). Multiple Tax Slabs for similar items: The same product can fall under differential tax slabs. For instance, there is no GST on rice sold loose, while branded rice attracts 5% tax. But because a brand is not recognised legally unless it is registered under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, India Gate, the country’s highest-selling rice brand, will not attract the 5% GST – and will, therefore, have a price advantage over competing registered brands (7). A similarly curious clause is that yarn blended with more than 50% polyester attracts 18% GST, but yarn with more than 50% wool has a levy of 5% GST. In Uttar Pradesh’s Bhadohi, famous for its carpets, officials were recently asked by traders what GST rate applied to blended yarn with 50% wool and 50% polyester. They did not have a clue.Some suppliers in Bhadohi say they have already planned to show yarn blended with more than 50% polyester as yarn with more than 50% wool in their records (7). A textile manufacturer pointed to the irrationality of imposing 18% GST on processing chemicals and 28% GST on finishing chemicals, which are used in two different stages of production. Both chemicals come in black boxes, he said. Remove or switch stickers and government officials cannot tell one from the other. Yet the manufacturer said that there are fears that the officials might accuse manufacturers of playing this game even if they have not – and demand money (7). A fully constructed apartment bought by making a one-time payment will incur zero GST after undergoing verification from a regulating committee. By contrast, all construction-linked payments for flats will incur 18% GST. An apartment costing Rs 1 crore under such a plan will attract Rs 18 lakh as tax, an undeniably huge sum. One realtor said that he could foresee what will happen. He said to save on GST, Person X will book a flat in the name of Y, who is his dummy. The instalments Y pays will actually be X’s money. When the last instalment is due, Y will notify the builder that he does not want to buy the flat, said the realtor. The builder will tell the regulating committee that Y has backed out, but he is fortunate to have a new purchaser in X. The builder will refund Rs 80 lakh to Y, whose money it wasn’t anyway. X will then buy the now completed flat for Rs 1 crore and not pay GST, said the realtor.Such a method will raise issues of income disclosures, but the narrative underscores that multiple, high tax rates are already driving people to think of dodging GST (7). The state is asking to be cheated by hotels where multiple GST rates also apply. Rooms priced between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,500 attract 12% GST, but those between Rs 2,500 and Rs 7,500 will have 18% GST. It is possible that hotels with low occupancy will woo customers by making them stay in the more expensive rooms, but bill them for those priced lower. The state will lose 6% tax (7). Many low-priced items such as needles, kites, carnival toys and broomsticks are now taxed. Mahesh Krishnamurthy, founder of Craftisan, an e-commerce platform for hand-crafted products, says that under the earlier tax regime, in Delhi, VAT was 0 to 5 per cent for handlooms and handicrafts, but now the tax range is from 3 per cent to 18 per cent. “The retail price for consumers will have to increase, which may potentially cause reduced absorption,” he says. Also, certain products and raw materials that are hand-made by the most disadvantaged groups are under punitive GST rates (6). http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/gst-return-filing-woes-remain-117090600032_1.html http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/policy-trends/gst-return-filing-stumps-millions-of-taxpayers-filing-portal-keeps-throwing-tantrums/articleshow/60372889.cms https://thewire.in/173540/india-exports-gst-slump/ http://www.forbesindia.com/article/special/gst-heres-what-would-help-its-smooth-implementation/48033/1 https://www.bloombergquint.com/gst/2017/09/04/the-pain-behind-rs-92283-crore-gst-collection http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/economy/gst-watch-hands-that-craft-have-gone-missing/article9837072.ece https://scroll.in/article/843861/how-multiple-tax-slabs-provide-small-manufacturers-suppliers-service-sector-a-reason-to-dodge-gst http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/companies-fear-losing-credit-over-gst-filing-errors/articleshow/60249529.cms Business OwnerEntrepreneurGSTImplementationIndia. PolicyIssuesTaxation	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line994
__label__wiki	0.873618	0.873618	Xavi Hernandez Becomes Head Coach of Qatar Champion Al-Sadd - in NEWSLETTER, SPORTS Barcelona great Xavi Hernandez will begin his coaching career with Qatari club Al-Sadd. Al-Sadd says Xavi is taking charge of the team he helped become Qatari league champion this season. The 39-year-old midfielder played four seasons with Al-Sadd after a storied 17-year career with Barcelona. Xavi played a club record 767 games for Barcelona and helped the club win four Champions Leagues and eight Spanish leagues. He also played in Spain’s title-winning teams at the 2010 World Cup and 2008 and 2012 European Championships. Al-Sadd says Xavi’s squad will gather in Barcelona in July for a pre-season training camp in the Catalonia region. TagsAl- SaddQatarXavi Hernandez Previous article UTME Malpractice: ICPC Commences Investigation Next article Gold Falls From 1-Week Peak As Dollar Rebounds Cadbury Shareholders Receive N471 Million Dividend The Board of Directors of Cadbury Nigeria Plc You must be the change you wish to see in the world~Mahatma Gandhi	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line995
__label__cc	0.65108	0.34892	Obama Condemns “Call Out Culture” Despite Being Its Biggest Beneficiary Danny Haiphong, BAR contributor Obama’s cynical analysis of youth activism was yet another dog whistle to the wealthiest and most conservative sections of white America. “Obama was really taking aim at the increasingly left posture of millennials.” Hillary Clinton is not the only servant for the lords of capital in the Democratic Party that won’t go away. Former president Barack Obama has raked in millions from speaking deals with Wall Street and one of the highest grossing book deals in U.S. history. Obama also erected his own foundation in 2014 from which to gentrify Chicago and cement his thoroughly reactionary imperial legacy. The Obama legacy was on full display at the foundation’s annual summit held in Chicago this October. During the event, Obama provided plenty of savory soundbites for his wealthy friends and donors to drool over. Obama specifically targeted “call out culture” in his conversation with summit attendees. He reprimanded young activists for being so judgmental of others and told them to get over their “wokeness.” Obama denied that correcting a person for using the wrong pronoun is activism at all because it produces no real change. The tendency to “call out” others, according to Obama, resides principally on college campuses and on social media. In these settings, activists appear not to understand that “the world is messy, there are ambiguities, and people who do really good stuff have flaws.” “Obama reprimanded young activists and told them to get over their ‘wokeness.’” Obama’s cynical analysis of youth activism was yet another dog whistle to the wealthiest and most conservative sections of white America. His first dog whistle to racist elites occurred during the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It was here that then Senator of Illinois, Barack Obama, proclaimed in his keynote address that “there is not a black America, a white America, a Latino America or an Asian America. There’s the United States of America.” This speech propelled Obama into Democratic Party stardom and paved the way for several more dog whistles to white America. Obama soothed white America’s fear of a Black president by calling Black men irresponsible “boys” at a Black church on Father’s Day in 2008. Five years later, Obama demanded that Black men take more responsibility for their oppressed condition in a commencement speech at Morehouse College in 2013. Ironically, Barack Obama’s presidential career was uplifted by the very same “call out culture” that he derided at the Obama Summit. While Obama chastised Black America and served the rich, his most loyal supporters fostered a political environment hostile to criticism of his policy record. A host of Black misleaders were given comfortable careers in the corporate media to slander any leftist critique of Obama’s corporate rule. People like Melissa Harris-Perry and Michael Eric Dyson avoided all left criticism of Obama in favor of lauding his presidency for its symbolic importance to “blackness.” The Black misleadership class and its white liberal followers never missed a moment to “call out” those who questioned whether policy should take precedence over symbolism. “Obama soothed white America’s fear of a Black president by calling Black men irresponsible ‘boys.’” Barack Obama is perhaps the biggest beneficiary of “call out culture” outside of the lords of capital who hired him. What Obama refers to as “call out culture” is a bourgeois phenomenon rooted in the repression of revolutionary politics, especially Black left politics. The U.S.’ counterinsurgency war against the communist and Black self-determinationist movements of the 20th century ensured that the period of U.S. imperial decline beginning in the 1970s would embolden the rich to eviscerate any and all gains made by workers in the decades prior. Neoliberal austerity, privatization, and monopolization drowned the United States in a sea of counterrevolutionary political ideology. “Call out culture” commodified movement culture and channeled activists into profitable modes of expression that promoted individual recognition, academic prestige, and careerism rather than the plight of the poor, especially the Black poor. Obama is the enemy of the left and is incapable of grasping what Huey Newton expressed in 1970 when he penned his infamous letter of solidarity to the gay and women’s liberation movements. True revolutionaries understand the importance of solidarity with all peoples and experiencing oppression. While there is no space in a revolutionary mass movement for activists who seek to “cancel” and condemn oppressed people for their lack of “purity,” there is also no space for those who fail to scientifically investigate and unite with the suffering of various strata of the population. Movements must be aware of the internal contradictions within their organizations and society at large to meet the many challenges that come their way. Failure to act on these contradictions gives credence to academics and corporate political operatives like Obama who seek to “diversify” a violent empire and make its state apparatus an even more effective instrument of imperialist violence and exploitation. “Corporate political operatives like Obama seek to ‘diversify’ a violent empire.” As I wrote for Black Agenda Report in 2016, Obama’s legacy is in large part shaped by a mastery of counterinsurgency warfare. His recent slandering of millennial activists fits snugly within this legacy. While appearing to castigate the very political environment that elevated him beyond criticism for eight years, Obama was really taking aim at the increasingly left posture of millennials. The “Bernie or bust” movement is worrisome to a ruling class that has utilized the counterinsurgency skills of Barack Obama to engineer massive profits from endless war and austerity. “Wokeness” and “purity” must be shot down by Obama because it threatens the legitimacy of political class actors like him who expect to be praised for their intelligent leadership over the great race to the bottom. Barack Obama takes great pride in his impurity. Obama was elected in 2008 to bring “hope” and “change” to the masses, only to escalate and add to every single ill of end-stage U.S. imperialism. Under his administration, whistleblowers were prosecuted under the Espionage Act in record numbers, Black wealth plummeted, bankers ran away with trillions worth in bailout rescue funds, and the military industrial complex expanded its special operations to engulf 70 percent of the world’s nations in a regime of endless chaos. In many ways, Obama’s presidency was the biggest lie in the history of an empire built on grand lies of democracy, liberty, and freedom. As he successfully posed as the “lesser evil,” Obama was hard at work instituting a permanent private healthcare system (the Affordable Care Act), murdering thousands of people by way of drone strike, and militarizing the African continent through AFRICOM to ensure the instability required for Western corporations to plunder the continent of its vast wealth. “’Wokeness’ and ‘purity’ must be shot down by Obama because it threatens the legitimacy of political class actors like him.” While Obama succeeded in ramming through the ruling class’ agenda, he also helped engineer the political crisis which paved the way for the rise of Bernie Sanders. Millennials have mobilized in the millions to elect a president that will bring them Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and living wages. They are no longer interested in politicians like Obama who claim to be a “lesser evil” choice to the Republicans only to implement a more effective Wall Street agenda that renders ninety percent of all new jobs low-wage or temporary. The “purity” of the Sandernista’s principles is a sign to Obama and his class that Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, and Pete Buttigieg are unlikely to garner any support from Sanders’ large millennial base. It should come as no surprise, then, that Obama feels compelled to condemn the political leanings of young people as an affront to his sordid legacy. Obama benefitted from the proliferation of call out culture so much that he has no shame in telling its most loyal adherents to “shut up and dribble” into the embrace of the Democratic Party. Neither Obama nor the rest of the corporate Democratic Party has anything to offer except the so-called civility and respectability that characterizes their approach to imperial rule. Obama is aware of who he works for and what will keep him well-paid now that his presidential career has ended. Like Hillary Clinton, Obama has quickly become a pundit for Wall Street and its paid killers in the war machine. His most recent comments offer further evidence of the desperate need for a mass exit from the Democratic Party. Of course, no mass exodus from the Democratic Party is possible prior to a popular repudiation of Obama’s legacy and all the imperial arrogance and destruction that comes with it. Danny Haiphong is an activist and journalist in the New York City area. He and Roberto Sirvent are co-authors of the book entitled American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News--From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror (Skyhorse Publishing). He can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @spiritofho, and on Youtube at The Left Lens with Danny Haiphong Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport Obamarama A War Criminal Chastises Children “This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re always politically woke Bryan K. Bullock A True Defense of Smiley and West Two men with track records of advocacy and activism were kicked to the curb in favor of a man with practically no history of Black advocacy. Michelle Obama Slanders Black Men in Her Book, Adds to the Obama Family’s Long Anti-Black Tradition The Obamas are cashing in on their lifelong project to further the destruction of Black people, while blaming the victim. Same Old Obama: The First Black Presidential Library and Gentrification on Chicago’s South Side “Real estate interests are licking their chops over ‘development’ opportunities linked to the Obama Center’s Ann Garrison , BAR contributor Follow the Money, from Obama to Trump “If Obama ever showed any respect for the United Nations Charter, it must have been April Fool’s Day.” Bruce A. Dixon , BAR managing editor Obama Chugs Flint Water, Dodges Federal Responsibility, Delivers Another Cynical Lecture to Black Folks "the president cynically leveraged his blackness to obscure the fact that he was refusing to go after the guilty parties, while proposing n The presumption that Barack Obama, no matter what he does or doesn't do, enjoys nearly unanimous black support is a veritable wall around the presi Barack Obama & Voter Supression: Where's Joshua's Horn When We Need It? So why aren't national Democratic leaders drawing national attention to Republican attempts to disenfranchise their party's base vote, and to crimi Eric Mann Martin Luther King and the Black Revolutionary Tradition Dr. King brought a powerful and frontal indictment of the system of white supremacist, racist, capitalism. Forty-Five Felons With Their Own Holiday: The U.S. Presidency Margaret Kimberley’s new book on US presidents and Black people shows why the executive mansion is called the “White” House. Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor Letters from Our Readers This week impeachment and China were topics of discussion. We share your letters for “ Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor BAR Book Forum: Margaret Kimberley’s “Prejudential” The history of enslavement and American apartheid segregation has permanently disfigured politics in this country. BAR Book Forum: Aydogan Kars’ “Unsaying God“ Islam’s association in the West with “terror” makes it nearly impossible Islamic theology as a force for racial or social justice.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line996
__label__wiki	0.530426	0.530426	Joining Black Desert Wiki is free, and it only takes a minute. {{Infobox class \|image=Lahn.jpg \|style=Ranged and Melee \|weapon=Crescent Pendulum \|secondary=Noble Sword \|awakening_weapon=Crimson Glaives \|resource=[[WP]] \|graph=Lahn_graph.png }}[[File:Lahn_icon.png\|left\|96px]] Lahns are martial artists who crossed over to the Black Desert continent from a far eastern kingdom. When they are fighting with the Crescent Pendulum, it almost looks like they are dancing as they cut through their enemies. They are agile and quick on their feet and can quickly deliver devastating attacks by swinging their Crescent Pendulum. By careful manipulation of the swinging motion, they can even deliver attacks from all sides. While enemies are distracted by the bold movements of the Crescent Pendulum, they can swiftly move great distances in the air. ==Play Style== Lahns use a combination of grab, AoE and mobility skills to defeat their enemies. This class can MOVE. Not only are her small passive skills related to speed (movement and attack speeds), a number of her attacks include a forward dash which combined with the wide 360 degree AoE of her attacks lets her quite easily fight in PvE grinding through mobs, given that her raw damage output is quite nice as well. But her legendary status for mobility comes from one single skill: Nimbus Stride, particularly when it gets the added skill to increase its duration. The mobility that Lahn gets from an extended Nimbus Stride is so great that it's a debate whether or not she needs to bother using a horse. The original Nimbus Stride can be used once every 15 seconds, the extension once every 30 seconds. Even on flat ground the distance an extended Stride covers within its roughly 4 second total duration is quite long. However, the skill also gives her 10 seconds of complete fall protection. A Lahn can, quite literally, launch herself off of a massively high sheer cliff or the edge of a high castle watchtower in the exact direction they want to go to their goal, glide an absolutely obscene distance quickly and land without a scratch, a move that would instantly kill any other class who attempted it and therefore they need to go the long way around. To top it off, Lahn gets a 10 second boost to her ground movement speed afterwards and can end the initial glide with a ground-pounding AoE attack against any enemies below her in an awe-inspiring aerial ambush. She is also able to change direction to a degree in mid-air, so she is not locked into a pure straight-line movement. With her passive and active speed boosts on and equipped with the Talis armor set for a movement bonus she has been seen outrunning, on foot, other players who are on horseback at a full gallop. One key weakness that she has in order to be somewhat balanced, her defences are quite fragile given she favors lighter, more mobile clothing and armor. This can make duel and group PvP tricky, both in solo duels and groups, if she goes up against tough opponents; her best option is to get into a key position for an ambush before anyone expects her to get there that fast, then Nimbus Stride in hard on a more fragile opponent or two and rapidly blast them flat before they realize what is happening. Open-world PvP at level 50 can be a different story. Only a Lahn can keep up with a Lahn and the wide AoE nature of her attacks makes them very difficult to dodge, so if the target is carefully chosen and your equipment is good an ambush from a Lahn can be very dangerous. Your only option will be to throw everything you have into the fight since there's no way you'll escape, and consequently if the fight starts to go poorly for the Lahn a single Nimbus Stride off the side of a cliff will put her completely out of reach of her opponent. Once she gets her Awakened weapons and skills, the Crimson Glaives, things really shift. It may take a while to get the resources needed to upgrade a good set of Crimson Glaives to be on par with the Crescent Pendulum you had been using to that point and to get used to using the new skills/combat style, but it is worth it. Instead of just one skill giving health regeneration per hit (and a second through a Skill Addon) via the Pendulum, MANY of the primary attack combos with the Glaives give much stronger health regeneration per hit. Several also give Super Armor, giving resistance to stuns/knockdowns, and she gets additional short-range dash moves to make her movement speed even faster (the forward dash move also giving yet another self healing). This combination of regular Super Armor boosts and massive health regeneration gives the Lahn incredible staying power, and allows her to be a serious threat against Bosses and in PvP. This boost is so strong that once you get Glaives upgraded to the same AP level as your original Crescent Pendulum you might as well not bother using the Pendulum any more and can pull some skillpoints off of it, THOUGH NOT ALL OF THEM. Some of the skills under the Pendulum can still be used with Glaives such as Nimbus Stride and the general passive buffs, and if you un-equip the Pendulum to prevent yourself from accidentally switching to it you'll lose access to those skills (and any general buffs you gain from the weapon). ==History== <div class="mw-customtoggle-Spoiler_1 wikia-menu-button">Show Spoiler</div> <div id="mw-customcollapsible-Spoiler_1" class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"> ''“Protector of the weak and annihilator of evil.”'' In a faraway eastern kingdom, there was a towering castle, called Kirin. The growth that covered the back of [[Kirin Castle]] began creeping towards the inner walls of the castle. The most prominent noble families of the kingdom were discussing the implications of this omen when a shadow started to creep upon the full moon. Then, a light started glowing from a distant part of the forest nearby. The nobles also noticed a soft and gentle fragrance coming from the forest and surrounding Kirin Castle. One of them, a reputed scholar, said, “This is the scent of an orchid. Isn’t it the most elegant of smells? This smell has been permeating the village nearby for several days already. Wouldn’t you agree it would be the most auspicious omen, and the plant giving off this fragrance would be priceless?” The king, hearing the scholar’s acclamation, commanded his soldiers to search the forest and bring him the source of the fragrance. The king’s soldiers chased after the light in the forest for many leagues. They finally came across a glorious orchid flower. Underneath it was a baby as delicate and magnificent as the flower itself. Soon, a rumor spread that the baby was a goddess of orchids who was reborn into this realm as a blessing from above to the kingdom. The entire kingdom rejoiced. Even the king, who was reviled throughout his kingdom for his cruelty, vowed to raise the baby himself to become a protector of the kingdom. The child had an unimaginable latent potential. Many martial artists of the kingdom, recognizing this, wanted to be the one to teach her. However, the king had his own ideas about what her education should be like. She was taught to perform ceremonial sword dances at festivals and other special events. Even though she performed beautifully, she was not allowed to pursue any further swordsmanship. However, although she was not able to hone her body, she was able to hone her mind under the tutelage of many great sages. At 16, the child became a shrine guardian and she took on many new roles. She did her best to advice the kingdom with her peerless mind and rhetoric. She wanted to put kingdom back on the right track after many years of rule by the reviled king. The common people came to adore her for this. However, there was someone who distrusted her. A man who was tired of being overshadowed by the shrine guardian’s spotlight. This man was an treacherous courtier who schemed his way to his position and to become a confidant of the king. One day, this treacherous courtier met with the king. He whispered into his ears, “For many years, I have been a loyal servant and advisor to this kingdom. Isn’t it preposterous, even treasonous, that some flower child is acting like she has the right to give advice and decide the fate of our kingdom?” This fed into the king’s existing fears. He had taken the orchid child in to try and win his people’s support. However, he had begun to worry that she was a threat to him, and was scheming to take his rightful throne. Knowing that she was immensely popular with his subjects, the king wholeheartedly agreed with the treacherous courtier’s whisperings. He put the shrine guardian under house-arrest and only allowed her out to perform rituals for the shrine. One day, a young man climbed over the walls and snuck into the shrine guardian’s residence. The young man introduced himself [[Yeung Reung-Hyang]]. He was already a member of the court, but he claimed that one day, he would be the strongest person in all of the kingdom, as well as the most learned. “I know that you have great potential, shrine guardian, and it’s just waiting to be released. Anyone can tell by how skillful you perform your ceremonial dances. Everyone who sees them is instantly captivated by your skills. Do you really want to spend the rest of your days with only your books to learn from?” The shrine guardian was quick to agree with Yeung. To commemorate this occasion, Melilot gifted the shrine guardian with a long and sturdy cloth to tie up her hair during the many years of rigorous training to follow. And so, they started their training together, unbeknownst to anyone else in the kingdom. The shrine guardian, who was smart and gifted, was soon matched in skill with Melilot. As they trained together, both of their martial arts skill grew more and more. As the years passed, the shrine guardian grew to be a graceful and wise woman and she became even more adore by the people in the kingdom. Meanwhile, words of Yeung’s martial prowess spread throughout the kingdom, and he became a hero figure to the common people. During this time, the king fell more and more paranoid due to the schemes of his treacherous courtier. The king became jealous of the shrine guardian’s popularity. He wanted to banish her from his kingdom, but also didn’t want to give his subjects more reason to hate him. One day, the courtier said to the king, “I am fearful. That woman, that shrine guardian...I am sure she is trying to win over your people so that she can take your rightful throne. You should command her to take [[Eshi Castle]] with that troublemaker Yeung Reung-Hyang. Can you believe he’s been trying to rally up the common people to his side? You can use the opportunity to ensure they both will be killed. Only then can Your Grace rest easily once more.” For countless years, the kingdom has been trying to take Eshi Castle. However, it was impregnable. After the king gave the orders for Eshi Castle to be attacked again, Yeung Reung-Hyang and the shrine guardian started marching there straightaway. Although he thought it was strange that very little resources were allocated to this expedition, he did not dare question the king’s orders. Besides, he believed that with the shrine guardian on their side, victory would be certain. After all, although everyone knew of her mental prowess, no one else knew about her martial skills. Six days they marched, and Eshi Castle was still nowhere in sight. They ended up in a vast open field. The reeds swayed in the wind like the waves of a turbulent sea. And suddenly, as if all given an invisible signal, the vanguard turned their spears toward the shrine guardian and Yeung Reung-Hyang. At that moment, Yeung knew...the lack of resources, the aimless wandering with the castle nowhere in sight...it was all a ruse planned so that they could be killed. They both felt conflicted. It is one thing to lose one’s life to an enemy’s blade in the heat of a battle; it’s another thing to be fight your own fellow countrymen, the same people whom you thought were your comrade in arms. The vanguard soldiers did not fear Melilot nor the shrine guardian and charged forward with their spears. As Yeung Reung-Hyang and the shrine guardian stood still, shocked and conflicted, Melilot’s own men fought to protect him against the vanguard soldiers. As they fell one by one, Melilot could not help but cry out in sorrow. He grabbed one of his fallen men’s weapons and started attacking with a vengeance. However, he was greatly outnumbered. When he was about to give up, he saw a Crescent Pendulum swinging and cutting through the attacking soldiers. It was the shrine guardian. She had the Crescent Pendulum on one end and a sword on the other end of the piece of cloth Yeung Reung-Hyang gave her so many years ago. With this strange contraption, she was cutting through her foes in an elegant display of martial arts, the likes of which Yeung had never seen before. She had apparently kept this skill secret even from Yeung Reung-Hyang. He wondered...many countless hours, even years, went into perfecting this deadly art? Watching her fight, Melilot felt a renewed surge of energy. If she hadn’t given up, he wouldn’t either. Finally, the last treacherous soldier fell. The field was now well watered with blood, but despite the carnage around Yeung and the shrine guardian, they somehow smelled a strong fragrance of orchids. Yeung, who was in bad shape and leaning heavily on his sword, said to the shrine guardian, “Get away from here...and go west. If you go back home now...they will find another way to...try...and kill you. So head west...and keep on training. Maybe one day...when you are strong enough...you can come back home...but now...you have to leave.” The shrine guardian was confused by Yeung’s rambling and tried to take his hand. However, Yeung slapped her hand away. The shrine guardian suddenly noticed a sword piercing through Yeung’s chest. She understood then what Melilot was trying to say to her. When Yeung saw that the shrine guardian was close to tears, he tried to comfort her. “There is nothing...to be sad about. I will always be with you...in spirit. Every time you train...it will be as if...I am by your side. So please...don’t be upset...” Those were Melilot’s last words. As she gathered his dead body into her arms, those words kept going through her head. Yeung was clever and fearless, and this was not how she had envisioned his life to end. After she buried him, she found herself unable to leave his body. She thought back to her life, how she was kept away from people and shut up indoors. She didn’t want to go back to that life. She didn’t want to run away and become a sage either, living her life through books. She had fought and killed. She was a warrior now. She had lost the person closest to her, but her story had just begun. Thus, the shrine guardian promised herself. She will go west, and she will keep training. And one day, she will be strong enough to come back home and face those who betrayed her and Yeung. From now on, she will be the protector of the weak and annihilator of evil.<ref>https://www.blackdesertonline.com/news/view/1362</ref></div> ===Awakening story=== <div class="mw-customtoggle-Spoiler_2 wikia-menu-button">Show Spoiler</div> <div id="mw-customcollapsible-Spoiler_2" class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"> ''“Only blood can pay for blood.”'' It was pouring rain. The darkness of the stormy skies reflected her dark mood. Her once snow-white sleeves were muddied. She let out a deep sigh as she returned to her training. Training was all she did these days. Training to fill the emptiness of her life and to forget the memories that still were haunting her. A faint sense of longing could be seen in the push and pull of the Crescent Pendulum as she trained. It was all she had left to connect her to her past. As she tormented over her foggy memories, a single blood drop trickled down from her worried lips. She ceased her training and collapsed into the mud. She did not care that mud splashed onto her left cheek or soaked her body. It was then. Through her bleary eyes, she saw a thickly armored shoe coming into view. It looked familiar. It had a pattern that she had only seen back in her home kingdom in the east. Could it be...? Then she heard a voice in a tongue she had not heard since she had left her home in the east. “Your elegant movements have been marred by your distracted mind. Now, what can we do about this?” She looked up, and there they were, those familiar eyes. The moment she met those eyes, her world turned upside down and it felt like time froze over. She couldn’t help but shout out the name of the man she thought she had lost forever, “Yeung Reung-Hyang!” It could not be, he was dead! After all, she had buried him with her own hands. Yet instead of looking out for her from the afterlife, he was standing in front of her, flesh and bone. Seeing him in front of her unscathed the memories she had buried and tried to forget. Those memories came flowing into her mind like a burst dam “When the orchid is crying, how can the common clover not help but grieve with her? I once promised you, no matter where you are, I will always be with you. Do you believe me now?” For a while, neither spoke while they looked at each other. Then, Yeung started speaking again. “We devoted everything to our kingdom and all we got was betrayal. Others have betrayed us for their own greed, but by some miracle we have both survived. Even if our hearts may be shadowed in darkness after that betrayal, we are still the only ones who can save this turbulent world and those who live in it.” Her tired mind had doubts, but, she used to be a shrine guardian after all. She knew better than anyone else that spirits of the dead did not always leave the realm of the living behind. Noticing confusion in her eyes, Yeung offered a hand towards her, and said, “If you come with with me, it will not be easy. However, I believe that together we can do anything. Besides, when I was searching this land for you, I came across a powerful, holy weapon. Its true powers seem to be dormant, but if we awaken it we will become unstoppable. Well, won’t you come with me?” She thought, there is nothing holding me to this lonesome place. She nodded and grasped Yeung’s offered hand to pull herself up. She let her spiritual powers pull her towards their destination. Several days had passed when they came across a pair of old glaives half-buried in the ground. To the ordinary eyes, they looked no different from two rusty pieceoverwhelminglybut she could feel an overwhelming strong power spilling out from the glaives. As Yeung claimed, they indeed seemed to be a powerful, holy weapon. She thought, with these glaives, we can bring justice to all those who betrayed us, and rebuild the kingdom as a just and civilized place, like we’ve always dreamed of! She reached for the glaives, the glaives with the power to shape their future, when suddenly the skies filled with stormy clouds and a thundering roar. As she looked around at the sudden commotion around her, a dark form started to slowly crawl from the glaives and up her fingers. Panicking, she looked towards Yeung. Yeung looked at her panicked eyes and let out a malicious smile. “Oh, you poor, gullible shrine guardian. Did you truly believe the dead could come back from the grave? You were so easily fooled. All I did was dig up Yeung Reung-Hyang’s armor from the grave you buried him in. The dark power of the glaives has already seeped into your body. Soon, it will take over your entire being and nothing and no one will be able to stop us!” “You traitor!” It was a face she would never forget. Not if she lived for a thousand years. As she watched, a dark energy surrounded Yeung’ and his face melted to reveal true form of the traitor. She reached for her Crescent Pendulum but instead clutched her chest in horror and disgust. “You have awakened the Crimson Glaives which have laid dormant for thousands of years. It seems like I was right to lure you to this place. Now that you have touched the glaives, it is only a matter of time before your soul becomes steeped in darkness. Once the glaives are done corrupting your soul, I can safely take the glaives and use them to...” In that moment, the Noble Sword pierced the traitor’s brows and put an abrupt stop to the villainous monologue. However, as she was pulling out her sword, she suddenly noticed a strange and musky smell. The traitor had not died! Rising up, the traitor took out a pitch black stone and swallowed it whole. “Of course. I have underestimated your strength. You have not only awakened the Crimson Glaives, but you seemed to have consumed the soul trapped inside them as well and taken control. Just as well. You have become an even more tempting prey for me.” The traitor started to gather his energy and began to grow bigger. As his muscles began to bulge, the armor he was wearing burst into pieces. She couldn’t think straight. It was as if a hurricane was sweeping through her head. She wanted to become more powerful and take revenge, but her frustrations with the world and her situation brought turmoil to her mind. All she could think was: Cut down everything in front of you; Get rid of all nuisances. She brought up her Noble Sword to parry the monstrous traitor’s claws and soon there was only the sounds of battle. The traitor laughed and ridiculed her, but as the fight continued, he realized that he could not triumph over the woman who had consumed the soul trapped in the Crimson Glaives. Cursing with all grudges against her was the only thing that he could do.. As the traitor laid in defeat after receiving a fatal wound, he coughed up blood and said, "Look at yourself! Your soul is just as tainted and your ideals corrupted. You may have taken my life, but you'll become the same as me: a creature of bloodthirst and chaos. Your justice will become revenge and your compassion, selfishness. As the Crimson Glaives have chosen you, the only path you are on is to the grim afterlife where Yeung awaits you." With those last words, the traitor died and his body disappeared. What had happened? Was it really the traitor that led her here, or this all her mind playing tricks, drawing from her emptiness, loneliness and anger? Yet if it had truly been him, how had he gained that dark and monstrous power? With a sigh she stood up. She held each blade of the Crimson Glaives in her hands. The Crimson Glaives, which only accept those with a malicious soul, had been awakened for the first time in eons. It was pouring rain again. The darkness of the stormy skies reflected her dark mood. Lifeless bodies piled up in the grassy meadows. Standing amongst the bodies, she let out an unhinged sound, half laughter and half cry. She looked down at the carnage she had caused, and let out a smile. The once warm scent of orchids became the cold, metallic scent of blood and seeped into the earth. Those who still clung onto life crawled towards her, latching onto her hems and begging for mercy. Repulsed, she swung down the Crimson Glaives and put an end to their misery. Blood splattered like flower petals on her cheeks. After many years in of training and minding her place, first at the royal court and then at the shrine, the Crimson Glaives finally brought out her true, latent potential. She started walking. To the next destination, and next. Where was she going? She did not know and nothing she did felt significant but she kept walking anyway.. As she left the massacre behind, she let out a laughter that echoed through the valley. She cried, ''“Only blood can pay for blood!”''<ref>https://community.blackdesertonline.com/index.php?threads/lahn-awakening.219470/</ref></div> ==Skills== <div class="mw-customtoggle-Spoiler_3 wikia-menu-button">Show Spoiler</div> <div id="mw-customcollapsible-Spoiler_3" class="wikitable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"> <ref>https://bdocodex.com/us/skills/lahn/</ref> ===Active Skills=== ====Striking==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \|[[File:Soul_Cleansing_icon.png\|link=Soul Cleansing]] \|[[Soul Cleansing]] \|Delivers a powerful spin attack that makes the enemy fly. \| \|- \|[[File:Spring_Breeze_icon.png\|link=Spring Breeze]] \|[[Spring Breeze]] \|Charges rapidly toward the enemy with the possibility to attack. \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ====Kicking==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \|[[File:Pendulum_Kick_icon.png\|link=Pendulum Kick]] \|[[Pendulum Kick]] \|Delivers a sudden kick to the Crescent Pendulum, sending it flying towards the enemy. \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ====Throwing==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \|[[File:Cymbidium_icon.png\|link=Cymbidium]] \|[[Cymbidium]] \|Sends the Crescent Pendulum hurtling towards where the enemy stands. \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ====Movement==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \|[[File:Evasion.png\|link=Evasion]] \|[[Evasion]] \|Can evade in any direction. \|1 \|- \|[[File:Emergency_Escape_icon.png\|link=Emergency Escape]] \|[[Emergency Escape]] \|Can quickly escape dangerous situations. \|1 \|- \|[[File:Nimbus_Stride_icon.png\|link=Nimbus Stride]] \|[[Nimbus Stride]] \|Jump into the air to move a far distance swiftly. \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ====Buff==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \|[[File:Rage_Absorption_icon.png\|link=Rage Absorption]] \|[[Rage Absorption]] \|Absorbs the power of the [[Black Spirit]] to gain a special buff. \|1 \|- \|[[File:Fury_Transfer_icon.png\|link=Fury Transfer]] \|[[Fury Transfer]] \|Transfuses the power of the [[Black Spirit]] into another player. The amount of transfused power is 50% of Black Power, however. \|1 \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ==== ==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ====Awakening skills==== {\| class="article-table" ! !Name !Description !Ranks \|- \|[[File:Awakening_icon.png\|link=Awakening (Skill)]] \|[[Awakening (Skill)\|Awakening]] \|Switches to Awakening State. \|1 \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \|} ===Passive Skills=== {\| class="article-table" ! ! Name ! Description ! Effect ! Ranks \|- \|[[File:Straight_Leaf_icon.png\|link=Straight Leaf]] \|[[Straight Leaf]] \|You feel lighter and can attack more quickly. \|Grants Attack Speed. \|10 \|- \|[[File:Bright_Steps_icon.png\|link=Bright Steps]] \|[[Bright Steps]] \|You feel lighter and can move more quickly. \|Grants Movement Speed. \|10 \|- \|[[File:Infinite_Mastery_icon.png\|link=Infinite Mastery]] \|[[Infinite Mastery]] \|Only those who reach the limit can acquire a stronger body. \|Increases max HP and Accuracy. \|6 \|- \|[[File:Skilled_Hunter_icon.png\|link=Skilled Hunter]] \|[[Skilled Hunter]] \|Inflict great damage by attacking a monster's weak spot. \|Increases AP against monsters. \|5 \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|- \| \| \| \| \| \|} </div> ==Videos== [[File:Lahn Combat Trailer\|thumb\|left\|335 px]] [[File:Black Desert Online Lahn Awakening Trailer\|thumb\|left\|335 px]] [[File:Black Desert Online - Lahn Trailer\|thumb\|left\|335 px]] {{Clr}} ==References== <references /> Template:Infobox class (view source) Return to Lahn. Retrieved from "https://blackdesertonline.fandom.com/wiki/Lahn"	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line997
__label__wiki	0.788929	0.788929	Home→Atos→Watchdog begins probe into failure of regulators to punish lying PIP assessors ← The PIP Files: Senior MP to write to minister over ‘devastating’ revelations Motability row sparks anger and demand to use huge reserves to support customers → Watchdog begins probe into failure of regulators to punish lying PIP assessors By John Pring Disability News Service 15th February 2018 A watchdog is examining the failure of two healthcare regulators to punish nurses, paramedics and physiotherapists who write dishonest benefit assessment reports. The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) is looking at concerns about the way regulators deal with complaints about nurses, physiotherapists and paramedics who carry out personal independence payment (PIP) assessments on behalf of the outsourcing giants Capita and Atos. About 300 disabled people have come forward over the last year to tell Disability News Service (DNS) how assessors working for Atos and Capita wrote dishonest PIP assessment reports, on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Many raised concerns about the apparent refusal of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to take their complaints seriously. Now PSA has told DNS that it has begun to examine how the regulators deal with those complaints. Among the evidence it will be considering are last week’s DNS reports on data released by DWP to campaigner John Slater under freedom of information laws, which included figures that showed that up to 180 PIP assessors had been the subject of at least four complaints each in three-month periods in 2016. It comes as the Commons work and pensions select committee published its findings into the assessment processes for both PIP and employment and support allowance, the out-of-work disability benefit. But the committee’s report failed to address the issue of regulators who neglect to hold dishonest assessors to account. David Martin, PSA’s concerns and appointments officer, said: “We recognised that there is concern amongst members of the public with the role played by healthcare professionals in the PIP assessment process and about the response of regulators to the complaints they receive about them. “We have therefore initiated a discussion with the regulators to find out more about their approach to the concerns they receive.” He added: “We wrote to the regulators in mid-January asking them to tell us about their experience of the issue and their approach to it. “We are hoping to explore if there are any specific difficulties the regulators face when considering these cases. “We also want to explore with them if the PIP assessment process presents challenges to professionalism that may require the regulators to produce guidance for their registrants.” Martin said PSA would “consider all the feedback we receive”, and that PIP claimants with evidence about how NMC and HCPC had dealt with complaints about assessors could contact his organisation through its website. PSA, which is accountable to parliament, is responsible for overseeing nine UK healthcare regulators, including HCPC and NMC. Martin stressed that PSA was not itself a regulator and has no powers to direct NMC or HCPC “to take a particular approach”, and he said it could not investigate individual cases on behalf of individuals. He said: “Our role is to report on the regulator’s performance and identify areas where they can improve. “We do work closely with them to improve professional regulation and we anticipate they will want to address this issue positively with us.” PSA was contacted last year by disabled activist Mark Lucas, who has twice appealed successfully against the results of what he believes were dishonest PIP assessments. He has lodged a complaint with HCPC over its failure to discipline an occupational therapist who assessed him for PIP. Lucas has twice been given zero points after PIP assessments, but on both occasions was later awarded nine points – and eligibility for the PIP standard daily living rate – after appealing to a tribunal. Frustrated at HCPC’s failure to take his complaint seriously, he contacted PSA. PSA has the power to look at individual cases that have not been dealt with properly, and potentially refer them to the high court – but only if they reached a full HCPC or NMC fitness to practise hearing, which they rarely do – but also to look at wider problems with the regulators in particular areas, such as how they deal with complaints about PIP assessors. Lucas believes DWP has been using HCPC and NMC to help “legitimise bad medical assessments”, and that the two regulators are failing to take the action necessary over nurses, physiotherapists and other healthcare professionals who lie in their assessment reports. He welcomed PSA’s decision to begin an investigation but said he had hoped the watchdog would have issued a public call for information about dishonest assessors and announce a wider inquiry than simply contacting the two regulators. He said: “The PSA have the power to refer individual cases to the high court, but will they use that power? “I suspect if they do it will be a long drawn out affair and probably too late to have any real effect.” He said he believed that embarrassing and shaming NMC and HCPC were now “probably the most effective weapons we have”. An HCPC spokeswoman said: “We can confirm we have received the PSA’s request for further information on our approach to this issue. We will be responding to them directly.” NMC had not commented by noon today (Thursday). Posted in Atos, Capita, DWP, Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), Health and Care professions Council HCPC, Mark Lucas, Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)., PIP, The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) Tagged Atos, Austerity, Benefits, Capita, Conservatives, Disability, Disability News Service, Disability Politics, disability rights, DNS, DWP, John Pring, PIP, UK news, Welfare, Welfare Reform permalink About JJ Co-founder of Black Triangle View all posts by JJ CutTheCrap February 15, 2018 at 11:34 pm No surprise it’s BY DESIGN Log in to Reply Link jeff3 February 16, 2018 at 6:34 pm way hold on if like me writen off to the nurses headquarters about these highly trained hcp one doesn’t get very far with your complaint about their antics it seems the nurses dues are thought of better than ones complaint jeff3 NMC and HCPC had dealt with complaints about assessors yes but working at this headquarters is kpmg atos in disguise oh dear MarkCarlisle April 17, 2018 at 10:08 pm Hi Jeff make sure you check all letters from the DWP send you I got a uc50 form and it also said about the secretary of state part just make sure you do as the other email explained so the state can’t tell your doctor not to give you anymore fit notes Tatty2Shoes April 14, 2018 at 9:28 am In this article is says that naming and shaming may be the only effective weapons we have. I am all for this after having gone through two applications for PIP where in both cases the lies on the reports by an SRN and a Paramedic have devastated me, especially as I revealed sensitive information regarding my mental health. The paramedic in particular has galled me because during my assessment with her when I was questioned on my mental health I broke down uncontrollably and she came and knelt in front of me giving me tissues and said “It’s ok you don’t have to talk about it I can read it here” yet in her report she stated that I was not anxious, nervous or distressed and that I coped well with the interview throughout. I lost my Mandaory Reconsideration and do not have either the emotional strength or mental capacity to go through another appeal. Is namimg and shaming a real option? more importantly is it legal? at this stage though I hardly care! Hi tatty the best advice I can give you is don’t appeal again because it will take far to long so what you must do is make a fresh claim because it happened with my partner she had been getting pip for a few years and when her review came up she failed and also lost her appeal just like yourself and her health is more worse when she first claimed the citizens advice told her not to appeal the mandatory again after she failed the first time they told her to make a new claim for pip. Hi Mark, sorry to hear that your partner has been through so much, I can fully understand the effects on her health and hope she’s successful with her new claim. Thanks for your advice on making a new claim myself but for me personally it would be the third one and I am still trying to pick myself up from the mental and emotional stress of the last one which was in February this year year. Also at 64 I am almost at the cut off point age wise for claiming and on top of that I have a new GP who is not sympathetic at all. Prior to this I claimed DLA for my health problems and had no refusals so now it’s like being told that I have never had a health problem in the first place! You must be logged in to comment. Log in	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line998
__label__cc	0.583918	0.416082	Benjamin Crawford › Information › Selected Video › Selected Images © 2020 Benjamin Crawford. All rights reserved. ‘Hoo’ 39:24 minutes The London Stones, are a series of posts standing beside the Thames and Medway rivers, marking the City of London’s jurisdiction. The Hoo Peninsular is the piece of land sitting in between the estuaries of these two rivers. It’s existence has been at the expense of it’s brooding relative upstream, examples of this fractured relationship dot the landscape and it’s history. The film attempts to uncover the alienation Hoo has been exposed to, whilst weaving a grand, ambiguous narrative, unsettling a clarity between person and place. ‘Untitled’ Large metropolitan sprawls have many forms of movement, work and habit. These patterns can allow us to move freely, they may offer simpler journeys, but they also fracture our connection with the places we populate. Through a detailed study of time in a city, ’Untitled’ questions the structure of such places, the common surroundings we are beholden to, and the way we see. Skydrive – 'The Way You Just Knew’ Music video made with footage filmed in Scotland.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line999
__label__cc	0.619391	0.380609	BestofAMA AMAsAsk Me Anything OPsFamous Redditors TagsPopular Topics As requested, I AmA graduate student in a prion research lab focused on prion transmission and persistence in the environment. Ask me anything! science, prion There have been a few posts lately about prions due to the recent news that 15 people in the northeastern part of the US may have been exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. People still have a lot of questions about prions, and I'm here to try answer them as best I can. EDIT (12:40 CST): I have to go to a meeting for an hour or two, but I'll be back to answer more as soon as I can. EDIT (3:15 CST): I was back, but have to go again for a bit. I'll answer more again later. Thanks all! Comments: 205 • Responses: 70 • Date: 2013-09-12 15:16:44 UTC source armadillaspanish23 karma 2013-09-12 15:54:41 UTC What is a prion? View HistoryShare Link ihrtgngr28 karma 2013-09-12 16:02:42 UTC A prion is an infectious agent that is composed primarily, if not entirely of misfolded protein. Humans and other mammals make cellular prion protein (that we call cellular prion related protein, or PrPC) whose function is thought to be for copper binding or signal transduction. When cellular prion protein misfolds (either sporadically or due to the introduction of exogenous prions), the structure changes into one very resistant to unfolding/breakdown. The misfolded prion protein is referred to as PrPTSE (or often PrPSc). PrPTSE aggregates into fibrils and amyloid plaques, and it is the accumulation of PrPTSE in the brain (and subsequent damage done to the brain tissue) that ultimately causes death. VCGS13 karma 2013-09-12 19:17:12 UTC Would I be right in saying that the particularly odd thing about Prions is that they are the only known protein to be infectious? And it was not previously thought that something even smaller and less complex than a virus could display such infectious characteristics. It's as amazing as finding a plant that can vocalize sounds. You are correct. They have not been found to contain any genetic material, making them unlike any infectious agent ever known. zip1177 karma 2013-09-13 01:40:23 UTC There is a scientist, Laura Manuelidis, who thinks that diseases commonly thought to be caused by prions are actually caused by an as-yet-undiscovered virus. What do you think about this? Wired article To be perfectly blunt, reading Laura Manuelidis' papers is like reading the diary of a girl who has been told 1200 times by her crush that he's not interested, and she still believes it will happen. Sure, she could end up proving us all wrong, but there is an ENORMOUS amount of evidence to the contrary. Now, where detractors of the prion theory (like Laura, and some others) make an argument that does make sense is within the theory of strain differences. Prion strains are defined as isolates that yield distinct disease phenotypes within a group of identical host organisms (viz. clinical symptoms, incubation times, histopathological profiles). These phenotypic differences persist upon serial transmission of disease. The PrPTSE associated with different strains can exhibit distinct biophysical properties such as migration patterns in Western blotting following PK digestion and protein secondary structure. The prevailing hypothesis is that strain properties are enciphered in the structure of PrPTSE. The difficulty of incorporating the existence and diversity of strains within the protein-only hypothesis for prions has led some to posit a role for a separate informational molecule that occurs alongside PrPTSE. oogface15 karma 2013-09-12 17:46:46 UTC Also, is it pronounced pree-on or pry-on? Pree-on shizknight11 karma 2013-09-12 18:50:48 UTC Ever read Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry? The zombie plague in that one is based on using parasites to quickly infect a host with an engineered prion disease. ihrtgngr6 karma 2013-09-13 18:56:55 UTC I have not read it, but sounds really neat (if not incredibly scientifically incorrect...) :) clearing8 karma 2013-09-12 15:37:52 UTC Besides CJD, are there other diseases where prions are known to play a role? Sure. Kuru was one of diseases that initally led to the discovery of prions. That was present in the Fore tribe in Papua New Guinea, and was believed to be transmitted because the tribe members ate the brains of their dead out of respect. CJD can present sporadically or as variant CJD (from eating BSE infected beef), and there is fatal familial insomnia and Gerstmann–Sträussler–Scheinker syndrome, which are both very rare genetic prion diseases that run in some families. There are also prion diseases in other mammals: scrapie in sheep and goats, chronic wasting disease (CWD) in cervids (deer, elk, moose), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle, and a couple other uncommon ones like transmissible mink encephalopathy. spiny_dogfish5 karma 2013-09-12 19:22:01 UTC i have heard that one of the major contributing factors in BSE spreading in the meat industry is the use of captive bolt pistols rupturing the cranium and somehow contaminating the meat. considering, as you stated, that kuru is spread through the eating of an infected brain, are many prion diseases spread through ingesting nervous tissue? how do they spread in sheep and deer? thanks in advance! Prions are present in high quantities in central nervous system tissue, but are also present in the peripheral nervous system, lymphatic system, and in muscle tissue, so it is commonly spread through exposure to these things as well. In the case of CWD in cervids and scrapie in sheep and goats, prions that are present in relatively high quantities in excreta (blood, feces, saliva, etc.) are shed into the environment. There, they persist over long periods of time and can be taken up by healthy animals. gryffinp7 karma 2013-09-12 18:05:40 UTC Can you explain to me why I find the idea of prions far more viscerally repulsive than bacteria or viruses? Philosophically, because they are so foreign. Bacteria and viruses, while capable of killing us, are LIKE us. They contain DNA/RNA just as we do. Thus agents that destroy DNA and/or RNA can harm them just as they can harm us. A prion, however, is like an alien species. It goes against everything we understand about classical infectious agents. It is not alive, but can be transported, can persist outside of the host, is very hard to degrade, and can initiate diseases that are invariably fatal. That makes them way scary. oogface7 karma 2013-09-12 15:43:11 UTC Also, why does the body give preference to replicating the misfolded protein? Think about it like this: proteins are lazy. They are all about being in a shape that is the easiest for them, that is, they will adopt a conformation that is most energetically favorable to be in. And depending on their surroundings, that conformation may have to change. There are two schools of thought in existence about how cellular prion proteins convert to misfolded prion proteins. Theory 1) is the "refolding" or template-directed assistance model, and it posits that introduction of exogenous disease-associated prion protein (PrPTSE) and its interaction with endogenous cellular prion protein (PrPC) induces PrPC to transform itself into PrPTSE. A high-energy barrier might prevent the spontaneous conversion of PrPC to PrPTSE, but at some point it becomes more favorable for the cellular prion protein to adopt a new conformation (that being the disease associated one). Theory 2) is the "seeding" or nucleation–polymerization model which proposes that PrPC and PrPTSE are constantly in a reversible thermodynamic equilibrium. So, only if several monomeric PrPTSE molecules are mounted in a highly ordered seed can more monomeric PrPTSE be recruited and eventually aggregate to form amyloid. In such a crystal-like seed, PrPTSE becomes stabilized. Fragmentation of PrPTSE aggregates increases the number of nuclei, which can recruit more PrPTSE, and so seems to result in replication of the agent. kelny8 karma 2013-09-12 16:59:59 UTC Let me get this straight: So the first theory posits that there must be some change in environment that acts as a catalyst, while the second suggests that formation of amyloid is essentially a stochastic process where in the unlikely event that a sufficient seed forms you get positive feedback? Do you favor one model over the other? Does amyloid form in vitro? If so, with what kinetics? It seems to me the two models imply quite different reaction kinetics. Edit: Thinking about theory 1 more I suppose it doesnt have to be a change in the activation barrier like I was imagining, but could be extremely high concentration of protein. What sorts of 'changes in environment' do people imagine? Sorry for the delay, I had a meeting. Your question is a great one. To answer it, let me first describe a detection method prion researchers have developed. PMCA or protein misfolding cyclic amplifcation is a technique that is used for the detection of very small (attomole) amounts of infectious prion protein. Here's how: combine an unknown sample (that may or may not contain infectious prion protein, and if so, a very small amount, undetectable by any other biochemical method available) with non-infectious brain material. The unknown sample is the seed and the healthy brain material the substrate. The healthy brain material will be high in cellular prion protein, PrPC. The mixture then undergoes rounds of sonication and incubation (a lot like PCR for DNA). The sonication is thought to break up PrPTSE material (which likely exists in a few large aggregates) into multiple smaller seeds. Then the PrPC substrate is converted into PrPTSE by associating with the PrPTSE seeds. By the end of the treatment period (~48 hrs) you have increased the amount of PrPTSE (if there was any to start with) to an amount you can now detect more easily. This all occurs in vitro, btw. So the theory of PMCA lends strength to theory 2 being the correct one. PrPC is in a state of conformational flux, so to speak, and through the introduction of multiple PrPTSE seeds for PrPC to associate with, it becomes favorable for PrPC to adopt the PrPTSE conformation. The fact that this occurs in vitro so quickly (24-48 hrs) seems way too fast for theory 1 to be the primary method of conversion. If a prion is a wrongly folded protein and supplants the normal protein use in the body, how can someone be genetically resistant to it? Does their body recognize the prion and dispose of it? The PRNP gene codes for the production of cellular prion protein. There are certain variations in the PRNP gene that can either increase the likelihood that you'll develop a sporadic form of disease, or increase your resistance to developing one of the prions diseases (the genetic susceptibility of each disease can be a little different so resistance to one doesn't necessarily mean all). I'm not entirely sure why certain mutations slow or prevent disease, but my guess is that the structure of the resulting cellular prion protein is more stable than in a person with a non-protective phenotype and thus less prone to structural modifications that can lead to disease. I know there's plenty of research out there on it, I just do more environmental work and am not as familiar with the genetic prion literature. EllieMayC6 karma 2013-09-12 17:04:29 UTC I just do more environmental work... Thanks for doing this AMA. A few questions: In one article I read about the current possible transmission, it mentioned that surgical instruments are typically destroyed if they are thought to be contaminated by a prion. Why wouldn't the normal sterilization techniques denature the prions and make them non-infectious? What kind of prions do you work with and what have you found about their viability living outside of a host? What's your dissertation on and what are your career prospects when you finish? Prions are incredibly stable. The protein structure of PrPTSE (the disease associated prion protein) is very high in beta-sheet content. Of the two basic secondary conformations that proteins can adopt, beta sheets are more stable than helices. And beyond that, the protein adopts stable higher order structures as well (fibrils). This makes them VERY hard to unfold, so traditional decontamination methods don't often work on prions. In our lab, we work with a hamster-adapted transmissible mink encephalopathy strain, as well as chronic wasting disease. Both are very stable and remain infectious outside the host (in vitro) for weeks or more. We've not directly tested longer than that, but other studies have indicated prion viability for years. We don't technically say prions are ever 'alive' because they are not living entities (no known genetic material). My thesis work is focused on finding novel methods of prion degradation, specifically ones that would be relevant to the decontamination of CWD-infected soil environments. reddittroll1114 karma 2013-09-12 20:12:13 UTC This makes them VERY hard to unfold, so traditional decontamination methods don't often work on prions. for want of a better word, how exactly would you "kill" a prion? There are ways to almost completely (if not entirely) remove prion infectivity. Some examples: exposure to high concentrations of sodium hydroxide (1-2M), autoclaving in 1M sodium hydroxide, autoclaving for longer periods of time at higher temperatures, incineration at 1000C for >5 min. datahrilol6 karma 2013-09-12 16:49:59 UTC Oh wow that's really interesting! I'm only 14 but prions have always fascinated me. Anyways, do you think there is hope for a cure for prion related diseases in the near future? I don't know. One problem is the sheer amount that is still unknown about prions. The field doesn't even 100% agree about what a prion IS, let alone all the details regarding transmission in different species. Another problem is that because prion diseases are not terribly common (like say, alzheimer's), the funding for prion research is not all that strong. With limited funding, researchers can only make limited progress in the search for a cure. But I have hope! builderb2 karma 2013-09-12 22:24:17 UTC Is it possible that many cases of alzheimer's are misdiagnosed instances of CJD (or similar disease)? Are the symptoms different? It's not likely. When CJD or other prion diseases are confirmed, they are done so biochemically. For example, Western blotting uses an antibody specific to certain regions of the protein's primary sequence for detection. The prion protein's primary sequence is certainly very different from the primary sequence of beta-amyloid, so it is very unlikely that the prion-specific antibody would incorrectly detect beta-amyloid. payne_and_gain1 karma 2013-09-13 00:46:38 UTC i believe cjd is also extremely aggressive and rapid in progression, whereas alzheimer's progresses over the course of 10+ years (there are rare variants that are more aggressive). a crude (but unfortunately, mostly true) saying about cjd that neurologists sometimes make is "if the patient doesn't come back for a follow-up in six months, it was most likely cjd" CJD is VERY slow, on the order of 10-50 years to develop. EDIT: I should say, the disease progresses slowly, but by the time symptoms manifest, the patient is reaching clinical stage and doesn't have much time, so to an uninformed observer, it would appear as though CJD were a rapid disease. CopyrightedThought6 karma 2013-09-12 16:30:22 UTC Read it as prison and was really unsure as to why it was spelled incorrectly twice. Oh well You do not know how many times google asks if I'm sure I didn't mean "prison" when searching for papers. cdawg925 karma 2013-09-12 18:01:50 UTC Is it a dangerous job? (In terms of getting infected) Not for me, really. We are only a biosafety level (BSL) 2, which means none of the strains of prions that we work with are known human pathogens. If we worked with BSE, then we'd be BSL 3 and would need to take more precautions. That being said, we are cautious and I certainly wouldn't eat anything I work with. Pallas5 karma 2013-09-12 16:32:24 UTC What are the known transmission vectors for human infection (if that's the right term) for prion-related disease, and what is the certainty that we know all the ways disease can be transmitted? To our knowledge, transmission between humans can occur when a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE; catch-all term for prion diseases)-positive human is cannibalized, or when humans consume beef from a cow with BSE. Of course we can't be certain that these are the only possible ways of disease transmission, but the incidence of transmission by any other routes are either too low to be detected or are not possible. It remains possible that another animal TSE like chronic wasting disease could result in transmission to humans, but at this point there is no evidence of that. koreanknife3 karma 2013-09-12 17:20:02 UTC haven't people gotten infected from eating improperly cooked squirrel (brain)? i thought i heard of that happening, not sure if that would be cwd, scrapie, or some other form of tse. I've never heard of humans getting a TSE from squirrel. My guess is that they got sick from bacteria from eating improperly cooked squirrel brains (yuck!) just googled it: "In the last four years, 11 cases of a human form of transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, have been diagnosed in rural western Kentucky, said Dr. Erick Weisman, clinical director of the Neurobehavioral Institute in Hartford, Ky., where the patients were treated. ''All of them were squirrel-brain eaters,'' Dr. Weisman said. Of the 11 patients, at least 6 have died." from http://www.nytimes.com/1997/08/29/us/kentucky-doctors-warn-against-a-regional-dish-squirrels-brains.html I'll have to look for original research in a peer-reviewed journal to confirm this. Interesting. higgs85 karma 2013-09-12 17:33:58 UTC Would you consider a prion to be, to any degree, a form of life? Is there any debate about it? I know it is debated whether a virus is ultimately alive or not as it replicates, but not on its own. So, similarly, a prion "replicates", or more like "creates other prions". Would it fulfill the definition of life? Otherwise, would a prion be a kind of Von Neumann machine? Based on what I have read, I personally believe the prion is not at all a form of life. It does not contain genetic material (that we know of). Prion replication should really be coined "prion protein conversion". It is "replication" in the sense that you start with 1 thing and then you have 2, and so forth, but it is not bona fide replication in the biological sense. Prions do not divide their generic material and pass it along to their offspring. And I do not know what a Von Neumann machine is. Should I? MrPigeon2 karma 2013-09-12 20:44:50 UTC A machine designed to build more like itself. Then yes, it sounds exactly like that! HolePunch665 karma 2013-09-12 15:23:29 UTC Have you ever made a cow angry enough to make it mad? I've only made them angry when I've gone to collect manure and gotten too close. But I've never driven one to insanity (I hope). JacoVainglorious3 karma 2013-09-12 20:42:26 UTC Was this for work or your own personal collection? I collect manure for composting - part of my attempts at environmentally relevant prion degradation. BOBxLEExSWAGGER4 karma 2013-09-12 17:09:59 UTC I wondered this my entire undergraduate career, are there any examples of DNA mutations causing proteins to misfold and behave like prions? I'm unfamiliar with this occurrence in other proteins, but that's exactly what happens in the case of genetic/spontaneous human prion diseases. I don't know if beta-amyloid or the amyloid precursor protein are thought to be produced because of mutations in the gene encoding for APP. Urrrhn4 karma 2013-09-12 18:11:24 UTC If a human contracts a prion disease through cannibalism, how does the prion survive the stomach and make its way to the brain? That's the million dollar question! You figure that out, and you'll have a paper in Nature. That being said, I'll tell you what is known/theorized. Some fraction of prions consumed orally must be able to survive the low pH of the stomach and travel to the small intestine with the other food being digested, and there are perhaps picked up by microfold cells in the Peyer's patches in the small intestine. Microfold cells are constantly sampling the gut contents to build immunity. The microfold cells then deliver their contents to follicular dendritic cells (which are immune system cells). The FDC's carry their contents/passengers/however you want to think about it (prions) to germinal centers where they display their contents on their surface in order to educate B-cells (for immunity). While here, the prion-loaded FDCs are in proximity of the peripheral nervous system, and once there, they can get to the central nervous system and ultimately, the brain. A lot of this is still unclear though. lazor-of-razor3 karma 2013-09-12 17:18:44 UTC Do you actively search for ways prion's could be used in a productive way? I have looked into a few global studies of red meat consumption in general that could be related to cancer, most Americans eat about 20% to 15% over what is actually needed for dietary protein intake. With that being said, what do you believe your research should be used for? If Prion producing cows are detected, how are they detected and later dealt with? I think people in general need to rethink their diets, so is the recent exposure to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease a reason of concern to the american public that could cause a reconsideration of their animal protein intake? EDIT: I like meat :) but i think some enjoy it to the point of glutony We don't look at prions for productive use. I'll leave that research for someone to do once we understand how to effectively slow/prevent disease spread and/or find a cure for prion disease. By learning how prions interact with the soil environment, how they transmit disease and how to break them down, then perhaps we can help mitigate the further spread of disease and prevent animal/human deaths. Testing is conducted periodically to look (biochemically) for the presence of the disease-associated prion protein in cattle. Cows that are suspected of having BSE are often killed and disposed of properly to prevent spread of other cattle and humans. Variant CJD is fairly rare. I wouldn't go so far as to say people should be very concerned about eating beef for that reason, when there are other more important reasons to perhaps choose not to (energy efficiency, etc.). kalok3 karma 2013-09-12 17:19:47 UTC So if a fox/wolf/vulture/crow ate a deer carcass that had succumb to CWD, will those animals "catch" it? How does it spread in cases of wild animals like deer that just eat plants? I'd have to go and look at the exact details on transmission in a laboratory setting of CWD to fox/wolves/vultures/crows, as I'm not sure what the likelihood of those species succumbing to a prion disease follwing ingestion of CWD-infected deer meet would be (but my guess is low, if not zero). However, it is possible that some species could serve as vectors. For example, perhaps a species that scavenges dead deer could transport prions to other locations and infect naive animals. As to your second question, CWD and scrapie can be transmitted directly (animal to animal) as well as indirectly, through the soil environment. Infected animals shed prions in excreta (blood, feces, saliva, etc) and prions bind tightly to whole soils and soil minerals. Prions are also very persistent, and can remain infectious in the environment for long periods of time. Then naive animals that ingest infected soil (either accidentally while feeding or on purpose to supplement a mineral need) can get sick. KingNoah04053 karma 2013-09-12 18:45:43 UTC What makes prions so goddamn stable? The disease-associated prion protein has amino acids that are arranged in a sheet-like pattern (versus a helix). The beta-sheet conformation lends stability to proteins due the increased level of hydrogen bonding that can occur between sheets. So the protein is in a very stable secondary structure, and also has one disulfate bond (cys-cys) that further increases stability. Combine that with the fact that the protein tends to stack into trimers and those trimers aggregate into tightly bound fibrils, you are left with an incredibly stable protein. It takes a great deal of energy to unfold the protein in such a state. silver_ghost3 karma 2013-09-12 17:06:46 UTC How long can prion diseases lay dormant, or not manifest symptoms, after infection? It depends on the length of life of the species and the aggressiveness of the strain, but for human vCJD, for example, I've heard everything from 10-50 years. YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY3 karma 2013-09-12 18:42:02 UTC How worried are you that you'll start presenting symptoms of neurodegeneration sometime in the next 5-20 years? Probably not as worried as I should be... how do you stain your slides? IHC? if so, which antibodies do you use? my lab uses F99 antibody, but we have used in the past for special cases - F89, 8G8, 6H4, P4, and a couple others I can't think off the top of my head. We mostly do Western blotting, and we use the 3F4 antibody for our hamster agent, and Bar224/8G8 mix or 6H4 for CWD agent. PIE-3143 karma 2013-09-12 20:51:47 UTC My father passed away from CJD in '06. Neurologists at U-Mass told me "unlikely" that it could have been passed on to me. As I understand it's not genetic, I'm still irrationally fearful that I could have passed it along to my children. As it is I am NOT allowed to donate blood, understandably. I could handle dying from it myself but the thought of it being passed to them is unbearable. No idea where he contracted it from or how he could have been exposed. Never been out of the country, not a hunter etc.. Anyway, should I be concerned? I wish I had a better, more thought out question to ask but that's it. Did the doctors have any information about your father's genetics? Here's what I would recommend: https://www.23andme.com/. This is a private company that runs a host of genetic tests on the sample you send them, including which variant in the PRNP gene allele you have that can indicate an increased susceptibility to prion disease. It's only like $100 and might give you some peace of mind. Hey thanks for the reply! No. All they seemed to be interested in were spinal taps. They kept us in the dark right up into the last few weeks and I haven't much info. Would something like this come up in a DNA test? I was under the impression that is isn't genetic? Classical CJD can definitely be genetic, and if his was, it is possible you carry the same mutation in your PRNP gene that he may have. However, if he acquired variant CJD from eating BSE+ beef, you will not develop vCJD (presuming you didn't consume his brain). lolannie3 karma 2013-09-12 19:10:58 UTC I live in the Northeast and I have an irrational but still severe fear of contracting a prion disease after watching an episode of a television show where some dude had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. What can I do to successfully avoid such a similar fate? I'd honestly be more concerned if I lived in Colorado/Wyoming or southern Wisconsin. These two regions have a very high incidence of CWD in deer and elk. Now, while there is no evidence to date of CWD transmission to humans, it always remains a possibility. Another possibility is that CWD may someday transmit to cattle, and then as we already know, to humans. That being said, human TSEs are very rare, and some people have a genetic mutation in the PRNP gene that can increase their resistance to developing a prion disease should they be exposed. