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Disney Legend and Imagineer Alice Davis Honored with Window on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland Park
by Erin Glover, Editorial Content Director, Disneyland Resort
Yesterday, Disney Legend and Imagineer Alice Davis was awarded one of the highest honors one can receive at the Walt Disney Company – her own window on Main Street, U.S.A at Disneyland park. Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs and Disneyland Resort President George A. Kalogridis presented the window to Davis, which is located alongside the window honoring her husband, legendary Disney animator Marc Davis.
As a costume designer with Walt Disney Imagineering, Alice Davis collaborated with art director and fellow Disney Legend Mary Blair on the “it’s a small world” attraction for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and later translated pirate attire from Marc Davis’ original drawings into clothing designs and patterns for Pirates of the Caribbean in 1965.
Take a look back at this special window dedication ceremony:
The tradition of dedicating windows at Disneyland park began more than 50 years ago when Walt Disney dedicated many of the windows along Main Street, U.S.A., to individuals who helped make the park a reality. It is a long-standing tradition to honor individuals who have had a significant impact on Disneyland park by dedicating a window to them. On the windows, honorees are made the proprietors of fictional businesses, usually relating to their occupation or hobby, which influenced the creation or operation of the park. To date, more than six dozen people have been honored with their own Main Street, U.S.A., windows.
Share Disney Legend and Imagineer Alice Davis Honored with Window on Main Street, U.S.A. at Disneyland Park
Destinations: Disneyland Resort
Topics: Disney History
Congratulations! Alice is so good at what she does. She is a true inspiration.
Kyra on May 12, 2012 at 7:57 pm
A well deserved and long overdue honor for a person who has brought so much happiness and joy to Disney Nation!
And I’d like to add that Alice’s contributions didn’t end with her past work on the Disneyland attractions. Alice has continued to spread her charm and Disney spirit with her many appearances at various Disney events over the years.
Alice has been a vital and inspirational link to the “golden years” of Disneyland and Walt himself. Because of Alice and the other living Disney Legends, a entirely new generation of Disney fans and contributors have been blessed with the vision and insights of all the great Disney pioneers.
Here’s to many more wonderful years of Alice sharing and spreading the Disney magic.
Thank you Alice!
Roger on May 11, 2012 at 10:19 pm
So cool that she got her window next to Marc’s! Thank you for giving this woman the honor she deserves 🙂
Kurt on May 11, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Its well deserved. 🙂
Fred on May 11, 2012 at 2:04 pm
Tue, March 20, 2018 Hong Kong Disneyland
Avengers and Other Super Heroes to Assemble in New Themed Areas at Disneyland Resort, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland
Mon, March 19, 2018 Disneyland Resort
Tips for Enjoying a Rainy Day at the Disneyland Resort
Fri, March 16, 2018 Disneyland Resort
Disneyland After Dark Event Series Continues May 3 with Star Wars Nite
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Conservative Patriot
So long as a single Patriot fights for Liberty, Freedom lives.
Analysis of “The Pledge of Renewal of the Constitution”
Reaffirmation of the Declaration of Independence
Arizona SB1070 – Real Change That Gives America Hope
By David A. Black, Sr.
On Friday, Governor Brewer, from Arizona, signed SB1070. Instantly, the critics went ballistic.
President Obama used the swearing in ceremony of new citizens to criticize Arizona legislators saying, “Our failure to act responsibly, at the Federal level, will only open the door to irresponsibility by others, and that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona.”
Brian Williams, on NBC Nightly News, said on Friday, “A central question in the news tonight, ‘is it legal, is it right, for a police officer to come up to you and ask you to produce I.D. if you’re suspected of entering the country illegally? This is playing out tonight in the State of Arizona.”
Jose Diaz Balart of TeleMundo in Phoenix reports, “Late this afternoon, Governor Jan Brewer signed the controversial Bill, the toughest State Law against illegal immigration in the country. With her signature, Arizona is in direct conflict with the White House… The law makes illegal immigration a State crime and requires local police to check the status of anyone they believe is here illegally.”
Actually, if any of the critics had taken five minutes and read SB1070, instead of simply adopting liberal talking points, they would have found that, contrary to the ‘leftist’ talking points, Law Enforcement Officers may only inquire about an individual’s immigration status during “lawful contact”. Additionally, any complaint of illegal immigration status, levied by one person against another and found to be frivolous, is punishable by monetary fines against the accuser.
Does potential questioning of an individual’s immigration status invite racial profiling? It could, although the Bill contains specific language banning ‘racial profiling’. Then again, most of those opposed to SB1070 support affirmative action which is based on racial profiling. Why is it, that the practice is welcomed on one hand, and demonized on the other?
To solve for this, if Law Enforcement Officers adopts a ‘standard operating procedure’ of simply using the same line of questioning with every person, of whom they request identification, questioning legal immigration status becomes just another question. No prejudice, no malice, no racial profiling. Regardless, Governor Brewr is calling for additional training of Law Enforcement to ensure against racial profiling and to maintain respect of the peoples rights.
Of course, President Obama, who can never pass up on an opportunity for societal divisiveness, instructed the Justice Department to ‘closely monitor’ activities in Arizona for ‘Civil Rights Violations’.
Governor Brewer emphasized, “Racial Profiling is illegal. It will not be tolerated in America, and it certainly will not be tolerated in Arizona.”
“This Bill,” Governor Brewer continued. “The ‘Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act’, strengthens the laws of our State. It protects all of us, every Arizona citizen, and everyone here, in our State lawfully, and it does so while ensuring that the Constitutional Rights of all, in Arizona remain solid, stable, and steadfast.”
Nonetheless, cries of the Bill being unconstitutional rang out from almost every protest. Is this the same Constitution they were willing to throw under the carpet, as if hiding dust and debris from visitors, when backing the passage of the Healthcare Reform, or bailing out the financial, housing, and auto industries?
Why is it, every time legislation to protect our country and our citizens is passed, it is immediately deemed unconstitutional, yet laws and programs that clearly are not in accordance with the Constitution receive accolades?
So the question arises, is Arizona SB1070 constitutional?
We all know Article I, Section 8, Clause 4, states, “Congress shall have Power… To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization.”
However, Section 13 of SB1070 refers to the Bill’s ‘Short Title’ as the “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act”. There is no reference in the title, nor anywhere in the Bill, to “Rule of Naturalization”. That makes SB1070 a “Public Safety Law”, not an “Immigration Law”.
Upon reading the Bill, the language of the Bill does not even allow the State’s Legislature, Law Enforcement, or any member of the State’s Judiciary the Authority to determine any individuals ‘immigration status’. Rather, all questions, regarding immigration status, are immediately deferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The last time I checked, ICE is a Federal Agency.
Arizona SB1070 does not even give the State the Authority to deport anyone. Any person found to be in the country illegally, is to be transported to Federal Custody, and if said transportation includes removing an individual to a location outside the boundaries of the State, the State must first receive a Court Order to do so.
Clause 15, of Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution says, “Congress shall have Power… To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”
All enforcement activities in SB1070 defer to existing Federal laws. One could argue that Law Enforcement is the ‘active duty branch’ of the ‘State Militia’, and that the constant flow of illegal immigrants could be considered a form of societal invasion.
Furthermore, Article VI, Clause 2, stipulates, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the Law of the Land.”
Because SB1070 consistently defers to Federal Authorities, it should be deemed as being “in Pursuance” of the Constitution, where we have established Congress has a duty to create “Rules of Naturalization”.
Article VI, Clause 3, clarifies that, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution.”
That means that, by passing SB1070 into law, the Arizona Legislature is actually executing their duties under the Constitution. I am willing to bet you are wishing we could say that about Congress. Instead, Congress is too busy taking over the financial industry, the auto industry, the housing industry, the healthcare industry, increasing taxes, passing laws that do not pass constitutional muster, and spending our way into oblivion, to actually perform the duties obligated to them by the Constitution.
In fact, we should applaud the Arizona Legislature. Now residents, and those of us who are asked for our I.D. while visiting their great State, can announce with great pride,
I AM AN AMERICAN!
4 Comments | Agendas, America, bill of rights, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Constitution, Courts/Justice, Declaration of Independence, government, Law, Liberalism, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, State of the Union, Uncategorized | Tagged: administration, Arizona, auto bailout, auto industry, barack, change, civillian army, congress, Conservatism, Constitution, constitutional protection, enemy combatants, ethics, freedom, government motors, health care reform, Hope, house of representatives, ICE, immigration, liberty, more perfect union, Obama, op-ed, President, SB1070, senate, socialism | Permalink
Posted by conservativepatriot
President Obama Violates Constitution
Although I disagree with President Obama’s policies, and his political agenda, until now, he has not violated the Constitution. (The Stimulus and the Healthcare bills are definitely arguable) However, that has now changed.
During a scheduled recess of Congress, President Obama used the opportunity to make 15 recess appointments to administrative positions that would normally require Senate confirmation.
In a written statement, the President declared, “The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees. But if, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis,”
The President is quoted by FOX News as saying, “At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months,” he said. “I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of government.”
President Obama went on to note that former President George W. Bush made 15 recess appointments by this point in his presidency, then claimed that the former President was not facing the same level of obstruction.
Does the President have the authority to make “recess appointments?
In Article II, Section 2, Clause 2, of the Constitution, we find that,
“…and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for…”
Article II, Section 2, Clause 3, goes on to state,
The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.
So let’s take the Constitution for what it actually says for once, instead of what some want it to say for their own political purpose, or as a method of promoting their personal agenda.
According to the Constitution, as quoted, “the President shall have the Power to fill up Vacancies THAT MAY HAPPEN DURING a Recess of the Senate,”
The Founders did not intend this sentence to serve as a method for the President to get around the authority of the Senate to provide “Advice and Consent” of Presidential Appointments.
The sentence was put in place for the President to make temporary appointment to key administrative positions when they become vacant during a recess of Congress.
The vacancies filled by Obama’s ‘recess appointments’, have existed since the President took Office. They did not happen during the “Recess of Congress”.
The fact that the President does not like “partisan politics” holding up the advancement of his agenda, or that some may be doing so to “score political points”, has no bearing on the subject. The President needs to get over it.
The fact is, there is NO provision in the Constitution for the President to override the authority or the responsibilities of the Senate. That would have opened the door for a dictatorship, and that was one thing the Founders were attempting to avoid.
The idea of pointing out the errors of his predecessor does not make the action legal under the Constitution. These appointments, made by President Obama, are a direct and blatant abuse of the Power of his Office, and a willful violation of the Constitution.
Is this an impeachable offense?
According to the Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Clause 8,
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:–“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Accordingly, the President must take the ‘Oath of Office’ to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution” to the best of his ability. President Obama has publicly reminded the nation, on several occasions, that he taught Constitutional Law at the University level in Illinois. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the President should be fully aware of the intent of Article II, Section 2, Clause 3.
Article II, Section 4, states,
The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Article VI, Clause 2, states,
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Therefore, Article II, Section 2, Clause 3, as part of the Constitution, is Federal Law. Any action that willfully and purposefully violates the Constitution, by using the provision to usurp the Authority of the Senate, is a Federal Offense.
It is time for the Government to understand that the ‘Powers of Government’ do not lie solely in the three branches of Government. The Constitution provides for the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial branches.
However, under the ninth and tenth amendments, the Constitution also provides for the Several States and the People to be active participants in shaping our Government and legislation
Therefore, it is part of our civic responsibility to monitor the actions of the individuals elected to Office, and take action when necessary.
Amendment IX – The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
Amendment X – The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
It is time for the President to be introduced to the Power of the People.
The Constitution points out, in Article I, Section 1, Clause 5,
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution;
I am sending a letter, defining the points of this article, to my Representative in the House. I am demanding, under the Authority of the Constitution, that my Representative formally begin the process of forcing the President to rescind his “Recess Appointments”. If the President refuses to act accordingly, I am demanding that my Representative begin the process of impeachment for the willful and deliberate usurpation of the Authority of the Senate under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States.
Please join me and do the same.
To receive a copy of the letter I wrote to my Representative, make a request in the comments box. I will reply to all that I can. Thank you.
2 Comments | Agendas, America, bill of rights, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Constitution, Courts/Justice, Declaration of Independence, free market, government, health care reform, Law, Liberalism, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, State of the Union, takeover, U.S. Military,Veterans, US Military, veterans | Tagged: administration, barack, change, civillian army, congress, congressional payoffs, Constitution, constitutional protection, enemy combatants, ethics, freedom, health care reform, Hope, house of representatives, liberty, Obama, op-ed, President, regime, senate, socialism, speech | Permalink
The 2010 Census – An Endorsement of Socialism
The 2010 Census is officially under way. The ad campaign, costing millions of dollars, for television, cable, and radio ads, and thousands of billboards, paid for by your hard-earned tax money, tells us all to stand and be counted.
“Help your community get a fair share.” They proclaim, urging people to fill out the Census Data Form and return it to the Government.
Get their fair share of what? I had my fair share until the Government confiscated it through taxation, now they want to pretend to give a portion of it back.
According to a letter from the U.S. Census Bureau, “Results from the 2010 Census will be used to help each community get its fair share of government funds for highways, schools, health offices, and many other programs you and your neighbors need.”
In all fairness, the members of the House and Senate are just doing their job. The Constitution instructs Congress to collect a direct, heavy, progressive tax from every person in the country. Then, they are to withhold a sizeable amount of the Gross National Product for financing the cost of running the Government. Finally, Congress is to disperse the proportionately small amount of remaining money back to the people, disguised as ‘Investing in America’. Any such investing in the ‘public good’ shall be at the sole discretion of Congress, based on the projected return value of those investments, as realized in the results of polls and elections.
Based on the questions contained in the 2010 Census Questionnaire, two out of ten deals with ethnicity, Congress seems quite concerned about ensuring proper funding of ethnic groups. Rest assured then, so long as you are of the proper, favored ethnicity, Congress is doing their job and looking out for your best financial interest, in relation to ‘Public Investing’.
Pardon my sarcasm. Actually, unlike most members of the House and Senate, I’ve read the Constitution. Article 1, Section 2, later modified by Section 2, of the 14th amendment, calls for representation to be “apportioned among the several States”. The same paragraph, later superseded by the 16th amendment, calls for the “apportionment of direct Taxes” as well; and thereby calls for a Census to have been performed within three years of the first Meeting of Congress, and every ten years thereafter.
Therefore, according to the Constitution, the Census was intended to be used only for the purpose of apportioning representation in the House, and apportioning direct Taxation among the several States. There is no mention of using the Census as a means to justify congressional spending.
Think about it. For the purpose of “apportioned representation” based on the total populations of the several States, does not call for Congress to have any idea of the ethnicity of the populace; they do not need any demographic data as a means to cater to any particular groups.
This means that Congress does not need to know who owns the house I live in, what the genders of any residence are, the actual age of residents, or if a resident has a secondary residence.
Instead, Congress is using the Census to get the American People to endorse the Socialistic practice of ‘redistributing wealth’. They took away Constitutional apportionment of direct taxation with the 16th amendment, and perverted the use of the Census.
Now, we have a scenario where the government taxes the groups determined by the Census, to be the “haves”, to provide benefits to groups determined as the “have not’s”. This is known simply as Socialism.
For the record, there are only five questions the Census could ask under the authority of the Constitution.
Verify your address.
How many people live at your address?
How many people, living at your address, are of legal voting age?
How many people, living at your address, are American Indians?
What is your status of residency in the United States? (Circle one) Natural Born Citizen Naturalized Citizen Legal Resident Other
As to the cost of the Census, the entire questionnaire, as authorized under the Constitution, would fit on a post card, the cheapest form of U.S. Mail correspondence and would be easily administered by, and reported through, local governments.
It is at this point, I must ask the obvious question; if we, The People, are going to allow the elected members of Government to pervert the intentions of our Founders and the meaning of our Constitution, to what they want it to say, rather than what it actually says, why should we have a Constitution?
Are we truly a nation of Free and Independent People? Or, are we, The People going to allow the endorsement of Socialism, and idly watch it take root and grow into an uncontrollable despotic dictatorship?
Leave a Comment » | Agendas, America, bill of rights, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Constitution, Courts/Justice, Declaration of Independence, free market, government, Law, Liberalism, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, State of the Union, takeover | Tagged: administration, barack, change, congress, Constitution, constitutional protection, ethics, freedom, government, Hope, house of representatives, liberty, more perfect union, Obama, op-ed, President, proletariat, regime, reid, scare tactics, senate, socialism, wasteful spending | Permalink
President Obama’s Biggest Failure and Success
Approximately one year ago, Rush Limbaugh countered Barack Obama’s continuing mantra of “Hope and Change” with a Hope of his own, that President Obama’s Socialistic agenda fails.
Although Mr. Limbaugh articulated his message clearly, the “left” could not break the habit of misconstruing his words, and soon there was an all out media blitz. With the simplest of ease, any grade-schooler could have put together a seemingly endless montage of media ‘talking-heads’ stating; “Rush Limbaugh says he hopes the President fails.” Very few in the media defended Mr. Limbaugh’s statement.
Even the First Lady, Michelle Obama, jumped on the ‘Rush-bashing’ bandwagon, obviously suffering from willful ignorance, when she aped the media in wrongfully citing Rush’s statement, and then claimed; “If the President fails, then America fails.” Then asked, “Is that what you want for this country?”
President Obama has complained, on numerous occasions, about “inheriting” a financial meltdown. However, not once has President Obama admitted that, as a member of the Senate, he helped create the very meltdown he fully credits to the former President. According to the rants of President Obama, and members of his administration, President Bush was an absolute failure.
Watch it! Mr. President, you are on the verge of contradicting your wife. Mrs. Obama informed us that, beyond a doubt, if the President fails, so too, does the country. Should America assume that you, Mr. President, or your wife, believes that our proud nation is a failure?
Oh, that’s right. President Obama already explained that we were in a tailspin, spiraling out of control, when he took the helm. But for his brave and determined actions, America was destined for absolute ruin.
So, what bold, great actions can we attribute to President Obama that has turned our nation from the path of destruction to a soaring success? Let’s examine what the President has accomplished in his first year in the Oval Office.
We have watched the President travel all over the world, and listened to him badmouth America at almost every stop.
We have listened to President Obama’s adolescent like claims, that former President G.W. Bush is single-handedly to blame for all of the problems our nation faces today.
We have watched him gratefully accept gifts that denounce America, while he tries to earn ‘Brownie Points’ from our communist foes.
We have experienced national embarrassment when he bowed to foreign leaders, not once, but on at least two separate occasions.
Although partially successful, by inflicting damage and creating an atmosphere of control in some financial institutions, President Obama failed in his attempt at a hostile Government takeover of Wall Street. After the Presidents support of the “Financial Bailout”, with a ‘sky is falling’ mentality, the President, who claimed he did not want to run the banks, turned around, and in his next breath appointed new bank executives, began dictating salaries, and refused banks that offered to pay back the money, borrowed by the Government to initially “lend” to the banks. Even now, many banks are trying desperately to rid themselves of government intervention.
The President has succeeded however, in partnering with the Labor Unions, most significantly in the act of taking control of a large portion of the American auto industry, namely General Motors and Chrysler. His latest commitment to this partnership is in naming Union Boss, Andrew Stern to his newly formed Debt Commission.
Then there is the failed ‘Stimulus Bill’. The President was sure that the stimulus bill had to be passed immediately. Without a stimulus, America was going to fail. Unemployment was going to rise to over ten percent, we needed to supply more money into the public because the financial institutions were on the verge of ‘post-bailout bankruptcy’, threatening devastation to the taxpayers. Businesses were shutting down, bailed out banks were not lending money, the housing industry was sinking like a lead balloon, people were losing their homes, livelihoods, and the promise of a future.
President Obama and the Congressional Democrats forced their will on America, and passed their $1 trillion ‘Stimulus Bill’. After unaccountably spending some 20% of the money, nothing has changed except the size of our nation’s unsecured debt.
Reported unemployment still jumped to over ten percent, financial institutions continue to fail, people continue to lose their homes and livelihoods as companies close their doors at a rapid pace, and our financial future looks very bleak. As to overwhelming expenses to the taxpayers, we do not even know how much it will cost for what the Government has spent until now, let alone where they have spent it. So much for the promise of transparency and accountability.
Ironically, when it comes to spending America’s money on socialistic government programs, such as bailouts, stimulus, and efforts to socialize healthcare, President Obama is fearlessly bold and willingly decisive. He rushes headlong into promoting the most socialistic of programs with an urgency only matched by con artists, or Circus Callers yelling, “Hurry! Hurry!”
However, in matters affecting our national security, and supporting the troops, deployed at his command, the President’s resolve wavers. Instead of remaining brave and determined, as is his Constitutional responsibility, he demonstrates a lack of intestinal fortitude, taking months to make a decision such as that regarding the deployment of reinforcements in Afghanistan.
The President consistently proves to be unwilling to commit to actions against our nations invaders and enemies, yet has boldly circumvented the Constitution. Instead of nominating people to necessary offices, and allowing the Senate to fulfill their Constitutional duty of providing “Advice and Consent” through the confirmation process, the President, in performing his few successes, unflinchingly named Czars.
So, the President has, in his first year in the Oval Office, taken control of a large portion of one of the last remnants of American industrialization in the auto industry, and partnered heavily with the unions. He has attempted to takeover the financial industry, committed to unprecedented spending, committing our future generations to an unsustainable burden of debt, and continues his attempts to take control of our healthcare industry, or financially speaking, up to 15% of our nation’s economy. No communist mentality here. But, I digress.
All of this said, President Obama’s biggest failure is that he has no comprehension of what America is, or what makes the People of our nation great.
President Obama fails miserably in understanding that America is envied and loved, the world over, for her iconic representation of Liberty, individual Freedom, and the promotion of Independence.
The President fails to understand that our common conviction to these core values is what makes America great; that individuals believe so strongly, they are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice to protect these values, not just for our own Freedom, but for that of our families, friends, and neighbors; and yes, for our country.
The President fails to understand that Freedom allows for different political ideologies, but that these core components of our belief may not be jeopardized, for they are the foundation of our country, and every American.
Amazingly, the President’s biggest success is derived from his biggest failure. President Obama, with a little assistance from his leftist base, has roused the “Sleeping Dragon”, galvanizing America into action. The President, along with the Congressional Democrats, have given voice to the “Silent Majority”, causing conservatives to rally around our liberty and freedom; and we are fighting mad.
American’s are standing up, united in telling the Government,
Stop! We are fed up with politics as usual! American Government is out of control and we are not taking it anymore! We will not stand by and idly watch incompetent politicians destroy our nation, or our children’s future.
Government has overstepped it’s permissions and authority and we the People are demanding it’s members to cease and desist all such activities. If Government refuses to listen, we the People will exercise our Constitutional Authority and take back control of our nation!
2 Comments | Agendas, America, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Constitution, Courts/Justice, free market, government, health care reform, Law, Liberalism, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, takeover, U.S. Military,Veterans, Uncategorized, US Military | Tagged: administration, auto bailout, auto industry, barack, change, Chrysler, congress, Conservatism, Constitution, constitutional protection, enemy combatants, ethics, freedom, general motors, GM, government, government motors, health care reform, Hope, house of representatives, liberty, Medicaid, medicare, Obama, President, regime, senate, socialism, united auto workers, wasteful spending | Permalink
President Obama gave his first State of the Union Address yesterday evening. For the most part, I must say, the speech was far from impressive; just more of the same dribble we have come to expect.
We listened to him attempt to recognize the hardships faced by the middle-class, cite to some letters, or experiences which were personally related to him, as he demonstrates his compassion for the little guy, and then claim he is working diligently to solve the problems of the nation. I may be too critical, but I thought he ran as a candidate for change. I thought he promised to shake things up in Washington. For some reason I seem to recall that he was not going to get caught up in “politics as usual”.
Then why was the content of his speech so predictable? All we heard was the same old, same old. The list goes something like this;
I understand the problems of America.
I inherited a mess that is worse than we expected.
I have outlined a plan to solve your problems and the Republicans are fighting us every step of the way.
America is tired of “partisan politics”; more is expected from us.
Feed the “class envy monster” to keep the societal divisions strong.
The American Spirit is strong but the government is not responsive to the needs of the country.
It will be expensive, but I am here to fix the nation and blame everyone else for not heeding my advice.
Sound familiar? We hear the same speech every time President Obama stands up to the teleprompter. He even went into the standard “rope-a-dope” tactic of trying to identify with his opposition, citing the following points.
A need to cut taxes.
Comprehending that small business is the backbone of America and is vital in solving the unemployment.
Need to allow off-shore drilling.
Need to develop nuclear power.
Pursue alternate forms of energy but that they need to be profitable instead of just another form of taxation.
Institute policies to keep large companies here instead of taxing them into moving to other countries.
Seeking more marketing opportunities. (this almost sounds like embracing a free market)
Increase the excellence of education instead of rewarding the failures of the NEA.
Of course, President Obama rattling off these points, as reading from a depth chart, only served to highlight that all of these issues, sought by Conservatives for years, is what is right for the country.
However, it was only a feign. Immediately the President slipped back into his comfort zone, taking on a “never say die” mentality in regards to Health Care Reform, we have a deficit because Bush failed to pay for two wars, and I know I added more than $1 trillion to the deficit, but it was the right thing to do.
This was a nice way to lead into pretending to identify with “average America” that is forced to tighten their belts, by announcing that “like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don’t”. Therefore, the President is proposing a Congressional Spending Freeze for next year. Not now, like you cash-strapped families must do. The President promised to do this next year, after America has forgotten what he said. And besides, cuts to save an estimated $25 billion, which we all know is terribly optimistic, and in no way begins to compare to the $1 trillion he has already added to the deficit. Do you have any idea what that actually costs the taxpayers after calculating the interest we will pay on the additional spending?
Alright, I cannot go on any further. I listened to the President attempt to revive his socialistic ideology, refusing to recognize that America is rejecting it. So, I will take the opportunity here to explain a few points the President and Congress need to figure out, according to me. Then he can get back to us about truly moving the country forward.
This President has increased the deficit by over $1 trillion, and until he assumes absolute transparency, and details how he intends to make his plans work, he is simply trying to spend America into a form of socialism. If you truly want to help America recover, cut taxes, stop irresponsible, unconstitutional spending, and get out of the way. Other than that, it is not your job.
The President still wants Socialized Health Care and views the recent rejection of it as a “political kink”, just a minor setback. The fact is, most Americans agree that we need Health Care Reform. We want affordability, accessibility, transportability, and a true referendum on Tort Reform. What we do not want is government involvement. Legislate these four issues, and leave it alone. Quit trying to use our Health Care as another way to usurp our liberty and assert control. We are NOT having any part of it.
He claims he is persistently trying to keep our country secure from terrorism, while in practice he is behind giving terrorists the protection of Miranda Rights after failed attacks on our citizens.
The President claims to support our military, yet he dragged his feet in authorizing additional troops to reinforce those deployed in Afghanistan.
The President does not support our military. He sees the military as a “social experiment”. You want proof? The President said he wants Congress to repeal the law banning openly gay military service. Anyone who understands the military knows the military is a fighting force, in place to protect our country. There is no place for open homosexuality within the ranks, just as there is no place for heterosexuality in the military. The military is NOT a social experiment, it is a protective service provided for the defense of the country.
Now he wants First Lady Michelle Obama along with Jill Biden to forge a national commitment to military families. The fact that they are to “forge” this commitment identifies it is a new concept to the President.
Most of America has always been committed to our military. What we want from the Commander in Chief is a clear and definite purpose for the mission he sends our military to accomplish, what constitutes victory, how he intends to be victorious with the least cost of American Lives possible, maintaining an allegiance to those being sent to face a declared enemy, instead of appearing to protect the enemy.
The President is quick to announce his willingness to work with other countries through the United Nations. This makes sense due to his obvious support of subjecting America, and our citizens, to a form of “Global Authority”, regarding environmental policy, thus diminishing our sovereignty as a nation. What will it take to convince this President that the policies being bantered about, at the UN, are proposals to punish America for our exceptionalism?
What this President, and the Liberals in Congress fail to understand, is that America is truly a sovereign nation of great People. What makes us great is that we all believe in a common belief, Individual Freedom, established by the Declaration of Independence, and protected by the Constitution of the United States.
America is suffering today, because too few politicians read the Constitution for what it actually says, and instead read it for what they want it to say, or pervert it into something other than that which it was intended. Modern politicians believe they are elected to legislate “one size fits all solutions” to every issue known to man, while the Constitution was implemented to limit Government to very specific functions.
If the President, and Congress alike, truly want America to succeed, might I suggest they read our founding documents, understand them for what they say, and do it. Pretty simple, actually.
2 Comments | Agendas, America, bill of rights, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Constitution, Declaration of Independence, free market, government, health care reform, Law, Liberalism, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, State of the Union, takeover, terrorism, terrorists, U.S. Military,Veterans, US Military, veterans | Tagged: administration, barack, change, congress, Conservatism, Constitution, ethics, freedom, government, health care reform, Hope, house of representatives, liberty, marxist, Obama, President, proletariat, Saul Alinsky, senate, socialism, speech, State of the Union, wasteful spending | Permalink
Health Care Reform Act of 2010; Dead On Arrival
David A. Black, Sr.
Leading the way to truly reforming Congress, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts elected Republican Senatorial Candidate, Scott Brown to fill a Senate Seat held by a member of the Kennedy Family for 50 plus years. I guess Massachusetts agreed with Mr. Browns assessment that he was not running for “Kennedy’s Seat”, but rather the “People’s Seat”.
As a matter of fact, Senator Brown beat the ‘media, odds-on favorite’, Democratic Candidate, Martha Coakley by a decisive 5% margin, giving a climactic ending to a race featuring an incalculable long-shot. This, even after President Obama came to town, stumping for Coakley and ‘dissing’ Brown because he drives an old pick-up truck. Sure makes you wonder who is out of touch with the People.
The election of a Conservative Republican, in a State largely held by Democrats, has significant meaning. For instance, we can draw from the election result is that Massachusetts gave the nation Hope for real Change in American Politics.
It is really too bad that Representative Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, does not understand the message the voters of his State sent to Congress. Rep. Frank thinks the necessary Change is to require 67 votes to block a filibuster, instead of 60. He did not have a problem with the standard 60 votes while he and his fellow Democratic Congressmen were forcing their Government take-over of the American Health Care System down our collective throats. I wonder if he has been reading the writing on the wall?
No, the real message is that the People are fed up, and want an end to “politics as usual”. Most of the Massachusetts voters backed Candidate Obama because he promised to do just that. Instead, the nation has watched President Obama, and his Democratic Majority, use strong-arm tactics in politically hijacking America.
Now the People are doing what comes natural to American Patriots, they are retaliating. Like Flight 93, like Richard Reeds’ attempt at a ‘shoe bomb’, or the recent attempt to bomb the flight into Detroit from Amsterdam on Christmas, hijack a plane, win or lose, Americans will fight back; hijack our government, the reaction of the American People is the same. It really does not matter what State we live in, Americans are not good at being willing victims.
Another distinct reality of Sen. Brown being elected is that the Health Care Reform Act, as envisioned by President Obama and constructed by his Democrat henchmen, is ‘Dead On Arrival’. The loudest, most significant campaign promise made by Candidate Brown was that as Senator, he would be the forty-first vote to stop Health Care Reform and the Cap and Trade bill.
Prominent Democrats are already trying to establish new positions on these two bills. After a year of the Democrats claiming they have a mandate from the People and constantly reminding us who won the election, now they are attempting a last stitch effort to save their latest socialistic take-over bid of the American economy. That is, the Health Care System was soon to be added into the pot where the financial, auto, and housing industries are stewing.
If Mr. Brown holds true to his word, the fact that he has become the most recent addition to the United States Senate is good for America. I only wish we could apply such impact to the man elected into the Oval Office. Instead, the contrary is true, President Obama has proven to be only a detriment.
In fact, President Obama still doesn’t get it! In his response to Sen. Brown’s election, he wore a look of disgusted concern indicating that Democrats must be more focused on the voter concerns. Of course, I guess the idea of Obama attempting to distance himself from the debacle at center stage and throw his fellow Democrats under the bus, comes as no big surprise.
America, as in the Revolution, with the Tea Party, Massachusetts has taken the lead in returning our nations sovereignty.
DO NOT STOP NOW!
Unlike President Obama, who dragged his feet in reinforcing our military in Afghanistan, we can all stand firm in November and reinforce the message delivered by our brethren in Massachusetts. Together, we can fight back and stop the current hijacking of America.
Just to clarify, I am not backing Republicans entirely. Rather, I am supportive of the referendum set forth by the voters in Massachusetts by endorsing Conservatism.
In closing, I will borrow a famous quote from Neil Armstrong; the traditionally Democratic State of Massachusetts, electing Republican Scott Brown to the United States Senate, is one small step for Republicans, one giant leap for Conservatism.
10 Comments | Agendas, America, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Declaration of Independence, government, health care reform, Law, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, takeover, terrorism, terrorists, US Military, veterans | Tagged: administration, auto industry, barack, change, congress, Conservatism, ethics, freedom, government, health care reform, Hope, house of representatives, liberty, Obama, President, senate, socialism | Permalink
Health Care Reform – Merry Christmas? Or, Welcome Comrades?
So, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid succeeded in forcing his Health Care reform through the Senate on Christmas Eve.
Merry Christmas, America!
Almost immediately after the Bill passed, an entirely party-line vote of 60 – 39, I believe it was Senator Barrasso, of Wyoming who asked, why, if the Bill so good, did it require exemptions, or special deals, for Senators from at least 13 States.
What kind of special deals were carved out of Sen. Reid’s Health Care Reform Act?
Nebraska received guaranteed funding to cover all additional costs for expansion of Medicare to low income individuals, thanks to Sen. Ben Nelson.
Louisiana received a $300 million payoff for Medicare benefits to Sen. Mary Landrieu.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-proclaimed “Socialist”, from Vermont, gets a huge chunk of change for his “pet project”, the Community Health Centers Program.
Sen. Chris Dodd received funding for a new hospital in Connecticut in an attempt to help his re-election bid.
Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Maine, Nevada, California, New York, and Illinois are all to receive funding for Medicare for low income individuals, some of the funds are delegated to go to illegal immigrants who now qualify for the TANF program (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) who were already in the country prior to the Welfare Act of 1996.
Apparently, Sen. Reid’s Health Care Reform Act was a first step toward Comprehensive Immigration Reform as well. After all, if we are already paying for “illegal immigrants” under the Health Care Bill, we should find our way clear to legalizing these poor individuals, and make them official, productive members of society.
Wait, just a cotton-pickin minute! If they have been here since before 1996, and are still on “temporary assistance”, how can anybody profess they are productive members of our society? This dramatically contradicts the claim that not providing illegal immigrants with a pathway to citizenship is unfair because they already pay taxes, yet receive no benefit. I guess the “shadows” are not as bad as we were led to believe.
OK, I digress. The question is, where is this thing headed now?
It works like this. The Senate Bill goes back to the House of Representatives, causing Speaker Pelosi to meet with Sen. Reid, behind closed doors of course, and find ways to manipulate the rest of their party to reconcile the two Bills, now passed by the separate houses of congress.
Chances are, the Democrats will force a Health Care Bill through by the end of January and present it to President Obama by the first week of February. Then the Democrats can tout that a “Historical President” has mentored a “Historical Bill” through Congress. What they will not tell us is that they are in fact making history. Their Health Care Bill will make America, as we know it, history, in a relatively short time.
If bankrupting the country, in an attempt to usher in a socialistic agenda, is their goal, the Health Care Reform Bill is the ticket to their success. Think about it! California, New York, and Michigan, three of the most liberal States, are the leaders of the pack of States, already rushing toward bankruptcy, or at the very least, financial insolvency.
There you go! We already have examples to follow.
I know, you probably think this is another “The Sky is Falling” episode from Chicken Little. However, I would encourage you to consider the ten pillars of Communism, as stipulated by Karl Marx, in his book, A Communist Manifesto.
1. The abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. America was built, in part, on pride of ownership of property. Have we not witnessed the grabbing, hoarding, and assuming control of land (eminent domain), and uses thereof, by the government in recent history?
2. A heavy progressive graduated income tax. This is a process of punishing success, or exceptionalism. When is the last time you got a pay raise and actually received more net income? Doesn’t happen under the modern U.S. Tax System.
3. Abolition of rights of inheritance. Can you say “Death Tax”? As it stands, the Government heavily taxes that which you inherit from the hard earned success of your parents, or grand-parents. I have heard it said, “It costs more to die, than to be born”. That is a significant statement for anybody that is a parent. For those of you who are not parents, ask yours.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. All right. I have no concrete evidence of this. However, I wonder if the Secretary of Homeland Security announcing that Conservatives and ex-military personnel are potential terrorists would qualify as a precursor to a strategy of this magnitude. Just a thought. If you think about it, we did “encamp” those of Japanese descent, during World War II, under President Roosevelt. He was a “Progressive Democrat” too.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the State, by means of a National Bank, with State Capital, and an exclusive monopoly. OK. This is a “no brainer”. Think about the “Financial Bail-Outs”, and the fact that several of the banks that received TARP Funds were told NO when they attempted to pay back the money.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. This is taking place as you read this article. Liberal Democrats are chomping at the bit to enact the “Fairness Doctrine” to control what is said over the airwaves. They are currently attempting to put control of the internet in the hands of the President and his Czars. Of course, they are only considering our “cyber-safety”. Needless to say, I know very well, the over burdensome regulations of transportation, which tightens its stranglehold on the throat of interstate commerce every year. But that too, is done in the name of Safety. Funny, how Public Safety in the eyes of legislators relegates to Government Revenues.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of wastelands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. The easy indicator here is a glance at the recent takeovers of the auto industry, and the unprecedented affiliation of the Government with the Labor Unions. However, to fully understand this aspect of a potential Communist takeover, you must look beyond the surface of Government subsidization and Co-Ops in the farming industry, and think about the control exhibited in the Government’s ability to not only dictate who grows what, but how much, when, and to whom the crops must be sold.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. Again, I must refer to the Government / Labor Union affiliation. How many favors are due to the Labor Unions in return for various forms of assistance to campaigning candidates? The pay backs from campaign promises to the unions continue to mount at a cost, yet to be determined, to the American Tax Payers. And as to an “Industrial Army”, did not Candidate Obama mention a “Civillian Army”?
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country. Maybe you have noticed, or maybe it’s just my ill perception, that most of the emphasis of Government Programs deal with urbanizing America by moving people into the city and away from less accessible locales.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. As a candidate for president, then Sen. Obama, pushed for Public Service Volunteers and involvement in Community Service. I think those statements dovetailed nicely with the “soon-to-be” First Lady promoting the ideology of abandoning the “Corporate World”. Apparently, there is some form of “Volunteer Act” being floated around Washington, D.C., to accommodate President Obama’s “Civillian Army“, that would require every graduate of the Public School System to various forms of Community Service. How long before a program of this nature gives Congress the right to dictate who receives what form of education in order to fulfill the “Public Need”? How long then, until the needs of the Labor Unions are disguised as “Public Needs”?
Just a series of thoughts. But, I am willing to bet, you get the picture. The passing of a Health Care Reform Act, that is opposed by more than 60 percent of Americans, and the indication that it is merely a disguised first step to something more sinister, is at the very least, a red flag, maybe even a Communist Red Flag.
I think it is time that even the most uninvolved American should sit up and pay attention to what our Government is up to, and start looking at the Majority of influence on our Government, and gain a clear understanding of where our current path will lead us.
Could this be the beginning of, Welcome Comrades?
Think about it. You decide.
3 Comments | Agendas, America, congress, Conservatism, conservatives, Courts/Justice, free market, government, health care reform, Liberalism, Liberals, political, political policies, politicians, politics, takeover, terrorism, terrorists | Tagged: administration, barack, civillian army, communism, communist manifesto, congress, Conservatism, death tax, eminent domain, ethics, fairness doctrine, freedom, government bankruptcy, health care reform, Hope, house of representatives, liberty, Medicaid, medicare, Obama, party politics, President, regime, reid, rightwing terrorists, senate, sweetheart deals.immigration reform, TARP, urbanization, US tax system, wasteful spending | Permalink
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Computers In Libraries Column: Key Players in the E-Book Marketplace
Posted on February 8, 2013 by Terence K. Huwe
From my column, “Duking it Out in the E-Book’s ‘Wild West‘ Marketplace,” in Computers in Libraries, January/February 2013, p. 17:
The e-book is a new medium, but it follows many other breakthrough products with histories of disruption, adoption, market acceptance, and the forging of new business relationships. Perennials such as CD-Roms, DVDs and iPods come to mind, as each of these new technologies triggered important changes in commerce and entertainment. The disruption was real and has caused serious distress for publishers, but there is no getting around the fact that we are in a new era now. Publishers have gained expertise in digital media and are engaged in intensive experimentation. They are taking big risks with e-books and trying new innovative pricing models. And they are playing a tough game to protect revenue.