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. barncookiejar3 karma 2013-09-12 19:21:09 UTC Prions really, really scare me. Is my fear overblown or are they are horrifying as my freshmen bio teacher made them sound? They are scary, but they are scary because we don't fully understand them and anything we don't understand can come across as very frightening. Prion diseases in humans are quite rare, and as long as you are cautious with meat-eating and blood transfusions, chances are that you'll be okay. DamienWind3 karma 2013-09-12 20:08:49 UTC Are there any regular cleaning procedures that are effective with prions? The hospital in referenced in the title is local to me and I've been following it closely; all reports seem to indicate they did their due diligence with the rented neuro equipment but that makes me wonder if there's anything at all one can to do sterilize equipment to prevent CJD contamination. Yes, soaking equipment in 2M NaOH or 20,000 ppm chlorine bleach, autoclaving after or with exposure to 1M sodium hydroxide or 10,000 ppm chlorine bleach, or use of a proprietary phenolic disinfectant called Environ LpH are all methods known to significantly reduce prion infectivity. The trouble is that these treatments are very hard on the medical equipment itself. spockosbrain3 karma 2013-09-12 17:57:08 UTC China banned the import of US beef in 2003 saying that they were concerned about transmissible spongiform encephalopathy from US beef. The Beef industry has protested that this ban is still in place. They complain " China uses non-science based standards to keep out U.S. beef." Link to testimony What are they talking about? What are the "science based standards" that would allow China to accept US Beef? Also, is it correct that you can't destroy prions with cooking or sterilization? I believe there is a controversy about testing standards. I recall Japan wanted 100 percent testing and "The American Meat Institute, the meatpacking industry's trade association, opposes 100 percent testing, calling it an unnecessary expense not warranted by science." (link) If China (!) won't allow imports of our beef, why should we allow it? I can't speak to China's beef standards as I'm unfamiliar with them, but you're correct about Japan. I'll share some statistics that I posted elsewhere. The US has roughly 90 million head of cattle. (We slaughter about 34 million a year on average). Of the 34 million slaughtered, approximately 40,000 are tested for BSE. That's 0.1% tested and the US has had 4 confirmed BSE cases since testing began. Japan, on the other hand, has about 1.2 million head of cattle (and I presume about that many are slaughtered each year). They test every single animal, 100%. They have had 36 positive BSE cases.This concerns me a little, because it suggests that we are likely missing positive cases by testing such a small fraction of our cattle population. I wouldn't say most of our meat is at risk of being TSE+ but I would imagine the numbers are a little higher than 4 out of 34 million (times all the years we've been testing for). sexdrugswine892 karma 2013-09-12 18:16:04 UTC What type of safety precautions do you have to take in the lab? Are you in any danger of infecting yourself with lab samples? We wear gloves, safety glasses, and lab coats. We also take care to dispose of all of our waste carefully. We are also especially careful when using needles. However, we don't work with strains that are known human pathogens, so I'm less afraid than if we worked with BSE or CJD material. Cornflip2 karma 2013-09-12 19:00:56 UTC I recall watching something on The History Channel (wait for it) a few months ago about zombies, and it mentioned something about a prion-based disease being a possible source for a zombie outbreak or zombie-like characteristics in humans. It even mentioned the Kuru outbreak as how this is theoretically possible. So, what I'm asking is this: Is a prion actually capable of causing this, or is this just crap History Channel made up in their quest for ratings? If there is no known prion capable of causing this, could one be engineered to zombify humans in any way, shape or form? If such a zombifying prion was unleashed on the general human population, could it work fast enough to cause a large-scale zombie apocalypse? Or would the prion infection be incapable of overpowering quarantines? It's total crap. Prion diseases in humans take DECADES to manifest. That would make for the slowest, most boring zombie outbreak EVER. I don't see how you could engineer one to "zombify" people. Even in animal experiments where transgenic mice were modified to contain more copies of the PRNP gene than normal (and thus produce more PrPC), they experienced a moderate shortening of incubation period, but it was still a slow disease progression. I've clearly not watched enough zombie films. You're hurting my brain. (pun intended) Also relevant Brian98162 karma 2013-09-12 18:36:02 UTC How would one go about getting into this field or research? Stay in school! Go to graduate school and look for work with a professor who is doing prion research. broken_sony2 karma 2013-09-12 17:18:06 UTC Has anyone yet figured out what, exactly, properly folded PrP does? I had to do a couple of papers/presentations on prions way back in school, and all that was known at the time was that its multiple histidines lent it an affinity for nickel and copper, and that knockout mice without the gene demonstrated no noticeable deficiencies. Also, people were always arguing with me about the pronunciation of prion. I called it “pree-on”, as an early reference I came across spelt it out. Lots of others though (including professors) insisted it’s “pry-on”, and to this day I still here some scientists call it that. So which is it, exactly? PrPC is a surface-bound neuronal protein that is found ubiquitously throughout mammalian tissues. There are papers that suggest PrPC may play a role in copper binding, modulation of metal uptake (iron, for example), and/or signal transduction. Stanley Prusiner (who won the noble prize for the discovery of prions) says pree-on, so most in the field say it "pree-on" as well. Brits tend to say "pry-on". motivatedfatty2 karma 2013-09-12 18:41:41 UTC So if someone contracts prions from cannibalism, the person they ate must have been a cannibal too? (Sorry if this is dumb) Not necessarily. That person could have contracted vCJD from eating BSE-contaminated beef. hottiewithabottie2 karma 2013-09-12 17:11:22 UTC I've been toying with the idea of using prions as a therapy (e.g. bad example since they're always changing, but to an HIV surface receptor). How feasible would that be? I guess I'm not sure what you mean exactly. Do you mind expanding a little? masterdong2 karma 2013-09-12 21:03:31 UTC Well I'm glad they're very dead and not just sorta dead. Prions can be transmitted via aerosol, but the rate of transmission in animal studies in fairly low. You might want to consider wearing a mask if it don't already, but I wouldn't worry too much. I think you're thinking of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, which primarily occurs in football players and boxers who have sustained chronic head impact injuries. And I guess I'm a believer. I wouldn't be surprised at all if traumatic impact to the brain induced protein misfolding. Whether or not those proteins are prion proteins, specifically, I don't know. abedmcnulty2 karma 2013-09-12 18:01:32 UTC It's my understanding that there's some relationship between prion diseases and neural degenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Huntington's. Can you expound on that a little? Sure. Alzheimer's and Huntington's are both being re-classified as "prion-like" diseases. That means that in experimental studies, researchers are able to take brain material from an Alzheimer's infected mouse (for example), inject it into a healthy mouse, and the healthy mouse will (or at least sometimes will) get Alzheimer's. This doesn't mean you can catch Alzheimer's from your grandmother, but it does suggest that beta-amyloid and Tau which are the proteins that compose plaques found in the brain in Alzheimer's and Huntington's, respectively, are able to induce the conversion of normal protein in the brain to beta-amyloid or tau, much like the disease-associated prion protein converts normal cellular prion protein to its misfolded form. a minor correction (you probably won't read it, but i want the record to be correct): tau is not found in huntington's. tau and a-beta are both found in alzheimer's, tau as intracellular tangles (that are eventually thought to propagate synaptically) and a-beta as extracellular plaques. huntingtin is the protein that is mis-aggregated in huntington's disease. You are correct, thank you!! MyInquisitiveMind1 karma 2013-09-12 22:56:54 UTC Is there any history of weaponization? Can they be inhaled or transmitted by breath? Can they be synthesized? No history of weaponization, since the goal of a biological weapon would be to harm a large number of people quickly. Prion diseases are fairly rare, not always transmissible, and progress in humans over decades. That would make them a pretty shitty weapon. There is evidence of prions being transmitted via aerosol, but the transmission rate (at least in rodent models) is very low. Do you mean synthesized chemically from scratch (not possible) or synthesized in vitro from PrPC? Bacteria can be engineered to produce recombinant PrP, but it is not quite the same as traditional PrPTSE. BoogerMcFee1 karma 2013-09-12 23:27:52 UTC How likely is someone to develop disease if they had been exposed to tainted beef in the UK during the late 80s-early 90s "mad cow" crisis? It is possible, but I don't know statistically. Depending on what amino acid substitution occurs at a specific allele in the PRNP gene, some people are more genetically prone to acquiring prion disease, whereas others are more resistant, so you could in theory have eaten BSE+ beef, but not ever succumb to vCJD. Aisnd1 karma 2013-09-13 20:38:33 UTC If my local farmer Brown sells me meat infected with prions and I eat it, am I necessarily screwed in about a few decades? Are there any other prions that infects something other than brain tissue? If I think of any other questions, may I ask more? You are not necessarily screwed. Some people are genetically resistant to getting certain prion diseases (in this case, vCJD). Prions will be at highest concentration in the central nervous system tissue (brain, spinal cord) but also in the peripheral nervous system, lymphatic tissues, muscle, and even in blood and saliva. Animalcules1 karma 2013-09-12 23:28:50 UTC I would say take precaution with safety, and BE PATIENT. Prions are very tricky to work with and experiments very often do not go as you had planned because prions are such weirdos. I swear sometimes, it's like voodoo. But be consistent, don't be afraid of them, and learn as much as you can! [deleted]1 karma 2013-09-12 15:16:50 UTC [removed] I forgot! On it right now! dauntlessmath1 karma 2013-09-12 21:00:08 UTC Obligatory: proof? Curiosity: which lab / university do you work in / at? I provided proof to the mods. I work at an R1 university in the US. lukeprestonmccann1 karma 2013-09-12 20:28:08 UTC What causes the initial missfolding of a protein to become a prion? is it always inherited through contact with already existing prions, or can a healthy animal spontaneously have a prion disease develop in them without any previous contact? I answered this in two separate questions above and have copied my answers below. Prion diseases in humans can develop sporadically (although that just usually means you were genetically susceptible), genetically transmitted through families, or from the consumption of BSE+ beef. amedstudent131 karma 2013-09-13 21:52:02 UTC I've learned about prion diseases from a medical standpoint, but I'm still unclear on how the PrPSC protein catalyzes the conversion of normal PrP into PrPSC. It's all been pretty vague, and we've been told to just accept it. How does it work? I've replied to a question like this earlier. SYBR_Green1 karma 2013-09-12 21:54:15 UTC Do you learn much about yeast prions? From what I recall, heat-shock proteins can re-fold amyloid fibrils. Are there any similar proteins in mammals? In my non-scientific opinion, yeast prions are hella lame. They aren't infectious, they are just wannabes. That said, I don't know a huge amount about them, but just from a quick glace at the literature, it looks like Hsp104, a heat-shock enzyme from yeast can actually break up amyloid. I'm not sure if/what heat shock proteins that humans make. derelictmo1 karma 2013-09-12 18:56:02 UTC Do prions hail from Madagascar? Are you thinking of Papua New Guinea? alaskanfrog1 karma 2013-09-12 19:30:34 UTC My grandmother died of Kroutsfeld Jakobs (Mad Cow) disease, One of 300 deaths that year. In the book, Deadly Feast, The author suggests that America has the potential to reach an epidemic like level of infections because of the way we processes meat in the country. I figured that this is the worst case scenario, and that the author was writing a sort of panic mongering. In your field, what is the general assumption about the danger twords humans? Is it really true that we risk pandemic levels? IS most of our meat actually infected? To some degree, it was likely fear mongering, but it is a scientist's way to never rule out any possibility that doesn't have significant evidence to be ruled out. It is of course, a possibility that vCJD could reach endemic levels in humans, but it is very unlikely. BSE in cattle is fairly rare, and with practices like the feeding of meat and bone meal to cattle (cannibalism, in essence) banned is most places, BSE rates are relatively stable. Prion diseases are also very slow in progression, especially in humans. However, here are some statistics that are a little alarming: The US has roughly 90 million head of cattle. (We slaughter about 34 million a year on average). Of the 34 million slaughtered, approximately 40,000 are tested for BSE. That's 0.1% tested and the US has had 4 confirmed BSE cases since testing began. Japan, on the other hand, has about 1.2 million head of cattle (and I presume about that many are slaughtered each year). They test every single animal, 100%. They have had 36 positive BSE cases. This concerns me a little, because it suggests that we are likely missing positive cases by testing such a small fraction of our cattle population. I wouldn't say most of our meat is at risk of being TSE+ but I would imagine the numbers are a little higher than 4 out of 34 million (times all the years we've been testing for). Yeah, my grandmother was in Europe during the Mad Cow panic in the 1980s, and we assume thats when she got it. What blows my mind is how long it can remain dormant before showing signs. For example if she got it in the 80s, she didnt die from it till 2006. Thats mind blowing to me. Furthermore its scares me taht I could in theory have it, and wouldnt know till much later. You wouldn't get vCJD from your grandmother if she got it from eating BSE+ beef. You'd only be at risk of developing classical CJD if she developed classical CJD as well as a result of a genetic mutation in the PRNP gene that was passed along to you. voilasriracha1 karma 2013-09-12 20:34:30 UTC How does an ingested prion make its way from the lumen of the GI tract to the brain/rest of the body? I'll tell you what I wrote to someone above. It's not completely understood yet. circledrive1 karma 2013-09-12 21:32:08 UTC Two questions: How long have prions been around/when did they evolve? Does the immune system do anything to fight the spread of prions? That's a good question. I would presume as long as mammals have been making cellular prion protein. The oldest known TSE is scrapie in sheep and goats and has been documented for the last 250 years or so (though it wasn't known to be a TSE until more recently). The immune system is involved to a small degree, but only at fairly baseline levels. No specific, full-scale immune response is triggered when the body encounters prions. Menuchain Copyright © 2014 BestofAMA.com, All rights reserved. reddit has not approved or endorsed BestofAMA, reddit design elements are trademarks of reddit inc.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1000
__label__wiki	0.832702	0.832702	Article Library Blog Medical Experts Non-Medical Experts Expert Witness Request Form Member Login Experts: Get Listed Today! ExpertPages Blog Pistorius Defense Team Fights Back With Ballistics and Anesthetist Experts Written on Thursday, May 15th, 2014 by Colin Holloway, Attorney at Law Earlier this month, a break in the Oscar Pistorius murder trial gave us the opportunity to analyze the testimony of expert witnesses who helped build the prosecution’s case against the former Olympian who is accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Pistorius, who has testified that he killed Steenkamp when he mistakenly thought she was a home invader, presented two important defense expert witnesses this week to support his case. Pistorius Defense Team Hires Private Ballistics Expert Witness Last week, Pistorius presented the testimony of Tom Wolmarans, a private ballistics expert hired to discuss evidence that supports the defense’s theory of the crime. Mr. Wolmarans generally agreed with the prosecution’s ballistic expert, Captain Chris Mangena, about the sequence of the gunshots and the trajectories of the bullets. Wolmarans disagreed, however, on three key points: The position Ms. Steenkamp was in at the time of the shooting; The cause of injuries to her back; The position she was in when the fourth and fatal shot hit her. Mr. Wolmarans testified that his investigation suggested that Ms. Steenkamp was reaching for the door at the time Pistorius opened fire – contradicting Captain Mangena’s claim that she was in a defensive position. Her body position is significant because a defensive stance suggests the couple was arguing while a position of reaching for the door could support Pistorius’ account that he did not know who was behind the bathroom door. Wolmarans also explained that the cause of Ms. Steenkamp’s back injury could have been the result of falling on a magazine rack rather than being hit by bullet ricochet while on the floor – suggesting she did not have time to cower on the floor in a defensive position during the shooting. Finally, Mr. Wolmarans suggested that the fourth and final bullet hit Ms. Steenkamp as she was falling, further supporting his claim that the shots had been fired in rapid succession with each hitting her before she fell to the floor. The distinctions between Mr. Wolmaran’s and Captain Mangena’s testimony are, Pistorius argues, important because the defense expert witness presented evidence that Ms. Steenkamp was not in a position to defend herself and was fatally wounded before having the opportunity to cry out. Each point lends support to Pistorius’ claim that he heard an unfamiliar noise in his bathroom and opened fire without having the opportunity to process that the individual inside was his girlfriend. Anesthetist Expert Witness Testifies in Pistorius Trial During the prosecution’s case, pathologist Dr. Gert Saayman testified that Ms. Steenkamp had eaten at 1 AM on the night of the shooting – contradicting Pistorius’ claim that the two were in bed by 10 PM. The timing of Ms. Steenkamp’s last meal could be significant because if she and Pistorius were not asleep by 10, then his claim that he thought she was sleeping next to him at the time of the shooting loses credibility. Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that the two were awake and arguing late into the evening, leading to Pistorius shooting her through the bathroom door. Pistorius called Professor Aina Christina Lundgren as an anesthetist expert witness to question the certainty of Dr. Saayman’s conclusion regarding Steenkamp’s last meal. Professor Lundgren testified that the methodology employed by Dr. Saayman could not, with certainty, determine that Ms. Steenkamp had eaten at 1 AM. Dr. Lundgren pointed out that a number of factors could call Saayman’s timeline into question because the rate of digestion cannot be accurately determined. Professor Lundgren’s claim echoes a similar criticism of the prosecution’s digestive estimation made by defense expert pathologist Dr. Jan Botha earlier in the trial. Pistorius’ defense team rebounded from the near disaster it created by the rambling and unqualified forensic expert testimony of Roger Dixon earlier in the trial by presenting two qualified experts to attack specific points made by Prosecutor Nel. The prosecution’s attack on Pistorius’ story relied heavily on the position of Ms. Steenkamp’s body before and during the shooting and the fact that the Olympian’s timeline was called into question by the contents of her stomach. Mr. Pistorius’ expert witnesses were able to present credible explanations based on their investigation of the evening, and lend support to his account of the tragic events that led to Ms. Steenkamp’s death. About Colin Holloway, Attorney at Law LinkedIn Colin Holloway is an attorney operating in the Washington DC area. He is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and Emory University School of law, and has practice experience in criminal defense, personal injury litigation, mediation, and employment law. View all posts by Colin Holloway, Attorney at Law → ← 9th Circuit Roundup: A Case of Contaminated Water and Medical Expert’s Failed Methodology Attorney Fined for Shocking Expert Witness with Toy Electric Pen → Let Us Help Find You An Expert Let's Get Started! Expert Witness Fees Report Download the free Expert Witness fee report from ExpertPages Expert Witnesses Wanted Interested in Getting Paid to be an Expert Witness? Learn More Here. Another Shaken Baby Conviction Based on Unreliable Evidence is Reversed Expert Designation Issue Loses Med-Mal Case Experts Retained for Jail Overdose Death Case Experts Offer Testimony in Shreveport Competency Hearing Pediatrician Cannot Testify that Child Was a Sexual Abuse Victim Based on Child’s Statement Business Development for Experts ExpertWitness Working with Experts Are You an Expert in Your Field? Join The Network of Leading Expert Witnesses ExpertPages Expert Witness Request Form Medical Expert Witness Topics Non-Medical Experts Witness Topics iPhone App About Us Terms & Conditions Contact Us Find Attorneys Blog Article Library Get Listed on ExpertPages Find Legal Information / Advice Member Login ExpertPages®.com was the first and is the leading expert witness and consultant site on the Internet. By accessing ExpertPages visitor agrees to our Conditions of Use and Disclaimer, which prohibit use for marketing or solicitation, and our Privacy Policy. Although certain information has been verified by ExpertPages, users should always independently verify qualifications of all experts. For listing or other information please Contact Us. ExpertPages®.com is a unit of Advice Company, a Public Benefit Corporation headquartered at 2330 Marinship Way, Suite 120, Sausalito, CA 94965. © Since 1995 and automatically updated January 23, 2020.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1017
__label__cc	0.6443	0.3557	Prior to her trip to Boerne, Texas, USA, Carol a blonde from England, confided to her co-workers and friends she had three goals for her trip to Cowboy country; 1. She wanted to taste some real western Bar-B-Que. 2. She wanted to take in a bona fide rodeo...And... 3. She wanted to have sex with a local cowboy. Upon returning, the girls were curious as to how she fared. 'Let me tell you, they have Texas beef to die for, and when they bar-b-q it, the taste is unbelievable!' 'And I went to a real rodeo. Talk about athletes...Those guys wrestle full grown bulls! They ride horses at a full gallop, then jump off the horses and grab the bull by the horns and throw them to the ground! It is just incredible!' Then came the big question, 'Well tell us, did you have sex with a real cowboy?' 'Are you kidding? When I saw the size of the condoms they carry in their back pockets I changed my mind!' THE BEST CHEWING TOBACCO Reactions: tasman and squirt My wife walked out on me after I blew our life savings on a penis extension.. She said she just can't take it any longer. I live under a 4 million dollar roof.. Bridges sure are expensive. I was sitting at a bar last night and this Asian looking fella sits down next to me and takes a sip of beer. I glance over at him and ask if he knows any of those martial arts like Kung fu, or Karate or Ju Jitsu. He says "No, WTF man!? Are you asking because I’m Chinese?" I said no, it’s because you’re drinking my beer. New Applicants for Heaven. Saint Peter is seeing all of the new arrivals trying to go through the pearly gates in Heaven: - The first applicant of the day explains that his last day was not a good one. "I came home early and found my wife lying in bed with no clothes on. She claimed she had just gotten out of the shower. Well, her hair was dry and I checked the shower and it was completely dry, too. I knew she was into some hanky-panky and I began to look for her lover. I went out onto the balcony of our 9th-floor apartment and found the guy clinging to the rail by his fingertips. I was so angry that I began bashing his fingers with a flower pot. He let go and fell, but his fall was broken by some awnings and bushes. On seeing he was still alive, I found super human strength to drag our antique cedar chest to the balcony and throw it over. It hit the man and killed him. At this point, the stress got to me and I suffered a massive heart attack and died." Saint Peter thanked him and sent him on to the waiting room. The second applicant said that his last day was his worst ..."I was on the roof of an apartment building working on the AC equipment and I stumbled over my tools and toppled off the building. I managed to grab onto the balcony rail of a 9th-floor apartment but some idiot came rushing out on the balcony and bashed my hands with a flower pot. I fell but hit some awnings and bushes and survived. But as I looked up, I saw a huge chest falling toward me. I tried to crawl out of the way but failed and was hit and killed by the chest." Saint Peter couldn't help but chuckle a bit as he directed the man to the waiting room. Saint Peter is still amused when his third customer of the day enters and Saint Peter apologizes as he says, "I doubt that your last day was as interesting as the two fellows that arrived here just before you." "I don't know", replies the man. "Picture this -- I'm bare ass naked, hiding in this cedar chest." If you were 8 years old when the song “Red Red Wine” was released.. UB40 now. Two Thai girls asked me if I wanted to sleep with them. They said it would be like winning the Lottery. To my horror they were right, we had six matching balls. My wife said I'm the cheapest person ever.. I didn't buy it. Reactions: brilor and stevent222 I was walking past a farm and a sign said, “Duck, eggs.” I thought, “That’s an unnecessary comma…” – and then it hit me. Reactions: brilor, stevent222 and squirt What do you call a big dog who's always alert? Awarewolf. Bought a pen the other day that can write under water.. it can write other words too. What do you call a Bee hive with no exits? Reactions: brilor, squirt and stevent222 I got banned from the local laser tag arena recently.. I guess the staff wasn’t happy when I started using my knife to save on ammunition. Hippopotamuses can outrun a human on land or in the water.. So if you’re in a triathlon against a hippo, you really have to make up time in the bicycle portion. I Am Leaving The Job A young peasant girl of twelve went to work in a broom factory. After 2 months she gave the boss a two-week notice. The boss was quite unhappy to let her go since she was hard working, knew her tasks etc. He called her into his office, "But why?" he asked. "Nothin, I just wanna quit that's all," she said sullenly. "Look, I'll give you a raise." "No," she said "You can't just quit like that. There must be a reason. Tell me." "Okay if you must know..." said the girl, and she took off her underwear and pointed to her pubic hair. "Look I haven't had this before, it's the broom's bristles, I tell you..." Tickled by her innocence, he too took off his underwear and showed his, and said, "Ha ha...my dear it's nature. Look I have it too....." "Oh no!" the girl cried, "I can't wait two weeks, I quit now! Not only do you have the bristles, but you've grown the handle as well." Obama has died and gone to Hell. "I don't know what to do," says the Devil. "You're on my list but I have no room for you. But you definitely have to stay here, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got three people here who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I'll even let YOU decide who leaves." Obama thought that sounded pretty good so he agreed. The devil opened the first room. In it was Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He kept diving in and surfacing empty handed over and over and over, such was his fate in Hell. "No!" Obama said. "I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and I don't think I could do that all day long." The Devil led him to the next room. In it was Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time. "No! I've got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!" commented Obama. The Devil opened the third door. In it, Obama saw Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs staked in a spread-eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best. Obama looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, "Yeah, I can handle this." The Devil smiled and said, "Monica, you're free to go!" An old man and woman were married for many years, even though they hated each other. Whenever there was a confrontation, yelling could be heard deep into the night. The old man would shout, 'When I die, I will dig my way up and out of the grave and come back and haunt you for the rest of your life!' Neighbors feared him. They believed he practiced magic, because of the many strange occurrences that took place in their neighborhood. The old man liked the fact that he was feared. --- To everyone's relief, he died of a heart attack when he was 98. His wife had a closed casket at the wake. After the burial, she went straight to the local bar and began to party, as if there was no tomorrow. Her neighbors, concerned for her safety, asked, 'Aren't you afraid that he may indeed be able to dig his way out of the grave and haunt you for the rest of your life?' The wife put down her drink and said, 'Let him dig. I had him buried upside down and you know men won't ask for directions...' Thought you might be interested in this ... A slave call girl from Sardinia named Gedophamee was attending a great but as yet unnamed athletic festival 2500 years ago in Greece. In those days believe it or not the athletes performed naked. To prevent unwanted arousal while competing, the men imbibed freely on drink containing saltpeter before and throughout the variety of events. At the opening ceremonial parade Gedophamee observed the first wave of naked magnificent males marching toward her and she exclaimed: "OH!! Limp Pricks!" Over the next two and a half millennia that morphed into "Olympics". Big Rain. After a hardy Arkansas rainstorm filled all the potholes with rain in the back alley, a young mother watched her two little boys playing in a water puddle through her kitchen window. The older of the two, a five year old lad, grabbed his sibling by the back of the head and shoved his face into the water hole. As the younger boy recovered and stood laughing and dripping, the mother ran to the back yard in a panic. "Why on Earth did you do that to your little brother?" she screamed as she shook the older boy in anger."We were just playing 'church', Mommy," he said. "I was baptizing him like the preacher did in church last Sunday. I said, “I now baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and in-da-hole-he-goes.."	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1027
__label__cc	0.672813	0.327187	BOTM About Caleb and Linda Pirtle Terms, Conditions, & Privacy Cormac McCarthy: The Man Who Writes Poetic Brimstone Caleb Pirtle III There is no one quite like him in the world of American writers. Cormac McCarthy is brutally honest if nothing else. H says: “There was never a person born since Adam who’s been luckier than me. Nothing has happened to me that hasn’t been perfect. And I’m not being facetious. There’s never been a time when I was penniless and down, when something wouldn’t arrive. Over and over and over again. Enough to make you superstitious. “In talking to older people who’ve had good lives, inevitably half of hem ill say, ‘the most significant thing in my life is that I’ve been extraordinarily lucky.’ And when you heart that you know you’re hearing the truth. It doesn’t diminish their talent or industry. You can have all that and fail.” Luck followed Cormac McCarthy. Back in 1965, he wrote his first novel. There he was just like the rest of us who write for a living. He had a manuscript. He had several thousand words on paper. So what do you do next?” Cormac McCarthy sent his manuscript to Random House. It was, he said, the only publisher he had heard of. Of all the publishers in the world, he happened to choose one who employed Albert Erskine, William Faulkner’s personal editor until the Mississippi author died. It was the end of an era. All the pretty words were gone. Of all the manuscripts making their way through Random House, the story written by Cormac McCarthy happened to fall on Albert Erskine’s desk. Erskine knew genius. He knew Faulkner. Erskine recognized genius. He read Cormac McCarthy. There was no one quite like him in the world of American writers. McCarthy had a publisher. But no one knew him. His name was unknown among those who spent their hard-earned money buying books. Cormac McCarthy sold a few copies. He learned to live on nickels and dimes. Meager sales probably cost him a wife. But McCarthy kept writing, and Erskine kept editing, and Random House kept publishing, and, almost twenty years later, here came Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. It was brilliant. It was brutal. And the literary world suddenly sat up and took notice of the savage beauty of Cormac McCarthy’s writing. Time Magazine would later name Blood Meridian as one of the hundred best English-language books published between 1923 and 2005. The New York Times in 2006 called it the second best novel of American fiction published in the past twenty-five years. And literary critic Harold Bloom selected McCarthy as one of the four major American novelists of his time, ranking him alongside Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. He labeled Blood Meridian as the greatest single book since Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. His language is sparse. It’s spare. Critics call it magnificent and have referred to McCarthy’s writing as pure poetic brimstone. Of The Road, which won a Pulitzer Prize, Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times, “A boy and his father lurch across the cold wretched, wet, corpse-strewn, ashen landscape of a post–apocalyptic world. The imagery is brutal even by Cormac McCarthy’s high standard for despair. “This parable is also trenchant and terrifying, written with stripped-down urgency and fueled by the force of a universal nightmare . . . Mr. McCarthy brings an almost biblical fury as he bears witness to signs man was never meant to see.” McCarthy sees them. And because of his writing, so do we. Albert Erskine, American novelists, author, books, Caleb Pirtle III, Cormac McCarthy, editor, literary critics, poetic brimstone, Pulitzer Prize, The Road Daily Review: The Lonely Poet and Other Stories by Branka Cubrilo Daily Review: Closed Hearts by Regina Puckett Branka Cubrilo: One of the Top Ten Writers of Literary Fiction You Need To Be Reading Cormac McCarthy: Writing Pure Poetic Brimstone Facing the fear of a blank screen How do you get rid of a vampire? Brigitta Moon: One of the Top Ten Writers of Romantic Suspense You Need To Be Reading We’re all living from one story to the next Write a Book and Fight the Ghosts Nina Romano: One of the Top Ten Writers of Historical Romance You Need To Be Reading Just follow the words, and the ending will find you Suzi Albracht: One of the Top Ten Writers of Paranormal Romance You Need To Be Reading Does a book end the way a year ends? What makes a good book good? A new book of your life begins with a new year Nicholas C. Rossis: One of the Top Ten Sci-Fi Fantasy Writers You Need To Be Reading Jan Romes: One of the Top Ten Writers of Women’s Fiction You Need To Be Reading On love and war and unhappy endings A new world, a bold new trend in publishing Marjorie Swift Doering: One of the Top Ten Crime Thriller Writers You Need To Be Reading Creating an unforgettable sense of place Tina-Marie Miller: One of the Top Ten Writers of Women’s Fiction You Need To Be Reading By Caleb Pirtle III \| 0 Comments Sampler: Sarah’s Home by Vicky Whedbee Daily Review: The Tao of the Viper by Linda Watkins By Linda Pirtle \| 0 Comments Sampler: So Wonderful As Want by Joyce DeBacco By Caleb Pirtle III \| 1 Comment Daily Review: Going Dark by Neil Lancaster Caleb & Linda Pirtle 1220 Chateau Lane Hideaway, TX 75771 Follow Caleb Pirtle, III Tweets by @CalebPirtle Copyright © 2011-2020 Caleb and Linda Pirtle. A Fast Track Sites Site.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1040
__label__cc	0.749623	0.250377	Phone Cameras Fujifilm X-H1 Review The Fujifilm company has been in the market for ages, and they surely left a stamp of their own. They pretty much own the field with high quality camera with reasonable price ranges. And now they are back, stronger than ever with their new unreleased camera, this camera is the talk of all the blogs, groups and most certainly rumors. So we made this Fujifilm X-H1 review with all what we have heard so far, and what we are expecting. It is said that the new Fujifilm X-H1 will beat Fujifilm X-T2 out of its place with better and higher features, despite sharing the same sensor and processor, the Fujifilm X-H1 will have the same 24 MP X-TransIII sensor of the Fujifilm X-T2 along with a higher AutoFocus. The main upgrade over the Fujifilm X-T2 is the in body image stabilization (IBIS). Read more: Fujifilm X-T2 review done by TechRadar. Let’s start with the body axis, you may have been wondering and speculating whether it will have a 3 or 5 body axis, but to put that debate, the good news is that it will be 5 axis in body image stabilization. Unlike we see on some Olympus and Panasonic cameras, the IBIS on the X-H1 can not be combined with the OIS. So you have to use either IBIS or OIS, but they won’t work together. As reported earlier, it will have full sensor readout meaning no crop when IBIS is activated, the sensor readout will cover the full sensor area. It will lack of sensor shift and dual IS, at least at the current firmware stage, but the IBIS only function will work just fine. Shot at a Fujifilm press event in Seattle, Washington, to launch the X-T2 camera. Just like the X-T2 and GFX, the X-H1 will have the a 3 way fully articulating tilting screen, but they must have read the fans demands and so they have added a touch feature to it unlike the X-T2. It was also said that Fujifilm X-H1 In Body Image Stabilization will be compatible and work with all Fujinon X-Mount Lenses, it will not have its own set of lenses. This Fuji X-H1 review is not done yet; it will have a new film simulation “eterna” in addition to a top LCD panel adding more visible outdoors in bright sunlight, and not as distracting in dark locations. It is reported that the video specifications will be 4K with a 1.17x crop, 30p, and a f-log 4:2:0 8 bit 200 mbps, making it probably also an ideal camera for sports photography especially in combination with the XF200mF2. It also has a 4K photo feature which is a Timelapse feature, adding a better video experience. The Fujifilm X-H1 will have the headphone jack build into the camera body which is a huge update comparing to the X-T2 that has the headphone jack only in the vertical grip. The unreleased model feels fantastic in hand; it is all metal and much better made in Japan than most of the other expensive but all-plastic cameras popular today. Shoot with it, and you’ll love how smooth and quiet it is. It is a small, discreet camera. It takes a while to learn because it’s menu system is awful, but once you get past that and get it set, it is a joy to shoot. This unreleased model’s system is the first serious system designed from the ground up as digital camera system with no ties whatsoever to film. For instance, the lenses are designed knowing they’ll be working with a digital system, and the system automatically works in concert with these lenses to correct lateral color, distortion, light fall off and even diffraction all automatically. There is no way to shoot these lenses off the camera to see how they work without correction; they are intended to work with the camera as a complete system. It also adds a few nice features, like a cable release socket and dual card slots, to the already excellent Fuji X-T1 of 2014. They are both what a Japanese camera should be: tiny, tight, precise, fast, quiet, easy to use and extremely well made out of all metal. It’s not another off-shored to China excuse made out of plastic. In-depth Fuji X-H1 Review The first impressions given to the unreleased model were that it gave us a reminiscent of an old film camera. It is very easy to get into just shooting frames with it; it has great ergonomics; and is as fast as any pro camera. The new joystick on back, which you can use to select focus points, is such genius add that we believe all cameras should have one. This is a shooter’s camera with manual controls even if you don’t need them on a digital camera. This model is the company’s reliable imaging algorithms and appealing film simulation software, and it is easier to just let the camera do the work on its own, spending little time, if any, post-processing. That is the Fujifilm magic and if you invest in their system, it will reward you with studio quality images. This model was added the advantage of offering a compact, rugged, water resistant design that is built to take anywhere. The unreleased model is recommend highly to all the Fujifilm fans who aspire for perfection, this versatile is also recommend as a superb mirrorless camera to those photographers looking to step up from their sleek but underpowered smartphones or get rid of their bulky DSLR gear. It is also rumored that this model will take exceptionally sharp and undistorted images, due to no anti-alias filter on the sensor and super sharp lenses optimized for the Fuji sensors and the camera’s DSP. The X-H1 is light, fast, and offers excellent image quality. It is a serious mirrorless camera for serious photographers. Finally, we end this Fujifilm X-H1 review with the EVF update. In continuous shooting, the EVF black out time on the upcoming Fujifilm X-H1 will be much shorter than on the X-T2. Almost seemingly, it will be basically black out free, hence getting closer to Sony A9 territory, and perhaps beating it. Best Bridge Cameras for 2018 Jason Adams is the driving force behind this website. He has had a love of photography for most of his life and has spent a lot of time buying and using all types of photography gear. I’m Jason Adams and I have had a love of photography for most of my life. I started Camera Rated to provide in-depth information and reviews for anybody who is interested in cameras, lenses and almost anything related to digital photography! Camerarated.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and we get a commission on purchases made through our links. Copyright © 2020 Camera Rated	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1043
__label__cc	0.73139	0.26861	Raising voices: young people speak up in Parliament Monday 29 July 2019 Monday 29 July 2019 by Rachael Sweet “It’s vital that my MP hears my voice – a lot of children’s voices are overlooked ” Steph, 15, Kent What happens when you get 50 teenagers, 10 MPs and an International Development Secretary in a room to talk about the UK’s aid budget..? Energetic debate, new ideas and lots of selfies! (For evidence, scroll to the bottom of this post…) Although Save the Children was founded 100 years ago to provide vital food, medication and safety for children, we haven’t always provided space for their voices. The assumption that adults know best is a hard one to shake. But creating a platform for children and amplifying their opinions is at the heart of our new strategy, and it applies whether we’re operating in Syria, Rwanda or the UK. We’ve taken this to heart with our public campaigning work to protect and improve the UK’s aid spending, engaging with schools across the UK to hear what they’d spend the UK aid budget on. Over the past few months, we’ve held workshops with 14-17 year old students, discussing the challenges set by the Global Goals and how the UK Government is rising to them. We heard again and again that young people would prioritise strong education and healthcare systems – infrastructure vital to ensuring children in the poorest countries are able to grow up and transform their own futures. Descending on Parliament These workshops culminated in a lobby day to showcase young voices on aid – groups of students and their teachers travelled from as far as Belfast and as close as Lambeth. After a busy morning of training, where we were joined by volunteers from the International Citizens Service to hear about their placements abroad, and a session with ONE where they role-played meeting and influencing their MPs, we were all off to Parliament. The groups heard from Lord McConnell and Lord Bates about their experiences working on aid and the Global Goals, and MPs and Lords popped in for chats throughout the afternoon. Groups of students talked with their representatives, sharing their vision for UK aid. Virendra Sharma MP declared that “their passion for international development fills me with great pride and hope for humanity’s future”, and Preet Gill MP tweeted that she’d been inspired by the students’ passion. To close, Rory Stewart, then-Secretary of State for International Development, joined for a Q&A, fielding tough questions from the students assembled before holding an intense discussion with smaller group of students. He later tweeted “thank you all so much for giving me the chance to listen to all your practical and creative ideas on development.” As all the students chattered excitedly, we asked them what they thought of the day. One student said “I did something I never thought I would do”. Another said “it made me happy that my voice was heard and that my opinion was considered”. And this was exactly the point of it all: empowering young people to raise their voices and be heard. Students will be inviting their MPs for follow-up conversations in their constituencies, holding assemblies to engage with their peers and joining our UK aid work in the next school year. We look forward to engaging with new Secretary of State Alok Sharma MP and making sure he hears the passionate and articulate voices of young people from across the UK. We made a short film about the importance of young people having their voices heard in Parliament – watch it now! A few photos from the day: A student discussion on UK aid All 50 students at the start of the day A student asks a question A student takes a selfie with Lord Bates Rory Stewart takes a selfie after his Q&A Students share their vision for UK aid outside Parliament A student talks to Preet Gill MP Themes: Aid and development, Campaigning, Children's voices, Health Tags: aid, DFID, Health, lobbying, MPs, students, Sustainable Development Goals, Westminster, Youth Rachael Sweet Family planning: UK aid at its best Teatime for change: Hellmuth’s story 2013 Annual Report: Leaving No Child Behind International aid: UK Parliament gears up for landmark vote	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1049
__label__cc	0.562201	0.437799	Restructuring the axis – Temporal and spatial investigations Three Perspectives Artists – David A. Rios (NO), Takahiro Ueda (JP), Kovács /O’Doherty (HU/IE) Increments Kovács /O’Doherty – Performance April 2 (SA) April 3 (SO) 1-6pm Art Director – Candace Goodrich http://davidarios.no http://www.takahiro-ueda.com http://www.kovacsodoherty.com From three positions, the installation, objects, and performative works of David A. Rios (NO), Takahiro Ueda (JP), and Kovács/O’Doherty (HU/IE), each play with the paradigm of time and space as metaphors for how we deal with systemic failure, transformation and evolution, and our individual life standards and pacing. Through layering, rhythm, pattern and repetition, experimenting with natural frequencies and imperceptibility, these 4 artists redefine and challenge our understanding of the linear and the axis. Increments is a durational installation by Kovács/O’Doherty – a piece which exists at the intersections of sound art, installation, and performance. Increments has a precise, delicate structure: over the course of five hours, in a series of repeating actions, two performers record and play back sound on two drums. The performers switch between adding sound and listening, alternately active and contemplative. Over time, layered recordings are formed of both the drums and their acoustic reflections in the room. The piece invites attendees to experience a transition from sparse, clear sounds into a dense soundfield of rhythm and feedback tones, and to immerse themselves in enveloping sound. The piece develops constantly over the course of five hours, and attendees are welcome to come and go as they please – or to stay and sink in to the experience. Sponsored by: Norwegian Embassy, Art Council Norway, Zacher Component, ASW, Collegium Hungaricum Berlin Balassi Institut photos by arnar sigurbjörnsson. graphic design by david voss.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1055
__label__cc	0.543498	0.456502	Tag: Arua Thousands of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are to benefit from a major aid operation. Posted on September 20, 2016 by Tukundane Yonna By Patricia Osman The donation includes mosquito nets, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting, kitchen sets and solar lights. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees Representative to Uganda, Bornwell Kantande says the items will be delivered to refugee settlement in areas in Adjumani, Arua and Kiryandongo districts. He adds that the people of South Sudan are suffering, as can be seen by the record numbers that have fled to Uganda and other neighboring countries in recent weeks. Just last week the number of South Sudanese refugees fleeing their country surpassed the one million mark. Photo: www.unhcr.org Posted in NewsTagged Adjumani, Arua, Kiryandongo, South Sudanese, United Nations High Commission for Refugees Four die in an accident in Arua Posted on March 29, 2016 by Annah Nafula Four people are confirmed dead following two separate accidents that occurred on last evening in Arua. Three of the victims who were riding on the same motorcycle, were knocked dead by a speeding trailer with registration number UAR 380R along Arua-Nebbi highway. Two of them died on spot while one died from Arua hospital moments later. The fourth victim was knocked by a hit and run vehicle in Ogoko along Pawor Ocoko Arua road. His body was whisked away by the locals before the arrival of the police. The incidences took place between 5:45 and 6pm last evening. Police Spokesperson for North Western region Josephine Angucia confirmed to URN in a telephone interview this morning that police impounded the trailer and arrested its driver as investigations into the cause of the accident take shape. Angucia added that postmortem examinations are underway for all the victims before handing their bodies to the relatives for burial later today. She cautioned against reckless driving. Rev. Isaac Nguma, a relative to one of the deceased persons appealed to road users to be cautious while using the roads. -URN Posted in News, Trending, Trending StoriesTagged accident, Arua, Capital FM Uganda ON DUTY: European Union Election Observation Mission in Uganda Team Posted on January 13, 2016 by Tukundane Yonna Following an invitation from the Government of Uganda, the European Union has established a mission to observe the 18th February General Elections. The Chief Observer of the Election mission is Mr. Eduard Kukan, a Slovak member of the European Parliament. The mission comprises around 120 observers from all EU countries, as well as Norway. The EU Mission in Uganda says a credible national voters’ register is key to a transparent election. Marian Gabriel, the Deputy Chief Observer at the EU Election Observation Mission 2016, says the Electoral Commission must ensure that the voters’ register is accurate and void of scrutiny from the opposition and the electorate. Marian says the biometric system is one of the steps the EU Observer Mission thinks will provide safeguards against fraud during the 2016 general elections. Marian was speaking at the dispatch of thirty EU long-term observers who will be monitoring the campaign period in the run up to the February 18 polls and after. Thirty EU long-term Observers, grouped in two-person teams, departed yesterday from the Election Observation Mission’s headquarters in Kampala to their respective areas of responsibility across the country. “They will be observing all aspects of the electoral process in their duty areas, meeting with election officials, candidates and civil society representatives. They will report back to the core team in Kampala and the information they provide will be the basis for the mission’s assessment”, said Mr. Marian The observers will be based in Kampala, Mityana, Masaka, Mbarara, Kabale, Kabarole, Masindi, Arua, Gulu, Lira, Soroti, Moroto, Mbale and Jinja districts. Closer to Election day, around 80 short-term observers will join the mission. Two days after the election, a Preliminary Statement will be presented by the Chief Observer in a press conference. Marian says the observers will focus on the presidential and parliamentary campaigns to monitor media access to candidates and the role of security forces in the elections, among others. Photo Credit: trending.co.ug Posted in News, Politics, Trending, Trending StoriesTagged Arua, European Union, Gulu, Jinja, Kabale, Kabarole, Kampala, Lira, Masaka, Masindi, Mbale, Mbarara, Mityana, Moroto, Soroti, Uganda Parliament is not selfish as you think – Oboth Oboth By Edwin Muhumuza Stakeholders have expressed concern over... Man sent to jail over stolen property By Sania Babirye A chapati man who was... Supermarkets and bakeries closed over poor hygiene By Deo Wasswa The Uganda National Bureau of... Kadaga warns MPs about fraudulent schemes By Alice Lubwama The Speaker of parliament Rebecca... DP releases roadmap for 2021 elections By Robert Segawa Opposition Democratic Party ( DP)... FDC vows to continue with regional celebrations The opposition Forum for Democratic Change ( FDC... More extension workers needed to improve agricultural produce FDC set to elect a flag bearer Police hunting for site engineers of collapsed building in jinja Former Mulago pharmacist faces jail over ISO director’s son case	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1059
__label__cc	0.557826	0.442174	How “The LEGO Batman Movie” Was Made to Sound Really Good. It just goes to show how powerful and popular The LEGO Batman Movie is when, despite having premiered way early in the year that’s gone by, it still continues to enjoy a steady stream of new LEGO products in its own dedicated thematic line: minifigures, play sets and polybags galore. Seeing as there are some new LEGO Batman stuffs to collect this 2018 now seems like a good time to have a look back at the movie that started it all. A spinoff of 2014’s The LEGO Movie, LEGO Batman built up its own following; Rotten Tomatoes rated it 91%. One of the main draws of the film, according to critics, was the 3D CGI animated film’s impressive sound design. Musical soundtrack aside, The LEGO Batman Movie was audibly brilliant with some impressive sound effects courtesy of the Warner Animation Group’s expert sound designers. The secret to the film’s awesome audio according to supervising sound editor and designer Wayne Pashley, was the choice to treat the production like it were a live-action film. Real sounds were sampled, such as the ground and flight modes of the Batwing being from a jet engine and F-1 car. But LEGO Batman also involves LEGO constructs in action (and crashing together), and that level of “realistic sounds” applies to the brick and minifigures too. Pashley noted that they recorded “Lego, Duplo and many other plastic props, all varying weights, utilizing the plastic world to enhance the comedy when required.” Collectors looking for the latest LEGO Batman sets can certainly appreciate the big-budget film treatment that director Chris McKay tendered to the source material of their favorite LEGO items. Surely when building and playing with their latest acquisitions, they’ll hear the film sounds in their heads. Author Albert BalanzaPosted on January 5, 2018 January 4, 2019 Categories Featured, LEGO, Miscellaneous, Movies Previous Previous post: Next “LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2” DLC: Teen Heroes “The Champions” Next Next post: Set Names, Numbers for 2018 Summer LEGO Minecraft Sets.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1064
__label__cc	0.73172	0.26828	The Touch of Fire On January 13, 2012 By broadsideblogIn behavior, business, journalism, work If we’re lucky, at some point in our lives, we’ll feel the touch of fire — time spent with someone so inspiring, accomplished and genuinely interested in us and our talents, however latent — that brands us forever. It’s happened to me twice (so far) in my life, both when I was in my mid-20s. The first was on my fellowship in Paris, founded and run by a charismatic, bossy, imperious, charming legend named Philippe Viannay. The man, even then in his 60s, dressed elegantly, laughed often and had created more social value in his lifetime than almost anyone I’ve had the privilege to meet since: he was a Resistance hero; co-founded a major newspaper; founded a home for wayward boys; founded a sailing school; ran a journalism school and, (whew) founded and ran Journalists in Europe, the program that chose me and changed my life and worldview forever. We had an immediate rapport, and he introduced me to everyone as “le terrible Caitlin!” I was deeply offended until I realized it meant terrific. The fellowship changed everything for me: how I felt about myself as a person, as a writer, showed me I could thrive in another language and culture. I’m honored to have known him, and that he shared some of his time with me. When I returned to my native Toronto, and got my dream job as a writer for The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, I briefly met Jill Krementz, a photographer whose work is well-known to Americans, and the widow of writer Kurt Vonnegut. She came to Toronto for a day-long photo shoot for a book called A Day in the Life of Canada and, as a reporter, I shadowed her throughout the entire day. I’d started my career eager to become a photographer and then — in the mid 1980s — there were relatively few women working at her level in that field. The notion of meeting her, let alone spending an entire day with one of my idols? Swoon! It was amazing to me, (even with parents working in film and television), that people of this stature would make time to talk to me, get to know me a bit, share some of their wisdom and insight. At the end of the day, back when shooters used film, Krementz sat cross-legged on her hotel bed as she counted film canisters, and I pelted her with questions about her career and how she’d achieved what she had. She was tough as nails. Is that what it would take? (Yes!) I have a young friend in Tucson, far from the bright lights and easy professional contacts of a New York, Los Angeles, London or Paris. Roxana is quiet, pretty, soft-spoken, Hispanic, not a culture that necessarily “gets” a young woman eager to sell her news photos for a living. In her social circles, the odds of meeting a world-famous, globe-trotting star of her industry is slim-to-none. But she did, and her meeting with Chris Hondros — killed April 20, 2011 in Misrata, Libya while on assignment– touched her deeply. They spoke, emailed, stayed in touch. With her permission, I include her account of this amazing and life-changing experience: In 2007, my first semester in journalism, I took an ethics course. One day we were viewing one of Chris Hondros’ famous pictures, the one with a little girl covered in blood where all you can see next to her are the boots of a soldier. Powerful, powerful image and story. We were discussing in class about how it should be published. My opinion was front page and in color — people need to know. For the course I decided to write my report on war photography and focus on Hondros’ work. One day, I friended him on Facebook just in case. Maybe I would be able to ask him some questions personally instead of citing a book. Five minutes later, he messaged me back. He wrote, “Perfect timing.” He was going to be in Tucson a few days working on an economy piece for Getty Images. I was so excited, I jumped from my chair, smiling ear to ear. Minutes later we were talking on the phone and I was helping him with information about Tucson, while another of my friends, also a great photojournalist, James Gregg, teamed up to help Hondros find what he was looking for. When he arrived it was like meeting a celebrity. He was in Tucson for four days. I went out photographing with him one afternoon and felt so lucky. I kept blushing and was nervous. But Hondros was so down-to-earth. Every time I asked him about his work he gave short answers, very to the point. He was more interested in talking about my work. The last night he was in town we had coffee and I brought my work for him to see it. It was my first real news portfolio, mostly pictures taken for my college paper. I was very nervous. He glanced at them very quickly closed the book and kept talking about something else — before we left I asked him about my work. “It’s a first portfolio. Mine was bad when I started.” We laughed. But he told me that I was very passionate and he believed that I would become better. We walked to his hotel, he gave me a huge hug and told if I was ever in New York City to look him up. I don’t have a picture of me and him, and I wish I did. I felt too embarrassed to ask. I never knew that I wouldn’t see him again. After that visit I was in constant contact with him through Facebook, email, sometimes Skype. We chatted online when he was sent to Baghdad, or Afghanistan on assignment and I was always picking his brains. The last portfolio I sent him to see, he said it looked good and sharp. He once told me that when I was ready he would take me to Getty Images. I was honest with him and shared my frustrations with journalism and finding a place to publish me. He would tell me not to give up on photography because I was good at it. The day he died was so tough for me. I had never had anyone close to me die so suddenly. I turned on CNN and there it was Tim Hetherington, confirmed dead, but Chris was still in critical condition. At the same time I was chatting online with a photographer from Kosovo living in France. He knew Chris too, and had helped him in Kosovo. This community of war photographers and foreign journalist is small. Most know each other, and I’m so glad to be linked to them. I prayed for Chris all morning and I didn’t leave my house. The hardest moment was seeing the woman on CNN say, “We have confirmed that Chris Hondros has died.” My mom held me tight. I had spoken to him a couple of weeks earlier when he was in Cairo covering the revolution. All I could think of was our last chat. I didn’t think that he would leave so soon. I miss him so much. I still feel that he’s still out there photographing the world. He is my drive and inspiration. Have you been touched along the way by someone like this? What effect did it have on you or your career? AdviceCaitlin KellyChris HondrosJill KrementzJournalismKurt VonnegutLibyalifementoringmentorsphotographyphotojournalismrole modelsTim HetheringtonWarwar photographyworkwriting Mortal? Moi? My Soundtrack — And Yours? 10 thoughts on “The Touch of Fire” Lisa Wields Words I just spent a week travelling with people who have touched me in this way. Their names are not huge in the field, but their talent, achievement, and passion has helped reinvigorate my understanding of my life, my goals, and my own achievements. I have had the opportunity to meet a few of my own idols, and often found them gracious and giving. To me, a sign of a truly successful person is one who carries his/her success with grace and modesty, never assuming anything but willing to share with those who are willing to listen. Thank you for a lovely post. I remember you telling us about this trip. Glad it was so restorative. Those meetings have, for me anyway, long-lasting effects in the best way possible. This probably sounds incredibly weird but for me, that touch of fire came when I met my son. He pees his pants. He picks his nose. He is the most brilliant example of how to live a furiously happy life. P.S. Loved “le terrible Caitlin”, and glad you clarified. I was thinking it was an insult, too! I suspect those behaviors in anyone beyond the age of…2?…would be a tad off-putting, but I love that he gets your vote! That’s an incredible story. How lucky she was to have such a great mentor. I still keep in touch with my 2nd grade supply teacher. She’s a tough lady and the only one I keep in touch with via snail mail. She always believed in me even though I was the reject runtling in her 2nd grade class. When I tell her how far I’ve come, she’s one of the few people who are never surprised. I am sure she saw much in you that you could not see for yourself. We are so fortunate to meet even one of these people in life. Their belief in our best selves is like jet fuel. Pingback: Inspiration comes in many forms « AN INSTANT OUT OF TIME Pingback: Inspiration « AN INSTANT OUT OF TIME thomasmedlicott You and Roxana were prepared to be lucky in meeting your mentors. Too often we don’t recognize who or what is right in front of us. I would like to think a father or grandfather, a mother, an aunt or uncle would fill the mentor void – but for me it never did. The rather new phrase “pay it forward” works. No electrical spark in my life, just friction shocks from all the carpets I’ve tred upon. I think that’s true. Jose did the same. I guess we all want our J-careers so badly… I actually believe a non-related mentor is far more powerful…they have no reason (i.e. blood ties or loyalty) to help you other than desire and your innate talent. I think that, for me, is more powerful than someone I would (like you) have somewhat expected to help…not that anyone ever did!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1066
__label__cc	0.571015	0.428985	Natural Attraction was published by Penner Publishing in May 2015. Sadly, the publishing house with the tag “books for smart women” closed in 2018. I have the right to my title and am considering what to do with it. Natural Attraction is about Clementine, an aspiring scientist from Spookstad, Michigan who takes a tonic to become a man to advance her career. The bookback reads: Clementine dreams of being a naturalist—a career that leaves no time for romance. To sneak on an adventurous prospecting expedition, Clementine will have to convince everyone she’s a man. A mysterious tonic offers her just that disguise. But “Calvin,” as she calls herself now, had no idea what she was giving up. When Wesley, the expedition’s gentle preacher, catches her eye, she can’t get him out of her head; not his lush lips, wide brown eyes…or broad chest. Dare she reveal her secret to him? Can she keep her career if she does? Among run-ins with cowboys, natural disasters, and traveling shows, Wesley’s most fascinating adventure is meeting Calvin. Though Wesley’s betrothed to another, the cute, clever naturalist threatens to make him fall into temptation. “Catherine Haustein’s love of science imbues every page of this fascinating novel. Be prepared to learn as well as be entertained. The heroine Clementine is a frustrated naturalist longing to make a great scientific discovery. A special potion enables her to transform into a man so that she can serve as a naturalist on a prospecting expedition in 1871. Haustein packs her book with mid-nineteenth century happenings and curiosities: gold-rush era prospectors, madams, cowboys, traveling road show performers, and her native mid-western Dutch culture. Woven into the romantic plot between Clementine/Calvin and her star-crossed lover, Wesley, Haustein weaves reflections on Darwin and religion, the relationship between plant, animal, and human life, and the struggles of women in science. Queer readers will like her fluid view of mid-nineteenth century sexuality. A smart, lively read.”(Amazon review) “I adored NATURAL ATTRACTION by Catherine Haustein from beginning to end. I read it with an enthusiasm rarely felt in my life since early puberty when sci fi, romance and western novels were an escape from what I then saw as an unbearable dull small town existence…If MOBY DICK and PLAYING THE JACK had a love child that was educated at Harvard and had a side gig as a stand up comedian in a steampunk hipster bar it might be a little like Natural Attraction.”” – See more at: http://www.scifiromancequarterly.org/2015/09/reviews/#sthash.7nYhd9mA.dpuf This review from Goodreads hits at the serious heart of this comic novel: Rosalie’s review Dec 02, 2016 bookshelves: novels This novel has been categorized in various ways: a historical romance, an adventure novel, a novel of the Old West. The descriptions are accurate, but what I appreciate most about the book is its subtle wit and its good-humored, naive, endearingly goofy narrator, Clementine. Another aspect I appreciate: though the plot hinges on societal constraints preventing a woman in the 1870s from pursuing her dream to find work as a naturalist, the novel doesn’t ignore Clementine’s racial and class privilege as a white person with a good (if unorthodox) education. As she takes on a male appearance and moves west, the novel makes clear that it’s not just her presumed maleness but also her whiteness that earns acknowledgment and respect for her work. In a way, you could argue that Clementine’s main love interest here is science, and she is so eager and well-intentioned that you can’t help sharing her sense of wonder at the natural world and her enthusiasm about contributing to our knowledge of it. I was introduced to the author’s work a couple of years ago, when she contributed a wonderfully dystopic short story to the anthology I edited. That’s going to be the basis of her next novel, and I can’t wait to read it!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1074
__label__cc	0.734838	0.265162	Facebook \| Adding a Legacy Contact FaceBook, Social Media by Charlie-Helen Robinson 17 Feb 2015 26 May 2015 Adding a person to your account after you leave us is now possible for Facebook. The “Legacy Contact” is more than just a Trusted Account. Full article on Facebook News. UPDATE 20 May 2015: This is now available for Australians. By Vanessa Callison-Burch, Product Manager, Jasmine Probst, Content Strategist and Mark Govea, Software Engineer Facebook is a place to share and connect with friends and family. For many of us, it’s also a place to remember and honor those we’ve lost. When a person passes away, their account can become a memorial of their life, friendships and experiences. Today we’re introducing a new feature that lets people choose a legacy contact—a family member or friend who can manage their account when they pass away. Once someone lets us know that a person has passed away, we will memorialize the account and the legacy contact will be able to: Write a post to display at the top of the memorialized Timeline (for example, to announce a memorial service or share a special message) Respond to new friend requests from family members and friends who were not yet connected on Facebook The hidden impact of becoming a sudden carer is more revealing than expected Sorrel rum punch Charlie would love to start the conversation with you... Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1078
__label__cc	0.744349	0.255651	Chesham Cricket Club - All Stars Cricket All Stars Cricket is a national initiative from our sports governing body, the ECB, to promote cricket to juniors throughout the country. As a club we are acting as a delivery centre for the nationally defined program. BOOK HERE: All Stars Cricket Booking Form Who is All Stars Cricket for. The programme is designed for beginners in the 5 to 8 yr old age range (school yr1 to yr4). How does All Stars Cricket work. The central administration system provides the juniors with the introductory playing kit, runs the rewards program and collects the joining fees. It also provides the list of clubs that have signed up and been approved as delivery centres. You are free to choose whichever centre best fits your requirements, although we of course would encourage you to come to Chesham! All Stars Cricket at Chesham Cricket Club - 2019 We will run 1 course this summer, Sunday mornings, 11am-12pm, from 12th May to the end of term. Why choose Chesham Cricket Club 1) We already have regular sessions for 5 to 8 yr olds. Therefore we have a wealth of experiance working with this youngest age group, for example we run Minis Cricket sessions for 5-7s throughout the winter. 2) The club offers strong progression with both girls and boys sections all the way to adult. We have both girls and boys teams entering the local cricket leagues for the summer season. Many of the adults playing in the club came through the junior ranks and a number of the stronger players go on to represent the county. 3) At the end of the 8 week All Stars Cricket course all players will be invited to join the Chesham Juniors for the remainder of the summer (there will be an additional pro-rated cost). We play through to the end of August. 4) The club offers first class cricket training and playing facilities for players of all standards. 5) Parents benefit from a modern welcoming (warm!) club house including a bar, wifi and range of seating, both indoor and outside. If you have any specific questions please use the on site 'Contact' page to get in touch.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1083
__label__cc	0.559632	0.440368	Language Deutsch English Español (América Latina) français Português Brasileiro svenska 日本語简体中文繁體中文 한국어 YouGenomics: Bringing genomics data analysis to labs without bioinformatics resources About YouGenomics Founded by bioinformatics and computing experts, YouGenomics brings high-quality, scalable “omics” data analysis to labs and hospitals that do not have internal resources to process and interpret this information. The company uses industry-standard as well as custom-built pipelines and delivers results through an easy-to-use web interface. To learn more, visit www.yougenomics.com. Products: Cloud Life Sciences, BigQuery About MediaAgility MediaAgility is a digital consulting services company created with the purpose of making work productive, engaging and meaningful for all. With offices in the U.S., Mexico, U.K., India and Singapore, MediaAgility offers a full spectrum of advisory and implementation services focused on analytics, innovation and collaboration. To learn more, visit www.mediaagility.com. Google Genomics Results Implements high-throughput DNA sequencing data analysis pipeline using Google Cloud Platform to automate data processing at scale Simplifies real-time querying of whole genome sequencing and exome sequencing data using BigQuery Shares data with customers anywhere in the world When bioinformatics expert Dr. Avinash Abhyankar looked at the genomics landscape, he noticed that labs and institutions were divided into haves and have-nots: those with computational and analytical experience to deal with enormous genomics datasets, and those that could produce but not interpret the “omics” data. Dr. Abhyankar launched YouGenomics with a vision to make these analytical capabilities available to hospitals and small research labs.Today, he parachutes in to help clients with massive-scale genomics studies and provide high-quality data processing and analysis services through their system built on Google Cloud Platform. The upcoming next release of the platform exploits the power of Google Genomics. “With genomics data increasing day by day, we’re not too far from a point when labs cannot keep up with the growing computational demand,” Dr. Abhyankar says. “With Google Cloud Platform, we don’t need to worry about running out of space or compute— we can focus on the science.” Bioinformatics best practices for all Dr. Abhyankar has witnessed the evolution of the genomics field from small studies of individual genes a decade ago to large-scale studies of whole genomes now — and he's seen firsthand that many research labs didn’t have the computational resources to make that leap. “It’s hard to find bioinformaticians, and small labs can’t always afford them,” Dr. Abhyankar says. YouGenomics essentially gives research, government and hospital labs access to high-powered computational resources and bioinformatics expertise available on demand. The company focuses on whole genome sequencing data as well as other data such as epigenetics and gene expression profiling data. “Our main goal is to make analysis of these kinds of high throughput studies available to everyone, not just a few big labs with big funding,” Dr. Abhyankar adds. Dr. Abhyankar knew it didn’t make sense for each lab or research facility to build their own compute infrastructure to manage these projects since it would require too much maintenance and investment and wouldn’t scale as needed. Dr. Abhyankar chose to work with MediaAgility, a digital consulting services company and the latter chose Google Cloud Platform as the computational backbone for the company because it’s scalable, easy to use, highly secure, and accessible all over the world. Robust pipelines and virtually unlimited scalability MediaAgility developed a platform for YouGenomics that automates the analysis of next-generation sequencing data and reduce the turnaround time as well as save on heavy investments. DNA/RNA sequence analysis typically involves extensive and time consuming manual processing. But this application is scalable, secure and available for users around the world. MediaAgility’s case for cloud computing was an obvious one, and the choice of Google Cloud Platform turned out to be easy too. “I’ve been following the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health for a while now,” Dr. Abhyankar says. “They have come up with global standards for genomic data, and Google Genomics was the first to implement each and every one of those recommendations.” With Google Genomics, the YouGenomics team can use existing data-processing pipelines or create their own, which lets them consider different approaches to find the best one for each project rather than being stuck with a one-size-fits-most pipeline. For any new dataset, they can now choose their proprietary pipeline or Google’s version of the GATK best practices pipeline for processing DNA sequence data. As DNA sequencers generate more data, YouGenomics recognizes that it will be increasingly important to streamline basic processing steps such as variant calling. “MediaAgility recommended that by using Google Cloud Platform along with the Google Genomics APIs, we can fairly easily automate and scale these steps,” Dr. Abhyankar says. “Once that part is done, we can use our resources more efficiently for developing new algorithms for data interpretation, automated diagnosis and so on.” Speedy queries for clients around the world YouGenomics has provided many labs with lightning-fast data analysis. Google BigQuery has been a crucial component in that success, according to Dr. Abhyankar. “Storing whole genome and whole exome sequencing data in conventional databases makes it really slow to query, and performance takes a hit from having hundreds to thousands of samples in there,” he says, noting that a typical human genome contains about 4 million variants that must be queried for any analysis. “We use BigQuery for storing and querying genome and exome sequencing datasets, and it simplifies things quite a lot.” GCP has also allowed the team to collaborate with labs all over the world. Clients anywhere can access the analysis and results through Google Genomics in a secure and HIPAA-compliant environment. “This would not have been feasible for us if we decided to build hardware on our own,” Dr. Abhyankar says. “Google is investing heavily in developing solutions for analyzing large-scale genomics data. All the APIs and tools they have will be key to our success in the long run.” —Dr. Avinash Abhyankar, founder, YouGenomics Cloud Life Sciences BigQuery Varför Google Välja Google Cloud Tillit och säkerhet Öppet moln Kunder och fallstudier Rapporter från analytiker Priser för GCP Priser för G Suite Priser för Maps Platform Modernisering av infrastruktur Datahantering Programutveckling Smart företagsanalys och AI Produktivitet och arbetsomvandling DevOps-lösningar HR och rekryteringslösningar Marknadsföringslösningar Lösningar för småföretag Visa alla lösningar GCP-snabbstart Google Cloud för nystartade företag Engagera Kontakta säljavdelningen Hitta en partner Delta i användarundersökningar Vi söker medarbetare. Börja jobba på Google Cloud! Om Google Sekretess Användarvillkor för webbplatsen Användarvillkor för Google Cloud Registrera dig och få Google Clouds nyhetsbrev	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1088
__label__cc	0.585571	0.414429	Verbatim Increases Lead in Recordable and Rewritable CD and DVD Media Markets Optical Storage May 31,2005 0 Verbatim announced that the first quarter report from the Santa Clara Consulting Group (SCCG) shows the optical media developer and marketer has continued to increase its global market share in the rapidly expanding CD and DVD media arena. With worldwide demand for DVD recordable media increasing by 126 percent annually and recordable CD demand relatively stable, SCCG reported that Verbatim and its parent company, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM), reached #1 position worldwide in CD-R, CD-RW, DVDR and DVDRW volume. The market for recordable CD and DVD media is being driven by the growing demand for DVD burners that write to both CD and DVD media. SCCG forecasts the worldwide installed base of DVD writers will grow from less than 100 million to over 180 million by the end of 2005. With CDs playing a vital role for recording personal music, photos and home videos, analysts expect the market for CD media to be fairly stable in the coming years. However, with the prices of DVD recorders declining and the demand for digital cameras, camcorders and capture/playback devices almost doubling every year, SCCG analysts see worldwide shipments of recordable DVD media increasing from 1.4 billion in 2004 to over 3.1 billion units in 2005. "Today, more than 95 percent of all audio, video and data content starts as and stays digital," Randy Queen, Verbatim Americas President, commented. "According to most industry analysts, the volume of content we store is doubling every 12 months. CD/DVD optical discs provide low-cost, secure storage that can be shared and enjoyed almost universally. The CD has become the floppy disc of the 21st century, as people everywhere store and exchange personal and business content. At the same time, DVD technology has finally reached the mass market consumer who wants economical, high-performance video, audio and data storage that is stable, has a long data life and is compatible across the widest possible range of devices." Verbatim/MKM has consistently been first to market with new technologies such as higher-speed media, double-layer discs and product differentiators such as DigitalMovie(TM) DVDs with a movie reel look and VideoGard(TM) hard coat technology. The company's 16x DVDR media has gained a well-earned reputation for delivering consistently reliable 16x write performance. Verbatim/MKM's 8.5GB double-layer DVD+R media has been tested and certified to write not only at the rated 2.4x speed but at 4x, 5x and 6x speeds, saving users up to 20 minutes. With each technical advance, CD/DVD burners and recorders have become less tolerant of media imperfections. As a result, consistent media quality has become even more important for professionals, businesses and consumers. To meet hardware/software manufacturer requirements and end-user demands, Verbatim/MKM invests heavily in its R&D activities to develop new media dyes and coatings as well as production processes and procedures for next-generation media with higher speeds and capacities. Verbatim/MKM works closely with the industry's leading burner and recorder manufacturers as well as software firms, and provides them with benchmark media for performance and compatibility testing. This allows Verbatim/MKM to validate the media across the broad range of burners, recorders and players and provides end users with the best compatibility between their hardware and Verbatim-branded media. To maintain its leadership position, Verbatim/MKM continues to develop advanced and innovative storage solutions for the future, including Blu-ray and High-Definition DVD (HD-DVD) media technology. Verbatim brand media is marketed in North America, Europe and other areas of the world. In Japan, media is sold under the Mitsubishi brand. Tags: Verbatim Dual AGP+PCI Express on a Single Card Sony Adds Capacity to MICRO VAULT Storage media Verbatim Focuses on Encrypted Data Storage at IFA CMC Magnetics Buys Mitsubishi Chemical's Storage Media Business Verbatim launches Fingerprint Secure Hard Drive with 256-bit Encryption Verbatim ToughMAX USB Drive Resists Extreme Environments Verbatim Releases New Speedy External SSD Verbatim Unveils Black PRIMALLOY 3D Printing Filament Verbatim Launches 100GB MDISC Blu-ray Storage Media Verbatim-MKM To Manufacture And Sell Archival-Grade M-Discs	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1092
__label__cc	0.532599	0.467401	Object Permanence Syndrome What is Object Permanence Syndrome? Object Permanence Syndrome is that feeling people have that there is no connection to the all, that things like morals don’t matter if no one considered to be of import by the medical subject is watching, and that unless someone is caught red-handed and successfully prosecuted in a court of law — returning a guilty charge — the idea they are not socially or morally or in any way personally accountable for any act or action. In medical terms, Object Permanence Syndrome is something Cluster B people have a lot of but most people considered Empath, high EQ, and or HSP don’t. People with healthy neurological tissue and fully functioning EQ do not go through daily struggles trying, for instance, to feel a connection between other people and themselves. Further, people with healthy emotional intelligence don’t tend to anguish by physically trying to force themselves to emulate people with Newtonian Syndrome who are by nature groomed vertical thinkers. Object Permanence is the complex emotional understanding that objects continue to exist in the universe whether or not a particularly grandiose and tunnel-visioned perspective person behaves as if that is not at all the case. People with issues related to grasping the concept of Object Permanence are likely to have been highly unsuccessful in understanding the importance or moral lesson of playing Peek-A-Boo games with their parents and caregivers. If the adults in their life never took the time to help them understand the concept that even when they, as a moral actor, are not seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way doing some sort of action — positive or negative — that their action did not count or impact the world around them in some way. By touching and handling objects that a parent takes out of, for instance, a toy basket put away in the closest then taking it back out to allow them to play with later, even the youngest of infants tend to develop implicit confidence in generalized object permanence. By the time they figure out that covering mommy or daddy’s face with their hands does not mean their face stops existing, they get a sense that the people that come and go in their life can be trusted to physically still exist whether or not that person or peer is out of the young infant or toddler’s presence. “Object permanence typically starts to develop between 4-7 months of age and involves a baby’s understanding that when things disappear, they aren’t gone forever. Before the baby understands this concept, things that leave his view are gone, completely gone.” reports VEIPD.org in an article about how to teach Object Permanence using the playing Peek-A-Boo technique. A spouse who acts like a serial cheater when his wife or her husband is out of the room then pretends because betrayal has not been witnessed directly by the betrayed love interest that it does not count with regard to the social and karmic assessment of their character is likely to be profoundly Cluster B and suffering from a common variation of the disorder. One where they truly believe covert exposure to trauma or immoral and arguably toxic [clandestine] social activity does not impact their own neuroplasticity or their genetics. Surrendered Wife Moving the Goalposts Gaslighting, Obfuscating, using Doublespeak Tactics, and Lying confirms Consciousness of Guilt Kris Godinez on Anger and Resentment	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1094
__label__cc	0.747301	0.252699	Visions Of A Freer Future Lightning Network Skepticism 89 23 December I like the idea of the lightning network. I think the developers behind it are very smart and it’s a very clever use of Bitcoin contracts. I’m sure that whatever comes from it will be useful to some parts of the Bitcoin ecosystem at a minimum. What I’m not for, however, is prematurely deprecating critical parts of bitcoin (zeroconf transactions and low transaction fees) when it’s not yet clear that the lightning network will be a viable replacement for them. Yet that’s what the core developers seems bent on doing. We know that lightning is at least technically feasible. We don’t know if it’s economically feasible or even a desirable alternative. Will it be a decentralized peer-to-peer payment layer or will it end up as a quasi-centralized payment network similar modern banking? We don’t know the answer to this question and probably wont know until we see it in action. Which is why it comes across as irresponsible to go “all-in” on lightning at this point. My main concern from the beginning was that, as a hub-and-spoke payment layer, there would be very few hubs and the network would be quasi-centralized and a regulatory sitting duck. It seems I wasn’t the only one with this concern as there’s been a fairly recent pivot away from the hub-and-spoke network topology to a more organic, wallet-to-wallet routing. The network is now envisioned as a more pure p2p payment layer without those large scale payment hubs. Certainly this has to be viewed as a promising development as it begins to address my primary concern. Unfortunately, I find this view of the lightning network overly optimistic. In what follows I will give a lightning network overview and some reasons why I think it’s likely the network will end up with the hub-and-spoke topology anyway. At the core of the lightning network is the concept of payment channels. Using some complex bitcoin scripts, two parties can create a “channel” that, once opened, can allow them to make an unlimited number of trustless “off-chain” transactions. To open the channel, both parties jointly create a transaction in which one or both of them deposits bitcoins into the channel. This transaction gets broadcast to the bitcoin blockchain. In the above example Alice has funded the channel with 0.5 bitcoins and Bob with 0.8. To close the channel either party can broadcast a second, on-chain transaction to the bitcoin network that will payout both parties what they paid in. However, at any time while the channel is open, both parties can jointly agree to modify the payout distribution of the channel without needing to make an on-chain transaction. For example, if Alice wants to pay Bob 0.1 BTC, they could update the payout distribution such that Bob gets 0.9 BTC and Alice gets 0.4. And payments can be made back and forth like this an unlimited number of times as long as the channel remains open. A network of channels To see how this could be expanded into a payment network consider the following: Above, Alice wants to pay Bob 0.5 BTC, but she does not have a channel open with him. Fortunately, she does have a channel open with Charlie, who has a channel open with Bob. Alice can basically route her payment to Bob through Charlie using something called a hashed timelock contract (HTLC). To do this Alice sends a message to Bob saying “Hey, I want to send you a payment”. Bob responds by generating a random number (R) and sending Alice the hash of that number (H) (you can think of the hash of R as an encrypted form of that number). Alice’s wallet then contacts Charlie and says, “Hey Charlie, if you can provide me with the unencrypted value (R) that produced (H) then I will consent to updating the payout distribution of our channel so that you get 0.5 BTC more and I get 0.5 BTC less”. Charlie agrees even though he doesn’t (yet) know R. Charlie then goes to Bob and says, “Hey Bob, if you can provide me with the unencrypted value (R) that produced (H) then I will consent to updating the payout distribution of our channel so that you get 0.5 BTC more and I get 0.5 BTC less. Now Bob knows R since he’s the one who generated it, so he immediately gives R to Charlie and updates the payout distribution of the channel. Charlie then gives R to Alice and updates their channel and then boom, Alice paid Bob 0.5 BTC off chain. The original vision of the lightning network was that of a hub-and-spoke network. Your wallet would connect to a “payment hub” which would play the role of “Charlie” in the above example. By having the various payment hubs maintain channels with each other Alice, who has a channel open with hub A, could pay Bob, who has a channel open with hub B, the same way as before only with one or two extra hops in between. This network topology would be OK if there are many small payment hubs (like hundreds or thousands), but would royally suck if there are only handful of large hubs. It would be Visa, MasterCard, and Amex all over again. How many hubs? It’s impossible to forecast the exact number of hubs that would exist in the network in equilibrium, but there is at least some reason to think the number will be smaller rather than larger. While it’s true that the software will be open source and anyone will be able to run a payment hub (at least until the government decides to regulate it), the high cost of running a payment hub is likely to serve as a severe barrier to entry and create centralization pressure. What cost am I talking about? Let’s go back to the example where Charlie played the role of the “payment hub”: Recall that for Alice to send bitcoin to Bob (through Charlie), Charlie had to update the distribution of the channel he had with Bob (paying Bob more and himeself less) before he updated the distribution of his channel with Alice. In other words, Charlie had front Bob 0.5 BTC (for a very short period of time) before he was reimbursed by Alice. This implies that if Charlie wants to be a payment hub, he needs to deposit enough of his own bitcoin into a channel with each of his “customers” to facilitate these off-chain payments. If Charlie didn’t have at least 0.5 BTC ($220 at today’s price) pre-deposited in Bob’s channel, then the payment could not have been made. Now this money does not constitute a loan of any sort. Charlie would retain 100% control of it. But the money at least needs to sit there in these channels to facilitate these off-chain payments. We know that the time value of money is a thing, so there is a very real cost to operating a payment hub. Not to mention you need to come up with a lot of money up front just to get started. How much should a payment hub pre-deposit in each channel? I have no idea, but let’s just say it’s $500 worth of bitcoin. If you want to run a payment hub that serves just 100 people, you would need $50,000 capital just to start up (and more realistically will be in the millions). Some redditors I’ve run into seem to think people will be able to run payment hubs from their bedrooms. I’d like to suggest that’s not going to be the case. So at the end of the day centralization is a major cause for concern if the lightning network ends up with a hub-and-spoke topology. Wallet-to-wallet routing Can we do better than the hub-and-spoke model? Recently there’s been a lot of talk about avoiding payment hubs and trying to create a more decentralized, organic routing between wallets. How would this work? Consider an example where Alice wants to pay for a cup of coffee. Using the same technique as before her wallet would try to find a route through other nodes in the network to pay the coffee shop. If it can’t find one, the wallet will just open a new channel with the coffee shop, pay for the cup of coffee, then leave the channel open for future use. Alice’s wallet could theoretically maintain dozens of open channels. If a new channel is opened every time someone tries to pay for something but can’t find a route, eventually some organic routing paths between users will start to form. For example: What we see above is Alice left her channel with the coffee shop open. Bob did the same thing last time he went to that coffee shop. He also recently bought a new tie from a retailer and his wallet opened a channel for that payment as well. In this example, Alice should be able to not only send bitcoins off-chain to Bob, but also to the retailer using the routing paths that formed organically. Great! This looks like we’ve solved the centralization problem in the lightning network. But we have to ask is this type of routing feasible? I, for one, hope that it is because the Bitcoin Core developers have bet the house on it. But when you think about it a little more deeply it may not be in practice. I’m going to list off some reason why. Routing paths are much harder to find when values are considered. In the above example, we were able to get a route from Alice to the retailer going through the coffee shop and Bob. In reality, it will likely be difficult to find organic routing paths for the value we need. Let’s add some values into our example: Both Alice and Bob paid $5 for the cup of coffee (0.011 BTC) which is why the coffee shop has 0.011 BTC on its side of both Alice and Bob’s channels. For Alice to send any money to either Bob or to the retailer, the coffee shop needs to update the payout distribution of the channel it has with Bob, paying itself less (by the amount Alice wants to send) and paying Bob more. But notice the coffee shop only has 0.011 BTC ($5) in its channel with Bob. This means that the most Alice could send to either Bob or the retailer is just $5. If she wants to send any more than that, she will need to open a new channel. It’s likely this type of value asymmetry will happen fairly frequently as people are paying each other different amounts for various things. Finding paths from one node to another should be easy. Finding paths where every hop has the correct value will prove to be the difficult part. We could end up making more on-chain transactions. Consider how Alice had to open a new channel when her wallet couldn’t get a route to the retailer for the amount she wanted. Presumably, at any given time most, if not all, of the bitcoin in your wallet will be sitting in channels. Where would Alice’s wallet get the bitcoin to open a new channel with the retailer? Well, it will have to close one of its existing channels. So the process for making a transaction when your wallet can’t find a route is: 1) Make an on-chain transaction closing out an existing channel. 2) Make an on-chain transaction opening a new channel with the payee. That’s two on-chain transactions just to make one payment. If a large percentage of transactions fail to find a route (and thus have to close a channel and open a new one), most of the savings could be wasted. If more than 50% of transactions fail to find a route, the lightning network will actually result in more on-chain bitcoin transactions than just paying people directly. The vast majority of users will be offline. To the extent anyone even uses a desktop wallet, they rarely keep it open 24/7. They either close it out when not using it, shut their laptop lid, turn off the computer, etc. Additionally, most people are using mobile wallets which go to sleep and do not remain online all the time. So we end up with a scenario where 99% of our expected users are not going to be able to participate in routing payments. If it seemed unlikely that organic routing was going to work well before, how less likely does it seem when 99% of users are not going to be participating? Channels cannot be created on-the-fly. Remember the magic sauce of organic routing is the ability of wallets to open new channels on-the-fly when they can’t find a route. In our original example, Alice went to pay the coffee shop, couldn’t find a route, so her wallet just opened a new channel and kept it open. This may have worked in the past, but remember the Core developers have now pushed full RBF on us (and note it won’t be “opt-in” when blocks are full. It will be mandatory else your transactions will get stuck). So you simply can’t open channels on-the-fly (at least not for retail purchases). You will only be able to make a payment once the channel has confirmed since the coins which funded the channel could be trivially double spent otherwise. So what we are left with is if you can’t find a route through existing (confirmed) channels, you cannot make a payment to a retailer. This is going to create enormous pressure to use large well-connected payment hubs because that will be the only way you can guarantee to get a route through confirmed channels. Recipients have to be online. Remember back to the original explanation of routing using hashed timelock contracts. Alice’s wallet contacted Bob’s wallet and asked for a hash of a random number (R). Well, Bob basically needs to be online to give that to her. This is in direct contrast to Bitcoin as it is currently used where the sender and recipient don’t need to be online at the same time. Of course Bob could outsource this function to a third party (which is an ugly solution IMO), but this is just going to create even more pressure to just use a payment hub rather than organic routing. So when we consider all of the above points, it seems very likely that this organic wallet-to-wallet routing isn’t going to work very well and there will be pressure to use the original hub-and-spoke model. Given all this (which has to be known to the Core development team) there’s really no way you can justify the rush to deprecate core features of bitcoin without waiting to see how the lightning network plays out. If the lightning network ends up sucking (let’s hope it doesn’t), then so will bitcoin as we will have no choice but to use it by that point. 89 thoughts on “Lightning Network Skepticism” Pingback: What's Left Before Bitcoin's Lightning Network Goes Live Coin Academy Pingback: What’s Left Before Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Goes Live \| Bitcoin Price USA Pingback: What's Left Before Bitcoin's Lightning Network Goes Live - CoinDesk - Blockalerts Pingback: What’s Left Before Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Goes Live \| Fin-Future Pingback: What's Left Before Bitcoin's Lightning Network Goes Live – Silicon Islands Pingback: What's Left Before Bitcoin's Lightning Network Goes Live - Bitcoin XYZ Pingback: What’s Left Before Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Goes Live \| Bani-Digitali.ro Pingback: Four Key Disagreements Between Bitcoin Classic and Bitcoin Core \| Bitcoin Magazine Pingback: What’s Left Before Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Goes Live \| News bitcoin governology June 17, 2017 at 5:51 PM If once the LN is established, its still hard to find a route from any one of your connections without closing one and opening another, the LN has already failed. So I don’t think that’s a reasonable expectation to assume there might be more on-chain transactions. Just doesn’t make sense. Pingback: What's Left Before Bitcoin's Lightning Network Goes Live - Cryptohub Media Pingback: How Does the Lightning Network Stack Up Against Its Biggest Competitors? – Crypto Digital News Pingback: How Does the Lightning Network Stack Up Against Its Biggest Competitors? – The Digital Cash Blog Pingback: How Does the Lightning Network Stack Up Against Its Biggest Competitors? 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__label__wiki	0.543624	0.543624	There must be really lots of harem animes these days. And if you don’t know what a harem in anime means, it simply means that there’s usually 1 guy and several girls around him. It doesn’t matter that girl is really in love with him or not, as long as there’s some sort of interaction, communication and reaction between them. Okay, maybe it will be better and clearer if there’s some sort of chemistry or romance. ToHeart2 falls under this category. Based on a dating simulation game of the same name, I’m not sure how close the anime version follows the pc version, since of course I’ve never played it before. But you must be thinking that if there’s ToHeart2, then there must be a prequel to it, right? Yup, you’re right. Even though I’ve never seen the prequel before, I’ve read in the synopsis that there is really no relation between the 2. That’s right, no relation at all. In the storyline, that is. Other than that, the prequel one is also a harem genre. As you probably could have guessed, the storyline is pretty much simple. We’ve got this protagonist guy, Kono Takaaki, who’ve just graduated from middle school and is gonna start high school soon. His parents are away and instead of following them, he decides to school here. So throughout this half-hour 13 episode series is about Takaaki meeting and interacting with different kinds of girls as he goes about. Nothing to it, isn’t it? Unfortunately, it is just that. Somehow, I felt that the whole series was boring. Yeah, I really cut my blog real short this time. If you notice (or even read!) my blogs are getting longer and longer. But the amazing thing is that I managed to sit through the whole series without skipping any episodes. So you must be asking, it must be that interesting, then? Well, I couldn’t say yes, but I couldn’t say no either. With a lot of yawns and short-term distractions which diverted my attention from the screen for a little moment, I guess I could say that it is pretty much dull from the looks of it. However, I never seem to fall asleep during the show. So is that a good thing or a bad thing? Plus, I was interested to find out what kind of girls that Takaaki would meet, so I guess this is the most motivating part for me to watch this series. And no, I’m not a pervert. I’m not expecting Takaaki to get into ecchi or hentai situations (though there are some but it’s toned down and nothing too serious) and have him drooling or happy over it. Good thing that didn’t happen too. So for this blog, I would like to keep things real short by just blogging on the girls Takaaki met and their adventures in general rather than the usual detailed episode by episode blog which seemed to take like forever. Now that I look back at it. It does seem to take forever. And I wonder how I sit and type and type all those stuffs and could go on and on and on, much better than an Energizer battery. Thus, I’m not gonna really blog on the explicit details of who what when why because I don’t really mind it all here. And mainly because… I’ve forgotten most of it already… Hehehe. Gomenasai ne. ;p Of course, the first girl to be introduced in episode 1 is Konomi Yuzuhara. She is Takaaki’s childhood friend. Yup, you know what that means. There’s that saying that if a boy and a girl have been childhood friends, it is very likely that when they grow up, those pure innocent mutual feelings would turn into a romantic more-than-just-a-friend kinda feelings. And it would be even more possible if they made that yubikiri (a promise using one’s pinky fingers) when they were young. Okay, so I made that saying up. But hey, isn’t it true? Must be lah. Since I’ve watched so many of those kind of animes. And as expected, Konomi enters the same high school as Takaaki. Can’t remember the real reason (or if there were one) why Konomi decides to enter the same school since her 2 best friends, the orange-hair bespectacled Michiru Yamada, and the green-haired and the one wearing a hair band, Chie Yoshioka, decides to study in a different high school. Is it because of Takaaki or is it because it’s close to her home? So the rest of the first episode see how Takaaki and Konomi spend their time at the latter’s home, how Konomi tries to overcome her graduation blues and looking forward to high school. Stuffs like that. Though not obvious, but I suppose you can see that Konomi likes Takaaki, just that she doesn’t express it to him yet. One reason being since Takaaki and Konomi are childhood friends, Takaaki treats Konomi as his little sister and nothing more than that. Ah, see. But this too isn’t that obvious yet in the early episodes of the series. And that Takaaki guy seems to be oblivious when it comes to girls and all those romantic stuffs. You’ll notice it throughout the series, that he’s that kind of ‘on the fence’ guy. Just obliging the girls because he’s a nice and helpful guy who doesn’t like to see the girls having a hard time but at the same time doesn’t really show or decide which girl he wants to be with. Okay, maybe it’s not so bad. Because somewhere in the series, Takaaki mentions he himself has ‘problems’ communicating with girls and thus he’s not good with them. Come on, there’re girls around you. Err… maybe I do sound a little flirtatious there. Probably that’s why the girls do want to be near him. Good thing too Takaaki isn’t a pervert. Or else you know why lah. So the next girl making her entry into Takaaki’s unofficial harem is Tamaki Kousaka in episode 2. And just like Takaaki and Konomi’s case, she’s also their childhood friend. But being 1 year older than them both, the 2 view her as their older sister. I’m starting to think that close friends in Japanese society can become part of the family too. You see, older people tend to treat the younger ones as though as they’re related and vice versa. Don’t they have other blood-related siblings? Or are they the only child in the family that their usual playmate is their neighbour or the one sitting in the same class. And I thought only China had a one-child policy. That doesn’t really have anything to do with this anime, actually. In this episode we see how Tamaki returns from an all-female boarding school to fulfil a childhood promise to be with Takaaki in his high school years. See, what did I tell you about making childhood promises. I kinda like Tamaki’s character the best among the other girls. That’s because she has that confident, assertive and dominative (in a good way) personality. She’s quite mature in her talk or when making decisions and I like the way she giggles or laughs. It’s like, how should I say, very sporting and ‘nice to the ears’. By the way, Tamaki has a younger brother named Yuji. He is Takaaki’s classmate and best friend as he is that supporting male character that you always see in harem animes. He is in a way opposite of Takaaki. In what way? In a perverted way, that is. Such harem animes would be meaningless if there were no ecchi or hentai stuffs. No matter how much he yearns to be with a girl, he doesn’t get it in the end and because of that in a way he’s quite envious of Takaaki for having so many girls around him and yet he doesn’t do anything. Oh, you can imagine his frustration. But good thing is, since Yuji is Takaaki’s pal, so such jealousy won’t escalate into a full-fledged hatred. Just play play only. Oh yes, Yuji also seems to be the receiving end of his sister’s fist. And that too probably it’s mainly because he deserves it. Haha. I’ve got this feeling that it’s gonna be 1 girl is going to be introduced per episode as the harem builds up. Yup, that’s the case. Because in episode 3, another girl named Manaka Komaki is introduced. And unlike the previous 2 girls, she isn’t Takaaki’s childhood friend. She’s Takaaki’s classmate and the class rep. And I think it’s because of her kind and helpful nature she became a class rep. Just my guessing only. I mean because of such personality, don’t you think it’s a better role model for such post? Also because of this, she burdens herself with other people’s work, especially as a voluntary librarian. Because the school’s got a huge collection of books, what Manaka does is archiving and barcoding them so that they can be easily referred to. Of course, since Takaaki’s a nice guy too, and helps Manaka a little. Also, Manaka has that secret private room of hers somewhere in the library. Only she can access there as she has the key to it. What’s in there? Actually it’s just her personal ‘get-away’ where she goes there to relax and drink tea. Uh-huh, she likes making tea too. And she shared this secret place with Takaaki too because in a way she’s similar to him. That is, she’s not good with ‘communicating’ with boys. I see. I suppose both of them can ‘click’, huh. Unfortunately, the arrogant and obnoxious library chief wants to get rid of her by giving excuses at the club’s meeting like since she isn’t a real member of the library club, she should not get involved at all and hand back the key to him. Well, why didn’t Manaka join the club in the first place? If there was a reason, I sure wasn’t listening and probably yawning and distracted when they explained it. To cut things short, all the other library club members still love to have Manaka around as she did nothing wrong. I think it’s probably they’re all lazy that they need someone else do the archiving. So Manaka snubs the chief and heads off and she still has that key to her secret place with her and she can go on sipping her favourite tea. Yay. Too bad chief, it’s the people’s power and you can’t do anything about it. The next girl introduced in episode 4 is quite an interesting one. Interesting in what way, you say? Well, this girl, Yuma Tonami, if I can summarize her in one word, then that word would be, she’s a psycho. Huh?! Yup, if you ask me, this girl’s a real psycho, but in an amusing way of course. She has a fiery and aggressive temper and that one moment where she bumped into Takaaki on her bicycle sets the trend of her ‘long battle’ with Takaaki. Yeah, ever since that incident, she blames Takaaki for just about anything! Even though Takaaki’s not at fault. Uh-huh, she even has that mentality that Takaaki is on to her after that baseball thingy whereby the ball hit the tap which in turn got Yuna all wet. So everytime she challenges Takaaki to a duel, she always ended up being the loser and worse off than she started, like that bowling challenge in the canteen. And just like a sore loser (but I find it amusing everytime she losses) she always say something like don’t think that he’s already won this and she’ll beat him the next time. Haih, this girl. And the thing is, even though Takaaki’s pretty much clueless about what’s going on or bother to know why she’s so mad at him, Takaaki’s like so casual and lenient in accepting and obliging what she challenges. Haih, this boy. How can he tolerate all this? If it was me, I would’ve whacked her ‘cukup cukup’ already, don’t care whether she’s a girl or not. And you know what, it’s so ironic that Yuma is Manaka’s best friend! And Manaka too is quite lenient and casual about the whole situation. Because Yuma’s so worked up thinking about beating Takaaki, she’s even daydreaming and got distracted in her personal economics class, that she’s not paying attention. Yeah, Yuma’s one of those daughter to a wealthy family and is supposed to take over her family’s hugely successful business and operations. So is Yuma indirectly in love with Takaaki? Well, the actions may not seem to indicate so, but the always-want-to-get-even-and-revenge attitude may indicate love, doesn’t it? You know, love works in mysterious ways. So one final challenge from Yuma against Takaaki playing some air hockey at some game outlet, sees them both engaging in a ‘terror’ battle. Wow. It must be a real crowd puller because everybody there was captivated by their playing. The funny part was when the game lasted too long and got less exciting, everybody left. What?! No sportsmanship. Anyway, in the end, Yuma managed to beat Takaaki and she’s so happy about it. Good thing Takaaki isn’t a sore loser and has quite a good sportsmanship behaviour, much to Yuma’s suspicion still. She goes home smiling. But I don’t think it will be the end of it. Another weirdo girl in episode 5. Why is the orange-haired egg sandwich lover Karin Sasamori weird? You’ll see why. As the only member of her Mystery Club, she’s desperate to get other students to join her club. So viewing Takaaki as a potential member, she puts on a play by purposely bumping into him and dropping all those club registration forms. Takaaki feeling that it’s his fault, somehow signed those papers and thus he is officially a member of the Mystery Club. Later he found out that it was all just an act. And Karin’s got that dominative attitude and proceeds to ask Takaaki to meet her for their first club meeting. Looks like Takaaki’s in a bind. Yeah, in a binding contract. And we know why he can’t back out right? By the way, her Mystery Club’s name is somewhat misleading as it isn’t into those mystery or detective-like novels or work. It’s some sort of a paranormal, UFO investigating and supernatural occult kind of club. Hmm… maybe that’s why other students decide to pass this one. Later when Takaaki goes for the meeting, some place at the back of the gym and wants to back out after seeing another one of Karin’s act. But this time, he tripped and he’s on top of her with one of his hands on her breast! Since Karin’s sly, cunning and an opportunist, instead of screaming and bashing him up, she uses this as a blackmail to make Takaaki do whatever she wants. What would the whole school think if they knew Takaaki, a nice and decent guy doing such sexual harassment on a poor girl (yeah right). Dangerous girl. And nobody would believe him because of her ‘act’. I guess the whole school can be really fooled like that, huh? So the rest of the episode sees how Karin and Takaaki on their first UFO or UMA (unidentified mysterious animal…?!) hunt. And Karin’s got that UFO detecting device which she made herself to help in their hunt. Donno whether it really works or not. But some occasional signals which lighted up here and there. Makes you think that maybe it’s just some sort of glitch. Anyway they got lost in the forest. But in the end, the device helped them find a way out of the forest by detecting some faint mysterious light as the 2 followed it. Karin must be thinking it’s a UFO. But I’m thinking it may be a firefly, though it wasn’t mentioned. Good thing they manage to find their way back. If you think Karin is weird, wait till you see Lucy Maria Misora AKA Ruuko Kireinasora. So how much more weird is Ruuko? Well, she’s an alien! At least that’s what she claims to be. And not those little green men from Mars. Takaaki met her after seeing her lying on the ground without food. Yup, he can’t just leave her like that. After giving her some food we see how strange Ruuko is, explaining lots of those alien terms (like all humans are called ‘Uu’) and things as though as she’s here to observe the human race. Yeah, and with that dull voice of hers, you may be thinking that she’s got a screw loose in her head or it’s some kind of accent from a different province in Japan. To makes things worse, she’s the new transfer student in Takaaki’s class. And the funny part is that she has this strange greeting procedure whereby she raises both hands high up and says "Ruuuu". Anybody’s initial reaction would be thinking that this is totally weird. But the whole class seems to think otherwise and it’s some form of greeting from where she came from and they all also do they same thing! Haih… And it looks like they’re having fun. Takaaki didn’t want to believe that Ruuko’s an alien but after witnessing strange events like drawing crop circle symbols in the school field and using matchsticks as currency to buy food in the canteen, Takaaki’s having second thoughts but still isn’t believing it 100% yet. Of course, since Ruuko’s a suspected alien, Karin’s interested to find out more about her. And she uses her usual blackmail to get Takaaki to do it. Poor guy. He’s supposed to put some UFO detector device (self-made I presume) onto Ruuko’s cat. Yup, Ruuko’s got a cat companion. But as he’s chasing the cat, it fell into the river when Takaaki caught a glimpse of Ruuko. Just then Ruuko did her arms raising "Ruuuu" thing to summon some lightning which struck a nearby tree which serves as a platform to save the cat. I think after this, Takaaki pretty much believes that Ruuko’s an alien as he spilled the beans of what he’s trying to do earlier on. But Ruuko isn’t mad because she trusts him (or is it in love? Maybe not). The whole introduce-a-girl-per-episode thing takes a little breather for a while in episode 7. But instead this episode fits all the girls that has been introduced, even minor ones like Michiru and Chie, and unknown ones who’re just there just to make up for the numbers. So what’s this episode all about with so many girls? Actually, Karin is organizing some star gazing event for the Mystery Club and she’s asking Takaaki to spread the word and bring along other people as well. The thing is, it’s not a star gazing event. It’s a UFO calling event! Haih, that girl would go to great lengths just for this. Though Takaaki knows about this, he can’t really tell the truth as he sees how happy, especially Konomi is and doesn’t want to ruin it. That’s the down part of trying to be a nice guy. So the day comes where a considerable amount of crowd gathers. Karin must be really happy. Hey, even Yuma’s there. And Yuma’s there too (yeah, earlier on another Takaaki-getting-hit-by-her-bicycle incident). Yeah, she still won’t admit she’ll lose to him. Uh-huh, that perverted Yuji’s there too and it must be heaven on Earth for him if not for his sister’s receiving end. But soon as it started to rain and Karin’s a little worried. Finally she let the cat out of the bad, much to everyone’s surprise. She’s doing this because if she doesn’t, her plan will not succeed as her club’s unpopular and no one would come. Everyone else’s thinking of leaving. Konomi then saves her by starting some conversation related to UFOs which gets everyone a little interested. Short attention span people. Then Ruuko appears and they all form a circle and started some UFO calling chant. Just then, the sky is suddenly lit up with streams of shooting stars and meteor showers. It’s quite a beautiful sight. In the end, everyone felt that this outing wasn’t such a waste after all. We’re introduced to 2 girls at one shot in episode 8. That’s because it’s the Himeyuri twins, Ruri and Sango. You can’t have it one per episode right? And probably because so, this encounter with the twins lasted for 2 episodes, that is until episode 9. Surprisingly, both twins have totally opposite characteristics. Takaaki first met Sango when she’s stuck on top of some wall as she was trying to save Ruuko’s cat (but got stuck herself instead). Takaaki happened to pass by when Sango jumps and fell onto him. Takaaki decides to give Sango a piggy-back ride to school. When they reached school, Sango told Ruri about that incident but she isn’t too happy about it and accuses that guy of being a pervert. So Sango’s the dreamy lovey-dovey kind, soft spoken technically inclined twin whereas Ruri’s the fiercely full-of-angst overprotective sister and is jealous and gets hostile whenever Takaaki and Sango are close by each other but is the better cook. Yeah, Ruri’s attitude can match Yuma’s. Another psycho. But the thing is, Sango isn’t embarrassed of showing her affections towards Takaaki and even kissed him in public! Yeah, she goes into lovey-dovey mode by hugging him and those sort of stuffs, much to Takaaki’s clueless-ness and this event angers Ruri even further. And that blow on Takaaki’s crotch, man, that’s really got to hurt. Yeah, love hurts. And so most of the time it’s like this, Ruri tries to separate Sango from Takaaki. And there’s little bit of tension and quarrel from the twins at the end of episode 8. When Ruri tries to shoot Takaaki with a water gun (that serious, is it?), Sango stops her and there’s some talk about how Ruri’s ‘getting along’ with Takaaki because Sango’s afraid she hasn’t been mixing with anybody except her. But Ruri ran off crying and said that Sango doesn’t understand anything. Besides the slight sisterly tension and sulking and spacing out from Ruri in episode 9, this episode also sees the twins go on a double date with Takaaki and Yuji at some amusement park. Ruri at first didn’t want to go, but after thinking that Takaaki may pull off some perverted tricks on her sister, she then decides to tag along. And at the amusement park, it seemed like a conspiracy since Sango and Yuji are like ‘together’ leaving Ruri behind with Takaaki. Oh the horror for Ruri. As Sango and Yuji enjoyed their rides, it seems Ruri is having a hard time as she’s afraid of them and trying her best to hide her fear from Takaaki. But each time, Takaaki tries to comfort and calm her down. His intentions were good though Ruri still hates him. The climax of the episode is when Ruri tried to get a stuffed penguin toy for Sango when the latter wanted it so much but failed to get it in some machine. Well, she sucked too, spending all her money on it. Just then Takaaki came in and had some chat with her. Ruri reveals that she loves her sister very much and anybody else who loves her is her enemy. What logic is that? Yeah, afraid of her sis being taken away and left all alone. Takaaki manages to get that stuffed penguin toy and gives it to Ruri, though she says it’s useless because it’s not of her own efforts. Then Sango and Yuji arrived and Ruri proceeded to give Sango the stuffed penguin toy. But Sango gives it to her back saying that the toy is for Ruri as a promised that she’ll make friends for her. A touched Ruri then cries and the twins embraced. Well, at least it’s over for now. The last of the girls is finally introduced in episode 10. And it’s HMX-17a Ilfa. From the name you’ve guessed that she’s a robot. To top things, she’s a maid as well. Ah… what harem wouldn’t be complete without a robot and a maid. See, we’ve got the childhood friend, the classmate, the brute and violent one, an alien, a pair of twins, all checked. So what is missing. Oh no! They forgot to put one with glasses in it! Wait a minute, doesn’t Michiru wears glasses? But she’s not part of the harem. I guess it’s better than nothing. In this episode, Ilfa is the latest creation from Sango and since it’s Ilfa’s new body, she wants to go meet Ruri. From looks of it, this looks like another Himeyuri twins episode. And basically the rest of the episode sees how Ilfa tries to get along with a stubborn Ruri who still thinks that the only person she needs is her twin sister. No matter what Ilfa does, it doesn’t seems to please Ruri. Thus, she enlists the help of Takaaki. It wouldn’t be a harem anime if it doesn’t involve the main guy, doesn’t it? So some drama here and there. Since Ilfa is doing the cooking now, this makes Ruri a little annoyed as Ruri doesn’t even want to taste her cooking. Also some flashback here and there. To cut things short, because of Ilfa’s previous memories, she has an unfavourable perception of the outside world and what lurks outside beyond the house. But thanks to Ruri who dragged Ilfa out (Ruri claims she’s doing it because Sango asked her to) and her perception of it changed more favourably. In the end, though Ilfa thanked Ruri and the latter’s still doesn’t really accept Ilfa as her friend, but you could see Ruri’s body language that in a way she does and it’s a start. With all the girls introduced, what’s left is to put them all together in one adventure with Takaaki, right? Sort of. In episode 11, Tamaki organizes some formal event but doesn’t say what it is. She gives an invitation to all the girls except Ilfa to come to that formal event at her home. Oh yes, speaking of Ilfa, the previous episode is the only episode in which she’ll make her appearance throughout this series. And I thought she’s part of Takaaki’s harem. Oh wait, if I head count that official ToHeart2 picture, Ilfa’s missing! And probably the previous episode was mainly about Ilfa and Ruri rather than with Takaaki. So the day of the event as everyone gathers there, we see Tamaki in her Japanese kimono. What could it be? Besides the usual reminiscence of the good times they had with Takaaki and how they met him, Tamaki announced and thanked everyone for taking care of her Takaaki. Wait a minute. Her Takaaki? Does this mean she’s engaged to him? SHOCKER!!! What?! Does Takaaki know about this? Or is she just play play only. But Konomi looked a little worried there. So is this gathering just to indirectly tell the other girls to back off and don’t touch my Takaaki? But the other girls gladly accepted this fact that Takaaki IS HERS. Soon Konomi too accepted it as they started their tea ceremony. I guess it’s not so much the event then. Episode 12 focuses back on Konomi. I’m not sure whether she took what Tamaki said in the previous episode seriously, but here Konomi has that spaced out and indecisive look of whether or not she’s in love. Of course she is. You can tell by the way she does things. Even after all that ‘teasing’ and ‘lecturing’ from Michiru and Chie and even ‘concerned’ about the ‘growth of her body’, she’s still hesitating. Some blushing situations from Konomi here and there. Well, that’s also what happens when you spend too much time with 1 guy. Yeah, that guy seems to be a ‘regular’ at Konomi’s house, having dinner with Konomi and her mom and even sleeping on the couch. But the turning point for Konomi came when Konomi was lagging behind Takaaki, Yuji and Tamaki when they’re heading for school. On their way, they bumped into Michiru and Chie. While Konomi eavesdropped on them, she heard Chie asked if Takaaki has gotten real close to Konomi. Takaaki denies it and after several ‘teasers’ which try to lead him to say yeah-we’re-an-item-and-real-hot-now, Takaaki then told them that Konomi is just a close friend and she’s just like a little sister to him. Well, nothing wrong with that statement actually. Unless you’re a girl in love with him and heard those ‘detrimental’ words which could have a detrimental effect. And that’s what Konomi felt. After all these years how dare he say such a thing. Well, it’s her fault to begin with, since she’s never given him any ‘signals’. So a teary Konomi ran off in an opposite direction. By then the gang saw her and wonder what’s wrong with her. Takaaki tries to call her but Konomi just kept running. I felt that this part is the most ‘tensed’ one though it wasn’t that serious. But if you look at the mood and tone of this series, I guess you could say that it’s quite okay. In the final episode 13, it begins with Takaaki trying to go after Konomi but was stopped by Tamaki telling him that he shouldn’t go after her as he doesn’t know what to say. So over this episode we see how Takaaki bumps into the rest of the girls and in a way ‘gets some indirect advice’ from them. Yeah, he’s still thinking of what to say to Konomi. And it felt like one big individual ‘reunion’ and meeting before the final scene. Then we have that flashback of Takaaki’s whereby during his younger days, he experienced a similar incident. Yup, another girl who’s a childhood friend thing. Wah, this guy has really got lots of childhood friends. Anyway, an orphaned girl named Yuuki Kusakabe had to be transferred somewhere and else and she’s so sad that she can’t be with Takaaki as she always wants to be with him. And in a way, I guess Takaaki felt that it was his fault for making her cry. Is history gonna repeat itself? By the way, I wouldn’t consider this Yuuki girl as part of Takaaki’s harem even though they introduced a new face in the last episode. Yeah, it’s already happened, long gone too. And nothing much is heard about this after that. As Takaaki’s still unsure of what to say, he’ll still meet up with Konomi. And you know what happened to make Takaaki know what to say? He met Tamaki and told her that he’s afraid of making the same mistakes he did to Yuuki. Then Tamaki slapped him and say that he should just go and talk to Konomi so that the past mistake would not be repeated again. With that, Takaaki thanked her and off he went in search for Konomi. What? He realized it all in a slap? And what about that indirect engagement thingy? Takaaki found Konomi taking her pet dog, Genjimaru out for a walk near the riverside. Hey, don’t they remind you of Chiyo and Tadakichi of Azumanga Daioh. Anyway, Konomi tries to ‘run away’ but Genjimaru refused to move, enabling Takaaki to catch up. So a lot of shy shy, apologizing talk, bla bla bla. Finally, as they walk home, Konomi asked him if he would like to watch the cherry blossoms next year, Takaaki replied that it will be nice to watch them bloom together with her as she says she’ll always be around for him. And the next day, they both happily go to school together. The end. What? That’s it? No confession or anything else? I was anticipating something and even it was a little one. But nope, nothing much happens… Overall, like I’ve said, I find this series to be boring. The ending was just left ‘hanging’ like that. And oh my, bad habits do die hard. Looks like I’ve blogged longer than I’ve thought. So it’s got to be interesting in a way, huh. Yeah, maybe. Without those parts I guess it wouldn’t be so complete and I’ve even done it episode by episode when I’ve earlier said I wouldn’t do one in detail. Is it that detailed? The art, drawing, animation, voice acting are all pretty decent. What you would expect from a typical Japanese anime production these days. So a total of 9 girls Takaaki has met (including Ilfa and excluding Yuuki). Their characters I could say are varied and interesting in a way and it doesn’t go as far as they’d all fight over each other for his affections. They all just loved him in their own ways. I guess that’s good. So no cat fights and fist fights with plates and objects flying around. Though it’s a harem anime, but there isn’t much hentai or ecchi stuffs nor the girls would consider looking ‘sexy’. Not even Tamaki. I couldn’t say much for the character development as you’d pretty guess much what kind of personalities those characters are and some didn’t play any major significant role and really just stick to their side role. So if you want to watch an anime where you’d feel good with no shocking surprises or twists then I suppose this show is quite okay then. Nothing really extraordinary. Just your run of the mill, average Joe harem anime. Even that nothing more. Regular, typical, normal, and all those similar words. And I’m still yawning… Oh wait, I’ve read that there’s gonna be an OVA sequel for this series somewhere in February 2007. Hmmm… from first looks, the drawing seemed a little bit different and there’s a new girl on the pic! So perhaps this OVA may answer several questions to this series to satisify all those ‘what happened to this or that’ queries. Also, maybe they’ll come up with some new plot which will lead the production of a 3rd season. But I’m still contemplating if I should watch it. I mean, if it’s gonna be boring again then it’s better not to waste my time doing so. But the girls… oh the girls he’ll meet with… Nah. I’ll think about it. Filed in ToHeart2	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1103
__label__cc	0.733091	0.266909	WEEKLY ROUNDUP - 17.01.2020 WEEKLY ROUNDUP - 17.01.2020 Your Friday fix for global fintech and payments news We’re back again with another week of exciting payments news! Our weekly round-up brings you a dose of some of the biggest news announcements from the past seven days so you can keep an eye on all that’s shaping our world this week. Spotlight on Open Banking: year two Visa Tap to Phone expands POS acceptance for retailers Global smart card market expected to reach $65 billion by 2025… WEEKLY ROUNDUP - 10.01.2020 With the dawn of a new year comes a wave of new and intriguing trends, with possibilities emerging from around the world of payments. Our weekly round-up brings you a dose of some of the biggest news announcements, plus an insight into all that’s shaping our world this week. The 2020s will be a golden age for banks and technology Cash machines to offer basic banking services within five years Mastercard unveils music single featuring its sonic brand… 2019 has been yet another successful year for Compass Plus! We turned 30 years old, were shortlisted for the most prestigious office interior design award in Russia - The Best Office Awards 2019, and hosted two different user groups for our many customers and partners. To round-off the year, we’ve done a round-up of our highlights from the year below, so take a look at our stand-out moments from 2019. Compass Plus survey finds over 60s increasingly rely on card payments A recent survey into consumer expectations of the payments market conducted by Compass Plus has revealed that the generation of consumers over 60 is increasingly relying on card as their primary payment method. Compass Plus at 30: facts & figures For the second blog in our ‘turning 30’ series, we’ve decided to share some of the most interesting facts about Compass Plus. UK: Half of all debit transactions are contactless UK Finance reported that in July half of all debit card transactions were contactless, accounting for 647 million taps – a major milestone in the technology’s timeline. Compass Plus at 30: Looking back This year we’re turning 30. As such, we’ve decided to take a look back on the last three decades and how we’ve changed – as a team and as a business. Digital banking: security and convenience are top priorities for Europe A recent Mastercard survey has revealed that digital banking is the number one preference for European consumers’ daily banking needs. Are banks ready for digital transformation? The banking industry is undergoing major changes. Customer expectations are higher than ever, competitive fintech startups are growing and new regulations are emerging. In the world of shared services and connected economies, how do financial organisations battle this storm? Sysadmin is a calling, not a profession We sat down with two of Compass Plus’ dedicated sysadmins to try and lift the curtain on what hides behind this mysterious title. Contactless fraud in Denmark With fraudsters looking for fresh ways to exploit consumers as the adoption of digital payments continues to increase globally, losses come as Denmark - already one of the most advanced countries in the world as far as being cashless goes - continues to move towards becoming a fully cashless society. Fashion or technology? How FIs are taking advantage of smart technology As technology gets smarter and wearable transaction volume is increasing, financial institutions are embracing the opportunities wearable technology can bring Happy Birthday to the ATM! Back in 1967, the world’s first ATM was opened to the public. Half a century later, it is transforming in order to adapt to changing consumer behavior. E-commerce on the rise in the Philippines The Philippines remains a mainly cash-based society, however efforts from the Philippine government and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the country’s central bank, mean that cash is being challenged by the rapid growth of e-commerce Alternative payments take the lead for eCommerce transactions in Asia Pacific A recent article from Finextra highlighted results from GlobalData research that alternative payments are really making inroads in the Asia Pacific market, with online shopping predicted to hit $1.6 trillion this year. Perhaps the most interesting statistics from the report demonstrate the huge market share of alternative payments in the region in terms of method channels. In the first quarter of 2018, alternative payment methods accounted for 51 per cent of the total ecommerce transaction value in APAC, up from 49 per cent in the last quarter of 2017. Meanwhile, payment cards accounted for 28 per cent of transaction value, bank transfers 15 per cent, and cash and cheques six per cent. Will mobile payments make payment cards an endangered species? Traditionally used for higher value purchases, consumers are increasingly using cards for lower-value transactions. This shift in consumer attitude and behaviour, coupled with the relatively recent introduction of contactless-enabled payment cards has undoubtedly cemented their appeal as a convenient, easy-to-use payment instrument. However, in the mobile world that we live in, could cards be an endangered species? Why is the Olympics the go-to for trialling payments innovations? For more than 30 years, Visa has been the exclusive payments sponsor of the Olympic Games and has used the platform to trial and push the use of new, innovative technologies – such as contactless cards at London 2012 or wearables at Rio 2016. With the recent announcement that the international payment network has pledged its commitment to continuing to showcase payments innovation at the biggest sporting event on the planet until 2032, what is it about the Games that makes it the perfect environment for new trialling payment methods? 10 little known facts about money 1. Only 8% of the world’s currency is physical money 2. In the UK, the direction the monarch faces on coins changes with each appointment 3. No paper money is actually made of paper; non-polymer banknotes are made from a cotton-linen mix, and most polymer notes aren’t vegan friendly! How prepaid cards are driving financial inclusion in the Philippines and the challenges ahead With 69% of its population with no access to financial services, and 96% of transactions still conducted in cash in the country, the Philippines is one of the lesser developed nations in terms of digital payments in Asia Pacific. However, these figures are improving thanks to mobile wallets and, in particular, prepaid cards. Women’s Equality Day – getting over the next gender disparity hurdle in the payments industry It is no secret that historically the financial services industry has a long-standing gender equality problem. At Compass Plus, we'[re proud to be an exception to the rule. Current account switching service – a missed opportunity? Between 1 July 2017 and 30 June 2018, nearly one million UK consumers (965,317) switched current account, up 6% on the previous 12 months. While this small increase is encouraging, the present switching rates are no better than they were in 2012, before the current account switching service launched. Despite it being easier than ever for consumers to switch current accounts, awareness of the scheme reaching around 84% in the past five years, and banks offering ‘golden hellos’, the conversion rate is much lower than expected. Can remote banking services replace the branch and the ATM in the UK? With the rise of online and mobile banking highly publicised as a key contributing factor to the decline of the high street bank and, subsequently, the ATM, are banks doing enough to replicate the services that a large number of people greatly rely on? Invisible payments in the mainstream Some consider invisible payments as a way to pay that takes cash, debit and credit cards, wearables, PINs and card readers out of the equation, allowing you to pay via a virtual wallet. Whatever they are, will they ever make it into the mainstream? How young financial institutions in Eastern Europe can grow their market share and compete with larger players The payments landscape in Eastern Europe is very diverse, with individual countries across the region still finding their economic identity as they develop their internal infrastructure at different rates following the fragmentation of the Soviet Union nearly three decades ago.So how do they compete with the larger multinational players in the region? The rise of contactless cards in the UK A London Business School professor recently made the rather dramatic claim that parting with cash is “psychologically painful”, but that paying for items with a contactless card “anaesthetises the psychological pain that accompanies payment, seducing us into splashing out”. In fact, according to the UK Card Association, £3.9bn was spent in the UK in April 2017 using a contactless credit or debit card – an increase of 147.6% on the same month the previous year. Millennials and mobile banking - the perfect match? Millennials are studied on a scale like no other generation before them, including when it comes to mobile banking, where research suggests that the while the technology does provide them with some of what they need, there is still distance to go to provide the ultimate user experience. Cardless cash transactions: the future of ATMs? We all have days where we don’t remember important things like keys or wallets – but cardless cash transactions from your local ATM could spare your blushes at the checkout. The Olympic legacy of contactless payments What mark did London 2012 leave on payment methods and how did the 2016 Rio Games take the cashless concept and further develop it?	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1104
__label__cc	0.574137	0.425863	Cookmundo Everyday cooking and drink authority Get Recipes Here jack and coke recipe Jack and Coke: The Right Mix 01.17.2020 01.11.2020 by John Kiely Jack and Coke may seem simple and unsophisticated to some people, but it’s damn good, and there’s five ways to mix it for five different tastes. Popular Jack and Coke 2 ounces Jack Daniel’s No. 7 8 ounces Coca-Cola — Fill a tall or Old Fashioned glass with ice. Pour in the Jack. Gently pour in the Coke. Garnish with nothing. This is a balanced mix of Jack taste and Coke taste. Ask your bartender for a 4-to-1 ratio or mix. Other mixes with 7 ounces and 9 ounces of Coke aren’t so good, for some reason, 8 ounces is perfect. If the bar pours only 1½ ounces of Jack for a drink, then ask for 6 ounces of Coke. Pro Jack and Coke 2 ounces Jack Daniel’s Recommended by the Jack Daniel Distillery, and brings the taste of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 to the forefront. Strong, but not too strong. It’s a 3-to-1 mix. If using 1½ ounces Jack, add 4½ ounces Coke. Smooth Jack and Coke 10 ounces Coca-Cola There’s just a hint of the taste of whiskey. A 5-to-1 mix. If using 1½ ounces of Jack, add 7½ ounces Coke. Strong Jack and Coke I like this one a lot, it has a slight caramel taste. Coca-Cola from Mexico is bottled with sugar, and tastes better with alcohol than corn-syrup Coke. Many drinkers will enjoy Jack with a splash of Coke. What’s a splash? It’s a bartender’s one-count, and since a 4-count is an ounce, that’s about ¼ ounce. Other Whiskey? Jack Daniel’s just has the right stuff, and it’s better than expensive bourbons when mixed with Coke. The only whiskies that come close are Wild Turkey 101 and Crown Royal. Found this American Icon at Schneider’s of Capitol Hill, my favorite liquor store ever. In England, this drink is called JD & Coke, and in the rest of Europe it’s a Whisky Cola. Serve a glass of cold water with every drink, to reduce consequences. Drink responsibly. Categories Drinks Tags best jack and coke, best mix of Jack and Coke, jack and coke ratio, jack and coke recipe The Best Sparkling Wine for Mimosas isn’t Champagne Fry Hash Browns in Olive Oil and Butter Make Hatch Green Chile Sauce Best Cheap Margaritas for a Party Pasta & Rice (2) Pie & Pastry (1) © 2020 Cookmundo • Powered by GeneratePress	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1117
__label__wiki	0.817031	0.817031	Iomega Announces Holiday Must have For New England Football Fans Patriots Branded Iomega Ego Portable Hard Drive Backup Takes on New Meaning for Patriots Fans SAN DIEGO, Calif. - November 12, 2008 - Iomega, an EMC company (NYSE: EMC) and a global leader in data protection, today announced the must have accessory for New England football fans – the new Iomega® eGo™ Patriots edition. This season, true Patriots fans can show their team spirit and securely take their digital files anywhere with a rugged portable hard drive sporting the official Patriots logo. The new Patriots branded eGo Portable Hard Drive is now available for $129.99 at participating Staples retailers in the Greater New England area, as well as at the Patriots ProShop at Patriot Place and online at www.patriots.com. Score a Touchdown with a Backup You Can Trust The eGo Patriots Drive is no three and out. It’s a fast and fun notebook hard drive that delivers on form and function. Its sleekly curved midnight blue chassis sports the official Patriots logo setting it apart from other portable hard drives in the marketplace. Way smaller than a football, the drive fits in a shirt pocket and comes complete with backup software and free online backup service, too. The eGo Patriots Drive packs a lot of storage capacity with a 250GB* 2.5-inch drive that is USB-powered for simple operation (no power supply required). Just plug the drive into the USB port of a laptop or desktop and the eGo drive will read and write data at USB 2.0 speeds. The eGo Patriots drive can carry up to 1,000,000 photos, over 4,625 hours of music or 375 hours of video**. An All-Pro Guard That Protects Your Data On Every Play Iomega’s industry-leading Drop Guard™ technology protects the eGo drive from sacks, “unsportsman-like” conduct and accidental damage caused by drops of over four feet (up to 51 inches). Just like an all-pro offensive lineman, the eGo Patriots drive is approximately 40 percent more rugged than the industry average for portable hard drives. “Everyone needs a backup,” said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC. “Patriots fans know that’s true on the field and it’s also true with digital data. Whether you’re backing up important files at home or the office or just taking your multimedia data with you wherever you go, Patriots fans can do it in style this season with the new eGo Patriots Portable Hard Drive. We’re proud to partner with the Patriots to deliver this special edition eGo Drive for the legions of true-blue Pats fans.” “Iomega’s new eGo Patriots portable hard drive plays the same important role that our backup players do: they're always ready to go and can be counted on to get the job done,” said Murray Kohl, Vice President of Sales for the New England Patriots. “The eGo Patriots Drive is a great way for New England football fans to show their team spirit and have the confidence that their data is safe and secure in a rugged portable hard drive that beats the competition every time.” Special Teams and Cool Software, Too The eGo Patriots Drive comes bundled with some serious special teams talent. The eGo Drive offers EMC® Retrospect® Express HD software for automatic and on-demand backups. Users can choose between Retrospect for Windows or Macintosh computers. Additionally, users of the eGo Patriots Drive also get the benefits of online computing with EMC’s Mozy™ online backup service, which offers incredible value and security for securely storing, protecting and accessing important files. MozyHome online backup service provides 2GB free of online storage for backing up selected folders or files to world-class EMC data centers. (Users can also upgrade to unlimited online storage for just $4.95/month). Sportsmanship and Compatibility The Iomega® eGo™ Patriots Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 250GB is a team player, compatible with Microsoft® Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP, and Windows Vista™, as well as Mac OS X 10.1.5 or above . MozyHome software is available for Windows XP and Windows Vista, as well as Mac OS X 10.4 and above. EMC Retrospect software is available for both Windows and Mac OS X operating systems. The Iomega® eGo™ Patriots Portable Hard Drive USB 2.0 250GB is now available for $129.99 at participating Staples retailers in the greater New England area, as well as at the Patriots ProShop at Patriot Place and online at www.patriots.com.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1118
__label__cc	0.68641	0.31359	Why you should consider Microsoft 365 Microsoft recently announced that it is bundling three products together into a single license. Office 365, Windows 10 and Information Protection are now available as a single bundle in enterprise and business offerings called Microsoft 365. The great thing about these new bundles is that they are not that much more expensive that stand-alone Office 365 plans. Here’s how Microsoft 365 delivers even more value Having all these common products rolled into a single subscription makes purchasing and allocation very easy. You can upgrade from any existing standalone Office 365 plan. The greatest benefit, however, is the additional functionality: With Windows 10 from Microsoft Office 365 you get much greater control over the devices that the software is installed on. You get improved deployment and management abilities as well. The Information Protection piece allows you to better protect your data no matter where it resides. Whether on your device, in Office 365 or sent to others, Information Protection can help ensure that you retain full control of that information at all times. Microsoft 365 comes in plans for large and small businesses and – like Office 365 – is a per user, per month cost. And, for a small incremental cost, you can get a range of new features and enablements via Windows 10 and Information Protection. These allow your business to be more productive, efficient and secure. Of course, we also expect to see more features rolled into Microsoft 365 as time progresses, but there won’t be an increase cost for users – it is all part of the subscription. How cool is that? If your business is now looking to driving even more value from the Microsoft Cloud, it is time to consider Microsoft 365. Watch Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft announce Microsoft 365 in the below short video.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1119
__label__cc	0.634655	0.365345	A Completely Unnecessary 2.5 Hour Delay: the Delta and Compass Comedy of Errors (Trip Report) CF on Mar 18, 2017 Mar 21, 2017 - 42 Comments on A Completely Unnecessary 2.5 Hour Delay: the Delta and Compass Comedy of Errors (Trip Report) Delta, Trip Reports Ok, so I lied. I thought my trip to Puerto Vallarta would be the last time I flew Delta when it was in Terminal 5 in Los Angeles, but plans changed. We had a Cranky Concierge meeting in Phoenix, and I decided to take my wife earlier so she could have a relaxing birthday weekend. We flew Delta out, and it didn’t go well at all. There were so many self-inflicted mistakes that it became downright comical. The 2.5 hour delay never should have happened. You might wonder why I didn’t fly Southwest out. After all, I have that companion pass which should make it cheap. But the schedules to Phoenix leave a lot to be desired these days. Southwest had nothing between 12:40pm and 4:15pm and we wanted to leave after the kids got home from school but get in so we could still enjoy a little afternoon pool time before dinner. Southwest just wasn’t going to work. Besides, it was going to be $250 for us to fly them ($125 a person with the pass) when we could get Delta for $180 each at the time we wanted. For only $50 more a person, it wasn’t worth it to change our schedule. I checked in on my phone and was ready to go when I got a call in the morning from Delta. The airplane had been downgauged from an Embraer 175 to a 170 so they wanted volunteers to go at 9pm that night for a $300 voucher. With the aircraft changing, I wondered if we’d be delayed and my decision would be easier. But I looked and the new airplane had been in LA since the night before. I turned down the bump. We got the airport an hour before departure and we were flying out of Terminal 6. So hey, maybe that last trip was my last time flying Delta from Terminal 5. I walked by the temporary Delta ticket counter there (above) on my way to an empty security line before walking to the gate. You can’t see through the windows at this end of the terminal, so I assumed the airplane was ready and waiting for our 2:40pm departure. We just took a seat. There were several announcements asking for volunteers. They had upped the ante to $600 each and I was tempted, but we stuck with the plan. At 2:15pm, the gate agent made an announcement saying something like “sorry for the delay. The airplane is coming from the hangar and it’s not here. Once it’s here, they’ll do safety checks blah blah blah. We’ll have you on your way soon.” I hate those kind of delays since they’re completely avoidable, and I was annoyed that there was no estimated departure time. (Delta’s system still showed the flight as on time.) A few minutes later, the captain of our flight stepped up to the podium and told everyone he called operations and was told that our airplane was scheduled to be towed next. He apologized, told us a little more about the flight, and assured us the crew was ready to go. That was very well done, and he kept this up throughout the flight. Kudos to him. Our original departure time came and went, and there was absolutely no update on the Delta website. It still showed us going on time well after scheduled departure. The gate agent gave us another update saying that the airplane still wasn’t there. She sounded frustrated and was apologetic. Time kept slipping. At 2:56pm Delta finally updated its system to show a delay… until 3pm. We still had no airplane so that was laughable (and probably just an auto-update that only serves to make people angrier with its inaccuracy). Then the rolling delays kicked into gear. At 3pm, it showed a 3:15pm departure. A little after 3pm, our airplane finally arrived. This airplane had been sitting in LA since the night before, but it needed to be cleaned. (Is that not something that could have been done previously?) Catering also had to come onboard. Around 3:25pm, Delta updated the departure time to 3:30pm. Yeah right. But at 3:30pm, it pushed to an oddly-specific 4:14pm departure. Then the announcement came at 3:35pm. “Ladies and gentlemen. We’ve finished catering and cleaning the aircraft, but, uh, well, they over-fueled the airplane so we need to take some fuel off.” A couple minutes later, our fearless captain came on again to give us a more detailed explanation. He said the airplane was supposed to go to Dallas that morning and they fueled it for that. But since we were only going to Phoenix, we would be overweight by the time we landed there, so they had to remove 3,800 pounds of fuel. And then, in an “Airplane!-esque” moment, he said, there’s more bad news…. I expected to hear that they were out of coffee, but nay. The air conditioning didn’t work, so it was “a bit warm” on the airplane. You could tell he was frustrated by all this as well, as you’d expect. At this point, I could only laugh at the level of disorganization. I also wanted to kick myself for not taking the bump earlier. There was a 4:30pm flight out of Long Beach on American that we could have paid $190 for. That ended up arriving more than an hour before we did. I turned to the bar in the middle of the terminal hoping to watch some March Madness, but the lone TV inexplicably had Judge Judy on instead. At 4:05pm, the captain came back and told us that the truck they were using to pull fuel off the airplane was full and they needed to find another one. It would be about 10 minutes before one showed up. In better news, the air conditioning was kicking in and it was getting a little cooler. At 4:15pm, the fuel truck arrived and the captain told us that it was still warm onboard but they were going to start boarding us anyway so they could push back as soon as the fuel was pulled off. Delta Connection 5739 Lv Los Angeles 240p Arr Phoenix 411p Los Angeles (LAX): Gate 68A, Runway 25R, Depart 2h14m Late Phoenix (PHX): Gate 15, Runway 25L, Arrive 2h40m Late N751CZ, Embraer EMB-170, Standard Delta colors, 100% Full Seat 15A, coach Flight Time 59m Onboard it was indeed warm, but it wasn’t awful. I may have felt differently if we had been stuck on the ground for much longer. The agents weren’t aggressive enough at checking bags so people, including my wife, were stuck holding rollaboards all the way in the back and had to swim upstream. Then they made everyone stand with their bags outside the airplane while they tagged them all to be picked up at baggage claim, not planeside. It took several minutes before that cleared up and we were finally ready. The captain gave us a detailed explanation saying we’d push back soon then it would be a 15 to 20 minute taxi to the runway. It looked like the APU was broken, and they had an air-start at the gate. Once the engines were turning, it cooled down quickly. There was a lot of traffic, so we had to wait for the alley to clear before we could push. Then we sat and waited multiple times on our slow journey to the runway. To top it off, a beautiful EVA Cargo 747 went right ahead of us, so when it was our turn, we had to wait awhile for the wake to clear. Twenty four minutes after pushback, we were airborne. The marine layer had begun to roll back in and about halfway down the field, sunshine turned into a thick fog. It made for a great minute-long video: Above the clouds, it was a gorgeous day to fly. I was going to work, but instead I stared out those big windows as we passed Palos Verdes, Mt Jacinto, Palm Springs, the Colorado River and descended over the Sonoran Desert. The evening light was just stunning, and the flight was smooth as silk (except for one rather large jolt which I’m blindly guessing was from the wake of another aircraft). We landed from the east at 6:17pm, and I was looking forward to finally being done with this. But wait, we weren’t. We taxied around to Terminal 3 and then… we went to the penalty box. Was someone in our gate? Nope. It was worse than that. The captain came on immediately with a tone that sounded apologetic and stunned in disbelief at just how wrong things had gone. “Well, our gate’s open, but there’s nobody here to bring us in, so we’re trying to get a hold of someone in our operations office.” And then a couple minutes later. “We managed to get a hold of our operations office, but they tell us it’ll be about 15 minutes, because they’re short-staffed.” It was as if we could hear him shaking his head. This felt like a breaking point. A loud groan/yell was let out by many of the passengers, and understandably so. I could only laugh, really, at the absurdity of it all. A few minutes later, the captain came on again and said he told operations he wanted a complaint resolution agent at the gate so they could listen to our concerns. In the meantime, I watched the sun slowly set out the window. It was quite the stunning view. Sure enough, we fired up the engines about 15 minutes later and finally got to the gate an incredible 2 hours and 40 minutes after scheduled arrival. As we got off, the first officer stood in the cabin saying goodbye, but I didn’t see the captain. It’s a shame, because I wanted to thank him for doing such a great job at keeping us all informed. (I did reach out to Delta later.) At the top of the jet bridge, there was indeed a Delta red coat agent who was handing out cards that explained to people how to complain. I just laughed and walked away down the long and empty corridor which is clearly going to be changed in the renovation project underway. I thought I had heard that Phoenix had made good progress on Terminal 3’s renovation so I was excited to see it, but I was definitely wrong. It looks like the new security checkpoint is open, but the terminal is still under heavy construction. I’ll have to come back later because the parts that are done (below) look nice. At least my wife’s bag was sitting on the carousel when we got to the claim area. On the way out of the airport, I just couldn’t believe how poorly this had gone. I understand when there are weather delays, maintenance issues, or something truly unexpected. But this was a case of an airline just repeatedly shooting itself in the foot. The crew was ready and so was the airplane. It was just mismanagement of the operation that spiraled into a massive delay. I had been tweeting this all day, and Delta kept responding with fairly generic messages. But after the trip was done, the Twitter team said to DM them my details. I did, and by the end of the night they had sent me and my wife each a $200 voucher for future travel. That was a nice gesture, but I can only hope the others on my flight got the same thing and this wasn’t just favorable treatment to placate me. This won’t prevent me from flying Delta again, of course, but for an airline that is actively touting its operational excellence, this was a big fail. 42 comments on “A Completely Unnecessary 2.5 Hour Delay: the Delta and Compass Comedy of Errors (Trip Report)” jscheid says: That was a truly miserable experience, sorry to hear you and others had to endure that. My question is, when did ‘Gate Check’ start meaning you’d get your belongings at baggage claim rather than the gate at your destination? I’ve had this experience a few times now with JetBlue and Southwest. The whole point of not checking a bag is to not deal with baggage claim. When a flight crew mishandles the loading of an aircraft people are forced to check their bag and deal with a process they planned to avoid. Not a good experience for anyone involved. hwong says: This was not a gate check. As on small, commuter planes, you are asked to leave your luggage plane side by a door from which baggage handlers will load it on to the plane. crankyflier says: jscheid – I assume that on small airplanes where they do the gate valet, then you get to claim it planeside on landing. But on larger jets like this one where they don’t have gate valet, it goes to the carousel. But I don’t really know, and honestly we didn’t know where to get the bags until we landed and realized nothing was coming up planeside. Wait…isn’t the correct phrase “comity of errors”? EconStudent says: “Comedy of Errors” is a reference to one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, coining the phrase. Comity would make little sense as it implies that either the errors produced some semblance of social harmony rather than farse, or that the errors had something to do with a multi-jurisdictional court system. Anyway, I believe that’s enough deviation from the spirit of the article. Compass-operated Delta Connection flights at LAX seem to have piss poor reliability. I fly LAX-DEN a lot, and I enjoy the E175 cabin and Delta service. But it seems like the punctuality has really taken a hit with Compass and now with the temporary T6 gates. When I flew LAX-DEN a few weeks ago, we had a similar 4-hour long delay, which was prolonged because an Alaska plane was at the gate, and I guess Alaska has priority over them or something? Then at DEN, there was nobody to tow us in for about ten minutes until the pilot make a very sharp and fast turn to go to a gate on the other side of the concourse. On the return trip, not only were we delayed from taking off at DEN because of LAX air traffic, but we also had to park way out at some hangar by Sepulveda and had to be bussed back to T6 European style. I’ve noticed that at least for LAX-DEN on DL, the operator switches to SkyWest beginning next month. Not sure about LAX-PHX. I have not checked to see if SkyWest-operated DL flights have better reliability than Compass, but at least from my anecdotal experience, SkyWest seems to run a better operation than Compass. All of the issues you raise are Delta’s particular usage of gate space in LAX and their operations in general. Compass controls the crew and maintenance. Besides that, it’s all on Delta. JuliaZ says: Sky West was excellent a month ago from Seattle to Portland (operating for AS). The crew was great, luggage handling was speedy and friendly, and the plane was comfortable. Most importantly, the whole thing went off on time. Charles – I think you’re right. I’m doing a little more research to see how performance has been since the move to T6. I’m thinking that’s the problem, and it’s just going to be a matter of avoiding Delta until after mid-May when the move to T2/3 is done. The Delta press release from Jan. 31 (won’t post a link so as to not get caught in the spam filter) lists flights to and from DEN, PDX, SFO, and SEA as being affected. It doesn’t say anything about PHX, but looking at today’s schedules, most, but not all of the flights to and from PHX are going through T6. So perhaps it is more widespread, but it seems like definitely at least those five destinations are impacted more than others. MattP says: Does Delta handle Compass MX at LAX, or is it a contracted company? I feel like Delta would’ve been more on top of this if it was their own bird, but instead it was a contract carrier with possibly contract MX. Never a recipe for success. I’ve flown Compass around the east coast (mostly from MSP) and also flying up to Alaska from Seattle, crews were always on par with the friendliest of DL crews and never had any significant delays. Maybe LAX station is an underperformer. I wonder if their AA operation there suffers the same way. Compass has contract and company MX in LAX. The problem is the way Delta over uses their gate space. It’s like a 400lbs man trying to fit into a size Small overcoat. It.Just.Doesn’t.Work. Their AA performance is leaps and bounds better due to the way American operates the “Eagles Nest”. Night and day difference. So much of customer service is about setting realistic expectations and then trying to overdeliver on them. When promises and ETAs are constantly broken like that, it’s frustrating for everyone- especially the crew, as (and correct me if I’m wrong) they’re not getting paid until the plane’s door is closed. Kudos to the captain for doing all in his power to try to advocate for the customers and make things right. Catherine Burnett says: I agree, Kilroy. The biggest complaint I have when I travel is lack of communication and mis-information. I also like that the pilot made announcements and seemed as frustrated with the event. However, his use of the words “complaint resolution agent” are incorrect and could confuse those who know what a required complaints resolution official is (someone trained specifically in DOT Part 382 requirements, which address passengers with a disability). Just showing my many years as a flight attendant where a well-meaning pilot actually makes things more difficult for those of us face-to-face with frustrated passengers. Kpwweb says: I wish this were an isolated case, but I have experienced this with every airline… United seemed to be the worst, but maybe because I flew them the most? I had a flight cancelled before during a “severe clear” day when the aircraft was taken out of operation for its maintenance checkup-don’t airlines know when this will happen? Anyway, when this is your business, it is surprising how poorly the airlines can operate. In small markets, its definitely a case of “you have no other options”. Good thing you had the time. In days of old you could devote 1/2 day to travel where you needed to go. Now you need a full day. Glad you made it! Hope the rest of your trip went well. I agree with your comment that if you want to be somewhere at a certain time during the day, you have to allot a full day for air travel. Before I retired a few years ago, I flew all over the US and Canada and learned that this was the only way to ensure I had a fairly reliable chance to make it to an appointment on time. Inconvenient? Yes; however business travel is the best because unless you own the company, you’re not traveling on your own time and at your own expense. Flight cancelled because of weather? Well, at least you’re not on the hook for a room and meals! davewhiteav8r says: I am frankly astonished that you don’t know the difference between Delta and its regional jet carriers. I could understand if a “regular” passenger didn’t know the difference, but someone in your position should know that your experience was not actually on Delta. It was on another carrier contracted to use Delta’s name and paint job, but operating its own aircraft, crews, and gates. This isn’t something new–it’s been the practice for many years. And no, I don’t work for Delta. “When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return.” I am frankly astonished that you don’t realize that Delta intentionally penalizes the regional carriers’ ontime performance so that mainline will look better. This kind of crummy behavior will continue until the DOT requires carriers to report on a marketing carrier basis. haolenate says: Brett is well aware of the operator, however Delta is the one who controls the gates, the ticket counters, and the ramp at LAX. While Compass is the one flying the plane, they don’t have any control over the logistics at the airport except the towing of the plane – which, may actually be controlled by Delta. 