Posted in eBooks, Future Libraries, Information and Society, Libraries and the Internet, Libraries as Publishers | Tagged E-Book Marketplace, E-Books, Libraries and Publishers | Leave a reply
Steve Lohr on the Origins of the Term “Big Data”
Data hounds will appreciate reading Steve Lohr’s concise but informative article in the February 1 edition of the New York Times, in which he takes a look at the origins of the moniker “big data.” It’s fun insofar as the term has drifted into common parlance after being mentioned here and there, but it may not be so easy to find a single individual whom to credit for its creation. The first time I ever regarded it seriously was when it appeared in a NBER Working Paper that addressed future career opportunities for economists in big data (I’ll add the cite once I track down again).
It reminds me of a local story involving moniker-manufacturing on a grand scale. During the late 1970s, The Oakland-Berkeley regional newspaper East Bay Express published an article by humorist Alice Kahn. In the article, Ms. Kahn coined the term “Yuppie.” So far as anyone could tell, she was the first person to use the term, which meme-exploded across the USA in a few months. In subsequent issues The Express she turned it into an ongoing gag, because everybody she knew kept telling her, “We think you should sue” –for rights to the term. Humor being an “open source” product first and foremost, she didn’t sue, but did “work it” for what it was worth.
Back to big data. Here’s a quote from the article, given by Fred R. Shapiro, Associate Librarian at Yale Law School and editor of the Yale Book of Quotations:
“The Web…opens up new terrain.What you’re seeing is a marriage of structured databases and novel, less structured materials. It can be a powerful tool to see far more.”
This is exactly the point that Autonomy and other e-discovery firms such as Recommind make: to analyze the full output of a given company, corporation or legal case, you now have to look at all of the data. That includes the easier-to-parse world of structured data, but more and more it includes social media, email, recorded telephone conversations and many other casual (but critical) information resources.
Posted in Bibliometrics, Big Data, Information and Society, Libraries and the Internet | Tagged Big Data, Fred R. Shapiro, New York Times, Steve Lohr | 12 Replies
Chronicle of Higher Ed Reports on Electronic Course Reserves Kerfuffle
In the Chronicle of Higher Education:
“Publishers and Library Groups Spar in Appeal to Ruling on Electronic Course Reserves”
This case is heading for appeal. The following quote expresses one the publishers’ key arguments:
In their brief, filed on Monday, the publishers argue that, if the lower court’s ruling stands, it will have implications that go far beyond Georgia State’s practices. The publishers play up the idea that e-reserves amount to course packs or anthologies of reading material. Judge Evans’s decision “invites universities nationwide to accelerate the migration of course-pack creation from paper to electronic format” and to sidestep legal permission to use copyrighted content, the brief states.
And this from the intrepid Association of Research Libraries:
…Brandon Butler, director of public-policy initiatives for the Association of Research Libraries, took issue with the argument that e-reserves put publishers at great risk.
“I’m baffled that the publishers continue to claim that course reserves pose some kind of existential threat to their business,” he told The Chronicle via e-mail. “It was established at trial that GSU’s practices are in the mainstream, so libraries are basically already doing what the publishers claim will put them out of business, and yet Oxford University Press reported $1-billion in sales last year, $180-million in profits. Is that what a publisher on the verge of collapse looks like?”
Let’s hope the principal of “Fair Use” continues to prevail.
Posted in eBooks, Future Libraries, Information and Society, Libraries and the Internet, Libraries as Publishers | Tagged Cambridge U. Press et al. v. Mark P. Becker et al, E-Reserves, Libraries and Publishers | Leave a reply
The “New” Job Hunt Strategy: It’s Who You Know, On- and Offline
On January 27, 2013, The New York Times published an article titled “In Hiring, A Friend in Need is a Prospect, Indeed.” The article charted the recent and radical evolution of the process of job-hunting, and the impact this trend has on the placement and executive search industries.
First, some digital “backstory.” The emergence of Facebook and LinkedIn has changed how firms do their recruiting. It is now possible to spend time and effort searching these and other discovery systems in addition to combing through hundreds of resumes and vitae.
But even as social media sites gain acceptance, a surprise trend has come into focus, too. It turns out employee recommendations are taken more seriously, and such recommendations are culminating in new hires at a much higher rate.
The numbers bear out the change; the article says that at Ernst & Young, employee recommendations resulting in a hire stand at 45 percent of nonentry-level placements, and that is up from 28 percent in 2010. The employee recommendations have the effect of “fast-tracking” candidates. So once again, it’s “who you know” that can lead you to new employment opportunities.
This trend is based on personal relationships that are not necessarily begun online, but instead encompass everybody we know. Of course, the use of Facebook and LinkedIn has its benefits, and Ernst & Young also says it reviews all print-based applicants. But this growth in effective referrals suggests that personal contacts are trumping digital community as a source of new employees. This strikes me as an unforeseen development, but when you think about it, it makes sense. Personal contacts carry a sense of reassurance and can contribute to the growth of trust, especially in recruiting. Moreover, now as always, employers with high appeal are inundated with candidates. The sheer challenge of making oneself “distinctive” among a cast of thousands seems like a remote possibility.
If this trend expands and affects the job market beyond professional boundaries, it may be time for job searchers to revisit their strategies. Building a personal network might bear more fruit than the conventional application process does. If so, LinkedIn in particular stands to benefit, because a personal network transfers handily to the digital sphere. It is also common to develop cordial and collaborative ties from associations that begin on LinkedIn. This is not necessarily a new feature of online life; I experienced a “stone age” version of digital networking in 1994, when the Web was beginning its commercial and ubiquitous expansion. I had read the writings of a Belgian information professional, and reached to him via email. In short order we were co-authoring articles, and a year later I was invited to make a presentation at a conference in The Hague. Email was the platform for the networking then, just as social media is now.
LinkedIn strives to recreate the good aspects of interpersonal networks so that they can be transformed into productive work. But if a “friend in need is a prospect, indeed,” job searchers might be well-advised to work on a network that encompasses not only the digital, but our “analog” lives. And perhaps LinkedIn and Facebook need to enhance their functionalities to encourage this trend online, as they stand to benefit.
Posted in Information and Society | Tagged Employee Recruitment, Facebook, Job Hunting, LinkeIn | Leave a reply
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Home > Select Indicators > Children who live in unsafe communities > Line Graph
For the Nation
Ascending (left to right)
Descending (right to left)
National KIDS COUNT
Children who live in unsafe communities in the United States
Children who live in unsafe communities
Note: Non-consecutive years appear adjacent in the trend line
because one or more years have been deselected.
Definitions: Children whose parents/guardians reported that they "somewhat disagree" or "definitely disagree" with the statement: "The child is safe in our neighborhood"
There were changes to the wording of this item between 2011-2012 and the 2015-2016 survey. Previously, this variable was defined as children age 0-17 years whose parents indicated that the child lived in a neighborhood that was "sometimes" or "never" safe. Due to changes in wording of this item, it is now defined as children age 0-17 years whose parents/guardians reported that they "somewhat disagree" or "definitely disagree" with the statement: "The child is safe in our neighborhood".
Due to changes in the survey’s item wording, it is not possible to compare estimates from the redesigned survey to those from previous iterations of the NSCH or NS-CSHCN or to conduct related trend analyses. The redesigned NSCH will support trend analyses beginning with data from 2016.
Data Source: Child Trends analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and Child Health Bureau, National Survey of Children’s Health.
The state-level data used here come from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). The NSCH includes information on approximately 50,000 children under age 18, with representative samples for each state. For more information on the NSCH, see http://childhealthdata.org/learn/NSCH
Footnotes: Updated April 2019.
S - Estimates suppressed when the 95% confidence interval is greater than 20 percentage points or 1.2 times the estimate.
N.A. – Data not available.
Percentages exclude missing data. Weighted percentages were applied to the estimates of those missing to derive overall estimates for the number of children.
KIDS COUNT Data Center
Annie E. Casey Foundation
701 St Paul Street
KIDS COUNT is a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation to track the well-being of children in the United States.
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‘Battle Of The Sexes’ DP Linus Sandgren Courted ’70s American Cinema Styles In Filming Period Drama
By Matt Grobar
Matt Grobar
Assistant Editor, Awardsline
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PAUL BUCK/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
Coming off a triumphant year with an Oscar in hand for La La Land, Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren is back in awards contention this year with a very different project, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ biographical drama Battle of the Sexes. Chronicling a historic moment in the world of tennis, in which world champion Billie Jean King faced off against self-styled chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs in a high-stakes match—setting a precedent for the way women would be treated in tennis, and in the world at large—Battle of the Sexes is a naturalistic counterpoint to La La Land‘s heightened world of musical magic.
Reteaming with Emma Stone on the project, Sandgren brought a documentary feel to the drama, with gorgeously soft film grain and an interesting goal in mind: To create a film that not only depicted the ’70s, but was shot in the style of movies made in that period, a pivotal and still influential moment in American cinema.
How did you come to Battle of the Sexes?
I had worked with John and Val on commercials, and was very keen to work with them on a film at some point. This came up, and what intrigued me when we started to talk about the film was that they wanted to do a film that was set in the ‘70s, but also should feel like it was made in the ‘70s.
That was intriguing, and they were very keen to shoot on film, like myself. It’s always been great working with them, so I felt like it was very easy for us to move ahead with this. We went into testing different formats of 16 or 35 [mm] to see how we could shoot that look from that time.
We basically came into the project thinking we should think like we would have thought about things if we were making a normal contemporary film back in the ‘70s. We tried to avoid steadicams or cranes—we had some cranes, but a lot of dolly-and-zoom kind of storytelling, and blocking scenes with the actors.
The story behind this film is well documented. What kind of research process did you go through in preparation?
We obviously had real events that we portray, and there were a lot of discussions about how to proceed with the film. I guess it really came down to making things quite authentic, but as we told the story, we found that there’s a few different storylines where we got an opportunity to focus on different themes—visual themes and visual rules for ourselves, for different points in the story.
The main story is about the fight for equal pay. We created a theme for that, where we wanted to visually show that the women were progressive, while the men were resistant to the natural progression. So, the women are always moving left to right, while the men are moving right to left. We really tried to get a sense that women were always in forward motion.
In the story, the main characters have their official selves, but then they have their private secrets. In that theme, we felt that the characters would let us closer in, physically, with the camera, if we were more private with them. And farther away, the less private we could be with them—the less they wanted to let us under the skin, so to speak.
For us, the ultimate distance away from them would be to go on the tennis court, in the TV light, with a long zoom lens, while, when we’re with Billie Jean and Marilyn in the bedroom, we would be handheld, and very close, on a tiny lens.
That was something we worked with, as well, and then we had a theme that was about loneliness and solitude, where we tried to be responsive to their emotions in When we were there in the scene, we stepped back to find them, with a lot of negative space and dark, black foregrounds, and they’re just sitting far away in that little frame, or behind bars. Steve Carell’s character, Bobby Riggs, is also behind bars. At home, we’re outside the windows, seeing him eat dinner alone. He’s actually with his family, but in the frame, he’s alone, and he’s behind bars.
That was the idea, to have a very ‘70s approach. You sort of assign metaphors for yourself—a way of thinking—and with those rules, the film evolved.
What camera and lenses did you land on for the film? It feels very authentic in its documentary approach.
We did a lot of testing for the quality and the look of the film. I felt like when you watch films from the ’70s, a lot of times, it didn’t feel like a studio movie. They were shot with fluorescent tubes, and the same thing here. We designed the sets in a way that we could use very few film lights. We actually lit with practicals, to a large extent. To create the film look, we tested different ways to get grain, and a softer feel to it.
What we ended up doing was looking into 16mm and 35, and we ended up liking 35 best because we could have a lot more lens choices, which also was important. For the warm look, we used old Angénieux zooms, and old Kowa lenses that all kept warmer flares and highlights. We had Angénieux 25-50 zoom lenses that were from that period. We also found a 25-500mm Angénieux that’s very rare. We shot a lot on 500 ASA, and pushed it a stop to get a little bit more grain, and also color saturation, and color contrast.
When it came to the tennis match, we really wanted the cameras to feel like we were in the position of the TV cameras, and have those limitations in how you can capture the emotions of the tennis players. It was important for the authenticity to not be like a movie camera nearby. It should feel more as if you were observing, like filmmakers that tried to make a documentary about this event.
A repeat motif in this film is the use of mirrors, where characters are seen mirrored at the side of the frame, reacting. What inspired that choice?
For one, we felt that it was important that Billie Jean sees Larry find this bra. He doesn’t know she sees that, and he doesn’t confront her with it, so it’s like they have secrets about it. You know that she knows, but he doesn’t know. It was a way to make it appear that she looked at him through the mirror there, but it also felt like a beautiful, quick reaction.
Mirrors are always interesting for that reason—that you can sort of surprise the audience a little bit. You don’t think you see something, and then suddenly, something is there. It was nice to think about it. Sometimes, back in the day, they did much more blocking. The character was blocked with the camera, and the camera didn’t ever really cut. It could be one long take, but it feels like it’s many shots. You see that there’s perhaps an interesting way to tell the story without cutting.
The same when Marilyn and Billie Jean making love by the mirror—that is also one take. Actually, that is cut off—it was longer—and it just feels sort of beautiful, I think. That was part of our aesthetic, too, to shoot that way. I think Bertolucci shot a lot like that in the ‘70s, with [Vittorio] Storaro.
How did you conceive of the film’s color palette? It feels like certain connections can be made to La La Land, with its yellows and purples
In this film, we didn’t want to have a mood light. For the exterior nights, we didn’t want it to be like movie moonlight, or artificial light. In La La Land, we used the street colors at night, but we did it sort of theatrically. I think in this case, we wanted to not be so theatrical, but very realistic.
Steve Carell’s character, Bobby Riggs, lived in New York. We wanted that world to be orange at night, while Billie Jean’s world was more of the mercury vapor type of lights for night. We worked with really normal street colors, but I just love to mix colors and make films not monochromatic—to define things with colors.
If you use orange streetlights coming in, when [Riggs] goes to his son, and he’s with his son in his apartment at night, I loved to use a blue-green color, and contrast that. It’s the same for [King’s] world, which was more blue, but you could add yellow or pink if it made sense.
Dale Robinette
But it had to be connected to where you were. In this case, it was like, “Well, can the bar be where [Billie and Marilyn] meet? The discotheque, and they fall in love.” Perhaps that is sort of a go-to, to go pink/blue or whatever, but it also was missing in the film a little bit. It was a color we had not seen much. It was an opportunity to make that world a little pink, in the disco. But it felt like it was justified by being at a dance club.
In La La Land, we would do something at the theater, where Emma has her play, that was more pink and cyan colors, which were sort of realistic, but it’s theatrically lit. It’s colors that could have been there but it was totally to add to the romance of the whole movie, being that LA is romantic. In this film, it was more adapting to each scene, but I still love the rich colors—lots of orange floodlights, like in the phone booth. When he’s in the car, it’s orange light, but when he’s inside the phone booth, it’s green. It’s realistic—that’s how those colors look on film—but it was also enhanced by the color contrast, and enhanced by the film being pushed. It became much more naturally saturated.
You reteamed with Emma Stone on Battle, and are now working on First Man, working again with Damien Chazelle and Ryan Gosling. What has this kind of continuity been like for you?
I love working with lovely people, but it’s also fun to get to know each other better, and it’s easier the second time because you have the relationship already established. It’s interesting to see how different things can be—like, Emma was so different from La La Land to Battle of the Sexes, and that was amazing, just to see how she acts differently. The same with Ryan on this one. That’s what I think is interesting in movies, that you can make them so different. I’d rather do that than just shoot the same thing over and over. It’s much more fun to just look at the script, erase your mind, with any ideas of how you know things are supposed to be made. It’s nice to do the opposite.
What can you share about First Man? Where are you in the process?
We’re just about to start shooting. We’ve been prepping for like 13 weeks now, and it’s a very complicated project, but also a very intimate story. It has both scale and intimacy, which is something we’ve worked hard on in prep.
This article was printed from https://deadline.com/2017/11/battle-of-the-sexes-linus-sandgren-cinematography-interview-1202201574/
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New York Rangers 2019 report cards: Grading the goaltenders
Dominick Renna
ESNY Graphic
The 2018-19 season showcased signs of great progress for the New York Rangers, especially at the goaltending position.
Goaltending has never been a problem for the New York Rangers the last 14 years. Led by Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers have always had some form of consistency in between the pipes
The only conceivable question year in, year out was, “Who would be his backup?”
Entering training camp, that same question surrounded the team especially considering how there was no veteran netminder like Antti Raanta/Ondrej Pavelec or an established backup in Cam Talbot. This year, New York deployed a competition between rookie Alexandar Georgiev, AHL veteran Marek Mazanec, and former Montreal Canadien’s prospect Dustin Tokarski. All three shared one thing in common: lack of NHL experience.
Ultimately, the job would be handed to Georgiev, giving the Rangers their first rookie backup since Talbot in the 2013-14 season, a task not easy for anyone let alone a 23-year-old player who had only seen half a season in the AHL a year prior. But Georgiev surprised everyone in a year which was designed for players to step up and surprise. He and Henrik Lundqvist would end up splitting starts while answering some of the Rangers questions at the backup position.
Grades are determined based on impact to the team, performance and consistency. Some players might have an incomplete due to the fact that they left us wanting more or had their opportunities taken away.
When you look at the generic numbers for Henrik Lundqvist, you can’t help but feel disappointed considering what the future Hall of Famer has proven he can do. For the first time in his career, he failed to reach the 20-win plateau while posting a career worse .907 save percentage and 3.08 goals-against-average. Simply put, the numbers are not close to the standards he’s established throughout his illustrious 14-year career.
Even with the disappointing numbers, it wasn’t all bad for the 37-year-old netminder. His start to 2018-19 led some to think that he would hurt the Rangers draft lottery chances. Through Christmas, he posted a .920 save percentage bailing out a struggling defense like he’s done so often before. He even was selected to represent the Rangers at the All-Star Game where he picked up a shutout.
But the success Lundqvist saw in the first half of the season disappeared in the second half which was extremely tough for him. He was public about how the trade rumors of Mats Zuccarello was taking a toll on him, while he continually had to help bail out a defense core who never seemed to find consistency. His appearances towards the end of the year were minimal and in the 16 games he played, he would only two of those starts.
All of the struggles aside, Lundqvist still was able to put up respectable numbers if you take a deeper look.
For the year, he posted a .919 save percentage at even strength but struggled while the opposition was on the power play. While down a man, Lundqvist posted a .835 save percentage ending up in his numbers taking a significant dip. If you take out the power play goals, it was the same old Lundqvist fans have been used to seeing.
Alexandar Georgiev
Rookie netminder Alexandar Georgiev was really one of the bright spots in the Rangers long and tough season, but it didn’t start that way. After winning the job out of training camp, Georgiev was shelled in his first game allowing seven goals vs. Carolina in their first storm surge of 2018-19. It left everyone questioning whether or not first-year head coach David Quinn made the right call going with the rookie.
As the year went on, Georgiev split time between Hartford and New York to keep seeing consistent minutes. Oddly enough, he struggled during his time in the AHL but would eventually turn it on at the NHL level. It all started on a Sunday night in February vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs where Georgiev would make 55 saves in a Rangers 4-1 win over an extremely talented young team. In the 14 games following that start, he would go on some tear.
During that span, he went on to post a .924 save percentage where he would go on to put up a 6-4-4 record giving the Rangers something to think about with their goaltending situation. Georgiev’s play led him to see the bulk of starts down the stretch in favor of Henrik Lundqvist who simply just did not have it to close out the year.
Georgiev’s play down the stretch solidified him as a legitimate backup goalie in this league with potential to become a starter a fear years down the road. In 2019-20 he will be right back in the conversation to be the backup netminder along with top prospect Igor Shesterkin who is making his way from Russia to North America. Thanks to Georgiev’s impressive rookie campaign, he should be considered the favorite for that position and the Rangers will find themselves in an interesting situation moving forward.
Follow Dom on TWITTER
NEXT: The Rangers Exciting Future Must Be Realistically Tamed
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Theater: Contemporary take on 'Othello' aims to capture Shakespeare's spirit
Jody Feinberg The Patriot Ledger
Jan 9, 2019 at 3:47 PM Jan 10, 2019 at 5:23 PM
Shakespeare may be timeless, but some plays have more relevance today than others. That’s the case with “Othello,” which comes to the American Repertory Theater from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
“I think `Othello' is his most contemporary play,” said Oregon Shakespeare Festival artistic director Bill Rauch, whose production opens in previews Jan. 13. “It feels like it was written about this particular moment in the 21st century. The connections between then and now are breathtaking.”
Rauch, who has won Tony, Drama Desk and Elliot Norton awards, said the play is not just insightful about human psychology, but about how racism, misogyny and xenophobia influence individuals.
“Society created the environment in which Othello can be brought down,” he said. “If you take out the social constructs, the story doesn’t happen. And that’s what makes the play so stunningly relevant.”
Othello, referred to as the Moor, is an outsider in Venetian society – a black immigrant and Christian convert who has earned great respect for his military prowess and character despite his foreignness. The prejudice against him initially can be seen when he loses the favor of the father of his beloved, Desdemona, who can’t accept him as a son-in-law.
“The bias seems to flare up out of the blue and we can immediately recognize patterns across time and culture in how people deal with one another,” said Rauch, who set the 400-year-old story on a contemporary United States Navy base on the island of Cyprus.
Iago, a military officer who served under Othello, resents the success of his commander, especially when Othello bypasses him for a promotion and gives it to a less senior officer, Cassio. To wreak his revenge, Iago turns Othello against Desdemona by telling him lies that distort reality and destroy trust, a device prevalent today.
Iago insinuates for the first time that Desdemona may be unfaithful while he and Othello are working out at the gym. That seemingly off-hand remark sets in motion the tragedy that ends with Othello killing her and later committing suicide after he realizes Iago has deceived him and his wife is innocent.
“The suggestion gets dropped in the most casual way and that makes it even more insidious when it tears apart Othello’s life,” Rauch said. “It’s the most pivotal scene between them. Iago eventually resorts to very explicit lies, but he starts with just the mere suggestion of altered reality. The play brilliantly portrays how innuendos create doubt and fear and polarization.”
Similarly relevant is the role of misogyny in the domestic violence that kills two wives. Othello strangles Desdemona in her bed to end what he believes is an affair, and Iago murders Emilia, after she exposes that he made Desdemona look guilty of adultery when he planted her handkerchief with Cassio.
“The building blocks Iago used to create doubt are rooted in misogyny and male fears and distrust of women,” Rauch said. “What’s so troubling is that Othello goes from someone who is completely confident and has a pure and healthy love for his wife to this insane, extreme jealousy.”
To highlight the intimacy of the tragedy, Rauch cast the play with only 12 performers, eight of whom are people of color from a variety of ethnicities that reflect the theater company’s resident actors. In other productions, the cast typically has nearly two dozen people and Othello is the only person of color.
Shakespeare also wrote about the devastating consequences of hatred and distrust based on identity in “Romeo and Juliet,” but “Othello” ends without the hopefulness of that earlier play, whose warring families resolved to get beyond their differences.
“In `Othello,' the response is ‘Let’s cover up the ugliness and torture Iago to make him pay for what he’s done,” said Rauch, who this year will become artistic director of The Ronald O. Perelman Center for the Performing Arts at the World Trade Center.
Although the happenings in “Othello” are horrible, Rauch said it entertains and even has moments of humor.
“I try to make the characters and the language come to life and to change the mind of people who say ‘Oh, I don’t understand Shakespeare,'” Rauch said. “I try to tell a very gripping story.”
And despite the play’s grim conclusion, Rauch said he sees hope.
“It shows us what is eternal in human nature and societal constructs,” he said. “We can see what has changed that can give us hope and how we can avert the kinds of tragedies Shakespeare lays out with our choices.”
Reach Jody Feinberg at jfeinberg@patriotledger.com. Follow her on Twitter@JodyF_Ledger.
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The Colorful Dark Ages →
Review: Hereward the Wake, ‘Last of the English’
Hereward the Wake, ‘Last of the English’ by Charles Kingsley
A marvelous adventure story with a medieval setting about the legendary hero of England.
I picked up the new Audible edition, read by the brilliant local storyteller Sebastian Lockwood, himself from the region where Hereward took action just after the Norman Conquest in 1066. Lockwood is a great narrator, who adds just enough vocal variation to the characters and uses his expressive voice to enhance the narrative.
Hereward is the son of the famous Lady Godiva (yes, that one) who is outlawed after he steals silver from a churchman, a deed which will come back to haunt him throughout his life. He goes from the home of one obscure relative to another, living for a time in Scotland, and having numerous adventures like slaying a polar bear (part of a lord’s menagerie) and rescuing a princess from a tyrannical suitor to send her to her betrothed.
Accompanied by the stalwart and somewhat insane Martin Lightfoot, he winds up in Flanders where he grows into a bold and revered captain of soldiers, and falls in love with the beautiful Tolfrida, who becomes his wife and companion through many later adventures. In 1070, they return to England to foment rebellion against the French invaders, on behalf of the Swedish king who has a claim to the English throne through King Canute (now there’s an alternate history it would be interesting to write).
This book is a delight of rich language, heroic deeds and tangled loyalties. It is written very much in the spirit of the legends of Arthur and other great heroes, mingling the historical truth of Hereward’s activities with smaller quests involving mysterious ladies, powerful giants, and saintly interventions.
However, this is the story of three clashing cultures. Three? Yes, because at the time, the north-central section of England where Hereward and his followers live and make their stand identified strongly with the Danes (this is the period of the Danelaw, a sort of culture-within-a-kingdom of former Vikings and their descendents). Many of their oaths and visions of the afterlife involve Odin and Valhalla, as often as they involve St. Peter or a Christian heaven. Their honor and morality is somewhat different to that of the Anglo-Saxon population.
When William the Conqueror comes from Normandy to press his claim to the throne, the divisions between these cultures of Britain must be erased in order to present a united defense. And we all know what happened there. Hastings, anyone? Hence the residents of the Danelaw supporting a Scandinavian king while those in Northumbria have already put forward a different candidate. Three kings, of three cultures, each trying to win over a people as yet uncertain of their shared identity.
And so, Hereward the Wake is at once a thrilling Chanson de Geste, or song of deeds, which even makes reference to the “Song of Roland” and those of other great knights, and an exploration of the uneasy blending of the occupants of a place before it truly becomes a single nation.
This entry was posted in book reviews, Great Characters of the Middle Ages, history, medieval, Uncategorized and tagged audiobook, Charles Kingsley, Hereward the Wake, historical fiction, history, medieval, medieval warfare, novel, Sebastian Lockwood. Bookmark the permalink.
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Edinburgh International Book Festival preview: Limmy
Glasgow’s uncomfortable comedy sensation has written a book of Daft Wee Stories
It’s all just about having a laugh if you’re Limmy. He gauges the audiences on his national book tour for the just-released Daft Wee Stories, to see how much of a laugh they’re up for; at the time we speak he’s experienced Glasgow (‘they were up for a laugh, I knew that’), Aberdeen (‘a bit quieter, but still a good laugh’) and Newcastle. ‘It was this wee hall with 100 seats. I thought, what’s that gonnae be like? I don’t even need a mic. But they were really loud. It’s Manchester tonight, that’ll be a good laugh.’
A laugh is all he’s after, and he’s made a career out of it. He’s a machine when it comes to throwing every little idea he thinks might raise a smile out there, and he’s smart enough to know how many channels are available to him. He tweets, he does videos on YouTube, he puts clips up on Vine, and he’s happy to interact with his audience.
Limmy (his real name’s Brian Limond and he’s from Glasgow) is a wayward comedy auteur whose work sits somewhere between razor-sharp, seriously funny, uncomfortable, and just straight-up taking the piss. He’s had his own sketch show called Limmy’s Show on BBC Scotland and he’s enjoyed cameo appearances on The IT Crowd and his own slot on Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe. You either get him or you don’t, an increasing audience is discovering.
And now he’s written a book. Or rather, he wrote a bunch of short stories which he chucked up on his blog, and a publisher (Random House) saw them and asked to publish them. This month, he’s bringing that book tour to the Edinburgh International Book Festival. ‘I don’t just want people who go to book festivals to turn up,’ he says. ‘I want people who get my stuff right away and are up for a laugh, it makes it better for all of us. You don’t need to know everything I’ve done to like the book, but I don’t want the Q&A to be like, “my first question is, who the fuck are you?’’’
It was around a year ago that he started writing the stories and improvising them on his webcam, another way to pass the time when he found himself getting bored and the itch to create hitting. 'Just one of they things,' he says, 'just off the cuff, you just start typing up stories to see what people think. I mean, I don't know if I'd ever write them if nobody ever read them. If I typed them up then set them alight. I want people to see what they think, see if they like them. They're only wee so you don't have to worry about plot and all that, and if I'm writing an idea and enjoying it while I do it, then it's no' work.'
The book tour, he says, is good practice for Limmy Live, which will bring the characters from his television show to Glasgow’s Clyde Auditorium early next year (29 & 30 Jan). Although he's most familiar as an online success, this won't be his first crack at stand-up. After his podcasts went well, a Glasgow promoter put him on in the city's Blackfriars Bar in 2007, and he did the Edinburgh Fringe that year and the year after. But when his television pilot came through, he decided to quit.
'I never wanted to be a great stand-up or anything,' he says now. 'I never wanted to be playing stadiums and all over the telly. Sometimes I get a wee idea, a wee feeling that other stand-ups maybe wonder who I am, coming out of nowhere and not playing working men's clubs for years. But I don't care, I had my own thing happening for years, my website's been there since 1999. I just wanted to do stuff I enjoyed. And I'm enjoying this.'
Limmy, Charlotte Square Gardens, 0845 373 5888, 22 Aug, 9.45pm, £10 (£8). It's sold out but will be streamed live on bbc.co.uk as part of BBC Arts Live from the Edinburgh Festivals 2015. Daft Wee Stories is out now, published by Random House.
Limmy Live
The YouTube phenomenon, turned Twitter doyen, turned TV star, turned author presents his first live stage show. What're Dee Dee, Jacqueline McCafferty and Falconhoof like in the flesh? There's only one way to find out.
Limmy
It was when his podcast Limmy's World of Glasgow was picked up by the mainstream media that Limmy began to become better known. His first TV show Limmy's Show was shown on the BBC in 2010, for which he has won two Scottish BAFTAs for Best Entertainment Programme. Limmy's Show is an amalgamation of characters he created in…
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Daft Wee Stories
EIBF 2015
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With the right guiding principles, carbon taxes can work
January 11, 2019 Betting NewsAidan Nicholson
Wind power can create jobs for workers like these while cutting carbon pollution. AP Photo/Steven Senne
Like most economists, I favor taxing carbon dioxide to cut carbon pollution.
A carbon tax makes fossil fuels like oil and coal more expensive. That, in turn, leads consumers and industries to use less of them. At the same time, it boosts demand for alternative energy sources like wind and solar powered electricity.
With the anti-regulatory Trump administration in power and a Republican majority controlling the Senate, however, no such national policy is imminent. Prospects for statewide efforts may look bleak too, after ballot initiatives in Washington state that would have created the nation’s first carbon tax failed in 2016 and 2018.
But other states may move in this direction. Having conducted extensive research about how climate policies are working around the world over the past decade, I believe that the effort to enact a carbon tax is worth it.
The headwinds
Based on my experience serving as the deputy assistant secretary for environment and energy at the U.S. Treasury Department for two years during the Obama administration, I recognize it won’t be easy to enact tough climate policies. Recent events in France underscore this fact. There, President Emmanuel Macron has backed down on the taxes on gasoline, diesel and heating oil that led to waves of so-called yellow vest protests that rocked France and left six protesters dead by mid-December.
Fairness is central to the French protests, which sprang from objections to what came across to many voters as an elitist, out-of-touch central government that has lowered taxes on the rich while hiking taxes on the poor. The 2018 French budget, enacted last December, cut corporate tax rates and wealth taxes while increasing a social levy on all income similar to our payroll taxes. This change skewed taxes away from the rich and made the poor pay more.
This law had already stirred discontent. The hike in fuel taxes, part of a carbon tax initially enacted in 2014, poured fuel on those flames. Framing the increase as an environmental tax did nothing to assuage rural and low-income voters. “We’re not anti-environmental,” a movement organizer said. “This is a movement against abusive taxation, period.”
Meanwhile, the failure of the Washington State ballot initiative illustrates the risks of trying to enact controversial policies at the ballot box. When vast amounts of money poured into the state from big oil corporations like BP to finance a campaign against a carbon tax, thoughtful policy debate was forced to compete with a slick media campaign. Supporters also had to overcome the legacy of a previous failed referendum that pitted climate policy advocates against each other.
Designed correctly, a carbon tax can do more than reduce carbon pollution. It can also make tax codes more fair. Research by a group of economists demonstrates that carbon taxes can be progressive – meaning higher income households pay more in tax per dollar of income than lower-income households.
A carbon tax can also create jobs. Although instituting one in the U.S. would surely speed up the disappearance of U.S. coal mining jobs, that shift would continue no matter what while also expediting the creation of new employment opportunities. As of today, there are more than twice as many jobs in solar technology than in coal mining.
Finally, taxing carbon is unlikely to hurt the economy. Despite a roughly $135-per-ton tax on carbon dioxide, Sweden is doing just fine. Its GDP has grown by nearly 80 percent since it enacted a carbon tax in the early 1990s, while its emissions have fallen by one-quarter.
Sweden’s growth rate has actually exceeded that of the U.S. since 2000 despite high taxes on carbon pollution, in part because Sweden uses the revenue to cut other taxes. And the World Economic Forum finds the two economies to be about equally competitive.
Likewise, British Columbia’s carbon tax has not hurt its economy since going into effect in 2008. My analysis indicates, if anything, the tax has boosted growth in the Canadian province. That’s because some of the revenue raised was used, to cut marginal income tax rates on individuals and the tax bills for small businesses. Another economist based at the University of Calgary found that local employment increased by a small but statistically significant amount.
Politically feasible
When and if Congress is finally ready to enact a carbon tax in the U.S., it should consider a guiding framework as it debates the elements of the new tax.
President Ronald Reagan understood the power of establishing frameworks to guide tax policy. In his 1984 State of the Union address, he called for a tax reform that would raise no additional revenue but “make the tax base broader, so personal tax rates could come down, not go up.”
With that directive, Reagan launched the most significant tax reform in the history of the tax code. His directive made clear that he wanted lower tax rates without sacrificing revenue. This simple framework imposed an important discipline that kept lawmakers on track.
In my new book, “Paying for Pollution: Why a Carbon Tax Is Good for America,” I lay out similar guiding principles. In my view, carbon taxation should be revenue-neutral, make the tax code fairer, streamline climate policy and lead to significant emission reductions.
Republicans and Democrats have argued for years over the size of the federal government. It is a debate that should not ensnare climate policy. Revenue neutrality in this context means that all the money raised through a carbon tax should be returned to Americans through some combination of tax cuts and direct payments.
Fairness means that low to moderate income households are not made worse off by the tax. There are many ways to do this including a proposal from the Climate Leadership Council, a policy initiative backed by big corporations like ExxonMobil and General Motors as well as three big environmental groups and former Republican secretaries of State James Baker III and George Shultz, to give all U.S. households the money raised from carbon taxation through carbon dividends.
The government should also provide transitional relief to carbon-intensive industries and regions. The federal government should partner with state and local governments to develop transition plans for these communities.
National climate policies generally include various tax breaks for renewable energy as well as mandates – which in the U.S. primarily consist of state-level renewable portfolio standards. With a carbon tax, it is possible to eliminate some of these overlapping policies and guarantee that emissions decline at the same time.
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is the whole point of climate policies and therefore the highest priority when implementing them. As the latest U.N. climate report makes clear, cutting carbon pollution everywhere and quickly is an urgent priority. And the Swedish track record suggests that pricing carbon dioxide can help make it happen without hindering economic growth.
Gilbert E. Metcalf has received funding for research on climate policy from Resources For the Future, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Climate Leadership Council.
← Renewed space rivalry between nations ignores a tradition of cooperation Is Zac Taylor the best fit to coach the Bengals? →
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Dedham's Matthew Jameson joins Easterseals float at Tournament of Roses parade
Max Bowen
Since 2014, Matthew Jameson has been a familiar face with the Massachusetts Easterseals, and on New Year's Day, joined the organization's float in the Rose Parade.
“Celebrating Easterseals: 100 Years of Disability Services” was a floral display to celebrate the 1.5 million people Easterseals provides disability services to each year nationwide. Jameson, of Dedham, said he has been in parades before, but nothing on this level.
“The crowd was certainly very energetic,” he said.
Jameson joined the organization at the urging of his family, and for the last five years has been active in a number of roles, including the Youth Mentoring Network, Awareness and Philanthropy Task Force, and Easterseals Board of Directors as a Youth Member. Jameson said he's more of an introvert, and so not the type to make the leap. But once he learned about the work Easterseals does, he immediately wanted to join.
He's also helped to form a group called Brothers Against Discrimination, a partner group to Thrive, an aspect of Easterseals that offers mentorship opportunities for young women.
“It’s been a wonderful experience ever since (I joined), he said.
Born with mild spastic diplegic cerebral palsy, Jameson has been passionate about the rights of the disabled, saying that discrimination exists both subtly and overtly. He said that words like “handicapped” “differently-abled,” and “handi-capable” are well-meaning, but end up doing more harm than good.
“These are cute words,” said Jameson. “They try to tie the problem up in little bow and get rid of it. Words like that don’t directly address the problem of discrimination. All that we want is to have our abilities respected.”
On the overt side, Jameson pointed to the lack of access disabled people can experience in public settings. Prior to its closure, Jameson was a student at Mount Ida College. He recalled the disability services office being on the second floor, an obstacle to those in a wheelchair. Now enrolled at UMass-Dartmouth, he said physical impediments exist at this school as well, such as in the poorly maintained walkways.
“Adding accessibility is important and a lack of it is a sign of discrimination,” he said. “I would say it's definitely still a problem.”
Last March, Jameson spoke at the State House for legislation that would improve access for the disabled. Business owners would get 180 days to address an issue of accessibility at their location, but the fact that such legislation needed to be proposed in the first place is a concern.
“I feel that all affiliates can and should raise their voices on a larger level,” said Jameson. “We should continue to be vocal about these issues on a local, state, and federal level.”
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Letters Never Sent
by Jim Di Gioia
Letters Never Sent by KINLEY
“I think sometimes it’s better to make art instead of starting a possible fight,” explains Kinley Dowling about the impetus for her new solo record (credited to KINLEY), Letters I’ve Never Sent. Dowling, whom you might recognize as fiddle player, percussionist, and backing vocalist with Hey Rosetta! (I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that she’s also one half of The Express, a much-missed project with her cousin Liam “Two Hours Traffic” Corcoran), has set a deeply personal collection of diary entries-turned-letters to music, each addressed to specific people in her life, each one sharing thoughts and emotions that have gone unsaid until now.
She’s at her most raw and emotional on “Microphone”, where KINLEY calls out the man who sexually assaulted her at a post-prom field party 15 years ago. While she says she’s uncomfortable with confrontations, the seven songs on Letters I’ve Never Sent finds Dowling very comfortable in her own voice. It’s that very personal investment in each song that makes this collection so compelling to listen to. So often, there’s a great detachment between art and the artist. That’s not the case at all with songs like “Microphone”, “When You Speak Her Name”, “Blackbird”, and vivacious opener “Wild Horse”; while the glossy, danceable album sparkles and pops, KINLEY’s words connect on a most intimate and immediate level.
Dowling says she may never release another solo record, having said all she wants to say with Letters I’ve Never Sent, and has no desire to ever play these songs live. It sounds as if the very act of creating Letters I’ve Never Sent and setting these thoughts and feelings down has lightened Dowling’s load, confirming that it is very much better to make something beautiful than to go into battle. KINLEY’s album has me thinking about things I’ve left unsaid over the years, and prompted me to issue you a challenge: Who from your past do you have something left unsaid to? Three in particular came to mind for me. All are interconnected, and have to do with Dowling’s ideas about making art instead of fighting:
My grade two teacher, who led the school choir, didn’t know how to tell me that I couldn’t sing in tune. Instead of trying to help me, she would get me to turn pages for her so I wouldn’t spoil our performances. It wasn’t until I was older that I understood what was going on in choir, and I carried shame and humiliation about my singing ability into my university years, where I studied drama and theatre arts. Once I became a teacher myself, I remembered the effects her innocent actions had on me, and tried not to do the same to any of my students. Eventually, as one of her colleagues, I had an opportunity to tell this story, but it would have been selfish of me given the place and time we were in, and so it’s gone unsaid all these years.