121Pilot says: I’m sorry but Delta put its name on the side of the aircraft and Delta sold the ticket. Not to mention that Delta is the one in control of its IT system that shows the status of the flight. This is Delta’s mess and they should own it. Claiming it’s by their fault because it was operated by a regional partner is like claiming it’s not their fault because individual employees screwed up and didn’t manaage this in accordance with Delta policy and procedure. It’s Delta’s name and ticket and they own it. davewhiteav8r – Everyone else has already chimed in with good comments on this, but I’ll jump in as well. It’s absurd to think that the mainline carrier should have no responsibility for the regionals. No passenger on that airplane cared that it was operated by Compass. It was a Delta flight. They bought their tickets through Delta and it said Delta on the side of the airplane. It’s Delta’s responsibility to ensure that its regionals are running well. (And in fact, Delta generally does a better job of that than others. It just failed this time.) You’re spot on. As an employee for a Delta regional carrier who deals with LAX regularly I would have to say that the lack of gate space and the over use of the gates makes for a very frustrating experience on a regular basis. I’d say you’re experience is not the norm but was a “perfect” storm. But delays to and from gates is common and can ruin a perfectly good flight otherwise. This sure was a mess. However at least they communicated with you. The pilot chiming in was a really nice gesture if nothing else. Many airlines would have just kept quiet and had nobody meeting the arrival to get the feedback forms out. Yes, it sucked but it could have sucked a lot more. Gary Bisbee says: It is called malfunction junction. fwprice says: Wow! That could have been a United flight out of Toronto!! EricC says: Flashbacks to my life at UEX. All the time you’d get nonsense like this. I wonder how the plane managed to be at the hangar and also fueled (and therefore dispatched) for a flight it didn’t operate? Perhaps an earlier captain refused to take an airplane without APU to Dallas on a hot day, Compass acquiesced and tried to fix it, but didn’t have time and put it back in to service later? Regardless, if you’re counting on an unscheduled tow crew things are never predictable. Mechanics are rarely so numerous that there are a handful around to reposition an airplane that don’t have something more critical to be doing. Not sure who ground handles Compass in PHX, but it’s also really common for smaller stations to have personnel capacity for one plane at a time. You might need to park, but have to wait for the crew to unload bags from another plane, deliver them to baggage claim, bring out new bags, load, and push the plane before they have time to park you. Such are the wonders of staffing for best case scenario. RaflW says: A few months ago at MSP, I felt a bit like I was in the movie Airplane! This was a DL mainline flight, and the equipment was due in on a tow from the apron. The equipment just hadn’t shown up. The G.A. did a good job of making announcements, but clearly she was as frustrated as the passengers when she’d announce ‘just a few minutes!’ and many more would pass with nothing. Then, a gate change announcement to meet the plane at the next gate, and we’d all move, and then … no tug, no plane. More waiting while she called Ops again. Then, another move to the next gate. This is where it started to feel like airplane “you flight is arriving at gate G5 … no G7 …. no G9!” We did eventually get a plane, a crew, and to our destination ,but late and with the cap off that we finally boarded, at gate G5. Whah-whaah! Tim Dunn says: It is the regional carriers to provide information to Delta on their own operations. Delta might control the gates but if other carriers have any part in the process – and defueling their regional carriers’ planes is NOT a Delta function – then you can’t blame DL when regional carriers have problems and can’t keep DL updated. It is valid that the ticket is a Delta ticket. What happened here does happen with other carriers in other cities as well. The terminal switch will provide a lot more space not just for DL but for all other carriers on the south side of LAX. Considering DL has been running an average of 10 flights/day at LAX, there were bound to be problems… but DOT data also shows that DL’s on-time performance at LAX has consistently been better than some of the other big 4 carriers – all of whom have paid the price in operational reliability due to construction at LAX. Ultimately, DL has to say the buck stops w/ them but it is very hard to argue that any one entity or cause was the reason of this or many delays at LAX or the west coast as a whole. its a Compass issue, same thing goes on at American Eagle….Compass on one flight operating for Eagle changed a tire and put the wrong tire on, how does that happen….the flight was well over 2 hrs late and this was just one issue for that flight at the Eagles nest….my friend text me every time something went wrong but like with your issue, the Capt kept everyone informed….every time she has a flight on Compass, there is an issue…is Compass short on crew, trying to operate to many flight with not enough planes, poor aircraft scheduling? MC – I can’t speak to specific issues, but Compass is operating a much better operation for American at LAX right now. There’s something about the Delta operation that’s problematic. “right now” is the operative word. American’s operations, including that of its regional partners, was a disaster at LAX last summer and far worse than any of the other big 4 carriers specifically because they were overscheduling their facility. I am sure you are also aware that all of the weather problems on the west coast this year have really strained everyone’s operations. Given that Alaska dropped to 5th place nationwide in DOT on-time statistics for January and Virgin America was dead last, there is no hiding the operational problems that are taking place on the west coast. LAX doesn’t operate in a vacuum from the region. Delta is spending $1.9 billion on a terminal move and additional gates because it needs the operational flexibility and the ability to grow it lacks right now. Other people face some of the same and worse situations as you face. Your blog just helps shine the light on your experiences and companies would be foolish not to do what they can to fix what goes wrong. I am glad you spoke up but your voice gives you access that others lack. There is also a very good chance that many of the Delta large RJ routes from LAX will be C series routes in just over a year from now in addition to giving Delta the ability to add markets that won’t be profitable with any other existing aircraft. Tim – Not sure about American’s regional partners. American mainline was horrendous but regional operations held up just fine. http://crankyflier.com/2016/06/30/many-airlines-have-an-on-time-problem-in-los-angeles-but-its-american-that-concerns-me-most/ MC – Compass isn’t over staffed and does not schedule the planes. American and Delta tell Compass when and where they will fly and they do it. It’s simply the way Mainline carriers use the limited space in LAX. Each airline has their fair share of company induced issues. But LAX is a very unique beast. The operations and logistics at the airport tend to be the smoking gun. This is why I really hate going through LAX. It always seems to be a cluster. The only place worse are the NYC airports. I’m a little surprised that you got 2 x $200 for your troubles. Delta lost my luggage for 5 days on a trip to Europe earlier this year. While they did reimburse me without hassle for my purchases (which in retrospect were very restrained and reasonable), I was only offered a $250 voucher as part of their apology. Your delay sounds frustrating and totally unnecessary, but not nearly as aggravating as five days in Paris without your clothes and being forced to change your vacation plans…. Sorry for your terrible experience. Had almost your same situation Monday on Frontier. My family and I were flying ORD-MCO. Plane came in from LAX about 2 hours before our schedule departure boarding time was 5:55am departure time was 6:30. 6:20 they get on the PA captain and crew are on the plane. The captain is talking to the crew and then they have to do a “security check”. So they finally board like 6:40. Get everyone on the plane as I was boarding some crazy lady was arguing and swearing because of her carry on cause she didn’t want to pay. Well let’s say she didn’t board out flight and was escorted by police. So we are waiting and waiting to push back. 7:21 I get a message our flight was going to depart at 7:20…..we’ll they are late. Captain gets on said they had to do wait for maintenance paperwork which we didn’t see anyone nor said what it was also some more fuel to fly around the storm that came by the area 4 hours ago. We finally pushed back made it to the end of the L concourse and waited another 10 minutes with no info on why. So finally got in the air about 7:40 with the detour looked like they took us to the Iowa Missouri boarder then southwest from there. Got in a little over an hour late. Ha, I was sitting in that same area a couple days before you waiting for my mainline Delta plane…which was late due entirely to ground operations. Had landed in from SLC on time but sat out on the tarmac somewhere for almost an hour before they logjam cleared and they could deplane. Not sure if it’s a LAX issue, Terminal 5 issue or what, but there are big problems with what they are doing right now. Not to excuse your experience of course. I’d fly into John Wayne if it weren’t for the prices being 2x higher than LAX for 1/3 the flight options. I will say that DL does an absolute superb job at their hubs, regionals included, but going into places like LAX, ORD, LGA is just always a hassle one way or another. Flight Radar says: We’ve experienced about the same on our flight to Bali with a transit in Dubai. In the end the trip took us nearly 40 hours! Joy, joy! I can hardly wait until all the airlines have all of there flight operated by someone else. everthing done by someone else.. Don’t blame me, that was our DBA operator. Bags? Don’t blame me, that was our contract ground handler. ATC? Don’t blame me, that was our contract ATC operator. Customer service?. Don’t blame me, that was our, who was it, don’t tell me, oh yes, I think we farmed that out to K-Mart! But, Hey! Revenues have never been better. Profits, off the chart. Our refinery, don’t you worry about it! Have a pleasant trip! Surprised that the crew did not time out with this long delay. I have noticed on multiple occasions with AA in Miami that if a flight is delayed by more than 90 minutes, they either don’t fly or another crew is brought in resulting in an even further delay. One caveat is that most of these flights are departing International to South America. This results in the flight being delayed until the next morning, passengers being sent to hotels, given transportation, food, and drink vouchers, and an additional hassle of going through TSA a second time. TC99 – It’s funny. When we got on, I looked at the flight attendant and asked, “you’re not going to time out are you?” And she said, “well, not yet.” I don’t know how close they were, but that definitely crossed my mind, especially since the captain since this was his last trip carrying passengers that day. (I assume he was deadheading somewhere after.) Howdy says: So, you booked a 2:40pm flight to PHX because you wanted to “enjoy a little afternoon pool time before dinner.” Well, as another has posted, when absolute satisfaction rests upon arrival at certain time of day, then you should have departed day earlier or booked morning flight — Inconvenient? Yes, but absolutely necessary. In addition, it behooves me that you were aware airplane was downgraded and therefore solicitation for volunteers would continue – and involuntary was possibility, yet you made decision to arrive at airport one hour prior to departure. Seems to me, to allow time for unforeseen and uncontrollable events, i.e., traffic, security, etc, you should have been there no later than two hours before to prevent involuntary denial. Yet I am glad you did not face this unfortunate situation, but if you had, it would have been your own fault. Still can’t figure out why, at gate, you continued to check updates on mobile device – that is, considering gate agent and crew were diligent informing? Yes, to pass time, you can check device updates, however, don’t complain about the lag in update – especially when you are in position and receiving real-time status. WHEW! The airplane had maintenance, obviously. Seems to me inconvenience(s) took place transitioning the equipment back into service – and each was reasonable. Inconvenient? Yes, but unreasonable, absolutely not! Further, you had to check your bag, taxied 24 minutes before take-off and held for 15 minutes at ballpark, and you continue to complain, endlessly. As I’ve written before, you require waaayyy toooo much. Oh oh my! Life must be good, bro! Leave a Reply to Ted Cancel reply Topic of the Week: First Quarter Earnings Show a Struggling United, JetBlue American, Delta, JetBlue, United An Underwhelming Air France Experience to Tahiti (Trip Report) Air France, Trip Reports The Insane World of Baggage Check-in Times American, Baggage, Continental, Delta, JetBlue, Northwest, Southwest, United, US Airways	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1120
__label__cc	0.644654	0.355346	CALIFORNICATING COLORADO: Steyer Says He’s Not Focused on Colorado Politics, Except for Pouring in Money California billionaire Tom Steyer told the Denver Post in an exclusive interview that he is not focused on Colorado politics this election season. He has bigger fish to fry, like impeaching President Trump and stacking Congress with Democrats. We thought we were off the hook, ready to breathe a sigh of relief, but it turns out that just because Steyer is not focused on Colorado, it doesn’t mean he’s going to stop meddling or pouring money into races that just so happen to be in Colorado. Steyer wants to take control of the state Senate from Republicans, and to do that he is collaborating with his environmental buddies over at the League of Conservation Voters to raise money for Faith Winter and Tammy Story. Steyer also contributed the maximum amount to both women. On the state House side, Steyer and his buddies are raising money to reelect Jeff Bridges, Tony Exum and Barbara McLachlan. Oh, and Steyer is also raising money for Boulder Democrat Joe Neguse, who is running for U.S. Rep. Jared Polis’s seat while Polis runs for governor. There’s no money yet in governor’s race — that will likely come after the Democratic primary. Steyer is also targeting potential anti-gun voters in Colorado high schools to register them to vote. That’s part of a $1.5 million effort across 10 states including Colorado. What Steyer is not stamping his name on, are any potential ballot measures to block oil and gas development. Any money towards those efforts will likely travel from one of Steyer’s pockets, through the back door of national environmental groups that are more than willing to take on his fig$t. We suspect Steyer is tired of losing face and major campaigns, but still wants to exert control over Colorado Democrats.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1127
__label__wiki	0.679633	0.679633	/ GAMING The Game Awards Teasing Sonic the Hedgehog Surprise By Marc Deschamps - December 8, 2019 09:27 pm EST You can't keep a good hedgehog down. Dr. Robotnik has been learning that lesson for nearly 30 years now, and it's never been truer than it is in 2019. After the disastrous unveiling of the first Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer, Paramount Pictures made the decision to change Sonic's appearance to better reflect the character's appearance in the video games. The second trailer released to near-universal acclaim, and fans have been riding a bit of a high since. On Thursday, The Game Awards 2019 will air, and while Sonic isn't up for any accolades, it would appear that Sega's blue blur will appear at some point during the broadcast. Host Geoff Keighley let slip that they "may do something fun with the movie that's coming out." So um...Geoff Keighley said (12:33 in the stream) "Sonic may make an appearance of some kind inside of The Game Awards", and "may do something fun with the movie that's coming out" https://t.co/OO8g3y9AiA — Sonic Paradox News (@SSF1991) December 8, 2019 Video game adaptations don't have the greatest track record when it comes to the big screen. While 2019 saw the release of the critically and commercially successful Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, bombs like Super Mario Bros., Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and Street Fighter have sadly been the norm, more often than not. Fans are hoping that Sonic the Hedgehog manages to keep the Pokemon streak going, and the redesign certainly bodes well for that. According to Keighley, around 10 new game announcements will be made during the broadcast. As of this writing, a few small hints have been given regarding what viewers can expect, but things have been kept mostly quiet. Perhaps the Sonic news might pertain to a new game, or even one based on the film itself! We'll have concrete answers in just a few short days. Releasing in February, Sonic the Hedgehog stars Ben Schwartz in the titular role, with Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik. In the film, Sonic becomes stranded on Earth and must enlist the help of Tom Wachowski (James Marsden) in order to evade Robotnik and his robotic minions. The Game Awards 2019 will take place Thursday December 12th starting at 8:30 p.m. ET. What Sonic-related news do you hope to see at The Game Awards? Do you plan on tuning in? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming! Massive PlayStation Store PS4 Sale Features Over 500 Games Nintendo Wins eShop Pre-Order Lawsuit New Detective Pikachu Posters Revealed Resident Evil 8 Development Reportedly Being Rebooted, Not Releasing Anytime Soon Star Wars Battlefront 2 Players Get to Play as BB-8 Next Week New Cryptic PlayStation Teaser Has Fans Going Mad	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1129
__label__cc	0.55093	0.44907	Digital archive 2011 – Archives 2002 – 10 Alternative media vs the exterminist economy Climate action involves challenging the petrobloc and its corporate messaging – by Robert Hackett – Canadians are being bombarded through conventional and social media with propaganda for the Trans Mountain pipeline. The Alberta government alone spent a reported $23 million to promote this project, one that will help expand the Athabasca bitumen sands and greenhouse gas emissions. Even our public television network, CBC, repeatedly runs Alberta’s promos – a simplistic narrative, appropriately in cartoon format. (See a critique of their contestable claims by energy analyst David Hughes at https://bit.ly/2XDAYd6). But we can do better. Stronger support for independent, progressive, “alternative” media would facilitate a more balanced debate about Canada’s climate policies and energy future. A recent study I co-authored for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA, https://bit.ly/2NFJyUd) indicates that promotion of export-oriented oil pipelines doesn’t stop with paid ads or Facebook campaigns — it’s embedded in corporate media’s regular reporting. Sampling 300 articles on Canadian pipeline controversies, in corporate and alternative media, the study found that news outlets like the Vancouver Sun, Province, Edmonton Journal, 24 Hours and Globe & Mail emphasized themes and voices in favour of pipeline construction. While these papers could hardly ignore protests and dissident messages, they typically emphasized extractivist themes: job creation, other economic benefits, pipeline safety, legitimacy of the approval process, pipelines as in the public interest, the continued need for fossil fuels, the illegitimacy of opposition. In opinion articles, pipeline advocates constructed an ideologically selective version of reality, often rendering oil corporations and state agencies invisible as political actors – they are dissolved into general categories (like “resource development”), depicted as merely reactive to market or political pressures, or simply not mentioned. By contrast, pipeline opponents were portrayed as an illegitimate special interest group. The anti-pipeline mayors of Vancouver and Montreal were labelled a “stumbling block”, “slinging mud”, practising “canny politics” and speaking “parochially”. Protesters are “well meaning” but “ignorant” and consist of a “vast coalition of environmental groups” that make demands – an inversion of actual power relations, considering the petroleum industry’s deep pockets and army of lobbyists. Could any citizens’ group match the 826 meetings by just one company – Kinder Morgan, the original proponent of TransMountain expansion – with senior BC and federal officials between 2011 and 2016? (See www.corporatemapping.ca/826-reasons). There’s a bigger picture here. Canada’s corporate media are components of what Simon Fraser University researcher Bob Neubauer labels the petrobloc. (One example: in 2014, Canada’s biggest newspaper chain, PostMedia, reportedly agreed to produce advertorials for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.) Not to be confused with a conspiracy, Neubauer explains, the petrobloc is “an informal alliance between actors – oil companies, banks which finance them, particular political parties, industry-backed think tanks and advocacy groups, etc. – which disproportionately benefit from the industry’s highly inequitable structure.” Meanwhile, Canadian workers and taxpayers “gain a relatively tiny share of sector revenue while absorbing vast amounts of ecological and economic risk.” The petrobloc arguably includes industry-captured government regulatory agencies. Take the National Energy Board – please! Back in 2014, I was one of the relatively few “directly affected” homeowners granted intervenor status in the NEB’s review of the TransMountain proposal – a process patently designed to minimize public participation and reach a predetermined approval. Is anybody surprised that the NEB’s “reconsideration report” of February 22nd repeated its green light? In opposition, Trudeau promised to replace and redo the NEB review process. Then he got elected, and didn’t. The petrobloc’s influence over Canadian economy and policy leads some observers to fear Canada is devolving into “oil’s deep state” (in the words of Albertan author Kevin Taft). And what the petrobloc is defending is extractivism – in Naomi Klein’s definition, an economic model based on the appropriation and removal, without renewal, of natural resources from the earth, usually for export to dominant players in world markets. “Extractivism” describes Canada’s historic role as a hewer of wood and drawer of water. But Canada’s apparent addiction to fossil fuel exports adds a new dimension. If business-as-usual for the fossil fuel industry has entailed the conscious acceleration of global warming; the suppression of research and the deliberate sowing of public doubt about its links to fossil fuels; the dismissal of climate scientists’ warnings to keep 80 percent of fossil fuel reserves in the ground; the use of political and economic power to postpone a post-carbon economy; the overriding of Indigenous rights and cultures; and disproportionate complicity in the planet’s Sixth Mass Extinction of species, including potentially our own – is “extractivism” still a sufficiently strong term? After all, defining the terms of a policy debate is halfway to winning it. A growing UK-based pro-climate movement cleverly calls itself “Extinction Rebellion”. Extinction indicates what is at stake, but it implies a Darwinian process of natural selection. When extinction results from conscious choices to which there are alternatives, it’s fair to describe fossil fuel extractivism as an economy of extermination. As if to confirm the point, the NEB’s February report admits that greenhouse gas emissions, and adverse environmental impacts on the resident killer whale population, would both be “significant,” yet finds the project nevertheless “justified”. Fortunately, the CCPA study finds that non-corporate independent daily outlets (like The Tyee, National Observer, and rabble.ca), provide important elements of a counter-narrative to extractivist Exterminism, giving more attention than do corporate media to pipeline-critical themes: the power of Big Oil threatens democracy; the approval process was flawed; the pipeline itself threatens to accelerate climate change; it brings other environmental risks (tanker spills, pipeline ruptures, tank farm fires); it actually threatens or exports potential Canadian jobs; it tramples First Nations’ rights. Alternative media were also more likely to give access to First Nations spokespeople, environmental groups, experts and protesters. Sure, there’s room for improvement. In pipeline coverage, alternative media did little to challenge the paralyzing stereotype that jobs and environmental protection are mutually exclusive. Nor did they give much voice to fossil fuel workers and unions. Their inclusion is important not only to offset the pro-business tendencies of a commercial press, but also, because the labour movement has generated a potent concept for building a low-carbon economy – a Just Transition from fossil fuels. That includes workers’ participation in decision-making, job retraining (in renewable energy and other relevant, growing sectors), and other measures to minimize economic insecurity in resource communities. If media muffle labour’s voices, that allows fossil capital to shape public debate by constructing a skewed picture of workers’ interests. Including labour’s voices and exploring Just Transition options? That’s a big journalistic mission more suited to alternative than corporate media culture. Yet the playing field is far from level. Even though corporate media face declining revenues and newsroom cutbacks, alternative media don’t have comparable investment capital, newsgathering resources, audience reach, corporate alliances, or access to distribution networks (particularly the giant tech platforms like Facebook, that function as publishing gatekeepers to so much content). There is a democratic case for public funding of independent non-profit journalism. An investment no larger than Notley’s $23 million pipeline cartoons would go a long way to supporting a more pluralist media system. Just two percent of that amount would nearly double the revenues that The Tyee, the award-winning Vancouver-based online newsmagazine, reported for 2010. Interestingly, last November, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced $595 million in tax incentives over five years to support Canadian journalism, including charitable status for non-profit news organizations, and tax credits for news outlets that hire to expand local news coverage. This new policy initiative implies a welcome recognition that journalism is a public good, that is, a needed civic service that can’t be easily produced through market mechanisms, one that serves democracy best through independence from both state and corporate power. We need a stable financial basis for professional journalism in the for-profit sector, as well as the largely volunteer- and freelance-based alternative media. But don’t forget, Morneau paid Kinder Morgan $4.5 billion of Canadians’ taxes for its leaky 66 year old pipeline. Can we trust his media initiative to help redress the imbalance between corporate and independent media? How much support will go to journalism rather than to media companies’ CEOs and hedge fund creditors? Keep careful watch, because genuinely democratic media reform is integral to struggles for a sustainable economy, climate action, and democratic counterweights to the excessive power of the petrobloc and its Exterminist economic model. Robert Hackett is a retired professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University, a research associate with the CCPA, and co-author of Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives (Routledge, 2017). Categories climate, Current Edition, Ecology, Justice, Politics Post navigation Broadway subway line not a done deal Didn’t we win in 2008 with Bill C-51? COP25 Madrid delays real climate action A stiff sentence: redacting Julian Assange from the record The courage to care Bells for Peace: an idea whose time has come Now that the Queen is our largest cannabis dealer, how are things? Word(s) of the Year: connecting urgent ecojustice dots Is the most widely prescribed heartburn pill killing people? Compassionate holiday meals Leela Gilday’s timely North Star Calling Progress toward sustainable seafood Big Telecom fighting lower Internet fees Browse articles by month Browse articles by month Select Month December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 March 2018 February 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 Common Ground Publishing Vancouver, BC V6K 2C3 suzan@commonground.ca submit an article or idea editor@commonground.ca joseph@commonground.ca © 2020 Common Ground	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1133
__label__wiki	0.872617	0.872617	ssg/r Gender and security Business and Security International Security Sector Advisory Team DCAF’s Asia-Pacific Unit was established in 2017 in order to continue and expand DCAF’s ongoing engagement in Southeast Asia, and to expand its activities across other Asia-Pacific sub-regions. We provide support to nationally led security sector reform processes and regional security sector experience-sharing initiatives in cooperation with national, regional and international partners supporting SSG/R across the region Our activities include multi-stakeholder dialogues, policy-guided research and capacity building for beneficiaries at regional, sub-regional and national levels. Along with our main office in Geneva, we also maintain a full-time presence in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, as part of a multi-year EU police reform support project. Supporting nationally-led security sector reform processes and regional security sector experience-sharing initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region The Security Sector and Global Health Crises: Lessons and Prospects. A Policy Brief Security Sector Engagement in Global Health Crises: A Brief for Policy-Makers Database 2.0 - Tracking the Development Dividend of SSR Large-N Study: Examining the Urban Dimension of the Security Sector Peacebuilding and Security Sector Governance in Asia The Security Sector's Role in Responding to Health Crises: Lessons from the 2014-2015 Ebola Epidemic... Tracking the Development Dividend of SSR Police Legislation Model: The Japanese Police Law and The Police Duties Execution Law Inter-Parliamentary Forum on Security Sector Governance in Southeast Asia IPF SSG The Role of Parliament in Police Governance: Lessons Learned from Asia and Europe Media and the Security Sector in South East Asia SSR for Safer Cities: General Santos City, Philippines Almanac on Indonesian Security Sector Reform 2007 National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), Thailand Global Health Centre (GHC)/Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies (DKI-APCSS), Honolulu Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung (FES), Manila, Bangkok, Yangon Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) National Defense College of the Philippines (NDCP) Open Society Foundations (OSF) Philippines Public Safety College (PPSC) © Ivan Bandura (Flickr) © Crown Copyright www.defenceimages.mod.uk © European Parliament www.europarl.europa.eu © Designed and Produced by ACW www.acw.uk.com	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1138
__label__wiki	0.987982	0.987982	CBS Orders ‘Candy Crush’ Reality Series Based On Mobile Game From Lionsgate Popular mobile game Candy Crush is headed to television as a new one-hour, live action game show series on CBS from Wipeout creator Matt Kunitz, Lionsgate and King, the company behind the game. In the game Candy Crush Saga, players match colorful candies in combinations of three or more to win points, defeat obstacles and progress through more than 2,000 levels. On the series, teams of two people use their wits and physical agility to compete on enormous, interactive game boards featuring next generation technology to conquer Candy Crush and be crowned the champions. “We are huge fans of Candy Crush and, like so many others, we know the ‘rush’ of advancing to the next level of the game,” said Glenn Geller, President, CBS Entertainment. “We’re excited to work with Lionsgate and King to adapt one of the world’s most popular and entertaining game franchises for television and make it available to its massive, passionate fan base who can watch and play along at home.” CBS TV Studios' Allison Brightman Named Head Of Business Affairs Liosngate has been developing Candy Crush as a TV show for about two years. Kunitz was brought in to create and executive produce the series under his overall deal with Lionsgate TV. He was well equipped for the job, having created and executive produced the ABC reality series Wipeout, which had the look and feel of a video game with its colorful, oversized obstacle courses. “The Candy Crush franchise is a world-renowned property, so when the head of our interactive and games division, Peter Levin, brought this IP to Lionsgate, we instantly knew it would make an incredibly visual, physical and fun TV program,” said Kevin Beggs, Chairman, Lionsgate Television Group. Candy Crush will be distributed domestically by CBS Television Distribution and internationally by Lionsgate. Before Wipeout, Kunitz served as executive producer on NBC’s Fear Factor. “The Candy Crush franchise lends itself perfectly to the kind of larger-than-life, physical game shows that I love to produce and CBS is the perfect home for it,” said Kunitz. “As a Candy Crush Saga player myself, I am excited to amp up the action and visuals in our huge Candy Crush Arena.” Candy Crush Saga and its sister title, Candy Crush Soda Saga, are two of the top 10 grossing mobile games in the U.S. On average, 18 billion game rounds are played every month around the world. Candy Crush will be produced by Pulse Creative in association with Lionsgate Television, King Ltd. and CBS Television Studios. Kunitz and Levin executive produce alongside Russell Binder, King VP Nicki Sheard, and Candy Crush Saga creator Sebastian Knutsson, King’s Chief Creative Officer and is one of the founders of the company. Levin worked with Striker Entertainment’s Binder, King’s licensing agent in the U.S., to secure licensing Candy Crush IP for the TV show. Matt Kunitz	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1139
__label__wiki	0.941795	0.941795	Chicago artists paint food-inspired murals in downtown Evanston underpass Anthony Lewellen’s finished mural on Church Street and Maple Street. The public work was completed in late September. Colin Boyle/Daily Senior Staffer Madeleine Fernando, Monthly Editor Residents passing through Evanston will be greeted with bright splashes of color to brighten their commutes, thanks to the addition of two new murals to a downtown underpass. The murals, located on Church Street and Maple Street, were inspired and funded largely by surrounding local businesses. One side of the mural — painted by Chicago-based artist Jeff Zimmerman — features several realistic-looking faces on a largely white abstract background. The other side — created by Anthony Lewellen — is a colorful mix of illustrations of a burger, a taco, a dumbbell and a microphone. Lea Pinsky, the director of outreach and community programs at Art Encounter, a non-profit art education organization, said her group facilitated the painting of the mural. Art Encounter runs a public art initiative called the Evanston Mural Arts Program. The 2-year-old project aims to help community partners and residents uplift their neighborhoods through mural art. Pinsky said Downtown Evanston approached the program about painting a mural to liven up Church Street after new murals popped up around Evanston last year. The program suggested several potential artists, and eventually chose the twi Chicago-based painters. Pinsky said the artists were given the theme “food and fitness,” a subject chosen by Downtown Evanston and some of the mural’s other local sponsors — which includes Evanston Rocks, Church Street Plaza and real estate company FD Stonewater. “They wanted it to represent the fun business district of Evanston,” Pinsky said. “They didn’t want something abstract. They wanted characters and things that represented dining downtown.” Lewellen, who painted one side of the mural, said he “playfully” interpreted the theme in his own aesthetic, drawing on bold colors and imagery. His end goal was to make something visually engaging and dynamic, he said. A person walks past the new artwork on Church Street and Maple Street. The mural was inspired and funded largely by local businesses. Lewellen said working on his mural took about a month — two weeks of planning and design followed by two weeks painting onsite. As he worked on the mural, Lewellen said he noticed people’s expressions light up as they walked by. “It was really positive feedback and people just telling me how much brighter and more pleasant it was walking through the space,” Lewellen said. “Those things are really nice and sort of the unexpected and unplanned benefit of being able to work in the public like that.” Jennifer Lasik, Evanston’s cultural arts coordinator, said there’s been an “explosion” of public art in Evanston over the last two years, with more than a dozen new murals and half dozen sculptures springing up across town. Lasik said there are many ways to propose a mural in Evanston. Sometimes community groups or aldermen suggest one, while other times an artist may have an idea for a certain area, she said. Typically, the group or individual would approach the Public Art Committee, which would then recommend the proposal to the larger Arts Council. Lasik called Evanston a “great arts community” and said the murals are not only appreciated by residents, they also make an area safer and more cheerful. “It’s not a secret that Evanston’s underpasses tend to look blighted,” she said. “Any time we can take artwork and we can brighten up an area (or) connect people emotionally to their community through art, all that is very positive.” Pinsky said she loved the final result and thinks the murals are fun and dynamic. The artwork, she said, really captures the energy of downtown. “I just think it gives people a pep in their step when they’re walking through their daily life,” she said. “To have a chance to see this huge scale art… It takes you out of your phone or out of your head and makes you think of aesthetics and color and shape — all the good things art can do in a community.” Email: madeleinefernando2020@u.northwestern.edu Twitter: @madeleinemelody Anthony Lewellen Evanston Mural Arts Jeff Zimmermann Jennifer Lasik Lea Pinsky Maple Street Public Arts Committee	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1143
__label__wiki	0.514555	0.514555	Jewish Problem Daily Stormer The Most Censored Publication in History Normieweb Home Tor Home Tor BBS 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 🇬🇷 Iran “Sabotages” Saudi Oil Tankers! What Wonderful Timing! Miraculous Coincidence! Andrew Anglin Daily Stormer Christ have mercy on our souls, here we go again. CBS News: Four oil tankers anchored in the Mideast were damaged by what Saudi and U.S. officials say were “sabotage” attacks, though images of the ships have shown clear visible damage to only one of the vessels. Details of the alleged sabotage to two Saudi, one Norwegian and one Emirati oil tanker on Sunday remained unclear, and none of the nations to which the vessels belong had assigned any blame. However, on Monday American officials told CBS News senior national security correspondent David Martin that the initial assessment of a U.S. team sent to investigate the incidents was that Iran or Iranian-backed proxies had used explosives to blow holes in the four ships. The incidents demonstrated the raised risks for shippers in a region vital to global energy supplies as tensions soar between the U.S. and Iran in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the nuclear deal agreed by world powers and to impose harsh new sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Asked at the White House about the incident on Monday, President Trump responded: “It’s going to be a bad problem for Iran if something happens.” Here’s Grand Inquisitor Brogorn Dipplestump, making these lunatic threats about this idiot hoax. This CBS News article – like every Western media article – is acting like Iran is admitting to doing this sabotage by quoting the Foreign minister out of context: Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, who is currently holding talks with his counterpart in India, said that the U.S. “has been escalating the situation unnecessarily.” “We do not seek escalation but we have always defended ourselves,” he said. He said that BEFORE the alleged “sabotage” was announced, but they use the word “meanwhile” as if he was asked why he sabotaged these boats and that’s the answer he gave. Later on in the article, they do mention the fact that Iran called it a conspiracy. Shortly after the Saudi announcement that two of the country’s tankers had been attacked, Iran’s Foreign Ministry called for further clarification about what exactly happened with the vessels. The ministry’s spokesman, Abbas Mousavi, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as warning against any “conspiracy orchestrated by ill-wishers” and “adventurism by foreigners” to undermine the maritime region’s stability and security. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are staunch opponents of Iran’s government. That quote isn’t getting much play. At all. And when they do say it, they act like it’s a conspiracy by Iran. This is the exact same shit they did in the run-up to Iraq. I was just a teenager at the time, so I was – as are all teenagers – immersed in a leftist culture. And so I was following this stuff pretty closely. And the way the news media manipulated things was exactly like this. And it was combined with outright fake news and fake intelligence. Always about how Iraq was somehow a threat to America. There were several of these sorts of “oh a random thing happened, we don’t have any evidence that it happened at all, let alone who did it, but we can tell you with 100% certainty that it was Iraq.” It was very similar to the regularly announced “Russian hacking” events. So I don’t think that we’re at the point where Trump is going to start dropping bombs, but this “boat sabotage” hoax is EXACTLY the level of hoax they start out with when they are getting ready for the hard push. I have said that I doubt they’re actually even trying to do an invasion, and are more likely trying to bully the Europeans into starving them out, at which point they can do a color revolution when the country is starving. And I still think that is the case. Probably. But I also believe that when you have Mike Pompeo and John Bolton talking about “all options are on the table,” they mean that all options are on the table. The situation here is that no matter how much circumcised cock Trump sucks, the Jews will always hate him, and want to see him humiliated and destroyed, because he is – for better or worse – a symbol of white people. So they literally do not even care if they destroy him and completely destroy the entire reputation of the United States. If they decide it’s the right move, they will tell him to do it, and there is very little chance he will say no. Maybe he will say no. I don’t know. Assad is still alive. So who knows. We’re angry at Trump, but if anyone else would have gotten elected – literally any single candidate from the 2016 primaries, excluding Bernie Sanders – we would have went to war in Syria. That is the horrible state our country is in. Even the most Jewed out candidate you’ve ever seen was the best of the bunch, excluding a literal communist Jew. I will tell you, it is physically exhausting to be here witnessing this. Conspiracy Donald Trump False Flag Iran Saudi Arabia War 2019-05-14 Saudi Prince Allegedly Hacked Bezos’ Phone No, Americans are Not “Looking On” the Impeachment Morning Joe Calls Out Donald Trump’s Greasy Jew Lawyer for His Links to Jew Epstein Join the discussion at TGKBBS Demographic Countdown shekels plz goyim This is a reader funded site. It is the most censored publication in history. Send BTC or XMR. 18gr2E6ubUdksNiaEGrNUD3e5FF8vxXaMf We here at the Daily Stormer are opposed to violence. We seek revolution through the education of the masses. When the information is available to the people, systemic change will be inevitable and unavoidable. Anyone suggesting or promoting violence in the comments section will be immediately banned, permanently. © Copyright Daily Stormer 2020, All Rights Reserved -- Watch the Daily Stormer Status page for future updates in case of further domain seizure.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1145
__label__cc	0.586916	0.413084	Air and gases in milk Fig. 6.6.1 Milk in the udder contains 4.5 to 6 % gases. Milk always contains greater or lesser amounts of air and gases. The volume of air in milk in the udder is determined by the air content of the cow’s bloodstream. The oxygen (O2) content is low, being chemically bound to the hæmoglobin in the blood, while the carbon dioxide (CO2) content is high because the blood carries large volumes of CO2 from the cells to the lungs. The total volume of air in milk in the udder can be from around 4.5 to 6 %, of which O2 constitutes about 0.1%, N2 (nitrogen) about 1 % and CO2 3.5 to 4.9 %. Milk is exposed to air in several ways during milking. Atmospheric oxygen dissolves in the milk, while CO2 is released from it. Part of the air does not dissolve in the milk but remains in a finely dispersed form, often adhering to the fat. After milking and collection in a churn or cooling tank, the milk may contain 5.5 to 7.0 % air by volume, with 6 % as an average figure (see Table 6.6.1). The equilibrium that prevails between those three states of aggregation is determined by temperature and atmospheric pressure. When the temperature rises, during pasteurization for instance, dissolved air goes from solution to dispersion. It is the dispersed air that causes problems in milk treatment. Air in milk occurs in three states: Chemically bound Table 6.6.1 Gas content (volume %) of commercial mixed raw milk Total gas Minimum 0.30 1.18 3.44 4.92 Maximum 0.59 1.63 6.28 8.50 Average 0.47 1.29 4.45 6.21 Further air admixture More air is introduced into the milk during handling at the farm and transportation to the dairy, and during reception at the dairy. It is not unusual for incoming milk to contain 10 % air by volume, or even more. Finely and coarsely dispersed air predominates at this stage. The basic problems caused by dispersed air are: Inaccuracy in volumetric measurement of milk. Incrustation of heating surfaces in pasteurizers (fouling). Reduced skimming efficiency in separators. Loss of precision in automatic in-line standardization. Concentration of air in cream, causing – inaccurate in-line fat standardization, – incrustation of cream heaters, – 'pre-churning' resulting in – loss of yield in butter production, – adhesion of free fat to the tops of packages. Reduction of the stability of cultured milk products (expulsion of whey). Various methods of deaeration are therefore used to avoid jeopardizing production and the quality of the products. Dispersed air causes problems. Air elimination at collection When milk is collected in road tankers, from churns or bulk cooling tanks, the milk from each farm is normally measured by a volumeter. To optimize measuring accuracy, the milk should be passed through an air eliminator just before being measured. Most tankers are therefore provided with an air eliminator through which the farmer’s milk must pass before being measured and pumped aboard the tanker. One system (Wedholms, S) is shown in Figure 6.6.2. The pump equipment is placed in a cabinet at the rear end of the tanker. The equipment strains, pumps, eliminates air and measures the volume of the milk, before it enters the collecting tanks of the tanker. The suction hose (1) is connected to the farmer’s churns and/or bulk cooling tanks. The milk is sucked through a strainer (2) and pumped to the air eliminator (4). The positive displacement pump (3) is self-priming. While the level of milk rises in the air eliminator, the float inside also rises; at a certain level the float closes the valve at the top of the vessel. The pressure inside the vessel increases and the check valve (6) is released. The milk flows via the measuring unit (5) to the valve cluster (7) and the tanks in the tanker. The tanker is emptied through the outlet (8) by the hose (9). Back of a milk tanker. Hose for collecting milk at the farm Air eliminator Valve cluster Hose for milk delivery at the dairy Milk reception On arrival at the dairy, the milk will again contain dispersed air as a result of the jolting of the road tankers en route. Normally, the milk is measured as it is pumped to the reception tanks. Here again, the milk should first pass an air eliminator of the same type to ensure accurate measurement, (Figure 6.6.3). The inlet of the cylindrical vessel must be located at a lower level than the outlet pipe of the milk tank(s) on the vehicle, as the milk should not be pumped into the vessel, but transferred to it by gravity. The system can be manually or automatically operated. In both cases, the efficiency of air elimination depends very much on how finely dispersed the air is. The smallest air bubbles cannot be removed. Milk reception at the dairy with air eliminator (1) and volume-measuring device (2). Vacuum treatment Vacuum deaeration has been used successfully to expel dissolved air and finely dispersed air bubbles from milk. Pre-heated milk is fed to an expansion vessel, (Figure 6.6.4), in which the vacuum is adjusted to a level equivalent to a boiling point about 7 to 8 °C below the pre-heating temperature. If the milk enters the vessel at 68 °C, the temperature will immediately drop to 68 – 8 = 60 °C. The drop in pressure expels the dissolved air, which boils off, together with a certain amount of the milk. The vapour passes a built-in condenser in the vessel, condenses, and runs back into the milk, while the boiled-off air, together with non-condensable gases (certain off-flavours) is removed from the vessel by the vacuum pump. For production of yoghurt the vacuum vessel is not provided with a condenser, as milk intended for yoghurt is often also slightly (15 – 20 %) concentrated. Condensation of vapour is arranged separately. Flow of milk and air in the vacuum deaerator with built-in condenser. Built-in condenser Tangential milk inlet Milk outlet with level control system Deaeration in the milk treatment line Whole milk is supplied to the pasteurizer and heated to 68 °C. It then proceeds to the expansion vessel for vacuum treatment. To optimize the efficiency, the milk enters the vacuum chamber tangentially through a wide inlet, which results in exposure of a thin film on the wall. Expansion of the vapour flashed off from the milk at the inlet accelerates the flow of milk down the wall. On the way down towards the outlet, which is also located tangentially, the velocity decreases. The feed and discharge capacities are thus identical. The deaerated milk, now at a temperature of 60 °C, is separated, standardized and homogenized before returning to the pasteurizer for final heat treatment. With a separator integrated in the processing line, a flow controller must be placed before the separator to maintain a constant flow through the deaerator. In this case, the homogenizer must be provided with a circulating loop. In a process line without a separator, the homogenizer (without a circulation loop) will maintain the constant flow through the deaerator. Milk treatment plant with deaerator. Flow controller Standardization unit Holding tube PreviousEvaporatorsNextPumps	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1146
__label__wiki	0.696392	0.696392	Arlene Kushner on Troubling Issues Surrounding The US-Russian Agreement on Syria More, Always More There is much to follow through on, but first the joy: Wednesday night begins the week-long holiday of Sukkot, the season of our joy. It's my favorite holiday. We build and decorate sukkot, temporary structures in which we are supposed to live, depending on the protection of Heaven Credit: lightofzion And we daily do blessings (except for Shabbat), waving a lulav -- (from the left in the picture) willow, palm, and myrtle, held with an etrog -- citron. Credit: jewishjournal A time of celebration and gratitude and faith. A time of family and fun. It is because this is a time of joy that we sing Hallel -- a collection of psalms of praise. Hey! I feel easier already, anticipating this. Perhaps I'll post again tomorrow (and perhaps not); there will then be a hiatus of some days, although I may post in the middle of the Sukkot week. Here I wish all celebrating Sukkot a Chag Sameach. I have no desire to repeat the major points made yesterday with regard to Obama, Russia and Syria. But there will need to be regular follow up on-going. Here I share some additional insights and new information. This material makes the situation look worse and worse... An editorial in the Wall Street Journal points out that (emphasis added): "...already the Russians are disputing U.S. information about where and how much poison gas Assad holds. There are a hundred ways to cheat on this agreement, starting with the declaration. "Meanwhile, Russia got Mr. Obama to concede that all of this will go to the United Nations for approval without any mention of enforcement. If Assad does cheat, the U.S. would have to go back to the Security Council again for another resolution to use force, which the Russians will veto." The WSJ points out that now Obama says his goal was to make sure this doesn't happen again, which is not what he said previously -- there was supposed to be price paid for what Assad did...."Assad will have violated what Mr. Obama repeatedly called 'international norms'—killing at least 1,400 people including 400 children—and then get a pass for promising not to do again what he claims he didn't do but Mr. Kerry says he did at least 14 times." Read: Into the Syrian Bazaar Then this, from ABC: "Despite Russia's close relationship and influence with Syria, there is not yet any indication that the Assad government will sign off on the details of the agreement. It contains requirements that are above and beyond the normal criteria for countries bound by the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Syria agreed to join earlier this week under pressure from Moscow. "Although Russia has accepted the U.S. intelligence estimate that Syria has about 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons and precursors, the two sides have not agreed on the number of sites where they are manufactured and stored. "U.S. officials say they believe Syria maintains roughly 45 sites associated with chemical weapons, about half of which have 'exploitable quantities' of chemicals. The Russian estimate is considerably lower, but U.S. officials would not say by how much. This could be an issue in determining where the inspectors are to work. "Details about the composition of the inspection teams and their security must still be determined. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which technically is in charge of the inspections, has never mounted an operation as complex as this and will require assistance from outside parties to conduct the work. Nationalities of inspectors as well as the guards who will provide security for them must still be determined." Read: Glance: US-Russia Agreement on Syria Weapons Jeffrey Goldberg says: So long as he [Assad] doesn’t use chemical weapons on his people, he’ll be safe from armed Western intervention. Roughly 98 percent of the people who have died in the Syrian civil war so far have not been killed with chemical weapons, so obviously Assad and his regime have figured out ways to cause mass death in conventional ways. It’s safe to assume that he’ll increase the tempo of attacks on rebels and civilians, knowing now that he can do so with impunity. Obama won’t be outlining any further 'red lines,' it would seem. By partnering with Russia and the West on the disarmament process, a process that is meant to last into 2014 (and most likely won’t be finished for years, even if it is carried out in good faith, which is a big 'if'), Assad has made himself indispensable. A post-Assad regime wouldn’t necessarily be party to this agreement, and might not even go through the motions. Syria, post-Assad, might very well be more fractured and chaotic than it is now, which is to say, even less of an environment in which United Nations weapons inspectors could safely go about their work. The U.S. now needs Assad in place for the duration. He’s the guy, after all, whose lieutenants know where the chemical weapons are. Read: New Syria Agreement Is a Big Victory. For Assad. As to Assad safely stepping up attacks, this is already happening. See, for example from the Washington Post (emphasis added): "As negotiations to avert a U.S. strike against Syria ramped up last week, so, too, did the action on the ground. Warplanes dropped bombs over far-flung Syrian towns that hadn’t seen airstrikes in weeks, government forces went on the attack in the hotly contested suburbs of Damascus, rebels launched an offensive in the south, and a historic Christian town changed hands at least four times. "At the close of a week hailed in Moscow and Washington as a triumph of diplomacy over war, more than 1,000 people died in the fighting in Syria." Read: During talks on Syria’s chemical weapons, fighting on the ground escalated I've long understood that the world is insane, but here is your proof positive. And to make matters more obscene yet: "At a base near Tehran, Iranian forces are training Shiite militiamen from across the Arab world to do battle in Syria—showing the widening role of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria's bloody war. "The busloads of Shiite militiamen from Iraq, Syria and other Arab states have been arriving at the Iranian base in recent weeks, under cover of darkness, for instruction in urban warfare and the teachings of Iran's clerics, according to Iranian military figures and residents in the area. The fighters' mission: Fortify the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni rebels, the U.S. and Israel. "The fighters 'are told that the war in Syria is akin to [an] epic battle for Shiite Islam, and if they die they will be martyrs of the highest rank,' says an Iranian military officer briefed on the training camp, which is 15 miles outside Tehran and called Amir Al-Momenin, or Commander of the Faithful... "Just over a year ago, U.S. officials publicly described Mr. Assad's fall as imminent. That would have been a major blow for Iran: Syria is Iran's most important Arab ally and serves as a land bridge for Iranian arms and cash to Lebanese and Palestinian militias fighting Israel. Last summer, after Syrian rebels captured large sections of the important northern city of Aleppo, the senior command of the Revolutionary Guards sprang into action, according to U.S. officials and Guards members in Iran. Under its overseas commander, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, the military unit established 'operation rooms' to control cooperation between Tehran, Syrian forces and fighters from Hezbollah... "Qasem Soleimani is now running Syria," says Col. Ahmed Hamada, an officer with the rebel Free Syrian Army, based in its command near the northern city of Aleppo. "Bashar is just his mayor." Read: Iranians Dial Up Presence in Syria This is perhaps the most frightening information of all. It points very very clearly to what Netanyahu is always warning about, with regard to the connection of the situation in Syria to Iran. And it makes the case solid for why Netanyahu wants to see the Assad regime come down, with rebels victorious. Have Obama's concessions to Russia now given a boost to Iran? Rhetorical question. The answer is, obviously! Just for the record, this is the same Iran with whom Obama hopes to have diplomatic dialogue. But I'm not finished yet (emphasis added): "Syrian President Bashar Assad has two biological weapons bases, developing anthrax and other devastating biological agents, and yet the US-Russia deal aimed at stripping his regime of chemical weapons makes no provisions for his biological weapons capability, Israeli TV reported Sunday night. "There is 'not a word' about biological weapons in the agreement that US Secretary of State John Kerry discussed with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Sunday, Channel 10 news said. Assad has two biological weapons bases, one of them subterranean and a second in a coastal location, producing anthrax and other agents, the report said. "In an unclassified report in April, US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper assessed that Syria could be capable of producing limited biological weapons... "The Cordesman report noted that 'using advanced agents – such as the most lethal forms of anthrax – can have the effectiveness of small theater nuclear weapons.' "On Friday, Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) wrote to President Barack Obama to warn that 'omitting Assad’s bioweapons from any agreement would represent a gaping hole in the plan.' Such weaponry, in the hands of Assad or his allies, wrote Cornyn, 'represent a direct security threat' to the US and its allies. If Hezbollah and other terror groups got hold of this materiel, he warned, “this would be a direct threat to the United States and our allies, particularly Israel.'" Read: Assad’s biological weapons absent from US-Russia deal Here I sit in Jerusalem, citing information (directly above) coming from an Israeli source. And I wonder how the Americans who read this will respond. This, in particular, should be publicized broadly in the US. Obama must be held accountable. It is not as if the issue of biological weapons slipped by -- reportedly he was warned. But to attempt to interject this into the "agreement" in Geneva might have upset matters, and, after all, Obama had his own rear end to consider. No? Are Americans ready to be incensed yet? Are they enraged and disgusted by the man in the White House? There is another take on Syria I wanted to share, but I'm going to save it: This is with regard to a break-up of Syria into areas for the Alawites (40% of the country), the Sunnis (40%) and the Kurds (20%). Barry Rubin has just written about this possibility, and Jonathan Spyer has addressed it. I do not know if there is validity to Goldberg's thesis (above) that Assad will be protected now because only he knows where the chemical weapons are stored But a division of the country may ultimately be inevitable, if the war cannot be won by any faction. There is much to consider with regard to the break up of various states in the region, and we will be returning to this. Now, very briefly: I had mentioned yesterday that Kerry's focus in his meeting with Netanyahu was the Syria deal. But we shouldn't imagine that he didn't mention the "peace process" at all. Certainly he did -- with all the usual pap about how it's more important than ever now, and how he is getting positive messages from the Palestinian Arabs, etc. etc. Wearisome is hardly the word for this nonsense. But this is something we will have to continue to monitor. What is encouraging is the increased strength of the right wing of the coalition, which is sending strong messages to Netanyahu about not relinquishing land to the Arabs (Heaven forbid!): "A group of 16 coalition MKs, many from the Likud, on Sunday pleaded with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give up territory to the Palestinians. In a letter sent to the prime minister during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the MKs called on Netanyahu "not to return to the Oslo Accord template or cede any more parts of the homeland to the Palestinian Authority." "The letter was drafted by Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud-Beitenu) and MK Orit Struck (Habayit Hayehudi), and was signed by deputy ministers Zeev Elkin, Tzipi Hotovely, Ofir Akunis, Eli Ben-Dahan and Avraham Wortzman. "'I will remain coalition chairman so long as we go down the right path of construction and settling throughout all of Israel,' Levin said." Read: Coalition MKs plead with Netanyahu not to give land to PA What I'm actually reading is that the PA's demands continue to increase. In their dreams! It's a new year. A year of growing strength and standing up for Israel's rights. Coming full circle: When we sleep in the sukkah, indeed we are reminded of our own vulnerability and our need to depend upon Heaven. The lesson could not be more apt this year! For only Heaven can extricate us from this political morass. Incredibly, it is little Israel that sees clearly, and little Israel that other nations of the world now look to (with the Saudis practically begging us to hit Iran). Little Israel must look to Heaven. What is remarkable is that Israelis are ranked as the 11th happiest people in the world (well ahead of Americans). In spite of everything. We're doing something right! Read: Israelis ranked 11th-happiest people in the world Perhaps it's faith, perhaps knowing what matters, perhaps a sense of closeness. Or hope. Speaking of hope... I included this for my posting before Rosh Hashana, but its upbeat message of new beginnings is very appropriate here, and so I repeat it: The Fountainheads: Dip Your Apple in the Honey A nod to the Daily Alert, which provided several sources for this posting. Technorati Tag: Syria and Assad and Putin. Labels: Assad, Putin, Syria Mideast Media Sampler 9/30/13: Media Doesn't Notic... Daniel Pipes' Solution For Resettling Syrian Refug... Arlene Kushner on Netanyahu's UN Speech as West vs... International 'Islamophobia' Conference Promotes S... Prelude to the Boston Bombings: Islamic Ritual in ... Mideast Media Sampler 9/23/13: How Far Will New Yo... Dore Gold: What Might Be Expected in Monitoring Sy... Mideast Media Sampler 9/16/13: The Accidental Obam... Arlene Kushner on Troubling Issues Surrounding The... Unresolved Issues -- And Missing References To Syr... Mideast Media Sampler 9/15/13: New York Times Opin... Arlene Kushner Explains How Unserious Obama's Agre... Is Obama More Like Neville Chamberlain Than Like F... Gary C. Gambill: Beware Syrians Bearing Gifts Arlene Kushner on Syria -- and on What The Palesti... Obama's Problem: Putin and Assad Apply Alinsky's R... A New Muslim Brotherhood Symbol: R4BIA Arlene Kushner Reviews The Errors of the Obama Adm... MEQ Spring 2009: Muslim Strategies to Convert West... Anne Bayefsky: Obama Foreign Policy In Tatters, U.... MEQ Fall 2013: Efraim Inbar: Time Favors Israel - ... MEQ Fall 2008: Judea Pearl on Early Zionists and A... Video: Mordechai Kedar on Why The Arab World Is Ju... Arlene Kushner on Moshe Ya'alon's Surprising Comme... Countering The Abuse of the Media by Palestinian P... Daniel Pipes: Forget Syria, Target Iran Mideast Media Sampler 9/9/13: The Secret of John K... David P. Goldman on Why US Fails When It Comes To ... Arlene Kushner: Catching Up With News About Israel... How Obama Forced AIPAC onto His Syria-Bombing Band... Mideast Media Sampler 9/04/13: Oslo Anniversary --... Arlene Kushner on Rosh HaShanah -- And Obama's Use... YU's Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur To-Go 5774 The Media Ignores The Increased Kidnappings of Chr... Mideast Media Sampler 9/03/13: Will Obama Make Isr... Anne Bayefsky: Obama Pushes Syria Intervention Wit... Raymond Ibrahim Reviews Noah Beck's "The Last Isra... Arlene Kushner: Why Uproar About Syria's Use of Ga... Mideast Media Sampler 8/30/13: Things Are Not Goin...	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1147
__label__wiki	0.532012	0.532012	SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF HYDROTHERMAL MINERALS AND SOURCES OF HYDROTHERMAL FLUIDS INFERRED FROM LIGHT STABLE ISOTOPES, KEWEENAW PENINSULA NATIVE COPPER DISTRICT, MICHIGAN Thomas Bodden, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow Open Access Master's Thesis Master of Science in Geology (MS) Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Theodore Bornhorst Chad Deering Florence Bégué Hydrothermal native copper deposits are hosted by Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift-filling volcanic and sedimentary rocks in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. The genesis of the native copper deposits has been a point of interest since their discovery. Native copper and associated mineral assemblages vary temporally and spatially. A refined mineral paragenesis is presented and used as the basis to spatially compare mineral assemblages as it is essential that spatial comparison involve only minerals that are temporally/genetically, related to each other. The main-stage minerals associated with precipitation of native copper are spatially zoned. The higher-grade zones correspond to the area of native copper deposits and cross-cut stratigraphy. Late-stage minerals are superimposed on main-stage minerals and are not spatially zoned. The mineral assemblages can be equated to temperature of precipitation through previously published experimental metamorphic petrology, mineral chemistry, and stable isotope pairs. Synthesis of previously published and new light stable isotopic data on hydrothermal minerals are used to draw inferences about the sources of the hydrothermal fluids. The equated temperatures of precipitation with isotopic fractionation equations are used to calculate the isotopic composition of the hydrothermal fluids. The oxygen isotopic composition of main-stage hydrothermal fluids based on isotopic composition of calcite, quartz, and chlorite, when combined with limited hydrogen isotope data for chlorite, epidote, and pumpellyite infer that the fluids were generated by metamorphogenic processes. These copper-bearing hydrothermal/metamorphogenic fluids rose from the deep source zone and mixed with meteoric waters in the zone of precipitation of native copper and associated minerals. Prior to mixing, the relatively shallow meteoric waters may have evolved in the rift-filling clastic sedimentary rocks overlying rift-filling basalts. Main-stage calcite can be distinguished from late-stage calcite by oxygen and carbon isotopes suggesting a different source of the late-stage hydrothermal fluids. The late-stage hydrothermal fluids are primarily meteoric waters although the meteoric waters may also have evolved in the rift-filling sedimentary rocks. Mixing of late-stage fluids with metamorphogenic fluids cannot be precluded. This study confirms the long-held hypothesis that the native copper precipitating hydrothermal fluids were generated by burial metamorphism. The hypothesis that fluid mixing was a mechanism promoting precipitation of native copper is supported by this study. In contrast, post-native copper late-stage fluids are dominantly meteoric water. Bodden, Thomas, "SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL DISTRIBUTION OF HYDROTHERMAL MINERALS AND SOURCES OF HYDROTHERMAL FLUIDS INFERRED FROM LIGHT STABLE ISOTOPES, KEWEENAW PENINSULA NATIVE COPPER DISTRICT, MICHIGAN", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2019. Geology Commons	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1148
__label__cc	0.707195	0.292805	ESDIP Board ECDP ECDP 2020 Mission and Objectivesadmin2019-08-13T10:05:25+02:00 Gold standard in Medical Diagnosis and Prognosis, Anatomic Pathology is on the way to its Digital evolution. The European Society of Digital and Integrative Pathology initiative was announced at the 13th European Congress on Digital Pathology, held in Berlin, Germany, May 25 – 28, 2016. The significance and technology of the discussed issues changed from the basics in telepathology (1992), via problems of glass slide acquisition (1998 – 2004) and virtual slides (2000 – 2012) to fully automated image measurements (2008 – 2016), as well as issues of predictive and risk associated diagnosis in terms of integrative pathology (2008 – 2016). Moreover, slides scanners are becoming more and more efficient and effective and compliant clinical workflows are elaborated in pioneer Pathology departments and hospitals. The path towards integrative approaches in Digital Pathology is open, by supporting the key role of Whole Slide Image in the integration of heterogeneous knowledge used day by day by the pathologist in daily practice. Thus, the time matured to found a European Society to discuss, create, and implement new and appropriate diagnostic methods as well as to become involved in potential ethics and social professional issues. The ESDIP founding members were: Our actions non-exhaustively and non-exclusively support Computational Approaches in Pathology: Personalised medicine approaches around the key role of Pathology. Ethical reinforcement through traceable, dynamic and personalised second opinion. Research projects and benchmarking initiatives in Integrative Digital Pathology areas. Consolidate validation referential protocols and database for Digital Pathology. Acceptance of high-content imaging computation technologies in clinical routine. Massive visual data representation, indexing, storage, retrieval, management and understanding. Morphological micro-semiology (microscopical morphology semantics). Correlation between and integration of digital pathology and non-invasive medical imaging modalities. Model-based correlation and integration of traditional staining and label free technologies. We do believe that our action is essential for the whole medical, scientific and industrial community, for the final benefit of the quality of care and life of the patients. 16th European Congress on Digital Pathology Our Inmune System – State within the State Tweets by ESDIPatho ESDIP European Society for Digital & Integrative Pathology © ESDIP 2017 – Reference 613420	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1149
__label__wiki	0.786202	0.786202	Government High School Government High School - Bhavani, Erode - Reviews, Fee Structure, Admission Form, Address, Contact, Rating Bhavani, Erode, Tamil Nadu Description of Government High School, Bhavani, Erode Bhavani in Erode has a school named Government High School. There are 9 dedicated and professional faculty members who impart quality education to children in this State Board school. 1955 saw Government High School being launched. The primary medium of instruction is Tamil and the student teacher ratio is 22:1. The school takes pride of its excellent teaching methodology. Students from 6 to 10 are taught in this school. The current student strength of the school is approximately 200. The library in this school has 150 books. The school has given exceptional results in the academic sphere and its students have excelled in extra co-curricular activities too. The perentage of students passing the exam is 100% with 61% scoring first grade. Facilities in Government High School, Bhavani, Erode Contact Details of Government High School Bhavani G.B.H.S.S, Bhavani, Thottipalayam, Erode, 638301, Tamil Nadu, India REVIEW on Government High School on 2020-01-22 23:24:27 Schools around Government High School Vivekananda Vidyalaya Higher Secondary School Mangalam Higher Secondary School Mangalam Central School Mangalam Matriculation School Sagar International School Saru Matriculation Higher Secondary School Al-Ameen Matriculation Higher Secondary School Gv Academy Narayanavalasu Adharsh Vidhyalaya Public School Green Garden Girls Matriculation Higher Secondary School Saratha Matriculation Higher Secondary School Chinna Modachur P K P Swamy Matriculation Higher Secondary School Komarappa Sengunthar Higher Secondary School	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1150
__label__cc	0.659028	0.340972	← OPINION: Wisden and Women – The Watershed Moment INTERVIEW: Alex Blackwell speaks about retirement, captaincy and being a “respectful agitator” → OPINION: England In India – Silver Medals, But Work To Do Posted by Syd Egan If this was the Commonwealth Games – currently taking place in Gold Coast, Australia – then England flying home from India with two silver medals in their bags might be thought quite a creditable achievement. But it isn’t – it is cricket – and coming second in the Tri-Series versus India and Australia, and then second again in the bilateral ODI series against India, is probably not what England ideally wanted. Of course, there is an element of being able to argue that the end-results didn’t really matter – a throw-away T20 “cup” and 3 non-Championship ODIs are both things you can afford to lose – no one will remember these reversals if England go on to win the World T20 in the Caribbean in November. It was also a weak England team, without Sarah Taylor and Katherine Brunt – and they were consciously “experimenting” by bringing in Bryony Smith, Alice Davidson-Richards and Katie George for the Tri-Series; and bedding-in a new ODI opening partnership, after Lauren Winfield’s slump in form made her continued position at the top of the order untenable. The new opening partnership for the ODIs – with Danni Wyatt joining Tammy Beaumont up-top – was definitely a success, with 70+ partnerships for the 1st wicket in the 1st and 2nd ODIs – it will be a big surprise now if that is not the opening partnership we see this summer against New Zealand and South Africa. Wyatt herself was with little doubt England’s star player on this tour, with 304 runs (across both series) at an average of 38, and a Strike Rate of 143; though it bears pointing out that India’s star – Smriti Mandhana – made a lot more runs (389) at a better average (78) with a Strike Rate also well over 100 (108) despite playing one less match. Elsewhere in England’s batting line-up, Nat Sciver (180) and Tammy Beamont (200) made runs, as did Amy Jones (143), although of course most of them came in her “deserved a” 100 in the final ODI. But there have to be some concerns about Fran Wilson – averaging 19; whilst Heather Knight didn’t quite fire, making starts but not passing 40 on the tour; and Georgia Elwiss, drafted in for the ODIs, also had a tour she will probably want to forget, making 11 and 1. With the ball, Sophie Ecclestone and Dani Hazell were England’s stand-out performers – Ecclestone taking 10 wickets at 4.5; and Hazell 9 wickets at 4.8 – both can probably start shopping for a trip to the West Indies in the autumn… though hopefully there won’t be too much time for them on the beach, as England will be too busy winning the thing!! With Katherine Brunt home injured, and Anya Shrubsole also missing the T20s and still clearly working her way back to full match fitness in the ODIs, England experimented with various other quick bowlers, but we are unfortunately still no nearer to the answer of who our backups are for Brunt and Shrubsole when they are unavailable… or indeed who will replace 32-year-old Brunt longer-term. Tash Farrant didn’t have a bad T20 series – she went at 8-an-over, but to be fair that seems to be the new normal, especially when you are playing Australia! She is not an “out and out” quick though, so England probably don’t see her as a long-term opener. Katie George is still clearly as raw as onions; whilst even at county, ADR is more of a batting than a bowling all-rounder. Meanwhile, Kate Cross can’t get a game, and Freya Davies can’t even get a plane ticket. So what is the long term answer? I’m not sure England know! I’ll be accused of “wearing a Berkshire hat” here, but… Lauren Bell, possibly? She is rawer than George, but terrifyingly quick when she gets it right, and England’s coaches might just be hoping that Brunt can carry on for another 2 years until Bell is really ready. 3 thoughts on “OPINION: England In India – Silver Medals, But Work To Do” palfreyman1414 I’d like to put in a word for Farrant though. she’s not lightning quick, and she can be thrown off her line by aggressive bats, but the latter can be fixed with time and experience. More importantly, she’s a left-arm seamer and she gets prodigious movement off the cut strip in both directions. She may not have set the tournament alight (to be fair, despite their better figures, neither did Ecclestone or Hazell really), but she is definitely one to persist with: Shrubsole, Sciver and Farrant could easily form the core of a long-term England seam attack (although one or two more battle-ready players wouldn’t be a bad thing to have either). The Clanger If Winfield never played another T20 she would have the odd ‘achievement’ of having 74, 29 and 63 as her final 3 T20 scores. Even the great Edwards ‘only’ managed 30, 77* and 31 in her final 3 T20 innings. Good summary – tour didn’t answer any questions, which in its self raises more questions.Understand the need to have played new players. At the risk of stating the obvious; we need a few more batsmen getting up to Wyatt’s T20 career scoring rate of 125. Ironically the next nearest of selectable players is Winfield way back on 112. (Claire Taylor, not exactly a T20 slogger, and she played in a different era, managed a career SR of 118.73). The game has changed and plodding around for one’s first 12 balls doesn’t cut it any longer. The minimum objective should be 20 runs off 15 balls and a 133 SR thereafter. England’s all time T20 career SR is of course no less than CJ Connor (proving there are lies, damn lies and statistics). The Red Rose Renegade Agree with The Clanger, the tour of “newbies” showed a few glimmers of potential, but nothing concrete. Tash Farrant has been a loyal England squad member for a number of years, I think she deserves a longer run in both 20 and 50 over formats. Syd’s Berkshire hat may be worn with rose tinted spectacles, Lauren Bell has potential but is quite a long way off yet!	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1153
__label__wiki	0.783326	0.783326	Trump wins Catholic vote in election that awoke religious feeling Donald Trump’s stunning win was due to a basket of factors including a poor economy, and the anger of those who felt 'left behind'. But front and center were the feelings of religious voters -- and above all their fears of a Democrat candidate perceived as against them. In 2016, most of the polls were wrong, period. And polls predicting that Hillary Clinton would run away with the Catholic vote proved more wishful than accurate. In the run-up to the election, only the IBD-TIPP poll consistently pointed to a Trump win among Catholics, as CRUX noted last week. Almost all the others suggested a significant margin of victory for Clinton. Now that the voting is over, however, preliminary results indicate Trump decisively won a majority of those self-identifying as Catholics, by 52 to 45 percent. By contrast, President Barack Obama won Catholics narrowly, by a margin of 50 to 48 percent, in 2012. Evangelicals flocked to Trump in far more overwhelming numbers, by a massive 81 to 16 percent. Trump also outperformed expectations – and the 2012 precedent – among Hispanic and African American voters, while Clinton under-performed with both groups. In fact, with Hispanics, Trump bested Romney’s 2012 performance by two points, while Clinton dropped six points compared to Obama’s 2012 showing. Both candidates had high negatives, and Clinton’s email scandal which plagued her campaign for months, and then again late in October, no doubt contributed to Trump’s victory. So did anxieties over a stagnant economy, racial animus, and the increasing costs and problems with Obamacare. But out of sight of most media reports, religious concerns also seem to have played an important role in Trump’s win. Whether religious voters were embracing Trump or blocking Clinton, there seems to be a clear political message in the result, which is that people of faith cannot be ignored, disparaged or taken for granted. Coming on the heels of an administration known for court battles with faith-based businesses, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders over policies such as the HHS contraception mandate, which includes sterilization procedures and drugs critics regard as abortion-inducing, revelations seen as indicative of team Clinton’s hostility to aspects of evangelical Protestantism and the Catholic faith certainly didn’t help. Nor did a Catholic on the bottom half of her ticket who took public policy positions at odds with the teaching of his Church on issues including abortion, the death penalty and marriage. Nor, of course, did leaked emails from her campaign manager discussing using political operatives to change Catholic doctrine from within the Church. As it turns out, some of Clinton’s harshest critics were African-American church leaders, who saw these emails about Catholics as a direct threat to their beliefs and way of life. Many African-American pastors signed “An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton Regarding Religious Freedom for Black America” last month, citing the emails and other positions and statements of the candidate. Clinton’s support among the African-American community slipped by about 5 points compared to Obama’s, while Trump picked up a percentage point compared to Romney’s 2012 performance. Those concerns were consistent with those of other religious voters worried over Clinton’s comments last year that “religious beliefs” on issues like abortion had to change. In fact, Clinton’s abortion positions, favoring few restrictions and with major loopholes, are at odds not only with deeply religious Americans but roughly 8 in 10 overall, who favor substantial abortion restrictions according to nearly a decade of Marist polls commissioned by Crux’s partner, the Knights of Columbus. Likewise, Clinton’s support for repealing the Hyde Amendment isn’t shared by almost two in three Americans, with religious voters especially likely to object. Much of the election result was doubtless driven by economic angst, and concern over the drip, drip, drip of damaging emails released by Wikileaks, the FBI and the State Department. Yet the Clinton campaign’s perceived hostility to religious belief, and what many Americans saw as its increasingly extreme stands on issues such as abortion, certainly didn’t help. With the makeup of the Supreme Court on the line, believers felt they had much to fear from Clinton appointments. In the days ahead, more complete data sets will shed additional light, and the comparisons between church-goers and those who don’t attend church will be particularly telling. Until then, it’s safe to say that once again, rumors of the demise of religion as a voting issue have been greatly exaggerated. U.S. Muslims see friendly neighbors, but a foe in White House Poll shows a strong majority of Americans want restrictions on abortion Majority of Americans concerned about violence against Jews, Muslims Catholic Vote	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1154
__label__cc	0.724571	0.275429	About & Sponsorship Pics & Clips Hawaii News and Island Information Entries RSS \| Comments RSS \| Proudly Powered by Netcom Cloud W2DM Building E-Commerce Sales: How to Improve Revenue 10% Off WikiFresh Say When When Select Month July 2019 (3) October 2017 (108) September 2017 (152) August 2017 (178) July 2017 (179) June 2017 (173) May 2017 (185) April 2017 (150) March 2017 (156) February 2017 (127) January 2017 (177) December 2016 (133) November 2016 (142) October 2016 (110) September 2016 (136) August 2016 (228) July 2016 (215) June 2016 (151) May 2016 (102) April 2016 (99) March 2016 (99) February 2016 (131) January 2016 (124) December 2015 (98) November 2015 (69) October 2015 (50) September 2015 (30) August 2015 (36) July 2015 (45) June 2015 (49) May 2015 (53) April 2015 (87) March 2015 (74) February 2015 (52) January 2015 (83) December 2014 (61) November 2014 (37) October 2014 (21) September 2014 (58) August 2014 (126) July 2014 (144) June 2014 (127) May 2014 (145) April 2014 (166) March 2014 (163) February 2014 (139) January 2014 (205) December 2013 (119) November 2013 (162) October 2013 (147) September 2013 (205) August 2013 (180) July 2013 (203) June 2013 (160) May 2013 (145) April 2013 (180) March 2013 (178) February 2013 (173) January 2013 (165) December 2012 (149) November 2012 (179) October 2012 (175) September 2012 (139) August 2012 (206) July 2012 (185) June 2012 (163) May 2012 (161) April 2012 (158) March 2012 (143) February 2012 (170) January 2012 (178) December 2011 (123) November 2011 (199) October 2011 (144) September 2011 (169) August 2011 (130) July 2011 (134) June 2011 (114) May 2011 (123) April 2011 (132) March 2011 (121) February 2011 (94) January 2011 (106) December 2010 (95) November 2010 (72) October 2010 (87) September 2010 (77) August 2010 (84) July 2010 (68) June 2010 (87) May 2010 (89) April 2010 (99) March 2010 (100) February 2010 (90) January 2010 (131) December 2009 (119) November 2009 (135) October 2009 (153) September 2009 (142) August 2009 (156) July 2009 (201) June 2009 (243) May 2009 (174) April 2009 (181) March 2009 (316) February 2009 (304) January 2009 (316) December 2008 (314) November 2008 (251) October 2008 (324) September 2008 (317) August 2008 (250) Damon on Hawaii County Displays Portable Shelter to Raise Awareness of Need to Help Homeless “Dreams of Wonder” Magic Show at Hilo Palace Theater – Keiki Magic Camps Posted on March 9, 2017 by Damon “International award winning magicians Bruce and Jennifer Meyers present “Dreams of Wonder”, a magic show for the whole family at Hilo’s historic Palace Theater on Saturday, March 11th at 2:00pm. They will be featuring new stunning and astonishing magic and illusions, as well as a few jaw-dropping favorites which have brought standing ovations from Hilo audiences before. Also in the show will be the beautiful and engaging aerial artistry of Luna Sophia as she shares her message of peace. Josie The Jokester will be sharing her irresistible humor. Additionally, there will be a magical appearance by Keiki magicians who have attended Bruce Meyers Magic Camps. Master of Ceremonies will be none other than Pauline Victoria. “We are simply thrilled to perform our magic show Dreams Of Wonder at the Palace”, says magician Bruce Meyers. “Watch a mysterious dream become real as a simple scarf magically comes to life, dances on the stage and into the audience. We will also cause a bird and cage to vanish into thin air while held by members of the audience along with so many other dreams of magic!” Much of the proceeds from “Dreams of Wonder” will benefit Full Life who work to empower people with disabilities on Hawaii Island, Abled Hawaiian Artists (AHA) promoting employment in the arts, and the historic Palace Theater. Full Life and AHA artists and entrepreneurs will be displaying and selling their art and products in the lobby of the Palace Theater on the day of the performance. Morgen Bahurinsky, Palace Theater Executive Director, was enthusiastic about the event. “We are always happy to have Bruce and Jennifer Meyers perform on our stage and when they suggested this be a dual fundraising event for the Palace and for Full Life I was excited,” says Bahurinsky. She adds, “As an athlete, I compete with many challenged athletes. Organizations that encourage every person living to their fullest potential have my full support and admiration. I am thrilled Bruce and Jennifer suggested this partnership.” The Keiki magicians in Dreams Of Wonder will be performing magic they learned at Meyers’ Magic Camps and some that will be taught at the next Magic Camp held this March 21st through the 24th at the Palace Theater for three hours per day. Registration for the March Magic Camp costs only $70 and can be made by calling (808) 982-9294. “We have watched the Magic Camps held here at the theater and are amazed on the final day how well the children perform their magic on us and their families.” reports Bahurinsky. After you see a few of Bruce’s graduates perform at this event, you and your child will want to sign up” Pre-sale tickets are $12 Adults; $8 Keiki 12 and under, and will be $15 Adults; $10 Keiki 12 and under on the day of the show. Tickets are on sale now at the Palace Theater (808) 934-7010 or online at www.BruceMeyers.com . Bruce and Jennifer’s masterful stage presence and their warm, benevolent, and funny personalities quickly connect and compel their audiences to become part of the fun, wonder and magic. Their original, highly entertaining and baffling magic have earned them several international awards, including recent awards 1st and 2nd Place In Stage awards from the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians and Magician of The Year from the Northwest Ring of Fire.” Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hilo \| Tagged: Bruce Meyers, Hilo Palace Theater \| Leave a comment » Mary Poppins at the Hilo Palace Theater Posted on August 10, 2015 by Damon My son will be starring as “Michael” in the the Palace Theater Production of the 14th Annual Fall Musical “Mary Poppins”. Tickets are $15.00 in advance or $20 the day of the shows. Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Comedy, Community, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hilo, Kids \| Tagged: Hilo Palace Theater, Mary Poppins \| Leave a comment » Annual Hilo Elks “World of Magic” – Sunday, December 8th Posted on November 19, 2013 by Damon Community members are invited to come join in a mid-day event of spell-binding entertainment and treats. This year the annual Hilo Elks “World of Magic” performance includes Taishoji Taiko of Hilo and magician Kelvin Chun of Oahu who will share the stage at downtown Hilo’s Palace Theater on Sunday, December 8, 2013 at 11am. Taishoji Taiko of Hilo Taishoji Taiko was founded in 1989 under the direction of Yoshihumi Ono at Taishoji Soto Mission in Hilo. The group originally played only for Taishoji’s annual Bon dance, but gradually expanded into kumi daiko, or performance drumming. In addition to the annual Toro Nagashi (lantern floating ceremony), Taishoji Taiko has played at numerous community and cultural events around the Big Island. The group opened for the Big Island debut of the critically acclaimed group TAIKOPROJECT at the UHH Performing Arts Center in June 2008 and celebrated it’s 20th anniversary at the inaugural Big Island Taiko Festival in 2009. At various times, Taishoji Taiko has received instructions from taiko masters from Hawaii and California, including Kenny Endo of the Taiko Center of the Pacific. Members have also attended workshops given by Kodo, On Ensemble, and Seiichi Tanaka of San Francisco Taiko Dojo. Under the direction of Chad Nakagawa, members of Taishoji Taiko are a diverse collection of ages and backgrounds united by their passion for the energy and spirit of taiko. Their performances are fun, dynamic crowd pleasers sure to be enjoyed by audience of all ages. “Magi-kel Magi-chun” Kelvin Chun is an internationally recognized award winning educator, magician, balloon artist and kite enthusiast. He has over 20 years of magic and balloon experience and has competed against and performed with world class magicians in prestigious international magic competitions at venues such as Reno’s Grand Sierra Resort 1,800-seat showroom. Kelvin Chun He was also a featured performer at other stages, including the New Zealand International Magicians Convention in Auckland, New Zealand, Texas Convention, Japan Cup, and Hong Kong International Magic Convention. Learning magic and balloon techniques from all over the world, Kelvin’s performance is infused with international flair and has mesmerized audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Please come join us for this fun filled event! At the show’s end we are expecting a jolly visit from Santa, too. Admission is free and donations are gladly accepted. Questions? Call Lily at the Hilo Elks Lodge 935-1717. Hope to see you there. Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Big Island, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hilo \| Tagged: Hilo Elks "World of Magic", Hilo Palace Theater, Kelvin Chun, Taishoji Taiko of Hilo \| Leave a comment » Kaumakaiwa and Kekuhi Kanakaole & Ohana Play Three Concerts on Big Island Posted on September 9, 2013 by Damon Kaumakaiwa and Kekuhi Kanaka`ole are both multiple Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award-winners and are both respected educators in Hawaiian cultural practice and hula. Joining them both for this unique and intimate mother-son concert will be other members of the renowned Hilo-based `ohana. The concerts are at The Palace Theatre in Hilo on Thursday September 19, at 7pm; the Aloha Theatre in Keanaliu on Friday September 20, at 7pm, and at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea on Saturday September 21, at 8pm. Kaumakaiwa is a remarkable and riveting performer, who has developed into a phenomenal world music artist with an inventive talent that shines brightly, and a magnetic stage presence that is at once impressive, kolohe and entertaining. Kekuhi is equally charismatic on stage, possessing what one early reviewer described as “a certain ancient elegance”. Both performers are recognized as voices and leaders of the new Hawaiian generations since the “Renaissance” of the ‘60s and 70s. Edith Kanaka`ole was most certainly a leader in that renaissance, and her grand-daughter and great-grandson carry on her legacy and values. Kaumakaiwa and Kekuhi are currently pursuing a studio recording project as a “duo”, with a projected digital release at end of October, and street product release before Christmas. These performances will give a flavor of that new CD – and will redefine contemporary Hawaiian music, demonstrating what it means to be Hawaiian today. Kaumaka`iwa, Kekuhi & `Ohana = chicken skin! Thursday 9/19 at 7pm, at the Palace Theatre. Advance tickets are $35 general and $25 for seniors or students. Day of event tickets will be $45 for all. Tickets from www.brownpapertickets.com, CALL 934-7010 or stop at the Palace Box Office, Monday – Friday from 10am to 3pm. Doors and box office open at 6pm on day of concert. Friday 9/20 at 7pm, at the Aloha Theatre. Advance tickets are $35 general and $25 for seniors or students. Day of event tickets will be $45 for all. Tickets from apachawaii.org, and Kiernan Music. Doors and box office open at 6pm on day. Saturday 9/21 at 8pm, at Kahilu Theatre. Tickets range from $20, $35, $45 to $65, with discounts of up to 15% for members of the Kahilu Theatre. Memberships and tickets from www.kahilutheatre.org or call 885-6868, or stop at the Kahilu Theatre from 9am to 12noon. Doors open at 7pm on day of concert. Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hawaiian, Hilo \| Tagged: Hilo Palace Theater, Kaumakaiwa & Kekuhi Kanakaole \| Leave a comment » Circus Holly-Daze! Community members are invited to come join in a mid-day event of spell binding entertainment and treats. Circus Holly-Daze will be performed at the Hilo Palace Theater This year the annual Hilo Elks “World of Magic” performance themed “Circus Holly-Daze!” is a ridiculously wondrous Circus-Theater production boasting amazing skills, great characters, and guaranteed good, family fun for all ages! Disillusioned Saint Slick, frantically tries to compete with the high-tech, commercialized, corporate toy industry by holding auditions for competent workshop employees. To his dismay, he ends up with a bumbling, gaggle of elfin misfits who are skilled at everything OTHER than technology. Their hilarious antics, mishaps and discoveries ultimately lead Saint Slick to a new appreciation for the simple things in life. This entertaining Circus Arts Spectacular will ultimately impress you as much as it warms your heart. Created by Annetta Lucero and Noah Moore of Terminal Circus, the performance will be on Sunday, December 16, starting 11 am, at Hilo’s historic Palace Theater. Please come join us for this fun filled event! At the show’s end we are expecting a jolly visit from Santa, too. Admission is free and donations are gladly accepted. Questions? Call Lily at the Hilo Elks Lodge 935-1717 Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Comedy, Community, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hilo, Kids \| Tagged: Circus Holly-Daze, Hilo Elks Club, Hilo Palace Theater \| Leave a comment » Hikianalia Arrives Home in Hawaii – Welcoming in Hilo Bay Tomorrow Hikianalia, a new state-of-the-art voyaging canoe, is expected to be in Hilo Harbor by dawn tomorrow morning, Sunday, November 18. She will have traveled more than 4,000 miles to come home to Hawai‘i since her launch in early October. Hikianalia is scheduled to arrive on the Big Island tomorrow. It has taken Hikianalia 17 days to sail from Papeete, Tahiti (French Polynesia) to Hawai‘i, and it took 16 days to sail her from her launch site in Auckland, New Zealand, to Papeete. After clearing customs at Hilo Harbor, Hikianalia will make her way to Radio Bay, where Hikianalia and the entire crew will be formally welcomed by the Keaukaha Community Association. “We expected them in the afternoon, but now that they are arriving in the morning, it will be a quiet welcome,” explained master navigator Chad Kālepa Baybayan, who has co-organized the Hilo reception. “Still, we know the community will come out to see her.” Baybayan navigated Pacific Voyager canoe Faafaite from Auckland to Tahiti, escorting Hikianalia during the latter’s maiden voyage. Master navigator Bruce Blankenfeld captained Hikianalia during that first leg of her voyage home to Hawaiʻi. Most of the Hikianalia crew changed in Papeete. Captain Bob Perkins and master navigator Chadd ‘Ōnohi Paishon are part of a crew of 15 bringing the canoe to Hawai‘i in a portion of the voyage that included crossing the equator. Overall, for the course between Tahiti and Hawai‘i, the skies have been clear and the winds fair, except for a brief passage through the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, where they experienced quirky weather. Hikianalia will accompany Hōkūle‘a during the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s 2013-2016 Worldwide Voyage as her sister vessel, providing a second floating classroom, and the main platform for communication and technology. The two wa‘a will partner in messages of sustainability. Neither uses fossil fuels; both rely on the wind in their sails and solar energy for their lights, communication and – in Hikianalia’s case – engines. Hōkūle‘a and Hikianalia are Hawaiian names for stars Arcturus and Spica, respectively, which break the horizon together in Hawaiian skies. “It’s been a privilege to bring Hikianalia home to Hawai‘i,” says Perkins. “She will finally meet her sister Hōkūle‘a.” Hikianalia is expected to sail directly from Hawai‘i Island to O‘ahu next weekend. To track Hikianalia, or to learn more about the upcoming Worldwide Voyage, visit our website http://hokulea.org. To follow the educational objectives of navigator and Makali‘i senior captain Chadd ‘Ōnohi Paishon, go to http://www.nakalaiwaa.org/student-qa-hikianalia. The Polynesian Voyaging Society was founded in 1975 on a legacy of Pacific Ocean exploration, seeking to perpetuate the art and science of traditional Polynesian voyaging and the spirit of exploration through experiential educational programs that inspire students and their communities to respect and care for themselves, one other, and their natural and cultural environments. Hikianalia Sets Sail for Hawaii – Hōkūle’a’s Sister Vessel Will Be Important Part of Worldwide Voyage (damontucker.com) Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Big Island, Community, Environment, Hawaii, Hawaiian, Hilo, National Affairs, Sustainable Living, Technology, Transportation \| Tagged: Hikianalia, Hilo Palace Theater, Polynesian Voyaging Society \| Leave a comment » Na Ali’i of Comedy Starring Frank De Lima, Mel Cabang, Andy Bumatai, Ed Kaahea and Augie T at the Hilo Palace Theater Posted on February 28, 2012 by Damon Are you ready for the biggest comedy show of 2012? Hawaii’s legends of comedy together on one stage for the first time. Over 100 years of comedy experience entertaining people locally, nationally and worldwide, Na Ali’i of Comedy Tour will make you laugh out loud. Friday March 2nd at the Hilo Palace Theater at 8:00 pm is the place to be! Frank De Lima has been entertaining Hawaii with family friendly local style humor for 36 years. The 14 time Na Hoku Hanohano award winner has been busy visiting Hawaii school children with his student enrichment program. Frank has been touring nationwide with Augie T. for the past 2 years. Ed Kaahea is the last surviving member of the iconic comedy trio, Booga Booga. With over 30 years in the entertainment business. Mel Cabang has been a comic and business man in Hawaii for 40 years. You can see Mel on numerous tv commercials and local tv programs. Andy Bumatai has been a comic for over 30 years. He has traveled as a headliner in comedy clubs across America. He has opened for some of the biggest acts in the industry. Tom Jones, Paul Anka, Kenny Loggins, The Beach Boys and Lionel Richie. Augie T. performs live on stage and on television for audiences here in the islands as well as across the United States. He was voted the funniest comic in Hawaii by Star Bulletin and Midweek and has been the core artist in the revival of the Hawaii comedy scene these past few years. Tickets: $22.50 in advance and $25.00 at the door, on sale at the Palace Theater 10am-3pm weekdays. Call 934-7010 to purchase tickets by phone with a credit card. Also on sale at: Ken’s House of Pancakes, CD Wizard, BJ Penn Training and Fitness, KTA Downtown and KTA Puainako Opening Act – Pomai Longakit Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Comedy, Hawaii, Hilo, Something New?, State Affairs \| Tagged: Andy Bumatai, Ed Kaahea and Augie T, Hilo Palace Theater, Mel Cabang, Na Ali'i of Comedy Starring Frank De Lima \| Leave a comment » Hawai’iana Live to Celebrate Its 250th Show Posted on December 10, 2011 by Damon Hawai’iana Live will celebrate its 250th show on December 28, 2011 with special guests Stan Kaina and Pi’ilani Rodrigues at Hilo’s Historic Palace Theater. The mighty pipe open welcomes guests at 10:45 a.m. and this charming show begins at 11 a.m. Tickets are just $5 and Keiki 12 and under are free. In an era when special effects, synthesized sound, and electronically enhanced productions are the norm, the Palace offers a chance to slip back in time, to spend 45 minutes in yesteryear, savoring the unhurried, unamplified simplicity of an old-fashioned live variety show -Hawaiian-style. Now wrapping up five continuous years the show features a different theme each week. Chants, hula, songs, stories, and a video relating to that theme are presented by Leilehua Yuen, ‘Hilo’s Hostess of Hawai`iana’. Leileihua Yuen Organist Rick Mazurowski plays the theater’s vintage pipe organ, one of the largest in the Pacific region. Special guests are often featured. Call the Palace at 934-7777 for more information or visit the Palace website: www.hilopalace.com. Don’t miss this landmark show that is sure to delight one and all and features a few surprises too! Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Big Island, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hawaiian \| Tagged: Hawaiiana Live, Hilo Palace Theater, Leileihua Yuen \| Leave a comment » Little Shop of Horrors at the Hilo Palace Theater Posted on September 19, 2011 by Damon Filed under: aloha, Announcements, Comedy, Entertainment, Hawaii, Hilo \| Tagged: Hilo Palace Theater, Little Shop of Horrors, Yisa Var \| 1 Comment » June’s Sizzlin’ New From Hawai’i’s Big Island Posted on June 3, 2009 by Damon Come to the Big Island and explore Hawai‘i’s Island of Adventure Hawai‘i’s Big Island (June 2009) —Hawai‘i’s Big Island heats up this summer with a new direct flight on the horizon, yet keeps your wallet cool with a bevy of “do more, spend less” deals and adventures. ADVENTURES, ACTIVITIES & EVENTS Uplifting News for Travelers. Following the successful launch of its direct Seattle to Kona flight last year, Alaska Airlines announces a new direct service between Oakland and Kona International Airport three times a week starting Nov. 10, and will expand neighbor island service, too. www.alaskaairlines.com. Paradise Helicopters has a brand-new aah-dventure: the Secluded Valley Massage. After an exhilarating flight above the Kohala coastline, the helicopter touches down in a private, lush valley where a babbling brook provides background during a relaxing massage. Memorable for couples or groups. Visit www.paradisecopters.com or call (866) 876-7422 or (808) 969-7392. “Wheel adventurers” will love Ride The Rim’s new Waipi‘o Valley Adventure on an ATV or buggy. Experienced guides lead you to the unparalleled vistas and waterfalls at the back of Hawai‘i’s “Valley of the Kings.” Tours operate twice a day, seven days a week from Kukuihaele and are about three hours long. Visit www.ridetherim.com or call (877) 775-1450 or (808) 775-1450. Kohala Kayak takes $20 off! In commemoration of Hawai‘i entering statehood in 1959, the three-hour kayak and snorkel tour is just $59 for all of 2009. Stand-up paddling also available. Visit www.kohalakayak.com or call (808) 882-4678. Pedal Power. Raise money for multiple sclerosis research just like an Ironman cyclist on the Bike MS: Go BIG or Go Home cycling adventure, Aug. 8 (65 miles) & 9 (50 miles). Pedal on pavement alongside volcanic rock landscapes, breathtaking ocean views, paniolo ranches, and historic towns. Sponsor Hilton Waikoloa Village provides discount group rates to participants. Register at www.mshawaii.org or call (808) 532-0808. Kona Honu Divers, Inc. has a great deal for divers, which includes five to seven nights at one of Kona’s prime condominium properties and five to six days of two-tank morning boat dives aboard Kona Honu Divers’ custom dive boat. Upgrades and additional nights available upon request. Valid through November. $1,029 to $2143.25 plus taxes and fees. Call (808) 324-4668 or (888) 333-4668 or visit www.konahonudivers.com. Want more? Click http://bigisland.org/calendar for detailed information about Hawai’i Island events and be sure to mark your calendars for the 2nd Annual Hawai‘i Film Ho‘ike, featuring Hawaiian filmmakers at Hilo’s Palace Theatre. Sept. 19-20. Visit www.hilopalace.com. Mango Magnificence! The first annual Mango Festival is Aug. 1 on Hawai‘i’s Big Island, and Keauhou Beach Resort is celebrating with a special festival package. Priced at $149/single or $199/double, the package includes one-night accommodations, a buffet breakfast the following morning and entry to the Mango Festival’s Kona Mango Experience and the Mango-Inspired Dinner. For reservations, call (866) 326-6803 (808) 324-2515. Mauna Lani Point, located on the stunning Kohala Coast, provides guests with a free pass to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, 4th night free and a $200 gift card now through Dec. 19. Mauna Lani Point is an ultimate oceanfront location with golf resort amenities and one-and two-bedroom luxury villas. Townhomes and estates also available. Call (866) 966-5985 or visit www.visitmaunalani.com. In July, King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, located on a beautiful white sand beach in Kailua-Kona, plans to re-open one tower of 230 rooms after an extensive, Hawaiian-inspired renovation. The newly designed guestrooms feature themes of lava, native flora, and the intricate detail of the Hawaiian tattoo. Visit www.konabeachhotel.com to see photos of the new rooms, and for special packages and offers. Kona Village adds value to every stay with airfare and activity credits through Dec. 19. Book any published room rate in select categories and receive $800 airfare credit and bungalow upgrade. Or, book any published rate and receive four spa treatments and four rounds of golf at Hualālai; values worth more than $1,540. Call (800) 367-5290 or visit www.KonaVillage.com. Restrictions apply. Every Third Night Free at the Outrigger Fairway Villas! Enjoy a relaxing getaway in your own private Waikoloa Beach Resort condominium. Rates for a three-night stay starting at $163/night. Offer valid through Dec. 21. Free parking and free local and toll-free calls. Call (800) 688-7444 or visit www.outrigger.com. Two for One. Make a new booking at The Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii and receive a second room absolutely free! This offer includes guaranteed connecting rooms in the same category booked for garden view, partial ocean view, and ocean view categories-perfect for friends and families looking for a getaway. No minimum stay required. Valid through Dec. 20. May not be combined with any other promotion. Call (800) 845-9905 or visit www.fairmont.com/orchid. Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa celebrates 50 years with the “Hawai‘i Statehood Package.” Guests will receive the fourth night free when they book three nights, VIP turndown service, daily breakfast for two, a one-time $50 resort credit, and a newly minted Hawai‘i State Quarter (while supplies last and good for one per package). Based on availability, restrictions may apply. Visit www.Marriott.com and use promotional code PRO or call (800) 721-6996. A Deal That Will Make You See Stars! Guests at Arnott’s Lodge in Hilo enjoy Mauna Kea Sunset and Stargazing for just $85 – the best deal on the mountain! Visit www.arnottslodge.com or call (808) 969-7097. Unlimited Golf Package at Hilton Waikoloa Village & Waikoloa Beach Resort. Golf at Waikoloa Beach or Kings’ Course and play a second round, same day, same course on availability. Includes golf shuttle, storage of bags, and practice facilities. Starting at $314 plus tax/night for one golfer. Some restrictions, black-out dates apply; reservations based on availability. Offer valid through Dec. 20. Not valid with other offers. Request rate plan P6. Call (800) HILTONS or book online, http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/reservations/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=KOAHWHH&spec_plan=P6&spec_plan_desc=Unlimited+Golf The Polynesian-styled Sea Mountain Resort is located next to the mesmerizing black sands of Punalu‘u Beach Park, and only a 30-minute drive from Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, home of Kīlauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes. Rates from $99/night, valid through Dec. 20. Call (800) 525-5894 or visit https://mycrs.innpoints.com/book/book/guest/stay?hotelCode=1794&promotionCode=HAWAII Meet for Less at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. The Premier Meetings Package includes meeting room rental and set up; podium, microphone and projector screen; water station throughout the day; mini continental breakfast and afternoon refreshments at just $25/person, tax and tip inclusive. Valid until Dec. 31. Minimum of 25 people. Call (800) 367-5004 or email groups@castleresorts.com. Aston Kona by the Sea Unveils “The Beach Club,” a new oceanfront function space, which can be transformed for intimate sunset wedding receptions or themed bridal showers. The space features two separate rooms that can be configured differently to seat up to 52 people. Room rates start at $169/night through Dec. 21; blackout dates and restrictions may apply. Visit www.AstonHotels.com or call (866) 774-2924. Sheraton Keauhou Bay Resort & Spa Executive Chef Eric Lelinski has developed a “Sustainable Menu” for banquets that brings the freshest, tastiest, best quality food available to the resort’s tables. From organic eggs and potatoes to a seasonally adapted Big Island fruit platter and salads of locally grown greens and vegetables, Sheraton Keauhou, home to the Kona coast’s largest meeting facility, introduces the Big Island’s best to discerning palates. www.SheratonKeauhou.com Filed under: Announcements, Big Island, Hawaii, Hilo, Puna, Tourism \| Tagged: Alaska Airlines, Arnott's Lodge, Aston Kona by the Seas, Fairmont Orchid, Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, Hilo Palace Theater, Hilton, Hilton Waikoloa Village, King Kamehamhema Kona Beach Hotel, Kohala Kayak, Kona Honu Divers, Kona Village, Mango Festival, Mauna Lani, Outrigger Fairway Villas, Pararadise Helicopters, Sea Mountain Resort, Waipi'o Valley Adventure \| 2 Comments » 【口コミの真相】マナラホットクレンジングゲルは効果なし？最安値で買うなら楽天・Amazonじゃダメ Tiki Shark Hawaii Big Island Video News High Surf Warning Issued For Kona Shores Civil Beat KHON2 News Ala Moana Center celebrates Chinese New Year More than 100 items return to Iolani Palace Police looking for Hawaiian Paradise Park burglary suspect KITV News Canadian prosecutors lay out case for why Huawei CFO Meng should be extradited to the United States Boeing won't wait for FAA approval to start building 737 Max again Hawaii News Now Get a free blog at WordPress.com Theme: Digg 3 Column by WP Designer.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1163
__label__cc	0.54363	0.45637	Hotels near Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Hotels near Airport-Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumpur Jalan Lapangan Terbang Saas, 40150 Shah Alam, Malaysia Shah Alam, 4 km from Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Jalan Lapangan Terbang Saas See on map Set on 160 hectares of green tropical garden The Saujana Hotel Kuala Lumpur sits next to Saujana Golf and Country Club, which features... The Saujana Subang Saujana Subang Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia, 47620 Subang, Malaysia Subang, 4.1 km from Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Saujana Subang Selangor Darul Ehsan Malaysia See on map Our entire staff would like to warmly welcome you to the The Saujana Hotel. Luxury Hotels are plentiful, but this one is a prime example... The Club Saujana Resort Saujana Resort, Jalan Lapangan Terbang, 40150 Shah Alam, Malaysia Shah Alam, 4.2 km from Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Saujana Resort, Jalan Lapangan Terbang See on map This 5 star hotel is located in the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur and was established in 1988. It is 26.0 Km from the Petronas Twin Towers. The... Kuala Lumpur (17.2 km) Putra World Trade Centre (16.4 km) We make it clear to you Destinia.com offers you the best rates at all hotels near Kuala Lumpur-Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah. Click on any of the hotels on the left to reserve your stay	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1173
__label__cc	0.676968	0.323032	Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: air, children, climate, corporate, ecology, economics, energy, environment, ethics, gas, health, ocean, oil, philosophy, water, women. 3 comments Sandra Steingraber beautifully shares why the fight against fracking is so important. Posted 15 September 2011, by Sandra Steingraber, AlterNet, alternet.org Photo Credit: todbaker I’m thrilled to receive a Heinz Award in recognition of my research and writing on environmental health. This is work made possible by my residency as a scholar within the Department of Environmental Studies at Ithaca College. Many past and present Heinz Award winners are personal heroes of mine–and Teresa Heinz herself is a champion of women’s environmental health–so this recognition carries special meaning for me. And it comes with a $100,000 unrestricted cash prize. Which is stunning. As a bladder cancer survivor of 32 years, I’m intimately familiar with two kinds of uncertainty: the kind that comes while waiting for results from the pathology and radiology labs and the kind that is created by the medical insurance industry who decides whether or not to pay the pathology and radiology bills. Over the years, I’ve learned to analyze data and raise children while surrounded by medical and financial insecurities. It’s a high-wire act. But as an ecologist, I’m aware of a much larger insecurity: the one created by our nation’s ruinous dependency on fossil fuels in all their forms. When we light them on fire, we fill the atmosphere with heat-trapping gases that are destablizing the climate and acidifying the oceans (whose plankton stocks provide us half of the oxygen we breathe). When we use fossil fuels as feedstocks to make materials such as pesticides and solvents, we create toxic substances that trespass into our children’s bodies (where they raises risks for cancer, asthma, infertility, and learning disorders). Emancipation from our terrible enslavement to fossil fuels is possible. The best science shows us that the United States could, within two decades, entirely run on green, renewable energy if we chose to dedicate ourselves to that course. But, right now, that is not the trail we are blazing. Instead, evermore extreme and toxic methods are being deployed to blast fossilized carbon from the earth. We are blowing up mountains to get at coal, felling boreal forests to get at tar, and siphoning oil from the ocean deep. Most ominously, through the process called fracking, we are shattering the very bedrock of our nation to get at the petrified bubbles of methane trapped inside. Fracking turns fresh water into poison. It fills our air with smog, our roadways with 18-wheelers hauling hazardous materials, and our fields and pastures with pipelines and toxic pits. I am therefore announcing my intent to devote my Heinz Award to the fight against hydrofracking in upstate New York, where I live with my husband and our two children. Some might look at my small house (with its mismatched furniture) or my small bank accounts (with their absence of a college fund or a retirement plan) and question my priorities. But the bodies of my children are the rearranged molecules of the air, water, and food streaming through them. As their mother, there is no more important investment that I could make right now than to support the fight for the integrity of the ecological system that makes their lives possible. As legal scholar Joseph Guth reminds us, a functioning biosphere is worth everything we have. This summer I traveled through the western United States and saw firsthand the devastation that fracking creates. In drought-crippled Texas where crops withered in the fields, I read a hand-lettered sign in a front yard that said, “I NEED WATER. U HAUL. I PAY. “ And still the fracking trucks rolled on, carrying water to the gas wells. This is the logic of drug addicts, not science. I also stood on the courthouse steps in Salt Lake City while climate activist Tim DeChristopher was sentenced to two years in federal prison for an act of civil disobedience that halted the leasing of public land for gas and oil drilling near Arches National Park. Before he was hauled away by federal marshals, Tim said, “This is what love looks like.” http://www.alternet.org/water/152427/ Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: biomimicry, bioregional, birds, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, food, forest, husbandry, local, permaculture, philosophy, solar, sustainability. Leave a comment Basalt permaculturist Jerome Osentowski collects the fruits (and vegetables) of his labor at his greenhouses. Scott Condon/The Aspen Times Posted 18 September 2011, by Scott Condon, The Aspen Times (Swift Communications, Inc.), aspentimes.com BASALT — There’s a Garden of Eden carved into the piñon and juniper forest on the sunny south side of Basalt Mountain, a one-acre paradise where fruit trees and grape vines flourish outside and greenhouses cradle everything from fig trees to particularly prolific passionfruit. The Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI) is celebrating its 25th year, an amazing feat considering permaculture’s overshadowed status in the gardening world and a catastrophic fire in October 2007. The paradise is the creation of Jerome Osentowski, who has been involved in growing food in one way or another for more than 30 years and is recognized as an expert in building greenhouses and successfully filling them. Perhaps the crowning achievement of his career is what he has accomplished — with staff, friends and volunteers — at the 1,800-square-foot Phoenix greenhouse, so-called because it replaced a greenhouse that burned down four years ago. It’s an amazing place, 2.5 miles from downtown Basalt, that makes visitors feel like they’re in a tropical jungle, sans the dangers. A passionfruit vine dominates a section of the overstory, racing along 40 feet on a trellis in one direction and 20 feet in another. It was allowed to climb all over to shade the greenhouse interior from the sun and keep it cooler during the summer. The vine will be cut back this fall so the sun heats a flagstone patio and stone gabion walls on the north wall of the greenhouse. The rocks will release their heat after dark and help stabilize the greenhouse during the long nights of fall and winter. Along with the passionfruit vine, the lush overstory in the greenhouse is completed with papaya, guava, avocado and dragonfruit plants along with four types of citrus trees. The banana plants, with huge leaves drooping down like elephant ears, command the entire west end. The understory looks like a Rocky Mountain garden gone wild. There are common plants — peppers, cucumbers and sweet potatoes — but they reap the constant benefits of a warm, humid environment. “We take what’s outside, put it inside and bump it up a few climate zones,” Osentowski said. The subtropical environment of the Phoenix greenhouse won’t drop below 40 degrees at night, and it stays between 70 and 80 degrees during the day. A sauna heated by a wood stove is attached to the greenhouse. Warm air will be released from the sauna into the greenhouse during the coldest periods of winter. Numerous vents keep it cool during warm weather. Solar panels provide the power necessary for the greenhouses; CRMPI is off the grid. Mixed in with the veggies in the understory are exotic varieties of plants: fragrant night-blooming jasmine, Chinese date trees and aromatic medicinal plants like ginger. Osentowski said he and his staff follow the forest-garden model where there are layers of cohabiting plants outdoors. “We try to mimic that,” he said. All spaces are filled with plants. Sometimes they don’t work out in a particular place, but usually they find their niche. “We’re not trying to play God,” Osentowski said. “We’re doing some logical mimicking of nature.” The soil beds in the south section of the Phoenix greenhouse, clear of the lush overstory, is laid thick with annuals and winter salad greens. The diversity of plants means there is always something to harvest — “phases of abundance,” as Osentowski calls them. The idea, he said, is to avoid being one-dimensional like agri-business and most other greenhouses. A smaller Mediterranean greenhouse adjacent to Phoenix is dominated by a massive fig tree that Osentowski calls “the grand dame” of CRMPI. The fig started from an 18-inch-high cutting 15 years ago and is now a twisting tree with numerous branches that take up roughly 100 square feet and produces mouth-watering fruit. CRMPI is constantly building the soil of its greenhouses with leaves from the orchard outdoors and from rotting vegetation from the indoor plants themselves. When a huge leaf falls off the banana plant, it’s best left at the base of the plant to provide nutrients rather than tossed out. Tidiness isn’t necessarily a virtue in the greenhouse. Mulch covers the soil beds and certain areas are devoted to particularly thick mulch, where worms are added in heavy concentration. They break down the mulch and create rich humus. A small pond on the property is home for ducks and tilapia. The soil from the pond is occasionally scraped up and used as fertilizer, as is the manure from chickens and Nigerian goats on the property. The “waste” goes back into the system. That sustainability is central to the permaculture concept of whole systems management. Osentowski teamed with other instructors to teach CRMPI’s 25th Annual Permaculture Design Certification Course in August. The two-week course teaches students the essential elements of permaculture so they can better design and maintain sustainable systems such as forest gardens and greenhouses. Osentowski said public interest in permaculture is picking up. The New York Times ran a lengthy article this summer about its growing popularity, and Osentowski and his staff have received a book contract to write about the system and CRMPI’s history. Still, permaculture hasn’t been embraced to the degree Osentowski thinks it deserves. “The floodgate hasn’t opened. It’s still a small movement,” he said. He senses it will grow, particularly if the economic challenges continue to plague the world for years to come. Osentowski is proud that CRMPI has its own woodworking shop so the staff can create what it needs. It produces its own food. Passive solar and solar electric systems supply the power. “We’re the ultimate survivalists, really,” Osentowski said. “The beauty of CRMPI is it’s built on a shoestring budget, it works and it’s replicable.” scondon@aspentimes.com http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20110918/NEWS/110919857/1077&ParentProfile=1058 Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: animal, corporate, ethics, global, justice, local, rights, sociology. Leave a comment Posted 17 September 2011, by actforfreedomnow, Act For Freedom Now!, actforfreedomnow.wordpress.com anonymous report (translation): “We claim the following actions in sincere support of Tortuga the wild child, and the anti-civilization prisoners of these lands: -With spray paint, we vandalized a Kentucky Fried Chicken; all the front windows were painted with anarchist symbols. -A reptile kept in captivity was liberated into an ideal environment where he can hunt insects and live without any human impediment. -We went to an ostrich farm in Zumpango (Mexico State), where the animal’s skin is cut off to be sold. But we did not arrive with empty hands; we brought a large incendiary device that we planned to place in one of the trucks. As we lit the incense that would spark the fire, a guard surprised us and we started our escape on our bikes. The guard followed us in his car until we came to large fields of corn where after a few hours, now late at night, we lost him. It’s true that the action was frustrated, but this will help us to come back next time more prepared, and when they least expect it. “Nos adjudicamos las siguientes acciones en apoyo sincero al niño salvaje de Tortuga y con los presos anti-civilización de estas tierras: -Con pintura en aerosol hemos vandalizado un Kentucky, esta vez todos sus vidrios frontales amanecieron pintados con símbolos anarquistas. -Un reptil que se encontraba en cautiverio lo hemos liberamos en un ambiente optimo donde podrá cazar insectos y vivir sin ningún impedimento humano directo. -Llegamos a un criadero de avestruces en Zumpango (Estado de México), a las cuales les cortan la piel para comercializarla. Pero no llegamos con las manos vacías, traíamos un dispositivo incendiario de grandes proporciones que colocaríamos en uno de los camiones del criadero. Cuando prendíamos el incienso que desataría el fuego, un guardia nos sorprendió por lo que comenzamos la huida en nuestras bicicletas, la persecución de desato, el guardia nos siguió en su patrulla hasta unos grandes campos de maíz en donde después de unas horas y ya de noche lo perdimos. Es un hecho, la acción se frustro pero esto nos sirvió para regresar más preparadxs y cuando menos se lo esperen. Frente de Liberación Animal” .http://actforfreedomnow.wordpress.com/2011/09/17/we-claim-the-following-actions-in-sincere-support-of-tortuga-the-wild-child-and-the-anti-civilization-prisoners-of-these-lands-mexico/ Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: animal, arts, ecology, environment, ethics, philosophy, science. Leave a comment Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: books, climate, corporate, ecology, economics, environment, ethics, global, health, history, indigenous, justice, local, media, oil, philosophy, politics, preservation, rights, sociology, sovereignty, sustainability, water, weather, women. Leave a comment Posted 08 September 2011, by Alison Leigh Lilly, No Unsacred Place, nature.pagannewswirecollective.com As a follow up to John’s recent coverage of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline, below is a video of a speech given at the Tar Sands Action protests in Washington D.C. this past weekend by Naomi Klein, an activist and author of books such as The Shock Doctrine and No Logo: I have never seen anything quite as audacious as the campaign to rebrand the Tar Sands “Ethical Oil.” Do you know that Bill McKibben was on a debate with one of these guys on BBC, and he compared the Tar Sands oil to fair trade coffee and free range chickens? Do you know that they’re running ads on Oprah’s Network saying that by buying Tar Sands oil, you’re helping to free women in Saudi Arabia? I mean, I’m from Canada, and let me tell you something. We don’t have ‘ethical oil’ in Canada. We have Tar Sands oil, which is like regular oil, but a whole lot dirtier. It ravages the earth as it is extracted. Ravaging bodies, ravaging the land as you just heard from our brothers and sisters from the Indigenous Environmental Network. And it ravages the earth at the point of combustion. When all of that carbon, three times as much carbon, three times as much greenhouse gas is emitted as it takes to produce a regular barrel of crude. And all of that carbon enters the atmosphere, and destroys and threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world. And it also threatens the earth when it is transported in pipelines like the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. It threatens waterways, drinking supplies, ranches, the land that people and animals depend on. “Ethical Oil” is not an oxymoron. It is an outrage. It is an insult. Meanwhile, today over on Spirituality and Ecological Hope, Margaret Swedish asks if we can still talk about “hope” in a culture that seems so hell-bent on denial, self-destruction and environmental devastation: But, seriously, how is it possible to approach the challenging concept of hope in a nation of this much cultural denial, media manipulation, and irrational religious extremism (you know, the kind where God gave us brains and then demands that we not use them), in a nation in which we have allowed a few very wealthy billionaires and mega-corporations involved in fossil fuel production to make off with the truth about our situation? […] I long ago gave up equating ‘hope’ with a belief that we can still keep very bad stuff from happening. Bad stuff is already happening and more bad stuff is going to happen, and we still can’t address our reality like adults fully cognizant of the danger we are in. So what are we hoping for? What does it mean to hold on to hope in the face of on-going environmental disasters, heat waves, droughts, floods, raging fires and ever-larger storms. For Klein, hope is a stubborn commitment to keep fighting and working towards a better way of life: As we gather today, new tropical storms are gathering, and people are in that familiar state of huddling by their television sets, wondering, wondering if they will be safe. We don’t really have summers anymore, we have disaster season. And disaster season just seems to be longer and longer. […] We are here because we don’t want to live this way, careening from disaster to disaster. […] We are here because we know that we can do better. That we do not have to attack our earth with ever greater violence in order to live happily and fulfilled. We know that there are energy sources based on renewing and amplifying life, not sucking it dry. And that on this path there are tens of millions of safe and dignified jobs, jobs that workers can be proud to go to every day. For Swedish, hope rests on the evolving ecological concept of conviviality — living in “good company” with the earth and with each other, accepting and embracing a lifestyle of responsibility and limits as a first step towards greater abundance for everyone. After a long summer of disasters and bad news for the environment — how do you hold on to hope? And what do you do to pass it on to others? Categorized: Nature in the News. Tags: activism, environmentalism, hope, Keystone XL Pipeline, Tar Sands oil http://nature.pagannewswirecollective.com/2011/09/08/ethical-oil-is-not-an-oxymoron/ Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: birds, conservation, insect, politics, soil, sustainability, waste, water. Leave a comment Gardens to provide residents an example of how to conserve water, with threat of water shortages in the future. Posted17 September 2011, by Cassandra McKinney (McHenry County), BarringtonPatch (Patch Network), barrington-il.patch.com Water conservation in McHenry County is serious business now and for the future. In an effort to demonstrate ways that it can be done, the County is building demonstration gardens on the McHenry County campus in front of the Administration Building. Funding for the gardens was provided by the McHenry County Soil and Water Conservation District and the Illinois American Water Environmental Grant Program. The first to be installed was a raingarden, which can be best described as a garden planted with native plants that use and reduce storm water runoff. These gardens filter pollutants and improve the soil’s ability to absorb water. Insects, birds and butterflies benefit from the raingardens because they provide food, shelter and habitat for them. In late-September, a xeriscaping garden will be built. This garden will create a landscape to reduce water use with proper plant placement and the use of native, drought-tolerant plants. This garden has the dual goal of first reducing water use, then the need for extensive lawn maintenance. In both the raingarden and the xeriscaping garden, signs will be posted to describe the different plants and their unique traits, as well as information about how the gardens were constructed. Mary McCann, Chairman of the McHenry County Environmental and Natural Resources Committee, said, “The raingarden and xeriscaping projects will be excellent examples for residents to see how they can easily and successfully conserve water on their own. It is important to show the benefits and affordability, since it has been recognized that McHenry County may experience water shortages as soon as 2030, if nothing is done to conserve water quantity and quality.” McHenry County has developed a Water Resources Action Plan (WRAP) to ensure that a sustainable water supply will meet the demands of projected population growth for the County in 2030 and thereafter. A major section of WRAP is water conservation where the importance of reducing the demand for water, improving the efficiency in the use, reducing losses of water and improving land management practices are highlighted. The development of the raingarden and xeriscaping are examples of how residents can help meet those goals. For more information, contact McHenry County Water Resources Manager Cassandra McKinney at clmckinney@co.mchenry.il.us. This news release was provided by McHenry County. Related Topics: McHenry County, raingardens, and xeriscaping http://barrington-il.patch.com/articles/mchenry-county-installs-raingarden-xeriscaping-garden-is-next Posted by Ed Mortimer in Uncategorized. Tagged: animal, biocultural, bioregional, children, earth, elders, ethics, food, history, human, men, ocean, philosophy, sociology, spirituality, women, youth. Leave a comment The kids sit each in their beds, the littlest one propped up half upside-down on her elbows, her tiny bare toes playing over the pinewood slats of the bunk above hers. Their father has just finished lighting the candle of the newly created altar, its offering bowl already overflowing with small gifts from the day’s explorations in the park: acorns, stones, leaves and feathers and cicada shells. Everyone rests, quiet and attentive at the busy day’s end. I speak softly. “When we picked out this statue in the store, your dad and I wanted to get you something that would remind you of your own mother, and of the Mother Goddess who watches over you all the time. And I know some of you—” I wink gently at the second-oldest, a serious girl who frowns a little in thought, “some of you liked the other statue better, the two parents cradling the infant, because it reminded you of rebirth and renewal. I liked that one, too. But the more I look at this statue, the more it reminds me of a story. It’s a story about separation and loss, and of finding family again in unexpected places. And I think—I hope—that when you hear this story, maybe you’ll begin to like the statue a little better and it will have new meaning for you, as it does for your dad and me.” The kids are silent, stretching restless limbs beneath their sheets. “The story I want to tell you begins, ‘Once, a long time ago when the world was new…’” Once, a long time ago when this ancient world was still very new, there was a mother. Her name was Modron, which means Great Mother, for she was beautiful and strong, and her love shone from her as light from a great sun. And Modron had a son whose name was Mabon, which means Great Son. Mabon glistened and glimmered with his mother’s love, and within him, his own heart also shone with love in return. Those who looked upon him were dazzled by his great youth and energy. But when he was still just an infant, a tragedy occurred. Mabon had not yet slept three nights at his mother’s side, suckling at her breast and nuzzling into her arms, when he was stolen away into the darkness! When Modron awoke to find her beloved son gone, and no one who could tell her who had stolen him away, she mourned and wept, and her tears swelled and flowed like a great ocean. For a Mother’s sorrow, too, can be great as her love. Many years passed without sight or sound of Mabon, and all this time Modron continued to grieve and hope. Then, one day, a king arrived seeking to speak to Modron of her son. The king’s name was Arthur, and he came with a retinue of skillful and courageous knights following behind him. King Arthur and his knights had been set an impossible task: to hunt the huge and terrible boar called Twrch Trwyth. This boar was so strong, and so fast, and so tough, that no hunter in the world could track him down and kill him, save for the greatest huntsman of all. No one knew who this huntsman might be, but rumor in the land whispered Mabon’s name, the Great Son who had once shone with such energy even when just a babe. The people said that if Mabon still lived and could be found, surely he could kill the boar. And so King Arthur had come to Modron, to ask her if she knew where her son might be found. The question pierced her heart and made her laugh through her sorrow. “Do you think I have not wondered that myself, all these long years? And yet, though my sorrow is as great as the deepest ocean, as vast as the darkest expanse of sky on a moonless night, I have never been able to discover where he is, or if he is even still alive. You have come a long way, King Arthur, but I cannot help you. You may as well ask the blackbird where the boy is hidden!” she added with a sad, helpless wave of her hand. King Arthur, too determined to give up, went and did just that. He and his knights searched out the Blackbird, an old creature who had long guarded the gateway into other realms on the edge of dawn. “Blackbird,” Arthur called, “We are looking for Mabon, son of Modron, who was stolen from his mother’s side three nights after his birth. Do you know where he may be hidden?” The Blackbird peered down at Arthur and his knights with quick, obsidian eyes. “I am old, as you well know,” he said at last. “You see this dusty spot here where I sit? When I first was born, there used to stand here a smith’s anvil, the biggest you might ever see, made of the hardest iron. Yet no hammer ever touched this anvil, except that I pecked at it with my beak gently every day. Now, nothing is left of it but this dust beneath my feet. That,” said the Blackbird, stirring the dust with his wings, “is how old I am. And yet I have never seen nor heard of Mabon, son of Modron. “But,” the Blackbird continued, “I know of one who is even older than I am, and I will take you to him.” Arthur and his knights thanked the Blackbird for his kindness, and followed his lead. He soon led them to the bright Stag of the forest, whose old coat glistened as with midday sunlight. “Stag,” called Arthur, “We are looking for Mabon, son of Modron, who was stolen from his mother’s side three nights after his birth. Do you know where he may be hidden?” The Stag lowered his huge, antlered head and gazed at Arthur and his knights with ancient amber eyes. “I am old, as you well know,” he said at last. “You see this massive oak tree beneath which we stand? When I was first born, this oak tree was barely a sapling sprung up from its acorn, and yet now it is the biggest tree in the forest, thick with years of growth, its heavy limbs stretching wide in all directions, and the prongs of my own antlers number just as many as its branches. That,” said the Stag, swinging his head with pride, “is how old I am. And yet I have never seen nor heard of Mabon, son of Modron. “But,” the Stag continued, “I know of one who is even older than I am, and I will take you to her.” Arthur and his knights thanked the Stag for his kindness, and followed his lead. He soon led them to the Owl, whose rippling, moonshine eyes had watched the comings and goings of night for unknown ages and now looked on King Arthur with placid kindness. “Owl,” called Arthur, “We are looking for Mabon, son of Modron, who was stolen from his mother’s side three nights after his birth. Do you know where he may be hidden?” The Owl adjusted her silent wings and turned her haunted, blossomy face towards Arthur and his knights. “I am old, as you well know,” she said at last. “You see this ancient forested valley in which we stand? When I first was born, there stood a forest here even older and more wild than this one, and I watched as the people of the land moved in and cut it to the ground; yet as the people slowly abandoned the land for more fertile soil, another forest grew up in its place and that, too, became wild and strange with age, until again the tillers of soil moved through slashing and ripping up the roots from the earth, and the forest withered and disappeared and the valley became like an empty bowl beneath the sky. But the lives of people are passing, so easily will they go to war against each other, so quickly do they drain the sacred land dry—and so again human beings left this valley to the gods of wild places, and this is the third ancient forest I have watched grow to wilderness here. That,” said the Owl, her low eyes shimmering like deep pools, “is how old I am. And yet I have never seen nor heard of Mabon, son of Modron.” “BUT!” the boy chimes in loudly from his upper bunk, and I laugh. “That’s right!” I say, “I see you’re catching on…” “But,” the Owl told Arthur, “I know of one who is even older than I am, and I will take you to him.” Arthur and his knights thanked the Owl for her kindness, and followed her lead. She soon led them to the noble Eagle, who held his head aloft and flourished a beak and talons so sharp and true they might slice the air itself in two. “Eagle,” called Arthur, “We are looking for Mabon, son of Modron, who was stolen from his mother’s side three nights after his birth. Do you know where he may be hidden?” The Eagle regally preened a few stray pinfeathers into place and blinked at Arthur and his knights with benevolent, piercing eyes. “I am old, as you well know,” he said at last. “You see this tiny rock I clutch between my talons? When I first was born, there stood here a mighty standing stone, so lofty that it towered above every mountain, and I could sit upon it every night and lift my head to strike my beak against the upper limits of the black sky, and each peck pierced the darkness and became a star. And yet the stars you see now are numerous, beyond counting, and I made every one; and the standing stone that thrust up from the earth met wind and rain, the elements of air and water, and together the three joined in a dance that wore the stone away, until now all that remains is this mere pebble at my feet. That,” said the Eagle, clacking his beak that had made the stars themselves, “is how old I am. And yet I have never seen nor heard of Mabon, son of Modron.” The children moan in sympathetic exasperation, and I hush them and quickly return to the story, riding the energy of their anticipation, pulling their attention taut as a bowstring. By now, as you can imagine, King Arthur was beginning to despair that he would ever find Mabon, the Great Son of Modron, to help him hunt the wild, terrible boar. His face was haggard with searching, his eyes sunk deep from sleepless nights and long journeying to these ever more ancient beings, none of whom seemed able to help him. His knights, though loyal and trusting in their king, were beginning to tire as well, and being a good king to his people and friend to his companions, Arthur knew he must soon call off the search for their sake if not his own. The Eagle, whose keen mind could read the fatigue and stress in Arthur’s expression, had sympathy for the weary king. “But let me tell you a story,” he said to Arthur. “This story begins: Once, a long time ago when the world was new…. There was a great famine in the land. I was still young then, and had my fair share of suffering and hunger. One day, I had flown far from my usual hunting spots in search of something to eat, when I spotted far below me, in a small pool shaded by nine hazel trees, the quick shimmer of a fish in the water. Without second thought, I dove! I clenched onto the fish with both feet, sinking my talons deep determined to catch the thing, for if I didn’t I would surely starve before nightfall. But the fish was blessed with an almost monstrous strength, and it dragged me under, down and down into the spiraling, swirling darkness of the pool. If I had not finally relinquished the thought of my own hunger gnawing within me and released my quarry, I would have drowned. “This creature, I learned later, was the ancient Salmon of Wisdom, even older than I, who had lived for ages upon ages in the sacred pool, feeding on the hazelnuts which fell into the pool from the surrounding grove. Hazelnuts, they say, are food for the gods, and I would not be surprised if the Wise Salmon herself were a goddess dwelling in that strange and mysterious place. A mere king like myself,” said the Eagle, “could never presume to capture a goddess against her will! But let me tell you, Arthur—if the Salmon of Wisdom still dwells within that pool, I can take you to her. Although all the oldest creatures of the land could not tell you where to find Mabon, son of Modron, certainly she will know and she will help! And if she cannot, then your quest truly is beyond all hope.” And so, with new hope and fresh energy, Arthur led his knights with the Eagle as their guide far across the land, over gentle green downs and through dark twisting woods, until at last they came to the sacred pool in the hazel grove. Exhausted, King Arthur knelt by the side of the pool. Its surface moved in subtle wavelets from where a small stream fed into the pond, weaving and trickling between the roots of the trees. It seemed to Arthur, as he looked upon the water, that there in the reflection of shading branches he could see the ancient, sparkling eyes of a goddess smiling at him—then they were gone! In a flash, the silver body of a fish flickered by, and Arthur called out, “Salmon of Wisdom! We have come a long way to seek your help. We have spoken to the Blackbird, and the Stag, and the Owl, and the Eagle, and of all these ancient beings, none could lead us to what we seek. We are looking for Mabon, son of Modron, who was stolen from his mother’s side three nights after his birth. Do you know where he may be hidden?” From the depths of the pool there came a lovely, watery voice, barely distinguishable from the bubbling of the stream. “And did you ask his mother?” “Well, yes!” Arthur said, “But she said she did not know!” Sad laughter bubbled up from the glimmering darkness. “Modron’s sorrow over the loss of her son is as great as an ocean, and as obscure,” said the Salmon, “but the ocean is my home, and I know the secrets of its depths as I know my own. Every year I return to this pool and follow the stream far into the hills of this country, all the way to spring in the courtyard of the Castle of Light. And I tell you, Arthur, that for many years now I have heard the weeping and sorrow of one lost and alone when I have come there.” “Do you think, Wise Salmon, that this sorrowing sound may be of the Great Son?” “I have no doubt,” said the Salmon firmly. “And I will take you to him. You may ride upon my back as I swim—but, I can only carry two. So you must come alone, Arthur, so that when you have freed the son from his captivity you may both ride back together.” So King Arthur took leave of his knights, who saw their king off with a mixture of courage and trepidation, and he clambered aboard the long, slippery back of the Salmon of Wisdom. Quick as light glinting over the water, the Salmon swam with Arthur astride her, and it seemed the countryside sped along on either side of them with a magical speed so that in almost no time at all they were approaching the place where the stream began its journey, the spring by the great Castle of Light. Now the Castle of Light was strangely named, for in fact it was a dark and forbidding place, overgrown and half-rotted and ruined from long neglect. As the Salmon of Wisdom drew closer to the fortress, Arthur too could hear the weeping and sorrowing sounds echoing from within its mossy stone walls. Leaping from the Salmon’s back, he charged into the dim courtyard of the castle and battered the hilt of his sword against the inner door. But the door was old and spongy with rot and gave way before him, and he thrust it open, following the sobbing noises down and down into the dripping dungeons of the Castle. There, at last, he came upon the hunched, weeping figure of a man huddled in a corner. At the noise, the man looked up, and though his eyes were red from crying, his face was radiant and youthful beneath the grimy streaks of tears. “You there,” Arthur said, with the command of a king in his tone, “Are you Mabon, the Great Son of the Great Mother, Modron?” The young man sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, straightening up. “For sure I am, sir, and I’ve been locked in this dreadful dungeon for ages upon ages.” “Well,” said Arthur, “the doors have rotted and the walls have crumbled, and I have need of a great huntsman to stalk the wild, terrible boar called Twrch Trwyth. So I have come to set you free. Will you come?” “Of course!” Mabon said, and followed Arthur swiftly from the black of the dungeons up into the wan sunlight above. Together they mounted the Salmon of Wisdom, who looked on the young man with secret gentleness and did not strive to keep the King and his huntsman dry on their return journey home. Waters from the stream splashed and danced against their sides as the Salmon leapt and plunged, her glistening body writhing with the joy of dodging rocks and limbs, and soon all the dirt and strife of years in the dark had washed from Mabon’s face and his whole being seemed to shine, strong and healthy again. And this was how he came to his mother, Modron—bright and gleaming, accompanied by the majesty of Arthur and all his brave knights following behind—and she swept him up in an embrace of gratitude and happiness that was greater than the ocean, greater even than the sunlight and the sun itself. Then she released him, with a smile and one last thankful kiss, and gestured that he could go, with her blessing, to help Arthur hunt his ugly boar. For, it turns out, he was indeed the greatest huntsman in all the land, and he made a swift end to the huge boar that had eluded so many before him. Then, there was a great feast and celebration afterwards, which I assume Modron and Mabon both attended with pleasure, seated honorably at the King’s own table. And that is as good a place as any for the story to end. The children all begin asking questions at once: “Who was it who stole Mabon in the first place?” “How could he be good at hunting when he was locked up since he was a baby?” “Why did it take so long for them to find the Salmon, when she knew all along?” “Where did you hear that story, did you read it in a book?” the oldest asks. And the boy, perched on the edge of his bunk, asks, “Why did Arthur need to hunt the boar?” “Why did Arthur need to hunt the boar?” I repeat, with a wink. “Well, that’s a whole different story, for another time!” Categorized: Natural Reflections. Tags: autumn equinox, mabon, modron, mythology, Welsh myth http://nature.pagannewswirecollective.com/2011/09/11/the-tale-of-mabon-a-bedtime-story/	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1190
__label__wiki	0.611398	0.611398	“Poor man’s kebab” is Gaza’s most treasured food Mousa Tawfiq and Mohammed Asad The Electronic Intifada Gaza Strip 24 April 2017 Every morning after I open my store, I buy falafel and hummus for breakfast. It’s the most popular meal in our market because of its reasonable price and high nutritional value,” said Arafat Ashour, 44, the owner of a produce stand at al-Zawya market, one of the oldest markets in Gaza. “I eat it with my friend who works with me. Sometimes customers join us.” Its ingredients may be humble, but falafel enjoys a high status in Gaza. The basic recipe calls for chickpeas, parsley and onions to be coarsely ground in a food processor before garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander and paprika are added. The paste is rested for a couple of hours and then baking soda is mixed in. The falafel paste is formed into patties and fried. Falafel is the most popular dish and falafel restaurants are ubiquitous across besieged Gaza. Delicious, cheap and rich in protein, falafel is known as “the poor man’s kebab” in the Strip. Text by Mousa Tawfiq, a journalist based in Gaza and photos by Mohammed Asad, a photojournalist based in Gaza. Zahran restaurant, with six branches, is the most popular falafel joint in Gaza. They serve falafel, hummus and ful mudammas — a hearty dish made with fava beans. “I’ve been working at Zahran since 2003,” said Muhammad al-Jabali, 32. “Our restaurant is always crowded. Everyone buys falafel for breakfast and dinner.” In 2012, the Gaza municipality built a new corniche along the city’s coast, attracting residents throughout the year. Dozens of young men have opened small falafel stands along the beach. Ahmad Abu Hasira, 35, recently opened his small booth. “I work summer and winter. My booth wasn’t cheap, it cost me $600. I equipped it with extra parts to be used when it rains. I look forward to summer, because I sell hundreds of falafel sandwiches to holiday-makers each day.” At al-Sousi restaurant, located on Omar al-Mukhtar street, Gaza City’s most bustling, the falafel paste is fed into a machine which forms the patty and drops it into the deep fryer. “It cost us $2,000. It’s cleaner, faster and gives us perfect, reliable falafel,” Imad al-Sousi, 32, said. Five al-Sousi brothers work in the small restaurant which was opened by their father 25 years ago. They recently added a new branch in the Tal al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. Some falafel restaurants have introduced new styles of sandwiches using different types of bread. Said al-Gharabli, 32, uses Iraqi bread to make his “perfect sandwich.” “I put falafel, hummus, salad and french fries. It’s rich and delicious, especially when the bread is hot,” he said. “At first, people thought that my sandwich had too many ingredients. But they liked it once they tried it.” Ahmad Totah, 28, makes falafel sandwiches with Syrian-style bread and “secret sauces.” He uses a grill to toast the bread. “The Syrian bread is larger and lighter. I put falafel and french fries [in the bread] before adding my two secret sauces. My sandwiches have a special flavor and people like it. I’m very happy that I put my own touch on a traditional dish that hundreds of people make.” Falafel is the main breakfast at schools run by UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, and those run by the government, where a falafel sandwich usually costs a shekel — less than a quarter. Abdallah Hamada, 9, is a student at an UNRWA school. He prefers falafel over the cheese sandwiches that his mother makes for him. “I buy falafel sandwiches with my classmates. Sometimes I ask the seller to put some hummus in the sandwich. Each day, my mother gives me two shekels. I buy a falafel sandwich and a bottle of juice.” “I’ve been eating falafel since I was in first grade,” said Salah al-Amassi, 19, who studies information technology at the Islamic University of Gaza. “It’s very normal to see students entering the university cafeteria in groups just to eat falafel. It’s more than a tradition in our university life. I have an exam today. Nothing is better than a falafel sandwich for breakfast.” For Samira Abu Daqqa, 19, who studies media and mass communication at Al-Azhar University in Gaza, falafel is part of Palestinian heritage and “won’t be stolen.” “I know about the Israeli attempts to claim that falafel is an Israeli dish. It’s ridiculous. I’ve been eating falafel since kindergarten and my mother makes it at home.” Every Thursday, the end of the school week, Sawsan Ali, 47, waits for her grandchildren to visit. She makes them falafel for dinner. “They like it. It’s a delicious and healthy meal. I make the falafel paste in the morning and wait until my grandchildren arrive in the evening. Then, I cook it for them,” she said. For Muhammad Habboush, 66, who sells firewood for a living at his small shop in the Firas Market in Gaza City, falafel is more than an ordinary meal. “When I was young, before 2000 [when Israel restricted movement from Gaza], I used to go to the woods inside the occupied territories [present-day Israel] to find firewood. Falafel sandwiches were my lunch during those long days. Now, I’m old. I spend winter at my small shop eating falafel with my grandsons while telling them the stories of our lands.” Palestinian cuisine Slaughter of Gaza family reverberates 10 years later Mousa Tawfiq 3 January 2019 A crime against culture Mousa Tawfiq 10 October 2018 Full freedom eludes Gaza's exiles Mousa Tawfiq 27 June 2018 Palestinians break records to reclaim culture Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler 24 July 2010 Short film highlights devastation of northern Gaza Why sahlab (and hummus) still aren't "Israeli"	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1199
__label__cc	0.743032	0.256968	An American doctor experiences the NHS. Again. Posted byDr. Jen Gunter August 20, 2016 August 21, 2016 360 Comments on An American doctor experiences the NHS. Again. WIth my cousin Two years ago I wrote about my experience in a London emergency department with my son, Victor. That post has since been viewed > 450,000 times. There are over 800 comments with no trolls (a feat unto itself) and almost all of them express love for the NHS. I was in England again this week. And yes, I was back in an emergency department, but this time with my cousin (who is English). This is what happened. My cousin loves high heels. As a former model she makes walking in the highest of heels look easy. However, cobblestone streets have challenges not found on catwalks and so she twisted her ankle very badly. Despite ice and elevation there was significant swelling and bruising and she couldn’t put any weight on her foot. I suggested we call her doctor and explain the situation. I was worried about a fracture. I hoped to arrange an x-ray. If it was broken we would arrange the needed care and if it wasn’t broken I could bandage it just as well at home. “No,” she said. She’d have to ring for an appointment. It was Friday around 11 a.m. The chance of getting into her GP by the end of the day was apparently non-existent. She would have to wait until Monday. Even is she were lucky enough to be seen that day there was no x-ray in his office so it would be a trip to see him and then a trip to the hospital. She was shocked when I suggested she call and just ask if he could order the x-ray. Apparently, that’s not how it’s done. In person or nothing. As a gynecologist I will admit feet are not my strong suit, but no medical degree was needed to say she needed an x-ray. She also has some health issues that could impact healing from a break or the timing of surgery (hopefully that wouldn’t be needed, but you never know), so a timely diagnosis was more important for her than it would be in the situation were reversed and it was my ankle. “We’re going to the emergency department I said,” and off we went to Sunderland Hospital. Getting to the actual emergency room (ER) from the parking area required a background in orienteering. There was loads of construction and we had to go down hallway after hallway with Hogwarts’ worthy twists and turns. I managed to find a wheelchair, a unwieldily apparatus that only works in reverse. On purpose. This is to stop wheelchair theft, which is apparently a serious problem at Sunderland Hospital. My cousin was triaged immediately. Within two minutes a nurse checked her ankle, gave her codeine, and then sent her off to an urgent care clinic. She wasn’t even registered in the ER. A porter wheeled her to the urgent care clinic in another building some distance away, which required a trip outside. “What if it rains?” I asked the porter. “We get wet. This is the North,” he said. “Of course it rains. Almost every day.” Apparently no one complains. The urgent care clinic had a few people ahead of us. It took about 10 minutes to check in and then no more than 15 minutes to be seen. A lovely nurse named Leslie triaged my cousin and agreed an x-ray was in order and made the arrangements. My cousin did not need to see a doctor or a nurse practitioner to get an x-ray. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that happen in the U.S. The x-ray and radiology report took 10 minutes. Then a nurse practitioner (also very nice) did an appropriate history and exam. The diagnosis was a torn ligament (sprain) and possibly a small fracture of the lateral malleolus (outside ankle bone). A orthopedics consult was needed. She could have a bit of a wait and be squeezed into fracture clinic that afternoon or she could have a cast and come back to Saturday fracture clinic. The clinic didn’t start until 2 p.m. and we were done in urgent care by 1 p.m. so she opted to wait. She was seen around 2:15 pm. An orthopedic consultant did an exam and recommended a tight support bandage and gave her exercises and guidelines about how to follow-up if she wasn’t meeting milestones. My cousin was at the hospital for four hours, but over an hour was an unavoidable wait for fracture clinic and about 30 minutes of transport back and forth between the ER, urgent care, and fracture clinic. To receive this care all my cousin had to do was provide her name and birthdate. No copayments, no preauthorizations, no concerns about the radiologist or orthopedic surgeon being out of network. The nursing triage was wonderful and actually doing nursing (I hate seeing nurses relegated to charting). The nurse practitioner clearly knew what she was talking about and had reviewed the films with the radiologist. The surgeon only did the part of my cousin’s care that needed a specialist. It was a great use of resources. Everyone I spoke with at the hospital loved the NHS, and honestly it showed. While the hospital was a veritable maze and in need of the updating that they appeared to be doing, the equipment was all fine and the people, i.e. the things that really matter, were great. Everyone from the porter to the orthopedic consultant was hard-working, knowledgeable, and friendly. What more could you ask for? I asked a few people what they would like to see changed? The only real issue was people who show up for care that is clearly not even semi urgent never mind emergent. Might a tiny user fee change that? Did we have user fees in the U.S.? Did they work? Non-emergent care provided in the ER is obviously not the best use of health care funds, but in reality it’s a tiny drop in the health care bucket. Extra emergency room doctors and nurses and the not needed CT scans and other testing that may be generated are nothing in comparison to things like chemotherapy, or HIV medications, or bone marrow transplants. We do have user fees in the U.S. in the form of copayments. Even low copayments can cause some people to delay necessary care. They also don’t seem to deter people who don’t need the emergency room but want to go. I’ve sat in the ER with Oliver waiting for a bed while he struggled with pneumonia and overheard many examples. A man bragging that he tells the ER staff he has chest pain so he gets seen first. He was happy to pay his $100 copayment to be seen promptly at his convenience. He had nothing even remotely urgent. I’ve listened to a mother who waited hours for a diaper rash. Not a bleeding diaper rash, just a rash. Her physician had a free 24/7 pediatrics advice nurse that went unused (we had the same pediatrician, so I knew). She could have saved $40 and most of her Saturday, never mind the exposure to Oliver’s influenza, with a phone call. If you want to change ER utilization, and yes it’s a worthy goal even though it’s not the major cost driver, it’s education and outreach that are needed not penalties. When I think of copayments I think of a 60-year-old woman with breast cancer three years post surgery and chemotherapy now in remission. She developed a cough and a fever so received a chest x-ray to look for pneumonia. The radiologist found something not quite right, a spot that was especially concerning given her breast cancer history. She needed a CT scan to see if this is a bit of scaring or if her cancer has metastasized to her lungs. When I asked her why she hasn’t yet had the CT scan she told me she couldn’t afford her $100 copayment. It will take her two months to save the $100 so she can get the CT scan to find out if her cancer has returned. She looked at me in the eyes for just a moment and then a mixture of embarrassment and fear that my eyes might tell her what she doesn’t want to know caused her to look away. And what if her CT scan is equivocal and she needs $100 (or more) for the copayment for a lung biopsy? If that’s not a circle of Hell I don’t know what it. You want to know what’s worse? I’ve heard a variation of this story more than once. Dear U.K., the NHS is awesome. Try to treat it a little better. Maybe teach kids in school how to use the health care system (hey, why not NHS ed alongside drivers ed or sex ed?). Have safe sex. Stop smoking. Try to lose weight if you need to (obesity causes 30% of cancers). Wear lower heels for dancing. And for crying out loud stop stealing wheelchairs. The next time anyone mentions privatization or user fees tell them in America there are people trying to save enough money for the copayment for the CT scan that will tell them if their cancer has returned or not. Thank you NHS for taking fantastic care of my cousin, of my son two years ago, and of everyone else. To the British government, stop trying to mess it up. Posted byDr. Jen Gunter August 20, 2016 August 21, 2016 Posted inEthics, health insuranceTags: health insurance Does Donald Trump have low testosterone? What his very low PSA tells us I’m a doctor and there is no evidence that HiIlary Clinton has a secret illness or seizures Where is that woman who didn’t have $100 for that test? I’d gladly donate it to her. Heck, if she’s not too far away, I’ll go pick her up! Just a wee point… I’m a Brit who lives & works in the USA. Love your articles. Hospital ER nurses (in the US) do order & medicate (per policy) for extremity injuries before an md sees them 🙂 Glad to hear! I’ve rarely seen it and then only for Tylenol for fever. I think it’s ER dependent. Wish it was done more! rskurat says: Not at my hospital. Only PAs & NPs, but we’re behind the curve onpretty much everything else as well. N. Pennington says: Your lucky you were not still in the US the come out and ask have you got insurance ? If not have you got enough money? If not the ambulance drives off leaving you in the middle of the road we have a saying if you live in a glass house don’t throw stones ? Jan Lee-Mann says: Absolutely agree with your comment. These tourists come over to England, have an accident and then automatically assume they are going to be treated for FREE! They should have insurance to cover their treatment, pay up front and then get reimbursed in the states. We could not get free treatment as tourists in the U.S.A. As you say “people in glass houses etc.” free loaders!!!! katie suleiman says: The NHS has been so badly abused, planned trips to the UK for births, surgery, etc then the mental health system clogged up with people wanting letters of support for a bigger council flat or house pretending to have mental health problems when it’s clear, that after a couple of appointments and not being provided with a letter, they discontinue therapy. I work in the NHS and believe me, I am well and truly fed up, I’ve been covering two roles for the past 3 years, then get a part time support admin who promptly takes sick leave and continues to do so every 2 weeks. Those left in the NHS are there for loyalty and patients, but there comes a time when you have to ask yourself, ‘Am I a fool?’ covering someone else’s work, while managers make lame excuses to avoid confronting the malingerers, and let’s face it, the malingerers are better protected legally, than the loyal employees who cover their work and end up with serious stress. One previous admin support, once she received her contract, showed up 3 days in 4 months and knew every trick to take it as far as she could and get paid in excess of 300,00 pounds for doing nothing and of course, annual leave added on to that. Sadly, I will be leaving after 15 years, it’s an open house for scammers and abuses loyal staff. Cecilia Mary Gunther says: I lived in London for a while (also in high heels) and had to take a child to the emergency room once – it was very well organised but OH MY – I do agree – that place was a maze and we ended up in an UNMARKED corridor of blank doors – totally lost. Thank fully we had brought snacks and a drink or we could have starved to death in there trying to find our way out. We have a similar set up in New Zealand. I honestly live in fear of having an accident or getting sick here in America. rekster says: “I honestly live in fear of having an accident or getting sick here in America.” A real fear. As a retired emergency nurse my advice is avoid illness as much as you can here in the US. I’d avoid it in the uk, my uncle went in to an NHS hospital with a chest infection, he died of mrsa. You can’t even complain here because the nurses are reconstituted angels. jim bunting says: Here in Toronto, we have a system of coloured lines on the floor of the hospital hallways, that lead to different departments. Also different wall colour schemes in different departments. Typical staff to patient directions …….Imaging is on the 4 th floor, when you get off the elevator, follow the green line. I have seen this in a number of hospitals here in the US as well. But, strangely not in all new ones. Hmm. Ina MacAllan says: We have that in English hospitals too (only the weight of traffic usually wipes out sections of the lines over time so I get lost anyway). But I’d rather the hospital prioritise care than paint. The Vegan Mystic says: I cut my hand open on a smashed ceramic at 6.30 am one morning. Solihull Hospital could not have been a friendlier place. The nurse was very open minded and non judgemental about me self-Reiking whilst I was being stitched up! Robyn Daly says: The US is the richest country in the world yet the only developed country without universal healthcare. I grew up in Australia, lived in England for many years, and now live in the US. US healthcare is shameful. I am so grateful that my husband was a veteran so I qualify for Tricare and can afford the copays. I had a couple of friends who died because they couldn’t afford to get help, and others who deal with life-threatening conditions and chronic pain themselves because they just can’t afford to go to a doctor or the ER. The Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) has helped many, but sadly the for-profit medical insurance industry is still in charge of healthcare in the US. 😦 Lisa Egan (@lisybabe) says: We don’t have drivers ed in schools in the UK. We leave school at 16 and you can’t start learning to drive until you’re 17. (In England it’s now compulsory to stay in some kind of education or training until 18, but that’ll be in a sixth form college, further education college, or workplace apprenticeship rather than at school.) angilinab says: Nitpicking much? Out of everything she said, drivers ed is what you took from it? Angilinab: What am I supposed to do? Write a line by line breakdown saying “yes, I agree with that. Yes, I agree with that,” up until I got to the point where I noticed something that the American didn’t realise about the British education system? That seems like a dramatic waste of both my time and the time of anyone reading the comment. Jonathan Anstey says: It’s not compulsory to stay in education until the age of 18. Moose Tetrino (@TheMooseTetrino) says: Yes. It is. In England at least, you must stay in some form of education until you are 18. And has been for at least five years. https://www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school In England it is, and has been for years. https://www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school The students that are 18 this year are the first year for whom these guidelines affected. Although it has been the law for years it is only the class of 2016 whom were not allowed to leave education to work until 18. For the class of 2015 it was 17 and for the class of 2014 it was 16. The law is now fully in place which is also why there is an increase in the number of apprenticeships that are available as people now have to stay in some form of education. Phyllis James says: Compulsory to do 6th form ?!!? It is now (see Zoe’s comment just above about the timescales for the introduction of it). In England only. The other home nations you can still leave full time education/training at 16. Kate Lester says: Is there any logical reason why we can’t get that in the US? It’s all about money and greed, isn’t it? Diana Sandberg says: Stephen Holmes says: They prefer to call if “Freedom”. Not just. It’s also about ideology that dictates that organizing things by putting them into the hands of a state run agency is inherently inefficient, while markets will always deliver. It is about an ideology that judges it more unacceptable that someone might get something they don’t deserve, than that someone might go without something they need. It’s the moral hazard argument… And I believe they use a similar false argument about voter fraud. jerrychicken says: Thats the nail on the head, right there, I have American friends and I have heard that argument so many times and from the outside looking in, its so selfish. Spot on re: getting something one doesn’t “deserve”. I know someone without health insurance at the time who, about six years ago, needed an emergency appendectomy. A middle-class guy. It ended up costing him, out of pocket, around $17K. Yes, he paid, he had the savings. Afterwards I said something like “wow, after that you should be in favor of public universal health care” The response? “No way, I don’t want to pay for any scumbag’s coverage.” Scumbag = poor or otherwise socioeconomically distasteful to him. It was more desirable to him to forgo coverage completely, even for himself, than to have people he didn’t think deserved health care get it for free. That’s a very common attitude here in the U.S., especially if you start adding race into the mix (see “sociologically distasteful” above). Alex Knisely says: See: British Rail, et seq. We have so much ground to make up in regards to administering healthcare…that being said, our problems are political in nature. The actual care is negotiated from the insurers perspective, which is skewed toward profit not results (Medicare shows you all you need to know). Insurance has no federal regulator, even after the largest provider on earth failed during the credit crisis. Legislatures talk big, until the big money starts threatening to withdraw funding, then they resume being the lying cowards they truly are! Reply to “retired”…where do you draw the line? Motorbike accidents, heart attacks caused by obesity and poor diet, people falling off horses, twisting their ankles in skyscraper heels – ALL self inflicted. You’re opening up a moral quagmire penalising “drunks”. Alcohol misuse may also be an illness. Marie Dyer says: I so agree with you about educating people in how to use the NHS/A&E. people need to learn how to treat minor injuries/problems at home, and use the ER for actual emergencies. sweetsound says: I’ve had moderate to severe pain in my foot since March, yet because the x-ray showed no breakage (that they saw) I’ve been wait listed for a foot specialist. Three months ago. The pain is not getting better or going away. I agree that the ER should not be used for non-emergency situations, but I can kind of see why people do it. I’d be happy to pay a fee if they could just get me in in a reasonable time frame. You can pay a fee and see a specialist privately. Has your GP requested a scan? Hi Pat, no just the x-ray, which was inconclusive. Sounds like I should call my GP back and ask about the fee and scan? retired says: Yes but why should we pay a fee when we pay 40 % tax plus other contributions towards the NHS ? Waiting lists are a major issue in the NHS, which dampens the good quality of specialists and training we have (I know as I worked in the system and the large majority of Drs are great !). Our time is mainly wasted on Saturday nights on drunks and associated activities eg fighting, etc, which are self-inflicted… my suggestion .. first time free .. after that, they pay for visits which are alcohol-related. It needs to be fair to others who genuinely need the system. Gegenbeispiel says: Retired: total rubbish. “We” don’t pay anything like 40% tax. Most UK people pay only a marginal rate of 20%, the first GBP10000/year or so are tax-free, you have to get GBP40000 or so to start paying 40% on the income above that. You must be rich to spout nonsense like your comment. You need to be levelled down, radically so. Hayley Stevens says: Luckily we have the 111 system here in the UK so if you’re not sure if you need to see your GP or go to A&E you can call them for advise. They’ll explain if you can look after the condition or injury at home, arrange an ambulance if it’s required and they’ll even phone ahead to let the A&E know you’re coming. So if you’re reading this and you’re from the UK and you ever find yourself not sure what the appropriate action is – call 111. Don’t believe the headlines that it’s a rubbish service – it has helped my family a number of times. Peter Lockhart says: Just like to agree wholeheartedly with this. In Scotland its called NHS24. I have a long term condition and sometimes I’m not sure about going to hospital or not so I phone NHS24. Always get a good service and they’ve phoned ambulances and had doctors waiting for me to arrive. Sometimes they just give advise such as taking pain killers or ice packs or just putting my feet up but it always works. The NHS is our greatest treasure and anyone who thinks we should gp for a private system really needs to read up and think about how it would be if you had a long term condition that insurance couldn’t cover. I’ve also have mental health issues and had great treat!ent. The length ofvtgime I had to spend in hospital would have bevway beyond my mrans if I had to pay. I’ve also been told that when my mental health deteriorates just get to e ward. A bed will be found. Knowing that is a great comfort. cuttydarke says: NHS 24 is brilliant. It’s a great way to deal with those marginal calls. I phoned it a few times when my kids were small and a couple of times they were able to tell me that the problem wasn’t severe and saved us a trip to A&E and exposing other kids to whatever virus my kids had. And once they got an ambulance to me in 5 minutes because it was serious and my daughter needed a night in hospital on a drip to recover. From the point of view of a worried parent all those incidents looked exactly the same. American who moved to the UK a year ago- Agreed on the 111 service- it has been fantastic. They helped when I thought I was having heart palls again and the GP followed up that week with a phone call to make sure things were still okay. I’m thinking that gent above makes a lot more money than I do, because taxes and NHS fees are seperate payroll deductions. As an immigrant, I’m in the 12% payroll bracket which is the highest charged for anyone in the UK for NHS. Some folks are on lower ones. It is still less than the 22% of my income I paid the last year I was in the USA to health care for just myself. My tax bracket is seperate, and since I’m not in the top quarter of earners I’m in the 20% payroll deduction lot (You have to make over £40k to get taxed 40%, and that is more than the average salary of someone who has worked 20 years). My US taxes last year were 25% 😦 So God bless the NHS and the kindly staff they have; they have been nothing but amazing so far. Jeremy Pascoe says: You do not pay a 12% payroll tax for the NHS. National insurance is not ringfenced at all ie its just general taxation and is to pay for all social security benefits and government pensions as well. Sarah Morris says: Agree with the 111 number. I had a deep cut on my leg that was not healing. I had some anti-bios from the my local GP, but just 2 days before the follow up appointment I woke up with my leg in pain and sweating. I tried some codine but it just got worse. Called the 111 number and they asked if I could get down to the emergency doctor (it was about 2am now). Jumped in a taxi and went to the emergency doc. They were waiting for me, took one look and got driven round to the A&E who admitted me right away into hospital. Got given morphine for the pain, then sent for x-ray, then admitted to the high dependency ward and later the infectious disease ward. I was told it was a close thing to either loosing my leg or worse involving a 6ft deep hole. A week later I was discharged to a thing called Hospital at Home where for 2 weeks, 7 days a week, twice a day folks came round to give me IV drugs and look after my leg. I had 3 follow up’s , including one where I was given massive box of drugs and dressings to take home. I’m now healed, my leg is coming on fine and I’m back at work. Cannot praise the NHS highly, and of course, all free. Yes, I’ve paid through my taxes, but I doubt 10 years worth at 100% of what I’ve paid would have covered the costs. Yes, the Sussex hospital is a maze where to pass through you go up in a lift, then down further on, and it’s been a building site since I’ve lived here in Brighton (16 years) as it’s been added too, then upgraded, but they fixed me, no problems. Love em!!! Ros says: Agreed. They were absolutely brilliant when my father had a non-responsive incident a couple of months ago. They gave very good advice and arranged for him to get an appointment at the Sunday afternoon clinic later that day, just to be sure there was nothing more serious going on. She doesnt seem to know that that was Nhs England and that the Westminster English gkvt only regulates health in England. Scotlands Nhs is separate. Good thing Sunderland is very much in England then… John C says: I live in London but have lived in the US: I love the NHS and it’s no surprise that there was a homily to it on the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. Tay Carlton says: Actually, it was surprising, given that the UK Secretary of State for health didn’t want the homily and has written a book about privatising the NHS. Pól says: I used to work in an A&E(ER) as a receptionist, in the NHS, and I was struck by the other European Union nationals who came to reception to pay, only have to explain that’s not how we do it here. When I needed to use the Public Health Service in France, I had to pay for the ambulance, unheard of in the UK, and for each appointment at the hospital afterwards, apart from some of the costs that were covered by my EHIC. When I went back to Ireland, where I was born, my parents’ GP gave me a “Health Card” prescription, which meant I didn’t have to pay for it, like a pensioner back in Ireland. The NHS is a treasure the British do not realise that they have. Hi , we do know what we have , it’s just the government f****g things up for us . They want to save money on the situation but don’t realise how much it will cost . They decided to close A&E departments down ( ERs ) and gave the Drs and Nurses their P45 ( leaving cards ) . The government now only have A&E departments open around Westminster ( House of Commons ) in case an MP gets a cut finger . ( With greatest respect and partially sarcastic ) . Addendum – partially sarcastic to the government NOT to you . 🙂 They have to close a and e because the staff refuse to modernise their contracts or processes. Stop blaming the government when it is clearly the staff who are the problem. I blame the government because the poor performance is because they accept it. It’s the expected problem when you have the same guys setting the standards and paying for compliance with those standards–it makes it so easy to turn a blind eye to problems. Cindy Perlin, LCSW says: Great post. Thank you! Pingback: An American doctor experiences the NHS. Again. — Dr. Jen Gunter – go4healthyme Thank you for writing about your experience of the NHS emergency system. The NHS is far from perfect but most of our big issues are politically created. I’d personally hate to work in a system where I’d need to consider a patient’s ability to pay before discussing investigations and treatment options with them. If you need a full body CT because of multi-system trauma you’ll get it, usually within 30 minutes of the request. Keep spreading the love for the NHS! Dr Pete (Emergency Physician) andywilliamsongreen says: I remember reading your last column about the NHS. Thanks for this one too. I’m a dual national US & UK. I grew up in the UK and have always lived here. I inherited PKD from my American mother, who came to the UK in 1967 after marrying by British dad. I’ve now had two kidney transplants – the second from my US cousin, whose flights and loss of earnings were paid for by the NHS as it’s cheaper to do that that keep me on dialysis. I don’t believe I could ever live in the US, as it would be impossible to afford the necessary insurance and immunosuppressant drugs as a freelance musician: all treatment is free under the NHS. I often wonder how much happier a place the US would be if it wasn’t full of people doing jobs they hate because it’s the only way to afford health insurance. Is that how it is? Thanks for writing this. RickS says: So your friend was part of the issue if you did turn up at an A&E. A&E depts are for life threatening injuries only, unexplained chest pains, head injuries, excessive loss of blood, ambulance cases, etc. Your mate should have been taken to a minor injuries unit. They deal with sprains, breaks, fractures, superficial wounds. You are right though education of the masses is key though it’s somewhat pointless just doing it in school as emergency services on the NHS have changed over the years. From the availability of NHS direct (a helpline you can call to be advised by nurses over the phone) to the instantiation of minor injuries units, it all changes. Confused about A&E and when to use it? Take a look at this: http://6qg7i41tyj019gihpa2y01a1.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/AE_Torbay-883×575.jpg dansmith17 says: It varies from city to city, because in many major hospitals you will have a minor injuries unit co-located with the AE. There are often Minor Injuries Units as stand alone units in much smaller towns with smaller hospitals. doobarz says: Reblogged this on The musings of gutless Dick and commented: Another interesting take on the NHS by an American doctor. iainglencross@hotmail.com says: No mention of the Ottawa rules for suspected ankle fracture, but I very interesting article. Thank you. Iain , Kat Thomas says: Delighted that you had such swift, skilled and friendly care, which is quite typical in the NHS. And you could have speeded it up further by going directly to Urgent Care as your first stop – you’re right about the need for more education on how to use the system most effectively to maximise use of resources. You tend to learn your way around the system as your kids grow up, and a bit of explanation in (high) school would make that easier for everyone. That varies from place to place. Our Urgent Care Unit in Cambridge only accepts patients via GP or A&E (as in Jen’s cousin’s case) referral. I’m really glad you’ve had another positive experience of the NHS and the hospital. I’m not sure your cousin has done justice to her GP though. Almost all surgeries have emergency appointments either with the doctor or nurse or at least telephone triage. It seems unfair to say it’s impossible, without even trying. And of course an x-ray wouldn’t be ordered on the phone. X-rays come with radiation risk and should only be ordered if appropriate. The best orthopaedic surgeon wouldn’t be able to make an appropriate assessment on the phone. Not at 11am in the morning, they don’t. Usually you have to phone on the dot of 8.30am to get an emergency appointment for that day. So if you missed that on Friday, Monday would be your next chance. This was actually one of he bits I found most interesting about the differences, between the two systems. The U.K. has discouraged GP’s setting up their own mini labs, and radiology units it’s more efficient to have a single unit at the hospital than buy 100 x-Ray machines that are at every GP surgery but are rarely used. However why not have the ability to bypass AE and go direct to X-Ray based NHS 111 assessment, sometimes it will need medical assessment first but some cases will be straightforward. Pingback: An American doctor experiences the NHS. Again. \| kirwan1 Gail Smith says: Over the years I have had 8 operations, all provided by the wonderful NHS, and I am so grateful for the care and kindness I have been shown. My mum had terminal bowel cancer, and the care provided by G.P.’s, hospital staff, district nurses etc. was nothing short of incredible. To arrive at a hospital ward with a heavy heart, and seeing a nurse sitting next to mum holding her hand, was so amazing. Mum wanted to die at home, and thanks to the brilliant district nurses and doctors, that wish was granted. I have a fond memory of mum’s G.P. visiting our house, and sitting on our patio, gently explaining to myself and my sisters that they would make sure she had the best care possible. It’s not perfect, there are problems. However, we really are fortunate, and people who abuse the system need to realise that they are wasting money that is needed for those who really need help. leonduveen says: Reblogged this on Mantonite – A Worksop Liberal and commented: Before anyone else tells us the NHS is failing or that the don’t already have a 24/7 NHS, read this post from an American doctor, especially the bits about “copayments” and what it means to those who need care ut can’t afford to pay (and those who can afford it so abuse the system). No, the NHS is not perfect. I work in it so I know there is waste and inefficiency, but before we start tearing it to pieces we need to understand what the alternatives are, if they are any better and, most importantly, are they better value for our taxpayer money. To judge from this story, we should be very grateful for what we have! Sungirl DreamingEvurr says: I fear you missed the glaring point that is the main problem. Your cousin couldn’t get to see her GP. I have ended up in A&E because my GP refused to help me and brushed me off, even complaining that when she took my blood pressure she would have to deal with the fact that it was sky high (missing that it was high because of the stress about the problem I had got to her for). I have what I believe to be a ganglion in my hand and I am constantly tired…. but to get a GP appointment is too much to deal with only to be brushed off with no support. Our NHS is awesome, once you get into the system, but getting that appointment, past the bulldog receptionist on the end of the phone, is a nightmare. If you work full time and can’t take time out of work to get to an appointment it is nigh-on impossible. We need more GPs, solve that, and you solve so many other problems. Yup–this is actually showing the problems with the NHS, rather than showing it works. They went to the A&E because it’s the part of the system that does work. If it’s not an emergency it’s way too slow even on things where that’s totally not acceptable. Loren Pechtel: Wrong. They would have gone to A&E or Urgent Care anyway from the GP, because GPs don’t have X-ray devices. Sungirl: I doubt if more GPs would solve the problem. The real solution is to fine or disqualify employers who will not give staff time off to attend GPs/hospitals during the workweek. You MUST be able to take time off work to care for your health, and that time must never be used as a promotion or job security criterion. Any employer who violates that should be forced into bankruptcy. jeanid123 says: Reblogged this on jeanid123. Pingback: An American doctor experiences the NHS. Again. \| Vanella Mead – artist Dave Hulme says: Got to “mess it up” before they sell it to their mates and future employer’s That is so, so true…. exactly what the Minister for Health, Jeremy Hunt and his cronies are up to. If you are not already, join the group 38Degrees, an organisation which up to par on the NHS. They very recently reported on a ‘secret’ paper concerning the NHS and .Jeremy Hunt. There was a documentary on TV whereby investigators found out about covert meetings with USA Health Care companies and Insurance providers…. Thankfully they disrupted it royally! …. If they were to go to the British public and asked could they agree to pay an extra £1 in their taxes or pensioners (like me) a £1 less, they most certainly would. Hell I’d take a £5 less. I am so passionate about the NHS and so is my husband who is on dialysis 3 times a week. telescoper says: Reblogged this on In the Dark and commented: Remember that story a couple of years ago by an American doctor about her experiences of the NHS? Well, here’s a sequel… I’m an American living in the UK (8 years) and I think the NHS is great. I broke my arm quite badly several years ago and had excellent treatment (2 surgeries) and rehab and never paid anything. I can’t imagine how much that would cost in the USA. My sister was over for a visit once and managed to forget her insulin at my house when we were away for a weekend. Got an evening appt to get a script (they did charge but were hugely apologetic) and picked up the insulin the next morning (again paid £7 and got major apologies for having to pay). I’m really quite proud to work in this country and contribute to such a fair and practical system. I really hope the current political climate keeps the NHS working the way it does (or even improves it…!) Meanwhile in Birmingham my mum has been waiting for the hospital to remove he thyroid as its crushing her windpipe since October 2015… That’s 10, that’s right TEN whole months… Brilliant… In pain and can barely breath for 10 months… Rachel Henderson says: I hope and wish that the delightful government of our strange little group of nations reads your post – and sees what really happens – and maybe, just maybe, realise that the NHS is probably the best thing to have in this country ever. Of course there are problems and issues and things that need sorting – but – without it, lives are lost, people are made bankrupt. Healthcare, free at the point of use, is what no-one ever ever moans about paying taxes for – and long may that continue. Richard Brooks says: Strange to think that in the late 30s Hollywood would have as a film idea, a health service where the community put in a few cents a week to support it. It was one of the Dr. Kildare films entitled Dr. Kildare Goes Home (1940) where one of the rich in the community ‘poo-poohed’ the idea from these young doctors until (IIRC) his own son needed urgent medical attention which was offered. sabremeister says: Reblogged this on Arranging Reality and commented: The view of an outsider. And not just any outsider, one who knows how other systems work and how crap they are compared to ours. I live in the UK and have the greatest respect and gratitude for the NHS. I don’t know how widely known it is that they also have a phone number (I think 111) where anyone can ask for advice, 24/7, for any worries. I’ve used it twice in 8 years and had the most competent, most scrupulously detailed, most time-efficient response. I had an accident 9 years ago and the level of care was outstanding, top specialists brought in for each potential problem, every possible angle covered, excellent after-care advice, excellent care for the ensuing problems, in each department where I needed to go. It’s true that, in 20 years in different parts of UK, some GPs and GP surgeries were less pleasing than others. My current one is stellar. But specialist care is outstanding, and GPs are worked very hard, they try their bests, and some or perhaps most of them manage to remain wonderful. It pains me to see how the system is hassled, because it is wonderful and it should be greatly celebrated and helped. Dr Blessing says: Thank you Dr Gunter Anna King says: Thank you for spreading the news about our amazing NahS and the fantastic people who work there. ❤️ Jonathan Kent says: What I’d like people in the US to understand is at least part of why we have a welfare state, of which the NHS and pensions, disability benefits and help for people out of work are a part. Between the August of 1940 and May 1941 we endured the Blitz. Just about every city in the UK (save Oxford and Cambridge) was bombed. Coventry was pretty much destroyed. London was hit time and again. Just under 40,000 civilians died. That’s the equivalent of a 9/11 every fortnight for eight months. That wasn’t the end of the bombing. Even towards the end of the war it became more terrifying in the shape of V1 and V2 rocket attacks. More than 100 rockets fell on the four parishes around where I live in Sussex in the middle of the countryside. Again London in particular suffered. Famously the present Queen’s mother is supposed to have said that the fact that Buckingham Palace was hit allowed her to look the East End in the eye. And just as the home front was endured together people from all walks of life fought together from Malaya to the North Atlantic, made friends and became comrades. The NHS and the rest of the welfare state was our way of recognising that we had endured that we had endured that conflict together, rich and poor alike. In 1945 Churchill was unceremoniously turfed out of office in the general election and a Labour government started work on the welfare state, arguably the greatest political achievement of the last century, an extraordinary act in extraordinary times. I know the United States (apologies for the sweeping generalisation) likes to think of itself as a nation of rugged individualists forged in the revolution and the trek westwards and that has shaped the nation’s character. Well we have achieved our best through working together, not alone. Our struggle to build a better nation was a collective one. The NHS is our greatest monument to that principle. That’s why we love it. It treats us all the same, rich and poor alike, because no life is worth less than another despite a world apparently determined to act as though it is. Thank you for appreciating it. It’s there for our friends and guests too. How strange. Someone seems to have started slicing onions. TROLL alert !! “Our struggle to build a better nation was a collective one.” Thank you so much for this comment. Yep, we Americans are “all about the bootstraps.” Sadly, too many of our citizens can’t afford “boots” much less bootstraps. We’re too busy trying to protect what we have rather than taking a look around us and realizing that we too “could build a better nation” if we would only come together as one. Moosmom says: Here here , my British heart is as proud as yours . We brits do know what we have and most of us respect it greatly. The fact that it does not discriminate rich or poor makes me very very proud of our NHS . It’s an awful legacy which people pay for with their lives everyday. It’s 1941, it’s 2016 and a socialists ideal shouldn’t be the basis for whether you live or die. If it’s an awful legacy then why on earth is it consistently found in polls to be the thing of which Brits are most proud? We have great healthcare and we don’t have to worry about whether our insurance will pay out. Moreover it has been maintained by successive governments of both the left and right. Frank Ch. Eigler says: @Jonathan Kent: “why on earth is it consistently found in polls to be the thing of which Brits are most proud?” because it’s a major subject of propaganda? because they don’t have much of a choice? photoblogger says: Oh you’d rather live and die by free market capitalist rules, where insurance companies decide on your treatment? Utter bullshit. What you call “modernise” is really “make compatible with market fundamentalist capitalism”. The latter is responsible for the Greater Depression 2008-forever and is a complete, unrecoverable failure, to be scrapped ASAP (and have its adherents re-educated). Market fundamentalist capitalism (which often masquerades as “libertarianism” but is strangely reluctant to liberate the capitalist-owned means of production, distribution and exchange) must be trashed, wrecked and replaced by egalitarian socialism. I’ve just come back from Addenbrooke’s A&E in Cambridge – had really wonderful service there dippy1337 says: “obesity causes 30% of cancers” Could you provide a source/citation for this? I see research linking reduced activity* to health issues, which is different from linking obesity to health issues. Also, is that 30% of all varieties of cancers, or 30% of all instances of cancers? This statistic seems to be all kinds of problematic. Dr Gunter. Thank you. I so hope our government listen to. Sadly they seem to believe the only way to improve our still wonderful NHS is to give some of it’s funds to wealthy health care corporations to distribute to their wealthy shareholders. korhomme says: I can see the family resemblance! I trust your cousin is mending well. What you describe is what should happen most of the time in the NHS. Alas, politicians have got involved – particularly the Tories – and are intent in wrecking it with their neo-liberal market-driven ideology. But it’s still far better than anything the US has to offer, isn’t it? Sharon McCormick says: The vast majority of us DO love, appreciate & respect our NHS. Everyone I know who works in the NHS are very passionate & proud of it too. 😊 “To receive this care all my cousin had to do was provide her name and birthdate.” In the end, who paid? “Dear U.K., the NHS is awesome.” Based on only two anecdotes, that may be reaching. Willthebear says: I paid, as does anyone who pays National Insurance. A couple of weeks ago I was admitted with breathing difficulties. On that occasion, I relied on other people’s payments. I am fine with this as a system. Of course, all beneficiaries of a wealth transfer scheme are usually “fine with this as a system”. Julian Cavalier says: Next time come out with me (consultant level nurse practitioner) in my rapid response ambulance and see how we treat at scene- avoiding ED, hospital all together. We admit, prescribe, offer a full range of tests and diagnose. We see life threatening through to end of life. Complete autonomy and very positively received by all. DAVID ASHFORD says: It’s actually become worse for many in the US. The days of a $ 100 deductible for the ER are long gone. My wife works in medical diagnostics, and we get our coverage from her employer. Two years ago, we did have a $ 100 deductible for the ER, we had a $ 29 co-pay for our family physician, & $ 49 for a specialist. Now we have a $ 4000 deductible per person (up to a family maximum of $ 8000) that has to be satisfied before the insurance pays a penny. The last time I went to the doctor I was told that it might be an idea to have some tests done. I told the nurse who was going to schedule the tests that I couldn’t afford to have them done. She told me that the nurses at the practice and the hospital that ran the practice were in the same situation; they had all been moved to high deductible medical plans, and would not be able to afford the out of pocket expense in getting treated at the hospital group they worked for. KlokTok says: It is incredible what the staff of the NHS do for us all, despite the attacks on their funding and contracts. Imagine what could be done if the government were not trying desperately to make them fail, so that they have an excuse to privatise! I’m so glad to live in Scotland, where our NHS has a bit more protection than England’s, and is better funded and better preforming (despite Westminster’s constant attempts to force the situation otherwise). I honestly can’t imagine living in a country without social healthcare. I find it insane that the USA clings so strongly to their outdated and failed system of health for the wealthy. For 90k a year as an qualified doctor and 40k for a nurse, plus gold plated pension, never a minute worked that you don’t get paid for, cheap housing, cheap mortgages – bursary grants other students can only dream of, guaranteed pay rises regardless of your performance – and the knowledge that if anyone tries to take any of it away, you can go and strike and socialists will give you unconditional support. We are so lucky to have the staff who work in the NHS, all 1.5 million of them. (Shakes his head) What cheap housing, cheap mortgages? They don’t exist. Bursaries don’t exist any more either. Phil Woodford says: It’s great to see such positive support for the NHS from an American doctor. It is a fabulous system. The dubious presentations at ER are not really anything to do with education though. Of course, there are hypochondriacs and no amount of preaching is going to convince them they don’t need attention. And then there are a lot of genuine people who come up against the frustrations of the NHS. It is very hard to get a timely appointment with a GP. Services are overstretched, triaging over the phone is very officious, the appointment allocation system Kafkaesque. ER – or A&E, as we’d call it in Britain – is a way of circumventing all this. I say this because in defending the great principle of the NHS, it’s important to be honest about its shortcomings. I have quite a lot of sympathy for US-style individualism but I think it misses two really important points re. health care: First, healthcare is a public matter. One person’s choices affect other people. Recently there was a severe measles outbreak in Wales where people died, because over the last few years a lot of people had chosen not to have their children vaccinated against measles. It’s in ALL our interests for life-threatening and other illnesses not to be allowed to be widespread. Second, none of us (except legit billionaires) can be sure we can cover our own medical expenses. Serious, long-term illnesses can easily cost six, seven, eight figure sums over a life time. Thankfully, most of us will never need that sort of treatment, but we don’t know who will. That’s why we have insurance. In the US that’s private insurance, in the UK it’s national insurance (and, if people choose, private insurance on top of that). The choice is between private, for-profit insurers, or public, not-for-profit insurers. I know which I would rather trust to make decisions in the best interests of my long-term health. I broke my ankle while living in London but on holiday in Ireland. I had x-rays, diagnosis, back plaster cast (couldn’t get a full cast since I had to fly back from Ireland) and doctor note with instructions to get full cast as soon as I returned, given it was partially displaced and the back plaster cast was already on twice as long as it should have been… but when I got back to the UK, I was told I had to go back to A&E, after an hour and a half wait, I was told it would take two weeks before I could get an appointment at a fracture clinic to get a real cast. Fortunately I had private medical so was able to get seen more quickly. I imaging it’s better outside of London, but I for one regret paying National Insurance for unacceptable service when I actually needed it. Give me the US (pre Obamacare because I know things have changed since I have been living in the UK) where I would have been seen immediately and the cost really isn’t that much more when you take into account how much you pay in NI contributions annually! Noval says: How many years wait is there for a CT scan in the UK for a post-diagnosis cancer patient with a spot on her lung? And you say a US $100 co-payment is cruel? Rubbish. There is a maximum wt of 4-6 weeks ! Usually is within 2 weeks ! So the notion that there is years of wait in uk is rubbish! A friend of mine is still waiting for a consultation with oncologist 8 weeks after being told there is cancer ‘somewhere’. So it’s a lottery nhs Steve Dannell says: The major issue with the NHS is with lack of joined up thinking and underinvestment. I needed 3 different scans (ultrasound/MRI/CT I think) to try to get to grips with some pain I was getting in my stomach and other symptoms. 6 week wait for the first, a week to look at the scans, another 6 week wait for the second, 2 weeks to look at that, another 6 weeks for the third. 5 months later I get the all clear, had I had cancer, the wait might have killed me or at least meant I lost the benefit of catching it early. I’m sure the French would have done all 3 scans on the same day within 2 weeks. Also their IT systems are terribly inefficient. I’ve just missed an appointment with a specialist nurse because a letter went missing in the post. I asked the nurse who requested the appointment 3 days before whether there was anything on her system about it as I should have had notification, and despite the fact that the appointment was at my home surgery and they were notified a week before, it wasn’t on their system, apparently they only add it afterwards so when I looked online I couldn’t see it and neither could she. Get into the 20th or 21st century, book appointments by phone or email, and send email reminders if the patient consents. I’m very glad to have the NHS, but it’s not perfect. It frustrates me that it could be better. Jacqui Killick says: agreed….. I have a letter here dated 19th August, advising me of my CT scan booking on Sunday 4th September 7.40am Steve dannell, I work in the NHS and have been getting some information to help my brother in Law who sounds like he is being investigated for similar symptoms, the ultrasound, CT and MRI are looking for different things, and differential diagnosis both in US and UK will be look for the most likely cause, and rule it out then work down list of possible other causes. So do ultrasound first makes sense as if it had found what they had suspected you would not have need the others. I still think 3 x 6 weeks waits is too long, my BiL had something closer to 2 weeks, 1 week, 2 week, but what both of you have faced poor response in explaining what is happening and why. IT I agree with you, we wasted a fortune trying to end up with a single super system for all of England and should have just got on with putting in improved IT locally. Aran Woodfin says: First, read carefully, the patient was not post diagnosis cancer but awaiting new diagnosis as a previous cancer patient HUGE difference. Secondly, What on earth led you to believe that CT scans for something as almighty serious as cancer check would take a month let alone years through the NHS? No one I know of who has had experience of cancer has ever had to wait long and most definitely NOT even close to A year let alone years. And no cancer patient in this country has to be concerned about having to pay for any of their diagnosis or treatment at all, let alone beforehand. How would you feel having to cough up cash you don’t have while you cough up what might be your life? It is cruelty and people HAVE DIED for it!!! Your exaggeration makes me shudder because it is that kind of blithe disregard of context and perspective that sets the NHS in jeopardy from those who would prey on the sick to make profit. bri65 says: THANK YOU for correcting the bad information that “Noval” wants to peddle. That’s part of the con game run on the American people for decades. Those who fight tooth and nail against a rational system of health care for the U.S. lie with impunity, and too often their lies are taken up as gospel. It’s a two week wait maximum on the nhs for cancer diagnosis and treatments to start. I’ve recently been through it myself. Buttfarts says: Do tell, how many? 🙄 My mum waited 12 months for a cancer diagnosis for bowel cancer. She was losing weight and couldn’t keep good down. They said she wasn’t looking after herself and asked us not to bring her back. That’s the NHS I know. When I complained I was told “this sounds like we need to get our solicitors involved”. All I wanted was answers. IE Atkisn says: My husband when getting a check up for a constant cough and suspected lung cancer was sent for a CT scan almost immediately I suggest you get your facts right before such inane comments. ANY money when you have none IS cruel. Not everyone is well off and remember that America does not have unemployment and disabled benefits. Its a supposedly civilised country with very uncivilised practises. Just be bloody grateful for NHS. Rob Howard says: The United States absolutely does have unemployment benefits as well as disabled benefits. Penelope Casadesus says: YESSSS! Thabo Miller says: 2 weeks or less. There is a target that is religiously stuck to 2 weeks or less, once your doctor decides the chance of it being cancer is above a certain level and agrees to order the scan. Sadly, it can take months of repeat GP visits to convince the gp to do that, as my family sadly found out. I don’t blame the GP, as he told me afterwards he has a small budget and has to prioritise, but in another country like Australia, where money isn’t the same issue, the scan that showed the cancer would have been ordered months earlier. Susan Caldwell says: What a load of old cobblers, there is NEVER years of waiting for a CT scan in the UK. I’ve had 2, neither for suspected cancer and the longest I waited was 4 weeks for one and only 2 for the other. As another poster commented a scan is usually performed within 2 weeks if cancer is suspected. My youngest son had suspected bowel cancer and received an appointment within 3 days to see the consultant and 1 week for his scan and colonoscopy. My ex husbands 3rd wife has recently died from cancer in the US, actually she killed herself because she was terminal and they couldn’t afford any more treatment. Their insurance no longer covered her and they had sold everything including their home to pay for treatment. They even had to buy oxygen, she had lung cancer caused by working as a fire fighter on oil rigs and at home, no compensation was ever forthcoming. So before you slag off our NHS any further, ask yourself this; when have you ever heard of someone blowing their brains out in a motel room because they could no longer afford treatment and they where in agony in the UK. Bongo Wynne-Woodhouse says: wife has had a brain tumor, she has a scan once a year, if she is feeling unwell due to the problems it has she contacts her doctor at the neurological center who makes the request, it then takes 10 days or less, we would struggle to find this $100 co payment rubbish that YOURE advocatin, but please carry on, you seem to be doing so well over there….. Erm… It’s a 2 week wait? National guidelines? Is that ok? elfinkate says: You would likely be seen within two weeks if cancer was suspected. I recently had symptoms that suggested possible cancer and was seen within a week. 1 week wait in my experience. CT scan and biopsy done 7 days after my dad visited the GP. The results were given two days later. sheila pearson says: whilst this experience was shared(internet) at the same time there was another younger cousin (not a model) hidden away in a small room in a council house waiting to die from a recently diagnosed aggressivebrain tumour. query family communication/priority ??? Theresa Knott says: When I had suspected cancer I had “two week turn around” written on my notes answers@linkedin.com was guaranteed to get all scans and teats results within two weeks. People sometimes wait months for non urgent treatment like hip replacements but not for time sensitive stuff. Nigel Strudwick says: How about telling us about your sources for such a ridiculous statement? Or could it be the old “socialised medicine” paranoia? As commented, plenty of people cannot afford $100, be glad you can. I lived in the US for a number of years and was horrified to see people not getting treatment as they could not afford it, or benefit concerts for musicians who got cancer, etc. The most ridiculous comment is ever heard out there was, when I mentioned that musicians often had to raise money like this was “they should have considered their career choices”. Anchi says: I would be surprised taking into account the pre history off the example mentioned if she wouldnt be seen there and then ( as she was already at a hospital) it would be less than a week if not on the day For a ‘suspect cancer’, any cancer, anywhere, in any age group, the maximum wait allowable by government legislation is 2 weeks. And there is a drive now to make that 2 weeks to treatment so the scan would probably be within a few days. Any fairly of a service to meet this deadline is met with an investigation and financial penalties to the provider. I have never heard of the deadline being missed. And I have worked in the NHS for over a decade. Clearly $100 is nothing to you but it is a lot to many people both here in the UK and in The USA. Chris Hammond says: Possible cancer imaging is performed under a rapid access 2 week wait pathway. This includes follow up. What a great post. So nice to hear positive messages about our wonderful NHS. I have had cause to use the NHS on numerous occasions throughout my life (although thankfully rarely In an emergency). Recently I had to rush my elderly father to A&E with chest pains and breathlessness. We were of course seen immediately but what pleased me was the way the receptionist cut through the bureaucracy. Her words to me were, “I need a few details but I’ve got a triage nurse on her way now so don’t worry…” Absolutely fantastic. My father was having an ECG within 5 minutes of walking through the door. He made a full recovery after a few days in hospital by the way. I get so tired of hearing people complain about the NHS. We all know it’s not perfect but it’s pretty damn good! Hey, if you want we can do a ouija board and tell my mum that. 6 times we took her to a&e, six times they pushed her back out home. It was only once I got really rude with them that they did what they should have done and made a diagnosis. Bowel cancer, we had been taking her to a&e for 12 months (the 6 times), the NHS admitted if she had been dealt with quicker she’d have survived – if that was a car I’d be wanting the head of the mechanic who screwed up – but in the NHS you don’t even get a sorry. This has nothing to do with underfunding or the government, this was the staff and their lax approach. It isn’t holly city I there, the staff don’t give two figs and if it’s near to home time you have no chance of getting anyone to step up. This isn’t isolated, the problem is that the naysayers are discredited on sites like this by the army of NHS and socialist supporters who see the idea of the NHS and the gravy that comes with it as more important than any patient. I’ve never met anyone who has had a good experience with the NHS, yet I come on here and various people describe a health service I have never seen. As a general rule it takes 3 weeks to see a gp, 3 months to get a referral and if you get an appointment lasting more than 5 minutes it’s a miracle. A&E is a place where you can wait 5 hours despite there being no activity what so ever. Staff hanging around, talking and laughing. Getting anyone at the NHS to take any responsibility is impossible and the devolved trusts make that harder too, the governors of hospitals are out of touch and when I tried to engage unobtainable. In short they aren’t interested in the patient, we exist so they can pay themselves on the back. I pay 4K a year for this. It’s not worth 4 pounds. Don’t forget we were paying the Yankee for 50 years they said it was for them helping us in the war ?well the Germans had a real good time in Us ports sinking your ship they called it the Happy time? Then the Japanese took out most of your ships then and only then did the US decide to come into the war so we had been fighting for years before thatwas helping them realy. The Russians told the US it was the US war as well as Russian. And they paid nothing to you. But our lads were getting killed for nearly two years befor the Us decided to come in then for the firs year while our lads were still being killed fighting Germans , Italians, and and Japanese while the gi was living it up here in England one reason we had no money after the war and on top of that paying money to you for a war that was yours and ours the Yankee did very well out of this war that’s why they have rockets now and also plans and other things for aircraft they stole from Germany any way I hope everything turned out OK for you margaret Diamond says: Here Here on that! Yes the Germans did not have to pay war reparations after the war…. in fact they had their country rebuilt by other nations. The Brits had to repay – after the war – the cost of the armaments which had been sent by the US while they – the Brits – were the only ones fighting the Germans. I think the cost of the war ….to the Brits …was something like $6,000,000 a day but I may be wrong on that. From an almost 90 year old who lived in the UK during WW2. jim beam says: Wrong: Germany paid billions! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_reparations_for_World_War_II Ruck Foster says: I agree, the Anericans acted selfishly, late and without any concern about their allies. Their claimed development of the Atom bomb was a lie, the concept was put in place at Birmingham University in 1937 and the accelerated development was by German scientists smuggled out of Penemunde and other German sites into the USA. Britain paid for the “lend – lease” programme for more than 30 years whilst Gremany, under the “Marshall Plan” was rebuilt at no cost, the same in Japan. Although living in Australia, I grew up in the UK in the 1940 – 1950s where the NHS struggled for funding because of the payments to the USA. We are now in a position where Americans generally, have little or no knowledge (or care) about the rest of the world with most thinking that they “own” it! To be honest I also have seen both sides I was taken to one Hospital and no one saw me for two days so I got dressed and started to go home then Doctors sergion and nerses and matrons seem to come out of the wood work to try to get me to stop in. And the next time a few months later I was put in Bolton Royal Hospital within two days they had done tests put a camera into me sent me through two scanners like big washing machines then told me they couldn’t find anything wrong with my heart but they found two small stones in my Pancreas they took them out and the small stones that I saw on the camera pictures turned out to be as big as base balls all this was done in two days of going in? So I have seen the bad and the good. How is this barely coherent mess relevant to the post? Do you pay any attention to what is appearing in the screen as you type? Over half your comment is a single sentence. If you want people to take you seriously, learn basic concepts such as punctuation and sentence structure. ladybirdathome says: I think you are on the wrong thread, unless the Russians are going to take over the NHS? All of which has absolutely nothing to do with how the NHS is funded, nor how fantastic it is! Maybe I’ve missed your point?! .. add to that millions of slaves who worked for free .. Sandy Robertson says: What’s any of this got to do with a post about how good the NHS is? lifeofabionicwoman says: Really interesting, sounds like you’ve had great experiences with the NHS. Those wheelchairs are all over the UK and a pest! I’ve got friends in America who say they oppose free health care there because they refuse to pay for those who suffer from addictions or the unemployed. Which makes no sense to me. We do pay for the NHS via our tax, as it should be. Also inyerstingly all medical care is free in Scotland, which is a different NHS to England. Prescriptions and dental check ups etc. There is a big difference between the NHS in England to here (Scotland), I have Avascular Necrosis in way to many joints – I waited 3 weeks from when I told my surgeon at 26 I wanted a hip replacement to getting it – people in England walk about with a collapsed femoral head for 2 years plus. A friend in Chicago bought glucose testing strips here for £18 (she would have gotten them free if she was Scottish), costs her over $200 at home. Which is insane. I hope one day America figures out a better way – because as your story suggests with the copays there must be people dying. Also – worth pointing out that a lot of people visit the ED out of normal GP working hours. And I’ve had xray’s booked over the phone – this may just be Scotland though. GlasgowRose says: 2 years ago, here in the US, I was diagnosed with MS. After having a severe allergic reaction to the first medication, that required hospitalization for anaphylaxis shock, my doctor prescribed a different infusion medication. My insurance company (an accountant or clerk probably), refused to cover the treatment. Without insurance, this would cost me $5,200, every other week. After 4 months of plodding through the absolute hell that is dealing with insurance companies here… Appeals, denials, paperwork, 2nd & 3rd opinions, etc… I was lucky enough to be approved by the pharmaceutical company to get the medication I needed at no cost. I still had to pay for the day long process of the infusion which was almost $800, every other week, for months. I received NO treatment for those months and my MS got dramatically worse. Over the course of 18 months of treatments, no treatments, hospitalizations, PT, OT, and in home visits for steroid infusions, I spent every penny of my savings & retirement savings and racked up insurmountable debt. Those 18 months cost me almost $80,000. But I was “lucky!” I had savings and retirement funds. I have a large family that helped me and a group of friends who held fundraisers for me. I have family in Scotland, have been there many times and seen how the NHS works there. Someone complained about the “supposed” amount of time to wait for procedures… 4 MONTHS with NO treatment at all because of the US system. No one should have to hold raffles in order to receive needed medical treatment! I apologize for the lengthy and rambling nature of my comment. Because my MS worsened so much while not being treated, it now affects me cognitively and I don’t communicate as well as I used to. The NHS is something to be enormously grateful for. The alternative here is a hellish, system that financially ruins those who can pay for it, and kills off those who can’t! Absolutely, most bankruptcies in the US are related to medical care. I have had expenses that are comparable to an average income. I have only avoided bankruptcy due to saving since my 20s. This is for Margaret but for some reason it won’t let me reply to her so I’m replying to message above hers: That “research” that showed that most bankruptcies were related to medical expenses was garbage. What they actually showed is that most bankruptcies involved at least one medical bill. That’s hardly news. A Google search for “percent of bankruptcies due to medical bills” lists a number of studies. I have read through some of them and don’t find the same “garbage” that you do. Here’s a recent article from The Wall Street Journal on a study by a researcher at Northeastern University in Boston. http://blogs.wsj.com/bankruptcy/2015/07/01/the-future-of-personal-bankruptcy-in-a-post-obamacare-world/ Here’s a highlight from his research: “Massachusetts residents who file for bankruptcy protection these days have way less medical debt compared to the rest of the country. The typical Massachusetts person or couple who filed in 2013 had $3,041 in medical debt, while people everywhere else had an average of $8,594 in medical debt. In fact, he found that Massachusetts is the only state where medical debt isn’t the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. (A loss of income is the No. 1 reason, he found.)” Katkimjac says: Reblogged this on Welcome to Katkimjac's Space and commented: NHS rise again, and to the British government stop trying to mess it up! Heather Barber says: The only education provided to our young people about driving in the UK is at most one session where the police come and speak to yr 11 pupils about not texting/not drinking. There is no driver ed provided in school; all driving lessons (and tests) are paid privately by the young person, or probably their parents. Also whereas the NHS may work quickly in an emergency, or for a life threatening situation,you wait many weeks for routine appointments Bob go and stick your head up your ass if you want to talk like that I’ll give it you back also I was writing this on iPad if you to you , writes what it wants I did try to edit it but it wouldn’t let me so now piss off arsshole l worked with 22 SAS and the 101st Us airborne and the 6 th Gurkha Rifles and even when crush Malaya was on the Indo Chinese never tried to talk down to us Your writings are evidence against the effectiveness of the NHS’ ability to properly care for the mentally infirm. Get off the internet and onto your meds. >”l worked with 22 SAS and the 101st Us airborne and the 6 th Gurkha Rifles” That’s no credit to your writing or thinking ability. Yvonne Van Heerden says: Correct, the emergency care is second to none BUT routine appointments you wait anything from a couple of weeks to several months and it is in this instance that the NHS falls extremely short of the mark. What I find disgusting is that I was born in England BUT because I married someone with a vaguely sounding foreign surname, reception staff in particular regard you as immigrants in the UK for the health care. I now carry my birth certificate, and passport with me just to prove a point and always make a point of noting the duty manager’s name and contact number should I need it because this lessons in manners and not to jump the gun still have to be hammered home quite frequently!!! Don’t worry, it’s just as crap if you have a British sounding surname. Your passport and birth cert. don’t matter, the criterion for NHS non-emergency coverage is legal permanent residence in the EU/EEA , not UK citizenship. The best document to carry is an EHIC card , https://www.gov.uk/european-health-insurance-card , even within the UK. A UK driver licence older than 6 months will do, too. All NHS England hospitals (except A&Es) are now supposed to ask you about NHS eligibility, regardless of your appearance or surname. But I’ve never been asked for documents. I’ve waited weeks for routine specialist/GP appointments here in the States. What’s your point? Ann Weston says: I had Blue Sheild PPO coverage (the best you can get from Blue Shied) in the Silicon Valley of California a few years ago. This area is hardly an unpopulated or under-serviced area for medicine. Their doctor directory for a GP was 10 pages of names, the first 6 pages of names/addresses were not accepting any new patients. The next 4 pages had no GP with less than an 8 week wait to see a new patient (for any reason). Then even that doc had a 2 hour backlog of patients, (meaning you got there for your appointment and waited 2 hours), and then were seen for 15 minutes before being told that is all the time they have. Complete garbage, and it costs a pretty penny to get even that much. HMO’s like Kaiser are better at this sort of thing and dealing with your coverage (because they don’t work their GPs like rented mules and every department is interconnected). But unless you live in a metropolitan area, even this can go badly. We pay 5x the international developed world price for this care and it still sucks. Chris Rogers says: Dear Ms. Gunter, Glad you appreciate the UK’s NHS, which is a marvel to behold, and is indeed replicated in quite a few nations, among them Hong Kong, who’s own Health Sevice is very much like that it the UK, as is the obvious want of repair/updating of many premises. Having had the benefit once of health care insurance, I used it a few times, but eventually worked out that public provision hospitals were superior to pay hospitals, that is the service itself was/is superior and at a far lower cost burden than anything the private sector can offer. Hence, it was with sadness that Bernie Sanders was denied running for the US Presidency, for its likely, had he won, you chaps too State-side would finally moved to a comprehensive and free at the point of service health care system. Again, many thanks for highlighting that the UK, despite serious cash shortfalls, has a great health service, one that cares about the patient and not their wallet, which I, and many millions are hugely proud of and will defend to our last breath as they say. UKFX says: What you fail to realise is that we don’t dislike our NHS but we are frustrated with how it used to be compared to how it now. Fewer hospitals, fewer doctors and nurses, fewer open A&E departments, increased waiting times. But it’s not just that, it’s the fact that almost half of new NHS contracts have been given to private health companies. Many politicians have stakes in said private health care companies. How can we trust that the NHS isn’t going to end up completely privatised in 20 years time when we already know that most politicians lie and some of them have shares in said private healthcare companies? Virgin already has its claws in the NHS and millions of patient medical records were given to Google for their Deep Mind project. If you lived in this country and stopped comparing it to other healthcare systems, you too would be immensely angry with the way the NHS is heading. Tons of A&E (ER) departments have been closed, as the cost of people’s lives. Women have given birth outside of A&E departments because they were not allowed in. Maternity units have been closed. NHS managerial staff (which is said to have been in overabundance for years and a huge waste of money) being fired get paid ludicrous paypackets (sometimes in the millions) only to be hired again later with outlandish salaries. Many high tier staff in the NHS get luxury accommodation, dining and travel expenses, all paid for by the tax payer. This has been uncovered before but has anything been done about it? No. GP surgeries have not grown with the population and the changes required by the people. To get an appointment at my local doctor surgery, I have to walk there and wait outside for it to open at 8am to ask on the day for appointment. You can ring at 8am, but the chances of getting through while everyone else is calling is very, very slim. What do older people do? Walk long distances to get an appointment that could be set 5 hours later? What about in Winter? Not only this but in both GP surgeries and hospitals, temporary staff is running rampant. Foreign loocums with poor English paid outlandish daily rates because the Government doesn’t want to hire English staff in permanent placements. The NHS is going to hell and as Type 1 Diabetic which had naively been generalised along with Type 2 Diabetics, I’ve seen my healthcare be limited because overweight people have drastically increased the strain and financial burden on the NHS. My Diabetes is autoimmune, not insulin resistance (which is so common mostly due to obesity). I am aware Type 2 Diabetes can exist without being overweight, as genetic precursors can do almost anything, but overweight people have spiralled Type 2 Diabetic number because fat acts as a hormone which reduces the effectiveness of insulin. Type 1 is very different. Why must I be limited because a bunch of fatties ruined it for others? It’s easy for someone to have a few good encounters with the NHS to sing praises about it and to tell people to stop complaining, but you don’t have the right. You haven’t seen how things have changed. You havent seen the plethora of closures and cost cutting. The shortages of nursing staff. The foreign replacements, (some of which are ridiculously rude and careless). You can praise what you want but you can’t tell what to do when you know almost nothing about what goes on in the background. Greed is why the NHS is dying and because many big businesses in the UK pay zero tax (of which would easily cover the annual NHS costs) the NHS is in huge debt and is no where near as advanced as it could be. Greed is why many people die. Greed is why US hospitals suck. Greed is why families fall on hard financial times. It cost money to walk into the ER in the US. Your country is a joke as is ours and is greed is the root of all its problems. As an overpaid gynecologist you probably understand nothing about what I’ve written above. Dee Bliss says: As the the mother of a daughter with Type II diabetes, I am beyond disgusted by your ignorant comment “Why must I be limited because a bunch of fatties ruined it for others?” My daughter has suffered physically and emotionally from this disease for approx 15 yrs. You’re no martyr just because you have Type I diabetes. No one in their right mind would choose to have Type II diabetes. I’m glad that the medical profession doesn’t share your attitude. Here in Canada she is getting excellent care at no additional charge. I say “additional” because I have been paying taxes for exactly this type of universal health care for more than 40 years. I didn’t say ALL Type 2 Diabetics were fat. I have sympathy towards those who have a genetic tendency towards type 2 Diabetes, but obesity has drastically increased the number of Type 2 Diabetics on the face of this earth, by a massive number – there is simply no denying that. It has been proven that excessive weight reduces insulin sensitivity and can trigger Type 2 Diabetes. So before crying victim and defending your daughter, realise that what I’m trying to say is that many cases of Type 2 diabetes wouldn’t exist if people looked after their health and weight better and therefore such cuts to certain equipment may never have happened (or Diabetes health care may be better in general). Read things properly before you moan at people you dumb Canadian. I have an autoimmune disease. Also, I’m in the UK and I am talking about the NHS, not Canadian healthcare systems. Again, read first before you comment. I have removed the insults from your reply. That’s not acceptable. Please don’t do that again or I will spam your comments and they won’t show up again. It is possible to disagree and also be civil Excuse the typos. Was typing on a smartphone. You have some interesting comments there, just a couple I wanted to reply to: Closing A and E departments, this is something people care very much about, but as and senior clinician who has been both an A+E charge nurse, patient safety lead and risk manager I can tell you that the reason we have less ( but larger A+Es) and smaller A+Es got closed or merged was for very good evidenced based safety reasons. The simple truth is that as we have improved our ability to treat patients with more complex treatments we need to ensure our care settings 1) Getting the patient throughput to be safe, a small A+E seeing only around 20-30k patients per year could not sustain the skill sets in its clinical staff to be fully safe, this is very true with paeds and rarer problems, if you only see one septic child a year your just not going to be as quick of the mark or as practiced as staff in larger centres who may see 1 a month or more. That’s why we shut small departments all the evidence said it was harming people. 2) The new gold standards of treatment need massive 24hour infrastructure and incredible levels of specialist expertise avaliable 24/7, that the small acutes hospitals and A+Es just can not provide. When I started in A+E if you had a stroke there was little we could do, now we can treat you with clot busting drugs, but to do it you need 24hour instant access to CT and the consultant to initiate the treatment, that can only be provided in a larger unit. Small units just can’t sustain the 24 hour immediate access to senior clinical staff. Another example is how we treat heart attacks, 10 years ago we gave you a clot busting drug that could be delivered in any A+E, now standard treatment is immediate primary angioplasty (major surgery on the blood vessels supplying the heart muscles) but for that you need 24 hour access to a consultant level vascular surgeon who specialises in heart surgery and a whole angio suite on call and ready to go immediately. As for a the lack of professional staff, this is very much about the demand of a modern health system for more and more qualified staff. Entry to nursing is now degree level, most specialist nurses or practioners will have a post grad qualification or masters), consultants are now so specialised that you may only have a few hundred in the country focused on a particular speciality. The more advanced and better we get the more demand we have for higher and higher qualified staff. Just think we need around half a million qualified nurses to run the NHS, each takes 3-4 years and a degree to qualify at the most basic level, every one of them need to have further educated constanty through their working lives just to stay current at a basic level. But we need significant numbers to go on and do masters etc….. Every one of them will also need to accept that they will work in a profession that pays only an average wage and can break you physically and emotionally. We need nurses from across the world because we just can’t work out how to pursued the number of bright people we need (to keep the half a million workforce) that going to uni and training for three years to qualify, then spending your work life doing shifts, see people suffer, getting PTSD from the images in stuck in your head, having pain from a damaged neck and maybe just maybe being human, making a mistake, killing someone and living with it forever, is all worth 22-28k a year……it is worth it all, but it’s very much a damed hard to sell to a clever talented 18 year old. So please bless the staff who come to work for our NHS, they could go to the states and earn 2-4 times what we pay them. The truth is our county could afford to pay more into the NHS, but we the tax payers make the choice to vote for politicians who keep the funding of the NHS lower than all comparable healthcare systems. The NHS manages because of the dedication of the clinical and support staff and the skill and knowledge of those senior managers you seem to dislike ( my CEO is responsible for a budget of around a billions pounds and the healthcare of almost a million people, he earns less that 150k a year and will be dismissed if he fails to achieve all his quality and financial benchmarks) . We do make the NHS work with the money we have by keeping staff pay as low as we can and being as focused as we can on up stream healthcare (primary and community), which is the most efficient way of supporting good health. I agree with what you’re saying and I understand, but closures could have and should have been avoided because demand needs to coincide with demand from a growing population. More money could have been put in, but wasn’t. Hospitals and GP surgeries are, as you already know, overflowing. The money is there, yet it’s not being put in the right places. Yes you’re right, the people are to blame. I was furious when the Tories got voted in a second time. Those savers and penny pinchers voted them in for their own selfish reasons. However now, there is a campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn, which I honestly think (once you see past all of the propaganda online and in the news) that he is the last hope for everyone in this country – treating everyone as one. Of course, if you treat everyone the same, many heartless, selfish, poisonous people will see that it doesn’t align with their agenda and will chose someone else. People are people. They are no different from anyone else. There is no person above or below another. It’s this kind of primitive thinking which plagues the civilised world. I dislike managerial staff because it’s been said repeatedly that there is an overabundance of them and they cost a huge amount of money. I couldn’t care less if he earns less than 150K. Is this a sob story? That’s a ludicrous sum of money for someone handling the books, whereas Nurses, as you’ve already pointed out earn a paltry sum. This is part of the problem in this world, stature/position defines the money earned, not the effort or skill that is required in a job. “Keeping staff pay as low as we can”. Wrong. You lower the pay of all the important workers, while keeping grossly inflated salaries for those at the top. Just like a business or a bank. It is not the most efficient way of supporting good health. If they lowered everyones salary by a smaller amount across the NHS, it would be far less damaging to workers and the NHS as a whole. Of course some variation to that would be needed, as a blanket approach wouldn’t be a great idea, but you see where I’m going with this. It has to be fair for all, not just a select bunch. I don’t care if Mr. Less-Than-150K isn’t getting his fill, but that is a disgusting sum of money to earn on an annual basis, when so many people across this country, both in and outside of the NHS, do far more difficult tasks. You almost sound as if you’re defending the crown against peasantry. But hold on a moment? You’re from overseas. You type as if you work within the NHS, in which case this page is self-serving. Do you live in the UK or in the US? What’s the deal? Perhaps I missed something? Well argued and said UK/FX Greed yes, but it’s the greed of the staff and their refusal to modernise. In short they are killing their own sacred cow. Outsourcing is the only way to circumnavigate the militant and disruptive staff. I’m all for it. Do you work for “sir” Richard Branson, Chris? Or for the Koch Bros? Everything you write sounds as if you’re a paid propagandist (shill) for profiteers and exploiters. Modernising to fit predatory, exploitative capitalism is a waste of time. What’s neede is to wreck and scrap it, replacing it by socialism. @gegenbeispiel “as if you’re a paid propagandist (shill) for profiteers and exploiters” Stop making me love profiteers and exploiters. Frank: judging by your comments here, you’re definitely in bed with profiteers and exploiters already. Whether it’s a loveless or loving relationship is a matter of complete indifference to me. I’ve just read this and your previous piece having been reblogged. I’m delighted your experiences of the NHS were positive, as are most of mine and most people’s in the UK . I was reminded of a number of things. About four years ago at a conference in the US I went for dinner with a number of people and an American started to relate a story about visiting London and his young daughter suffering a head injury on a barge stop at Camden locks on a Saturday evening. Those of us from this side of the pond were waiting for a horror story and getting our excuses ready. In fact we heard a tale of efficiency, speed and good care and allowed the mum to stay in the children’s unit over night. Like you he wondered about payment, checking his credit card limits etc. When he was told there was no charge he was staggered. The negative propaganda about the NHS often trotted out in the US and parts of Europe is simply untrue in my experience. Yes the system is under pressure in the south East because of population growth and other factors but in general it works pretty well. A point not often made is the economic benefits to the country, reducing people’s fears about provision, helping employment mobility and reducing the cost of employment. Most people in the US would be better off with an NHS. And before anyone asks I am not in healthcare Why wasn’t the American family charged? The NHS isn’t supposed to be free for US citizens? I don’t mean to be rude- I was just under the impression that people outside the EU had to pay to use our health system, is that not the case? commandermaxil says: afaik, they do pay, but the fee is very small, especially in comparison to american costs. im happy to be corrected, but that’s my understanding of the current protocol. i also think emergency medical care — say, if you were hit by a car — is either free or heavily subsidised Nick Cooper says: NHS emergency care for non-UK residents is free and always has been. Treatment for a pre-existing condition will be charged if there is not reciprocal agreement with the patient’s home country, but it will invariably be far cheaper than in the latter. NHS prices are significantly lower than those charged for the same procedures in the US. NHS EMERGENCY treatment is free to all. In this case, funding streams are hotel taxes, air passenger charges, VAT on restaurant meals, etc. That’s true whether the provider is a hospital A&E, ambulance or GP. Non-emergency treatment for non-EEA or Swiss residents is charged, since 2015, with a 50% markup. Danikat says: My understanding is that emergency care is free to everyone, and follow-up care is free at the point of use with a claim to your insurance company or a bill to you later on. Unlike the US system where you’ll be asked for a ‘copayment’ (upfront fee) as soon as you arrive in A&E (before they take any details or begin the examination), which seems to be at least $100, just to ensure they’ve got something out of you in case your insurance won’t cover the treatment. Helen Frisby says: Couldn’t agree more … We have this amazing healthcare don’t abuse it .. Take care of it and and all its brilliant staff as they do you ! obesitynation1 says: Your lucky you didn’t go to North Middlesex Hospital. If your cousin went there, she would have definitely went home in a coffin. Patients are very lucky, if they get seen within 12 hours, and when they are seen, the service is worse than a third world country hospital. ED doc says: It’s a challenging environment to work in. Frequently >900 patients/ day through the door, and higher acuity patients than any other hospital I’ve worked. Agree it is not perfect, but unfortunately what happens there happens everywhere – just not plastered over the media. I believe it will improve, the measures are being put in place. The staff there really are some of the best, they are just overstretched and burnt out. Also, nobody ever died of a sprained ankle, so I doubt her sister would have died. If you honestly think that serice there is worse than in a third world country, then you’ve obviously never been a patient in a government hospital of a third world country like the Philippines. Harrt says: Couldn’t she have gone to A&E or a Walk-in centre, she would’ve been seen without making an appointment then Found this after a friend posted a link on Facebook. I think you’ve misunderstood something. You say non-emergency care isn’t the best use of the ER. It’s not the ER here. It’s A&E: accident and emergency. It’s fine to go to A&E with an injury that needs an x-ray, though personally I live near a hospital with a minor injuries clinic and would go there instead. You mention people who turn up for things that aren’t urgent and how a user fee would fix that. That is just not how we roll here. Actually, if you read the piece again, the author was advocating NOT going with any user fee because they really don’t work in the US. She had been asked, by people at A&E because she was an American and a doctor, if, as has been suggested, such fees might work. And her cousin was taken to the injuries clinic. In USA ER is A&E, just different language. People go to ER in just the same way as we go to A&E but with more paperwork, and a bill at the end. Waiting rooms more or less the same mix of different degrees of ill & injured and people UK or USA need to learn what options there are for seeking medical help. GPs too need same sort of tirage/option menu for people because they are being stretched by trivialities that, because there are fewer doctors now, are an underuse of their skills. You are their perfect patient because you would head to the right place and you are lucky it is an option you have nearby. Dr Gerber actually advocates NOT instigating a user fee because it doesn’t work effectively in US, at all. It has been seriously suggested, by Hunt circles in government if I remember, that a fee be charged and that is why the author was asked about it when she talked to people as she & her cousin went through the process. While I sincerely hope we don’t change our roll, the NHS is under the worse threat it has ever faced partly because people are even talking about fees at all. Apologies, can’t find edit. Dr Gunter. Sorry. rharrisonauthor says: Had a similar experience with my son when visiting family. The cost didn’t even come up to the deductible. Asi Zer says: To me I’m not quite happy with the NHS. The health practitioners are most of the time not competent, just as examples,every time they have to check in their books and even though they give wrong medications,last time the nurse didn’t even know how to write gelatine on her laptop to check!!! Something online. The appointments are too far. Very often they treat you like if you’re asking for charity if you ask the GP for a refferal letter despite the fact that both me and my husband are tax payers. I twisted my ankle last year and unfortunately my friend had a brokend ankle at the same time.We called the ambulance and we’ve been waiting for it about 2 hours until a friend of her drived us to the A&E and I can promise you,it didn’t take neither 10 nor 15 minutes but about 2 hours at least. Most of the people I know are complaining from HIS,I wonder how can someone be so happy with it. They check in books because medication is changing all of the time, and differs from individual to individual. Would you rather they guessed just to look good?! Perspective is how someone can be so happy with it. Emergency care here in the USA is expensive, and there’s usually a long wait. 2 hours would be short for some ERs. Think about how bad ours must be if we won’t shut up about how awesome yours is, flaws and all. I know people who have died because they didn’t have the money to see a doctor. I don’t think the NHS is perfect. But I think it’s better. I think that shooting for perfection is hurting us. We say, “Oh, it’s not perfect, so why bother doing it?” Then we do nothing and nothing gets better. People aren’t willing to try something to improve our system. The ACA was a good idea, but it was hamstrung by a Congress who want it to fail, so that they don’t have to fix our broken system. Now they can say, “Well we tried, and it failed.” Then go back to letting people die for want of a routine well check. ‘the nurse didnt even know how to write gelatine’ this may shock you, but it’s the 21st century, and people with spelling difficulties, language disabilities and dyslexia are allowed to be a part of society. i can only type properly because of spell check, and even then it’s difficult. they have to check their books because that is protocol. they literally have to do that. it’s a basic rule of patient care. louloureads says: I’m sorry that you feel the NHS has let you down. A twisted ankle is not really a fantastic reason to ring an ambulance or attend an emergency department, though, so this isn’t really the best example of poor care. As your post indicates that you had access to a friend with a car, perhaps that would have been a better place to start? Ambulances are for medical emergencies. I imagine that the reason it didn’t turn up promptly is because it was diverted to a severe asthma attack, a road traffic accident, a cardiac arrest, or something else life-threatening. The same with taking 2 hours to be seen in the ED. (I recently waited 1.5 hours for an ambulance after suffering from a head injury with temporary loss of consciousness–I was told to ring an ambulance by 111. They rang me regularly while I was waiting to check that my condition wasn’t getting worse, and I believe they were diverted to an emergency, hence the delay). Also, we double-check medications etc in formularies prior to administering them in case of prescription error, interactions with other medications, or other contraindications to administration. These vary from patient to patient and it would be impossible for anyone to learn every interaction/side-effect/dose per kg for every medication. I’m glad you’ve seen such good practice so often. It would be terrible to be on the receiving end of a drug error just because a nurse was embarrassed to check a dose. Having read back what I’ve written, I have assumed that you knew from the off that your ankle was twisted rather than broken. Your post does suggest that, but of course if you thought it was broken an ED or walk-in centre would be appropriate. Perhaps not quite life-threatening enough for an immediate ambulance, though! Great post and probably one of the few people on here who has told the truth. Lucy Elliott says: The Nhs is great. I was treated by the same hospital in Sunderland for over 11years for severe glue ear. And thanks to their care I did not lose my hearing which was the alternative. Their orthodontic dept sorted out my overbite with the minimum of fuss. Both problems are things my parents would never have been able to afford to be treated otherwise. We must fight for our nhs. Major Smoke says: So, England has what, 38m people? Their budget is shared with Europe and much of their security is provided for by NATO? They benefited from hundreds of years slavery, imperialism, pillaging of the entire worlds resources and through their egregious interference throughout the world created the conditions for both WWI AND WWII….they tax everything at 17.5% every time it’s sold and tax both sides of the transaction (which makes it really a 34% tax) and they charge insanely high road taxes and even tax your right to watch television on pain of imprisonment for failure to pay. The government gobbles up so much tax money that much of the population is forced to live in tiny homes, use public transportation because they can’t afford cars and spend their lives in garish drudgery and helplessness knowing they will never live any better than their parents….and likely far worse. But, hey….healthcare is free. I lived there 3 years. Under NHS my wife nearly lost 2 children due to virtually untrained and/or foreign doctors nearly killing them due to absolutely inane, unsafe practices taken straight out of the 1950s, Orwellian procedural requirements that leave the patient without appeal and filthy hospitals rife with disease and infection. I myself would have been forced to live for a year with a serious hernia due to intolerably incomprehensible wait lists had I not had the financial means to go private and get the same surgery the next day with the same doctor! The NHS literally told me to go home for a year to wait it out! Anyone who has been there for more than a short vacation knows how difficult it is to accomplish any task once NHS employee union mandated tea time hits…and suddenly all employees literally just leave….regardless of the situation, to go have a cuppa. (What? You’re newborn is bleeding and you cant stop the blood loss? Don’t worry, well be back in 30….minutes.) This happened! Emergency rooms are filthy, blood spattered, dirty and often under neverending construction. Doctors and medical personnel don’t use sharps precautions or gloves and often go from patient to patient with blood and bodily fluids on their hands and clothes spreading disease. Wait times are ungodly. If you’ve heqrd of Canadian NHC wait times get ready for some truly mind boggling waits as NHS times often extend into years even for brain cancer. Pregnancy wards are shared with large groups of women and there is no privacy unless you pay for a private room. Strangers will wander into the wards gaping at women as they change and women have no redress. If they dont have your birthing room ready, no muss no fuss, you can just have it in the hall or elevator, they dont mind (watch your step). Mental patients are free to disrobe and walk the streets nude in frigid weather (pun intended) as employees charged with caring for those patients get their mandated tea breaks and nevermind the result…(sorry, we lost your mum, dont worry, the police found her on the M1…there were a few inappropriate gender violations but I’m sure she’ll be fine… eventually). Oh, and their doctors are sk well trained that they only have to go to school for five years….that’s undergraduate included…(though standards may vary as many get their degrees in former colonies such as Pakistan, India, Indonesia…but I’m sure the standards are the same….dont be racist!) But since I went there…let’s march onward. If you are not white, English and a member of the upper crust then you don’t get the same treatment. Ask any Pakistani, Indian or North African about thier experiences…anyone of color is treated as subhuman. As a Mexican my wife has darker skin than many Africans. Because of this she was often confused as being Pakistani and as a direct result was spoken to and treated often as a dog by pugnacious, ill-mannered, racist staff to the point that she was often told to go back to Pakistan if she didn’t like it how they treated her or our children. If she spoke up they would send security to try to humiliate her into silence. Oh, and with cameras in every hall and corner you can feel safe and secure as strange men view you from central security offices downtown…dont worry, they would never record your most intimate, vulnerable moments and put them online…it would violate their standards and practices and may result in a warning (oh, and it has been so effective at halting terror attacks…or rather, ensuring you get ticketed for parking violations.) Everyone knows you need extra video cameras inside hospitals to ensure you cue appropriately and don’t complain about mistreatment. Last not least, don’t forget about doctor death who killed hundreds of his patients without the NHS ever having caught on despite the literally hundreds of complaints against him, or that nurse who killed off the elderly for decades…or any of the other numerous murderers practicing their trade of death within the NHS over the decades….the NHS caught them…..eventually (or was that the Royal Police?). 