My favourite professor at university had faith in me and believed in my ability to learn. He encouraged me to audition, and then cast me as Amos Hart in a production of Chicago in my final year. I worked with him and a vocal coach to learn “Mr. Cellophane”, the first (and so far last) song I’ve ever sung solo in front of an audience. I was terrified. It still scares me now to think I was all alone out on that stage, left to my own, untrained device. I let my grade two teacher, and my seven-year old, self-conscious self get in my head, undermining my performance, and holding me back. It took the entire run of the production for me to muster up an ounce of the faith he had in me, but by then, it was closing night and I’d never play that part again. I know that my lack of confidence and my inhibitions about singing often frustrated him while we were in production. I’ve always wanted to tell him how much the opportunity to take on the role meant to me, and how sorry I am for not being able to fully embrace it at the time.
Chicago is my most cherished university memory and my most favourite production for many reasons. The most vivid comes from that closing night. In the middle of my solo, I saw my parents, sitting four rows up from the front at at eye level with me. I could see their faces in the soft spill of the stage lights. They were beaming, especially my Dad, who never fully embraced my love of theatre or showed much affection. In the dark of the theatre, with his son at his most vulnerable and exposed, the look in my father’s eyes showed me all the love and support I’d been longing for all my life. I credit the love and energy he sent out to me for making that night’s performance so special. I wish my Dad and I shared more of these kinds of moments. Too often, we engaged in a war of words, so I deeply regret that I never thanked him for being there in the audience with me that night before he died.
Jim Di Gioia
CoFounder at DOMINIONATED
Jim founded the music blog Quick Before It Melts in 2006 and was its principal writer until 2016, when its decade-long run ended 10 years to the day it started. DOMINIONATED is its spiritual successor. Jim currently serves as a Polaris Music Prize jurist and Prism Prize jurist.
Latest posts by Jim Di Gioia (see all)
“Night Service (feat. Cadence Weapon” by Jacques Greene - July 11, 2019
Winternom, Bully - July 8, 2019
Rough Trade, Avoid Freud - July 7, 2019
Other Conversations on DOMINIONATED
file under: Albums
tagged: KINLEY, Prince Edward Island
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Tag Archives: howth
On the day Joseph left Dublin the sky was cold and grey, reflecting his mood. He had to leave, he knew that, to get away and forget about the last eighteen months. After all the good times they had shared the surprise and pain of rejection was just too much to bear. Now, as the plane raced down the runway and lifted into the air he felt a weight slipping from his shoulders. He closed his eyes and determined to put everything behind him and embrace the future. ‘It’s over,’ he whispered ‘that’s it.’ A new beginning, a new life with all its endless and exciting possibilities awaited, and he was going to grab it with both hands.
New York was everything Joseph had dreamed it would be and the pace of life was both exciting and exhausting. It was so full of life that he often laughed about its non-stop energy – when he got a chance! So, with a few contacts in his notebook he managed to organise some interviews, and less than after arriving he had landed a job with a small magazine. The Pip was a weekly issue that covered entertainment, sports and all the cultural events going on in the ‘city that never sleeps’. He was kept busy and soon forgot the pain that had brought him here. ‘Time heals all wounds,’ as his mother had said at the airport, and he was beginning to believe her.
His apartment was a world away from what he had been used to at home. His old bedroom was almost as big as his entire apartment on the fourth floor of a large, brownstone building on the Upper West Side. It wasn’t cheap – nowhere in Manhattan was – but it was only a ten minute walk to Central Park, the centre of the universe for those who lived there. There were plenty of bars, cafes, restaurants and clubs that only began to liven up when the sun went down. It was invigorating and he couldn’t get enough of it. The Big Apple was his lifesaver and he bit into it as hard as he could.
Over the years there were plenty of trips back to Dublin for holidays and family events. The Celtic Tiger was gorging all around him and the city had changed completely. Gone was the innocence, he noted, and he was happy not to be a part of it. The old ‘Land of Saints and Scholars’ had gone and it was now replaced by something much less caring. As a caustic radio commentator observed Ireland had now become the ‘Land of Taints and Dollars’.
Back in New York, Joseph was promoted and that allowed him to move into a larger apartment, and one with a better view. From here he could see a piece of Central Park and, beyond, the towering elegance of the Empire State Building. In the early days he would often sit by the window and enjoy looking at the magnificent view. He watched as the night silently closed in, the day replaced by the sparkle and glitter of a thousand lights.
Life was good for Joseph and got even better when he met Lisa at a book launch. She was the photographer commissioned to take pictures of the author and guests attending the cocktail party. David Cortez, the author, was a friend from his earliest days in the city, and Lisa took quite a few pictures of them as they chatted and joked with other members of the New York literary scene. Joseph noticed her dark hair, brown eyes and the shape of her mouth that laughed at the edges, all reminding him of someone from Dublin – someone from a previous life. It was a surprise, and although it stirred a few memories, both good and bad, he was intrigued.
‘You seem lost,’ said David.
‘Yes, the photographer reminds me of someone.’
‘You’re grinning, you know that?’
Joseph nodded. ‘Yeah, I know. It’s just that I feel some old memories stirring.’
‘That’s good, right?’
‘The best I can say is ‘Yes…and No’ if you know what I mean.’
‘Only too well, my friend. Only too well.’
Lisa moved in with Joseph about three months later and it was the happiest time of his life. He was working at a job he loved, in the most exciting city in the world, and he had Lisa by his side. They were very happy and loved being together; walking in the park, snuggling on the settee and watching television or eating in their own favourite, Italian restaurant nearby. They talked so much and Lisa made him laugh more than anybody had ever done. He was hooked, absolutely and completely, and knew he was the luckiest man in New York City.
All that changed however, on a cold, snowy day in early February. Lisa had an assignment on Coney Island and on her way home a drunk driver crashed into her car killing her outright. Joseph was devastated and not sure how to carry on. There were many nights he cried myself to sleep and his circle of caring friends watched him, and slowly, one day at a time, he emerged from the pain and darkness. He was tired, beaten and in need of a break, so after sorting things out with his boss he went home to Dublin.
It was cold when he arrived but a hug from his mother soon warmed him up. She was looking well, as usual, but Joseph noticed that her memory wasn’t quite as sharp as before. He said nothing and was delighted to be at home, listening to her voice again and tucking into her cooking. The portions weren’t as big as those in New York but they tasted better. Less was definitely more, he thought, as he licked his spoon clean.
East Pier
One day his friend Ted called in and they went for a stroll on the East Pier like they had done many times before. Sometimes they went to Sandymount Strand, but as they both wanted ice creams they headed to Dun Laoghaire. It was quiet and they only had the cawing, diving seagulls for company. Across the bay in Howth windows sparkled and winked in the sunshine, and the salty air was enticing. ‘Nothing like this in the Big Apple,’ Joseph said as the wind tossed his hair.
‘Yeah, it’s nice here today,’ Ted said as a yacht sailed by. ‘I prefer it like this when we almost have the place to ourselves,’ he added, taking in the bay and the antics of a brave windsurfer.
Joseph always loved being here and it was the memory of this place that he would conjure up when stuck on the subway in New York. It made those crowded moments bearable. ‘Wouldn’t it be great if you could bottle it?’ he often asked himself. Fresh Sea Air – who wouldn’t want some of that? It was a cracking idea and he smiled at the thought of seeing travellers on the sweat subway sniffing the fresh air of Dublin Bay. Flann O’Brien would, no doubt, have something pithy to say about ‘such an invention’ but then people were now buying and carrying around bottles of water. That was a surprise, and maybe another was coming. One day, perhaps.
‘Never guess who I bumped into the other day?’ Ted said when they sat down at the end of the pier.
Joseph shrugged. ‘No, who was it? Bono?’
Ted laughed. ‘Would you stop for God’s sake.’ He coughed and put his hand to his mouth. ‘I met Catherine, your old flame.’
Joseph’s heart missed a beat. ‘Oh, yeah.’
Ted leaned close. ‘She’s looking well…and she said to say ‘Hello’.’
Joseph slapped Ted on the shoulder. ‘You’re messing, I know you.’
Ted laughed. ‘I’m not, honest.’ He turned to Joseph. ‘I’m not making this up, I wouldn’t do that. Come on, man!’
They had been friends for over twenty years and Joseph knew that Ted wasn’t joking. It was good to hear about Catherine but what did it matter.
They watched in silence as a tanker headed for Dublin Port, and the colourful sails of a yacht filled as it cut across the water. He saw it all but he was soon lost in thought. He was back on that day. He couldn’t stop it and like a film director watching a story unfold, it all came rushing back.
‘Why?’ he said.
Catherine sniffled and wiped an eye with the back of her hand. ‘I’m sorry, really, really sorry.’ Another sniffle. ‘It’s my fault, it’s got nothing to do with you…you are the nicest guy that I know…the nicest that I’ve ever met!’
Joseph felt numb.
‘It’s just that…oh, I don’t know how to say what I’m thinking…. I’m confused!’
He didn’t hear much more, at least he couldn’t remember what she had said, as he was too upset by the icy words. The world around him was quiet but he was mind was spinning.
Joseph turned and realised that Ted was speaking. ‘Sorry, what did you say?’
‘I said, I’ve met her a few times in the last year or so, and she always asks for you.’
‘That’s nice to know, but…… isn’t she happily married?’
‘Well, from what I learned she’s now happily divorced. Apparently the marriage went pear-shaped after a few years and her husband turned out to be a nasty piece of work.’ He gave a little shrug. ‘You never know, do you?’
‘No you don’t…and aren’t you full of surprises, eh?’
Ted leaned back against the granite wall. ‘Hey, I just thought I’d pass it on.’
They sat in silence and watched more yachts heading out to sea, their sails filling in the stiffening breeze. It was a beautiful scene and another one for Joseph to recall deep beneath the streets of New York.
The following summer Joseph realised that his mother was not as strong as he always hoped she would be and he decided to return to Dublin. He had been away a long time, but with the opportunity of setting up a branch of the business in his home town, he decided to go home. He had done well in New York and now he was looking forward to going home and the new challenge that lay ahead.
‘You’re always welcome here, you know that,’ said Paul, The Pip’s boss, when they shook hands for the last time. ‘You’ll be fine,’ he added, with a wink.
Joseph smiled and knew that he would miss him.
The first few months back in Dublin were hectic. He set up an office, made contacts and got to know the ground rules. His background in New York opened a lot of doors and before long the business was running nicely. It was never going to make a fortune but the folks in New York were happy and that was what mattered. He was happy too, happier than he thought he would be. He enjoyed linking up with old friends and keeping an eye on his mother. He liked being home, and walks and talks on the East Pier and Sandymount Strand helped confirm his decision.
Summer gave way to autumn and the leaves changed from green to gold. It was a lovely time of the year, the colours radiant and giving their all before the winter set in. It was on one such day that he crossed Merrion Square and ducked into the familiar surroundings of Greene’s Bookshop on Clare Street. It was a place where he had spent many a happy hour, lost among the crammed shelves and tables of books. It was his Aladdin’s Cave and the place where he discovered so many great writers and their stories. He loved the old shop, its unique atmosphere and character so different to the new, bright chain stores. Greene’s may have been a dinosaur, but it was his favourite one.
Greene’s Bookshop
He browsed the shelves, picked out a book and began reading. This was a real treat, and as he thumbed the pages he became aware of someone close by. They were invading his space, and in such a small shop it was not what he expected. To his left he could hear a customer talking with a shop assistant and he heard the cash register open and close.
Joseph had just flicked another page when he heard the person next to him say ‘Hello’.
Time stood still and Joseph heard the air rush from his nostrils. He closed his eyes for a moment, all thoughts of his book now gone, as he realised he knew who was beside him. It was quite a surprise and he took a deep breath before turning his head and looking at Catherine.
‘Hello,’ he said and awkwardly dropped the book. They both bent to pick it up and banged their heads together. It was like a scene from a comedy sketch and they laughed and rubbed their heads.
‘Two heads are better than one,’ said Catherine.
He loved that sound and the way her eyes smiled. She was his ‘brown-eyed girl’ just like the one Van Morrison sang about. Looking at Catherine it was easy to understand why Van the Man had been so captivated.
‘I suppose so,’ he said, replacing the book on a shelf.
‘I heard you were home, Joseph,’ Catherine added. ‘And may I say that you’re looking well.’
‘Thanks, and you’re not looking too bad either.’
She frowned, eyes narrowing, taking everything in.
‘It’s just that I didn’t realise that Ted was such a liar. I’ll have to have words with him when I see him again,’ he continued watching her eyes.
‘Why, what did he say?’
Joseph paused wanting to make sure that the words came out correctly. ‘Well, he told me that he met you and that you were…looking good.’
‘And…?’ an eyebrow rose.
‘Well, from where I’m standing I think you’re… looking great.’
She pursed her lips but didn’t reply.
‘How long has it been?’ he asked.
She took a long time to reply as all around them people moved about. She stepped closer to let a man with a briefcase and a bag of books pass, and he could smell her perfume, a fragrance he recognised. ‘A while…a long while.’
He couldn’t stop the smile coming, and didn’t try. ‘In that case I suppose I should get the coffees. Still white and one, is it?’
Catherine smiled and then they made their way down the creaky stairs and into the autumnal sunshine. The coffee smelt great, and in that moment Joseph remembered his mother’s words ‘Time heals all wounds,’ and he wondered if she was right. She usually was, and he didn’t see any reason to start doubting her now. After all, mums know best!
Filed under Dublin, Ireland, Sandymount Strans
Tagged as central park, dublin, dublin bay, dun laoghaire, east pier, empire state building, girlfriend, greenes bookshop, howth, mother, new york, Sandymount Strand, subway, windsurfer, yacht
The canvas can do miracles
Art for art’s sake
‘Mmm, I like this,’ said the voice behind me.
I turned and saw a woman who was taking a close interest in one of my paintings. She glanced at me briefly before turning her gaze back to the painting that was hanging from the railings on Merrion Square. It was a Sunday morning in early May and the place was busy with tourists taking in the colourful canvases. I had recently managed to get a pitch at the city’s most popular outdoor art market and I liked the friendly atmosphere. It was proving to be fruitful for me and I had met some interesting people.
‘Good,’ I said, following the woman’s look to a seascape I had painted a few months earlier. On a breezy day in September, I remembered, when the wind was fresh and clouds scudded across a blue sky. ‘Do you recognise the scene?’
She stepped closer to the painting, her eyes roaming over the canvas. ‘No, but I like the energy. And I think that you’ve captured the moment beautifully.’
I raised an eyebrow in response and looked at the painting that I had called Sea-scape. It was one that I had painted quickly, the idea for it coming almost fully formed at the moment of conception.
That did not happen often, and I was immensely satisfied with the result. And so, it appeared, was someone else.
‘Where is it?’ she asked, looking at me.
‘It’s from the end of the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire, looking across Dublin Bay to Howth. There was a yacht race on that day but I was only interested in the small boat just beyond the harbour entrance.’ I pointed to red brushstrokes that showed the boat with a white sail flapping in the wind. It was being lifted by an incoming wave and the two sailors, in their yellow lifejackets, were holding on to the side rails. In the middle of the bay yachts were racing; and beyond them the sun glinted off windows on sea-facing houses in Howth.‘The single boat is eye-catching,’ she said.
The Beacon, Baltimore
‘Do you sail?’
‘Not now, but I did once upon a time. I lived in Baltimore, in west Cork, and I’m familiar with scenes like this. They were always exciting, and that’s what I remember best.’
The woman was, I suspect, in her mid-thirties and she had short, dark hair that just reached the collar of her cream-coloured blouse. The handles of a leather bag hung on a shoulder and she twirled sunglasses in her hand.
‘But since I moved away, and that’s a long time ago, I’ve no family there anymore…this painting brings back memories.’
‘Happy ones, I hope.’
She grinned. ‘Yes, very happy ones.’
It was nice hearing such positive words, something that I never expected when I finished my first painting. I was in my late teens and liked visiting galleries with my mother and listening to her talk about her favourite artists. So, after a few false starts, I began painting, something that I kept secret for as long as I worked on it. A month or so later I nervously removed the old cloth and revealed my maiden effort.
‘Very good,’ Mum said ‘and remember how good it makes you feel because others will feel it too. And that’s a wonderful thing.’ She gave me a hug, and told me again that she loved what I had done.
She had always dabbled in art, but began to take it seriously after my father died.
He had been killed in a car crash and I remember the sound of her cries as she rocked herself to sleep. Losing the man she loved was painful, beyond words, and it was her love of painting that saved her, and me. I didn’t understand that at the time, but looking back I see how strong she was, and that her search for peace was something that she had to do to give her life meaning.
Over the years she sold many paintings at local fetes and Arts & Craft fairs. That was a great source of pride, but there was more to it, a deeper feeling that I could not see, but knew was there.
‘It’s all about finding peace of mind,’ she told me as we sat in the studio one day ‘and the clarity it brings.’ Then she pointed to different features in a painting and how they worked together to make a coherent, pleasing story. ‘One day you’ll understand,’ she said, squeezing my shoulder.
I nodded, but it took many years before I finally understood what her words meant.
‘And I really like the rhythm,’ the woman said, as my artist friend on the next pitch gave a thumbs-up sign.
‘And what rhythm is that?’ I asked, as another person stopped to look at my wall of paintings. I had discovered that talking with a potential customer was good as it attracted others, and I had a quick word with my latest visitor.
‘The rhythm of life,’ replied the woman turning to the painting. ‘The little boat has left the safety of the marina and is struggling in the waves as it heads into the bay where the water is calmer. And then there is the far-off land, past the big yachts, that the little boat may one day reach.’
I nodded.
‘It’s like a metaphor for life,’ she added and crossed her arms.
‘And do you interpret dreams too?’ I asked, and that got a laugh.
She shook her head. ‘No, but I have been dreaming about finding a painting like this, and I’d like to buy it. So, how much is it?’ she asked, before turning again to the canvas that might just be on its way to a new home.
I checked the price on the back and she said ‘I’ll take it.’ We shook hands and I asked her if she painted.
‘I don’t, but I’m a musician and I love paintings even though I can barely paint a garden fence.’
It was my turn to laugh.
‘And I hope that you have a good place for it,’ I said, as I began wrapping the painting.
‘I have a blank wall in a room where I like to read and listen to music, so it will suit perfectly. It’s a lovely room but it’s been waiting for something like this to complete it. And I’m delighted to have found it.’ She was happy and so was I, as I knew my painting was going to be appreciated.
‘So, what more can you tell me about it?’ she asked, stepping back to let a couple walk by.
I spent a decade living in London where any number of attractions demanded and got my attention and painting wasn’t one of them. I went to plenty of art galleries and exhibitions but I didn’t lift a paintbrush until I returned to Dublin.
My mother had passed away years before and I often walked on the West Pier in Dun Laoghaire as I reacquainted myself with the place. The tangy smell of the sea air and the breeze, sometimes gentle and sometimes strong, were always a draw and I loved it. And with my mother’s old brushes by my side I made quite a few paintings of scenes from the pier, many of which I had, thankfully, sold.
And it was with great anticipation that I accepted my friend Sheila’s invitation to go sailing from the yacht club. ‘Just do as I say,’ she said as we sat in her boat before setting-off.
She was an experienced sailor who was enjoying her new boat, and on a sunny day in early July we were ready to sail. Having often stood on the West pier as boats made their way into the bay I was delighted to be finally enjoying the experience.
Dun Laoghaire marina…to the sea
‘You ok?’ Sheila asked.
‘Aye, aye, Captain,’ I said, grinning from ear to ear.
Past the lighthouses and into the bay the water began to get choppy.
I grabbed the hand-rail and rocked up and down and back and forth as we bounced about like a cork. I was a little nervous but not afraid, especially as I was with Sheila who knew what she was doing.
No, it was more like I was thinking about something else, but I couldn’t quite work out what that was.
Sheila pulled ropes, shouted instructions to me and used the tiller to guide us to calmer waters. It was demanding, and I had no time to think of anything other than what I was told to do.
After four or five minutes in the bubbling water Sheila shouted something and I managed to do what she wanted and the sails filled. The boat lurched forward and I was suddenly lifted into the air, before plopping back down. It had all happened in a heartbeat but I felt as though I had been flying. I knew it was crazy but I couldn’t deny that something was different.
Then a wave then hit the boat and completely drenched me. Sheila looked over, a look of concern on her face.
‘Are you alright, this is a bit rougher than I had expected,’ she said.
I didn’t remember my reply but Sheila said that she was surprised when I began to laugh, and embrace the choppy waters like an old sea dog.
Back in the yacht club Sheila asked me what had happened. She thought that I must have banged my head, and if I did it was only to knock some sense into me.
Sailing about later that afternoon I thought about my ‘flying’ incident.
When I was lifted into the air all sense of fear disappeared and I experienced an unexpected calmness. It was quiet, and I felt and understood everything around me. I had been released, that was the only word that made sense to me, and I had found my happy place. And the thing was that I could ‘feel it’ just like my mother had said all those years ago.
The sun was a big, orange ball falling into the sea as Sheila and I talked about our trip and I told her about my epiphany.
‘Oh to be beside the sea, is that it?’ she said with a knowing look, and I happily accepted her offer of another trip into Dublin Bay. The sea had given me something special, and I tried to capture it in my paintings. It was difficult, but sometimes I got close and for that I was thankful.
‘And that’s why I called it Sea-scape?’ I said, ‘because it was at sea that I escaped into a new freedom.’
The woman smiled. ‘I understand, and thank you for telling me that. Now, whenever I look at the painting I will be able to see you being bounced around before finding your happy place. It’s a wonderful story.’
I nodded. ‘And I hope that you find yours.’
She put the painting under her arm, slipped on her sunglasses and was about to leave when she turned to me. ‘I have, and it’s called Sea-scape.’
Filed under Art, Dublin, short stories
Tagged as Art, baltimore, boat, dublin bay, dun laoghaire, howth, merrion square, west pier
‘It’s for You…’
Crisp and clear
A chilly, breeze blew across the cobblestones and the wedding group shivered, again. The photographer waved his hands wanting us to get closer and, when all was ready, he looked through the eyepiece and said out loud ‘Cheese.’
We grinned, smiled or whatever as the flash went off, briefly lighting the grey afternoon.
‘Don’t move,’ cried the photographer ‘another one, please.’ When he was finished we broke into small groups and stood about chatting about the ceremony while older weddinggoers, more familiar with such events, headed for the comfort and warmth of a car, and onto the hotel. It was a few weeks before Christmas and the day was crisp and clear, with the sun only a temporary, but welcome, presence.
We climbed into Tony’s car and we drove along the Coast Road, past Clontarf and a windswept and empty Dollymount Strand where the last vestiges of the setting sun were reflected in the windows of the houses that looked upon Dublin Bay. And just beyond the beach, in the dark waters, the white horses were galloping ever closer.
At the hotel in Howth I stood in front of a big fire and warmed my hands. ‘Don’t hog it,’ cried Kate as she discreetly eased past me and bathed in the warm glow. She couldn’t hide her delight and cooed with pleasure. ‘I would love a hot whiskey, darling,’ she said and kissed me on the cheek.
‘You and the rest of them,’ I said and went to the bar.
I also bought drinks for Tony and Claire and went back and re-joined Kate who had now recovered and was ‘warm all over.’ That was great as I once again stood in front of the blazing coals. It was invigorating and soon I stepped away and let some other freezing souls enjoy the fire of Howth.
Fire of Howth
Bill, the groom, was my best friend and we had met on our first day in school. Growing up we played football for the same club; robbed orchards; mostly liked the same music; learned to drive within a few months of one another and later chased girls. It was the best of times, and I now wished him the best of luck in the new phase of his life that was just beginning. He and Caroline met at a barbecue two years ago, and he was now happily wearing a new wedding ring. And a smile wider than Dublin Bay.
I was delighted for the new couple and accepted a drink when Tony came back from the bar. It was early and the noise level was already beginning to rise. What would the night bring, I thought, and deep down an idea began to form? I tried to grab it but it was too quick for me, so I let it go and downed a mouthful of a creamy Guinness. ‘Cheers,’ I said to the other three, and ‘here’s to a great night.’
The conversation around the dining table was lively, as the eight of us had plenty of fun ribbing one another, something that we had done for years. That night it was particularly entertaining and helped along by mucho vino. They say that it loosens the tongue and Dave was on fine form telling jokes. ‘You dirty old man,’ laughed Kate when Dave told a particularly rude one. The time passed quickly and, with the speeches over, the dancing started. The DJ turned the music up and soon the floor was packed with giddy dancers.
Over the next hour or so I met and talked with friends and Bill’s cousin, Alex, who I had not seen for a long time. He had moved to Los Angeles and was doing very nicely in the music business and living near the beach. He invited me to ‘drop in’ anytime and I carefully put his business card away. And it was just after he joined the dancers that the idea came back, and this time I got a hold of it. I grinned, lost in thought, and then went off to find Kate, Tony and Claire. It was going to be a team effort but I knew that I would be singled out as the ringleader. I didn’t care, and for Bill, who had played pranks on me before, it was ‘pay-back time’.
I gathered the merry pranksters together and I laid out the plan.
‘You’re mad, he’ll never fall for it,’ said Kate, shaking her head.
But Claire loved it. ‘That’s a great idea, Joe, and crazy enough to work,’ she said and looked at Tony who was grinning his face off.
We spent another ten minutes going over the plan until we were happy. ‘Well, Claire, are you ready?’ I asked.
She took a last sip of wine, smacked her lips and nodded. ‘Let’s do it,’ she said and took up her position beside the public telephone at the end of the bar.
I spotted Bill dancing with an aunt, and I nodded for the game to begin.
Claire picked up the phone, dialled the front desk and asked for Bill. ‘I’m calling from California. Can you get him quickly, please, as this is costing me a fortune.’ She kept a straight face and her American accent was acceptable, especially as it was dulled in all the background noise.
Tony and I watched as a staff member came up the stairs and was pointed over to Bill. He leaned close to hear what she was saying and then he was off down the stairs two at a time. We let him get to the bottom before we made our way to the small landing, and waited.
Behind us, Claire now playing the part of Bill’s old, Californian flame, Debbie, waited as the receptionist handed over the phone.
‘Hello,’ he said and Claire answered with a big, friendly ‘Hi, there, Bill, what a surprise, eh?’
I could see him hold the phone close to his ear, concentrating on the words coming ‘all the way from America’. He was relaxed and crossed one foot over the other and talked with ‘Debbie’. Tony tapped me on the back and whispered, ‘He’s going to kill you.’ I nodded as Bill kept talking. I could just hear him say ‘…how did you find out?’ when Claire put the phone down. She was laughing hard and had to wipe the tears from her eyes.
‘Hello, hello, hello…’said Bill as the line went dead. He shook his head, handed the phone back and turned around. Then he stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked up. It was like a scene from a movie when he saw us and we couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
‘I’ll kill ya, Joe,’ he cried and scampered up the stairs.
He didn’t, thankfully, and The Night of the Caller has not been forgotten. And as time moves on I am very much aware that somebody out there has my number, and is just waiting to ‘make that call’.
Filed under Dublin, Humour, Ireland, short stories
Tagged as california, clontarf, dollymount, fire, guinness, hot whiskey, howth, prank, wedding
It was while walking by the sea that the idea came. I have often found that having water rippling quietly beside me helps in the formation of ideas, or maybe it’s just coincidental. A friend suggested that it has to do with our being made of over 97% water – and he might just have something there! A stroll along the beach, with the bubbling water a constant companion, has always been a place of reflection and solitude. And, of course, a place for the mind to wander and let the creative juices flow.
Some time ago, on a beautiful spring morning, I was walking on Sandymount Strand when an idea floated into my mind, like a wave coming to the shore. It is one of my favourite places in Dublin to go ‘and be alone’ with my thoughts, such is the openness and calm of the wide beach, especially in the early morning. As I walked along the sandy beach towards Ringsend, I gazed over to Howth across the mirror-like water and beyond to the horizon. How often had other people looked out at this same scene, I thought, and let their ideas slip away like the spray from a breaking wave?
And then it came.
People had been coming here for years, since time immemorial no doubt, and gazed out over the very scene that was now mine to behold. For just in front of me was a line of footsteps in the sand, an image that had not changed since the first person left similar marks so very long ago. The French have a saying ‘Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose’, which translates as ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.’ That seemed about right to me as I watched the waves rush in and cover the footsteps in their gurgling embrace, removing them so completely as to leave no sign of their short existence.
James Joyce – a strand fan
As the water receded, smoothing the sand to leave a blank canvas awaiting its next mark, I remembered that James Joyce had a fondness for this place and included it in his most famous book, Ulysses. In chapter three, the young hero, Stephen Dedalus, walks along the strand and ponders the difficult and complex topics of imagination, sensation and thought itself. The feel of the words is meant, in Joyce’s hand, to be fluid, hence the setting by the sea, portraying the move from birth to death, and finally, renewal. Transience leads to something permanent and new, and it is this cycle of renewal that held me as I stepped tentatively into the cold waters, making my own mark that was just as quickly erased.
The thought that there are things that cannot be changed had a strange but comforting feeling. Joyce understood this better than most and through Stephen asks the question, ‘Am I walking into eternity along Sandymount Strand?’ This is not something that I can answer, but I like the idea that he and all of us who walk on the strand have ‘our moment.’ We left a mark – and as to whether it will last until eternity – that will be for others to say. In the meantime, I keep walking on the strand, not so much in the hope of seeing Stephen Dedalus, but in anticipation and comfort of its soothing power and timeless, dreamy rhythm.
Timesless…
Filed under Art, Dublin, Ireland, James Joyce
Tagged as howth, immortality, james joyce, ringsend, Sandymount Strand, solitude, Stephen Dedalus, Ulysses
East Pier – A Walk On The Windy Side!
Generations of people have been taking a ‘walk on the pier’ and it is something that I have always enjoyed. Whether the day is warm with a gentle breeze blowing or you are wrapped up against a bracing wind, ‘taking the air’ is a real pleasure. The sharp, salty air never fails to clear a stuffy head, and the long walk is a favourite for thousands of people.
East Pier, with Howth beyond, in all its glory
The waters in Dublin Bay often silted up making it difficult for ships to land, and they would have to stay moored off-shore for days. A small pier was opened in 1767 (Coal Harbour Pier) but it soon became obsolete. After two disasters in November 1807 when the HMS Prince of Wales and The Rochdale sank just off shore, with the loss of 400 people, there was an outcry for ‘something to be done’. In 1815 an Act of Parliament was passed for the construction of ‘a harbour for ships to the eastward of Dunleary’, and the (East Pier) foundation stone was laid in May 1817 by Earl Whitworth, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The granite used in building the pier was quarried in nearby Dalkey and transported by a funicular railway that later became the Atmospheric Railway. By 1820 the original plan was amended by engineer John Rennie to add a second pier – and the West Pier was completed in 1827, four years after the East Pier.
Samuel Beckett’s plaque
The East Pier Lighthouse (red for port) is 1.3 KM from the road, while a walk to the West Pier Lighthouse (green for starboard) is slightly longer at 1.5 KM. The area enclosed between the piers is a 250 acre harbour and the gap between the lighthouses is 232 metres. The East Pier is the more popular with walkers and has a bandstand (built 1890s) where, weather permitting, music concerts take place. There is also a memorial to Captain Boyd and his brave crew who drowned in 1861 during a rescue. And below it you can see a plaque in honour of Samuel Beckett who often cycled down from his home in Foxrock as he liked to ‘walk the pier’. He, no doubt, had many Happy Days doing just that.
Analemmatic Sundial
The council have carried out much work on the pier in recent times and the smooth surface is now certainly safer and more enjoyable to walk. The ice cream van is a popular attraction and, if the weather is nice, you’ll have to join a long queue. Close-by is the new Analemmatic Sundial that, sadly, without some sunshine wasn’t very useful. But I look forward to going back on a sunny day and finding out how it works!
King George IV obelisk
Royal footmarks
President Michael D O’Higgins attended the 200th anniversary of the opening of the East Pier (31st May), held in the shadow of the King George IV obelisk. This was erected opposite the point where the king embarked on 3rd September 1821 for his return to London. (Note: There is also a memorial to his arrival, at Howth on the 12th August. The royal footmarks were measured by local stonemason Robert Campbell who then captured them in a giant granite stone at the end of the West Pier.)
President O’Higgins – opening ceremony
After the speeches there was a noisy and well-received 21-gun salute from the roof of the East Pier lighthouse. And even the sun made brief appearance as it joined in the festivities!
Salute from East Pier lighthouse
Filed under Dublin, History
Tagged as Analemmetic Sundial, coal harbour pier, earl whitworth, east pier, hms prince of wales, howth, king george iv, lighthouse, marina, president michael d o'higgins, robert campbell, stonemason, the rochdale
Howth – Steeped in History
Howth Lighthouse
Howth is situated at the northern tip of Dublin Bay with commanding views that made it a perfect stronghold for the Vikings who first invaded in 819. The name is derived from Old Norse ‘Hofuth’ (meaning ‘head’) and it is where many fighters fled after their defeat in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. The Norse maintained a presence there until they were eventually defeated by the Normans in 1177.
The original Howth Castle was situated atop Tower Hill which affords a wonderful view of Howth harbour, marina and the islands – Ireland’s Eye and Lambay to the north. You can visit Ireland’s Eye (best in the summer) but Lambay is privately owned. There are Martello Towers on both, and that on Tower Hill is now home to Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Vintage Radio Museum.
Across from Tower Hill is St Mary’s Church. The original was built by Sitric, King of Dublin, in 1042. This was replaced in 1235 and the current building was erected in the following century. Again, the views of the modern marina from the medieval building are superb.
Royal Footprints
The harbour has plenty of history associated with it, as it was where King George IV first set foot in Ireland on 12th August 1821. This event has been commemorated with ‘his footprints’ (cut by stonemason Robert Campbell) at the end of the West Pier. Check them out and see if you could ‘fill the royal shoes’. And on the 26th July 1914 Erskine Childers and his crew (it included his wife Molly) of the Asgard landed 900 rifles and almost 30,000 rounds of ammunition that Irish Volunteers used in the Easter Rising 1916 and the War of Independence 1919-1921. The harbour is a busy commercial hub and supplies seafood to many of the local shops and restaurants. Wrights of Howth and Beshoffs of Howth, both at the start of the West Pier, are long established and perennial favourites.
A walk around the marina and a bracing stroll on the East Pier is a particular pleasure and not to be missed.
Howth Marina & The Islands
Filed under Dublin
Tagged as battle of clontarf, beshoffs, dublin bay, easter 1916, erskine childers, howth, ireland's eye, king george iv, king sitric, lambay island, normans, st mary's church, vikings, vinrage radio museum, wrights of howth
Martello Towers – A Defensive Line
James Joyce Tower
Although it is the most famous of them all, the Martello Tower in Sandycove that houses the James Joyce Tower & Museum, is one of about fifty built to repulse a possible invasion by Napoleon’s navy. After the passage of the National Defence Act 1804, towers were erected along the East Coast from Bray to Balbriggan, with others on the south coast and Cork harbour.
When war broke out between Britain and France in 1793 two British ships, the Fortitude and Juno, attacked a round tower at Cape Mortella in Corsica in February 1794. After hours of heavy bombardment by the two ships the tower was finally taken with little damage to the structure. However, the Fortitude had been set on fire and lost 62 men in the fight. Impressed by the strong defensive nature of the tower, engineers used the design when building the line of towers in 1804.
Howth Tower
Around Dublin 28 towers were erected: 16 stretching southwards from Sandymount to Bray, and 12 northwards from Red Rock, Sutton to Balbriggan. Seven of those to the south have been demolished while all to the north are standing. Many are in private ownership with Howth tower, now the Ye Olde Hurdy Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio, the only one open to the public on the northside.
Cannon atop Seapoint Martello Tower
Apart from that at Sandycove, Seapoint tower is the only other open to the public (during the summer) on the southside. There you can see the equipment used for loading the 18-pounder gun (there is a replica on the roof), and feel what it was like to have lived there. The towers were usually 40feet tall with eight-foot thick walls and housed an officer and 10-15 soldiers. Although built in time of war they, thankfully, never saw any action as the French invasion never materialised. It is somewhat ironic that towers designed in Corsica, where Napoleon was born, were the blueprint for a defence against him!
Seapoint Tower
As part of dlr Summer of Heritage 2018 the Martello Tower at Seapoint is open Wed/Sat/Sun, from1-5pm, until 2 September. The James Joyce Museum is open every day from 10am-6pm.
Tagged as 1804, balbriggan, cape mortella, corsica, fortitude, howth, invasion, james joyce museum sandycove, juno, martello towers, napoleon bonaparte, sandycove
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Home / argentina / Chandrayaan-2: India's first space mission led by female scientists | India News
Chandrayaan-2: India's first space mission led by female scientists | India News
argentina July 14, 2019 argentina
For the first time in Indian history, a space mission was led by two female scientists from Indian Space Research Organization (Isro). While Vanitha Muthayya led the country's second month mission Chandrayaan-2 as project director, Ritu Karidhal was the mission director.
Vanitha is an expert in handling data. He has problem solving skills that are very good and are good at managing teams. He previously interpreted data coming from different loads from spacecraft such as Chandrayaan-1. Now, he takes care of Chandrayaan-2 from the beginning to completion. Ritu Karidhal has been involved in various mission operations. One of the main tasks is to handle the insertion of the moon's orbitals from the plane. Karidhal was previously deputy director of operations for the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), India's first successful interplanetary mission launched in 2013.
On the strength of the Chandrayaan-2 team, chairman Isro K Sivan told TOI, "It is not possible to set boundaries (jobs). For each project, each person (of Isro's total strength of 17,000 staff) contributes in several forms. That is network culture "It's not true to say one person contributed. There are thousands of unsung heroes … in thousands. Therefore, it's always right to say Team Isro." However, a source at Isro told TOI, "Although all employees contribute to a programs in a number of ways, in missions like Chandraayan-2, around 300 members are an integral part of it and 20-30 percent of them are women. "
Women always play a key role in interplanetary and satellite missions. In fact, a team of young women has worked hand in hand with their male colleagues for MOM. "MOM is a big challenge. We have to be ready in 18 months. The difficult task is to develop autonomous software for aircraft with their own minds that will work without control of the Earth. It seems difficult. But we work tirelessly and design software in 10 months' records. , "Karidhal said during a talk show.
Under its Gagquiry mission, India plans to send a female astronaut, along with two others, into space. Interestingly, a female scientist VR Lalithambika, as head of the office of the human space program, helped in coordinating the mission and worked with the Human Space Flight Center, the nodal center for the Gagquiry mission led by its director S Unnikrishnan Nair. Indian space science is always dominated by men. Despite struggling to manage home and office affairs, female scientists have played an important role in space missions but it is difficult to get the spotlight they deserve. However, MOM and Chandrayaan's mission has shown that women are ready to dare to face all obstacles to lead the show.
Chandrayaan-2 leader
Vanitha Mutayya: project director, Chandrayaan-2 Head of the telemetry and telecommand division in the digital systems group, Isro Satellite Center (now UR Rao Space Center). Works as project deputy director for the Cartosat-1 baseband TTC system and project deputy director for Oceansat-2 and Megha-Tropiques satellites. Received the Scientist Award for Best Woman in 2006.
Ritu Karidhal: Mission director, Chandrayaan-2 is deputy director of operations for the Mars Orbiter Mission, India's first interplanetary mission. From a middle class family in Lucknow, Karidhal, as a child, always thinks about what's outside the dark room. Karidhal, who joined IISc to pursue a master's degree in aerospace engineering, has worked for Isro since 1997. In 2007, he received the Isro Young Scientist Award from former APJ President Abdul Kalam.