3 years under the NHS and every day I thanked God and my embassy that I had the option to go private once I could show that NHS practices did not conform to military standards of care (which everyone knows are quite low). Of course I had to go through the NHS circus each time we needed care but in ALL cases we ended up going private care to get our healthcare because at NO TIME did the NHS ever offer better care or support. Oddoy enough, private care was with the very same doctors but when they are paid more than just 10lb Stirling per month per client suddenly their behavior (and the wait time) improves. Oh, and before I forget, even Mexican National healthcare has higher standards and practices then the British NHS and most Mexicans will agree that American healthcare is way better. I can say this because I lived there too and so has my wife who was raised there and is of Mexican origin. She hates British NHS. Their system is well and truly broken and does NOT provide a high standard of care. Instead, it minimalizes human beings down to mere numbers and costs and ensures that those who exceed the maximum allowable treatment cost…die. Don’t believe the hype. Nor should people believe the diatribes. Gilgamesh Jones says: Uneducated bollocks. Yes, USA healthcare is better…for those who can afford to pay! Of course some of the issues you list are true. I recently had to go private for something as I moved a couple miles and my new area refused treatment I’d had for years from my old GP. But it’s mostly due to the governmental gradual privatisation, closing A&Es, too many overpaid managers, but I find it hard to square my experience of our NHS with the notion that it’s a racist organisation who treats those of colour badly – you only have to walk into any hospital to see patients and staff of every race and colour. At the same time you criticise employment of staff from other countries, hinting their qualifications might not be up to standard – pot, kettle, black, possibly? In case you’re unaware, doctors and nurses cannot just come to the UK and work without undergoing rigorous checks. I had a broken finger missed by a nurse, but she was clearly black British born and bred not a newbie so any person can make mistakes. Yes, I agree the NHS has problems, but I can’t help feeling your post reeks of a superiorattitude that quite possibly would put the backs of staff you encounter well and truly up. I have a buddy in LA who is quite successful yet pays hundreds of $ monthly on health insurance yet always pays a fee to see his GP. Trust me, he’s not happy. I haven’t lived in the US but I lived in Australia for many years and their healthcare, which is a mix of the US and UK systems is massively superior. They have the safety net of an nhs style system, but it’s fully integrated with the private system. So if you choose to go private the nhs equivalent pays the cost that would have been incurred had to you gone nhs to your private doc, you just top it up. What this means is that many more people can afford private care, so the nhs works better too because less people use it. Also, once you earn above a certain income you are forced to pay for private healthcare, or you pay more tax. It works. There is also (above a certain income threshold) a small fee to visit a gp, although there are fee free gp’s around if you can’t or won’t pay. Privatisation isn’t always bad- there are blood test centres and x ray centres on every high st in Oz, run by private companies. There is competition between them, so you have a choice to go to the best one. Also, you don’t pay, the govt pays the fee to them directly. So there’s no need to go to hospital for x rays, if your gp wants one you literally walk down the road, walk in, wait 5 mins, and walk back up to the gp. It’s all so much easier. One of the major problems with the nhs is that docs have no fear of being personally sued. So you get stupid situations like gp receptionists asking what’s wrong and deciding whether you get to see a doctor. My doc in oz wouldn’t believe me that that happens in the UK, because the receptionist isn’t medically trained, but it does, all the time. So then whether you get an appt often boils down to how pushy you are, and how much you exaggerate they symptoms. The old lady with a kidney infection who rings up and complains her back hurts doesn’t get a look in. gracescrimgeour says: The UK has a population of 60 million, not 38 million. It’s hard to believe you actually lived here for 3 years without realising that. Christopher Mace says: Factual check: 1. UK Population is 64.1m, not 38m. 2. 17.5 x 2 = 35, not 34. 3. VAT rate is 20%, not 17.5%. 4. VAT is not charged at both ends, it is deductible, so the amount payable depends on mark up, but is usually 2-3%. 5. Road Tax rates are based on car emissions so are often not “insanely high”. My new Audi A4 costs £30 a year in road tax. 6. Car ownership rates are comparable to other European countries and only just below rates in Canada. Last survey showed 520 cars owned in the UK per 1000 people, refuting your claim that “most” people can’t afford a car. 7. Around 2% of UK GDP is spent on the military – in line with most other NATO countries showing that the UK contributes to this organisation rather than your assertion that we just take. 8. UK budget is not “shared” with Europe – especially regarding healthcare spending. There is no EU wide taxation rate. 9. Rate of Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) is higher in the USA than the UK (6.4% vs 10%). 10. Waiting times for cancer patients are not “years” – 94% of suspected cancer cases are diagnosed within 2 weeks and 98% of diagnosed cases start treatment within 4 weeks. There are others, but I think I’ll leave it there. Americans love to try be the best at everything, don’t they? I hate that. I’d be interested to know WHEN he lived here. You give an accurate picture of 2015, he sounds like he is talking about the worst of the 1970’s. Fuzzygoth says: errr … are you sure it was this country you were in? personally anytime myself or my family and friends have had cause to use the NHS the service has been timely, caring and in nice clean facilities with stringent safety procedures. Yes the NHS has problems but in my experience and the experience of the majority of my family and friends what your listing is not among them. Frankly I love my nhs free and the point of service medical care and it’s comforting to know its there if I ever need it even if I am unemployed, homeless or working. Just sayin. Tom A says: This is hiliarious. The population of England is 53 million, and the whole of the UK 63 million. You make a schoolboy error in your first sentence and then go downhill from there. Well said. Despite the eye-watering cost charged by big pharma, I did finally get Harvoni treatment for hep c on the NHS and hope to be cured soon. Thank you NHS and Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Hannie says: Woohoo! I hope you are better and all clear soon! Thanks Hannie. I was alarmed in 2009 to find my sudden problems were due to hep c which I probably had for 25 years before symptoms appeared. My consultant advised against interferon as it was “a rough ride” with low cure rates. When better meds arrived I had to wait as costs meant they must ration to the sickest patients which I understand, but they monitored my liver and in the end I got the meds. Whoopee indeed! “To the British Government: stop trying to mess it up.” “To the American writer: don’t fall into the trap laid by people who claim the government is out to ‘destroy’ the NHS or to privatise it. It’s not true. The government, like all post-war governments, is committed to the provision of a national health service. Sometimes that involves making hard choices, using private as well as public contractors, and so on, but it is not ‘messing it up’.” If only that were so. If it were, we would wouldn’t have the appalling Jeremy Hunt, who is on record calling the NHS “a 60 year mistake”, in the government at all, much a less as Minister of Health, in charge of the NHS. Gennaro says: I am utterly disgusted by the NHS and how badly health system works. Me and my family have had so many bad experiences I could write all day about them. However, last week I had exactly the same problem as your cousin: I badly sprained my ankle (even without high heels). On Tuesday afternoon I sprained the ankle while on holiday and my father in law bandaged it. On Wednesday night I took off the bandage to notice massive bruising. On Thursday morning I phoned the GP. I was told they were short on staff and asked if the visit was “aboslutely urgent”. I sort of confirmed, and got an appointment at 2pm. The doctor referred me for X-Rays at the hospital to check if there was any fracture. I was at the hospital by 4, and within maybe a half hour the X-Rays were done. I waited a further 10-15 minutes for the receptionist to verbally tell me the results (there was no fracture). All this has been quick and efficient, although now a further 4 days have passed, I need to go to my GP again to get my full X-Ray report. Furthermore I still might have some ligament damage, I might need some bandage or a splint. Nobody has told me anything, a visit with an orthopedist might have helped but I don’t seem to have such an option… Graham R Rice says: We do ourselves an injustice every time we say the NHS is the best in the world. It may have been at one stage but no longer. We have rested on our laurels and things have slipped. The author does herself no favours peddling left wing claptrap about the government wanting to destroy the NHS. Nothing could be further from the truth, any government that did that would be committing electoral suicide. The Americans went into Iraq (twice) and Afghanistan and left a bigger mess than there was before they started, it is the American support for rebels in Syria that is prolonging the agony there. I don’t like Assad any more than the next guy but he is the country’s legitimate head – only the Syrian people have a right to say he should be removed. American sabre rattling in Crimea caused the Russians to move in there and now they’re trying to tell the Chinese what to do about the South China Sea dispute. I’m not a fan of Donald Trump but if his rhetoric is to be believed then he’s going to stop America wandering around the world interfering in everybody else’s business. Adrienne Lawley says: Actually the NHS was voted number one for the provision of healthcare worldwide in 2015 by a leading Washington think tank Dr Gunter. Stop listening to idiots. We are perfectly happy with NHS. Government gives it lots of money..our money …it could do better..but the improvement has been huge Elizabeth Hinds says: Thank you for your article. Well said. Thank God for the NHS. It is very few places in the world that although there is a waiting time, you can give your name and DOB, get your treatment without paying a penny. We take the NHS for granted. When things are handed to us we thing we have a right even when we haven’t contributed to its existence. As someone born in another country, well travelled and lived in the UK most of my life I have experienced the ER in the USA three times and I tell you what my travel insurance had to be verified and the agents contacted, card details taken for surcharge before I could be seen. The service in the US was great but money talks. Don’t moan about the NHS, yes there is always room for improvement but for a FREE service to ALL we must not complain. Love my NHS one of the most courteous and loving service I’ve ever experienced. It is NOT a free service! We all pay for it via NI contributions!! I had my little boy at an NHS hospital two years ago. I started contractions on and off on the Saturday and he finally arrived by C-Section on the Wednesday. I’d been into the delivery wing twice in those five days because of the pain I was in and because at one point the contractions just weren’t getting any closer together. I was seen by a student midwife and a midwife. The student midwife (Carla) was trying to put the trace on my bump to check for my boy’s heart beat but she was struggling to find it. The midwife (Helen) took over and did some extra tests. They got the trace in place then went to get a doctor. At that point I knew something didn’t line up. The midwife at my normal check up earlier in the day had checked to see if he was back to back but had ruled that out. When the doctor came back they did an ultrasound. It turned out that my boy was breech. After chatting through the choices it was decided between us that C-Section was going to be the better option even with the risks that it carried. I’m grateful for the NHS because of the level of attention and care I was given. Rosie the anaesthetist’s assistant was super friendly and kept me calm especially when the anaesthetist was putting the injections in my back to make me go numb. She and Chris (my husband) held my hands and talked to me through it. The line up of doctors and theatre nurses were all female minus the surgeon who was a guy and even then he literally came in for the bit he was needed, wished my boy a happy birthday and left again. It sounds sort of silly but this somehow made me feel more comfortable. The NHS has it’s faults I know that. I had a couple of hiccups through my visit but we were taken care of and our midwife team were amazing. I had my son in the US and my daughter in the UK and the comparison is miles apart. My son cost my mom’s insurance some ridiculous amount. I was required to stay four days in hospital (per day cost for my son and I), pumped up on pain meds that I didn’t ask for so that meant I couldn’t even hold my son, plus additional cost because we filed one wrong document with the insurance company so we had to front up that cost ourselves. I can’t comment as to whether the nurses or maternity doctors provided me with any useful guidance as a first time mum because I was so drugged up. I do remember that they were more concerned about a ‘switched at birth’ scenarios when we were leaving the hospital even though my son and I had a matching ‘security’ name tag on which they put on him the second he came out. My daughter? Same procedure (C-section), 1 1/2 days hospital stay, I could stand up and walk the next day because they relied on me as to whether I needed pain meds which meant that I could actually take care of my daughter straight away, the maternity nurses helped me with breastfeeding and answered were helpful with any questions I had before I left and a home visit from the midwife a few times the first week to make sure that mum an baby were OK and conduct the necessary newborn tests right there at home (pin prick test, weight check etc). This is all cost me $0.00. Really? It cost you £0? Were you living and working here? Were you paying NI contributions? If not, then we (British public) paid for you via our NI contributions. Sarah, NI contribs are no longer ringfenced for the NHS and State Pension – I’m not sure if they ever were. Both are funded by general taxation: income tax, VAT, company tax, NI … christinpruestel says: I do have to admit. Every time I’ve been to the A&E in the UK (I am originally from Germany) I had to wait at least 5 to 6 hours. I think you’ve been very lucky the few times you’ve gone. Still pro NHS though. If a privatisation is needed please follow the German model rather than the US model. True. You can’t make an appointment at eye hospitals in London and you usually have to wait 2 to 4 hours. I am glad you received good care in an NHS A and E unlike my daughter last week with a brain trauma injury sat in a waiting room on a chair for five hours before receiving a CT scan to diagnose the brain bleed that she had. And then put in majors room in a bed that was also housing the departments medical needs equipment etc before moving again to another room housing similar equipment. People in corridors on trolleys, a bed was found after moving again to a ward 16 hours later. A 18 year old girl put in a ward with 90+ ladies. Many of the staff were rude and unkind not caring of the elderly. Not being provided with simple care such as having water to drink. Soiled incontinence pads on the floor underneath where patients sit. I could go on but I’ve got to go back to the hospital to shower my daughter which doesn’t come under nursing care it’s seems. She’s on a different ward now but I’m not impressed with the care and lack of information given to us about her BTI. bjf says: Has anyone heard of Mid-Staffordshire scandal? In which only recently poor care caused hundreds of extra deaths per year at just one hospital. tapati says: I was well into the second season of Doc Martin before I realized what I was NOT seeing that would be common in U.S. medical dramas–discussions about how the patient couldn’t afford suggested treatment or an ambulance ride to the hospital. That takes up so much time and energy and sometimes causes heartache as care is avoided for far too long because of high co-pays. It was startling to realize that if the doctor said you needed a treatment, you simply got the treatment–no matter how modest your income. Medical costs never destroyed lives or inheritances. Refreshing! I’m sorry we don’t yet have single-payer medical care here. Insurance companies continue their price-gouging and employers have total control over which plans to offer, if any. Sadly, while agreeing with most of your post, it’s untrue that medical costs in the UK never destroy inheritances. My dad had dementia last eight years of his life in Scotland, and though because he’d been a WW2 volunteer for merchant marine convoys he qualified for a charity home superior to the usual bog standard, it still cost him several hundred pounds a week. His house was sold and his bank account stripped. They stopped when he had £23.000 left as I believe that’s the rule. A chunk of that went for funeral and other costs so the inheritance my mom wanted to leave me, including a house, ended up being £18,000. In order to have a decent retirement I had to sell my apartment and move into sharing rented accommodation with a friend. Dan McIntyre says: Reblogged this on danonwheels and commented: An American Doctor’s view of the NHS… As a person living with several chronic health conditions and disabilities and as a person who works within an NHS hospital in the north of England, this is heartening to hear. Thank you for writing this. The majority of hospital staff, certainly where i work, do take great pride in trying to provide the best care possible for patients. panzerbjrn says: Lovely post, it’s great to hear when things work out. However, “To the British government, stop trying to mess it up”, this would mean that the British people would have to stop voting for governments whose goal it is to sell it off. Manjit Hothi says: I am have excellent service by the NHS for the last 17 years. The doctors, surgeons, nurses are my superheroes. I am still alive due to their dedication and care Sadly but you have only seen NHS as a user not employee in particular physicians. There is increasing abuse of serviceand staff all the time. NHS may care care for the patients but not staff. I am sorry but Small co paymentis a must in healthcare to cut down service abuse You are joking aren’t you. I have never seen an organisation which protects its staff like the NHS, they basically have a zero tolerance policy on complaints, zero tolerance policy on being unhappy with the service and what you call abuse is caused by staff refusing to take responsibility for the service they get. You will find contrary to opinions on most forums (which have numerous NHS staff on them), there are a ton of people genuine unhappy and at their wits end with the NHS. If the NHS protected its patients like its staff then we would truly have a good health service. They don’t and it’s not Holly H says: My son recently injured his ankle – just a minor sprain – but after a week it had not healed. Got a same-day appointment at the doctor who referred him for an xray; xray also booked for later the same day at the local hospital and all sorted before 6pm and all for free – something I am still getting used to having grown up in Australia… The NHS is amazing and needs to be supported. Mike W says: I have to recommend the NHS 111 service. I used this recently and after a short discussion, including the person I was talking to, obviously a nurse, speaking with me on hold to a doctor while I waited, I was recommended to go to the local A&E department who sorted me out in a matter of hours. They were surprised I had never used the hospital before despite living in the area 28 years! I sympathise with the view that too many people turn up at A&E without needing to, but when I tried to book a follow up appointment with my own GP as recommeded by the hospital I was told it was a 6 (six) week wait for an appointment with my own doctor or just over 2 weeks with another in the practice. This is why people go to A&E who shouldn’t. Nothing but praise for my experience with the NHS front line staff. All wonderful. Roberta Sorensen says: I went to England to visit my daughter and have always been an advocate for a single payer system in the US. I got very sick and was taken to a London hospital. The care I received in the ER was excellent and I was sent to a ward of about 8 people which was a nightmare. I literally provided my own care, including getting up, going out to the nurses station to tell them I thought I was supposed to be hooked up to oxygen . Oops, they had forgotten. I was caughing and my nose running. I had to wait for nearly an hour for them to find a box of tissues. At one point I went to the desk to ask for directions to the bathroom and the person I asked said “that isn’t my job” when it was right behind me and all she had to do was point. I could go on with several more nightmarish stories. I would have left but they kept saying I had a potential “life threatening” problem ( they thought I might have a blood clot) and needed a scan. I waited all day and finally went to the desk to ask when the scan was scheduled. Finally they wheeled me to the lab and when I asked the tech if they had been busy, he responded that there had been very little traffic that day. But…. I had a “life threatening condition”! After the scan, a doctor came and told me I had an infection and gave me anti-biotics. I very pointedly said I was flying to Venice the next day … Was that a problem. I was told it was not a problem. So the next day I flew and by the time I got there I was sicker than I had been and spent my time in Venice in bed. When we returned to London, mail from the hospital was waiting for me . It listed Pneumonia as the diagnosis. PNEUMONIA! I should never have been advised I could fly! So, how do I feel about the NHS and the possibility of a similar system in the US.? I will give you one guess. Bad experiences happen in all medical systems – I doubt whether it’s tax financed or via insurance has anything to do with it. My late buddy, a famous record producer in USA with good insurance was in hospital with cancer and told me staff vanished at night and he had to get water for other patients. This stuff happens here too, so I doubt it has anything to do with how the system is financed. Ashley Gayton says: Thank you for the lovely comments I am a vascular theatre nurse and love my job and the NHS and hear day by day people saying bad things about nurses and the NHS it’s very inspiring to hear some one praise is and say thank you. Your kind words are very inspiring and make us in the NHS proud of the work we do. I thank you for this . Kind regards SN Gayton Pingback: American doctor compares UK healthcare with the US: ‘No copayments, no preauthorization, great resources’ – DeadState June Reece says: This is a good story. Sadly there are very many stories of poor care being given also where patient health is not foremost ….. the NHS needs much more investment to make it the system it deserves to be, but where will that money be found…. Beautiful fairy tale. I had the same problem with my ankle. Wait 5 hours in A&E and left without any help…. In April of this year I went to my GP with with stomach pains, weight loss and other symptoms. I had blood taken and was called back the next day to say my results were unusual and the doctor would like me to have an ultrasound scan. I had that scan within a week, it was inconclusive so I was booked for a pet scan the following week. Ten days later I saw a haematology doctor who, after looking at my scan pictures immediately booked for a biopsy and I was admitted into hospital that day. I had a large tumour in my abdomen extending into my chest. I was in hospital for twelve days while various forms of cancer were ruled out. Some of the tests can take time to culture cells etc. Four weeks after being my pet scan I was diagnosed with gastrointestinal stromal tumour and immediately prescribed Glivec, which I have been taking since. The tumour started shrinking almost straight away and two weeks after starting treatment I was able to return to work. I see my oncology specialist every four weeks and have recently had a CT scan to see how my tumour is shrinking, but to me Glivec is a wonder drug and has given me my life back. I did some internet research into Glivec and understand it costs the NHS around £21,000 per year for my medication, but in the US can cost up-to $92,000 for the same drug! Apparently the NHS get a huge discount because they buy in bulk. It seems to me in the US, people’s health is put after profit, and lots of money is being made from sick people. In my view people of the UK have a lot to be thankful for, and people who complain about the NHS haven’t really had to use it for something life threatening or serious. Yes there are mistakes made sometimes, and that will happen with 60 million potential patients. But when you need it the NHS is there. No questions about whether you can afford it or even deserve it. Many countries could learn a lot, but where would all the profit go! Ken Turner says: If you get a chance then try and arrange to go out as an observer with the local ambulance service and you will then see problems – a nursing home putting in an emergency (999) call for an ambulance to a “sick person” with the call graded to a “Red 2” which is serious – on arrival patient is sitting in room eating breakfast and we have to wait before removing her Or the calls to 20yr olds with “chest pains” which triggers a R1 response when the pain is only there when they cough and the diagnosis ends up as a minor chest infection which should really be dealt with by their GP The only problem with the NHS is the government, its trying to tn NHS in the san thing as US. Pingback: An American doctor experiences the NHS and everyone should read how she found it - Ice Trend My mother in law went in to A&E and they were so concerned with her symptoms they kept her in overnight and ordered a high contrast MRI for the next day. Brain tumor diagnosed and removed by 11 hour surgery within a month at kings college London. 3 months later and she is completely recovered and dancing around the room. The care we received was absolutely top notch and they certainly saved her life (They gave her ~2 months until she would have been paralysed from the neck down). From the day of getting the MRI results to the outstanding treatment and aftercare I won’t hear a bad word said about the NHS. Sure stuff can go wrong in any organisation especially one as big as the NHS but lets face it, the people that work in it and the institution itself are both utterly wonderful. you are lucky. My mother was misdiagnosed by the NHS 6 times and is now dead. Worst still I was verbally abused when I challenged the lack of treatment. It’s a poor service, she’d have been better off going to the vets. The NHS is hugely overstretched and chronically underfunded (thanks to the bloody Tories). At such a time personal responsibility should be paramount. Just because she wanted to wear 5″ heels she needed an expensive trip to A&E, removing vital funds for patients genuinely ill. Come on!! True, the NHS is being run down by the Tories as a prelude to privatisation. However, a patient’s lifestyle is not a reason to give or refuse treatment. So she wanted to wear heels? So what? In the past, us doctors have been very good at moralising; it’s high time we moved on. 110 billion pounds isn’t underfunding and 1.5 Million staff isn’t under resourced. Chronically mismanaged with too many staff taking their cut and holding the NHS to ransom would be a better description. Stupid, Chris, really stupid. If the UK were spending the same GDP fraction on health as the US, with a UK workforce of around 30 million you’d expect around 4 million healthcare staff. Even with the smaller fraction that the UK does spend on the NHS, you’d expect around 2.5 to 3 million UK healthcare workforce total. The Author says: Really great insights between your experience of the NHS and American hospital copayments, Dr Gunter. Thanks for writing about this Miles Forsyth says: As before there is a reassuring story that the NHS helped someone successfully and I’m very pleased to hear that. Amongst the debate and rhetoric it is really only that those who need good care, receive good care, that matters. That Dr Jen and Family once again received effective and prompt NHS care is indeed something the UK is proud of and we’re proudest when it works well and delivers the best, appropriate care. Last time around I think I offered a recount of my wife’s experience as a Brit (albeit with travel insurance so we were ‘insured’) on vacation and most definitely requiring the ER whilst in the US. She’s a senior nurse with lots of experience and quite frankly she was blown away (positively) by the quality of care. She has discussed many times, since, with other Brit healthcare professionals who have vacationed in America and had need of healthcare whilst ‘over there’, and they all report similar or if not better standards of treatment than when compared with the NHS. So the debate is really, if the anecdotes are of value, about the difference between a socialist system (NHS, paid for by taxation) or a private, capitalist system (paid for directly, via insurance or otherwise). And here some clarity is needed if a comparison is to be made. We Brits do pay a lot of tax. I’d warrant more than Americans if we were to compare like for like, job for job. (Without just directly comparing income filtered through the fluctuating exchange rate). I don’t know if the insurance premiums on top make such like for likes more equal. Sorry, I’m ignorant of how it works in the US, in detail. It sounds shocking that many can’t afford the excess payment even with insurance. It sound shocking when the NHS can’t afford the best or most appropriate treatment and the patient over here suffers too. Both systems are flawed since you can’t always afford the best care when spare cash is limited We know that Capitalist systems can be cruel. It favours the haves over the have nots, and as such, when compassion intervened and created Socialism – such that the haves contribute to help the have nots – a nicer world was created, by intention if not necessarily reality. I’d say that, in my opinion, it does seem immoral to put capital profit (at a significant level anyway) above people’s health or life. Let’s close that door in agreement. The US system would be fairer if its insurance system and healthcare providers were at least non-profits, perhaps. The ‘problem’ however, is that a state-funded healthcare system needs profit in order to thrive. Businesses (and individuals) pay tax on profit, or when value is added (in effect, a form of profit again). When not enough profit is made, not enough tax is generated and systems like the NHS struggle to deliver a service with relatively less resources as its relative income becomes less. People are paid decent salaries to make decisions about where that limited pot of money should be spent and where healthcare is concerned there will never be enough in all of the right places. Often decision-makers are pushed into making less than ideal decisions, cost usually governs and someone (or more) inevitably suffers as a result. My point is really that the priorities and conclusions each side of the pond are probably different. If we’re considering healthcare for the most needy, then the NHS is a winner. If we’re talking about quality of equipment and pharma then the US may fare better, if one can pay. When my wife returned from ER in the US we were given a prescription with a list of drugs to assist her recovery. I have to add that their purchase, at direct cost at that time was comparable to the standard equivalent NHS prescription charges we’d have comparably paid over here. These were branded drugs not generics. I won’t labour the point, but they’re not necessarily like for like, pharmacologically speaking. I like and am grateful for the NHS and yes, I understand that its Nurses do often take on more responsibility than their comparable opposites in the US. Yes, this is often a good thing, but it was motivated by saving money (Nurses generally, but not always, paid less than a Doc). But ultimately both systems require money. It is a misconception that the NHS is ‘free’. It struggles right now and many are falling through its net and suffering here too. Social systems done well require profit just as any other system does to make it work. How much profit and where it is dividended and distributed is a fair point, perhaps beyond this blog, but please be aware that, at its core, I don’t think it is Socialism good, Capitalism bad, or vice versa, necessarily. Good healthcare costs money, period. The debate comes down to who should pay, how much and whether it’s fair that I pay for your treatment or if I can’t afford to pay for my own is it right that others should contribute to mine. It’s collectivism versus individualism. Sort of. They’re different and both have merits. It’s about balance. But without good business sense in other sectors and in healthcare there’s neither. And that’s a factor which also should be discussed. Keith Elstob says: Thank you for the endorsement of our wonderful NHS, the legacy of a leftist, post WW2 government. Unfortunately, now that our government is more right wing and of the ‘ I’m alright Jack’ mentality they obviously have plans to privatise it by Stealth. This will obviously result in a more Americanized culture which will take our country back to the dark ages. mikeparker says: My problem with the NHS is that I put a lot of hard work into keeping healthy, and yet when I need to see a doctor I am at the back of the queue because “i’m not dying”. I understand a huge amount of NHS funds go on (a) Fixing lots of age-related issues due to our increasing aging population and (b) Fixing problems with smoking, obesity, general bad diet, lack of exercise… Last year I had stomach pain that wouldnt go away and it took nearly a YEAR to see a specialist (My appointment got repeatedly cancelled and that was only after an ultrasound, CT scan and gastroscopy (each with several months wait between). During this year I had to stop playing sport because it was too painful, and I lost sleep due to pain, I was on pain medication.. my work performance also suffered. I am otherwise perfectly healthy. It was a pretty bad year because the NHS failed to help me. Yes – I wasn’t dying, it wasn’t cancer, but seeing a specialist fixed the issue within weeks. It feels a bit unfair that I put in the effort and am at the back of the queue. Which is exactly the problem with systems like the NHS. The emergency stuff normally is done well. The urgent stuff tends to be done well once it has been determined to be urgent. The routine stuff is done well. Anything that doesn’t fall into those categories, however, gets whatever’s left and it’s never enough. Am Ang Zhang says: Wow! Again! Sharron Blezard says: My daughter just finished her undergraduate course in the UK. For three years she received excellent healthcare through the NHS–as an American student on a visa. i am grateful for the care she was provided there. Even though we have an excellent insurance plan in the US (we are fortunate), the system is much more complicated here–and expensive. No system is perfect, but the NHS is doggone good. I would suggest your limited experience with the NHS may not make you an expert. I lived in the UK for years and was repeatedly appalled at the flaws in their health care system, which is far from free when you consider the tremendous tax burden applied to residents of all socioeconomic classes to fund it. Also, I have never experienced emergency care in the US the way it is characterized in this post. My children have had extensive emergency care and never have we been asked for a co-pay or preauthorization at the point of service. I guess in the USA it varies from hospital to hospital. I was on vacation in LA many years ago and had to be rushed to ER by a friend. I was charged for everything: exam by a doctor (pay); injection of needed meds (pay); writing prescription (pay); the meds themselves (pay) ; pharmacy fee for dispensing (pay). I left with my wallet empty. The NHS doesn’t do that to USA visitors to A&E. There are failings in all healthcare systems but I don’t think ours are due to the fact that it’s free at point of use. Of course we pay in tax, but most people use the system. Better off folk can go private if they wish. I don’t see the system as some kind of creeping communism as some in America do. PS: at one point it was thought on my USA visit that I’d have to be kept in hospital overnight. My buddy had to ring a very wealthy guy we both did work for and get him to agree to pay my potential bill before they’d consider it. Amanda, The tax burden is by no means ‘tremendous’. The part of my tax contribution that goes to the NHS is much, much smaller than the private insurance premiums paid by every (insured) American I know. My parents (now dead) and siblings live in the USA. 25 years ago I watched my semi-conscious mother denied entry into a hospital because she was in no condition to tell them who she was insured with and I, visiting from the UK, had no idea. Had my sister not come dashing across the parking lot with her papers I guess they would have let her stop breathing. I relive that episode all the time. Also,, when my dual national daughter was living and working in the USA for 9 months she fell ill with a kidney infection. She was not registered with a doctor as she was travelling around and would have had to cough up over $2000 on the spot for emergency room care, which she did not have. If my sister had not found a small charity that treated her on the basis of a day of her paltry pay, I do not know what would have happened. I grew up in the USA, but have lived in the UK for 43 years. At least here you do not have to panic when you fall ill unexpectedly, as I did a couple of weeks ago (detached retina). I just went and got treated. Partridge says: It is outrageous, I pay 4K, it’s an awful service with rude arrogant staff. The tax burden is far from “tremendous”. It is tiny in comparison to what US premiums for poor-quality healthcare insurance are, unless you’re in a top tax bracket – and in that case, your income does need to be redistributed. Mikki Townshend says: I’m from Newcastle and work near Seattle as a private practice PT . My Dad has Stage IV prostate cancer and his care has been jaw droppingly amazing. I always tell my British friends and rellies how lucky they are not to be in our system. Pingback: Sunderland Royal Hospital praised by American doctor – SR News Pingback: A Tale of Two Countries \| Collin Lieberg Cynic says: BULLSHIT. The English take home a mere fraction of what they earn to pay for this. Jeanne Jackson says: TROLL alert! You can’t say troll alert whenever someone writes something you don’t like or in this case gives a view of the NHS you don’t like. I’d actually say you are more of a troll as you continually try to discredit people who say it as they see it (and probably have a more balanced view than yourself). Bullshit yourself. Up to about $100,000 there’s no significant difference. In US states with a high income tax rate like New York an American can actually pay higher taxes than a Brit. As an American living in Northern Ireland for 11 years, I have not found the NHS to be efficient in any way. A&E wait times are uncivilised. I’ve had two visits to A&E before being diagnosed with gallstones. In severe pain and throwing up, I waited 5 and 7 hours to see a Dr. Then, 4 weeks wait for an ultrasound to confirm the gallstones. I’m now on a waiting list for gallbladder removal surgery…the wait? 12-18 months. I’ve lost 25 pounds and I’m skin and bones due to fear of eating anything that might cause another attack. The NHS is not working for me. The surgeon who discussed my scan results, in an NHS hospital, told me the wait to remove my gallbladder would be 12-18 months and actually said he could do the surgery in two weeks for £4600 if I went to a private clinic he worked in. You seem to be really unlucky, mine was dealt with in a week. I would fire off a missive to your local health authorities. Might not work but its worth a try. Since the 1990’s the 4 countries of the U.K. Have developed in a more semi-independant way and the Healthcare is one of the major areas of difference. England made much more effort in driving long waits out of the system, Maximum 4 hour wait to admission or discharge in A&E. 95% target Maximum 18 week wait for non-emergency surgery Maximum 2 week wait for diagnostics for possible cancer diagnosis After the extra investment 2000-2010 these targets were all being met in England every month, with less money since then they are being missed consistently, but not by much e.g. 90-92% of patients being seen in 4 hours. Scotland, Wales and NI prioritised things differently, England kept co-pay for prescription charges and eye tests, the other 3 abolished them, Northern Ireland has more integration between Health and social care than the other 3 countries. The truth no one wants to hear. The facts are that the NHS is terribly inefficient and it is the staff who are behind it. Refusing to modernise and refusing to support the population over their salaries. be sure though, the government are not trying to close the NHS, most of us Wish they would. Or at least give the working man of the the U.K. The option to opt out and take our 4K a year elsewhere. Oh, Chris, take your 4k elsewhere? Our family insurance in the US comes from my wife’s employer. Last year their share of the medical insurance bill for our family was $ 17,700. In addition to that, my wife also pays $ 400 per month. For that we have insurance that we can’t afford to use as we have to pay out $ 4,000 per family member before the insurance pays a penny. You say that the NHS workers don’t care as they choose their salaries over the patients. Compared to countries that have exclusively private medical systems, NHS salaries are ridiculously low. Have you considered buying private top-up insurance? It is not expensive in the UK, as any catastrophic or emergency treatment is covered under the NHS. Thanks for that David. I suggest Chris watch Michael’s Moore’s ‘SICKO’ on YouTube. Its shocking. “watch Michael’s Moore’s ‘SICKO’ on YouTube. Its shocking” … just as it was intended. But appreciate the honesty in not calling the work a “documentary”. Sicko? A propaganda piece with little regard for the truth. Think Cubans can get to those clinics he was showing? I love the NHS I just hate our local A&E. I waited 6 hours to be seen after having fallen very heavily on my knee, bruising appeared within minutes and I was sat crying the whole 6 hours even though I was in high painkillers. I also have many ither problems that they were aware of. My 80 year old mother sat for 13 hours with a suspected DVT!! Was not offered food or drink, the machine didn’t work in a&e reception, and was finally seen at 1am yes 1 am after waiting for 13 hours 12 of them alone as she didn’t tell us she was there, trying to be independent!! It’s days like this that the system makes you rant and rave and swear. Not at the staff isn’t their fault but the hospital not spending enough on staff. Great article (read it in The Independent). My only struggle was your use of USofA terms and jargon that is different to the UK’s. e.g. exam vs examination, ER (Emergency Room) vs Accident & Emergency Department, co-payments vs (I’ve no idea at all!), user fees vs (again, no idea), charting nurse vs (I think) Chartered Nurse (it’s a qualification, granted under a Charter from the Queen). Otherwise, wonderful. Andy B says: Fully, wholeheartedly agree about people abusing the NHS. The downside of a free health service is people know it’s there and can be a little reckless about health choices safe in the knowledge they won’t have to pick up the bill. And yes, a fair number of our hospitals are old, even ancient by American standards, added to and extended over decades and areas repurposed so the hospital ends up with an illogical layout, porters probably walk miles whilst using navigation skills second only to London famous black cab drivers. That said, I recently had to use the NHS, more so in the last few months than in all my life prior to developing a health issue. Just shy of four months from being taken to a+e, through several appointments, tests, then a little op. I don’t know if four months would be excessive in the states but knowing how stretched the NHS is, I’m not complaining, especially when I know the operation alone would cost me (or my insurance) tens of thousands in America. Cost to me? Not a penny. Yes, the NHS is overstretched and seriously underfunded, and I’ll even go so far as to say it’s far from perfect, but I wouldn’t want to go without it. The NHS is wonderful but it also has it’s down points, there are waiting lists in the UK to see specialists, some 6 months upwards to see the specialist needed, granted we don’t pay for this but waiting times do exist. Some people do take the NHS for granted, I for one are extremely grateful and especially from a financial point of view that we don’t have to pay hundreds and thousands of pounds for out health treatment. That being said there is also the other half, the background of the NHS or behind closed doors that people don’t see…the primary care side, GP, dentists, ophthalmics etc. Dentists and ophthalmics are business’ who provide the services for the NHS and then have to claim the money back from the NHS. In some areas there are people can’t get an appointment with a GP for 3 weeks upwards, if that’s an urgent appointment you have no choice but to go to a&e. Back to the dentists and ophthalmics side of the NHS, the NHS use a third party company who manages and pays the dentists and opticians however due to the amount of job losses since this company took on the contract the businesses such as the opticians are being paid late or aren’t being paid at all as there isn’t enough staff to cope with the work demand in the third party company and many more issues… that is the side of the NHS that isn’t seen and it’s a sure fine way to begin privatising the NHS which will happen sooner rather then later. I would recommend anyone in the UK to get healthcare insurance. May I reply as a Brit who blacked out in the bathroom of a Florida bar and had to experience your ‘paid for’ services in the US? I had fantastic travel insurance but spent more time with the lovely lady from the ‘getting paid’ department than I did with a nurse or doctor. The difference in medical care was marginal at best. I waited four hours in Miami’s eye emergency room. The food in Lower Keys medical centre, was inedible. Given this was being charged to an insurance co.pany why wasn’t it outstanding? As you rightly say, NHS hospitals are rarely refurbished but the quality of the staff is second to none. I have once had surgery in 24 hours and yesterday had surgery in a matter of hours. I have not had to pay anything beyond my taxes. The lovely person at my Florida hospital was shocked when I said I had full cover (well $10M). Jx Prof. Rod Griffiths [CBE BSc Mb ChB MA FRCP FFPH all that just so you know.] says: I’m probably a bit late reading this. I’m a retired public health doctor in the UK, just for background. What you say is all true. Another side of the US / UK health care equation comes up in the movies. There are a load of US movies where the plot simply could not work in the UK, because they hinge on the unafordability of US health care. As Good As It Gets, the Jack Nicholsen film is a good example, there are two people who’se life is turned upside down by the costs of health care. Maybe you’d already spotted that, but if not you might find a use for it some day. The classic meme on that is if ‘Breaking bad’ had been set in the UK. https://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/if-breaking-bad-had-been-set-in-the-uk?utm_term=.xvjJ5NDa7#.sw5PkX4vm Esther Graham-Yooll says: My NHS story is a short one. I was an American with permanent residency (with husband, a UK citizen) in England from 1974 to 1989). We, of course, used the NHS for many minor and one major incident – with positive outcomes. We did pay for “pop-up” insurance which, when wanting to see a consultant (specialist) and felt the need to “jump the queue”, knowing that while inequitable, the NHS depends on this to lighten the load of resources. In 2015 after becoming non-resident for the past 25 years, we were visiting the UK when I got an injured foot (lots of walking with grandchildren!) and our son took me to his local hospital in Kent (County). Directed to the non-urgent department, I stepped up to the desk and said I’d been living overseas for the past 25 years. No problem,said the cheerful clerk. Just give me your name and birthday. A moment later she said had found me in the system. I got the appropriate treatment a few minutes later and went on my way. Now I ask you, American Taxpayer, why can’t the US come up with a system for healthcare that the United Kingdom has had since 1948? Yes, 1948. That’s Heartwarming. I’d swap tomorrow. Pay for what I get or pay for someone else and I don’t treated or get value for money. Only a blind, drunk, unemployed, destitute, crack addict would think the NHS is a good alternative to any other healthcare. Oh, Chris, do you really want that? Our medical insurance costs well over $ 20,000.00 per year. If I see my GP, that’s $ 25.00, a specialist is $ 50.00. This does not cover everything that they may want to do. So, if you see an orthopedist, the charge covers the consultation & some X-Rays, but an injection would be an additional bill. I also am responsible for the first $ 4,000.00 in medical expenses before the health insurance begins to pay towards the care. A simple appendectomy, with no complications & a 2 day hospital stay in my state averages between $ 38,000 & 45,000. It is always a joy to get any form of hospital treatment, as you get a bill from everyone; the admitting doctor, the surgeon, the anesthetist, the hospital for room & board & any medical supplies. Adding to this joyous experience is that insurers have a list of doctors & facilities that you are allowed to use. If you use the wrong one, the insurer doesn’t have to pay. When you are in a hospital, you can’t always choose who provides services, so there are many times that patients had thought that all the cost would be picked up by insurance, but discover that the anesthetist or other practitioner wasn’t on the list, and has sent an enormous bill. We are lucky, as we get our insurance through our employer, who pays part of the insurance premium. If I had to buy my own coverage it would be much more expensive. I don’t deny that the NHS has waiting lists, but top up insurance to get bumped to the front of the queue is not particularly expensive. This is because the NHS covers any emergency treatment. I’d go back to the NHS in a heartbeat; it’s just such a shame that it is being systematically starved of funds. Chris: why don’t you move to Somalia then, or somewhere similar with a nonexistent welfare state? See how you get on, we won’t miss you. It is so lovely to hear someone praise our hospital service. Thankyou! We are extremely privileged to have the NHS in this country. It saddens and frightens me with what is happening to it. Without it I dread to think what would have happened with my premature twins. I have experienced first hand a hospital in Mali, West Africa and for all the complaints we may have against the NHS experiencing something like that truly makes you appreciate what we have. Unfortunately our NHS is under threat and this is seen throughout the country with cuts everywhere including my local hospital the Horton General where they wish to downsize the maternity unit to a midwife led only, with no consultants or theatre staff, and thus also losing the scubu dept. There are contingency plans for other cuts to the other acute services in a town who’s population is growing vastly. If by any means people could help support us and raise awareness of this it would be greatly appreciated. http://www.keepthehortongeneral.org (please delete if not allowed).It makes me very frightened for the future that we may have a private healthcare system such as the US. Hearing stories such as that of the lady who couldn’t afford the $100 makes me very upset. I too would gladly give it to her. Once again thankyou for writing such a fantastic positive article on our NHS. I’m based in Blackheath, SE London and have joined the SAVE OUR HORTON F/B page. Also I tried to donate to your Crowdfunding page but was unable to do so. I am such a passionate supporter of the NHS. Jeremy Hunt and his team (some of who have an ‘interest’ in private health care) are having secret meetings re our NHS. Did you happen see a TV crew discover a secret meeting with US Health Insurance providers and Health companies. They were royally disrupted and looked rather sheepish as they left the building… Its disgusting what our government is doing by stealth. In psychology its called the ‘drip drip’ method as used in advertising. If you can, watch on You Tube Michael Moore’s ‘SICKO’ about European Healthcare, you will be amazed what other countries offer although I would draw the line at having my washing done as in France!! Good Luck with your campaign. Pingback: News for August 21-27 – warptastic I live in the USA and I’m a Britt let’s compare eggs with eggs here … NHS is free healthcare for all USA health care is for those with insurance or money – how I long for the NHS it is so simple and if I want speed I use my UK medical care In the USA insurance / cost of medication – form after form after form -and drugs for everything ( I’m not even sure I need)! private healthcare in the UK is fantastic as was that in Singapore Care wise has been pretty equal Agreed and, even with insurance, you sometimes have to make medical decisions based purely on finances. Should you get the CAT scan or pay the mortgage? It should be drummed in to the heads of the Brits that a major cause of personal bankruptcy in the US is medical debt. Pingback: In praise of my country on a special anniversary \| The Nation said No Thanks! Multinational corporations and government agencies have Dallmeier CCTV cameras in their offices. Raytec CCtv’s and products will be the fore runners in lighting technology. How to buy a dvr Even community . may mean some repetition, there certain conditions specific to CCTV system specifications that will form part with the CCTV document. Upgrading from analogue to CCTV digital camera models have allowed for. If you want the DVR home alarm system to work appropriately, you will need to ensure that you get all the necessary parts to the What has this to do with Dr Jen’s experience of our NHS? It’s SPAM, so just ignore. Pingback: The Doctor Who Loves UK’s NHS Has No Idea What She’s Talking About The NHS has its good points and its bad points as anyone living in the UK will tell you. One of the biggest problems the NHS has is a lack of funding for people with mental health and crisis care in places like A&E is failing more and more, which often results in people taking their own life because they cannot get the help (despite asking) what they need. Mental health wards are getting shut because of a lack of funding, Crisis phone lines closing down and the removal of home based support for people with diagnosed mental health conditions. I’ve had both good experiences and bad. Bad being sent home aged 13 with a broken leg, because there was a lack of swelling after a fall on my way to school there was no need for an x-ray, despite the fact I couldn’t put weight on it. 4 days later and having hardly moved off the sofa I was taken back to A&E, where an x-ray was performed and I was told I had broken my Tibia, and a plaster cast was put on. Good experiences, I’ve seen my mum who died from renal failure be treated with respect and dignity in hospital, especially A&E, but I also watched her die in pain because of staff shortages after 4 months on a renal ward when she developed the rare complication calciphylaxis. I’ve personally been so desperate for mental health support I have opted to go private to The Priory, because the NHS has let me down again and again. If you can try and watch the London Ambulance Service documentary which started last week, it can be found on BBC iPlayer, it will give you an insight into how pushed our NHS is. And this is down to DELIBERATE lack of funding on behalf of Jeremy Hunt, Health Minister and the Conservative government backing it. They and opposition MP’s have interest in American pharmaceutical co. An arm of Pfizer just got fined £84,000 for grossly overcharging the NHS for epilepsy tablets by 2006% yes 2006% !! thats how lucrative the americans see us! ! I waited years for hep c treatment (thankfully now had it and cured) because rationed due to big pharma charging £858 per pill for Harvoni, and it required 56 pills to cure me.Nearly £900 a day for two months. Obscene. I know development costs a lot but that is an unjustified gouge. Jeremy Hunt was the author of a book, published about 10 years ago in which he advocated privatisation of the NHS. No surprise as to what he and the government are now doing—cuts to a level that make things unsustainable, then bingo! the case for privatisation is made. And it wasn’t 2006%, it was 2600%. Can you please explain why 110 billion pounds is underfunding ? I think waste is the issue and that is driven by poor management and that is at a local level. You fix waste by cutting waste. if you try to fix it by cutting funding you almost always cut meat rather than fat. Pingback: For the Health (Care) of America \| Collin Lieberg a jansen says: http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/10/hunger-filth-fear-and-death-remembering-life-nhs UK health care spend per capita is on the low end for western countries, and is less than half of what the US spends. http://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0006_health-care-oecd. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_health_expenditure_per_capita For me, a large part of the problem has been the enormous increase in the number of managers & administrative personnel, at the expense of front line clinicians, doctors & nursing staff. This is to be expected due to the disastrous PPI adventure under Blair, and the continued outsourcing of NHS functions to for-profit companies under the Tories. The real funding is 4.5 billion Chris spread over 2016/2017. No it’s 110 billion a year. The NHS has never had so much money or staff or staff pay. Seriously, I have to believe it would be better run if it was run by McDonald’s. The decision to stop Services is a local one and mostly underpinned by the decisions of local staff. The only thing I do have an issue with the government on is devolved trusts, clearly you get no economies of scale – the most basic silly example of NHS waste is the local branding, as I put it, I don’t pay money to Poxy Lawn medical centre, I pay it to the NHS, now run it like a company, that way you wouldn’t waste money on branding for something that clearly doesn’t need branding and stop wasting millions on the design and print of local branding. I’ve posted before but just wanted to mention what happened today and tell you how it shocked me. The NHS finally gave me Hsrvoni which cured my hep c. Today was my day for a final blood test that will certify me as cured. I have been repeatedly assured I do not hsve cirrhosis. Today a student was sitting in so my results were pulled up to explain stuff to her. In the midst of showing why I was not cirrhotic the hepatology team person suddenly announced I’d been misdiagnosed and that I WAS cirrhotic and must be monitored for evermore! There was no real explanation, just numbers and so on which a layman like myself cannot understand, and little sympathy for how shocked I was. I’m baffled because the person who did my last ultrasound elastography only months ago said there was no cirrhosis just fibrosis. I’m extremely worried and disappointed as presumably if the student hadn’t been present my tests wouldn’t have been examined again and I’d have been discharged and none the wiser. My wife suffers from kidney reflux and on dialysis since October 2016. Soon she will be on home dialysis using the newest technology on dialysis, the NXstage portable hemodialysis dialysis. Next week both of us will go on training for a week on how to use the NXstage portable hemodialysis machine. Hopefully next month my wife will be using the NXstage machine independently at home. Thank you NHS for free healthcare! (btw, NXstage machine is new to the NHS so not all hospitals in the UK are using it at the minute) Nhs isnt free…have you forgotton we pay this in our national insurance contributions… Don’t wear high heels. …… that’s not what the NHS is for Re: your experience in A&E in London. TRUMPet. This is not most folks experience of the NHS. Your cousin was given pain relief, triaged and diagnosed within…..what? 15 minutes? Ahah ahahaha. Hilarious. What “other medical condition” did you tell them a fracture would would have impact on? Just so I can use it in future. Only after sitting in A&E more than 4 hours. Our NHS is wonderful but cut out the BS when you’re telling your “story” NEVER in the history of the NHS has this happened unless critical incident or someone telling lies. I used to be a consultant ‘in administrative charge’ of an A&E Dept. What Dr Jen describes was entirely normal; and what she says did happen in the NHS. Mark Catlin says: Reblogged this on Declaration Of Opinion . I personally love the NHS but it is under staffed and underpaid. They draft a lot of foreign nurses in from places like Spain and the Phillippeanes because we do not have enough nurses in the U.K. GP surgeries in my opinion are not open long enough hours for patients to try and get to them and they also have appointment waiting lists as long as a month into the future as well as only being available Monday to Friday. Despite these GP surgeries being over subscribed and causing issues that lead patients to attend the ER for non emergency issues we also have a free helpline for people to call if they cannot get to see the GP but are sensible enough to not crowd the ER. This is called NHS 111 and they will ask you a series of questions about your general health and then some more specialist questions about the problem you are calling about. If it appears that you need to be seen urgently they will arrange for a local on call doctor to call you back and they usually then offer you to come down to the local hospital or specialist emergency clinic that are available on some parts of the country. There should be no excuse for people wasting the time of the doctors and nurses in the ER when we have had these options put in place for many years now. theswampman says: My experience with the NHS has been quite extreme: In 2 occasions I went to see my GP for severe pain in the abdomen and colic episodes, he said he had no idea what was going on, that it was probably something from “digestion issues” to “bowl cancer” (I’m quoting) and sent me back home with painkillers until new tests could be arranged (never happened). The colics kept on happening, the days the pain was too much to handle my flatmates had to call an ambulance (twice), which never came, so, covered in sweat and feverish I had to crawl to Whitechapel hospital feeling like dying, to wait in a room with dry blood stains on the walls. After waiting for my turn I got my belly explored, no doctor asked me any question regarding my health, no X-Ray, no CAT scan, no ecography, nothing at all. Just painkillers and a “good luck”, this while routine happened twice. Something was going terribly wrong, the pain of these episodes were rising dramatically, so I had to do something. The day I had enough I filled a suitcase, told my boss I was out, called the landlord to say my goodbyes and took a flight to Madrid, Spain (my hometown) where I was rushed to ER, diagnosed Gangrenose chronic appendicits through a CAT scan in just a couple hours, went through surgery on the spot (4 hours cleaning the mess), got a good 15 cm of my intestine removed, got a remarkable amount of stitches in my body, spent 14 days at the Ramón y Cajal Hospital recovering, lost 9 kg (I’m pretty skinny by nature) and saved my life, because I was very close to sepsis according to chief surgeon. So, my thoughts on NHS? It doesn’t treat immigrants or lower classes as well as natives or the wealthy ones, and I’d rather have a Spanish butcher than an English doctor to treat me (I mean…come on, appendicitis…a VET could see that coming!), which is surprising considering Spain is a way poorer country than the U.K. I considered suing the NHS, but I felt sorry for them. I hope someday the Government will take it seriously so everybody in the UK could benefit from a real health care system, whatever class, race, age or economic situation they live through. I considered suing the NHS, but I felt sorry for them. I hope someday the Government will take it seriously so everybody in the UK could benefit from a real health care system, whatever class, race, age or economic situation they live through gedstar75 says: I’m proud of our NHS. It is the best in the world. People complain about it because they have never experienced other countries health care systems. Where else in the world can you be seen for just about any ailment in a single day. Then treat accordingly no matter what the cost and for free! Some of us here in the UK are complacent about the health care we receive. Often these are the ones that abuse it and take it for granted. I live up the road from sunderland in newcastle. Here we have the RVI. One the the best hospitals in the world. Alone with the research labs, Newcastle is pioneering some of the most significant medical advancements in history. Recent cures for some cancers and also the most important developmemt in the cure for HIV to name a few. Im certainly proud and thankful for what we have in the UK. Thank you for a great post. A superb reminder of how luck we are here. And next time you are over, come to Newcastle. Far better than Sunderland lol Love & Peace xx Our NHS isn’t free as we pay for it in our wages that’s what our national insurence is.. so it may seem free to people who live abroad but it’s not. Each country has differnt ways of paying for their hospitals. Our government are cutting back on this service which is wrong as we still pay never the less its as important as education. Yes people like most of us here who are earning pays taxes and NI contributions. However, people who are unemployed never paid taxes and contributed to the NI still receives treatment from the NHS for free. Unlike in America, those who have no medical insurance won’t get the treatment they needed. All my children grew up under the care of orthodontics through NHS. Dental braces were fitted on them and i never paid anything. My wife goes on dialysis 3x a week she is being picked up by ambulance at home and returned on ambulance every session again I paid nothing. My daughter has special needs but I never paid anything for the medical investigations done on her. Her educational needs are provided for free by the government. She gets school transport for free also. That is why my family and I are very grateful to our NHS and to our Government. For me, NHS is perfect healthcare. We love NHS!! So you love the NHS because the UK government made.someone else pay for your expensive family needs. Well yes, there are always some “winners” who are net beneficiaries of the subsidies. By definition though most are not like that. They pay more than they receive in service. Frank it’s medical needs of my family not our personal needs. Regardless of the economic status and race of the patient the NHS treat patients accordingly and equally. FYI, my wife and I works for the NHS. We pay taxes and contributes to the NI but we never complain about NHS treating patient who never paid taxes and contributed to the NI. All I say is we love NHS because it is perfect!! @Mike, “my wife and I works for the NHS […] it is perfect” Please forgive me for taking your assessment with boulder of salt or two then. Tom Collier says: Why burden Sunderland ER with a minor injury such as this, there are four Walk in centres around Sunderland where she could have received the exact same care. Why not educate yourself before lecturing British people how to appreciate our NHS, we already know dude. I just wanted to say I loved reading this. And i will be looking at your previous/future posts as well. soph says: Couldn’t agree more, we hear all the bad sides of the NHS but non of the good sides. I got diagnosed with cancer at aged 30 and was treated immediately. I could not fault any one I was in contact with. After reading a simular article as I was in the middle of treatment the thought of going through all of the treatment and then being left with a bill to worry about, (if yoy had no unsurance or the fees to pay,) while trying to recover would have been agony. The only thing I can think of that would be good to be changed is more help for NHS staff aso they work such long hours while doing an amazing job! My daughter has a mental illness: can you imagine needing treatment for such a condition and having to worry every time a new bill comes through the letter box? Lost in the 90's says: There is a system in place that we use called Nhs 111 you call them they triage you over the phone and tell you how you should proceed with care it ranges from take over the counter medicine to them sending out an ambulance. That is the perfect system to avoid wasted trips and resources It takes an outsider to make us realise what we have! paulchronicles says: NHS is unfortunately hanging on by just a thread Pity really ! I’m a med student. This is an ophthalmology series I just started. Feel free to share and follow to stay updated 🙂 https://paulchronicles.wordpress.com/2017/01/09/ophthalmology-series-case-4/ The NHS is not a free service, we all pay for it via NHS contributions. It’s amazing how many people think the NHS is great, ‘considering its free’. If you stop to think that you’re actually paying for that service, is it still so great? This article only tells us that they received the right kind of care for their circumstances – I wouldn’t expect anything less! Myself and my family have experienced some awful care in A&E departments since moving to the North East of England from Scotland. There clearly is a problem with NHS England, I’ve never seen anything like it. On one visit, we waited 10 hours to be seen with our 4 year old and it was a further 2 hours before we left the hospital. Tom Connor says: Nice article, thank you. Nurse Laura says: Thank you for the insight on healthcare that is so different than what we have in the U.S. I’m glad its not my decision to determine how care should be delivered. As a nurse I recognize that there are advantages and disadvantages. I am thankful that I have reasonably good health insurance with reasonably low co pays. I am thankful that I have never had to push off treatment due to cost concern. I am thankful that I live near quality hospitals. I am thankful that my family is usually healthy and do not need specialists. Thank you for the hard work that you do for your patients. Paul Westlake says: Jen, I have read your post a few times since you posted it, just about everything that has been said in your post is true as are many of the statements made by others. My third son Loz married a wonderful girl Lisa from San Francisco, they both lived in the UK and she has citizen status after a few years of marriage they had a wonderful baby called Huck, who has many ailments. The first three years of his life in the U.K. all of his conditions treated by the NHS without question (he has dual nationality) The pull from Lisa’s family to return to the US was understandably huge and the inevitable has happened and the have moved out in the early part of this year(not enough room here to explain how much we miss them all). However for me the most shocking thing is that this small defenceless child who obviously cannot earn his own money yet needs health insurance – at a cost of some 300 dollars a month plus copayments. This is crazy, we all know you need medical care mostly when you are young and as you approach the end of life. It will always be impossible to change your health system for reasons which we are all aware, however I consider it my duty as a citizen to protect the imperfect NHS, I pay a lot of tax and i’m happy to do so, I am not a church goer but do believe that you should treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself, simple motor which has taken me a long way in my life. Thank you for your kind words about our health system, in my mind it is the best in the world; simply because it has always been free at point of use, if we lose that then we are much poorer as a nation. Love health and happiness Pingback: How the NHS, the Internet, and a local newspaper reunited my family \| Dr. Jen Gunter Irena Salander says: Oh go eat a bag of dicks. I’d love to see how awesome you think it is when it takes 20 years of pestering to diagnose you with PCOS. Or when you’re waiting over a YEAR for psychological assessment and that’s before the inevitable waiting list for treatment, which will only be for 6 sessions and if you’re not cured, too fucking bad. Or when every complaint you have is related back to said mental health problems (including what turned out to be fucking tendon damage). This is why I have a big problem with UHC. They set it up to work reasonably well for the average patient. All too many people aren’t the average patient and the system fails them badly. Not to mention the excessive waits for quality-of-life issues. A few weeks ago I had three tonic-clonic seizures in succession, was rushed to an NHS hospital, triaged and apparently seen immediately (awareness is a bit of an issue in such circumstances so I go by what I am told) and had a head CT immediately. I spent 5 days in hospital during which I had a further chest CT, 3 12 lead ECGs, EEG, contrast brain MRI, a liver scan, many blood tests and consultations with a neurology specialist. Having ruled out anything more serious which might have exacerbated my epilepsy of many years I was put on a transition to Keppra from my previous AED. My seizures seem back under control. As usual I paid absolutely nothing beyond my taxes, my prescriptions are free and I am back at work. The question I have for people from the US is how many people there would be fearful of the financial harm of such an adventure, let alone the stress such an intense situation carries already? Yes, many people with less threatening issues wait a few hours in A&E and that night I probably contributed to some of them having to hang around a bit in that hospital as did the people with heart attacks and other life-threatening emergencies but, having worked around the world including the US, I can assure everyone the same is true everywhere. Would have been fair if you had included how much specialists make in NHS vs what you earn in the US as a specialist! A large part of our high costs is all the high earning professionals in our system who would not give up their plush life too easily.. and are highly organized (AMA) with well-paid lobbying efforts. Be honest, are you willing to give up your lifestyle to be in a system like the NHS? Yes, I am aware there are other highly paid professionals as well.. pharma executives, hospital owners and executives, PBM executives.. but you are one of them. Please tell us how US could be more like UK once you have done something to push your own AMA to allow that! ImmigrantInBritain says: I think it’s another post to keep NHS. A lot of people complaining about NHS. It will be shut down anyway. Any of such a stories will not going to help to keep it. NHS is absolutely corrupt organization and should be shut down. Everything is very slow and huge discrimination going inside. It has lack of efficiency. It is just one story from million. You been lucky enough to solve everything fast and media picked your story to promote as good NHS practice, but in reality nothing happens like this. Everyone is very personal. If they will decide that they don’t like you because you are black, gay/not gay/put yours you will not going to receive proper service. If all doctors will be independent and private than they will have to work hard and only those who really deserve will be rewarded. Now rewarded those who have better relationships with management. IMMIGRANTINBRITAIN ? You may be an immigrant bu I think you may be being paid to write this by the very unsavoury UK Taxpayers Alliance, a very nasty lobby indeed, or by the equally nasty Conservative Party. David Peltz says: That’s the best comparative description of the two systems I’ve read, despite it opposing my previously held view. Thank you. A [very sad] update on NHS charging: in OCT2017 the UK Conservative government changed the regulations to start charging “overseas visitors” for all non-ED (non-A&E or non-ER) NHS hospital treatment, with even privately insured patients required to pay up front or, in the case of clinician-determined urgent treatment, within 2 months of discharge (far too short to be reimbursed by most US insurance providers). Punishment for non-payment is deportation (“administrative removal”) or being reported to UK Immigration for future visa and entry denial together with engagement of debt collectors, who may or may not have mob connections. Austerity sucks, conservatism sucks, market fundamentalist capitalism sucks! All must be crushed. Leave a Reply to Marie Dyer Cancel reply	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1204
__label__cc	0.519434	0.480566	2011 PG-13 1h 39m Blu-ray / DVD After he's laid off from his longtime job at a soulless retail giant, average middle-aged guy Larry Crowne decides it's time to change his life by heading back to college, where he finds a new perspective -- and a new romance with a professor. Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Bryan Cranston, Cedric the Entertainer, Taraji P. Henson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wilmer Valderrama, Pam Grier Comedy, Romantic Comedies Feel-good, Romantic Blu-ray• DVD Widescreen Anamorphic 2.40:1 English SDH, French, Spanish (Neutral) English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: DVS - Descriptive Video Service Widescreen 2:40:1 English SDH, French, Spanish (Neutral), English DVS English: DTS 5.1 HD, English: DVS - Descriptive Video Service PG-13 - Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13. Parents are urged to be cautious. Some material may be inappropriate for pre-teenagers. Common Sense rating OK for kids 13+ Common Sense Note Parents need to know that this drama stars Tom Hanks as a recently downsized man adrift in life who decides to go to college. Julia Roberts co-stars as a bitter teacher stuck in a bad marriage who relishes her end-of-day drinks just a bit more than she should. The film's messages about finding unexpected joy in life are positive and uplifting, but unfortunately they're delivered in a superficial way. Expect some flirting and kissing, brief but strong swearing (including "f--k"), and ogling of online photos of bikini-clad women. One character drives drunk -- but there are consequences for that decision. Some flirting and one exuberant, drunken kiss. One character is briefly seen perusing women in bikinis on the Internet; he later discusses his habits and preferences. A couple gets into a heated argument. A man delivers steely glares to another man whom he thinks may have a crush on his girlfriend, despite evidence to the contrary. One brief, intense argument between a married couple features "screw you" and the F-word. Also infrequent use of words like "c--k," "ass," "damn," "hell," and "oh my God." The movie's message is that while life can deliver plenty of bumps and bruises, there's happiness awaiting those who are willing to open their heart to the unexpected and embrace change. Getting laid off, breaking up, losing a home -- all of these can seem very negative, on the surface, but they can also lead to positive new experiences. Motor scooters play an important role in Larry's social evolution. He rides a battered Yamaha, while some of his new friends ride classic Vespas. Drugs / Tobacco / Alcohol One character drinks regularly to wash away the frustrations from her job, though she later begins to temper her habits. Another gets behind the wheel after drinking and is later arrested for driving while intoxicated. Not an issue Depends on your child and your family Parents strongly cautioned Not appropriate for kids of the age This information for parents is provided by Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving kids' media lives.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1206
__label__wiki	0.647862	0.647862	Disbelieving Cubs Fans React to Magical World Series Win, May Make You Cry Townsquare Staff The Chicago Cubs erased the burden of carrying a frustrated fan base's disappointment for 108 years with their intense World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians. It's a story bigger than sports -- it's reflection of how loyal fans can be and how they can finally be rewarded for sticking by their team (a lesson this Indians fan will hopefully remember), knowing that some things will one day end. There's the scene outside of Wrigley, which erupted after the final out: There's the man who broke down in tears. That's going to cause your eyes to well up, as will this image of fans who used the occasion to pay tribute to fans who died without ever seeing their beloved Cubbies hoist a World Series trophy. This little boy hasn't been around long enough to have experienced the level of anxiety and frustration other fans have, but he still was overcome by the moment: This senior citizen also savored the moment, as did a few other old-timers who may have never thought they'd see the Cubs win the title: If your heart wants to be tugged some more, look no further than this man who listened to the seventh game of the Series on the radio at his father's gravestone. Those are all certainly moving, but maybe you're looking for something a little more amusing, like this man who stashed a beer away after the Cubs blew the NLCS in 1984. And, to top it off, the Cubs released this video after the final out. And, yes, that's huge fan Eddie Vedder singing. Filed Under: Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, MLB, World Series	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1215
__label__wiki	0.662625	0.662625	WaterMatters Water Supply History 1 About 1 Climate and Geology 10 General Water Supply History 11 Water Treatment and Purification 12 Water Distribution 2 Southend Waterworks Company 21 Langford Water Treatment Plant 22 Langford Quality Control 23 Rivers Chelmer and Blackwater 24 Sewage Effluents 25 Langford Peculiarities 26 Langford Wildlife 27 The War Years 28 Essex Earthquake 3 South Essex Waterworks Co 30 Hanningfield Water Joint Management Committee 4 Essex Water Company 41 Essex and Suffolk Water Company 42 Museum of Power 43 Maldon Museum in the Park 5 Chelmsford Water Supply 51 Maldon’s Water Supply 52 Colchester Water Supply 73 Borneo and Malaysia 8 Author 9 Acknowledgements and References 6 EEL’s Maldon Borough Council Area Springs and Shallow wells The Geology of Maldon Town is fundamentally London Clay but topped with a layer of glacial sand and gravel allowing for early shallow springs and wells, prior to drilling through the London Clay to the water bearing chalk beneath. Initially people were obtaining their water from ponds, and springs, around the Town. According to the a Tythe Map of 1838, apart from the Ware or Public pond in Spital road, there were several in the immediate area, all spring fed. At least three were for irrigating orchards, there was one at The Friary, and another just off Back Lane. Thomas Cammock, in 1587 improved the Cromwell well supply in Cromwell Close by installing a lead pipe to carry water from a public spring and shallow well in Beeleigh road, to a lead lined tank and hand pump in Cromwell Hill, which was then known as St Ellen’s Lane, closer to the town market place. This was to improve the existing supply in Cromwell Close, which was insufficient to supply his Mansion and the local population.The existing springs were gathered in a covered well head which gravitated to the lead cistern. A current unused replacement pump from 1908 still exists on the site. His effigy along with two wives and seventeen children is to be found on the wall inside All Saints Church. Water overflowed From the tank or cistern down the hill to be used by merchants who were issued with licences for the purpose. In 1640 a Thomas Patten received a lease for 10 years, and in 1653 a Robert Banyard from Bermondsey applied for a licence to use the water at his tannery at the bottom of Market Hill. This Spring supply was given a clean bill of health by the Medical Officer of Maldon in 1860, but then became insufficient due to the increase in population, and polluted from cesspits, from properties up hill. Effigy of Thomas Cammock in All Saints Church, Maldon (DNW Photo ) The Crom Well, Beeleigh Road, Maldon. The well head has been rebuilt by the owner, in keeping with its original design. The Cromwell Pump, Cromwell Lane (DNW ) In December 1694, Thomas Stace bought some ground on the Fullbridge Street from the Corporation, containing a well. He then had an agreement that local citizens could take water from the well free, unless using a horse drawn butts or containers. It was then charged at one penny per butt. Deep wells and Boreholes. It was not until the early 1860’s that boreholes were dug down to the chalk, in Wantz Road for a flour mill, which was then used for public supply in 1862, after being deepened to 290 ft. This was followed by wells in Spital Road the first in 1870, 5ft in diameter and 234 ft deep. A second well was dug in 1911 6ft diameter and 200 ft deep bored to 634 ft deep. A small reservoir behind the well site was built to smooth out peak flows. They were initially pumped using steam driven pumps. There were additional wells supplying such as The workhouse ( now St Peters Hospital), Gray’s brewery, a Flour mill, Warren’s Foundry, Northey Island the Railway Station, and of course Bentall’s at Heybridge. From 1868 to 1880 Boreholes at Bentalls supplied not only the works but greenhouses growing cucumbers, melons and a vinery. In 1942 a 30 year agreement was signed to also supply the local population of Heybridge. In the 1862 the Maldon Water Supply Company was also set up, in 1997 there was transfers of Debenture Bonds from Mary Jane Foster of Great Totham to Thomas Handley Barbrook of 34 Market Hill and Susannah Harvey Baker of Langford Mill, to Sam Lewin and William J Strutt. In 1898 Royal Assent was Granted for the Maldon Corporation to take over the Maldon Water Supply Company. A Superintendent Manager was appointed in 1899 at £75 per annum there was also a Secretary at £50 per annum to manage the works and 1500 customers, send invoices and keep the accounts. An Engineer, supplied with a House, including rent, fire and light and paid £ 16/6 an hour to drive the Spital Road and Wantz Road engines, and also repairs to Wantz Road, Mill Road, Cross Road, and Queen Street. He had an Assistant paid £1.10 shillings per week. There was also a Turncock, whos job was to clean the engines, Cart Coal into the Engine shed and attend to valves for 16 Shillings a week. In 1936 there was a proposal to rebuild the wooden timber framed pumping station in brick, and replace the gas engines with oil fuelled. An electric submersible pump was also to be installed, alongside the existing triple ram pumps. SPITAL ROAD WELL In Spital road there was also a covered reservoir and land nearby for a tower. The wells, purchased by the Corporation in 1899, supplied only the Borough, with a population of 5383 in 1891. In 1899 it was reported by the Medical Officer of Heath that higher houses often were without water for a day or two, and in localities inhabited by the poorer classes there was no supply on Sunday!! The Borehole building in Spital Road, which has been converted into a house but with the well still present under the floor visible though a glass panel (DNW) The Spital Road Waterworks Engine House Well of 1898, had a dug shaft of 200 ft deep 6 ft wide, the rest bored. The water level was at 160 ft down. The yield was 180 gallons per hour with the pump at 420 ft down. Composition Thickness Depth Ft Ft Soil 4 4 London Clay 190 194 Oldhaven Beds 46 252 Woolwich Beds 35 287 Thanet Sands 61 348 Flints 2 350 Upper Chalk 284 634 The deep boring in 1910 resulted in an increase in Chloride content from 363 mg/l to 505 mg/l In 1899, the Borough Engineer reported to the Council that:- Tenders had been sent out to lay mains in Spital Road, An application had been received by a Mr A.C Sargeant to extend water supply to two WC’s at the rear of 27/01 in North Street with a cistern and flushing tanks. The service recently laid to Mr Wade’s cottages have had to be repaired caused by a Traction Engine going over and stripping the threads from the main. A delay in serving the town with water caused, by leakages in Spital Road, was caused by the men engaged for the repair, having struck for higher wages. The aid of the Borough Surveyor was solicited, to allow his men to open the road to effect the repair. Maldon Water Tower circa 1933 (DNW ) In 1933, a bulk metered supply was made available from the Southend Waterworks Company, and a Tower was built in Cherry Garden Road. The SWC supply was only used sparingly as it had to be paid for by the Council. Both Spital and Wantz Road wells were permanently shut down in the mid 1970’s with all water supplied from Langford via a new covered storage reservoir in London Road. Teeth affected by a high Fluoride level in borehole water. Due to the high level of Fluoride in the Maldon boreholes, Maldon residents developed discoloured teeth which were resistant to decay, and which appeared to be peculiar to Maldon. A Government inspired investigation took place in 1922 involving school children to identify the cause. this was only apparent where people received neat borehole water. Where it was mixed with the SWC supply the discolouration was not apparent. As the population grew the dilution became greater until, it ceased altogether. The observed decay resistance eventually lead to fluoride tablets for children, and fluoride currently being added to most toothpaste. Maldon Covered Reservoir DNW Photo Currently Maldon, Heybridge and Burnham are normally supplied with softened water from the Langford works, whilst the remaining Maldon District is supplied with hard water from the Langham/Layer treatment works. They can receive Langham/Layer water in winter when demand is low and Langford Treatment Plant is shut down. Maldon Rural District Council This comprises 32 parishes with a variation in population ranging from 111 to 1700 in 1901. Woodham Mortimer, Althorne, Latchingdon, Purleigh, Stow Maries, Hazeleigh and Mundon, have no shallow well or spring supplies due to lack of shallow gravel strata. The area elevation ranged from 20ft at Purleigh Wash to 173 ft at Hazeleigh White Hart, above sea level. A source had to be found above 200 ft above sea level to allow distribution without pumping. However many private deep wells were dug to supply farms and properties away from the Maldon distribution system. A few are still in use across the Dengie Peninsula, which are monitored by the Environmental Health Department of the District Council. In 1897 a scheme was introduced by Maldon RDC for a waterworks situated at Woodham Walter, at a cost of £13,000. Springs at Warren Bottom and Jacob’s Well were collected in a tank and using steam driven pumps, the water was pumped to a reservoir opposite the entrance to the Warren Golf Course, and then gravitated through to Althorne supplying 8 parishes. 597 houses were to be supplied that were within 200 ft of the water main. Cottages to be charged at 2p per week and farms 9p to raise £260 per annum. Isolated properties were supplied by a man with a horse and cart, twice a week at a farthing a pail. Purleigh supply from Woodham Walter springs and Burnham Town Supply Asheldham Tower In 1894, springs at Asheldham, yielding about 50,000 gallons per day, from a large gravel bed, were pumped using steam pumps into a 70 ft tower of 15,000 galls to supply Southminster with a population of 1430, and the surrounding area. The cost being approx £2000. In 1905, water for the school at Mayland, had to be carted over half a mile from a standpipe at Althorne, as the cost of extending the mains from Purleigh being considered prohibitive. Also in Tollesbury there were three public wells, and very many private wells, with the supplies being deficient and unsatisfactory quality. An adequate public supply was an urgent necessity as there was insufficient water to flush the sewers. There as one deep well on the marshes sunk to supply cattle. The light Railway from Kelvedon had also just been completed. Burnham Urban District Council In 1677 John Stanley of Burnham was in court for keeping a hogsty near the water course, that supplied the town well, making the water unfit for use In approx 1889, a small waterworks was created from shallow tube wells and a reservoir in the gravel. This rapidly became insufficient and Burnham Urban District Council formed in October 1898 approved a deep well to be constructed for commissioning in 1901. This was 420 ft deep into the Thanet sands with 11.5 inch pipes almost to the bottom. As this terminated in the Thanet sands and not the Chalk, sand being pumped into supply was a continuous problem and a small reservoir acting as a sand filter was constructed along with a water tower. The supply was augmented in 1960 by a supply from the Langford works, when the 12 inch main supplying Bradwell power station was laid. Soon after the Essex Water Company was formed in 1971 taking over responsibility for this area, the underground supply was terminated due to the sand problem and midge penetration of the sand filter. The area surrounding Burnham is supplied from water from South Essex via the Cold Norton and St Lawrence Towers.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1217
__label__cc	0.525057	0.474943	BLUEPRINT, PODCAST BluEPrint 12: Brand Parnerships – Collaboration Dreams and Nightmares When audiences align, sparks fly. Build a win-win relationship with a partner, and it will extend your marketing reach and bring in new customers. Successful co-branding can create something that is so much more than the sum of its parts, and that is what we want to talk about in this edition of the bluEPrint series. When Two Brands Have Chemistry: Shared Values and Partnerships Whether it’s a short-term or long-term, casual or committed, branding collaborations can generate exciting opportunities for both organizations involved. Here are some examples of partnerships that sizzle. Match Made in Media Red Bull gives you wings, GoPro gives you the view: Both these brands embody an action-packed lifestyle, and these shared values gives them a thrilling and fulfilling partnerships. Together, they sponsor global adventurers to capture great experiences, like draining a water park for an epic skateboard session. Finger-lickin’ good stories: KFC and DC comics released a graphic novel on Colonel Sanders battling his evil self, surprising hungry New York Comic-Con attendees. The shockingly good satirical comic pokes fun of Colonel Sanders and the 1961 “The Flash of Two Worlds” right in time for KFC’s 75th anniversary. Don Draper approves Heinz ad: In 2017, fiction merged with reality when a classic ad from Mad Men took its place as an official ad for Heinz. What could be a classier take for a classic condiment? The simple print series gives the viewer a close-up view on typical ketchup foods with the words, “Pass the Heinz” above. In Support of a Good Cause Canada Goose with Inuit Style: Canada Goose’s Project Atigi (the Inuktitut word for parka) partners with designers from nine communities in Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. They’ve created unique designs that will sell for $5000-$7500 with proceeds going towards Inuit Tapiriit , an organization that advocates for the rights of 60,000 Inuit in Canada. Wattpad against texting and driving: AT&T partnered with Wattpad to commission a top influencer to write serialized fiction including texting and driving. The series, Weeping Willow, received over 6 million impressions with ads placed strategically throughout the campaign. 97% readers reporting being more cautious when driving. Tech Companies Refresh Traditional Giants Remember when Burger King hijacked Google Home devices to recite the ingredients of the Whopper? Brands are clamoring to share the limelight with technological platforms, but they’re much better when both parties agree to it. Here are some examples of more productive partnerships that tie in seamlessly with both brands involved. Run, Spotify, run!: Everyone’s favorite music streamer offers integration with Nike+ Run Club. They even offer Pace Stations to match the runner’s speed. To navigate your journey, Spotify also teamed up with Google Maps so users can seamlessly switch songs without getting lost. Disney stories find a new magic with Google Home: Parents can read stories to their kids with sound effects using Google Home and the Disney App. The technology takes in account skipping ahead or going back to favorite parts in the story. Ford and Lyft building self-driving cars: They’re not building prototypes just for the sake of it, this partnership intends to put thousands of self-driving vehicles in use. Together, they are designing software to allow Ford vehicles to communicate with Lyft’s smartphone apps. Transportation Teamwork Fresh spoils for the hungry: HelloFresh, the grocery delivery service partners with Spoiler Alert which manages unsold inventory. Together, they have decreased organic waste by 65% and donated over a million meals to local communities. We describe other sustainable food partnerships like Loop’s durable packaging program in our Foresights on the Food Frontier white paper. A night in with Foodora and 7-Eleven: If you’re having a sick day, you can order take-out and Tylenol through Foodora. This food delivery app is partnering with 7-Eleven to deliver convenience store essentials, including snack food, sanitary products and condoms. Waze to a morning donut: Not only can Waze update you on traffic, their order ahead feature can also get you the best route to Dunkin’ Donuts. This is the first partnership for this feature, and lets users pinpoint the closest DD before they start their drive. 10 High-Profile Brand Partnerships That Struck Gold – Entrepreneur Fails and Wins: Unlikely Matches With all these wonderful stories, we still want to be realistic about business relationships. Maybe you have an alluring partnership in mind, but you’re not sure if they have the potential to hurt you. Once upon a time, Costco stopped serving Coke and left them for Pepsi. Even the Beetles broke up. Here are some stories on why you might want to sign a prenup before getting involved. Ones that didn’t work out Vogue and Vice break up before they begin: The joint editorial Vogue and Vice planned to start remains unborn. After the New York Times published its investigation on Vice’s sexual harassment allegations, sponsors of the partnership pulled out leaving the venture on an indefinite pause. Pepsi and Kendall Jenner Fizz out: To reach out to activist movements, Pepsi made a faux-pas ad campaign positioning Pepsi as the solution to complex societal problems. After a tidal wave of criticism, they pulled down their ad. Ones that did Chevrolet embraces critics with Lego Batman: Chevrolet’s incredibly staged “Real People, Not Actors” campaign was torn apart by internet mockery. In order to bounce back, they partnered with Warner-Brothers and made fun of themselves with a Lego version of their original campaign flop. Enemies become friends (ride sharing + public transit): Uber is partnering with transit systems to build flexibility into the customer’s commute. Meanwhile, Lyft is partnering with health providers to help patients get to their appointments for non-emergency medical situations. What do you think about these topics? If you have ideas on what you’d like to see or a case study you’d like to share, let us know! The Tech Edition: Between Zero and Full Automation One Little Part: Our Digital Transformation in Manufacturing	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1219
__label__wiki	0.598829	0.598829	Theatre and Globalization Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) 4.7 (86 calificaciones) \| 5.3K estudiantes inscritos Learn how theatre and globalization have affected each other over the past century, and how to conduct your own research on global theatre histories. 4.7 (86 calificaciones) This course has helped me to step into understanding Globalisation in the Indian context. Theatre and Globalization should be core module in any Theatre Studies Programme. Festivalization, Megamusical and Theatrical Global Media Festivals, Megamusicals, and Livestreaming; how contemporary types of theatre reflect globalization and new technologies. Introduction 1:43 Theatre Festivals4:50 Megamusicals 4:00 Interview with Christina Lagao 10:30 Interview with David Savran 9:34 New Theatre Buildings 3:45 Transmedia Storytelling3:27 Theatrical Global Media: Livecast 9:05 Christopher Balme How do we theorize theater and performance of this kind? These venues represent another understanding of theater for which we do not really have a critical vocabulary. We could dismiss it, of course, as a performance version of airport art. A standardized, high-priced luxury commodity that circulates around an ever growing network of similar venues. We could, of course, say the same of festivals, where we saw that they are an essential factor in sustaining and distributing experimental work. These new venues appear to be doing something similar. They are global, not in the sense that they produce a standardized commodity, but in that they provide much needed economic support for the companies and groups they invite. We need to compare this new kind of global theater with more conventional approaches. Traditionally, we would deal with a playwright, director or actor linked to his or her city or country by locale and language. This we could call the metonymic approach. The English playwright Harold Pinter, the German Director, Peter Stein and so on. In the metonymic approach, the artist stands in for, represents more general qualities and characteristics of a particular country or culture. The artist is first analyzed in terms of his or her intrinsic style and approach. But in the second step, such individual characteristics are often placed in relation to cultural, often national contexts and features. So when we analyze global theater venues, we should not be looking for metonymic relations, but rather for networks of connections and interrelationships in the programming. That brings together such heterogeneous offerings. This is another example of the connectivity that we've identified as being integral to theatrical globalization since the 19th century. Connectivity in the mega music business, for example, needs to be understood in another way as well as connectivity between media. Musicals can be adapted from films, TV shows, even comics, which themselves are available in different media. A new term has be coined by the scholar of popular culture, Henry Jenkins to explain this phenomenon. He calls transmedia storytelling. As Jenkins defines it, transmedia storytelling represent a process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience. Ideally, each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story. Jenkins is thinking about digital media, film and computer games, for example, but the phenomenon applies to theater as well. The spectator at the Tarzan musical probably knows the Disney film, the comics, perhaps even the original novels. And certainly, the Phil Collins sound track. Each experience is unique. And the theatrical version offers a Dolby surround experience that surpasses even the cinema. The cinema leads to our final topic in this module, theatrical live casts.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1222
__label__wiki	0.894268	0.894268	Relations and business of Sergiu Cebotari, which was detained by Nisporeni Police Inspectorate Sergiu Cebotari, an active member of “Dignity and Truth” Platform Party of convicted fugitives Victor and Viorel Topa, was detained for 72 hours by the officers of Nisporeni Police Inspectorate. On his name were opened two penal cases for forced labor and one for embezzlement in huge proportions. The chief of Nisporeni Police Inspectorate has declared that Sergiu Cebotari was summoned to police many times this month. Because he did not come, he was brought forcefully from his house in Chisinau. At the same time, during a press briefing, the deputy chief of the Penal Prosecution Department of Police General Inspectorate, Ruslan Ojog, announced that there are registered 17 victims of Sergiu Cebotari, and the amount of caused prejudice is 400,000 lei. Cebotari, former employer of State Enterprise “Posta Moldovei”, has previously declared to media that, through this institution, anabolic substances were illegally transported abroad. The Parliament has created a special committee to verify the activity of the enterprise. The democrat deputy Marcel Raducanu, member of the committee, declared that Cebotari was interrogated, but he did not present any evidence. Previously, today.md had conducted an investigation in which is shown that Sergiu Cebotari have stripped many farmers from lands and the crops from previous years. Sergiu Cebotari is also accused by a 35-year-old man from Floresti that 11 years ago Cebotari sequestered, beat and threatened him with death for a debt of 750 euro. The young man was beaten in the street, taken by force with a car and kept in a basement for 24 hours. The young man claims that Sergiu Cebotaru got out from trouble because he had good relations with police. business, DA Platform Party, Nisporeni Police Inspectorate, relations, Sergiu Cebotari toate TAG-urile Kidnapped, beaten and menaced to be killed by a member of the Dignity and Truth Platform Party Member of DA Platform, Sergiu Cebotari, was detained by Nisporeni Police Inspectorate Details in case of detention of Sergiu Cebotari, member of DA Platform Party	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1228
__label__wiki	0.531478	0.531478	Govt can't give even a penny to NAC in current situation: Oli Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has said the government cannot provide even a penny in loan or investment to the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) in the current situation. Addressing the 61st anniversary of the national flag carrier on Monday, PM Oli, who is also overseeing the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation after the death of Rabindra Adhikari, made it clear that the government will not provide money until the NAC's management improves. The NAC has been demanding budget with the government after struggling to repay installments for the loan taken to procure wide-body planes. "There are planes but no pilots. No destinations. There is no certainty about destinations. Management is chaotic. We should bring strategic partner if you can't handle. Do it fast if you can," Oli stated. He also warned the management to not remain in illusion that the government will provide money with closed eyes as it is the national flag carrier. "We cannot give money when you demand so many billions without doing the necessary works. There must be guarantee of good management for that." He added that the government can make any kind of intervention for successful operation of the NAC. He said the institution should not always depend on the government. Reminding that airlines is not a thing of charity even though it is a service, he pointed that its operation is not like that of a health camp. "What is the progress of 62 years? There is debt of Rs 39 billion. This is not a sector of charity," he stressed. "You must earn yourself. We bought six planes but there are no persons to fly them. We procured wide-body planes but there are no destinations. Only the NAC is in loss. Everyone including those who work there, use the planes and fly them are making profit. Why is the NAC alone in loss?" He also warned the NAC management for trying to fly to wrong places instead of choosing the right destinations. He raised questions about trying to fly to other Japanese cities instead of Narita. He said the NAC should operate in full capacity as the government is preparing to celebrate Visit Nepal 2020. Published Date: Monday, Ashar 16, 2076, 14:42:36 Boeing is working on a new software issue on the 737 Max China’s economic growth weakens to multi-decade low of 6.1% amid trade war US, China reach trade deal Ex-Nissan chief flees Japan ahead of trial Huawei sales rise 18% in 2019 despite US pressure Boeing sacks CEO after two deadly 737 Max crashes	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1230
__label__cc	0.69054	0.30946	Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington IU Bloomington Creative Activity Applying Knowledge from IU to a Malawi Community By: Kelsey Blaylock, Engaged Learning Student Media Team After traveling to Malawi in the summer of 2016 with Circle of Hope International as a volunteer, Meghan Munson knew she wanted to return to Malawi as an intern. Munson is a junior at Indiana University majoring in Public Policy and Business Analytics in the Kelley School of Business. She returned to Malawi this past summer with Circle of Hope International, a ministry-based organization in Wilmore, Kentucky and completed a month-long internship. Circle of Hope International partners with Grace Alliance Church, a group of Malawians who seek to alleviate poverty in Malawian communities through education, economic development, and healthcare programs. Munson transferred to Indiana University from Indiana Wesleyan after her freshman year, where she connected with Circle of Hope International through their partnership. Circle of Hope International provides a school, orphanage, and an economic development program in the Dowa District of Malawi. As an intern, Munson took on multiple roles of working in the school, economic program, and their ministry team. She was able to strengthen her relationships with Malawian friends from the previous summer and build new ones as well. Within the economic program, Munson utilized her skills that she gained from her Business, Government, & Society course at Indiana University. She also completed a Contemporary Africa class outside of the business school, which deepened her understanding of African culture. While in Malawi, Munson worked regularly with Amayi Lumbe, who established a textile shop in her community, and learned more about Amayi’s experiences running a woman-owned business. Munson combined her studies in Kelley with Amayi’s guidance to gain more insight in consultation and project management to learn how small businesses grow. That was a neat way to use my skills that I’ve been learning at IU and knowledge I've been gaining from my classes to help and learn from someone from across the world In addition to working with Amayi in the textile shop, Munsen traveled every weekend to a different surrounding village with the ministry team, where she participated in worship services and counseling sessions. Munson also delivered two speaking engagements, which was how she gained such strong friendships with her Malawian peers. After interning in Malawi for a month, Munson gained a deeper understanding of what it means to be an active, globally-minded citizen. “I think there is a stigma specifically with Africa that it’s sunken in poverty, and we can just send money over to them and that will help. With me, even going for a short time helps, but it's more of teaching individuals there what you have learned here that betters both sides, and that was a big piece of it,” said Munson. Munson highly suggests studying abroad and learning more about different cultures if given the opportunity. “Going to any country will expand your perspective on life here by seeing how others live daily there. It's a humbling reality check, but in the best way possible,” said Munson. To learn more about studying, interning, or volunteering abroad, visit the IU Office of Overseas Studies.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1235
__label__cc	0.607199	0.392801	Engineering Management Institute EMI Training Programs People Skills and Leadership Project Management Accelerator Online Workshop Business Development Training The Engineering Career Coach Podcast The Civil Engineering Podcast Women in Civil Engineering The Structural Engineering Channel TCEP 004: The Civil Engineering Podcast – How to Improve Your Business Development Skills as a Civil Engineer May 20, 2015 By EMI http://media.blubrry.com/engineeringcareercoach/p/traffic.libsyn.com/civilengineeringpodcast/TCEP004.mp3 In this episode of The Civil Engineering Podcast, Chris and I talk about effective business development — what it means, why it’s important, and how to do it. We also talk about the other skills you need to develop as a professional civil engineer, like how to build relationships with clients, within your industry and community, and how all of these factors are critical in helping you bring in more business. Also in this episode, for our Civil Engineering Project of the Week segment, we take a closer look at the Willis Tower (also still known as the Sears Tower by many). In this episode, you’ll learn: What effective business development really means and why it’s important to you as a civil engineer The skills you’ll need to network effectively and how to develop them Civil Engineering Career Elevator Advice – A quick, career-building tip on how to maximize involvement in professional associations “Relationships… is what drives all business development”. The Civil Engineering Podcast episode 4: #TCEPodcast “Remember, it’s about them, and not about you”. Tune in to #TCEPodcast ep. 4 – Effective Business Development here: “People want to do business with people that they trust and people that they like.” Tune in to #TCEPodcast episode 4: Civil Engineering Project of the Week: Willis Tower Project Overview: The Willis Tower, built as and still commonly referred to as Sears Tower is a 108-story, 442-meter skyscraper in the heart of downtown Chicago. It is the second-tallest building in the United States and the 12th-tallest in the world. More than one million people visit its observation deck each year, making it one of Chicago’s most popular tourist destinations. The structure was renamed in 2009 by the Willis Group as part of its lease on a portion of the tower’s space. Project Location: The Willis Tower is located at Chicago, Illinois. Project Size: At the time of completion in 1973, the Willis Tower beat out the World Trade Center in New York as the tallest building in the world, a distinction it held for 25 years. The building contains over 4-1/2 million gross square feet, which would cover 16-square blocks, or 105-acres, if spread across one level. The stats for the building are, as you would expect for skyscraper, pretty impressive – more than 225,000 tons of steel, 25 miles of plumbing, 1,500 miles of electric wiring, 80 miles of elevator cable, and 145,000 light fixtures. Project Budget (Construction): $175 million at time of construction, or equivalent of $800 million in 2015. Of interesting note, in March of this year the building changed hands again at a present-day cost of $1.3 billion, considered to be the highest amount paid for a building outside Manhattan. Project Completion (Month/Year or Expected Completion Date): Construction started in 1970 and was completed in 1973 with around 2,000 workers involved. Links and Resources Mentioned in Episode Engineering Career Success Summit (http://engineeringevent.com/) Ari Tinkoff, Managing Director/Assoc Principal at BR+A (https://www.linkedin.com/pub/ari-tinkoff-pe/4/456/744) Sylvia Montgomery, Professional services marketer — specializing in AEC (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sylviamontgomery) Shana Carroll, PE, LEED AP BD+C, Soil Improvement Expert, Blogger, and Traveler (https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanaopdyke) K.C. Reed, PE, Associate / Principal Engineer, Dewberry, Frederick, Maryland Office (http://www.dewberry.com) Mark Osler, Assistant Vice President, Michael Baker Jr., Inc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/markosler) John Woods, PE, Principal (http://www.woodspeacock.com/engineering/about-us/principals/) Books Mentioned in Episode How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie Go-Givers Sell More – Bob Burg and John David Mann Win More Work: How to Write Winning A/E/C Proposals – Jim R. Rogers Please leave your comments or questions in the section below. If you enjoyed this post, please consider downloading our free list of 33 Productivity Routines of Top Engineering Executives. Click the button below to download. Download the Productivity Routines Anthony Fasano, PE, LEED AP Author of Engineer Your Own Success Sources/References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Tower http://www.willistower.com http://www.hpbmagazine.org/attachments/article/12015/10Sp-Willis-Tower-Chicago-IL.pdf http://khan.princeton.edu/khanSears.html Filed Under: Business Development, TCEP-The Civil Engineering Podcast Tagged With: business development, ECSS 2015, Willis Tower Business/Entrepreneurship Career Goals and Challenges Communication/Public Speaking Job Search/Salary/Relocation Networking/Client Relations Organization/Productivity/Time Management Personal Development and Professionalism Engineering Career TV TCEP-The Civil Engineering Podcast Communication & Public Speaking Ethics/Integrity TECC Podcast-The Engineering Career Coach Podcast Career Game Changers TSEC-The Structural Engineering Channel Copyright © 2020 • All Rights Reserved • Property of Engineering Management Institute • Powered by SPECIAL DOWNLOAD 33 Productivity Routines of Top Engineering Executives	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1236
__label__wiki	0.595447	0.595447	Informed by artistic traditions from the Americas to Africa and beyond, and by her mixed racial upbringing, Alison Saar fuses her paradoxical responses to the black-and-white delineations of political and social forces into a powerful, visual, and kinesthetic tension. She uses the everyday experience, history and associations of her materials, African art and ritual, Greek mythology, and the stark sculptural tradition of German Expressionism to infuse her work with a primal intensity that challenges cultural and historic references and stereotypes. The metaphorical armature supporting, entwining, embracing this selection of new sculpture is the myriad of meanings for the word “still.” Saar teases out the complexities of this little noun/verb in bold and subtle ways. Four stylized glass “stills” express the personal and political challenges of being an artist, woman, and mother in the twenty-first century. These interactive idiosyncratic stills attempt to distill the vile essence of bigotry and transform it into consciousness. Only through awareness and informed mindfulness can negative representations be dispelled and converted into positive reflections. In contrast to the rustic, mechanical, fragmented feel of the stills, are Saar’s figures. These various hybrid creatures stem from trees or boast antlers. They stand at the threshold, caught or balancing between free will and innate evolution. They are mythical portends of inevitable change – shedding fertility to reveal the next saga. Rouse (located at the back of the gallery) depicts a strong, dark, compact woman with a semi-transparent embryonic shell of a female figure nestled and bound inside her large antlers. Saar’s inspiration for this work is watching her daughter grow from a teenager to an adult. It also mirrors her desire to remake herself, to emerge from one state of creative pursuit and production to another. Saar, an alumna from Otis’ Graduate Fine Arts program in 1981, is a mature and significant sculptor who has achieved broad recognition for her studio and public art throughout the country. Her work is held in many collections including the Museum of Modern Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and Metropolitan Museum of Art; and she has major public art works in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. She has received numerous prestigious awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, Anonymous Was a Woman, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Saar’s work echoes an entirely American process of spiritual and political bifurcation, and the evolution of historical recovery. As Lowry Stokes Sims, Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design, wrote, “Alison Saar’s library of references is as varied and rich as her own heritage. Her special gift lies in her ability to translate the personal and the culturally specific in such a way that it embodies concerns that not only transcend race but also gender.”* Meg Linton, Director of Galleries and Exhibitions Curator of the Exhibition, OTIS Ben Maltz Gallery This exhibition was organized by the Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design. Funded in part by the Contemporary Collectors – Orange County. All artworks are lent by the artist and courtesy LA Louver, Venice, CA. This exhibition will be on view February 9-April 14, 2013 Alison Saar: STILL... Artist Talk • 7 pm Thursday, March 14 Docent-led Tours for Alison Saar: STILL... 1:30 pm Sunday, March 3, 10, 17, 24 6 pm Thursday, March 14, 28 and April 11 This exhibition is sponsored by: *Lowry Stokes Sims, “Alison Saar’s Feallan and Fallow: Seasons, Colors, Race and Gender,” in Feallan and Fallow: Alison Saar. New York: Mad. Sq. Art, 2011, p. 43. images: (above) Rouse, 2012, Wood, bronze, paper and antler sheds; 90 x 76 x 73 inches. Photo: Chris Warner; (left) Still Run Dry (detail), 2012, Detail; Glass, copper, rubber, lead and steel; 75 x 116 x 14 inches. Photo: Chris Warner Rose Frantzen: Portrait of Maquoketa and the Storytelling Tree	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1242
__label__cc	0.597219	0.402781	Fandom Lenses Life as viewed through silliness, Fandom as seen through Reality How much to protect your heart: The Monkees in Cleveland (again), June 5, 2016 June 7, 2016 by Sarah Clark 1 Comment There is no obligatory throwback intro. That’s because nothing obvious sprung to mind around which I could frame this review. I could have talked about listening to She Makes Me Laugh as the plane descended over the Cleveland skyline, thinking of Anissa, who I was still grieving when i flew in to town for my first serving of Gazpacho and who IS the subject of that song for me. I could have written about the first meeting of Melanie and my fellow charter members of the Frodis Femmes, and the Instant Click that proved she was an appropriate new member of our sisterhood. I could have written about touring the Christmas Story house/museum/gift shop, gazing at the cornucopia of themed shirts, mugs, flagpoles, BB Guns, and above all Leg Lamps in every size, and wondering if that’s where Clevelander John Hughes got the idea to sell those dang ponchos. I could have talked about working the line for Team Zilch before the doors opened, handing out pink party hats, accepting compliments on the show, recording bumpers, and wondering exactly when I’d become revered by a (very) small minority of a (decreasingly) small minority. But none of those moments seemed like a big enough theme to hang an essay on, so I sat there, chatting as the lights dimmed, and waited to see what The Monkees would tell me. They’re pretty handy that way. I just sat back, watched the utterly stunning remastered show footage, and screamed my head off alongside Cindy and Melanie as they launched into a new opener: Listen To The Band With the rediscovered Clarksville train ride concert playing on the screen, Micky and Peter nailed their duet opening. I know that Nez/Micky is the vocal pairing we all swoon over these days, but those two are nothing to sneeze at either, with Micky soaring to the top of his vocal range over Peter’s rock-solid foundation. HOME RUN, even though I’ve never thought of it as an opening. Moving on to the traditional opening, it was sung in the traditional manner, with the traditional panache. Liked how they wove the LTTB closing into the Clarksville opening, though. One note on the video screen—Peter’s sweatshirt in the Clarksville train romp IS RED. Not orange like we thought for 50 years. Saturday’s Child 99% sure this is new to me, but it works well live. 🙂 Wayne Avers (glad you’re back!) played a barn-burner of a guitar solo, though Peter did join in on the fun there if memory serves. 😉 Auntie Grizelda OK, there are times in life where I must take a stand, and this is one of them. I don’t care if you philistines disagree with me—IT IS NOT A MONKEES SHOW WITHOUT AUNTIE GRIZELDA. Obviously Peter’s knee surgery took, because that’s the craziest I’ve seen that man dance since he climbed the amp tower back in ’01. And that patter he does over the bridge must save him THOUSANDS in psychotherapy. In fact, as I watched Peter sashay around the stage, it occurred to me that it’s high time for us Auntie Grizelda fans to strike a blow for this obviously beloved song, not as a guilty pleasure, but as an iconic touchstone of pure, unadulterated Monkee Magic. Here’s my Pro-Grizelda argument in a nutshell: Auntie Grizelda is really a poignant protest song all about fighting for freedom against the snobbish, oppressive, and emotionally frigid older generation who are refusing to give way to change and creativity. Seriously, i think it’s safe to say Andrew Sandoval isn’t frogmarching Peter on stage at gunpoint or something at this point in the proceedings. If Peter didn’t want to do the stupid number, he most likely wouldn’t do the stupid number. He certainly wouldn’t do it with such unbridled, cathartic joy, right down to the parrot sounds and therapeutic mocking asides he raps over the bridge. It’s Peter’s Mooging the Nightly, he just doesn’t get enough credit for it because he’s been doing it in every show for decades, and when Nez does essentially the same schtick with Daily Nightly or No Time, Lord Nesmith, the Right Honorable Baron of Sparklyshoes is hailed as being all “witty” and “creative” and “subversive”. (Aside: I love Nez. In a disturbing number of ways I am a far dumber and dorkier version of the guy. Please don’t hit. But really, folks…what’s the difference?) Fans, both hardcore and not, LOVE this song. The second best memory of my husband at his first (and probably last) Monkees concert was him singing along cathartically with Peter, thinking of his own personal Auntie Grizeldas. (Every family has at least one…). I can verify that Melanie, who is one of the wisest and most insightful fans I know, appeared to love every second of it. Snark is a time-honored and frankly necessary ingredient of the Monkees Fandom Recipe, lest the Good Times get too treacly. However, to mangle a famous quote by Samuel Johnson, he who is tired of Auntie Grizelda is tired of life. Therefore, I am hereby inaugurating the #teamgrizelda hashtag, for those who share my love of this song as a completely non-guilty pleasure. Go Forth and retweet your love of this song on its own terms! Once again, Micky nailed this song, and once again Peter nearly stole it out from under him with various gestures and asides at key junctures. Oh—and Micky AND peter nailed the mic stand tilt! She Makes Me Laugh Before I get into my thoughts on this one, I’d like us all to take a moment to stare in awe at a universe where Micky Dolenz can say in 2016, “Here’s a song off our new album!” Are we good? Ok, onward. Micky’s still learning the lyrics on this one, which is understandable. However, the band is definitely getting solid on it, and it was a crowd pleaser, with a strong round of applause from the audience. A Little Bit Me, a Little Bit You After dispatching a smart-aleck in the front row yelling “Manchester Cowboy!” while Peter was attempting to introduce a song by his “dearly departed friend”, Peter (yes PETER!) launched into lead vocals on this song, and he and Micky, trading verses, knocked it out of the park. I hope they give Peter more of Davy’s traditional vocals—they have similar ranges, and Peter’s voice gets more rock solid every time I see him. And if you disagree with me, you can just surf on over to the next overly verbose and existential PhD fangirl Monkees concert reviewer in your bookmarks. :-p The Girl I Knew Somewhere It never ceases to amuse me that Micky is more solid on the lyrics to this tune than Nez (who got a lovely and warmly received shoutout) was on the gazpacho tours. Though in fairness Micky HAS probably sung it a few thousand more times than Nez has… Steam Engine (click link for facebook video) This isn’t one of those things that’s on my Monkees Live Song Bucket List, but it’s near the top of Cindy’s, right next to Oh My My. As Micky belted it out and Wayne shredded his solo into musical confetti, I watched my sister Cin chair dance in bliss. The minute I interpreted Peter’s setup about the wayback machine and realized what was coming, my gut clenched. I knew it was in the setlist, but I hadn’t really thought about the implications of seeing it live for the first time till now. I saw the Davy fans around me reaching for Kleenex. An involuntary “Oh no,” escaped my lips in a murmur. As Peter started the keyboard introduction, I found myself transported halfway between Then and Now, images from 30 years ago battling in my mind with the real world sight of a young Davy and an old Peter singing the duet that I’d longed to hear live, never expected to hear live and was suddenly absolutely terrified to hear live. When the world and I were young, just yesterday, Life was such a simple game, a child could play As Davy’s archived vocal track rolled out of the speakers and into my ears, my own wayback machine roared into gear, and I suddenly found myself experiencing a Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1986. I was 9 years old, and a brand-spanking new Monkees fan. Mom was running errands. Dad was watching me and Daniel, as well as the football game. I’d been spinning my new album Headquarters non-stop all day. That’s probably why I missed the knock at first. By the time I got to the door, Dad was opening it up to reveal my new friends. At least I hoped they’d be new friends. After my best friend’s Mom died of type 1 diabetes and her Dad remarried and they moved to Texas, I needed to make new friends. But I was finding it harder to make friends than it used to be. The girls looked up at Dad as I poked nervously around the corner into the front hall. They asked if I could go ride bikes with them. I looked up at Dad, grinning hopefully. It was the Rocksino in 2016. I forced myself to stay in 2016, in the now. Listen to Davy. Listen to Peter. Listen to the Band. Feel the tears starting to roll down my cheeks—yes, for the man who left us too soon, but mostly for the girl I used to be. It was easy then to tell right from wrong, Easy then to tell weak from strong Back in 1986, the girls had just asked dad if I could go ride bikes. He just stood there. Too still. From 4 years of experience I knew what was coming, and ran in front so I could try to break his fall as he pitched forward, already starting to tremble before the real convulsions of his seizures. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the girls back away in fear, or revulsion, or I didn’t really care much what. Then Me held on to Dad with all her strength as Now Me heaved herself forcefully back to 2016, as Peter and Micky both joined in to the chorus. My shoulders started shaking. I knew I had to keep my eyes open, even as the tears streamed. I had to stay in 2016. I would not have a flashback here, not now, NOT AT A FUCKING MONKEES CONCERT. “I remember when the answers seemed so clear, we had never lived with doubt or tasted fear…” My throat caught in a sob as Peter started in on the second verse, his eyes looking suspiciously misty, his weathered, post-op voice adding a new, gloriously horrible layer of resonance that sent me careening back into 1986, where I’d managed to tip dad away from the concrete of the front porch to instead fall on a slightly softer kitchen floor. I tried to hold Dad’s limbs down as he convulsed, but he was too big to maneuver. I found myself on top of him, holding on for dear life in a sadistic parody of a bareback rodeo ride, trying to keep him away from the table legs. He had work Monday and wouldn’t want a bruise on his head. As his tremors calmed, he resumed his normal breathing pattern, and looked up at me with glazed eyes. A random, insane but ever-present thought flew through my 9 year old head, “God let them fix my heart but I’m not good enough to deserve it, so he made Dad sick instead. This is all my fault.” 39 year old me and her various psychotherapists had heard quite enough of THAT nonsense, and so I dragged myself with a LURCH back to 2016, where Peter and Micky were doing the chorus. The Monkees were and are my elixir. I was 39, older, stronger. My dad hadn’t had a seizure in 25 years, I would live to a fucking ripe old age and I WOULD NOT BE RULED BY MY PAST. I felt Melanie’s arm slide over my shoulders as I trembled. I felt stronger, more grounded. I could do this. But then I glanced at the monitor as Davy and Peter and Micky sang It was easy then to know truth from lies, selling out from compromise Who to love and who to hate, the foolish from the wise Photo courtesy Scott Edwards And I was BACK in 1986, after helping Dad back to the sofa. I ran to the door to reassure my friends, but they were long gone. Oh well, it really wasn’t worth the bother, they all would find out eventually, and then they’d all run away. But the versions of Davy, Peter, Mike and Micky that lived in my head wouldn’t leave me. I knew intellectually they were almost a decade older than my parents. but even as a brand new fan I already knew the music and the show made it better, made me less desperate to die or to run away forever. If other kids didn’t want me, well, I didn’t want them. I had the Monkees. Dad was fine, already starting to talk back to the OU football game. We didn’t typically talk about the seizures unless we had to, because what was there to say? The seizures were a family routine whose perverse banality I only appreciated years later. I went back to my room, shut my door, turned on Headquarters. Shades of Grey was next and 1986 Me and 2016 Me sang along in a bizarre time warp with It was easy then to know what was fair When to keep, and when to share How much to protect your heart And how much to care… And I found myself back in 2016, waves of terror receding. And I hoped the Me of 1986 could somehow sense the band singing in front of me, the replica poncho in my bag, and everything else I had done and would do to give her the glorious, hopeful, healthy, friend-filled future that she couldn’t believe in during those dark days. I found myself shaking from catharsis and relief, as Peter, Micky, and Davy’s magnificent performance drew to a close. And I screamed out my triumph as much as my appreciation as the crowd cheered. Papa Gene’s Blues And in a transition that felt a something like that moment in Hamilton right after It’s Quiet Uptown where Jefferson and Madison rap “Can we get back to Politics? PLEASE?”, Micky and Peter riffed on the “Quiet, isn’t it, George Michael Dolenz?” line, making the assembled crowd (your neurotic author included) bust out in cathartic laughter. And then we launched into Papa Gene’s blues, confirming as we all guessed that there would be no Skype tonight. Having just rather violently and melodramatically discovered my theme for tonight’s concert, I was content to sit between two of my best friends on earth, and hear Micky and Peter do a lighthearted duet on a song I’d somehow heard Nez do live more times than I’ve heard them do it live. I’d worried this year’s events would feel forced and contrived after the twin shocks of Davy’s loss and the Gazpacho tours, but the 50th anniversary actually seems sweeter for all we’ve lost and gained and overcome the past 5 years. I have no more than I had before, but now I have all that I need, indeed. Randy Scouse Git Photo Courtesy Andrew Kruczek And if that wasn’t enough…Micky put on the tablecloth (A REPLICA OF WHICH I NOW OWN) and cut to the chase, sans story. Excellent as always. 1986 felt 30 years ago again as Micky did his “The Colors, The COLORS!” freakout. Which is still apparently obligatory, as well as hilarious. Well, after 50 years, Peter finally confessed that the Monkees didn’t play their own instruments. (The drums were rented, and he’d borrowed a guitar from Wayne). And then after reciting the tale of the palace revolt, Peter sang another setlist staple with another rock-solid performance. Rich Dart added some tasty fills throughout, as is his habit. 🙂 I’ll admit feeling a little sad that Micky didn’t do Don’t do It for his solo number (the topic of one of my first, small “tryout” appearances on Zilch back in episode 2 or 3), but he apparently removed the Red Bull from the tour rider, resulting in a much more reasonable tempo that Micky could even dance to some. (Side note—the guys were MOVING around stage more than I’ve seen in a good 15 years. Wayne’s solo, again, was awesome, and Dave Alexander contributed some tasty honkytonk work on the keys that would have made Jerry Lee Lewis smile from that wackadoodle Piano Pyramid they put him on back in ‘69. Photo Courtesy Nicki Lock You know how Cin was blissing out during Steam Engine? This tune was Melanie’s turn. I was thrilled to hear it live myself! But then, some, erm, lubricated gentleman started screaming out “you guys rock!” I tensed up, not looking forward to him potentially spoiling something Melanie had seriously been looking forward to (and a favorite of mine from his solo repertoire as well). However, Peter Tork is not only 35 years sober. he’s rather (in)famous for not suffering fools. He raised an eyebrow in his inimitable Peter Tork fashion, and drily retorted, “One of the things about getting old is you can’t hear people very well.” The guy bellowed something else, and Peter snarked back, “Steve Martin used to say at this juncture in his show, ‘Yeah, I remember my first beer…’ ”. As the crowd busted up in hysterics, the drunken gentleman was suitably chastened. (or ejected. Either way, not a peep from him the rest of the night.) Higher and Higher was lovely (once he ordered the crowd not to clap along and we meekly obeyed), with Coco’s background vocals and John Billings’ rocking Bass solo particularly worthy of note. Melanie looked like she was in heaven. 😉 Let’s Dance On So happy for Craig Cohen. 😉 Solid song, sung well, with the relevant romp from the pilot playing in glorious HD in the background and plenty of goofing around from Micky, Peter, and the rest of the band. They seem to have figured out the weird pacing issue they were dealing with in Nashville, because this was a perfectly organic act 1 closer. Stay if your bladder allows! Among other things, we got restored footage of the original pilot opening credits, some less familiar Yardley Black Label commercials, and the uncut Daddy’s Song performance (black suit, white background. Without the strobing crosscutting, you can tell it was mostly filmed in only 3-4 long continuous takes. You can also see just how damn good a dancer Davy was. The remastered Teardrop City and Someday Man performances were also noteworthy. Mary Mary Act two kicked off with a bang, and Micky back on drums for Mary Mary! This one’s easily one of my favorites with him on drums. Circle Sky After a slightly wonky entrance, Micky settled nicely into the groove, with a little help from Rich Dart and John Billings. Porpoise Song (Click for video) And I was transported on a pleasanter trip to the past—Dundee by way of Cleveland and Tulsa. I wouldn’t have much new to say here if it weren’t for the fact that Micky made up for his struggles on Circle Sky by wailing so hard on the drums that his fedora plum flew off his head. See video. 😀 Not much to say about this, aside from the fact they did this just as amazingly as they have every time the past few years. And that Peter’s voice is the best I’ve heard it. EVER. I can’t believe I’ve been able to say that each and every time I’ve reviewed him for this blog. Yet another reason the #teamgrizelda hashtag’s time has come. I was There (and I’m Told I had a Good Time) It’s a sign of how strong this album is selling that they’ve already added a second song to the set. Micky was much more solid on the lyrics for this one, but I suppose co-writing it helps. 😉 It’s gonna be hard with Micky and Rich doing an incredible dual performance on drums, but watch the animated cover art streaming down the video wall in the manner of the end credits of a Pixar film. I got the giggles when the spaceship took off and started flying around. Alas, said animations didn’t translate well to the video but this is still worth a watch. After 4 years I’m running out of creative ways to say “The band played the hell out of this setlist staple”, but, well, the band played the hell out of this setlist staple. Micky was maybe a little heavier on the glam 70s antics than usual, though, and Peter got in on the act as well. The drawn out outro was awesome too. 😀 Micky’s got the words to Words rock solid again! Woohoo! Another great duet from Micky and Peter. 😀 Goin’ Down Forget my random 30 year time warp during Shades of Grey—Micky’s dancing legs just teleported in from 1967. Cin and I sang along with the first verse or two, then sat there, jaws agape, as Micky sashayed across the stage with as much panache as his onscreen TV version. After a quick interlude to introduce the band (minus one—we’ll get there), he ended the song with flair. No audience participation this time, that may be gone from the set. DW Washburn Glad to see this still in the setlist after falling in love with it in Nashville, and Peter contributed lovely banjo work as well as commentary asides. 😉 I’ve concluded it’s one of those songs that works best live. J The only thing that would make this song better would be Davy’s presence—I can only imagine what vintage Threekees antics he would have brought to the proceedings. 😉 What am I doing Hanging Round (click for video) Another song Peter inherited (from Nez this time). Apparently he was doing this one back in the ’80s, but, well, I was a kid/broke/in a state that didn’t get many Monkees shows in the 1980s, so this was new to me. All I’m gonna say is that Nez better hurry up and get his butt on tour before the ink dries on his final book draft and get his song back, because this might be my favorite live version of this one. And NO. I AM NOT KIDDING. Daydream Believer From the moment Micky and Peter yelled back my seat number from my flight to Cleveland at the screen, I knew they’d arrived at the only possible long term solution to the Daydream Believer Problem. Now, I don’t think that they should have done this from the start (we ALL had some grief to process), but from now on they need to do it this way, whether the Monkees tour for one more year or 50 (hey, researchers say they’re supposedly getting close to the Singularity! It could happen!) We sang as Micky and Peter conducted the crowd and we gave a rousing and collective FUCK YOU to fear, despair, and the Existential Abyss. Not to belabor the point, but that spirit of acknowledging and then joyously overpowering the darkness is why I have loved the Monkees since I was 9 years old, and always will. The main show ender was marvelous, as always. This was when I realized for certain I wasn’t getting Heart and Soul, but I’ve got at least 2 more shows planned for this tour. (good Lord, what new stuff am I going to SAY?! Oh well, good problem to have. 😉 ) After a minute, Micky and Peter re-emerged for the encore, and introduced both the writer (Vance Brescia) and the song. As he and Micky traded lines, I watched the screen and was jolted back on a much more pleasant trip to 1986, as I saw video clip after instantly-remembered video clip from the MTV and Nick footage that helped me fall in love with the “real” Monkees just as hard as I’d immediately fallen for the cute 20 year olds in the beach house. It wasn’t Heart and Soul, but the trip was similar enough. 😉 I’m a Believer No Shrek Schtick! Did Micky hear that Melanie and I found the guy back in January, or was it just that we were at a 21 and over show? 😉 And that was it. We inched out of the venue, right past Andrew Sandoval. I very nearly opened my mouth, but what do you say to a guy who curated your childhood as well as your midlife misadventures in rewriting your childhood the way it should have played? A guy who you would love to have back on Zilch after the Good Times dust settles to talk about how he FOUND all this STUFF? So I clammed up and kept the crowd flowing. Melanie was a little behind me in the crowd, and gave him a quick Thanks. 🙂 In summation Even the saddest Monkees song is delivered with a dollop of ‘Yeah, but it’ll get better soon’. –Andy Partridge This was a very different experience seeing the Monkees, after truly thinking I’d seen it all. 2001 was my first time, and I was overwhelmed simply by FINALLY losing my Monkees Virginity (Not like THAT) after 15 years of near misses, dumb decisions, and low cash flow. 2012 and 2013, well, that was all about the gazpacho. And in 2015, I was a worried fangirl, hoping the Twokees could carry the torch and rejoicing to learn they could. This show was different. My subconscious had other stuff for me to process. It was an old lesson, but reinforced in a new way from a new angle. The Monkees (group as well as much of their solo stuff) are the founding artists in a playlist on my phone I jokingly titled Audio Prozac. But their songs don’t numb the feelings. Instead the music holds my hand as I grapple with whatever crap I’m grappling with that day. I emerge stronger and happier in the skills that I need to squeeze every last damn drop of joy out of my life, both for myself and for my loved ones and for the kids who died for the medical knowledge needed for me to live a healthy, happy life writing emo 4000+ word essays about the Monkees. And I think that the ticket sales and record sales we’re seeing in The Year of the Monkees prove that their flavor of hard-earned joy is something the world is crying out for right now. So let’s let the Good Times roll. I’ll see you after the Tulsa show in gasp about 3 weeks. No clue what new things I’ll have to say, but I also think I know who’ll tell them to me. 😉 Categories: Uncategorized \| Permalink. One thought on “How much to protect your heart: The Monkees in Cleveland (again), June 5, 2016” I was at the concert too on Sunday. They put on an amazing show! Fandom Lenses on Facebook My Twitter (now with Tumblr Highlights) A Better World: Remembering Peter Tork,@1942-2019 fandomlenses.com/2019/02/21/a-b… https://t.co/XYmFYYcAzr 11 months ago There is no Monkees Lyric that fits this: Finding out why the Philly M&M Concert was cancelled, July 26,@2018… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 year ago How much to protect your heart: The Monkees in Cleveland (again), June 5,@2016 fandomlenses.com/2016/06/07/how… https://t.co/Ut8CcUWWez 3 years ago “I’m heading out in the sunshine, baby!”–Good Times Album Review fandomlenses.com/2016/05/26/im-… https://t.co/QzeAr1AYXH 3 years ago Great show: I got a gift for @aheartforzak & told a waiter that @TheMickyDolenz1 sang that song long before Shrek! wp.me/p2wLxw-ci 4 years ago Follow @fandomlenses “So we’ll both have a Milkshake!”: Peter Tork: A Celebration of Life and Community, October 20, 2019, Club 66, Edgewood, MD “Weren’t they good? They made me happy!” (Part 1) The Monkees Present the Mike and Micky Show, Family Arena, St. Charles, MO, March 16, 2019 We will Make the World Shine: The Monkees Present the Mike and Micky show, The Keswick Theater, Glenside, PA, March 6, 2019 A Better World: Remembering Peter Tork, 1942-2019 “We’re here Tonight, and that’s Enough”: Reviewing The Monkees’ “Christmas Party” Linkara Melanie Long Michael Nesmith Peter Tork PushingUpRoses Shoe Suede Blues The Never Gets Old Podcast	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1253
__label__wiki	0.792075	0.792075	Kingery’s 3-run homer lifts Phillies over D’Backs 7-4 By ROB MAADDI PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Scott Kingery hit a three-run homer, Jake Arrieta threw six effective innings and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-4 on Tuesday night. Arrieta (6-5) allowed three runs and six hits for his second win in eight starts. Hector Neris pitched the ninth for his 14th save in 14 tries. Ketel Marte went deep for the Diamondbacks and the teams combined for only two homers a night after setting a major league record with 13. Arizona lefty Jon Duplantier (1-1) gave up four runs and seven hits in three innings. The Diamondbacks’ five-game winning streak ended. Kingery gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead in the second with a drive to left, his seventh homer and third in two games. Bryce Harper ripped an RBI double to right to make it 4-0. Jay Bruce made an excellent sliding catch to prevent at least one run on Marte’s sinking liner to left with one out and runners on first and second in the third. Carson Kelly’s two-run double with two outs in the fourth cut it to 4-2. Eduardo Escobar’s sacrifice fly in the fifth got Arizona within a run. The Phillies regained their two-run lead in the bottom half. Bruce had an RBI single after J.T. Realmuto hit a double on which Rhys Hoskins scored following a throwing error by left fielder David Peralta. Marte connected off J.D. Hammer in the seventh. BULLPEN BOUND The Phillies are removing Jerad Eickhoff from the starting rotation after he posted an 8.89 ERA in his last six starts and allowed 16 homers in 27 1/3 innings. The team hasn’t decided on a starter for Sunday in his spot. Don't miss a beat feds! Download the newly revamped Federal News Network app for all the latest in federal news. Diamondbacks: RF Adam Jones wasn’t in the lineup for the fifth time in six games but entered in the seventh. He missed four straight with a right hamstring injury before returning Monday. Phillies: OF Roman Quinn was 2 for 4 with a stolen base in his second rehab game at Class A Clearwater. Quinn has been on the injured list since April 25 with a right groin strain. RHPs Edubray Ramos and Pat Neshek and LHP Adam Morgan are close to returning from the injured list. The Phillies send RHP Zach Eflin (6-5, 2.88 ERA) to the mound and RHP Merrill Kelly (6-6, 4.12) goes for the Diamondbacks on Wednesday in the series finale.	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1258
__label__wiki	0.876882	0.876882	Zitat: Michael Landesmann, "The Production Process" , 1996, Michael Landesmann: The Production Process: Description and Analysis (with R. Scazzieri), Ch.7; Forms of Production Organisation: The Case of Manufacturing Processes (with R. Scazzieri), Ch.8; Disaggregated Models of Business Cycle; (with R. Goodwin), Ch. 6; Coordination of production processes, subsystem dynamics and structural change (with R. Scazzieri), Ch. 10; al in: M. Landesmann and R. Scazzieri (eds.): Production and Economic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, 1996 Original Titel: The Production Process Englischer Titel: The Production Process Notiz zum Zitat: Michael Landesmann: The Production Process: Description and Analysis (with R. Scazzieri), Ch.7; Forms of Production Organisation: The Case of Manufacturing Processes (with R. Scazzieri), Ch.8; Disaggregated Models of Business Cycle; (with R. Goodwin), Ch. 6; Coordination of production processes, subsystem dynamics and structural change (with R. Scazzieri), Ch. 10; al in: M. Landesmann and R. Scazzieri (eds.): Production and Economic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, 1996 Publikationstyp: Sonstige Autoren: Michael Landesmann	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1259
__label__wiki	0.693098	0.693098	Fold’s Be Water My Friend (with Bruce Lee) is Out Now June 23, 2014 Category: MusicTag: 7", All My Friends, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 6 Music, Be Water My Friend, Bruce Lee, Don Letts, Downtempo, Ed Heaton, Eiger Studios, Emma Johnson, fold, Gideon Coe, Horn section, Invisible Hands, Jimi Hendrix, music, Single, Trip-hop, Vinyl, White Cloth Gallery Fold’s Be Water My Friend, an homage to Bruce Lee, was released June 23, 2014 “A grand, funky number” — NME Magazine, June 7 2014 “So interesting, so original” — Dave Rowntree (Blur, XFM), May 22 2014 “A superb sample led, beat driven beaut.” — Sounds Good to Me Too, May 11 2014 This record means a lot to us. It is the first track we wrote and recorded altogether as a unit in the studio, the only one where we went the extra mile to get real instruments for the entire recording and of course it features Bruce Lee reminding us of his own highly evolved philosophy, his phenomenal means of self expression and his personal challenges with respect to racism. One of our goals was to afford Bruce the posthumous opportunity to represent himself in a three dimensional manner, helping to break down the cult of celebrity a little bit – something he was always keen to do. His story and his achievements are incredibly inspiring and he still stands as a positive role model for all of us going forward. This is why we made the record and hopefully it will bring some positive thoughts and feelings into the lives of those who listen. Buy on limited edition 7″ vinyl » Download on iTunes » Listen on Spotify » Having been made record of the week by Blur’s Dave Rowntree on XFM and already a favourite of both Gideon Coe & Don Letts on BBC 6 Music Be Water My Friend is rapidly making waves. The single is out now on new Leeds imprint All My Friends as a split 7” with anthemic indie label mates Invisible Hands and their debut single Just. We will also be supporting the release with dates throughout the North including The Kazimier in Liverpool (July 12) and Beacons festival (August 8). Be Water My Friend is not only our first release on a label but also marks our first collaboration with studio wizard and all round total dude Ed Heaton who engineered and co-produced the record at Eiger Studios in Leeds. Fold on Spotify Are you on Spotify already? Please give us a follow by clicking the button below. Fold & Potent Whisper – We’re the Ones A Victim’s Mentality Fold returns to the stage to support Ibibio Sound Machine New Fold album to be released on Record Store Day 2019 Choose Love: A Manifesto	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1260
__label__wiki	0.956768	0.956768	ARAB STRAP 4 Titles Philophobia 1972 006LP $34.00 PREORDER RELEASE DATE: 1/31/2020 "Philophobia, Arab Strap's sophomore slam dunk released in the spring of 1998, begins with one of the most memorable opening lines in all of indie rock: 'It was the biggest cock you'd ever seen, but you've no idea where that cock has been.' So begins an album that, while picking up thematically where the duo's debut album The Week Never Starts Round Here left off, promises from its very first seconds a renewed sense of purpose: the narratives are more streamlined, the music more confident and mature. Gone are the sketches and doodles that unquestionably distinguished 1996's The Week Never Starts Round Here as the work of first timers, replaced with a consistent, almost conceptual, musical framework. On Philophobia, singer and lyricist Aidan Moffat's realism is more profane, gritty and poignant, while multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton's honeyed orchestrations increasingly provide clinics in subtlety and restraint. Part of the appeal of Arab Strap's post-everything music is the way the group's songs make every listener feel like either a voyeur or a trusted confidante. The ever-present humanity in future sex advice columnist Moffat's first person tales of debauchery and regret is a through-line running through each of these frank and vivid songs: the same narrator who confesses to sniffing his fingers after a sexual encounter and boasts about the size of his penis also yearns to 'hug' a lover to death, finds himself crying on the bus, and wonders idly -- but hopefully -- whether or not he's truly in love with the woman he's just slept with. It is this duality, complemented by Middleton's imaginative and deeply sensitive accompaniment, that makes Philophobia one of the most original and most enduring front-to-back albums in the canon of modern indie rock; over two decades later, it still sounds warm to the touch." The Week Never Starts Round Here "The year 1996 saw the release of Arab Strap's first single, 'The First Big Weekend,' and debut album The Week Never Starts Round Here. Into an underground rock milieu preoccupied at the time with slo-core, math rock, and all things Pet Sounds, the duo of Malcolm Middleton and Aidan Moffat couldn't have sounded more alien. In many ways, The Week Never Starts Round Here bears all the marks of a debut: it's raw, unguarded, and crammed with ideas. It also firmly establishes the particular set-up that would define Arab Strap's sound over the course of eleven years, with Middleton handling the music while Moffat provides the vocals and lyrics. Even this division of labor -- more common to rap music than to the shoegazers and increasingly ubiquitous 'collectives' of indie rock -- seemed to defy expectations. The sound of Arab Strap is a distinct brand of existential miserablism. Middleton's cleverly arranged foundation of nocturnal guitars and rudimentary drum machines provides a canvas for Moffat to relay, in a thick Scottish dialect, his many sloshed, candid confessions. Long before artists like Mike Skinner chronicled the picaresque days of lads getting pissed and getting laid, Arab Strap's vivid tales of lovers, lager and shame were being broadcast on college stations everywhere. The Week Never Starts Round Here is an album full of drugged-up kisses and dried up egos; it chronicles the conquests and knockbacks of weekends that last forever, and it does so unapologetically, poetically, and profanely. Indie rock would never be the same." Monday At The Hug & Pint OLE 577CD "Arab Strap's 'love-sick spoken word tales of sex and betrayal' get to a new level on Monday at the Hug & Pint, an uplifting, orchestrated, string-laden record that turns the band's black-and-white blues into technicolor. After a couple years off (and some solo albums in the interim), Monday is an exhilarating step forward for their terrifying but gorgeous vision of the after-hours world." Turbulence (Mixes) CHEM 051CD "'Turbulence' -- the final track on the Strap's excellent long-player The Golden Thread -- is given the once over by unlikely supermix heroes Bis -- this is Arab Strap in full-on collision with New Order and Depeche Mode -- plus further mistreatment from Jason Famous (Apollo remix) and Arab Strap themselves."	cc/2020-05/en_middle_0058.json.gz/line1263

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