Women on Top
TK Anuradha: Handle geo satellite launch | Worked as director of the Geosat program at the UR Rao Space Center. Has overseen the launch of Gsat-12 and Gsat-10. He is a senior female scientist at Isro, after joining the agency in 1982, and also the first woman to become director of the satellite project
N Valarmathi: Oversees sat launches | As director of the Risat-1 project, the first radar imaging in India, he was the first to receive the Abdul Kalam Award instituted by Tamil Nadu. He has been involved in major satellite missions such as Insat-2A, IRS-IC, IRS-ID & Satellite Technology Experiment
VR Lalithambika: Head of coordination for the mission Question | Play one of the main roles in the human space mission. Specialist in advanced launch technology. Acting in the launch of a record 104 satellites in one go. His close proximity to the Thumba testing center attracted him to Isro
Key faces of the Mars Orbiter Mission
Seetha Somasundaram: Program director, space science program office Isro's leading expert on space science instrumentation. Involved in Mangalyaan charge characterization and calibration
Nandini Harinath: Deputy director of operations, Mars Orbiter Mission | Is the director of operations for Risat-1, the first radar imaging satellite in India. Requested to be one of & # 39; focus points & # 39; Mars mission. His first exposure to science is the TV series & # 39; Star Trek & # 39;
Minal Rohit: Project manager (Mars mission) | A system engineer at Isro, works to make methane sensors for the Mars mission. For MOM, he & his team remain confined in rooms & work for 18 hours a day
Moumita Dutta: Project manager (Mars mission) | Contributing to the development of Mars cargo. Currently leading a team that is making progress in optics, part of the initiative & # 39; Make in India & # 39;
Lali Esposito shows off her body in a sensual animal print bikini
The dollar, the highest, rose in almost three months and closed at $ 43.40.
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Even if you have a healthy weight, a small calorie reduction can have benefits – 07-15/2019
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Kearci Smith
Kearci Smith is a former college runner turned professional triathlete. Her passion had always been running until she was introduced to triathlon in 2012. She was a National Champion in 2017 at Age Group Nationals Sprint distance. She has competed in 3 Age Group World Championships in Olympic distance. She also, competed at Ironman 70.3 World Championship 2016. She has done a triathlon on 5 out of 7 continents, just waiting for an opportunity to race in Africa; Antarctica can wait. Kearci began her pro debut in 2018 where she competed in multiple international draft legal events as well as Beijing International Triathlon. Kearci works full time as an exercise physiologist in Cardiac and Pulmonary Rehab in Plano, TX. She loves to tell jokes to her patients to not only make them laugh but inspire them to work hard to improve their quality of life. Through her triathlon experiences she hopes she can relate to so many other triathletes and help them navigate their own journey.
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How The Porn Industry Capitalizes On Loneliness And Depression
By KC September 19, 2017 No Comments
A pornography epidemic is on the rise, not only because it is easier to access, but because of the lack of information people have had on the negative and harmful effects associated with this harmful, depressive material. In this case, ignorance really isn’t bliss.
From a business perspective, the porn industry has a pretty clever racket going. Their product offers consumers temporary relief from anxiety, depression, and loneliness in exchange for making these same problems much worse in the long-term. [1] That works out really well for pornographers, since the worse their customers’ anxiety and isolation grow, the more reason they have to turn back to porn. But for the consumer, the end result isn’t nearly so nice.
“Any time [a person] spends much time with the usual pornography usage cycle, it can’t help but be a depressing, demeaning, self-loathing kind of experience,” says Dr. Gary Brooks, a psychologist who has worked with porn addicts for the last 30 years. [2]
Fueling Isolation And Loneliness
The more pornography a person consumes, the more their brain connects being aroused with porn’s fictional fantasy [3]—and the harder it becomes for them to be aroused by a real person or a real relationship. [4]
As a result, many consumers start feeling like something’s wrong with them; they don’t know how to be turned on by a real person, much less form a deep personal connection with one. [5]
Related: Four Ways Watching Porn Can Disconnect You From Reality
Naomi Wolf, an author and political activist, has traveled all over the country to talk with college students about relationships. “When I ask about loneliness, a deep, sad silence descends on audiences of young men and young women alike,” she says. “They know they are lonely together … and that [porn] is a big part of that loneliness. What they don’t know is how to get out.” [6]
A Steadily Escalating Pattern of Depression
Studies have found that when people engage in an ongoing pattern of “self-concealment,” — which is when they do things they’re not proud of and keep them a secret from their friends and family members—it not only hurts their relationships and leaves them feeling lonely, but also makes them more vulnerable to severe psychological problems. [7] For both male and female porn consumer, their habit is often accompanied by problems with anxiety, body-image issues, poor self-image, relationship problems, insecurity, and depression. [8]
We do know that pornography and other addictions are used as self-medicating tools, which can lead to depression. More research is being conducted and more evidence is arising to show the damaging effects pornography and other sexual addictions have on our brains, body, relationships, and life.
Related: True Story: My Depression Disappeared When I Stopped Watching Porn
It is hard to say what comes first, the pornography addiction or depression. However, pornography and other addictions are used to make the consumer (temporarily) forget about feelings of sadness, fear, anger, or boredom. This habit can quickly lead to depression and is also something depression can lead to. It’s like a chicken and egg scenario: you’re not really sure which one comes first, but in this case you sure don’t want to find out because it can very quickly affect your mental health.
One aspect of the negativity porn teaches viewer is that both men and women aren’t worth anything more than the sum of their body parts and how much sexual pleasure they can offer. [9] Whether porn consumers like it or not, those perceptions often start creeping into how they see themselves and other people in real life. [10] The harder it becomes for the consumer to see themselves and others as anything more than sexual objects, the harder it is to develop real relationships. [11]
Related: Watching Porn Killed My Self-Confidence And Made Me Hate My Body
“There’s a certain way of experiencing sexual arousal that is the opposite of closeness,” Brooks said. “At best, it can be managed somewhat by some people, but most of the time it creates a barrier that poisons relationships.” [12]
The porn industry offers their content as a solution to rejection, failed relationships, and loneliness. They present tantalizing imagery and promise that consumers will be satisfied and soothed. Many consumers buy into the lies, and they enter a world that can be difficult to escape.
What begins as a form of self-medication can escalate into a vicious cycle of depression, relapse, and self-hatred. The worst part is that as a consumer numbs them self with graphic sexual images and videos, they are missing out on building some real, amazing relationships with their partner, friends, and community. In the end, no amount of pornography will take away anyone’s real life problems. In fact, it will just become one of them.
This is why we fight for love and spread the word about the harmful effects of pornography. The research is clear on the matter, and it’s time for society to listen.
Are you with us?
Porn can feel like an escape from reality, but it’ll leave viewers lonelier than before. SHARE this article and take a stand for real love.
Spark Conversations
This movement is all about changing the conversation about pornography. When you rep a tee, you can spark meaningful conversation on porn’s harms and inspire lasting change in individuals’ lives, and our world. Are you in? Check out all our styles in our online store, or click below to shop:
[1] Flisher, C. (2010). Getting Plugged In: An Overview of Internet Addiction. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 46: 557–9; Layden, M. A. (2010). Pornography and Violence: A New look at the Research. In J. Stoner and D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers (pp. 57–68). Princeton, NJ: Witherspoon Institute; Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Henry Hold and Co., 82; Kafka, M. P. (2000). The Paraphilia-Related Disorders: Nonparaphilic Hypersexuality and Sexual Compulsivity/Addiction. In S. R. Leiblum and R. C. Rosen (Eds.) Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, 3rd Ed. (pp. 471–503). New York: Guilford Press.
[2] Interview with Dr. Gary Brooks, Oct. 23, 2013.
[3] Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Henry Hold and Co., 105.
[4] Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Henry Hold and Co., 105; Doidge, N. (2007). The Brain That Changes Itself. New York: Penguin Books, 104.
[5] Interview with Dr. Gary Brooks, Oct. 23, 2013; Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Henry Hold and Co., 105.
[6] Wolf, N. (2004). The Porn Myth. New York Magazine, May 24.
[7] Laird, R. D., Marrero, M. D., Melching, J. A., and Kuhn, E. S. (2013). Information Management Strategies in Early Adolescence: Developmental Change in Use and Transactional Associations with Psychological Adjustment. Developmental Psychology 49, 5: 928–937; Luoma, J. B., Nobles, R. H., Drake, C. E., Hayes, S. C., O’Hair, A., Fletcher, L., and Kohlenberg, B. S. (2013). Self-Stigma in Substance Abuse: Development of a New Measure. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 35: 223–234; Rotenberg, K. J., Bharathi, C., Davies, H., and Finch, T. (2013). Bulimic Symptoms and the Social Withdrawal Syndrome. Eating Behaviors 14: 281–284; Frijns, T. and Finkenauer, C. (2009). Longitudinal Associations Between Keeping a Secret and Psychosocial Adjustment in Adolescence. International Journal of Behavioral Development 33, 2: 145–154.
[8] Flisher, C. (2010). Getting Plugged In: An Overview of Internet Addiction. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 46: 557–9; Layden, M. A. (2010). Pornography and Violence: A New look at the Research. In J. Stoner and D. Hughes (Eds.) The Social Costs of Pornography: A Collection of Papers (pp. 57–68). Princeton, NJ: Witherspoon Institute; Kafka, M. P. (2000). The Paraphilia-Related Disorders: Nonparaphilic Hypersexuality and Sexual Compulsivity/Addiction. In S. R. Leiblum and R. C. Rosen (Eds.) Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, 3rd Ed. (pp. 471–503). New York: Guilford Press.
[9] Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Henry Hold and Co., 80; Mosher, D. L. and MacIan, P. (1994). College Men and Women Respond to X-Rated Videos Intended for Male or Female Audiences: Gender and Sexual Scripts. Journal of Sex Research 31, 2: 99–112.
[10] Interview with Dr. Gary Brooks, Oct. 23, 2013.
[11] Paul, P. (2007). Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. New York: Henry Hold and Co., 79; Lyons, J. S., Anderson, R. L., and Larsen, D. (1993). A Systematic Review of the Effects of Aggressive and Nonaggressive Pornography. In D. Zillmann, J. Bryand, and A. C. Huston (Eds.) Media, Children and the Family: Social Scientific, Psychodynamic, and Clinical Perspectives (p. 305). Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates.
Watch Out: Internet Hackers are Blackmailing and Extorting Porn Site Visitors July 10, 2019
How Can You Know for Certain the Porn You’re Watching Is Consensual? July 10, 2019
How Sex Trafficking and Exploitation Blend In with Today’s Violent Mainstream Porn July 10, 2019
Not to Alarm You, but Studies Show DeepFake Videos Can be Created Using Just One Image July 9, 2019
The Alarmingly Similar Ways Porn and “Fifty Shades” Romanticize Abuse July 9, 2019
What Happened When My Wife Discovered My Porn Secret
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How I Shot My Feature Film, Tormenting the Hen, in Six Days
Filmmaker Theodore Collatos appeared recently on the site when he and Christopher Jason Bell interviewed each other about their latest pictures. He’s now at work on a new feature, Tormenting the Hen, produced with Matt Grady from Factory 25, Ben Umstead (Slamdance programmer, Screen Anarchy) and George Manatos (editor on Come Down Molly). He’s also in the midst of an Indiegogo campaign to support its co-production. Below, he reveals how — and why — he shot his new movie in six days (and how you might be able to do the same). Read on, and please consider supporting his campaign. […]
by Theodore Collatos on Oct 12, 2016
Vidiots Launches the Video Store into the Next Era
Vidiots, the iconic Santa Monica movie rental store-turned film non-profit, has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo with the goal of raising $65,000 to keep the doors open and to fund new programs. Just last year, Vidiots was in danger of closing after 30 years in business. Not long after co-owners Cathy Tauber and Patty Polinger announced they were going to have to shutter, they got a last-minute donation from film producer Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures. But Vidiots needs to continue raising money in order to launch new programs and initiatives to preserve and provide access to their diverse and […]
by Paula Bernstein on Sep 28, 2016
Jan Švankmajer Crowdfunds His Final Film Insects
Jan Švankmajer, the 81-year-old surrealist Czech animator, along with his longtime producer Jaromír Kallista, has launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the filmmaker’s final project, Insects. Švankmajer, known for his dark but playful satirical works, has directed over 30 short and feature-length films throughout his career including Alice, Little Otik, and Dimensions of Dialogue. As a pioneer of stop-motion animation, he has had a direct influence on the works of Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, David Lynch, and the Brothers Quay, among many others. Švankmajer wrote the screenplay for Insects, which is loosely based on “The Insect Play” by the Čapek brothers, an allegorical comedy from 1922 […]
by Paula Bernstein on May 25, 2016
Director Peter Medak Plans to Resurrect The Ghost of Peter Sellers
It was 1973 and Peter Medak was a hot director on the rise. Following the success of The Ruling Class, which had earned Peter O’Toole an Academy Award nomination the previous year, United Artists offered him Death Wish. But when the studio insisted on casting Charles Bronson instead of Medak’s pick, Henry Fonda, Medak passed on the project. Back in London, Medak ran into his friend Peter Sellers, who asked him to direct his next film, Ghost in The Noonday Sun, which was set to be filmed on the island of Cyprus. Somehow the idea of filming a 17th-century pirate comedy aboard real ships on […]
by Paula Bernstein on Mar 21, 2016
Carla Forte’s Ann on Indiegogo
Miami-based filmmaker Carla Forte is one of the three filmmakers I’ll be speaking to tomorrow night at the Miami Beach Cinematheque, and our talk sits right in the middle of the Indiegogo campaign for her latest feature, Ann. Forte is a performer, screenwriter and director, as well as Executive Director of Bistoury Physical Theatre and Film. Read the information below, check out the video above and consider donating to her campaign. From Forte’s Indiegogo page: Ann is a feature film narrating the story of Ruben, a lower-class visual artist who has decided to abandon his tormented life by taking refuge […]
by Scott Macaulay on Oct 21, 2015
Behind the Crowdfunding Campaign to Finish Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind
At first, I viewed the Indiegogo campaign to help finish Orson Welles’ last film as a desperate attempt to solve a troubled situation. I was hauling in all my feelings about the Kickstarter saturation that has infected indie film culture. Everyone and their mother is crowdfunding their films — now the late Orson Welles? It felt like a violation against his legacy and made me incredibly sad. After all of this time, Orson Welles still can’t raise money the “normal” way?! But now, after much thought and digging, I see the campaign as a triumphant way to actively and symbolically help […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Jun 11, 2015
“The More a Film Challenges an Audience, the More Resistance It Will Inspire”: Five Principles to Live By for Provocative Filmmakers
Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Guy Davidi is currently raising funds on Indiegogo for Mixed Feelings. From the Indiegogo page: is an inspiring story about cultural resistance of Israeli director and teacher, Amir Orian – a once successful actor that left his blooming career to create an alternative theater in his own apartment. This documentary tries to create space for artistic expression and the discussion of alternative points of view in a country troubled by destructive nationalistic forces.” Below, Davidi writes about the life of the filmmaker who chooses to make provocative work. Please visit the Indiegogo page linked above to learn more […]
by Guy Davidi on Dec 5, 2014
Five Questions for Ann Marie Fleming and Sandra Oh About Their Indiegogo Project, Window Horses
Currently raising funds on Indiegogo is an ambitious animated feature by filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, Window Horses. With a lead character voiced by Sandra Oh, the film uses the medium of poetry to explore ideas of cross cultural exchange. From their Indiegogo page: In this coming-of-age story, Rosie Ming, a young Canadian poet, is invited to perform at a Poetry Festival in Shiraz, Iran, but she’d rather be in Paris. She lives at home with her over-protective Chinese grandparents and has never been anywhere by herself. Once in Iran, she finds herself in the company of poets and Persians, all […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 20, 2014
Should Documentary Filmmakers Be Friends with Their Subjects?
Luke Korem is in the final days of an Indiegogo campaign to fundraise for Dealt, his documentary on the amazing blind card magician Richard Turner. During the course of filmmaking, he’s become friends with Turner, and below he discusses that friendship within the framework of documentary ethics and practice. Read and consider visiting his Indiegogo page and contributing. It’s the question every documentary filmmaker will at some point ask themselves: “How close should I get to my subject?” Making a documentary is like running a marathon with no definite end in sight. It takes time and 100% commitment to your subject. For anyone […]
by Luke Korem on Nov 17, 2014
Why Independent Filmmakers Should Embrace GoPro (and Vice Versa)
Filmmaker Adam Bhala Lough is in the final days of an Indiegogo campaign for his skater doc, The Motivation 2.0: The Chris Cole Story, currently featured on our partner page. Below, he writes about his use of GoPro cameras for his independent films. Visit the Indiegogo page for more information on his project and please consider donating. GoPro cameras have long been popular in the action sports market and reality television, but have been completely ignored by the indie film community. This should change and here’s why:
Recently I needed to film a car scene, where two characters were driving and […]
by Adam Bhala Lough on Oct 16, 2014
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NGI Head Olivier Bringer Q&A
Written by InterviewWritten by Interview
Olivier Bringer is Head of Unit at the European Commission, and in charge of the Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative. Here, he talks about the initiative’s visions for a human-centric internet, the balance between regulation and innovation, and his predictions for the future.
What are the main aims of the Next Generation Internet initiative?
The European Commission launched the NGI initiative about 3 years ago, in 2016. The aim is to invest in technologies for the internet of tomorrow, an “internet of humans”.
What we want is an internet that serves us better both individually and collectively and that respects fundamental values like privacy, security, and inclusion. With digital gaining more importance, we need to make sure that everyone has proper access to the internet, which is not the case today. We also want a more decentralised internet than the one we see today, with big players controlling key markets and access to the end users.
We will invest €250m in the last three years of Horizon 2020, the European research and innovation programme. We will invest in a variety of internet relevant technologies, including artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, virtual reality, accessibility, multilingualism, but also core internet technologies like search, privacy-enhancing technologies, or blockchain. We have earmarked €75m to directly fund individual internet innovators and help them develop their ideas and come up with new pieces of software, new protocols, new services that improve the experience of the end users. Anyone with ideas – a researcher, a startup, a social innovator – can apply and get financial support, following a competitive process.
Beyond Horizon 2020, NGI is an intervention area in the next research and innovation programme, Horizon Europe. It’s really an initiative for the next ten years.
What are Europe’s strengths when it comes to building this human-centric internet?
One key strength is our regulatory framework. Of course everyone’s heard about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),11.An EU law on data protection and privacy that gives users greater control of their data, and was implemented in May 2018. but there are other pieces of equally important legislation, on cybersecurity, net neutrality, free flow of non-personal data, or platforms. We have built a comprehensive regulatory framework in the area of digital, which I think is a strength. This is a framework that allows us to implement a number of core values for Europeans, such as the protection of privacy, online security, or ensuring openness to innovation.
We now need to invest in the technologies, which will allow us to implement this regulatory framework. It’s good to have rules, but it’s important to have the tools to implement them. GDPR, for example, sets a number of rights like consent or portability of data, but then you need the tools to implement these rights in a simple, user-friendly way. This is what we are going to do in NGI. We are going to develop the technologies which allow us to implement these rights and in general our values, our vision of the internet.
But does Europe have any weaknesses or blind spots?
When you look at the level of investment in digital technologies in the world, it is clear that there are two regions of the world that really invest a lot: the US and China. If you combine public and private investments, we are clearly underweight, and this is something we need to improve. That’s why the Commission is very ambitious in its proposal for investment in digital in the next budget of the EU. This will also require more coordination between European and national investment, and between public and private investment.
Another weakness, something where I’m sure we can do better, is helping European start-ups grow. These are the companies that will build the digital platforms and services of tomorrow. In the first generation of the internet, there were not so many European companies that made it to become global players. But it doesn’t mean that it has to be the same in the next generation. The next generation of the internet will cover many more sectors. It will cover, for example, transport and cities, the digitisation of industry, or the health sector. Europe can build on its industrial strengths in these sectors to build the digital platforms of tomorrow, like industrial data spaces or a health Cloud.
How do you strike a balance between regulation and innovation?
We try to be economical in terms of digital regulation. Regulation should really address enduring problems. For example, there was a long lasting problem with misuse of personal data, which is why the EU came up with GDPR. There is also a clear problem with security on the internet. This is why we have a number of legislative but also non-legislative measures to improve cybersecurity in Europe.
Once the rules are in place, you need the technologies to implement them, to make them real. So for example, following GDPR, there are now a lot of companies who are developing new technologies to allow people to better control their personal data, like for example personal data spaces. Personal data spaces allow individuals to decide to whom they give their personal data, for what purpose, and allow them to pull their data from one platform to the other. We will invest in such technologies in NGI.
So regulation and innovation do not need to be opposed, they need to be combined, and this is what we’re trying to do with NGI.
How can ordinary people get involved and get their voices heard? What role do citizens have in building the internet of tomorrow?
That’s a very important part of the NGI initiative. It’s very important that we build a community behind the initiative, and that community has to be as broad as possible. It has to be a community which gathers the innovators, the internet service providers, the governments, and also the citizens and the civil society. We organised public consultations and direct meetings with various stakeholders in the conception phase of the initiative in order to build up our vision of an internet of humans and we will continue to do so. Citizens in particular are the ones who should tell us what internet they want, what problems they see, what the opportunities are. This is a collective intelligence exercise.
As policymakers we take policy measures to ensure functioning digital markets but we also need to think about the behaviour of the citizens, what skills and behaviours they need to acquire in the digital sphere. For example, you see a lot of problems with online disinformation being spread around the web. One part of the response is with the platforms, which have to put in place the detection and removal mechanisms to avoid that. But there’s still one part of the response which is with the end users themselves. They also need to avoid spreading false information. To help them, governments, but also online service providers, need to do more: educate the end-users, raise their awareness, or flag dubious content to help everyone adopt a responsible behaviour online.
In an ideal world, in 2030, what would the internet look like as a result of this project? Do you have any predictions?
If you look at people who made such predictions ten years ago, I’m sure that they would be proven wrong today! So I will be slightly conservative in my predictions.
I think artificial intelligence will be much more widespread in the internet of tomorrow. Since I am a digital optimist, I think it will be for the best. I’m sure for example there will be artificial intelligence assistants that will help people connect to the internet and use its vast and today mostly untapped resources and that will assist people in their life in general. This is particularly important in an ageing society like Europe. I think AI assistants can really help people remain connected and autonomous.
Of course, for that bright future of AI to happen we need to think now about where we need to invest, which ethical issues we need to solve, what new skills people need to acquire to work together with AI. This is something we are working on currently at the European Commission. This is a clear political priority.
I also think that the internet is going to be much more physical. Today the internet is basically on your phone and your computer and it’s largely virtual. In ten years’ time, I think the internet will be really everywhere with the Internet of Things. So a lot of objects will be connected and have AI capabilities. For example, cars will be much more autonomous. There will be smart homes, smart cities, smart factories. I think the internet is going to take a new dimension in the physical world, which of course supposes that we invest in all these technologies and that we make sure that security is ensured.
Lastly, I really hope that the internet in ten years’ time will be more decentralised, so people will have more opportunity to interact and transact directly with each other, in a fully secure manner.
Overall, do you believe the web and the internet have had a positive or negative influence on society?
I am a digital optimist! I think it had a positive influence.
If you think about how you work for example, everything has changed with the internet. Every business processes have been changed. It has also completely changed the way we inform ourselves. We go on the internet when we want to find information. There is real quality content there; you can go to the most prestigious university website, and they have online courses available. You can be someone in an underdeveloped region in the world and have access to the online courses of the best universities in the world.
And the internet has made the world smaller. You can keep in touch with more people, everywhere and in real-time. This is very positive. Connecting people is really what the internet is about. And frankly, I think it’s only the beginning.
How does this make you feel about the future internet?
Pessimistic
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Oct 16, 2013 / Events, Study Abroad, Scholarships and Fellowships
Boren Undergraduate Scholarship for study abroad – UW info sessions & deadline
Thanks so much for sharing widely the Critical Language Scholarship information I shared last week. Another similar and yet completely different program is also available for students planning to study critical languages abroad during 2014-15. Again, please share widely with students in all fields.
Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 to U.S. undergraduate students to study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad, including Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East. The countries of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are excluded. For a complete list of countries, click here.
Boren Scholars represent a variety of academic backgrounds, but all are interested in studying less commonly taught languages, including but not limited to Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Swahili. For a complete list of languages, click here.
Boren Scholarships are funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security. Applicants should identify how their study abroad program, as well as their future academic and career goals, will contribute to U.S. national security, broadly defined. NSEP draws on a broad definition of national security, recognizing that the scope of national security has expanded to include not only the traditional concerns of protecting and promoting American well-being, but also the challenges of global society, including sustainable development, environmental degradation, global disease and hunger, population growth and migration, and economic competitiveness. To view the Program Basics for the Boren Scholarship, click here.
Undergraduate applicants must apply through UW to be considered for the Boren Undergraduate Scholarship Program. UW’s deadline for Seattle and Tacoma undergraduate applicants is January 8, 2014 for study abroad programs during the 2014-15 academic year.
The UW Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards is providing information sessions for undergraduate students interested in this opportunity, to help orient them to the program and application process:
· Thurs., Oct. 17, 2013, 4:30 – 5:20 p.m., 171 MGH
· Wed., Nov. 13, 2013, 3:30 – 4:20 p.m., 173R MGH
· Tues., Dec. 3, 2013, 4:30 – 5:20 p.m., 173R MGH
· RSVP at https://expo.uw.edu/expo/rsvp/event/239, though drop-ins are always welcome
UW Bothell undergraduate and graduate students interested in these opportunities can contact Natalia Dyba, Manager of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards (NDyba) for campus deadlines and application support.
The Boren program also offers Graduate Fellowships for graduate students, details are at megray) in the Graduate School Office of Fellowships & Awards is the point of contact for graduate students interested in this program.
Thank you again for your efforts to let students know about these wonderful opportunities!
Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships & Awards
Center for Experiential Learning and Diversity
171 Mary Gates Hall, Box 352803
http://expd.washington.edu/scholarships
Boren Undergraduate Scholarship for study abroad - UW info sessions & deadline
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(Redirected from St. Martin's Griffin)
Find sources: "St. Martin's Press" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in Manhattan, New York City. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers [2] bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints.
United Kingdom (1952–1990s)
New York City, New York, United States
Macmillan (US)
Melia Publishing Services (UK)[1]
George Witte, Sally Richardson, Thomas Dunne, Jennifer Enderlin
Minotaur, St. Martin's Griffin, Thomas Dunne Books, All Points
stmartins.com
The imprints include St. Martin's Press (mainstream and bestseller books), St. Martin's Griffin (mainstream paperback books, including science fiction and romance), Minotaur (mystery, suspense, and thrillers), Picador (specialty books), Thomas Dunne Books (suspense and mainstream), and All Points Books (politics).
St. Martin's Press's current editor in chief is George Witte.
Macmillan Publishers of the U.K. founded St. Martin's in 1952 and named it after St Martin's Lane in London, where associated press Macmillan Publishers was headquartered.[clarification needed] It was privately held until the late 1990s when it was sold to Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC, a group of publishing companies held by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, a family owned publishing concern based in Stuttgart, Germany, which owns St. Martin's as well as some U.S. publishing houses, including Farrar, Straus and Giroux (of mostly literary fiction), Holt Publishers (literary non-fiction), and Tor-Forge Books (science fiction, fantasy, and thrillers).
Authors published by St. Martin's include Sherrilyn Kenyon, M. K. Asante, Charlotte Bingham, John Bingham, Dan Brown, Barbara Taylor Bradford, Ken Bruen, Augusten Burroughs, Stephen J. Cannell, Blaize Clement, Ben Coes, Jackie Collins, Jennifer Crusie, Charles Cumming, Emily A. Duncan, Janet Evanovich, Diane Fanning, Julian Fellowes, Amanda Filipacchi, Joseph Finder, Lauren Fix, Frederick Forsyth, Brigitte Gabriel, Kim Gruenenfelder, James Herriot, L. Ron Hubbard, Murry Hope, Simon Kernick, Lisa Kleypas, Robert Ludlum, Jay Baron Nicorvo, Robert Pagliarini, Gayle Lynds, Joseph Olshan, Michael Palmer, Robin Pilcher, Patrick Quinlan, Cathy Scott, Susan Arnout Smith, Wilbur Smith, Erica Spindler, Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Shannon Delany, Jeff Hertzberg, Ryan Nerz, and Darryl Wimberley. It also publishes the New York Times crossword puzzle books.
Its textbook division, Bedford-St. Martin's, was founded in 1981. In 1984, St. Martin's became the first major trade-book publisher to release its hardcover books by its in-house mass-market paperback company, St. Martin's Mass Market Paperback Co., Inc.[3][citation needed]
ImprintsEdit
St. Martin's Press (mainstream and bestseller books)[4]
St. Martin's True Crime Library (true crime paperback books)
St. Martin's Griffin (mainstream trade paperback books, including romance)[5]
Minotaur (Mystery, suspense, and thrillers); winners of the St. Martin's Press "Malice Domestic" First Traditional Mystery Contest receive a $10,000 one-book Minotaur publishing contract
Picador (specialty books)
Thomas Dunne Books (suspense and mainstream)
Tor Books, science fiction imprint, purchased by St. Martin's in 1986
Truman Talley Books (business and specialty books), founded in 1980 and led for 28 years by Truman Talley (died 2013)[6]
^ "Melia Publishing - List of client publishers". Retrieved 2017-12-27.
^ "Amazon shares slip; Macmillan titles still missing". Seattle Times. February 1, 2010. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
^ "St. Martin's Press - US Macmillan". US Macmillan. Retrieved 2017-10-09.
^ "St. Martin's Paperbacks". St. Martin's Press.
^ "Griffin". St. Martin's Griffin.
^ "Truman Talley: Obituary". The New York Times. March 16, 2013. Retrieved May 7, 2019.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St._Martin%27s_Press&oldid=899342806"
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Humans came to the Americas earlier than thought, study shows
Latin America suffering triple burden of malnutrition: obesity, unbalanced diets and declining activity
Bolivia downplays risk of Brazil withdrawing from bioceanic railway project
Climate change impact in Chile may not be so severe
Friday, March 23rd 2007 - 21:00 UTC
A panel of experts from the University of Chile has suggested that the impact of climate change may not be so severe in Chile as in other parts of the world. They reason that the strong influence of the Pacific Ocean on the country may well help mitigate the effects of global warming.
Patricio Aceituno, academic and researcher at the University of Chile's Department of Geophysics, said earlier this week that while there have been variations in Chile's temperature and rainfall over the last century, these could be from natural causes. According to Aceituno, the main reason that Chile's temperature will not change substantially is the regular oscillation of the Pacific Plate, which causes cold currents in the southeast Pacific, a phenomenon that has been observed since 1976. But while the country's temperature may not be affected by climate change, its rainfall may well be, according to the University of Chile's reports. An analysis of rainfall between 1950 and 2000 showed that in Regions IX and X, the amount of rain has dropped significantly. Levels of rainfall in Temuco and Puerto Montt have dropped by 100 and 150 millimetres respectively every ten years. In Valdivia, rainfall dropped by 400 millimetres over a decade â€" the equivalent of Santiago's entire annual rainfall. A decreasing amount of rainfall will mean less water in various regions of Chile, said Humberto Fuenzalida, expert in atmospheric science. Fuenzalida said that water reduction in Chile could be as much as 30%. "In a worst-case scenario, the river Maule â€" which feeds the Colbun dam - could lose almost 37% of its total flow," said Fuenzalida. Global warming was in the international spotlight once again on Wednesday as Former U.S. Vice President and newly turned global-warming prophet Al Gore addressed the U.S. Congress on what he called a "planetary emergency." Referring to environmental emergencies such as rising sea levels, extreme weather condition and wildfires, Gore insisted that the U.S. needs to take action immediately. The former presidential candidate urged that the U.S. needs to begin a program of sharp reductions in carbon emissions "to reach at least 90% reductions by 2050." Gore also proposed a 10-point plan, calling for a tax on carbon emissions and bans on incandescent light bulbs and new coal-fired plants designed to capture carbon that now is emitted into the air. "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor," said Gore. "If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say 'I read a science fiction novel that says it's not a problem.' You take action." Al Gore will be in Chile on May 11 to promote environmental issues. The Santiago Times
Categories: Health & Science, Latin America.
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Saudi Arabia: Russia guilty in Syria’s bloodshed
1 March 2014 10:33 (UTC+04:00)
Saudi Arabia lashed out on Friday at Russian criticism of the kingdom's support for the Syrian opposition, saying it was Moscow's support for the Syrian regime that encourages President Bashar al-Assad to continue his brutality, Al Arabiya reported.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry expressed "surprise" at a Russian Foreign Ministry statement blaming the kingdom for the unrest in Syria.
Alarmed by recent reports that Saudi Arabia and other allies are planning to transfer advanced weapons to members of the Syrian rebel Free Syrian Army, Russia warned that such transfers would pose a major security threat in the region.
"If this sensitive weapon falls into the hands of extremists and terrorists who have flooded Syria, there is a great probability that in the end it will be used far from the borders of this Middle Eastern country," said the Russian foreign ministry statement.
Riyadh said it supports the Syrian people against the brutality of the regime in Damascus, which enjoys strong backing from Moscow. This backing, Saudi Arabia says, has cost Russia sympathy of the Arab street.
Georgia receives $1.67 mln from Azerbaijan
Finance 15 July 18:43
Kazakhstan increases import with EAEU partners
Uzbekistan and Russia agree to resolve relevant transport issues
8th Russian plane with components of S-400 missile systems arrives in Turkey
Turkey 14 July 20:20
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1988 Writers Guild of America strike
The 1988 Writers Guild of America strike was a strike action taken by members of both the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) against major United States television and film studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike, which ran from March 7 to August 7, 1988, affected production on movies and TV shows. At 153 days, it remains the longest strike in the Guild's history, surpassing the 1960 Writers Guild of America strike by one week and the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike by seven weeks.
2 Effects of the strike
Summary[edit]
Formal negotiations between the writers guilds and producers began in January 1988. The main disagreements[1][2] included:
Residuals for hour-long shows (producers, claiming syndicated reruns of these shows were performing poorly in syndication, wanted a softened, percentage-based formula; writers wanted a residual hike)
Expanded creative rights (the writers wanted consultation on the choice of actors and directors for some projects)
Cost cuts in other areas (a producers' demand)
The guilds' previous deal with producers expired on February 29, 1988. One day later, 96% of guild membership authorized a strike. On March 7, 1988, one day after rejecting a softened final offer from producers, 9,000 movie and television writers went on strike.[3] Negotiations took place during March and April under a federal mediator but broke off before resuming on May 23, again with a federal mediator.[2]
After intensive bargaining, producers made a "strike settlement offer" on June 16, 1988; the offer included an extended contract term (to 4 years) and expansion of creative rights, but still included the percentage-based residuals studios demanded and not a foreign residual increase writers demanded. The offer was turned down by the guilds' membership by a 3-1 margin.[2]
During July 1988, the Guild devised an interim contract. Membership approved it, and more than 150 smaller producers signed it. Major studios and outlets including Fox, Paramount, and the "Big Three" television networks refused projects from the independents who signed the deal, leading to the Guild filing an antitrust suit accusing 18 studios and networks of mounting an illegal boycott. 21 dissident Guild members who still favored the June 16 offer filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board to seek invalidation of Guild rules that barred them from returning to work during a strike; some dissidents threatened to resign Guild membership and return to work if the strike was not settled by July 28.[2]
On July 23, 1988, formal bargaining resumed, again under the auspices of federal mediators; by July 30, however, talks collapsed, with studios threatening to not bargain any further and to concentrate on producing work with non-union scripts. Behind-the-scenes "shuttle diplomacy" involving Guild negotiators, studio heads, and emissaries began on July 31 in an effort to revive talks. Guild officials and studio representatives met on August 2 to discuss the proposals, and on August 3 announced a tentative deal.[2] While the new deal gave studios the sliding residual scale they sought for hour-long reruns, writers won a modest financial gain when hour-long shows were sold internationally. The writers also gained creative rights regarding original screenplays and TV movies. The Guild board approved the deal by a 26-6 vote; Guild membership also approved the deal (2,111 in favor, 412 against), and the strike formally ended on August 7, 1988.[4]
Effects of the strike[edit]
See also: 1988-89 United States network television schedule
The writers' strike forced the major TV networks to hold off the start of their fall 1988 schedule later than usual; rather than the traditional late-September/early-October start, new and returning TV series' debuts were delayed until late October and into November (one NBC series, In the Heat of The Night, and one ABC series, Thirtysomething, didn't start its second season until early December). In the interim, the networks had to rely on a hodgepodge of programming, including reruns, movies, entertainment and news specials, program-length political advertising, and unscripted original series (e.g. CBS' High Risk). Networks also benefited from sports programming, including NBC, which relied on the Summer Olympics in September and the World Series in October, and ABC, which in addition to its postseason baseball coverage, moved up the start time for the early weeks of Monday Night Football from 9PM ET to 8PM ET (MacGyver, which normally aired at 8PM, was not yet ready with new episodes).
While waiting for their fall seasons to begin, the networks still had access to scripted original series. Despite refusing earlier in the summer to accept new projects from independents who settled with the Guild, TV networks gained a benefit from the Guilds' decision to offer independent contracts to producers, with the offers beginning in late May 1988. The agreements would allow producers and writers of such shows as The Cosby Show, A Different World, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and Late Night with David Letterman to resume work.[2] Johnny Carson actually resumed work on The Tonight Show before the agreement, returning with the Guild's blessing on May 11, 1988 (after Tonight was in reruns since the strike's start) without writers and with his own material; David Letterman would follow suit, returning to Late Night on June 29.[5][6]
The strike also led to a revival of Mission: Impossible; ABC, in search of original content for Fall 1988, used reworked scripts from the original version of M:I and filmed them in Australia (where production costs at the time were lower than that in the Hollywood area), making the new M:I one of the first American commercial network programs to be filmed there. NBC took a similar approach with its new sitcom Dear John, using some reworked episodes that were from the original version that aired on Britain's BBC. CBS revived The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, nearly 20 years after throwing the duo off the air for poor taste, and gave them carte blanche to perform their own existing material.
Soap operas continued to air during the strike; however, without experienced script writers many suffered in quality. At first most stories were dragged out for as long as possible, then plots lurched forward that did not leave shows in the best of shape, including "Santa Barbara", which was already struggling in ratings as a result of Bridget and Jerome Dobson being fired. Saturday morning programming for the 1988-1989 season was mostly unaffected, as animation writers were not part of the strike; a notable exception was CBS' live-action series Pee-wee's Playhouse, which only had two new episodes and a prime-time Christmas special that season. The animation exemption also led to several animated specials being aired, including a new Peanuts miniseries (This Is America, Charlie Brown) and an adaptation of a Garfield book, Garfield: His 9 Lives.
The strike significantly shrunk average television audiences, and had a lasting effect.
The strike did not, as some later claimed, lead to the advent of reality television (which did not rise to its current level of popularity until over a decade later), mainly due to the fact that it began in the traditional summer "offseason" when little new scripted programming was being produced anyway.[7] One notable exception was COPS on the Fox television network, which was commissioned as the result of a strike and remained on Fox's Saturday night lineup until 2013 before moving to Spike, the current Paramount Network.
The cancellations of Moonlighting[8] and Kate & Allie[citation needed] have been attributed in part to audience loss stemming from the shows' long hiatuses due to the writers' strike.
Films[edit]
The horror film Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers narrowly avoided the strike. Writer Alan B. McElroy had only 11 days in which to come up with the film's story and subsequently write the script. McElroy did just this and managed to turn the script in just hours before the strike commenced.[9]
The 1988 movie Earth Girls Are Easy was filmed during this strike; co-writer Charlie Coffey did not appear in the movie due to being on the picket lines.[citation needed]
According to the Ultimate James Bond DVD Collection, the movie Licence to Kill, starring Timothy Dalton, lost one of its co-writers, Richard Maibaum, so his partner Michael G. Wilson elected to finish the screenplay on his own.[10]
Sam Hamm turned in his script for 1989's Batman just days before the writer's strike began, and was unable to write further drafts due to his involvement. Director Tim Burton and others liked the script, but thought "something" was missing. As such he brought in Beetlejuice co-writers Warren Skaaren and Charles McKeown for rewrite work.[citation needed] Jonathan Gems did a few weeks worth of rewriting as well.[11] All three were British as just about every single writer in America was on strike. Their draft introduced the Joker's role as the killer of Bruce Wayne's parents, a revelation Burton wanted from the beginning. Hamm, staying true to the source material, had refused to use the idea.[citation needed] One of the primary reasons as to why the filmmakers brought in McKeown was that they felt he could come up with more creative jokes for The Joker.[12]
1980s portal
International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG)
WGA screenwriting credit system
WGA script registration service
2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike
Residual (entertainment industry)
List of Hollywood strikes
^ This Writers' Strike Feels Like a Rerun From 1988, The Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2007
^ a b c d e f "Writers Strike Chronology," from Los Angeles Times, 8/4/1988
^ Strike Announced By Writers For TV, New York Times, March 7, 1988
^ "Writers Ratify Contract, Ending Longest Strike", New York Times, August 8, 1988
^ news.bbc.co.uk
^ usatoday.com/life
^ "The ... '88 Writers Guild of America walkout ... didn't unleash a flood of reality, because filming on sitcoms and dramas had largely wrapped and because alternative shows had yet to become a trend." Writers strike means reality boom times Yahoo! News 27 November 2007.[dead link]
^ "Moonlighting never recovered after going off the air during the 1988 strike." Hollywood bracing for a writers strike Los Angeles Times 28 October 2007. Subscription required.
^ Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, DVD Feature: Halloween 4 "Final Cut". Anchor Bay.
^ Smith, Jim (2002). Bond Films. London: Virgin Books. p. 234. ISBN 978-0-7535-0709-4.
^ Salisbury, Burton, p.145
^ Salisbury, Burton, p.78-80
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1988_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike&oldid=859372064"
1988 labor disputes and strikes
Labor disputes in the United States
1988 in American television
1988 in the United States
Writers Guild of America
Entertainment industry strikes
Articles with dead external links from June 2014
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20th-century Vietnamese communist leader
For other uses, see Ho Chi Minh (disambiguation).
Portrait of Hồ Chí Minh, c. 1946
Chairman of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
19 February 1951 – 2 September 1969
Position established
Position abolished
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Vietnam
1 November 1956 – 10 September 1960
Trường Chinh
1st President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
2 September 1945 – 2 September 1969
Bảo Đại (as Emperor)
Tôn Đức Thắng
1st Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
2 September 1945 – 20 September 1955
Trần Trọng Kim (as Prime Minister of the Empire of Vietnam)
28 August 1945 – 2 March 1946
Trần Văn Chương (Empire of Vietnam)
Nguyễn Tường Tam
3 November 1946 – March 1947
Hoàng Minh Giám
Member of the Politburo
31 March 1935 – 2 September 1969
Nguyễn Sinh Cung
(1890-05-19)19 May 1890
Kim Liên, Nghệ An Province, French Indochina
2 September 1969(1969-09-02) (aged 79)
Hanoi, North Vietnam
French Section of the Workers' International
Communist Party of Vietnam
Zeng Xueming (Tăng Tuyết Minh) (m. 1926)
Bạch Liên (or Nguyễn Thị Thanh) (Sister)
Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (or Nguyễn Tất Đạt) (brother)
Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận (brother)
Nguyễn Sinh Sắc (father)
Hoàng Thị Loan (mother)
Communist University of the Toilers of the East
Vietnamese name
Hán-Nôm
胡志明
Vietnamese birth name
阮生恭
Hồ Chí Minh (/hoʊ tʃiː mɪn/;[2] Vietnamese: [hò cǐ mīŋ̟] ( listen), Saigon: [hò cǐ mɨ̄n] ( listen); Chữ nôm: 胡志明; 19 May 1890 – 2 September 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung,[3][4][5] also known as Nguyễn Tất Thành, Nguyễn Ái Quốc, Bác Hồ ("Uncle Ho") or simply Bác ("Uncle"), was a Vietnamese revolutionary and politician. He served as Prime Minister of North Vietnam from 1945 to 1955 and then its President from 1945 to 1969. Ideologically a Marxist-Leninist, he served as Chairman and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Vietnam.
Hồ Chí Minh led the Việt Minh independence movement from 1941 onward, establishing the Communist-ruled Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 and defeating the French Union in 1954 at the battle of Điện Biên Phủ. He officially stepped down from power in 1965 due to health problems. After the war, Saigon, the former capital of the Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Ho Chi Minh City. He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 at the Ba Dinh Square in Hanoi as well as the People's Army of Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.
Any description of Hồ Chí Minh's life before he came to power in Vietnam is necessarily fraught with ambiguity. He is known to have used at least 50[6]:582 and perhaps as many as 200 pseudonyms.[7] Both his place and date of birth are subjects of academic debate since neither is known with certainty. At least four existing official biographies vary on names, dates, places and other hard facts while unofficial biographies vary even more widely.[8]
1.1 First sojourn in France
1.2 In the United States
1.3 In the United Kingdom
2 Political education in France
3 In the Soviet Union and China
4 Independence movement
4.1 Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
5 Becoming president and Vietnam War
9 International influence
12.1 Essays
12.2 Biography
12.3 Việt Minh, NLF and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
12.4 War in Vietnam
12.5 American foreign policy
Hồ Chí Minh was born as Nguyễn Sinh Cung[3][4][5] in 1890 in the village of Hoàng Trù (the name of the local temple near Làng Sen), his mother's village. Although this is his generally accepted birth year, at various times he used five different birth years: 1890,[9] 1891,[10] 1892,[11] 1894[12] and 1895.[13] From 1895, he grew up in his father Nguyễn Sinh Sắc (Nguyễn Sinh Huy)'s village of Làng Sen, Kim Liên, Nam Đàn, Nghệ An Province. He had three siblings: his sister Bạch Liên (Nguyễn Thị Thanh), a clerk in the French Army; his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm (Nguyễn Tất Đạt), a geomancer and traditional herbalist; and another brother (Nguyễn Sinh Nhuận), who died in his infancy. As a young child, Cung (Ho) studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. He quickly mastered Chinese writing, a prerequisite for any serious study of Confucianism, while honing his colloquial Vietnamese writing.[6]:21 In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure and loved to fly kites and go fishing.[6]:21 Following Confucian tradition, his father gave him a new name at the age of 10: Nguyễn Tất Thành ("Nguyễn the Accomplished").
His father was a Confucian scholar and teacher and later an imperial magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe (Qui Nhơn). He was demoted for abuse of power after an influential local figure died several days after having received 102 strokes of the cane as punishment for an infraction.[6]:21 His father was eligible to serve in the imperial bureaucracy, but he refused because it meant serving the French.[14] This exposed Thành (Ho) to rebellion at a young age and seemed to be the norm for the province. Nevertheless, he received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp and his later enemy, Ngô Đình Diệm.[15]
First sojourn in France[edit]
Previously, it was believed that Thành (Ho) was involved in an anti-slavery (anti-corvée) demonstration of poor peasants in Huế in May 1908, which endangered his student status at Collège Quốc học. However, a document from the Centre des archives d'Outre-mer in France shows that he was admitted to Collège Quốc học on 8 August 1908, which was several months after the anti-corvée demonstration (9–13 April 1908).[4] The exaggeration of revolutionary credentials was common among Vietnamese Communist leaders, as shown in North Vietnamese President Tôn Đức Thắng's falsified participation in the 1919 Black Sea revolt.
Later in life, he claimed the 1908 revolt had been the moment when his revolutionary outlook emerged,[citation needed] but his application to the French Colonial Administrative School in 1911 undermines this version of events. He left school in order to go abroad. Because his father had been dismissed, he no longer had any hope for a governmental scholarship and went southward, taking a position at Dục Thanh school in Phan Thiết for about six months, then traveled to Saigon.[citation needed]
He worked as a kitchen helper on a French steamer, the Amiral de Latouche-Tréville while using the alias Văn Ba. The steamer departed on 5 June 1911 and arrived in Marseille, France on 5 July 1911. The ship then left for Le Havre and Dunkirk, returning to Marseille in mid-September. There, he applied for the French Colonial Administrative School, but his application was rejected and he instead decided to begin traveling the world by working on ships and visited many countries from 1911 to 1917.[citation needed]
In the United States[edit]
While working as the cook's helper on a ship in 1912, Thành (Ho) traveled to the United States. From 1912 to 1913, he may have lived in New York City (Harlem) and Boston, where he claimed to have worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. The only evidence that he was in the United States is a letter to French colonial administrators dated 15 December 1912 and postmarked New York City (he gave as his address Poste Restante in Le Havre and stated that he was a sailor)[16]:20 and a postcard to Phan Chu Trinh in Paris where he mentioned working at the Parker House Hotel. Inquiries to the Parker House management revealed no records of his ever having worked there.[6]:51 Among a series of menial jobs, he claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917 and 1918 and for General Motors as a line manager.[17]:46 It is believed that while in the United States he made contact with Korean nationalists, an experience that developed his political outlook. Sophie Quinn-Judge states that this is "in the realm of conjecture".[16]:20 He was also influenced by Pan-Africanist and Black nationalist Marcus Garvey during his stay and said he attended meetings of the Universal Negro Improvement Association.[18][19]
In the United Kingdom[edit]
At various points between 1913 and 1919, Thành (Ho) claimed to have lived in West Ealing and later in Crouch End, Hornsey. He reportedly worked as either a chef or dish washer (reports vary) at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing.[20] Claims that he trained as a pastry chef under Auguste Escoffier at the Carlton Hotel in the Haymarket, Westminster are not supported by evidence.[16]:25[21] However, the wall of New Zealand House, home of the New Zealand High Commission, which now stands on the site of the Carlton Hotel, displays a blue plaque, stating that Hồ Chí Minh worked there in 1913. Thành was also employed as a pastry chef on the Newhaven–Dieppe ferry route in 1913.[22]
Political education in France[edit]
Hồ Chí Minh, 1921
From 1919 to 1923, Thành (Ho) began to show an interest in politics while living in France, being influenced by his friend and Socialist Party of France comrade Marcel Cachin. Thành claimed to have arrived in Paris from London in 1917, but the French police only had documents recording his arrival in June 1919.[16] He joined a group of Vietnamese nationalists in Paris whose leaders were Phan Chu Trinh, Phan Văn Trường, and Nguyễn Thế Truyền. They had been publishing newspaper articles advocating for Vietnamese independence under the pseudonym Nguyễn Ái Quốc ("Nguyễn the Patriot") prior to Thành's arrival in Paris.[23] The group petitioned for recognition of the civil rights of the Vietnamese people in French Indochina to the Western powers at the Versailles peace talks, but they were ignored.[24] Citing the principle of self-determination outlined prior to the peace accords, they requested the allied powers to end French colonial rule of Vietnam and ensure the formation of an independent government.
Prior to the conference, the group sent their letter to allied leaders, including Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and President Woodrow Wilson. They were unable to obtain consideration at Versailles, but the episode would later help establish the future Hồ Chí Minh as the symbolic leader of the anti-colonial movement at home in Vietnam.[25] Since Thành was the public face behind the publication of the document (although it was written by Phan Văn Trường),[26] he soon became known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc and first used the name in September during an interview with a Chinese newspaper correspondent.[6]
Many authors have speculated that 1919 was a lost "Wilsonian moment" when the future Hồ Chí Minh could have adopted a pro-American and less radical position if only President Wilson had received him. However, the available evidence shows that at the time of the Versailles Conference he was committed to a socialist program. While the conference was ongoing, Nguyễn Ái Quốc was already delivering speeches on the prospects of Bolshevism in Asia and was attempting to persuade French Socialists to join Lenin's Communist International.[27]
In December 1920, Quốc (Ho) became a representative to the Congress of Tours of the Socialist Party of France, voted for the Third International and was a founding member of the French Communist Party. Taking a position in the Colonial Committee of the party, he tried to draw his comrades' attention towards people in French colonies including Indochina, but his efforts were often unsuccessful. While living in Paris, he reportedly had a relationship with a dressmaker named Marie Brière. As discovered in 2018, Quốc also had relations with the members of Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea like Kim Kyu-sik while in Paris.[28]
During this period, he began to write journal articles and short stories as well as running his Vietnamese nationalist group. In May 1922, he wrote an article for a French magazine criticizing the use of English words by French sportswriters.[1]:21 The article implored Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré to outlaw such Franglais as le manager, le round and le knock-out. His articles and speeches caught the attention of Dmitry Manuilsky, who would soon sponsor his trip to the Soviet Union and under whose tutelage he would become a high-ranking member of the Soviet Comintern.[29]:23–24
In the Soviet Union and China[edit]
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External video
Booknotes interview with William Duiker on Hồ Chí Minh: A Life, 12 November 2000, C-SPAN
A plaque in Compoint Lane, District 17, Paris indicates where Hồ Chí Minh lived from 1921 to 1923
In 1923, Quốc (Ho) left Paris for Moscow carrying a passport with the name Chen Vang, a Chinese merchant,[6]:86 where he was employed by the Comintern, studied at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East[6]:92[30] and participated in the Fifth Comintern Congress in June 1924 before arriving in Canton (present-day Guangzhou), China in November 1924 using the name Ly Thuy.
In 1925–1926, he organized "Youth Education Classes" and occasionally gave socialist lectures to Vietnamese revolutionary young people living in Canton at the Whampoa Military Academy. These young people would become the seeds of a new revolutionary, pro-communist movement in Vietnam several years later. According to William Duiker, he lived with a Chinese woman, Zeng Xueming (Tăng Tuyết Minh), whom he married on 18 October 1926.[1] When his comrades objected to the match, he told them: "I will get married despite your disapproval because I need a woman to teach me the language and keep house".[1] She was 21 and he was 36. They married in the same place where Zhou Enlai had married earlier and then lived in the residence of a Comintern agent, Mikhail Borodin.[1]
Hoàng Văn Chí argued that in June 1925 he betrayed Phan Bội Châu, the famous leader of a rival revolutionary faction and his father's old friend, to French Secret Service agents in Shanghai for 100,000 piastres.[31] A source states that he later claimed he did it because he expected Châu's trial to stir up anti-French sentiment and because he needed the money to establish a communist organization.[31] In Ho Chi Minh: A Life, William Duiker considered this hypothesis, but ultimately rejected it.[6]:126–128 Other sources claim that Nguyễn Thượng Huyện was responsible for Chau's capture. Chau, sentenced to lifetime house arrest, never denounced Quốc.
After Chiang Kai-shek's 1927 anti-Communist coup, Quốc (Ho) left Canton again in April 1927 and returned to Moscow, spending part of the summer of 1927 recuperating from tuberculosis in Crimea before returning to Paris once more in November. He then returned to Asia by way of Brussels, Berlin, Switzerland and Italy, where he sailed to Bangkok, Thailand, arriving in July 1928. "Although we have been separated for almost a year, our feelings for each other do not have to be said in order to be felt", he reassured Minh in an intercepted letter.[1] In this period, he served as a senior agent undertaking Comintern activities in Southeast Asia.
House on Memorium for Hồ Chí Minh in Ban Nachok, Nakhon Phanom, Thailand
Quốc (Ho) remained in Thailand, staying in the Thai village of Nachok[1]:44 and xiii until late 1929, when he moved on to India and then Shanghai. In Hong Kong in early 1930, he chaired a meeting with representatives from two Vietnamese Communist parties in order to merge them into a unified organization, the Communist Party of Vietnam. In June 1931, he was arrested in Hong Kong. To reduce French pressure for extradition, he was reported as dead in 1932.[1]: 57–58 The British quietly released him in January 1933. He moved to the Soviet Union and in Moscow studied and taught at the Lenin Institute.[32] In this period he reportedly lost his positions in the Comintern because of a concern that he had betrayed the organization. However, according to Ton That Thien's research, he was a member of the inner cricle of the Comintern, a protégé of Dmitry Manuilsky and a member in good standing of the Comintern throughout the Great Purge.[29][33]
In 1938, Quốc (Ho) returned to China and served as an advisor to the Chinese Communist armed forces.[16] He was also the senior Comintern agent in charge of Asian affairs.[29]:39 Around 1940, he began regularly using the name Hồ Chí Minh,[16] a Vietnamese name combining a common Vietnamese surname (Hồ, 胡) with a given name meaning "He Who has been enlightened" (from Sino-Vietnamese 志 明: Chí meaning "will" or "spirit" and Minh meaning "bright").[6]:248–49
Independence movement[edit]
In 1941, Hồ Chí Minh returned to Vietnam to lead the Việt Minh independence movement. The Japanese occupation of Indochina that year, the first step toward invasion of the rest of Southeast Asia, created an opportunity for patriotic Vietnamese.[14] The so-called "men in black" were a 10,000 member guerrilla force that operated with the Việt Minh.[34] He oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy France and Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II, supported closely yet clandestinely by the United States Office of Strategic Services and later against the French bid to reoccupy the country (1946–1954). He was jailed in China by Chiang Kai-shek's local authorities before being rescued by Chinese Communists.[1]:198 Following his release in 1943, he returned to Vietnam.
Hồ Chí Minh (third from left, standing) with the OSS in 1945
In April 1945, he met with the OSS agent Archimedes Patti and offered to provide intelligence to the allies provided that he could have "a line of communication with the allie".[35] The OSS agreed to this and later sent a military team of OSS members to train his men and Hồ Chí Minh himself was treated for malaria and dysentery by an OSS doctor.[36]
Following the August Revolution (1945) organized by the Việt Minh, Hồ Chí Minh became Chairman of the Provisional Government (Premier of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and issued a Proclamation of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.[37] Although he convinced Emperor Bảo Đại to abdicate, his government was not recognized by any country. He repeatedly petitioned President Harry S. Truman for support for Vietnamese independence,[38] citing the Atlantic Charter, but Truman never responded.[39]
Several sources relate how[40] during a power struggle in 1945 the Việt Minh killed members of rival groups, such as the leader of the Constitutional Party, Bui Quang Chieu, the head of the Party for Independence as well as Ngo Dinh Diem's brother, Ngo Dinh Khoi.[41] When asked by a reporter about the murder of Tạ Thu Thâu, a leading Trotskyist and personal friend, he answered matter-of-factly: "Anyone who does not follow the line determined by me will be smashed".[42][43]
In 1946, future Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Hồ Chí Minh became acquainted when they stayed at the same hotel in Paris.[44][45] He offered Ben-Gurion a Jewish home-in-exile in Vietnam.[44][45] Ben-Gurion declined, telling him: "I am certain we shall be able to establish a Jewish Government in Palestine".[44][45]
In 1946, when he traveled outside of the country, his subordinates imprisoned 2,500 non-Communist nationalists and forced 6,000 others to flee.[46] Hundreds of political opponents were jailed or exiled in July 1946, notably members of the Nationalist Party of Vietnam and the Dai Viet National Party after a failed attempt to raise a coup against the Vietminh government.[47] All rival political parties were hereafter banned and local governments were purged[48] to minimize opposition later on. However, it was noted that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam's first Congress had over two-thirds of its members come from non-Việt Minh political factions, some without an election. Nationalist Party of Vietnam leader Nguyễn Hải Thần was named Vice President.[49] They also held four out of ten ministerial positions.[50]
Birth of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam[edit]
Following Emperor Bảo Đại's abdication, on 2 September 1945, Hồ Chí Minh read the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam[51] under the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In Saigon, with violence between rival Vietnamese factions and French forces increasing, the British commander, General Sir Douglas Gracey, declared martial law. On 24 September, the Việt Minh leaders responded with a call for a general strike.[52]
In September 1945, a force of 200,000 Republic of China Army troops arrived in Hanoi to accept the surrender of the Japanese occupiers in northern Indochina. Hồ Chí Minh made a compromise with their general, Lu Han, to dissolve the Communist Party and to hold an election which would yield a coalition government. When Chiang forced the French to give the French concessions in Shanghai back to China in exchange for withdrawing from northern Indochina, he had no choice but to sign an agreement with France on 6 March 1946 in which Vietnam would be recognized as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union. The agreement soon broke down. The purpose of the agreement, for both the French and Vietminh, was for Chiang's army to leave North Vietnam. Fighting broke out in the North soon after the Chinese left.
Historian Professor Liam Kelley of the University of Hawaii at Manoa on his Le Minh Khai's SEAsian History Blog challenged the authenticity of the alleged quote where Hồ Chí Minh said he would rather sniff French shit than eat Chinese shit, noting that Stanley Karnow provided no source for the extended quote attributed to him in his 1983 Vietnam: A History and that the original quote was most likely forged by the Frenchman Paul Mus in his 1952 book Viêt-Nam: Sociologie d'une Guerre. Mus was a supporter of French colonialism in Vietnam and Hồ Chí Minh knew that there was no danger of Chinese troops staying in Vietnam and the Vietnamese at the time were busy spreading anti-French propaganda as evidence of French atrocities in Vietnam emerged while Hồ Chí Minh showed no qualms about accepting Chinese aid after 1949.[53][54]
Hồ Chí Minh (right) with Võ Nguyên Giáp (left) in Hanoi, 1945
The Việt Minh then collaborated with French colonial forces to massacre supporters of the Vietnamese nationalist movements in 1945–1946.[55] The Communists eventually suppressed all non-Communist parties, but they failed to secure a peace deal with France. In the final days of 1946, after a year of diplomatic failure and many concessions in agreements, such as the Dalat and Fontainebleau conferences, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam government found that war was inevitable. The bombardment of Haiphong by French forces at Hanoi only strengthened the belief that France had no intention of allowing an autonomous, independent state in Vietnam. The bombardment of Haiphong have killed more than 6000 Vietnamese Civilian. French forces marched into Hanoi which is Capital city of Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Battle from Hanoi had begun. On 19 December 1946 after haiphong incident, representing his government, he declared war against the French Union, marking the beginning of the Indochina War.[56] The Vietnam National Army, by then mostly armed with machetes and muskets immediately attacked, waging assault against French positions, smoking them out with straw bundled with chili pepper, destroying armored vehicles with "lunge mines" (a hollow-charge warhead on the end of a pole, detonated by thrusting the charge against the side of a tank; typically a suicide weapon)[57] and Molotov cocktails, holding off attackers by using roadblocks, landmines and gravel. After two months of fighting, the exhausted Việt Minh forces withdrew after systematically destroying any valuable infrastructure. Ho was reported to be captured by a group of French soldiers led by Jean-Étienne Valluy at Việt Bắc in Operation Lea. The person in question turned out to be a Việt Minh advisor who was later killed trying to escape. According to journalist Bernard Fall, he decided to negotiate a truce after fighting the French for several years. The French negotiators arrived at the meeting site: a mud hut with a thatched roof. Inside they found a long table with chairs and were surprised to discover in one corner of the room a silver ice bucket containing ice and a bottle of good Champagne which should have indicated that Ho expected the negotiations to succeed. One demand by the French was the return to French custody of a number of Japanese military officers (who had been helping the Vietnamese armed forces by training them in the use of weapons of Japanese origin) in order for them to stand trial for war crimes committed during World War II. Hồ Chí Minh replied that the Japanese officers were allies and friends whom he could not betray, therefore he walked out to seven more years of war.[58]
In February 1950, after the successful removal of the French border's blockade,[59] he met with Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong in Moscow after the Soviet Union recognized his government. They all agreed that China would be responsible for backing the Việt Minh.[60] Mao Zedong's emissary to Moscow stated in August that China planned to train 60,000–70,000 Viet Minh in the near future.[61] The road to the outside world was open for Việt Minh forces to receive additional supplies which would allow them to escalate the fight against the French regime throughout Indochina. At the outset of the conflict, he reportedly told a French visitor: "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours. But even at those odds, you will lose and I will win".[62] In 1954, after the crushing defeat of French Union forces at Battle of Dien Bien Phu, France was forced to give up its fight against the Việt Minh. 2300 french soldiers died during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu more than 10000 french soldiers have surrendered to Vieth Minh. French have lost 70000 soldiers from 8 years of First Indochina War. Arthur Dommen estimates that the Việt Minh assassinated between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians during the war.[63] However According to the Smedberg whole Civilian casualties during 8 years of First Indochina War there are less than 150000.[64] By comparison to Dommen's calculation, Benjamin Valentino estimates that the French were responsible for 60,000–250,000 civilian deaths.[65]
Becoming president and Vietnam War[edit]
Effigies of "Charles DeGaulle and Hồ Chí Minh are hanged" by Students demonstration in Saigon, July 1964, observing the tenth anniversary of the July 1954 Geneva Agreements
The 1954 Geneva Accords concluded between France and the Việt Minh, allowing the latter's forces to regroup in the North whilst anti-Communist groups settled in the South. His Democratic Republic of Vietnam relocated to Hanoi and became the government of North Vietnam, a Communist-led one-party state. Following the Geneva Accords, there was to be a 300-day period in which people could freely move between the two regions of Vietnam, later known as South Vietnam and North Vietnam. During the 300 days, Diệm and CIA adviser Colonel Edward Lansdale staged a campaign to convince people to move to South Vietnam. The campaign was particularly focused on Vietnam's Catholics, who were to provide Diệm's power base in his later years, with the use of the slogan "God has gone south". Between 800,000 and 1,000,000 people migrated to the South, mostly Catholics. At the start of 1955, French Indochina was dissolved, leaving Diệm in temporary control of the South.[66][67]
All the parties at Geneva called for reunification elections, but they could not agree on the details. Recently appointed Việt Minh acting foreign minister Pham Van Dong proposed elections under the supervision of "local commissions". The United States, with the support of Britain and the Associated States of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, suggested United Nations supervision. This plan was rejected by Soviet representative Vyacheslav Molotov, who argued for a commission composed of an equal number of communist and non-communist members, which could determine "important" issues only by unanimous agreement.[68]:89, 91, 97 The negotiators were unable to agree on a date for the elections for reunification. North Vietnam argued that the elections should be held within six months of the ceasefire while the Western allies sought to have no deadline. Molotov proposed June 1955, then later softened this to any time in 1955 and finally July 1956.[69]:610 The Diem government supported reunification elections, but only with effective international supervision, arguing that genuinely free elections were otherwise impossible in the totalitarian North.[68]:107 By the afternoon of 20 July, the remaining outstanding issues were resolved as the parties agreed that the partition line should be at the 17th parallel and the elections for a reunified government should be held in July 1956, two years after the ceasefire.[69]:604 The Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities in Vietnam was only signed by the French and Việt Minh military commands, with no participation or consultation of the State of Vietnam.[68]:97 Based on a proposal by Chinese delegation head Zhou Enlai, an International Control Commission (ICC) chaired by India, with Canada and Poland as members, was placed in charge of supervising the ceasefire.[69]:603[68]:90,97 Because issues were to be decided unanimously, Poland's presence in the ICC provided the Communists with effective veto power over supervision of the treaty.[68]:97–98 The unsigned Final Declaration of the Geneva Conference called for reunification elections, which the majority of delegates expected to be supervised by the ICC. The Việt Minh never accepted ICC authority over such elections, insisting that the ICC's "competence was to be limited to the supervision and control of the implementation of the Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities by both parties".[68]:99 Of the nine nations represented, only the United States and the State of Vietnam refused to accept the declaration. Undersecretary of state Walter Bedell Smith delivered a "unilateral declaration" of the United States position, reiterating: "We shall seek to achieve unity through free elections supervised by the United Nations to ensure that they are conducted fairly".[68]:95,99–100
Hồ Chí Minh with East German sailors in Stralsund harbor during his 1957 visit to East Germany
Hồ Chí Minh with members of the East German Young Pioneers near Berlin, 1957
Between 1953 and 1956, the North Vietnamese government instituted various agrarian reforms, including "rent reduction" and "land reform"[citation needed], which resulted in significant political oppression. During the land reform, testimonies by North Vietnamese witnesses suggested a ratio of one execution for every 160 village residents, which if extrapolated would indicate a nationwide total of nearly 100,000 executions. Because the campaign was mainly concentrated in the Red River Delta area, a lower estimate of 50,000 executions was widely accepted by scholars at the time.[68]:143[70][71][72] However, declassified documents from the Vietnamese and Hungarian archives indicate that the number of executions was much lower than reported at the time, although it was likely greater than 13,500.[73][74][75]
As early as June 1956 the idea of overthrowing the South Vietnamese government was presented at a politburo meeting. In 1959, Hồ Chí Minh began urging the Politburo to send aid to the Việt Cộng in South Vietnam and a "people's war" on the South was approved at a session in January 1959 and this decision was confirmed by the Politburo in March.[76][77] North Vietnam invaded Laos in July 1959 aided by the Pathet Lao and used 30,000 men to build a network of supply and reinforcement routes running through Laos and Cambodia that became known as the Hồ Chí Minh trail.[78] It allowed the North to send manpower and materiel to the Việt Cộng with much less exposure to South Vietnamese forces, achieving a considerable advantage.[79] To counter the accusation that North Vietnam was violating the Geneva Accord, the independence of the Việt Cộng was stressed in Communist propaganda. North Vietnam created the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam in December 1960 as a "united front", or political branch of the Viet Cong intended to encourage the participation of non-Communists.[76][77]
At the end of 1959, conscious that the national election would never be held and that Diem intended to purge opposing forces (mostly ex Việt Minh) from the South Vietnamese government, Hồ Chí Minh informally chose Lê Duẩn to become the next party leader. This was interpreted by Western analysts as a loss of influence for Hồ, who was said to actually have preferred the more moderate Võ Nguyên Giáp for the position.[80] Lê Duẩn was officially named party leader in 1960, leaving Hồ to function in a secondary role as head of state and member of the Politburo. He nevertheless maintained considerable influence in the government. Lê Duẩn, Tố Hữu, Trường Chinh and Phạm Văn Đồng often shared dinner with Hồ, and all of them remained key figures throughout and after the war. In 1963, Hồ purportedly corresponded with South Vietnamese President Diem in hopes of achieving a negotiated peace.[1]:174
Hồ Chí Minh meeting a North Vietnamese circus troupe after their performance at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi, 1967
Between 1961 and 1963, 40,000 Communist soldiers infiltrated into South Vietnam from the North.[76] In late 1964, People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) combat troops were sent southwest into officially neutral Laos and Cambodia.[81] According to Chen Jian, during the mid-to-late 1960s, Lê Duẩn permitted 320,000 Chinese volunteers into North Vietnam to help build infrastructure for the country, thereby freeing a similar number of PAVN personnel to go south.[82] There are no sources from Vietnam, the United States, or the Soviet Union that confirm the number of Chinese troops stationed in North Vietnam. However, the Chinese government later admitted to sending 320,000 Chinese soldiers to Vietnam during the 1960s and spent over $20 billion to support Hanoi's regular North Vietnamese Army and Việt Cộng guerrilla units.[83]
By early 1965, American combat troops began arriving in South Vietnam, first to protect the airbases around Chu Lai and Da Nang, later to take on most of the fight as "[m]ore and more American troops were put in to replace Saigon troops who could not, or would not, get involved in the fighting".[84]
As fighting escalated, widespread aerial and artillery bombardment all over North Vietnam by the United States Air Force and Navy began with Operation Rolling Thunder. In July 1967, Hồ Chí Minh and most of the Politburo of the Communist Party met in a high-profile conference where they concluded the war had fallen into a stalemate. The American military presence forced the PAVN to expend the majority of their resources on maintaining the Hồ Chí Minh trail rather than reinforcing their comrade's ranks in the South. With his permission, the Việt Cộng planned a massive Tet Offensive that would commence on 31 January 1968, with the aim of taking much of the South by force and administering a heavy blow to the American military. The offensive was executed at great cost and with heavy casualties on Việt Cộng's political branches and armed forces. The scope of the action shocked the world, which until then had been assured that the Communists were "on the ropes". The optimistic spin that the American military command had sustained for years was no longer credible. The bombing of Northern Vietnam and the Hồ Chí Minh trail was halted, and American and Vietnamese negotiators held discussions on how the war might be ended. From then on, Hồ Chí Minh and his government's strategy, based on the idea of avoiding conventional warfare and facing the might of the United States Army, which would wear them down eventually while merely prolonging the conflict, would lead to eventual acceptance of Hanoi's terms materialized.
Hồ Chí Minh holding his god-daughter, baby Elizabeth (Babette) Aubrac, with Elizabeth's mother, Lucie, 1946
In addition to being a politician, Hồ Chí Minh was also a writer, journalist, poet and polyglot. His father was a scholar and teacher who received a high degree in the Nguyễn dynasty Imperial examination. Hồ was taught to master Classical Chinese at a young age. Before the August Revolution, he often wrote poetry in Chữ Hán (the Vietnamese name for the Chinese writing system). One of those is Poems from the Prison Diary, written when he was imprisoned by the police of the Republic of China. This poetry chronicle is Vietnam National Treasure No. 10 and was translated into many languages. It is used in Vietnamese high schools.[85] After Vietnam gained independence from France, the new government exclusively promoted Chữ Quốc Ngữ (Vietnamese writing system in Latin characters) to eliminate illiteracy. Hồ started to create more poems in the modern Vietnamese language for dissemination to a wider range of readers. From when he became President until the appearance of serious health problems, a short poem of his was regularly published in the newspaper Nhân Dân Tết (Lunar new year) edition to encourage his people in working, studying or fighting Americans in the new year.
Hồ Chí Minh meets school children, 1960
Hồ Chí Minh watching a football game in his favorite fashion, with his closest comrade Prime Minister Phạm Văn Đồng sitting next to him in the right corner
Because he was in exile for nearly 30 years, Hồ could speak fluently as well as read and write professionally in French, English, Russian, Cantonese and Mandarin as well as his mother tongue Vietnamese.[6] In addition, he was reported to speak conversational Esperanto.[86] In the 1920s, he was bureau chief/editor of many newspapers which he established to criticize French Colonial Government of Indochina and serving communism propaganda purposes. Examples are Le Paria (The Pariah) first published in Paris 1922 or Thanh Nien (Youth) first published on 21 June 1925 (21 June was named by The Socialist Republic of Vietnam Government as Vietnam Revolutionary Journalism Day). In many state official visits to Soviet Union and China, he often talked directly to their communist leaders without interpreters especially about top secret information. While being interviewed by Western journalists, he used French.[citation needed] His Vietnamese had a strong accent from his birthplace in the central province of Nghệ An, but could be widely understood through the country.[note 1]
As President, he held formal receptions for foreign heads of state and ambassadors at the Presidential Palace, but he personally did not live there. He ordered the building of a stilt house at the back of the palace, which is today known as the Presidential Palace Historical Site. His hobbies (according to his secretary Vũ Kỳ) included reading, gardening, feeding fish (many of which are still[when?] living) and visiting schools and children's homes.[citation needed]
Hồ Chí Minh remained in Hanoi during his final years, demanding the unconditional withdrawal of all non-Vietnamese troops in South Vietnam. By 1969, with negotiations still dragging on, his health began to deteriorate from multiple health problems, including diabetes which prevented him from participating in further active politics. However, he insisted that his forces in the South continue fighting until all of Vietnam was reunited regardless of the length of time that it might take, believing that time was on his side.[citation needed]
Stilt house of "Uncle Ho" in Hanoi
With the outcome of the Vietnam War still in question, Hồ Chí Minh died of heart failure at his home in Hanoi at 9:47 on the morning of 2 September 1969; he was 79 years old[88]. His embalmed body is currently on display in a mausoleum in Ba Đình Square in Hanoi despite his will which stated that he wanted to be cremated.[6]:565
The true date of his death was falsely reported by the North Vietnamese government as being 3 September 1969 and it officially remained so for over 20 years because he died on the 24th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.[citation needed] A week of mourning for his death was decreed nationwide in North Vietnam from 4 to 11 September 1969.[89] He was not initially replaced as President; instead a "collective leadership" composed of several ministers and military leaders took over, known as the Politburo. During North Vietnam's final campaign, a famous song written by composer Huy Thuc [vi] was often sung by PAVN soldiers: "Bác vẫn cùng chúng cháu hành quân" ("You are still marching with us, Uncle Ho").[citation needed]
Six years after his death, several PAVN tanks displayed a poster with those same words on it during the Fall of Saigon. On 1 May 1975, veteran Australian journalist Denis Warner wrote in The Sun News-Pictorial: "When the North Vietnamese marched into Saigon yesterday, they were led by a man who wasn't there".[90]
See also: Nông Thị Xuân, Nông Đức Mạnh, Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, and Zeng Xueming
Hồ Chí Minh Mausoleum, Hanoi
Hồ Chí Minh statue outside Hồ Chí Minh City Hall, Hồ Chí Minh City
Hồ Chí Minh statue and the Vietnamese flag
Shrine devoted to Hồ Chí Minh
Temple devoted to Nguyễn Sinh Sắc, Hồ Chí Minh's father
The former capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, was officially renamed Hồ Chí Minh City on 2 July 1976[91] by the new Communist Party of Vietnam-controlled National Assembly of Vietnam. However, the name provokes strong anti-Communist feelings in a substantial number of Vietnamese. Some native Vietnamese sometimes refer to the city as Sài Gòn out of custom and convenience, however most Vietnamese living abroad reject the new Communist-imposed name, choosing to honor the former capital of the anti-Communist Republic of Vietnam.[92]
His embalmed body is on display in Hanoi in a granite mausoleum modeled after Lenin's Tomb in Moscow. Streams of people queue each day, sometimes for hours, to pass his body in silence. This is reminiscent of the respect paid to other Communist leaders like Mao Zedong, Kim il-sung and Kim Jong-il. The Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi is dedicated to his life and work.[citation needed]
In Vietnam today, Hồ Chí Minh's image appears on the front of all Vietnamese currency notes. His portrait and bust are featured prominently in most of Vietnam's public buildings, in classrooms (both public and private schools) and in some families' altars. There is at least one temple dedicated to him, built in Vĩnh Long shortly after his death, in 1970, in Việt Cộng-controlled areas.[93] His birthday (19 May) is celebrated as an unofficial holiday.[94][failed verification]
Publications about Hồ Chí Minh's non-celibate life are banned in Vietnam because the party maintains the fiction that he had no romantic relationship with anyone during his lifetime in order to promote a puritanical image of him to the Vietnamese public and advance the image of him as "the father of the [Communist] revolution"[95] and a "celibate married only to the cause of revolution".[96] William Duiker's Ho Chi Minh: A Life (2000) presents much information on Ho's relationships.[6]:605, fn 58 The government requested that substantial cuts be made in the official Vietnamese translation of Duiker's book, but its request was refused.[97] In 2002, the Vietnamese government suppressed a review of Duiker's book in the Far Eastern Economic Review.[97]
International influence[edit]
Hồ Chí Minh bust in Kolkata, India
Hồ Chí Minh is considered one of the most influential leaders in the world. Time magazine listed him in the list of 100 Most Important People of the Twentieth Century (Time 100) in 1998.[98][99] His thought and revolution inspired many leaders and people on a global scale in Asia, Africa and Latin America during the decolonization movement which occurred after World War II. As a communist, he was one of the international figures who were highly praised in the Communist world.[100]
Various places, boulevards and squares are named after him around the world, especially in Socialist states and former Communist states. In Russia, there is a Hồ Chí Minh square and monument in Moscow, Hồ Chí Minh boulevard in Saint Petersburg and Hồ Chí Minh square in Ulyanovsk (the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, a sister city of Vinh, the birthplace of Hồ Chí Minh). According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as many as 20 countries across Asia, Europe, America and Africa have erected statues in remembrance of President Hồ Chí Minh.[101]
Busts, statues and memorial plaques and exhibitions are displayed in destinations on his extensive world journey in exile from 1911 to 1941 including France, Great Britain, Russia, China and Thailand.[102]
Many activists and musicians wrote songs about Hồ Chí Minh and his revolution in different languages during the Vietnam War in order to demonstrate against the United States. Spanish songs were composed by Félix Pita Rodríguez, Carlos Puebla and Alí Primera. In addition, the Chilean folk singer Víctor Jara referenced Hồ Chí Minh in his anti-war song "El derecho de vivir en paz" ("The Right to Live in Peace"). In English, Ewan MacColl wrote "The Ballad of Hồ Chí Minh" and Pete Seeger wrote "Teacher Uncle Ho". Russian songs about him were written by Vladimir Fere and German songs about him were written by Kurt Demmler.
In 1987, UNESCO officially recommended that its member states "join in the commemoration of the centenary of the birth of President Hồ Chí Minh by organizing various events as a tribute to his memory", considering "the important and many-sided contributions of President Hồ Chí Minh to the fields of culture, education and the arts" who "devoted his whole life to the national liberation of the Vietnamese people, contributing to the common struggle of peoples for peace, national independence, democracy and social progress".[103]
^ He sometimes went on-air to deliver important political messages and encourage soldiers.[87]
^ a b c d e f g h i j Brocheux, Pierre (12 March 2007). Ho Chi Minh: A Biography. Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 978-0-521-85062-9.
^ "Ho Chi Minh". Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
^ a b Trần Quốc Vượng. "Lời truyền miệng dân gian về Hồ Chí Minh". BBC Vietnamese. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
^ a b c His birth name appeared in a letter from the director of Collège Quốc học, dated 7 August 1908. Vũ Ngự Chiêu. "Vài vấn nạn lịch sử thế kỷ XX: Hồ Chí Minh—Nhà ngoại giao, 1945–1946". Hợp Lưu Magazine. Note: See the document in French, from Centre des archives d'Outre-mer [CAOM] (Aix)/Gouvernement General de l'Indochine [GGI]/Fonds Residence Superieure d'Annam [RSA]/carton R1, and the note in English at the end of the cited article. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
^ a b Nguyễn Vĩnh Châu. "Phỏng vấn sử gia Vũ Ngự Chiêu về những nghiên cứu lịch sử liên quan đến Hồ Chí Minh". Hợp Lưu Magazine. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh: A Life. New York: Hyperion, 2000.
^ Duncanson, Dennis J. "Ho Chi Minh in Hong Kong 1931–1932". 57 (Jan–Mar 1957). The China Quarterly: 85.
^ Pike, Douglas (3 August 1976). "Ho Chi Minh: A Post-War Re-evaluation". Mexico City: 30th Annual Congress of Orientalists. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
^ Tran Dan Tien, Nhung mau chuyen ve doi hoat dong cua Ho Chu Tich (Hanoi:Nha Xuat Ban Van Hoc 1972) (1948).
^ Yen Son. "Nguyen Ai Quoc, the Brilliant Champion of the Revolution." Thuong Tin Hanoi. 30 August 1945.
^ In his application to the French Colonial School – "Nguyen Tat Thanh, born 1892 at Vinh, son of Mr. Nguyen Sinh Huy (subdoctor in literature)"
^ He told Paris Police (Surete) he was born 15 January 1894.
^ Ton That Thien 18, 1890 is the most likely year of his birth. There is troubling conflicting evidence, however. When he was arrested in Hong Kong in 1931, he attested in court documents that he was 36. The passport he used to enter Russia in 1921 also gave the year 1895 as his birth date. His application to the Colonial School in Paris gave his birth year as 1892
^ a b Hunt, Michael H. (2016). The World Transformed 1945 To the Present. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-19-937102-0.
^ "Ngo Dinh Diem and ho Chi Minh". nguoiviet.com.
^ a b c d e f "Quinn-Judge", "Sophie" (2002). Hồ Chí Minh: The Missing Years. University of California Press.
^ Winter, Marcus (1989). Uncle Ho: Father Of A Nation. Limehouse Press, London.
^ Debolt, Abbe A; Baugess, James S (12 December 2011). Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture [2 volumes]: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture. ISBN 9781440801020.
^ Duiker, William J (13 November 2012). Ho Chi Minh: A Life. ISBN 9781401305611.
^ "The Drayton Court Hotel". Ealing.gov.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
^ Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2012). Vietnam Past and Present: The North. Chiang Mai, Thailand: Cognoscenti Books.
^ Harries, David. "Maritime Sussex". Sussex Express. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
^ Phong, Huy; Anh, Yen (1989). "Unmasking Ho Chi Minh". "Viet Quoc". Archived from the original on 10 May 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
^ For a thumbnail of a photograph in the Library of Congress collection showing QuThành (Ho) at the Versailles Conference, see "Ho Chi Minh, 1890–1969, half-length, standing, facing left; as a member of French Socialist Party at Versailles Peace Conference, 1919", Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
^ Huynh, Kim Kháhn, Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1982; pg. 60.
^ Tran Dan, Tien. "Ho Chi Minh, Life and Work". Communist Party of Vietnam Online Newspaper. Gioi Publishers. Archived from the original on 17 June 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
^ Brett Reilly review of "Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam" by Fredrik Logevall, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 11.1 (2016), 147.r
^ 감시 佛 경찰문건 대거발굴…한국 임시정부 활약상 생생
^ a b c Ton That Thien (1990). Ho Chi Minh and the Comintern (PDF). Singapore: Information and Resource Center. ISBN 978-9810021399. Retrieved 20 December 2017. [permanent dead link]
^ Obituary in The New York Times, 4 September 1969
^ a b Davidson, Phillip B., Vietnam at War: The History: 1946–1975 (1991), p. 4.
Hoàng Văn Chí. From Colonialism to Communism (1964), p. 18.
^ "Ho Chi Minh". u-s-history.com.
^ Hong Ha (2010). Bác Hồ Trên Đất Nước Lê-Nin. Nhà Xuất Bản Thanh Niên.
^ "Ho Chi Minh Was Noted for Success in Blending Nationalism and Communism", The New York Times
^ Interview with Archimedes L. A. Patti, 1981, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-bf3262-interview-with-archimedes-l-a-patti-1981
^ Interview with OSS officer Carleton Swift, 1981, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-9dc948-interview-with-carleton-swift
^ Zinn, Howard (1995). A People's History of the United States: 1492–present. New York: Harper Perennial. p. 460. ISBN 978-0-06-092643-4.
^ "Collection of Letters by Ho Chi Minh". Rationalrevolution.net. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
^ Zinn, Howard (1995). A People's History of the United States. New York: Harper Perennial. p. 461. ISBN 978-0-06-092643-4.
^ The Black Book of Communism
^ Joseph Buttinnger, Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, vol 1 (New York: Praeger, 1967)
^ Ngo, Van (2 November 2010). In The Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary. Oakland, CA: AK Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-1849350136.
^ Lind, Michael (18 October 1999). Vietnam: The Necessary War. New York: Free Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0684842547.
^ a b c "Ben-gurion Reveals Suggestion of North Vietnam's Communist Leader". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 8 November 1966. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
^ a b c "ISRAEL WAS EVERYTHING". Nytimes.com. 21 June 1987. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
^ Currey, Cecil B. Victory At Any Cost (Washington: Brassey's, 1997), p. 126
^ Tucker, Spencer. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: a political, social, and military history (vol. 2), 1998
^ Colvin, John. Giap: the Volcano under the Snow (New York: Soho Press, 1996), p. 51
^ Vietnamese Wikipedia profile of Nguyễn Hải Thần
^ vi:Chính phủ Liên hiệp Kháng chiến Việt Nam
^ "Vietnam Declaration of Independence". Coombs.anu.edu.au. 2 September 1945. Archived from the original on 6 October 2009. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
^ Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: a History.
^ https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2012/09/01/ho-chi-minh-said-what/ proof that he runs the blog
^ "Chiang Kai-shek and Vietnam in 1945". 25 April 2013.
^ Turner, Robert F. (1975). Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development. Hoover Institution Press. pp. 57–9, 67–9, 74. and "Myths of the Vietnam War". Southeast Asian Perspectives. September 1972. pp. 14–8. ; also Dommen, Arthur J. (2001). The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans. Indiana University Press. pp. 153–4.
^ vi:Lời kêu gọi toàn quốc kháng chiến
^ "Lone Sentry: New Weapons for Jap Tank Hunters (U.S. WWII Intelligence Bulletin, March 1945)". www.lonesentry.com. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
^ Fall, Bernard. Last reflections on a War, p. 88. New York: Doubleday (1967).
^ vi:Chiến dịch Biên giới
^ Luo, Guibo. pp. 233–36
^ Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "Chronology", p. 45.
^ McMaster, H.R. (1997) "Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, The Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam", pg. 35.
^ Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans, Indiana University Press, pg. 252.
^ Smedberg, M (2008), Vietnamkrigen: 1880–1980. Historiska Media, p. 88
^ Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century. Cornell University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780801472732.
^ Maclear, pp. 65–68.
^ Jacobs, pp. 43–53.
^ a b c d e f g h Turner, Robert F. (1975). Vietnamese Communism: Its Origin and Development. Hoover Institution Press. :75
^ a b c Logevall, Fredrik (2012). Embers of War: The fall of an Empire and the making of America's Vietnam. Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-64519-1.
^ cf. Gittinger, J. Price, "Communist Land Policy in Viet Nam", Far Eastern Survey, Vol. 29, No. 8, 1957, p. 118.
^ Courtois, Stephane (1997). The Black Book of Communism. Harvard University Press. p. 569. ISBN 978-0-674-07608-2.
^ Dommen, Arthur J. (2001), The Indochinese Experience of the French and the Americans, Indiana University Press, p. 340, gives a lower estimate of 32,000 executions.
^ vu tuong (25 May 2007). "Newly released documents on the land reform" (Mailing list). Vietnam Studies Group. Retrieved 30 November 2017. Vu Tuong: There is no reason to expect, and no evidence that I have seen to demonstrate, that the actual executions were less than planned; in fact the executions perhaps exceeded the plan if we consider two following factors. First, this decree was issued in 1953 for the rent and interest reduction campaign that preceded the far more radical land redistribution and party rectification campaigns (or waves) that followed during 1954–1956. Second, the decree was meant to apply to free areas (under the control of the Viet Minh government), not to the areas under French control that would be liberated in 1954–1955 and that would experience a far more violent struggle. Thus the number of 13,500 executed people seems to be a low-end estimate of the real number. This is corroborated by Edwin Moise in his recent paper "Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953–1956" presented at the 18th Annual Conference on SE Asian Studies, Center for SE Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley (February 2001). In this paper, Moise (7–9) modified his earlier estimate in his 1983 book (which was 5,000) and accepted an estimate close to 15,000 executions. Moise made the case based on Hungarian reports provided by Balazs, but the document I cited above offers more direct evidence for his revised estimate. This document also suggests that the total number should be adjusted up some more, taking into consideration the later radical phase of the campaign, the unauthorized killings at the local level, and the suicides following arrest and torture (the central government bore less direct responsibility for these cases, however).
^ Szalontai, Balazs (November 2005). "Political and Economic Crisis in North Vietnam, 1955–56" (PDF). Cold War History. 5 (4): 395–426. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
^ Vu, Tuong (2010). Paths to Development in Asia: South Korea, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9781139489010. Clearly Vietnamese socialism followed a moderate path relative to China. [...] Yet the Vietnamese 'land reform' campaign ... testified that Vietnamese communists could be as radical and murderous as their comrades elsewhere.
^ a b c Ang, Cheng Guan (2002). The Vietnam War from the Other Side. RoutledgeCurzon. pp. 55–58, 76. ISBN 978-0-7007-1615-9.
^ a b "The History Place – Vietnam War 1945–1960". Retrieved 21 December 2017.
^ The Economist, 26 February 1983.
^ Lind, 1999
^ Cheng Guan Ang & Ann Cheng Guan, The Vietnam War from the Other Side, p. 21. (2002)
^ Davidson, Vietnam at War: the history, 1946–1975, 1988
^ Chen Jian. "China's Involvement in the Vietnam Conflict, 1964–69", China Quarterly, No. 142 (June 1995), pp. 366–69.
^ Washington Post: CHINA ADMITS COMBAT IN VIETNAM WAR, archived from the original on 6 November 2017, retrieved 21 April 2018
^ "Vietnam Veterans Against the War: History of the U.S. War in Vietnam". vvaw.org.
^ Translated version:
French – Người tình nguyện vào ngục Bastille dịch "Nhật ký trong tù"
Czech – by cs:Ivo Vasiljev.
Korean – "Prison Diary" published in Korean Archived 16 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine by Ahn Kyong Hwan.
English – by Steve Bradbury, Tinfish Press
Older version – by Aileen Palmer
Spanish – [1] by Félix Pita Rodríguez
Romanian – by ro:Constantin Lupeanu
Russian – by Pavel Antokolsky
^ Brown, Simon Leo (6 June 2014). "Esperanto the language of love". ABC. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
^ Marr, David, Vietnam: State, War, and Revolution (1945–1946), 2013, University of California Press [2]
^ "Ho Dead at 79, Hanoi Confirms— Heart Attack Fells Chief Of North Vietnam", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, September 4, 1969, p1
^ "Ho Chi Minh dies of heart attack". The Globe and Mail. 4 September 1969. p. 1.
^ The Sun News-Pictorial, 1 May 1975, p. 1.
^ "Nghị quyết của Quốc hội nước Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam về việc chính thức đặt tên thành phố Sài Gòn – Gia Định là thành phố Hồ Chí Minh". wikisource.org.
^ Marsh, Viv (6 June 2012). "Uncle Ho's legacy lives on in Vietnam". BBC News. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
^ "Đền Thờ Bác Hồ". SkyDoor.
^ Trawicky, Bernard (30 April 2009). Anniversaries and Holidays. American Library Association. p. 84. ISBN 9780838910047. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
^ Dinh, Thuy. "The Writer's Life Stephen B. Young and Hoa Pham Young: Painting in Lacquer". The Zenith by Duong Thu Huong. Da Mau magazine. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
^ Baker, Mark (15 August 2002). "Uncle Ho: a legend on the battlefield and in the boudoir". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 25 December 2013.
^ a b "Great 'Uncle Ho' may have been a mere mortal". The Age. 15 August 2002. Retrieved 2 August 2009.
^ "TIME Magazine – U.S. Edition – April 13, 1998 Vol. 151 No. 14".
^ Stanley Karnow, 13 April 1998, Ho Chi Minh, TIME
^ Interview with William Duiker on Hồ Chí Minh: A Life, 12 November 2000
^ "Remembering Vietnam's late President Ho Chi Minh in foreign countries – Tuoi Tre News".
^ The places where President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked in Thailand, Vietnam Breaking News, 19 May 2017
^ "UNESCO. General Conference; 24th; Records of the General Conference, 24th session, Paris, 20 October to 20 November 1987, v. 1: Resolutions; 1988" (PDF). Retrieved 26 September 2009.
Bernard B. Fall, ed., 1967. Ho Chi Minh on Revolution and War, Selected Writings 1920–1966. New American Library.
Morris, Virginia and Hills, Clive. 2018. Ho Chi Minh's Blueprint for Revolution: In the Words of Vietnamese Strategists and Operatives, McFarland & Co Inc.
William J. Duiker. 2000. Ho Chi Minh: A Life. Theia.
Jean Lacouture. 1968. Ho Chi Minh: A Political Biography. Random House.
Khắc Huyên. 1971. Vision Accomplished? The Enigma of Ho Chi Minh. The Macmillan Company.
David Halberstam. 1971. Ho. Rowman & Littlefield.
Hồ chí Minh toàn tập. NXB chính trị quốc gia
Sophie Quinn-Judge. 2003. Ho Chi Minh: The missing years. C. Hurst & Co. ISBN 1-85065-658-4
Tôn Thất Thiện, Was Ho Chi Minh a Nationalist? Ho Chi Minh and the Comintern Information and Resource Centre, Singapore, 1990
Việt Minh, NLF and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam[edit]
William J. Duiker. 1981. The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam. Westview Press.
Hoang Van Chi. 1964. From colonialism to communism. Praeger.
Trương Như Tảng. 1986. A Viet Cong Memoir. Vintage.
War in Vietnam[edit]
Frances FitzGerald. 1972. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Little, Brown and Company.
American foreign policy[edit]
Henry A. Kissinger. 1979. White House Years. Little, Brown.
Richard Nixon. 1987. No More Vietnams. Arbor House Pub Co.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Ho Chi Minh
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Hồ Chí Minh (category)
Works by or about Ho Chi Minh at Internet Archive
The Drayton Court Hotel
Hồ Chí Minh obituary, The New York Times, 4 September 1969
TIME 100: Hồ Chí Minh
Ho Chi Minh selected writings
Hồ Chí Minh's biography
Satellite photo of the mausoleum on Google Maps
Final Tribute to Hồ from the Central Committee of the Vietnam Workers' Party[permanent dead link]
Bibliography: Writings by and about Hồ Chí Minh
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Nathan Gunn (center) as Papageno in Mozart's "The Magic Flute".
Nathan T. Gunn (born November 26, 1970, in South Bend, Indiana)[1] is an American operatic baritone who performs regularly around the world.[2] He is an alumnus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he is currently a professor of voice.
He has appeared in many of the world's well-known opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, the Dallas Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Pittsburgh Opera, The Santa Fe Opera, The Royal Opera in London, the Paris Opéra, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Theater an der Wien in Vienna, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Teatro Real in Madrid, and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. He has also appeared at the Glyndebourne Festival near London, the Ravinia Festival near Chicago, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City. In 2011, Gunn was featured as a guest star in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's annual Christmas concert before an audience of 80,000 in Salt Lake City. The concert was broadcast on PBS and was released as an album in 2012 entitled Once Upon a Christmas.
In August 2015, Gunn starred in the world premiere of a new opera presented by The Santa Fe Opera. It was Jennifer Higdon's Cold Mountain, based on the award-winning 1997 novel of the same name by Charles Frazier. Gunn's previous Santa Fe performances include a 1998 production of Berlioz’ Béatrice et Bénédict as well as a 1999 production of Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos.[3]
While he is noted for his vocal prowess and acting, Gunn has received almost as much fame for his physique, a peculiar feat for an opera singer. He has been dubbed a "barihunk"[4] although as a play on baritone and hunk, he has said he prefers the term "hunkitone."[5] In 2008, he was featured in People magazine's list of "The Sexiest Men Alive."[6]
Gunn was appointed a tenured professor of voice in 2007 at the University of Illinois School of Music, and in 2013 he was named general director of the Lyric Theater @ Illinois.[7] In 2012 the Opera Company of Philadelphia appointed him director of its American Repertoire Council promoting new American works.[8] His wife, Julie Jordan Gunn, who holds a doctorate (A. Mus. D.) in vocal coaching and accompanying from University of Illinois, was also appointed associate professor in collaborative piano at the University.
Roles[edit]
Title role in Hamlet
Title role in Billy Budd
Title role in Eugene Onegin
Title role in Kullervo
Guglielmo in Così fan tutte
Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia
The Count in Le nozze di Figaro
Marcello in La bohème
Malatesta in Don Pasquale
Belcore in L'elisir d'amore
Ottone in L'incoronazione di Poppea
Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia
Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride
Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict
Harlekin in Ariadne auf Naxos
Papageno in Die Zauberflöte
Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles
Prince Andrei in War and Peace
Danilo Danilovitsch in The Merry Widow
Valentin in Faust
Gaylord Ravenal in Show Boat
Lancelot in Camelot
Billy Bigelow in Carousel
Title role in Sweeney Todd
Ríolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas
Clyde Griffiths in An American Tragedy
Buzz Aldrin in Man on the Moon
Father Delaura in Love and Other Demons
The Lodger in The Aspern Papers
James Dalton in A Harlot's Progress
Paul in Amelia
Alec Harvey in Brief Encounter
Ned Keene in Peter Grimes
Yeshua in The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
W. P. Inman in Cold Mountain (2015)[9]
Sid Taylor in Great Scott (2015)[10]
^ U.S. Public Records Index Vol 1 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), 2010.
^ Metropolitan Opera International Radio Broadcast Information Center. Nathan Gunn, Baritone
^ Santa Fe Opera news release, 10 August 2011 on santafeopera.org
^ Lacher, Irene (November 29, 2009). "Opera barihunks hit a muscular note". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
^ "Nathan Gunn's Top Five Bare-Chested Roles" 2012 radio interview on WQXR-FM
^ People Magazine's sexiest men alive
^ University of Illinois press release
^ Opera Philadelphia press release
^ "2015 SANTA FE OPERA SEASON ANNOUNCED", on santafeopera.org
^ "Dallas Opera and San Diego Opera Announce Exciting Co-Production!", Dallas Opera press release, June 20, 2014, on dallasopera.org
About Nathan Gunn
Sony BMG Masterworks' Nathan Gunn Podcasts
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NKC: mzk2014829537
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nathan_Gunn&oldid=881553288"
American operatic baritones
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Musicians from South Bend, Indiana
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‘Caravan migrants’ set fire to Mexican immigration facility, as Independent voters and FoxNews express sympathy
Posted on November 1, 2018 by Dr. Eowyn | 44 Comments
On October 22, 2018, asked for their thoughts about the “caravans” of tens of thousands of impressively healthy and well-dressed, mainly young, military-age male “migrants” marching/trucking/bussing across Guatemala and Mexico toward the U.S. border, a panel of independent voters surprised “Fox & Friends” co-host Steve Doocy by expressing sympathy for the “migrants” because, as the panel put it, the poor “migrants” are just fleeing poverty, oppression and violence.
One independent voter said:
“I think our immigration laws need to be modernized and updated. But this country is founded on immigration. And all of us come from immigrants.”
Another said:
“There’s a humanitarian crisis taking place in Central America. And yet, this issue gets turned into a complete political football. There’s very little honest discussion about what’s actually happening, it gets turned into talking points.”
Yet another independent voter, when asked how he would feel if the “migrant caravan” reached 20,000 people, grandly said:
“This is the mightiest country on the planet, I think we can handle a caravan of people, unarmed, coming to this country.”
The unexpected sympathetic reaction from the panel of independent voters was celebrated by the Hate America Media (HAM). Washington Post praises the panel as heroic “rebels”; Salon commends the panel for rejecting Fox News‘ “fearmongering”; while The Hill snickeringly calls Fox News’ assemblage of the panel as an “epic fail”.
But it’s not just the panel of independent voters.
On October 22, 2018, Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade said about the “migrants”:
“I imagine these are good people. Most of them are good people. I’m sure some are up to no good. I’m sure they just want a better life. I get that.”
On October 29, supposedly conservatie Fox News host Lou Dobbs took issue with his guest, Sidney Powell, for saying the “migrants” heading toward our southern border will bring into the United States diseases like polio that the U.S. hadn’t seen in decades. Dobbs defended the invading horde, calling them “illegal immigrants”:
“You can’t very well blame that disease on illegal immigrants. We don’t know the cause of it…I don’t think that’s fair.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FpzoX_EqP0
Just remember that the above examples are not from the overtly-Leftwing media. It’s supposedly conservative Fox News.
Bishop Jaime Calderón Calderón of Tapachula, Mexico even claims to know God’s mind — that God will reward those who assist the “caravan” invaders. He said:
“I am deeply grateful to my brother priests and all those people from our parishes who have gone far beyond their means to be able to provide for others. Know that God will always reward that goodness which you have shown.”
These are the disease-free, “unarmed”, “good” “immigrants” who are just fleeing “inhumane” conditions in their home countries, and whom the good bishop urges us to help:
(1) On October 19, 2018, the “migrants” broke through a flimsy border fence on Mexico’s southern border onto a bridge leading to Mexico. A violent clash with dozens of Mexican police in riot gear ensued, in which several officers were injured. See “Thousands of ‘migrant caravan’ invaders break through Mexico border fence – Video”.
https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Thousands-of-Honduras-migrants-break-through-Mexico-border-fence.mp4
(2) On October 28, 2018, as reported by the AP, another group of young male “migrants” stormed Mexico’s southern border in the Guatemala town of Tecun Uman and forced their way across. Some of the “migrants” were carrying rocks and bottles to throw at the police; others were armed with guns and firebombs. A 26-year-old male “migrant” was killed, but reports differ as to who actually killed the man. See “Shocking video of second ‘migrant caravan’ tearing down Mexico-Guatemala border fence; one invader killed”.
https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Second-migrant-caravan-storms-into-Mexico.mp4
(3) On October 29, 2018, in a town in Chiapas, two Honduran “migrants”, one of them a minor, “attacked with firearm” the Mexican Federal Police. As recounted by the Mexican Ministry of Interior, police arrested the two “foreign nationals” — Carlos “N”, 17, and Jerson “N”, 22. They shot at police with a 38 mm Glock pistol, containing “9 useful cartridges”. “Fortunately, the assailants’ weapon failed, so they could not hurt any element of the FP.”
(4) Hours after the shooting in Chiapas, a group of Central American “migrants” facing deportation set fire to an immigration facility in Chiapas in an apparent attempt to escape. As reported by Breitbart, Oct. 30, 2018:
The fire was reportedly started at a facility dual-purposed as a checkpoint and makeshift detention center for Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) in Pijijiapan, Chiapas, when a group of migrants housed there set fire to their mattresses, Televisa Noticias reported. According to local public safety director Jaime Marroquin, authorities were housing 21 men, five women, and three children which were in the process of being deported. The migrants reportedly set fires to give cover to their escape.
Firefighters responded to the scene while Mexican Federal Police officers detained the alleged runaways and moved them to a large immigration facility in Tapachula, Chiapas.
The caravan began its journey earlier this month in Honduras and publicly announced its intent to reach the U.S. border. The Mexican government offered the caravan temporary jobs, health care, and education if they agreed to stay in southern Mexico and follow the country’s legal procedures for requesting asylum. The group largely turned down the offer, however, according to the INM, 111 migrants agreed and requested Mexican identification documents.
Operation Faithful Patriot: more than 5,200 U.S. troops deployed to secure US-Mexico border will be armed
Texas Border Patrol begs for help, besieged by ‘migrant caravan’ advance mob. Troops deployed at border?
Central American ‘caravan’ invaders are in Mexico, now number more than 14,000
Who’s behind the ‘migrant caravan’ invasion? – George Soros and the telltale Star of David
CA Catholic church to install hideous 40-ft $2M statue of Mary to welcome illegal border-crossers and refugees
144 House Democrats approve of illegal aliens voting in U.S. elections
Better than Drudge Report. Check out Whatfinger News, the Internet’s conservative frontpage founded by ex-military!
This entry was posted in Conservatives, crime, Honduras-Guatemala 'caravan' invasion, illegal immigration, Liberals/Democrats/Left, MSM, United States and tagged Bishop Jaime Calderón Calderón, Brian Kilmeade, caravan migrants crash Mexico-Guatemala border, Fox News, Lou Dobbs, Sidney Powell, Steve Doocy, violent caravan migrants. Bookmark the permalink.
But, what isn’t said is this is ‘just the beginning’…if this is allowed, open the gates for thousands more every month.
Skid Marx
Political ads from Commiecrats on local radio are playing up the healthcare is the most important topic for voters schtick.
They must think the deplorables are as stupid and useless as their braindead idiot true believer comrades.
Well if President Trump will provide tents for the invading locust, whom eventually will be given a free pass in the US, is he planning to donate HIS $$$$$$$$$$ to: feed them, provide healthcare, clothing, housing, Medicare/Medicaid etc, or is he planning for WE THE PEOPLE to sacrifice for their welfare. There is a family with five children, the oldest 10 and the youngest 5 mo. am I going to be their keeper? They will be absorbed in front of our noses, and we will find ourselves once again with our pants down asking for more!
Auntie Lulu
If the standard is that you apply for asylum from your own home country–then that is it. If you do other than that, you get sent back home. Do we really want people whose mindset is that they burn down public buildings if they don’t get whatever it is that they want? I think not.
Mad Celt
When I was an impovished college student back in the early 70s nothing made me feel more equal than setting fire to other peoples stuff.
Joseph BC69
This so-called migration may be motivated by The Promise of Sorrows (sic) to give each member of the family that gets inside the USA a gift of $1,000, or something on that order. I don’t know why people keep calling it a migration; that term we reserve for birds, caribou, and butterflies, amongst other critters. This is well and truly an invasion, nothing less!
marblenecltr
I avoid watching The Young Turks but occasionally do watch it. Today, for example. If people knew anything about the original Young Turks, current viewers would probably change channels. The original Young Turks was a group seeking the extermination of Armenians and probably Jews as well. And TYT II flanks himself with a woman with an Armenian name and a man with what could be a Jewish name, and both unknowingly serving as dhimmis. Are such followers possessor of fewer brain cells than an amoeba, or are they victims of our present education and general information systems? As for Lou… Read more »
An undercover video shows staffers on U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s campaign describing how Planned Parenthood sends money to her secretly so she will not look as pro-abortion to Missouri voters. A pro-abortion Democrat, McCaskill is considered one of the most vulnerable senators running for re-election in November, Townhall reports. After voting against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation, she fell behind her opponent, pro-life Republican Josh Hawley, in the polls. The video, released by Project Veritas this week, shows how McCaskill’s campaign appears to be trying to appeal to moderate voters in the mid-western state by downplaying her radical pro-abortion stance.… Read more »
Every voter in Arizona should watch this video. Pass it on.
https://youtu.be/6eH6ZSLvsak
Willie William
Every voter in Florida should watch this video. https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/1057804610595897344
I’m assuming these independent voters and sympathetic pundits are opening their homes to these illegal aliens? obvious sarc…
D3F1ANT
The answer you get depends on the person you ask. So they got a few in one place who like illegals. I’m not impressed. Most Americans don’t want to be invaded by people who can’t follow the simple rules of applying to be here legally. Criminals from DAY ONE.
There is nothing new under the sun. I may not be a woman, black, hispanic or asian but I know the human condition since I am one. I know the range of emotions and I’ve felt everything I am sure my fellow man has felt. Except I did not break the law even at my lowest point, althought the temptation was there. This is not about human need and has very little to do with misery. It is to aid greedy, power hungry, tyrannical people get and keep power. There’s an old saying about users with selfish purposes. They won’t… Read more »
These illegal invader trying to get into out country are violent people, just like the democRATs and crybaby liberals that are already in this country.
Remember Kate Steinle
Remember Molly Tibbetts
Build the wall…Deport them all.
DemocRATs and liberals are the United States number one enemy.
Outside of an occasional local news broadcast, I stopped watching TV “news” a long time ago.
I can read ten times faster than the nuze goobers can talk, and I know my way around the net and the sites I know I can trust.
Kathleen03
The hosts of FoxNews are nothing more than paid prostitutes. They are wholly owned and operated by the man who signs their checks, the Murdochs, who are part of the Bloomberg et al amnesty/open borders activist group.
Left Fox for OAN where hosts such as Graham Ledger are not parrots for their boss’ agenda and who are unafraid to speak the truth.
MarkyMark
Heard Pres. Trump’s press conference on the way home from work today. He was talking about the invasion force coming up, and the subject of use of force came up. POTUS said that he told the army to treat a rock like a rifle, citing the damage and injuries they caused the Mexican police as they burst through the border fence; he said that there were a lot of tough men in the invasion force. Pres. Trump said that he hopes it doesn’t come to that, but he stressed again the need to protect our border-yes!
Jackie Puppet
I’m a bit surprised that those independent voters were very sympathetic, usually, it’s CNN that tries to show independents as normally liberal; Fox tried the same thing, and got the result that CNN wishes they could get.
CalGirl
This is a “lose-lose” situation for both President Trump and for the American people: if the president repels this caravan somehow—-both HE and WE will be characterized as Nazi scum in the liberal press around the world (even tho’ much of the world would do the SAME THING out of economic necessity/ survival of their State against such a tide of humanity invading empty-handed and in penury). ANd, if the president can not keep this caravan and the following ones (probably endless) out—he will be construed as a failure and the liberal press far and wide will tout him so—–and… Read more »
Even CBS news is starting to be honest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oILs9flaFxU
Now this BS:
“Group of migrants travelling on foot from Honduras file federal lawsuit against Pres Trump and others. “Trump’s professed and enacted policy towards thousands of caravanners seeking asylum in the United States is shockingly unconstitutional.”
https://twitchy.com/dougp-3137/2018/11/01/wait-what-group-of-migrants-in-caravan-file-lawsuit-against-trump-alleging-shockingly-unconstitutional-border-policies/
“Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Imports “Refugees” to White Countries, Even from Israel” “The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) organization—targeted by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers—works full time to bring fake refugees to America and Europe, while at the same time helping to expel them from Israel and ship them to white countries, a review of that organization’s activities shows. According to the HIAS website, that organization said that “HIAS continues to resettle the most vulnerable refugees of all faiths and ethnicities from all over the world. In the US we work with local social service organizations around the… Read more »
Most countries in the world do not offer birthright citizenship — only 30 out of the world’s 194 nations automatically grant citizenship to children born to illegal immigrant parents, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. No European country has birthright citizenship, and the global trend over the past 30 years has been to halt the practice. Notable countries that have ended birthright citizenship in recent decades include the U.K. in 1983, Australia in 1986, India in 1987 and Ireland in 2004….The U.S. and Canada are alone among developed nations worldwide that automatically grant citizenship to people born within their… Read more »
“Refugee Resettlement: The Lucrative Business of Serving Immigrants”
[Including HIAS]
“Left-wing grant-makers have embarked on a campaign aimed at overwhelming America with unprecedented levels of immigration. These foundations underwrite a universe of liberal organizations that are devoted to bringing in ever more people from all over the world, and the organizations’ motives include money.”
https://capitalresearch.org/article/refugee-resettlement-the-lucrative-business-of-serving-immigrants/
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Techjawbone
Jawbone’s $300 million investment isn’t what you thought
Jawbone CEO Hosain Rahman at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.Photograph by Michael Nagle — Bloomberg/Getty Images
A recent major investment in fitness band maker Jawbone may not have technically been an investment.
What was originally billed as a $300 million cash infusion from BlackRock (BLK), the world’s largest asset manager, may actually have been a loan, according to a Bloomberg report that cites anonymous sources as well as a recent filing.
Jawbone makes the popular Up fitness bands as well as Jambox speakers, but the 16-year-old company has struggled to take off in the growing wearable technology market. A Fortune feature story earlier this year looked at some of the issues that have plagued the company, which had raised more than $400 million prior to BlackRock’s involvement.
Now, Bloomberg calls BlackRock’s cash “something of a bailout for Jawbone,” a company that has yet to show consistent profitability. Bloomberg adds:
“BlackRock’s decision to use debt rather than equity is one way that late-stage investors can protect themselves when backing private, venture-supported companies. Equity investors in private companies rarely get the same financial transparency or shareholder rights that they do with publicly traded companies.”
Flextronics, an electronics components manufacturer, sued Jawbone last year in a $21 million breach of contract lawsuit over an alleged unpaid bill. That suit was quickly settled.
Earlier this year, rumors surfaced that Google (GOOG) might make a strategic investment in Jawbone, but the search giant has yet to make such a move.
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Mr. Hyun holds a Master of Education in Pedagogy and Bachelor of Science from Seoul National University, South Korea and a MBA degree from China Europe International Business School. Mr. Hyun has over 20 years in strategic long/short term planning, mergers & acquisitions, strategic consulting and securities trading which enables him to contribute important skills to our Board.
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Free Ukraine Now
Stopping US-NATO takeover of Ukraine and Russia
← Foreign Ministry on upcoming Victory Day celebrations
Foreign Ministry briefing: Syria, Deir ez-Zor, the White Helmets, and what democratization means to the West →
Estonia’s Bronze Night, Odessa massacre anniversaries, kidnapping of Russian citizens by the U.S. — where is justice?
Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation
Remarks by spokesperson Maria Zakharova:
10 years since Tallinn’s Bronze Night and Dmitry Ganin’s death
April 27 marks 10 years since the tragic events known as the Bronze Night took place in Tallinn when the monument to the Soldier Liberator was dismantled and the nearby remains of the Soviet soldiers who liberated the Estonian capital from the Nazis were exhumed despite repeated protests from the Russian side and in outrageous violation of the norms of international law and basic human moral principles. The street protests of those who tried to protect the memorial were put down by force.
That night’s events are still painful to remember for our compatriots and all those who care about the great exploit of the soldiers who sacrificed their lives to secure peace in Europe as it is today. Every year, hundreds of people come to pay tribute to the perished soldiers and the Bronze Soldier, which were moved to the war cemetery in Tallinn. The Immortal Regiment procession is organised, and a guard of honour protects the memorial.
We are extremely concerned about the way the Estonian authorities are conducting the investigation into the murder of Dmitry Ganin, a Russian citizen who died in the protests of April 2007. After 10 years of inaction, the Estonian law-enforcement bodies are clearly seeking to drop the case, citing the expiry of its period of limitation. They are also ignoring the Russian Investigative Committee’s proposals to provide legal assistance.
Such an approach is unacceptable. We demand that the Estonian side take all possible measures to identify the culprits behind the Russian citizen’s murder, and to hold them responsible.
Anniversary of the May 2 events in Odessa
May 2 marks three years since the tragic events in Odessa, in which dozens of people died and hundreds were injured at the hands of thugs behaving like fascists. I regret to say that those responsible for that inhuman crime have not been punished yet and that the investigation has stalled in the face of the tacit indifference of the West and international human rights institutions. Just compare it with the storm of indignation, especially in EU parliamentary circles, that erupts over a visit by a European politician or a public figure or a member of parliament, for example, to Syria. A tidal wave erupts there. The man is humiliated to such a degree that he is ready to admit to anything, that he is an agent of every secret space agency, and to turn himself in to all authorities. He is utterly humiliated by the stream of media attacks.
We have seen nothing of this kind over the past three years from the West in terms of demands to investigate the Odessa events. Let me repeat that this tragedy was not just a political rally, or the dispersal of demonstrators or mistreatment of people. People were burnt alive, and they were not servicemen but civilians who were defending their right to a dignified life.
The inaction of the Kiev authorities and the pure connivance of their external sponsors are fuelling radical sentiments in Ukraine. It is troubling that more and more often we hear extremist forces say that they intend to disrupt memorial events, and make threats against those who have not forgotten the victims of the Odessa tragedy.
Let me stress that the authorities, who have halted the investigation, are not the ones coming under pressure but rather those who witnessed the events and still care about the search for truth.
We are calling on Kiev to ensure law and order in Odessa in the coming days and swiftly handle any provocations by nationalist radicals.
Sadly, we are often right about these things. Once again we would like to warn our Ukrainian colleagues that condoning, inciting and nurturing radicals will come back to bite you hard. I will not even say “the day will come” – it has, in fact, already come.
The situation around Konstantin Yaroshenko
We were baffled to learn that the US authorities had decided against granting Russian citizen Konstantin Yaroshenko’s request to hand him over to Russia under the 1983 Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. As is common knowledge, our compatriot was abducted by US secret service agents in Liberia in 2010. He was forcibly and secretly taken to New York and sentenced to a 20-year prison term for alleged involvement in a drug transportation plot, of which there was no real hard evidence.
[He was also tortured. His poor health is related to the beatings and torture he endured from U.S. authorities, the lack of medical treatment for his injuries, and his continued poor treatment in the prison where he is being held which could be considered torture.(1)]
Regrettably, Washington’ latest preconceived decision is evidence that the US authorities are still unprepared to remove numerous irritants in bilateral relations, which have been created by the Obama administration. We have to state that this approach will not contribute to normalising the dialogue between Russia and the United States. It is also plain to see that [Washington] is disregarding the humanitarian factors, given that Konstantin Yaroshenko is facing serious health problems, something that we have repeatedly indicated to the US side and did our best to enable this Russian citizen to be given the required medical aid, particularly when his health deteriorated.
As is only natural, we will continue to insist on this Russian citizen being brought home. We will work actively to see that Konstantin Yaroshenko receive the medical aid he rightly deserves, of which he is deprived in the US prison. We intend to continue taking all possible steps to defend his rights and legitimate interests.
The situation around Roman Seleznev
On April 21, a Washington district court sentenced Russian citizen Roman Seleznev to 27 years imprisonment. He was accused of wire fraud and stealing and selling credit card data.
First of all, we emphasise again that Roman Seleznev was illegally and forcibly transported from the Maldives in 2014 by US law enforcement, which actually amounted to the kidnapping of a Russian citizen. We think that the US actions of this kind are a gross violation of international law and demand that this criminal practice be immediately discontinued.
It is also clear that the US justice failed to take into account Seleznev’s acknowledgement of his guilt and his readiness to cooperate with the investigation. Neither were the humanitarian aspects of the case taken into consideration: he is a disabled victim of a 2011 terrorist attack in Morocco and has to take medication and remain under the care of physicians.
His defence attorney is planning to appeal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry continues to track events involving Roman Seleznev and take the necessary steps to render him consular and legal assistance.
(1) https://freeukrainenow.org/2016/05/08/there-is-no-justice-here-russian-pilot-jailed-in-us-tells-of-kidnap-torture-and-lies-abandons-faith-in-us-justice/
https://freeukrainenow.org/2016/05/08/us-ordered-russian-pilot-severely-beaten-and-tortured-after-kidnapping-in-liberia/
http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/spokesman/briefings/-/asset_publisher/D2wHaWMCU6Od/content/id/2739385
Tagged Bronze Night, Konstantin Yaroshenko, Odessa Massacre, Roman Seleznev, Talinn
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No War on Venezuela — Global Day of Action, February 23, 2019
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Honduras: Fleeing citizens; U.S. supports and arms Pres. Juan Orlando Hernandez’ regime
Venezuela: Canciller Jorge Arreaza ante el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU 27/1/2019 – “la grosera intervención y los groseros mecanismos de injerencia de Estados Unidos”; UN Security Council speech transcript
Pompeo put Elliott Abrams in charge of regime change in Venezuela
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Venezuela at the UN Security with proof of U.S. “blatant and gross intervention” directing the coup d’etat, reviews history of U.S. interventions; Iran Contra’s Ellliott Abrams speaks, Russia and Venezuela respond (VIDEO)
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RT TV service terminated in NYC and Washington DC, SANA, Syrian State channels terminated by YouTube
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10 Things We Can Learn From the World’s Greatest Surgeon
Cardiac Guru • Pioneer of Innovation • Trailblazer
Michael DeBakey Will be Missed!
On July 12, 2008, the world lost an incredible talent. A renegade physician, a pioneer, the father of open-heart surgery, and perhaps the best surgeon who ever lived, Dr. Michael DeBakey died of natural causes at 99. Because of his groundbreaking research, cutting-edge medical devices and maverick approach to cardiac surgery, DeBakey literally changed the rules of the game and thousands of lives are saved each day.
What can we learn from Michael DeBakey’s life and career?
1. Build your brand.
With a career that spanned more than 70 years, DeBakey built a reputation for being indispensable. His patients included everyone from the ordinary person next door and people with no means to a list of Who’s Who among world leaders. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, President Boris Yeltsin, King Hussein of Jordan, the Shah of Iran, Turkish President Turgut Ozal, just to name a few, engaged DeBakey because they knew he was the best. The Journal of the American Medical Association said in 2005, “Many consider Michael E. DeBakey to be the greatest surgeon ever.” Is your personal brand strong enough that if you left your company, colleagues and customers would have a difficult time getting along without you?
2. Be a guru, thought leader, industry expert.
Dr. DeBakey published more than 1,000 medical reports, research papers, chapters and books on topics related to cardiovascular medicine. He helped establish the National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest and most prestigious repository of medical archives. DeBakey played a key role in organizing a specialized medical center system to treat soldiers returning from the war. This system is now the Veterans’ Administration Medical Center System. For his numerous contributions Dr. DeBakey was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress’ highest civilian honor, the National Medal of Science, the country’s highest scientific award, and The United Nations Lifetime Achievement Award. Do people see you as a guru in your field? How distinctive is your knowledge base? How well do you garner, contribute and leverage knowledge?
3. Never quit learning.
As a child, DeBakey was required to borrow a book from the library each week and read it. He read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica before entering high school. Overseeing cases, consulting with colleagues and mentoring younger surgeons, he made his mark on the world right up to the end. DeBakey performed his last surgery at age 90 and continued to travel the globe giving lectures. Perhaps you’re thinking, “Who would want a 90-year-old surgeon operating on them?” The answer could be, “Someone who’s performed more than 60,000 cardiovascular procedures in his career.” Do you have a reputation for lifelong learning, for continually adding value? When we stop bringing something new to the game, the game is over.
4. Risk more, gain more.
DeBakey took risks others weren’t willing to take to advance medicine. Tubing, clamps, pumps, protocols all bear the mark of DeBakey’s passion for innovation. Yet, product and process innovations often pull people out of their comfort zones and some of DeBakey’s early breakthroughs weren’t accepted initially—in fact they were ridiculed. For example, in 1939, when Drs. DeBakey and Alton Ochsner linked cigarette smoking to lung cancer, many in the medical community derided it. Then in 1964, the Surgeon General confirmed their findings and documented the cause and effect.
There was also skepticism when DeBakey discovered that he could substitute parts of diseased arteries with synthetic (Dacron) grafts—a procedure that enables surgeons to repair aortic aneurysms in the chest and abdomen. He initially figured out how to stitch synthetic blood vessels on his wife’s sewing machine. Now the procedure is widely used.
DeBakey was also the first to perform bypass surgery and the first to perform a successful removal of a blockage of the carotid (main) artery of the neck, a procedure that has become the standard protocol for treating stroke. Those who are unwilling to take risks do not change the world. Is your passion for advancing your field by taking a risk bigger than your fear of rejection or by making a mistake?
5. Refuse to sell out on your dream.
DeBakey developed an interest in medicine in his father’s pharmacy where he listened to physicians talk shop. The vision to become a doctor was clear, the question was, “what kind?” In 1932, there simply wasn’t anything you could do for heart disease, if a patient had a heart attack the long-term prognosis wasn’t good. While he was still in school in 1932, DeBakey invented the roller pump—a critical part of the heart-lung machine that takes over the functions of the heart and lungs during open-heart surgery. This not only created the era of open-heart surgery, it cemented DeBakey’s passion to make a mark in the world of cardiovascular medicine. Engagement is about pouring your heart, mind and soul into a dream that causes you to fire on all cylinders. Does your career fulfill your desires? Or, have you sacrificed a dream that could make you come alive for a life of duty and routine that simply “works”?
6. Play to your genius.
DeBakey said, “I like my work, very much. I like it so much that I don’t want to do anything else.” Most people who are happy in life spend time doing what they love. This usually makes them extremely good at what they do. Dr. DeBakey exemplified the power of what can happen when our work requires what we are good at and passionate about. Playing to your genius is about using your gifts and talents to pursue a passion that makes a significant contribution to the people and the world you serve. Playing to your genius also promotes autonomy and self-direction, cultivates commitment, stimulates personal growth and makes work fun. Are you engaged in work you’re good at and passionate about—work that makes a contribution and needs to be done? Or are you just biding time?
7. Balance passion with discipline and focus.
With regard to his patients, the indefatigable DeBakey had an uncompromising dedication to perfection. He was known as a taskmaster who set very high standards, yet he never demanded more from others than he demanded from himself. Heart surgeons who trained under DeBakey say he was hard to keep up with when making patient rounds. They joked that he was from another world because he could maintain his focus and intensity for hours.
In a world of competing priorities and information overload it’s easy to lose focus and get distracted. But, if you are playing to your genius and doing what you love, it’s easier to be disciplined and maintain a maniacal focus. Are you disciplined? Do you have a maniacal focus? Would your customers (internal and external) say you are relentless when it comes to pursuing perfection?
8. Find a void and figure out how to fill it.
Michael DeBakey’s innovations are on par with the likes of Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Jonas Salk, Henry Ford and Alfred Nobel. During World War II, he helped establish the mobile army surgical hospitals or MASH units. He was a key player in the development of artificial hearts, artificial arteries and bypass pumps that help keep patients alive who are waiting for transplants. He was among the first to recognize the importance of blood banks and transfusions. He also helped create more than 70 surgical instruments that made procedures easier and clinical outcomes more effective. If something couldn’t be done, DeBakey found a way to do it.
In 1967, Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first human heart transplant in South Africa. Dr. DeBakey was among the first to begin doing the procedure in the United States. The problem was that recipients’ bodies rejected the new organs and death rates were high. In the 1980s cyclosporine, a new anti-rejection drug paved the way for organ transplants. Again, DeBakey was among the first to develop new protocols and advance the field of heart transplants. Where are the gaps in your organization or industry? What would happen if you developed a reputation for filling these voids?
9. Show people that their work matters.
Michael DeBakey is known not only for his prolific contributions to the medical field, but also as a symbol of hope and encouragement to his colleagues. Many years ago a colleague of ours shadowed Dr. DeBakey for a day at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. He was struck by DeBakey’s capacity to affirm each person he saw in the course of the day.
In one particular encounter, DeBakey began chatting with an elderly janitor who was sweeping the floor. DeBakey asked the man about his wife and children. He told the older man, obviously not for the first time, that the hospital couldn’t function without the janitor because germs would spread, increasing the chances of infection in the hospital. Later in the day, our colleague tracked down the janitor and asked him, “What exactly do you do? Tell me about your job.” With pride, the janitor replied: “Dr. DeBakey and I? We save lives together.”
He’s right. After all, consider what would happen to our healthcare systems if the cleaning crews went on strike. DeBakey understood that showing the janitor exactly how he contributes to a larger, more heroic cause is crucial. This creates a powerful dynamic. Realizing that he is working toward a worthy goal, the janitor’s perceptions about his work changed. It had new meaning and his enthusiasm for the job was rejuvenated.
Great leaders make time to help people see how their work is connected to something bigger. For a surgeon like DeBakey, those five or ten minutes each day were costly, unless, of course, you consider the productivity generated by a janitor whose work has been transformed. Right now, how many people in your organization are engaged in work that five years from today no one will give a rip about? Can you make the link between what you do and a noble or heroic cause? Can you make this link for others?
10. Be generative—inspire others to pursue the cause.
Generativity is the care and concern for the development of future generations through teaching, mentoring, and other creative contributions. It’s about leaving a positive legacy. All great leaders are generative and Michael DeBakey was no exception. He inspired many medical students to pursue careers in cardiovascular surgery. His reputation brought many people to Baylor College of Medicine and helped transform it into one of the premier medical institutions in the world. DeBakey trained and mentored almost 1,000 surgeons and physicians. In 1976, his students founded the Michael E. DeBakey International Surgical Society. Many of his residents went on to serve as chairpersons and directors of their own successful academic surgical programs in the United States and around the world. Are the people you’ve touched in your career learning, growing and making a difference as a result of your influence? Have they been inspired to build a better world than the world they inherited?
Michael DeBakey applied his problem-solving skills to many parts of medicine that have changed our way of life. Timothy Gardner, M.D., president of the American Heart Association said it well, “DeBakey’s legacy will live on in so many ways—through the thousands of patients he treated directly and through his creation of a generation of physician educators, who will carry his legacy far into the future. His advances will continue to be the building blocks for new treatments and surgical procedures for years to come.”
Michael DeBakey’s life and legacy proves that one person who chooses to play to their genius can change the world and make it a better place for all. What legacy will you leave behind?
Six-minute video honoring Dr. Michael DeBakey
Timeline of Dr. DeBakey’s accomplishments
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Semco—Insanity That Works
Facing Reality, Part 1
Leaders as Value Shapers
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Saudi Arabia Arrests 19 Pakistani, Saudi Suspects In July 4 Attacks
A damaged car is seen after a blast near the U.S. consulate in the Saudi city of Jeddah on July 4.
Saudi Arabia says a suicide bomber who attacked the Prophet Muhammad Mosque in the city of Medina was a young Saudi citizen with a history of drug abuse.
Twelve Pakistanis and seven Saudis have been detained in relation to the attack on Islam's second-holiest site and two others on July 4, the Saudi Interior Ministry said on July 7.
Nair al-Nujiaidi al-Balawi, 26, crossed a parking lot next to the Prophet's Mosque in Medina and detonated an explosive belt when security guards intercepted him, killing four soldiers, the ministry said.
It said three suicide bombers took part in a botched attack outside a Shi'ite mosque in Qatif, in which no civilians or police were wounded.
They were identified as Abdulrahman Salih Muhammad, Ibrahim Salih Muhammad, and Abdelkarim al-Hesni, all antigovernment activists in their early 20s.
The Medina bomber had traveled outside the country several times, most recently early this year, a ministry spokesman said on Saudi TV, adding that nitroglycerin from the blasts in Qatif, Medina, and Jeddah seemed to match, suggesting they may have been coordinated.
No group has claimed responsibility, but Islamic State militants have carried out similar bombings in the kingdom.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AP, and AFP
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Home › Definitions of English words and phrases
Almond Milk!
JusticeForAlmonds ✭
April 2018 in Definitions of English words and phrases
I was told that I should post this here until Oxford English Dictionary gets back to me so I was t:
Recently, there has been an intense debate over whether or not almond milk can be defined as a subset of milk under the definition of milk. Here is the following argument.. I'm interested to see what people think.
Often times, my friends refer to the definition of milk during our debates. According to your dictionary, in addition to other reputable dictionaries, milk is defined as "A whitish fluid, rich in fat and protein, secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals (including humans) for the nourishment of their young, and taken from cows, sheep, etc., as an article of the human diet." To this some have argued that because almond milk does not originate from mammary glands of a female mammal, as almonds are not female mammals possessing mammary glands, that almond milk cannot be considered milk. To bolster such argument, the same group also retort to the definition of juice, "The watery or liquid part of vegetables or fruits, which can be expressed or extracted; commonly containing the characteristic flavour and other properties" citing that almond milk is better characterized as almond juice because it is made from the seed of the drape fruit. They also cite the definition of almond milk which states that almond milk is, "A milky liquid..." Reasoning that because the "milky" portion of the definition is used as an adjective rather a noun, they explain that it used to show the semblance of almond milk to milk, rather than almond milk as a subset of milk.
However, the other side argues that the definition of milk is outdated and does not meet the evolving standard of society. The definition of milk was last updated in March 2002 while the definition of almond milk was last updated in September 2012. One would argue that although almond milk has become increasingly popular, it would seem that the definition of milk was not updated to meet this standard. One could argue that almond fits the definition of milk redacting the mammary gland portion. Simply because it does not come from the mammary gland of an almond should not disqualify almond milk from being considered a milk. There are new and emerging types of milk: soy, almond, etc. This group argues that the definition for milk was created prior to the rise of popularity of alternative milks and thus the definition should be rectified to be inclusive of them.
So our question is whether almond milk is defined as a milk or something else? If so, what is that something?
Thank you very much for your time and I look forward to hearing back from you,
Danny and friends
P.S. Sorry for any formatting issues, 1st post on here.
DavidCrosbie ✭✭✭
The OED entry for almond milk is
A milky liquid prepared from ground almonds, used as a drink and in cooking, and also applied to the skin, etc., as an emollient.
The earliest known usage is from 1381. But before that English writers of French in England — so-called Anglo-Norman — described it as leit d'alemandes.
So where's the problem?
In the entry for milk it appears under subheading use 5
5.a. A culinary, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or other preparation resembling milk, esp. in colour. Usually with the principal ingredient or use specified by a preceding or following word.
5.b. milk of almonds n. = almond milk n.
5.c. milk of sulphur n.
5.d. milk of lime n
5.e. Milk of Magnesia n.
Simone admin
Hi @JusticeForAlmonds,
Interesting, I was not aware almond milk divided opinions like that - and I have it almost every day for breakfast
Just to complement @DavidCrosbie's post, I only wanted to note that the dictionary is not prescriptive, it does not aim to decide how words should be used, but record the use people make of words, provided there is enough evidence for a particular word or sense.
Hi @JusticeForAlmonds (Danny and friends),
I thought you would like to know that your post has sparked the idea for an Oxford Dictionaries blog post, which has just gone live:
Is almond milk really milk?
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Quick read Sept. 26, 2017
Personal guarantees – back in the spotlight
Undue Influence, personal guarantees, amendments, indulgence clauses, Triodos v Dobbs… all words that grab the attention of anyone involved in taking or enforcing personal guarantees. So, now we’ve got your attention, why all the shouting?
Well, personal guarantees have once again come under the spotlight in a recent case that looked at all of these things and came out in favour of the lender.
The background[1]
The bank made a claim under a capped guarantee of interest payable on loans made to three companies. The loan agreements had been amended and the loan amounts increased. The term was also extended and accrued interest rolled up. Prior to these amendments, the guarantors had signed a guarantee confirmation in which they also waived their right to seek independent legal advice.
The guarantors were individuals who owned and managed, and were also directors of, the borrowing companies. They wanted the claim to be set aside. They argued that the amendments to the loans increased their risk and discharged their obligations under the guarantee. They also claimed undue influence in respect of the amendments. The court did not grant the guarantors’ application.
Indulgence clause
The general rule is that any substantial variation to the terms of a contract without the consent of a guarantor will release the guarantor from his obligation to pay. But in this case, the guarantee contained what is known as an ‘indulgence clause’. It provided that “any variation or amendment” of the loan agreements or “any time, indulgence or other concession” granted by the bank would not affect the guarantors’ obligations. These clauses are quite common and aim to act as advance consent to amendments to the underlying loan documents.
A properly drafted indulgence clause can work unless the amendments impose such new and different contractual obligations that the guarantors should be discharged[2]. The court found in this case that the amendments fell within the scope of the indulgence clause, as the resulting obligations did not replace the original obligations and the language of the indulgence clause permitted the variation. The guarantors’ financial knowledge of the companies and their experience in business was taken into account.
Undue influence
A guarantee can also be set-aside if it is found that the guarantor was unduly influenced to enter into it. The risk of undue influence can also apply to guarantee confirmations and the waiver of independent legal advice.
In this case, the guarantors’ undue influence argument was also rejected. The guarantors were experienced businessmen. There were no reasonable grounds for the guarantors to claim that their consent was attributed to being unduly influenced by the bank. The indulgence clause did not give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence with the bank. The guarantors were men of business, capable of looking after themselves and understanding the risks involved in the giving of guarantees, and their relationship with the bank was purely commercial[3].
The court found that there was no presumption of undue influence in this case. The companies had instructed solicitors to deal with the loans and the amendments and it could be presumed that the solicitors also acted for the directors in their capacity as guarantor. The guarantors had failed to satisfy the test for setting aside the statutory demands under the guarantee.
The court’s approach seems sensible and it will be welcomed by lenders. However, lenders and lawyers should still exercise caution when seeking to rely on indulgence clauses. They must be comfortable that the amendments will not be deemed to be so significant that the underlying agreement is viewed as a new obligation.
For this reason, where it is reasonably possible to do so, guarantee confirmations should usually be obtained when the underlying agreement is amended, even where there is an indulgence clause. This remains the cautious market approach for guarantees (although the situation can differ for genuine “all monies” guarantees).
Relying on independent legal advice waivers can also come with risk and should generally be avoided in any scenario where a presumption of undue influence might arise.
[1] Maxted v Investec Bank Plc [2017] EWHC 1997 (Ch)
[2] Triodos Bank NV v Dobbs [2005] EWCA Civ 630
[3] Royal Bank of Scotland Plc v Etridge (No.2) [2001] UKHL 44
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What EDM Ghost Producers Say
To really understand the concept of ghost producing, we have to look deeper into the career of a modern DJ. DJs and producers have been elevated out of nightclubs and recording studios and onto the main stages of music festivals. A new lifestyle that brings with it an...
EDM Ghost Producing has been in this industry for so long. Some of the tunes you heard as being produced by your favorite artist were not actually written, produced, or even in some cases co-produced by them. So it’s of no surprise that the some big names of today’s...
A Secret
At the 2013 Winter Music Conference, Bimbo Jones’ Lee Dagger, duo Sick Individuals, and Disfunktion’s Mike Tielemans touched on this hush-hush phenomenon during panel “Re: Crafted, Re: Modeled & Re: Mixed” but quickly went onto another subject. But just as the...
A leaked contract
Another ghost producing revealed: DM culture blog Electrokill.info is reporting that they have leaked photos of a contract between ghost producer Maarten Vorwerk and Josh Herman, the manager of DVBBS, Borgeous and Down With Webster. The contract photos show the sale...
This time, Hardwell
Hardwell, world’s number one DJ, in a chat with inthemix revealed that he has done and is still doing ghost producing. Hardwell says: “I’m fine with ghost-producing, but then again I don’t like it when…if you’re not producing your own tracks then just be honest,...
It’s EDM’s Secret
A significant number of famous DJs aren’t responsible for the music released under their names. Those culpable usually have arrangements with an underling or an associate, ranging from commissioned edits and tweaks to outright purchases of entirely finished works. In...
Ghost Producing: to create music for an artist or a band and sell them all its credits to be released under their name. Huge acts are in favor of such services as they don’t want to miss their gigs spending time on making music, and also they want to be relevant...
Benny Benassi and Bassjackers too
Ghost producing is no more a taboo in EDM scene, especially when you become a big name, you won’t have enough time to sit at your studio and design sounds and wrap up a track. We are hearing such things a lot lately. If both parties in the ghost producing...
Martin Garrix was a ghost producer
In an interview, Martin Garrix talked about his being signed to Spinnin’ Records and he revealed that he was a ghost producer before. He says he ghost produced a track, it got signed to Spinnin’, they understood, and invited him to play his stuff for them,...
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Interviews Become Two-Way Street Online
Jackson West Jan 25, 2008 - 5:00 AM CDT
Anyone who’s ever appeared on the news or a talk show can tell you that you can’t necessarily trust you will be treated fairly in editing — especially if you ramble, contradict the host or call a show’s sponsor or advertisers into controversy. Until recently, there was no way to clarify your story, unless you were lucky enough to be a television personality yourself.
BoingBoing Gadget’s Joel Johnson knew this already. So when he went into an interview on The Hugh Thompson Show, which airs on AT&T’s Tech Channel, an online video mini-net focused on technology, he brought along Richard Blakeley (NewTeeVee profile), posted it to YouTube and embedded the video on his blog.
Which illustrates that in a world where one-to-many broadcasting is no longer the only option, the balance of power between interviewer and interviewee has shifted.
Thompson’s show with Johnson has yet to air, and may never — after all, Johnson calls into question AT&T’s publicly stated intent to filter Internet access across its portion of the network and its stance against network neutrality, and Thompson’s show is wholly funded and distributed by AT&T.
A search on Google for The Hugh Thompson Show now returns links to both the YouTube video and Johnson’s blog post in more than half of the first 10 results. Blakeley’s clip featuring Johnson racked up 35,000 views in two days — or about 33,000 more than the most-viewed clip posted by AT&T of Thompson’s show on YouTube.
I asked Johnson in a text chat if he had permission to tape the interview, and he assured me that he did. Though even if he hadn’t come prepared, he was covered: “Someone approached me from the crowd and offered me cell-phone footage they shot just in case ours didn’t come out,” he told me.
Granted, Thompson’s production team are to be commended for asking a vocal critic to come on the show in the first place — the show’s band even composed a ditty in honor of BoingBoing. If anything, the drama surrounding the event probably exposed more new viewers to the show than anything AT&T has done so far to promote it.
But it goes to show that the interviewer’s chair is no longer the seat of power it once was — talk show hosts can’t presume that what happens in the studio will stay in the studio.
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Ginger Marcinkowski
Ginger Marcinkowski was born in northern Maine along the Canadian border, a setting that plays a prominent role in her writings.
Her debut novel, Run, River Currents, was published in August 2012 and was a semi-finalist in the ACFW Genesis Awards, and a 2013 Kindle Book Award Finalist, also winning honorable mentions in national awards and festivals. The Button Legacy, a novella, was published in June 2013, was written as a prequel /sequel to Run, River Currents. The Button Legacy-Emily’s Inheritance, (2014) the full story of the Polk families journey of faith told through buttons collected over generations concludes Run, River Currents dramatic story of healing and forgiveness.
Ginger has been a public speaker and visiting lecturer for many years. She was a professional reader for the James Jones First Novel Award ($10,000 prize,) and a judge for the ACFW ‘s prestigious Carol Awards. She was involved in the Hampton Roads Writers Association and is a member of the Florida Writer’s, ACFW and AWP Writer’s Associations. For over 3 years, she was a monthly columnist for Book Fun Magazine whose readership boasts over 300,000. She was an English professor and is a popular speaker on topics of business and writing.
Ginger won the 2015 Arizona Mystery Writer’s Contest and has had numerous short stories and articles published in various magazines.
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Rand Conger
rdconger@ucdavis.edu
Distinguished Professor of Psychology
Rand Conger is a Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Human Development, and Family Studies at the University of California Davis. Conger has been a faculty member at the University of Georgia, the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign, and Iowa State University. He has held several administrative posts, most notably as the founding Director for the Institute for Social and Behavioral Research at Iowa State University. Conger's program of research focuses on social, cultural and individual characteristics that either increase or reduce risk for problem behavior substance abuse, and mental disorder over time. Results of his research with over 500 families in rural Iowa demonstrated that the financial pressures created by the economic downturn in rural areas during the past 20 years have placed severe strains on family relationships which, in turn, increased emotional and behavioral problems for both parents and children. This work also has identified individual and family strengths that increase resilience to behavioral and emotional problems even in the face of significant social and economic stress. A more recent study of over 800 African American families suggests that the economic stress process is quite similar for White and African American families. He currently is extending this earlier research on children, adolescents, and families in a study of over 650 families of Mexican origin in California (the California Families Project, CFP).
Findings from Conger's research have been published in over 250 books, book chapters and journal articles. The interdisciplinary character of his work is reflected in the diversity of these publications, which have appeared in leading journals in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and sociology. During the past 30 years his research has been supported by a series of federal grants from the National Institutes of Health. In addition, the significance of his scholarly activities has been recognized through several awards from professional organizations including: (a) the Victor I. Howery Award for significant contributions to rural mental health given by the National Association for Rural Mental Health, (b) election to Fellow in the American Psychological Association and the National Council on Family Relations, (c) the Reuben Hill Research and Theory Award given by the National Council on Family Relations, (d) the William J. Goode Book Award given by the Family Sociology Section of the American Sociological Association, (e) the New Contributions to Research Award given by the International Association for Relationship Research, (f) the Distinguished Service to Rural Life Award given by the Rural Sociological Society, and (g) a Certificate of Appreciation from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Conger received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Washington in 1976.
Social and Economic Stress
Life Course Development
Family Interaction Processes
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Home Actresses Taylor Russell – Bio, Facts, Movies and TV Shows of The Canadian...
Taylor Russell – Bio, Facts, Movies and TV Shows of The Canadian Actress
Taylor Russell is a talented actress of Canadian origin. She rose to prominence with her sterling performances in television series Falling Skies, Lost in Space, Strange Empire, and Escape Room. Russell has captured the heart of many and continues to maintain her place in the limelight with her outstanding acting skills. Here is a look at her journey so far as well as some facts about her personal life.
Taylor Russell’s Bio
Taylor Russell was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on the 18th of July 1994 where she was raised by her parents. She has a white mother and an African father. Asides this fact which she has mentioned in several interviews, nothing is known about her family and education. She has been careful to keep all that information away from the media. From the tidbits she has mentioned in interviews, she is from a close-knit family and grew up with two brothers.
The actress has shared that growing up wasn’t very easy because her family changed homes and relocated from one place to another fourteen times. This didn’t help her in making new friends especially in a white-dominated environment where she was viewed as not ‘white enough’. The Russell family finally settled in Toronto where she met more mixed people whom she had a lot in common with.
Taylor Russell isn’t the type to shy away from her heritage as she once discussed in an interview after she got cast in a white family in Lost in Space. She believes that it’s important that diversity should be in movies since it is what is obtainable in real life as there are lots of blended families around and people all don’t look the same. Russell is also glad to be one of the actresses that are breaking the stereotype of what a black girl should be in a movie. Like “Shuri” of Black Panther.
In her short but interesting career, Taylor has acted alongside actors like Logan Miller, Zoey Dutch, Skylar Astin, Neve Campbell, Elena Kampouris, Molly Parker, Maxwell Jenkins, Toby Stephens to mention a few. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Movies and TV Shows of The Canadian Actress
Her first acting role was in the television series Emily Owens, M.D. (2012) as ‘Mean Girl #1’. She went ahead to feature in another television series in the following year playing the role of Jessica in Blink (2013). In 2015, she played the role of Cassie in the Strange Empire before landing a recurring role on Falling Skies as Evelyn. She then featured in Dead of Summer the following year (2016). Taylor landed a main role as Judy Robinson in science fiction Lost in Space (2018-19). The series is a remake of an earlier 1965 television series with the same title.
Since her debut in a television series, Taylor Russell has featured in a handful of television films and films. They include If I Had Wings (2013), Pants on Fire (2014), The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (2014), Suspension (2015), Before I Fall (2016), Sea Change (2017), Down a Dark Hall (2018), Hot Air (2018), Escape Room (2019), and Waves (2019). Taylor is part of the cast for Words on Bathroom Walls which started filming in 2019 in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Other Facts About Taylor Russell
Physical Appearance
The stunning actress has a fantastic body shape. She weighs around 55 kg and is 5 feet 5 inches tall. Her body measurements are is 34-25-34 inches for bust, waist, and hips respectively.
Taylor Russell and Lucas Hedges image source
The young actress seems to be concentrating on building her career right now and hasn’t officially declared herself in any relationship. Although there have been speculations here and there especially with her constant outings and ‘PDA’ with her fellow actor – Lucas Hedges which has definitely has sent tongues wagging, however, both have not commented whether or not the relationship is platonic.
Read Also: Brandon Call – Bio, Parents, Siblings, All About The American TV Actor
Asides acting, Taylor is some sort of a ‘book worm’. All her spare time is spent reading. She admits reading in between scenes and starting a book club on the set of Lost in Space, but soon she realized that others might not be as passionate as she is about reading as she ended up being the only member.
Taylor Russell has featured in some big productions that have become quite successful in the box office. Although her net worth is unknown, Taylor is a talented, fast-rising actress and from all indications, she has the prospects of making it big in the industry.
Taylor has been deliberate and careful in her use of social media. She generally uses her different accounts to update her fans about her current works and share lovely pictures of herself.
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Hailey Bieber insists money doesn't equal happiness
The 22-year-old model hit out after she was mocked for saying she was "grateful" for small things in life, prompting an Instagram user to question how she could enjoy the "smallest things in life" when her husband, singer Justin Bieber, is so wealthy
Hailey had shared three videos on her Instagram Story, in which she explained she was doing her best to appreciate the minor things that brought her happiness.
She wrote: "Taking time to really be grateful for the smallest things in life goes a very long way for you soul. Never hurts to remind yourself to have gratitude, even for the littlest of things.
"Today I'm grateful to be sitting in the sunshine eating lunch...may not seem like the biggest deal but reminding myself how wonderful it is made me smile.
"Thank you God for the little things... The smallest things in life will make you happy if you let them."
A fan account then compiled her story into a new post, prompting one follower to make fun of the 'Drop the Mic' host.
They wrote: "My husband is worth 265 million but it's the little things that make me happy ha ha ha."
Hailey quickly responded and insisted it was "not fair" to be so judgemental.
She wrote "Money doesn't = happiness. At all. You can be the wealthiest person in the planet and be miserable. Not fair to judge people's circumstances from the outside.. am I not allowed to be grateful to sit in the sunshine and enjoy my day like a regular person?"
Hailey's post came a few days after she spoke of how happy her 'Love Yourself' hitmaker husband makes her.
Alongside a picture of the 'Love Yourself' hitmaker standing in front of a green screen in a photography studio, she wrote: "my love you are an incredible man, you make me a better human being, you make me happier than I've ever been. Insanely proud of who you are and who you're becoming.. I love you more every single day. (sic)"
16 Jul: Heidi Klum will reportedly have another wedding on board a yacht next month
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Chrissy Teigen would be "thrilled" if her daughter married Kelly Clarkson's son
The Sports Illustrated model would love to see three-year-old Luna, whom she has with her husband John Legend, settle down with the 'Since U Been Gone' hitmaker's little boy Remington, three, because he's from the "most incredible family"
Speaking to 'Entertainment Tonight', the 33-year-old beauty said: "She [Kelly] has the most incredible family ... I'd be thrilled. I'd be thrilled."
Chrissy and Kelly have got to know one another really well since John joined 'The Voice' coaching panel and enjoy watching their children play together backstage.
Chrissy explained: "Our kids and her kids hang out backstage at 'The Voice', and River [Kelly's daughter] is just such a little... she, like, runs my daughter.
"She's like, 'Here's what you need to do.' She's, like, taken over backstage because she's been there longer, and it's adorable to see."
Kelly, 37, planted the wedding seed last week when she said that Luna and Remington would make the most beautiful babies because of their skin tones.
She said at the time: "My little boy, I told Chrissy, I want to marry Luna.
"They would make the most beautiful babies.
"Their skin tones, their eye colour, I'm like, 'What would that baby look like?' They probably think I'm weird. Definitely they probably think I'm weird."
But it's not just their genetics that are a good match as the 'Stronger' singer believes Remington, whom she has with her husband Brandon Blackstock, and Luna get on well because they have similar upbringings.
She explained: "I think it's fun to have other kids that kinda grow up in an environment... it's not normal. You know, it's not like an everyday scenario, like how we all grew up. So I like that they at least get people to hang out with every once in a while... with the same kinda vibe to where they don't feel weird."
Kelly also has four-year-old daughter River with her husband Brandon, while Chrissy and John have 11-month-old son Miles together.
16 Jul: Jennifer Lopez gave a lap dance to US soccer star Carli Lloyd after her team recently won the women's World Cup
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Author Interviews March 19, 2019 May 25, 2019
16 Questions – Peter Hartog And His New Book Bloodlines
Hey everybody. Welcome to the first ever House of 1000 Books author interview. Today I have the pleasure of introducing to you to Peter Hartog. He’s a Sci-Fi writer who recently released his first book called Bloodlines, and as you later find out in the interview, he is working on a second book called Pieces of Eight. He will tell you more about that in the conversation!
So with that, let’s get to it. Read on and enjoy the interview.
Topher H: Thanks for the time. I want to let you know that this is YOUR interview. If you want anything asked, feel free to write it in. If you want anything taken out, please feel free to take it out. I’m pretty easy on how we do this.
Let us start with what I like to call my series of hypothetical questions. Say, at the end of your career you had a chance to meet yourself before you began your writing career and you had a chance to tell yourself one thing about writing yourself about writing, what would it be?
Peter Hartog: Topher, thanks for the interview!
Since I’m at the beginning of my writing career, I have no idea what pitfalls lie between now and “the end”. But one thing has been clear from the get-go: you need a thick skin. Rejection is real and constant and the bane of anyone unprepared for it. If you can’t pick yourself up, you’ll never make it.
Writing, by itself, is its own reward. But for your work to be accepted, then published, that is an entirely different animal. I would remind myself to never give up, and to focus upon why I wrote Bloodlines, who inspired (and continues to inspire) me, and the boyhood dream that’s propelled me forward from the very beginning.
TH: Words have power. Some could lift a person others could destroy a person. Do you
recall an earlier time in your life where it dawned on you that language had the strength to do that?
PH: All you have to do is listen to Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream”, and that’s all you need to know about the positive, uplifting power of words. It’s so easy to fall prey to the antagonistic rhetoric of politics and so-called “noble” causes. The callous disregard of some folks that have a ready-made platform or create their own for the sole purpose of vilifying anyone who isn’t “you”, who doesn’t believe in what you believe, who aspire to bring down everyone else for personal gain. Those words, that power, is abused daily, and disgusts me. I combat that with treating people as I would want to be treated, and it’s something I try to reinforce with my children, so that they can incrementally help make the world a better place.
TH: What did your family members think about your writing when you first started it? Did they approve of it or did they think it was a waste of time?
PH: My wife, my greatest cheerleader and supporter, had been on my case for 14 years to write a novel. She became so tired of me manufacturing excuses as to why I wouldn’t, that she gave up pushing me a few years ago. When I finally sat down and put virtual pen to paper, she gave me a nod and a smile, then let me be me. I’ve only been met with support and encouragement, and I’m incredibly thankful for all of it.
TH: I read your bio, and in it, I saw that you may or may not Spider-man. I googled a fact; it turns out that Spider-man senses can be dulled. If you were Spider-man and your spidey senses were your writing, what could dull your spidey senses and slow down your writing of your book?
PH: Stress and exhaustion. My day job is both rewarding and taxing. I am the sole breadwinner in our family. Therefore, my focus is upon what pays the bills first. My own needs are secondary to my wife and my two boys.
Some days, I’m worn down by it all. When that happens, my creativity dies. I have no desire to sit before a screen and delve into strange new worlds. I’d much rather curl up and shut my mind off for a bit to recharge the batteries.
However, writing is like music. It ebbs and flows, flittering at the edge of my mind’s eye to soothe and cajole, inspire and engage. When the right tune pops on the radio or my iTunes, I start feeling the jazz and my mind races with possibilities. That’s when my “Spidey Sense” tingles, and I’m ready to blaze new adventures for Detective Tom Holliday and his eclectic team of malcontents.
TH: Hot off the press! You have a new book out. Can you please tell us about the book?
PH: I do!
The story is a blend of genres, combining elements of science fiction, crime, detective and urban fantasy. Think Blade Runner meets Harry Bosch and Harry Dresden.
It’s set in Empire City, a future dystopian version of New York City, where magic and technology co-exist, parallel dimensions spawn terrible threats, and humanity endures behind massive walls of stone and spell-forged steel.
Bloodlines follows the homicide investigation of a young woman, her body completely drained of blood down to a cellular level, and two eyewitnesses jacked on the designer drug Goldjoy claiming a vampire did it. Tom “Doc” Holliday, a disgraced homicide detective, is recruited to join Special Crimes, a semi-clandestine unit of special individuals solving cases by “any means necessary”.
Holliday is no stranger to the unusual. He possesses a fickle clairvoyance that he dubbed the “Insight” which allows him to see the dark and terrible things hiding upon his world. Throughout the novel, he also battles personal demons of his own – at the start of the story, he’s seven years removed from a corruption scandal, and a stint in a substance abuse rehab center where his girlfriend also committed suicide.
Accompanying Holliday is the irreverent Deacon Kole, a former Protector from the Confederate States of Birmingham, Leyla, a shrewd hacker who also wields magic, and Besim Saranda, an interdimensional being known as a Vellan with an agenda all her own.
From morgues and coffee houses, to underground drug labs and a foot-chase along the dirty streets of Empire City, the story ratchets up the intrigue, action, magic and suspense for a dark and fun ride.
Man, I just get goosebumps thinking about it!
TH: What made you want to write this book?
PH: Holliday’s story needed to be told, resonating with me unlike any other story I’d ever concocted before. The words flowed easily, and the chapters just piled up.
TH: Was there a goal in mind for the book?
PH: Yes. To write a complete novel. To share Holliday’s story with whoever wanted to read it. To prove to myself that I could do it.
TH: It takes a long time to write a book, how many hours a day did you write for?
PH: There’s no consistency to my writing time. With two young boys and a full-time job, my life is very busy. What I can say is I started in July of 2016 and hit the publish button August of 2018.
TH: After you wrote your first book, got it published, how did you change your thinking about writing?
PH: There’s writing, and the business of writing. I still know very little about the business end of things. A lot of that has to do with my lack of time as well as resources. If the question is solely about writing, my answer is I love every aspect of it, from planning, to writing, revising, editing, agonizing over plot points, discussing ideas with friends, or staring off into space wondering what’s next for my cast of crazy characters.
TH: Are any of the characters in the book based on real people? If so who?
PH: Leyla, Deacon and Besim are all based upon characters three of my best friends developed for our weekly Sunday night role-playing sessions. We’ve been gaming since the late 1980s, interrupted when I moved from Massachusetts to Georgia. They moved down here a few years later, and we’ve been table-topping ever since.
As for the actual story, I developed it and Empire City, then ran it as a role-playing game for my group for about a year and a half. I changed several aspects of their characters for novelization purposes, but essentially the renditions of Leyla, Deacon and Besim are a love letter to my friends, admiring their creative skills and paying homage to them as wonderful people.
TH: Do you wish that you would have written in anybody that you know of that you could just end up taking out your frustration out on? What would you do?
PH: No. That never comes up. It’s not in my nature to write in someone like that.
TH: How long did it take for your research for your book? How did you do it?
PH: Research was ongoing. Whenever I came up against something that I needed to know more about, I popped on the internet or checked in with some friends who are experts in certain fields. For example, a college friend of mine is a successful urologist in Long Island. I consulted with him regarding dialysis to make certain the chapter involving a similar process was handled accurately. In addition, another friend who is an Episcopalian minister in Michigan assisted me with a challenging chapter late in the novel that involves the taking of a life. As an author, authenticity and accuracy are keys to a successful story. I’m very thankful I know a lot of experts!
TH: What’s next for you? What are you working on?
PH: The sequel! It’s currently entitled Pieces of Eight. I’m slogging through chapter 22 and hope to have the first draft finished by the end of this year.
TH: Is your next book a sequel to the first where both books tie together? Or are you trying to keep them separate?
PH: See above.
TH: Did you edit anything out of the book so you could use it in the second book?
PH: I have several chapter’s worth of writing that I kept in case I needed it. So far, I haven’t used any, but you just never know!
TH: Is there anything that you want to add? Anything you want your readers to know?
PH: Every writer wishes he or she could make the NY Times list. Breaking into the traditional publishing industry feels like bludgeoning your head against a wall repeatedly, then doing it more when you think you can’t take it.
The truth is, you can’t give up.
I’ll continue to query literary agents, and maybe move on to publishers. However, make no mistake: there is no shame in self-publishing
That’s not why I’m continuing my search for representation, either. I simply want to see my book in a bookstore, just like every other writer out there. I’m extremely proud of my membership in the independently published ranks. There are oodles of extremely talented, and equally unheralded indies out there. And I will continue to support them on Twitter by purchasing their work and giving them as much exposure as an indie like me can provide.
Bloodlines is an entertaining story that combines many classic tropes into what I think is a pretty damn good book. It has all the elements a reader wants – humor, emotion, action, unique characters and a story to back it all up.
Sure, I’m biased, but I think if you give it a read, you might just think the same thing.
TH: And thank you for your time!
Are you interested in reading Bloodlines? Good news, the book comes in both the Kindle version or the paperback.
Filed under: author, Book Reviews, interview, new book, review, Writing
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5 thoughts on “16 Questions – Peter Hartog And His New Book Bloodlines”
Debauched Moralist says:
I just began my first novel, it’s giving me a huge high. I’m 11,000 words in and have posted 2 short pieces on my blog. The first is the opening chapter/prologue, the second is a semi-graphic sex scene that I just put together last night. I love constructive criticism if you have the time. This post was helpful, I will continue to follow your site in the future, for insight. Thank you.
House of 1000 Books says:
Thank you for stopping by. It sounds like you have a great start on the novel! You can connect on Twitter, and we can chat about it!
Pingback: Interview! – Peter Hartog – Official Site
V.M.Sang says:
Hi. I just saw you’re now following my blog and thought I’d stop by to see what you are doing. I like your interview, and wish all the best to Peter Hartogg with his new book. It sounds exciting, and I remember what it’s like to have your first book published. (I’m now on my 7th).
Looking forward to reading more.
Pingback: 5 Indie Author Books to Read This Weekend! – House of 1000 Books
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Faith Goldy banned from Facebook after site enforces extremism, hate policy — now what?
Global News with Veronica Kitchen 09 April 2019
On Monday, former Toronto mayoral candidate Faith Goldy and several others were banned from Facebook as the social media site said it was removing extremist groups and users that promote hate in an attempt to curb dangerous rhetoric on its platform.
Goldy was kicked off the social media site and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, along with white nationalist Kevin Goudreau, far-right group Soldiers of Odin and one of its offshoots, Canadian Infidels.
“Individuals and organizations who spread hate, attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are have no place (on) our services,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement.
“The individuals and organizations we have banned today violate this policy, and they will no longer be allowed a presence on our services.”
But what does kicking people off Facebook actually accomplish? Does banning certain people and groups address the larger issue of hate speech?
According to experts, a social media ban won’t fix the problem, but it’s a good first step.
Veronica Kitchen, an associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo, told Global News that “de-platforming” a person or a group can have positive effects.
“Facebook is probably the social media network that most people are on so if people are unable to access those groups… it’s certainly reducing the amount of people who hear their hateful ideas,” Kitchen said.
“I think there’s less evidence that (a ban) is going to be successful for those who are already inclined to support those views and support someone like Goldy.”
Megan Boler, a professor in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, told Global News that Facebook’s decision to ban hateful users is sending a clear message.
While Boler acknowledges that the corporation likely faced public pressure to remove certain users from Facebook and cares about its reputation, it was ultimately the right thing to do.
“I think, most significantly, (the Facebook ban) sends a message to multiple audiences and to the public… that this kind of incitement and this kind of hate speech is not acceptable and not condoned,” Boler said.
“Certainly to take no action is tantamount to saying that this kind of hate speech or… white supremacy is acceptable.”
Will hateful people go elsewhere?
Goldy, who was fired from her job at Rebel Media in 2017 after appearing on a podcast produced by a neo-Nazi website, may be off Facebook, but she is still very active on Twitter.
Since being removed from Facebook, she has tweeted advice about how her fans can support her, including donating money through her website and subscribing to her content.
Goldy is also still posting content on YouTube.
In a statement to Global News, a spokesperson from YouTube said that “hate speech and content that promotes violence have no place” on the platform.
“We also know that there will always be content that comes right up to that line but doesn’t cross it,” a spokesperson for YouTube said. “We’ve been working to reduce recommendations of borderline content and apply a set of restrictions that strips those videos of key features such as comments, suggested videos and likes.”
A spokesperson from Twitter declined to comment on individual users but pointed to the network’s rules and policies around hateful conduct. Twitter says that it does not tolerate hateful conduct or violence on the platform, including “symbols historically associated with hate groups, e.g., the Nazi swastika.”
These responses are not shocking to experts.
“The nature of the internet and web-based communications today is that there’s always workarounds,” Boler said. “The challenge of figuring out how to deal with other monopolies like Google and YouTube is very considerable.”
Fans may still follow
People who subscribe to a hateful ideology such as white nationalism are likely to congregate elsewhere online if they’re booted from one platform.
Kitchen says that since Goldy has her own follower base, getting kicked off Facebook doesn’t mean she’s not reaching an audience.
“There are other mechanisms for those people who are already inclined to seek her out to do so without very much difficulty,” she explained. “There’s also lots of other internet forums where it’s easier for these people to share their hateful views.”
Kitchen points to places like Reddit and 4chan where racist, sexist and hateful views are commonly expressed.
Robert Bowers, the 46-year-old man charged with killing 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue in October, was reportedly an active user of social network site Gab. Gab has been described as a right-wing social media site where anti-Semitic and anti-black content is often shared. (The site bills itself as a “free speech” platform.)
“There are corners of the web where people who are inclined to these sort of ideas can easily find an echo chamber where their views — or even more extreme views — are going to be reflected back to them,” Kitchen said.
How can Canadians curb hate in a meaningful way?
Boler said that hate speech and violent rhetoric on social media platforms targets people’s emotions, which is why they are effective.
To combat this, fostering in-person conversations is vital.
“One of the things that’s most important now is to sort of revitalize some of the face-to-face public gatherings and public pedagogues in educational spaces where we could have these kinds of large-scale conversations about difficult topics,” Boler explained.
Kitchen said it’s also important for people in positions of power to stand up against hate and speak out against misinformation and violent rhetoric. She points to journalists, teachers and politicians as important figures in combating dangerous groups and ideas.
“Arguments about freedom of expression are used in places where they don’t belong,” Kitchen said.
“A private institution is not required to give a platform to anybody.”
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Philippines keeps telling Canada to pick up its trash — why is it still there?
Global News with Dayna Nadine Scott 24 April 2019
Canadian garbage has been sitting in the Philippines for about six years — and the country’s president is now threatening war over it.
President Rodrigo Duterte, who is known to make controversial statements, told local media on Tuesday he will “declare war” against Canada if the situation isn’t dealt with in the coming week.
“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail to Canada and dump their garbage there,” Duterte said.
“Celebrate because your garbage is coming home,” he added. “Eat it if you want to.”
This is far from the first time Filipino officials have called on Canada to do something about the rotting garbage, which was shipped over by a private Canadian firm in 2013 and 2014.
So why hasn’t Canada done anything about it yet?
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been saying for several years that the government is working on a solution, but details, or even a generic plan, have not been revealed.
Global News reached out to Global Affairs Canada on Wednesday, asking how the government is dealing with the situation in light of Duterte’s latest statement. Global Affairs responded by referring Global News to Environment Minister Catherine McKenna’s office.
“Canada is strongly committed to collaborating with the Philippines government to resolve this issue and is aware of the court decision ordering the importer to ship the material back to Canada,” a statement from McKenna’s press secretary, Sabrina Kim, read.
“Currently, a joint technical working group, consisting of officials from both countries, is examining the full spectrum of issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution,” Kim said.
The statement, which echoes previous comments given to the media, did not address Duterte’s recent threat to “declare war” or give a timeline on when the issue may be resolved.
Dayna Scott, an associate professor at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School who works in environmental law, explained to Global News that the whole situation harms Canada’s reputation.
“This case is garnering so much attention because it’s an example of what the environmental justice movement has been saying for a long time — pollution flows according to a power gradient, from the most powerful to the least powerful,” Scott explained.
“It’s on us, really. It’s our garbage, it’s poisoning people around the world and now it’s on us to fix.”
A brief history of the garbage dispute
This garbage dispute has been ongoing since before Trudeau’s time in office.
The shipping containers arrived in Manila in 2013 and 2014, after Philippine officials say an Ontario-based private firm falsely declared the containers held recyclable materials.
But it later turned out that it was actually household trash — inspectors even found used adult diapers. Filipino media reports say there could be as much as 2,500 tons of trash in 103 shipping containers.
The Philippines has since been calling on Canada to take the trash back. A Manila court ordered the private importers in 2016 to ship the waste back to Canada.
Trudeau indicated in 2017 that is something Canada may do.
Canadian regulations “prevented us from being able to receive the waste back in Canada,” Trudeau said at the time. He said those legal barriers have been dealt with “so it is now theoretically possible to get it back.”
Lingering issues, however, including the consequences of the commercial transaction, which “did not involve government,” were delaying the resolution of the problem, Trudeau said.
Scott explained that there could be some credibility to that claim, since the company allegedly “used deception or was unscrupulous in its business methods.”
Of 103 shipping containers that entered Manila, the waste from 26 containers was buried in a landfill in Tarlac province north of Manila.
Canada may be in violation of international pact
The disagreement has prompted criticism from environmental groups who say Canada has violated an international convention.
Advocates say the shipments violate multiple parts of the Basel Convention, a 30-year-old treaty that Canada signed in 1989 that prevents countries from shipping hazardous waste to the developing world without consent.
Anthony Ho, a lawyer for the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation, said containers should have been shipped back to Canada within 30 days of the Canadian government being made aware of them under the convention.
However, Canadian authorities have argued the convention didn’t apply at the time of the shipments because the country didn’t consider the waste to be hazardous.
Canada amended the regulations in 2016 so that it now applies the convention as long as the country receiving the goods believes they are hazardous, even if Canada does not.
Earlier this month, a number of environmental and advocacy groups, including rightoncanada.ca, the Canadian Environmental Law Association and the EcoWaste Coalition in the Philippines, urged Trudeau to finally order his officials to bring the containers back to Canada for disposal.
Scott pointed out that Canada is a signatory to the Basel Convention but not the Basel ban amendment, which further limits materials that developed countries can ship to developing countries.
“The fact that Canadian trash is there clogging up ports in Manila is actually an indictment of our position. We should reverse our position on the Basel ban amendment,” Scott said.
“Then, obviously, we need to engage in negotiations to try to get this garbage back or to pay to deal with it in an environmentally appropriate way.”
Complicated history between Trudeau, Duterte
This garbage dispute has been a source of tension between Trudeau and Duterte, although the Filipino leader is deemed controversial for numerous other reasons as well.
Last year, Duterte ordered the cancellation of a multi-million-dollar agreement to buy 16 helicopters from Canada after the government decided to review the deal due to concerns the Philippine military might use the aircraft in counterinsurgency assaults.
At the time, Duterte questioned whether Trudeau understood the “history of the world and geopolitics.”
Duterte added that his government wanted to carry on with the helicopter deal, but Trudeau insisted on “pretending to be peaceful.”
Earlier in 2017, Duterte attacked Trudeau at the end of a summit of Asian and western nations for raising questions about his war on drugs.
“I said I will not explain. It is a personal and official insult,” the Philippines president said in the course of a rambling answer, although he did not refer to Trudeau by name.
“I only answer to the Filipino. I will not answer to any other bulls**t, especially foreigners. Lay off.”
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New investment, new models of funding the way forward
Infrastructure Journalist, November 16, 2016 November 17, 2016 , Policy, Road, Technology, 0
by Philip Davies, Chief Executive Infrastructure Australia
As Australians, we are lucky to have access to world-class infrastructure that has supported two decades of uninterrupted economic growth and contributed to our enviable quality of life. But we are undergoing a period of profound change and in 15 years’ time, we will live in a very different nation to the one we see today.
The Australian Infrastructure Audit found that our population is expected to grow to over 30 million by 2031. During this period our four largest cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – will increase in population by 50 per cent.
Our growing population represents a significant economic opportunity for Australia. It provides a larger domestic market for businesses, increases the size of the labour force, and facilitates the injection of new ideas. But it also puts additional pressure on infrastructure services that are already subject to high levels of demand.
In a user pays network, all revenue collected can be directed back into roads projects.
The Australian Infrastructure Plan
As the nation’s independent infrastructure advisor, Infrastructure Australia encourages governments to be more strategic about preparing for changes in infrastructure demand, and invest in the projects that deliver the best outcomes for our growing communities.
In February 2016, we delivered the first 15-year Australian Infrastructure Plan, which set out a clear pathway of reforms to address today’s infrastructure gaps and set us up to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
The plan is a reform document based on substantial research and input from a broad range of stakeholders. It provides a roadmap to address our infrastructure gaps and ensure Australians have access to infrastructure that supports innovation and secures prosperity.
Our recommendations include investing in technologies to make better use of existing infrastructure, overhauling the way we plan and select projects, and diversifying the pool of infrastructure funding.
Better use of existing infrastructure
As a first step, Australian governments should increase funding for investments in projects and technologies that make better use of existing infrastructure. In practice, this means embracing technologies that drive greater efficiency across our infrastructure networks.
Investing in technologies that allow operators to generate, collect and use data will be fundamental to driving real improvements in the efficiency of infrastructure service delivery.
For example, intelligent transport systems can triple the utilisation of an asset through better management of the road network and the vehicles using it.
On a section of the Monash Freeway in Melbourne, the installation of electronic signs to improve traffic flow and additional CCTV cameras has already helped increase capacity in each lane by close to 20 per cent.
Similarly, across suburban and intercity rail networks, investing in automatic train control and signalling systems can improve efficiency and safety. By continuously monitoring the movements of trains on lines and at stations, these systems provide real-time data to central management systems.
These technologies reduce the scope for human error, automatically detect faults and allow trains to travel at shorter intervals, enabling the safe scheduling of more frequent train services.
Importantly, these relatively modest investments can deliver significant productivity gains and improvements in customer experience.
While these initiatives generally do not alleviate the need for large-scale projects, smaller investments can complement or delay the need for larger investments.
Overhauling the way we plan and select projects
Beyond making better use of existing infrastructure, considered and well-thought-through infrastructure investment will be vital in managing Australia’s future population growth.
Long-term infrastructure planning is needed to help governments better prepare for changes in demand, identify emerging issues and create investment certainty. But it must also go hand in hand with a robust process for selecting projects that deliver the best outcomes for infrastructure users.
Our updated Infrastructure Priority List, released alongside the plan in February, provides a prioritised list of nationally significant investments and guidance to decision makers on where they should direct funding.
Assessing projects for inclusion on the list involves interrogating the individual costs and benefits of a proposed investment to determine whether it has the potential to meet an identified infrastructure need. We also assess the project’s strategic fit, deliverability and economic, social and environmental impacts.
This encourages more strategic consideration of infrastructure problems and the best way to address them.
Reflecting a consensus of submissions from Australian governments and key stakeholders, the list advocates for new metro rail systems in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and an efficient in-land rail freight route.
Nationally, the list also highlights the importance of protecting new corridors for ring roads around our capital cities and upgrading key freight routes. Urban renewal is another important focus, while integrated projects to support economic hotspots like Western Sydney are identified as priority initiatives.
A user pays system is the fairest way of paying for our roads, says Philip Davies.
Addressing the infrastructure funding gap
While the Infrastructure Priority List works to guide investment decisions on projects that represent the most productive use of our infrastructure funding, it is clear that current levels of expenditure will be insufficient to meet our long-term needs.
Increasing budget pressures to fund health and welfare services means that Australia’s states and territories can no longer rely on taxpayer funds alone to meet infrastructure needs. Diversifying the pool of funding available for public infrastructure investment must therefore be a major priority.
One of the key opportunities to do this, as identified in the Australian Infrastructure Plan, is changing our approach to how we pay for roads.
Australians currently pay to use the road network through a combination of fuel excise (paid per litre of fuel purchased), vehicle registration charges and stamp duty. But this system is unfair, inefficient and increasingly unsustainable.
Our current system for funding roads is unfair because the link between usage and charging is weak. Taxpayers currently subsidise all road users, meaning those who use the network less are in effect paying a subsidy to support those who use it most.
The system is also inefficient because road users do not receive price signals to minimise their impact on other users and the broader network. The result is a network that is chronically congested for portions of the day, but with excess capacity across most of the 24-hour cycle.
But the biggest problem with our current system of paying for roads is that it is simply unsustainable. Since its introduction over 100 years ago, fuel excise has been an effective way of paying for roads. However today, fuel excise raises less than half of what Australian governments, of all levels, spend on roads.
This fall in revenue will accelerate over coming decades as we shift towards more fuel efficient vehicles, meaning we will be collecting less from users while the costs to build and maintain road networks continues to grow.
A new approach to paying for roads
Australia needs to introduce a new road user charging framework. Under a fairer user-pays system, all existing taxes would be removed and replaced with direct charging that reflects a driver’s consumption of the network, including the location, time and distance of travel, and the individual impacts of their vehicle.
Importantly, under this model all revenue collected could be reinvested back into the road network. This differs from the current approach where taxes and charges are allocated to various government spending priorities – both in transport and other areas.
Changing how we pay for roads will not be easy, but it will deliver improvements in network performance, address fairness issues and provide a sustainable source of funding for roads.
Some motorists may be concerned about what these changes will mean for them. This is understandable, and it’s why an open discussion about these proposals is as important as the reform itself.
Infrastructure Australia has recommended that the Australian Government initiates a public inquiry into the existing funding framework for roads and the development of a fairer road user charging reform pathway. The inquiry should be supported by large-scale voluntary trials of road user charging options.
The good news is the pathway to reform is likely to stretch over the next decade, so we have the time to get things right.
You can read more about user pays in the Australian Infrastructure Plan at: www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au.
Telematics trial to improve driver behaviour
Jess, April 3, 2018 May 29, 2018 , News, NSW, Road, Safety, 0
The NSW Government will undertake an innovative trial with in-car technology to be installed in cars of young drivers...
Why roads of the future need to embrace disruption
Infrastructure Journalist, March 21, 2017 October 3, 2017 , Asset Management, Featured, Road, Technology, Transport, 0
In the world of infrastructure, there are very few sectors that aren’t facing significant disruption, and for the roads...
40-year transport vision for regional NSW
Infrastructure Journalist, March 21, 2018 March 27, 2018 , News, NSW, Planning, Policy, Transport, 0
The NSW Government has unveiled its 40-year blueprint for the future of the transport system in regional NSW. The...
Architects selected for Melbourne Arts Precinct redevelopment
Kim Ho, February 22, 2019 February 22, 2019 , Company news, Contracts awarded, Investment & Financing, News, Planning, Policy, Project, Smart Cities, Urban Development, VIC, 0
The Victorian Government has appointed two design practices based in Melbourne and New York to design a new public...
Darwin revitalisation project enters Stage 2
Kim Ho, February 1, 2019 February 1, 2019 , Asset Management, Logistics, News, NT, Planning, Policy, Urban Development, 0
The Northern Territory Planning Commission has commenced Stage 2 of the Central Darwin Area Plan (CDAP). The planning process...
Smart cities planning for Western Sydney Aerotropolis
Kim Ho, July 8, 2019 July 15, 2019 , Airport, News, NSW, Planning, Policy, Regional, Smart Cities, Urban Development, 0
Smart cities technologies and strategies will inform the planning of Western Sydney’s new Aerotropolis, set to become Australia’s third...
$12 million funding for positioning technology
Lauren Cella, January 18, 2017 January 18, 2017 , ACT, Construction, Investment, News, NSW, NT, Planning, Policy, Port, QLD, Rail, Road, SA, TAS, Technology, VIC, WA, 0
The Federal Government will invest $12 million in a two-year program exploring the use of positioning technology in Australian...
How sustainability can be delivered: a case study
Infrastructure Journalist, June 7, 2018 June 7, 2018 , Construction, Featured, Road, Sustainability, WA, 0
Late last year, Main Roads Western Australia’s Northlink WA Southern Section (NLWA-SS) was awarded the Infrastructure Sustainability Council of...
Government seeks input on value captureUsing transport to drive economic growth
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Mike Brey Notebook | Summer
Tweet Share (57) Jump to Discussion
Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey spoke following Tuesday’s practice to provide an update on the summer.
On the team:
“I think we’re a little older. I don’t know how much better I’ll be able to evaluate until we start playing other people. It starts difficult at North Carolina, but I will say our rising sophomore class all talk more and are more comfortable. That’s a big step forward right there.”
On sophomores having experience:
“They have to grow. Even the first workout we had two weeks ago, all five of them are saying more. That’s why I am continually coming back to them on defense and them having to talk. If I would have done that a year ago or in February, I couldn’t have got them to say anything.”
On enthusiasm during Tuesday’s practice:
“The kids want to work. We have a great group of guys who have a little chip on their shoulder. We’re all disappointed in last season and we’re trying to regain some momentum. We don’t have Rex (Pflueger) here during the day because he’s so busy with the Master’s program and a couple other guys are a little banged up.
“It’s good competition. I’m excited about next week because some of our pro guys will be back. They’ll be here for the week, so the pickup games will be awesome.”
On pro guys returning:
“This facility is now a magnet to get them back. I couldn’t get them back. It wasn’t because they didn’t like the place, but they didn’t want to get hit in the head with a baton while trying to get to the gym. We have an alumni locker room and they will be here for the week. I think it’s going to be an annual thing.
“Connaughton is the ring leader for this and there will be about 10 of them back. It’s great for our guys to be around them and let them teach, coach and eat with them. We can do it annually because of this facility.”
On Dane Goodwin and Juwan Durham playing overseas this summer:
“It was good for them. They all got to play a lot. Durham helped win the last game with a lot of blocks. Dane was banged up with an ankle, but he still went. We’re going to send John (Mooney) to Providence. Ed Cooley and the Big East All-Stars will be our Pan American team. They are bringing in some guys to practice against them and John will go up there at the end of July.”
On Robby Carmody:
“He gives us some toughness. I think there was one charge and one guy dove on the floor and it was Carmody. I’m excited to have him back.”
On Prentiss Hubb:
“I think he’s going to be a solid shooter. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a knockdown guy. He’s a better shooter than last year. It’s just a matter of getting a better feel for it, being more confident and being more of a veteran.
“He played a lot of basketball against great guards and he’s better for it.”
On John Mooney being underrated:
“We’ll go into Media Day in October and I’m sure he’ll be a first-team All-League guy. I think people did double-takes on the double-doubles. They were almost like ‘No, not Mooney.’ He’s a great story of guys getting better here.
“He’s a machine. With him and TJ is not killing them this summer. They want to do everything. They are going to play a lot of minutes and we have to keep those legs fresh.”
On TJ Gibbs:
“Prentiss playing with him, Dane and Robby being a year older and knowing how to help him and then Rex with him is really good. Rex continues to make progress. TJ felt he had to do more and he did because we were desperate at times.
“He needs to let it come to him, make open shots and not force plays. I felt for him last year because he was stranded trying to do it all. It wasn’t him. He can just let it happen and read the defense.
“If you watch the decisions he makes with the ball, I use him as an example with our young guys. He makes great reads. He finds open people and it comes back to him for an open shot. I can help him better and put him in some spots.”
On Rex Pflueger:
“He’s doing good and on schedule. He has a very grinding academic schedule. The Master’s program in the summer is intense. They crush you. He’s in school 9-3 and he’ll go to school until August 16th. Our guys leave the 25th and he’ll still be in school.
“The fall and spring come back to earth. He’s doing his rehab. You know Rex, he thinks he’ll be back before he should. I’m looking at November 1st and he should be moving pretty good on it.”
On Nate Laszewski:
“We didn’t win a lot of games, but Dane and Nate played better the last couple of games. I don’t want it to be lost even though we didn’t win. After Nate missed the free throw against Clemson, he played great. That tells you the character the kid has and he was upset and bounced back.”
On Scott Martin joining the staff:
“He’s always had a great mind and feel for the game. He was one of those guys who understood how to play. I always told him he was going to be the head coach at Valpo one day. He’s sharp. He can really help a Nate (Laszewski) and John because they play like him.”
On summer changes:
“We’ve changed our lifting program. It’s four days a week instead of three. We need more strength development. They know the road back is hard, but they have good habits. It’s a group who has hung together and have each others back. That’s a good start as we climb back up the ladder.
“The league loses a lot of men, which may be as important as hard work. We’re getting a little bit older and the league is going through the rotation of losing some flat out men.”
On staying healthy:
“We had a three-year run where we almost had nothing and it’s really been a cycle. You ride it out. We even tested the arena floor last year after Bonzie’s stuff. You think about everything. We’ve really been bitten by it.
“Sometimes you have to ride it out and wait for some good karma to come on the health front. We went 40 minutes today. They want to go more, but that’s good. Next week will be great because the pro guys will be back to play.”
On his mindset this summer:
“I’m recharged. It took me a while. That was the toughest year I’ve had in basketball as a head coach. It really was hard. The youth, the men we played against and how great our league was – it was also tough because we would play our backsides off and be in that thing for 30-35 minutes, but it wasn’t as close. I knew it wasn’t as close as they thought, but it was still crushing for them.
“The kids who come here haven’t failed much. Handling failure overall at this place is a little hard for this group. If we get this thing going, it will be a good reference point for us one day. I would hope they look back and know they got it handed to them and they grew from it.”
WATCH | Notre Basketball Practice Highlights 7.9
More Basketball
ISD Video | Summer Work For Notre Dame's Pro Hoopers
ISD Video | Pat Connaughton & Jerian Grant
Notre Dame Hoops | Non-Conference Schedule Released
Pretty cool stuff from Jay Bilas today
Tweet Share (57)
Tags: Mike Brey, Basketball, Notre Dame
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Environmental Regulations Matter When Manufacturing in Mexico
Increased trade between Mexico and the U.S. translates to more U.S. businesses leveraging the nearshoring advantages of manufacturing in Mexico. As a result, an understanding of the the country's regulatory structure surrounding the environment is crucial. It is important to realize that changes to Mexico's regulations and greater enforcement of environmental laws are the new norm because of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Understanding the Legal System in Mexico
Before manufacturing in Mexico or even gaining a thorough grasp of how the government regulates and enforces environmental protection, it is important to first understand the country's legal system at a higher level. Similar to the U.S., Mexico has a national federal system of government and is made up of 31 states. However, Mexico's national government has notably more power over state legislation than the national governments in the U.S. or Canada.
Another fundamental difference is that while U.S. attorneys and judges can draft many pieces of legislation based on their own interpretation of the law, Mexico relies on codes as its primary source of law. This is because the federal constitution in Mexico is the basis for all the country's laws.
The 1917 Political Constitution of the United Mexican States is the current rule of law, with active amendments. The Mexican constitution includes economic, social and cultural rights of the Mexican people and calls for a federal government that takes an active role in promoting those rights. That being said, Mexico's federal government has more power to enforce environmental regulations than the U.S. government has regarding individual states.
"Much of Mexico's ecological regulatory environment stems from 1987."
Key Environmental Regulations
Much of Mexico's ecological regulatory environment stems from 1987, when the country amended its constitution to allow congress the authority to enact laws promoting the participation of federal, state and local authorities in environmental issues and to impose limitations on the use and ownership of real property.
Thus emerged the General Ecology Law, or LGEEPA, which addresses a broad range of environmental concerns including water, air and ground pollution, resource conservation, and environmental enforcement. This law closely resembles a number of U.S. statutes including the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The Mexican law encompasses many issues that come with the growing industrialization of the country, unlike most American laws which were individually formed in response to specific ecological circumstances.
In Mexico, environmental protection is a top governmental concern.
In 1992 the LGEEPA was amended. One of the most important changes was that the law gave power to local authorities to enforce their own regulations. In 1997 the Secretariat of the Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries was created, and is still in charge of enforcing the country's environmental regulations today. While the LGEEPA is the basis for Mexico's environmental management process, there are a handful of key regulations businesses should be aware of before manufacturing in Mexico:
Water pollution - Under the National Waters law, key functions in the water sector are the responsibility of the federal government, through the National Water Commission (CNA). Extraction of national waters, discharge of wastewater and occupation of federal water zones all require authorization issued by the CNA. Violators can be held financially responsible for breach of permit under this law.
Air pollution - Under Mexican environmental law, all sources of air pollution are regulated. Additionally, many manufacturing sites will be subject to federal jurisdiction, regardless of the municipality in which they are located. As such, all stationary sources of air pollution (such as a factory) must obtain an operating license for emissions. The current law, however, does not outline compensation responsibilities for air pollution.
Waste - According to the law, the Mexican government defines waste as hazardous waste, special management waste and solid waste. The law prohibits people from generating, storing, transporting or disposing hazardous waste without the appropriate permits. Manufacturers should know that while the storage of self-generated hazardous waste does not require a specific permit, the facility where the waste is stored must meet specifications.
A Move Toward Sustainable Energy in Mexico
Beyond key regulations, it is important that manufacturers in Mexico understand the country's position on sustainable energy and climate change. For one, the country is committed to reducing its global carbon footprint. In fact, Bloomberg News reported that in early 2015, Mexico became the first developing country to formally promise to cut pollution tied to climate change, pledging a 25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.
Moreover, as Mexico becomes more industrialized, its economic growth often leads to higher environmental regulation. This is especially the case when it comes to energy. Toward the end of 2013, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto introduced constitutional amendments that ended the state's monopoly on the energy sector, opening the country's doors to foreign investment. The Mexican Energy Reform promoted capital and resources to increase energy production and decrease energy costs to consumers.
One of the main components of Mexico's 2013 Energy Reform is to enable the country to stay in compliance with global ecological agreements by increasing the use of green energy producers like solar power. With these changes, the Energy Reform also opened their energy market to private companies in hopes of expanding the electrical infrastructure.
While these reforms were a marvelous feat and an entryway toward expanded economic growth, many environmental organizations were concerned about the ecological impact. However, SWCA pointed out that as part of the changes, the Mexican government committed to a goal of 30 percent clean energy production by 2023 and included language surrounding regulatory oversight funding for enforcement personnel and penalties for non-compliance.
Due to Mexico's recently opened energy market, more investors see opportunities for growth within its borders. That being said, it is important to understand how the country ensures environmental safety while simultaneously promoting long-term economic growth.
Environmental Protection at the Border
Finally, manufacturers in Mexico must understand the complex issue of environmental protection at the border. Often times, manufacturing activity in both Mexico and the U.S. leads to runoff pollution at the border, which has prompted environmental action and mutual agreements. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the organization granted more than $450,000 to fund environmental projects along the Texas and New Mexico U.S-Mexico border.
This move marked the beginning of the Border 2020 Program, implemented under the 1983 La Paz Agreement. The program builds off of the Border 2012 program, emphasizing regional, bottom-up approaches for decision making, priority setting, and project implementation to address the environmental and public health problems in the border region.
The U.S. and Mexico are strong trading partners who have a keen interest in maintaining positive relations. While their political structures are very different, both nations take important steps toward environmental regulation to ensure their economies continue to thrive, and initiatives at the border is just one example.
Mexico makes environmental protection a priority in order to maintain positive relations with other global economies, which enables businesses to run profitable operations within its borders. Understanding how to work with environmental regulations when expanding to Mexico can help your company reach its full manufacturing potential.
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A first-look photo from Ody C. Harahap's upcoming action comedy 'Hit N Run,' starring Jefri Nichol, Joe Taslim and Chandra Liow. (Photo courtesy of Screenplay Films)
Joe Taslim to Star in New Action Comedy 'Hit N Run'
BY : DHANIA SARAHTIKA
Jakarta. Action star Joe Taslim, Tatjana Saphira and Jefri Nichol are among big names ready to kick ass in an upcoming action-comedy movie "Hit N Run," slated for a release sometime in the middle of this year.
Directed by Ody C. Harahap, better known as a comedy drama specialist, with a screenplay by Upi, Hit and Run will star Joe Taslim as Tegar, a heroic, skilled and narcissistic cop on a mission to catch some bad guys.
Not much of the plot has been revealed, but Joe has promised a balanced proportion between action and comedy. He also pointed out that compared to neighboring countries like Thailand and South Korea, Indonesia does not produce too many action comedies.
Joe half lamented the fact that most Indonesian action flicks are rated 17+ or 21+ due to their intense violence.
"Our action movies are mostly too gory or too dark so they’re not for everyone. We tried to make an action comedy that teens can watch," he said in a press conference in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Thursday.
Joe said Hit N Run also tries to avoid the tedency to downplay logic and choreography in fight scenes in some action movies in order to deliver the humor.
"The humor should come from the characters, not from some slapsticks. When the action scenes come, there’s no slipping on the floor or such. It will look cool. The characters will really fight for their life," Joe said.
The "Star Trek Beyond" actor promised the film will be fun and the action scenes stylish, with choreography being done by Iko Uwais' Uwais Team, which Joe considers "one of the best [action choreographers] in the world."
The film also marks Joe’s debut as both a creative producer and a lead actor in a box office release. Joe’s previous lead role was in "The Night Comes for Us," which was only released on Netflix.
Actress Tatjana Saphira, who previously starred in the Indonesian remake of Korean comedy "Sweet 20," is a first-timer in action movies. She plays Meisa, a singer with surprisingly nimble fighting skills.
Another actor making his action debut is Chandra Liow, a YouTuber and social media influencer with over 1.6 million followers on Instagram, whose previous silver-screen experience was starring in Raditya Dika and Sunil Soraya’s "Single" (2015).
"I simply jumped at the chance to collaborate with Joe Taslim. He's an inspiring figure for me, and a very accomplished action actor," said Chandra, who plays a villain in the film.
Though Chandra hasn’t had much acting experience, Joe singled him out for a praise because Chandra acted, directed and produced his own YouTube videos.
"He’s not just a content creator. He’s an artist. Others make YouTube videos just to get more subscribers, but Chandra puts serious effort into his videos," Joe said.
"HIt N Run" will also feature seasoned action star Yayan Ruhiyan and newcomer Caitlin North Lewis.
The film will also feature real martial arts athletes, among them David Hendrawan, a wushu gold medalist at the 2016 National Sports Week (PON), Peter Taslim, three-time Southeast Asian Games gold medalist in judo and Simone Julia, a jujitsu athlete who competed in the Asian Games last year.
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Home Media News Blog Who is the Best CEO in America? Jessup Partner Pat Gelsinger of VMWare.
Longtime William Jessup University partner, donor, and friend Pat Gelsinger was just named Best CEO in America by Bloomberg. Check out the article here.
Bloomberg’s Best CEO rankings were facilitated through an annual survey conducted by the employment ranking website Glassdoor. Patrick Gelsinger, the chief executive officer of Silicon Valley software maker VMware Inc., came out as the best CEO of any company in the United States. While Bloomberg reported the results and Glassdoor facilitated the survey, this honor was effectively bestowed on Mr. Gelsinger by the employees of VMWare itself.
Gelsinger, who has been a longtime partner, supporter and friend of William Jessup University, has spent the last seven years serving as CEO of the Palo Alto, California-based company VMware, which specializes in virtualization software. Worth noting, this is not Gelsinger’s first time making the list of top 100 CEO’s in America.
Pat Gelsinger – Chapel
Gelsinger Village
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“Eazy-B” answers the hard questions
Sky Barratt, Staff Writer
Many people keep a diary, be it in the form of the notes app on an iPhone, or an old notebook overflowing with words and mementos. These aren’t something people would normally share as usually, these secret thoughts are locked away via thumbprint or wedged under a mattress. However, senior Brandon Engel publishes his innermost thoughts under the name “Eazy-B” and in the form of rap music.
“For myself, it’s like a journal of my life,” Engel said. “I can go back and look at [my songs] and it all means something to me. It’s a way for me to express myself and what I’m thinking and feeling, or something that I want to reprimand. It’s just a good way for me to be able to put those things together into words and satisfy them.”
Engel’s rap career all started when Engel was in elementary school and began writing songs.
“I just found this binder full of songs that I’d wrote that had no music to them or anything,” Engel said. “I just like to write lyrics and that’s what it comes down to. Just expressing [myself] through that. It evolved [from there].”
It was in the eighth grade that Engel’s lyrics turned into rhymes, and freshman year when Engel and senior Drew Birnbaum formed a group called “Trashy White Kids,” or TWK, as a spin-off of hip-hop group NWA. Engel’s rap name, “Eazy-B,” is also a spin-off of NWA’s group member Eric Wright known as “Eazy-E.”
Since then, Engel has started rapping on his own and recording with a USB mic. On September 1 2017, Engel released his first album, This Life Isn’t Easy, and on September 7 2018, he released No Eazy Answers.
However, the writing process for both albums lasted much longer.
“I am constantly messing with ideas in my head and pondering stuff that resonates with me,” Engel said. He searches for beats until he finds one that resonates with him. “I’ll almost start freestyling on that and that’s where I kind of decide the true heart and message of the song. From there I go into actually writing the song and depending on the level of inspiration I’m feeling for a certain topic, the writing takes me anywhere from two days to three or four months.”
Engel described that he typically has pre-existing ideas for songs that he’ll piece together over time as well.
“For this album,” Engel said, “there was at least four or five partially complete songs that I trashed and countless ideas.”
Engel said that every song published on his new album was carefully thought out, although he has his favorites.
“There were no throw-away songs that I put on [No Eazy Answers],” Engel said. “It came down to ‘The Power of the Pen’ and ‘Insecurity.’ Those are my two favorite. The first time I listened to ‘The Power of the Pen’ all the way through with everything- the raw recording of myself- my eyes watered. I didn’t start crying, but my eyes teared up. And the first verse of ‘Insecurity’ is really raw and real.”
Engel said that publishing these innermost thoughts and the verses he’s poured time into can be intimidating.
“Sometimes someone will come up and say ‘I listened to your song’ and I’m like ‘I don’t know if I wanted you to hear that. I don’t know if I wanted you to hear the things that I said.’ But you just have to be confident in what you do and [what I wrote] is what I meant. I meant what I meant,” Engel said.
Engel confided that it can be difficult when people who listen to his music don’t take it- or him- seriously.
“I think I said it in one of my songs, but it’s the sarcasm you get from people who don’t take it seriously or are making a joke out of it,” Engel said. “There are some people who you just know are going to take it as a joke. I don’t know how to say it, but you can tell when people are ingenuine. It’s hard to take yourself seriously, but then not get hurt by teasing.”
Luckily, this isn’t always the case.
“There has been so much positive feedback from the release of No Eazy Answers that I’m literally overwhelmed,” Engel said. “I’ve got my mom’s friends telling me how good of a job I did on this.”
As for the future of Engel’s rapping career as Eazy-B, there are no real certainties. Even the release of No Eazy Answers was never certain, it just came together as the music did.
“A career out of [doing rap] would be difficult. For now it’s just a thing that I enjoy doing and it benefits me and allows me to get myself out [of my head],” Engel said. “I do see music as a very valuable thing. I know some people would be like ‘Oh you make rap music, you’re a Soundcloud rapper’ blah blah blah, whatever, but the way I see it is if you have the ear of the youth generation, do you understand how powerful that is? This is the next generation that you’re speaking to. If they’re at your disposal, that’s very powerful.”
For those of you interested in listening to Engel’s music, you can find him as “Eazy-B” on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.
“Except soundcloud, because I can’t stand the Soundcloud rapper stereotype thing.”
At the end of the day, Engel’s music isn’t just for his listener’s enjoyment, and it isn’t just a form of therapy for Engel. While he uses his art form to speak what’s on his mind, Engel said ultimately, he just hopes his music can make a difference in someone’s life.
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MEP Services
Title 24 Report & Energy Analysis
Heating, A/C & Ventilation Design
Facilities System Design
Plumbing Design
Fire Sprinkler Design
Solar Design
Khalifeh & Associates Incorporates Energy Efficiency and Flexibility for the New Beckman YOLA Center Designed by Frank Gehry
The MEP Consultants Los Angeles Can Trust
Compliance to Title 24
TITLE 24: Complying with Efficient Energy Use
Making Sure Your Building is Up to California Code – Title 24 Compliance
The Los Angeles Philharmonic unveiled its new design plans for a new concert and rehearsal space by highly acclaimed architect, Frank Gehry. With a strong commitment to music education, the new Judith and Thomas L. Beckman Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) Center is located in Inglewood, California, replacing a former Security Pacific Bank.
Gehry, who designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall, worked closely with Music and Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel to design the 25,000-square-foot space. The $14.5 million construction project will encompass a light-filled facility equipped for rehearsals, gatherings, classes and performances. Students will have access to music professionals from around the world, which will empower, educate and help the youth from the Los Angeles County.
We are so excited to share that our engineering firm, Khalifeh and Associates, provided many services on this amazing project. We are proud that our work will enable so much community engagement to the city of Los Angeles! The new YOLA Center is monumental for the city of Inglewood and we are honored to have been able to consult and provide our services for it.
As an MEP-specialized firm, we provided Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), plumbing and electrical design as well as designs for Title-24 Energy Model and Compliance services. We are also engaged to perform commissioning services for the project which verifies that all energy-using equipment function properly and efficiently to conserve energy.
The HVAC system is designed to provide sufficient ventilation and air filtration to ensure the quality of air in the new YOLA building will be up to par where using as little energy as possible. Our goal at Khalifeh & Associates is to supply top-notch MEP Engineering service while creating an energy efficient system that will work effortlessly for this project. The concert hall and rehearsal space, set to undergo construction in the Spring of this year. Energy efficiency is vital to us and our client as we aim to reduce our overall environmental impact.
Currently, more than 1,200 students have access to academic support, music training and free instruments. The new YOLA building is set to double the amount of students, allowing for more of our city’s youth to become ‘vital citizens, leaders, and agents of change.’ Working with Gehry and Dudamel to bring this vision to life has been nothing short of exciting and memorable. We know it will create a great impact on the community and its students who will feel empowered to become pillars of their community.
Title 24 Compliance and Lighting
Mr WordPress on The Impact of Title 24
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Peter Lomas - Unnatural States : The International System and the Power to Change read online ebook PDF, TXT, MOBI
This book is about politics, political theory, and political philosophy. Although these disciplines are often conflated because they interact, they are distinct. Political theory is part of political science, whereas political philosophy is a hybrid of political theory and philosophy. The former discipline is descriptive and explanatory, whereas the latter is prescriptive-to the point that it is often called "normative theory" It is in fact the evaluative study of political societies. Whereas political theorists describe and explain politics, political philosophers examine it critically and venture to suggest improvements and, on occasion, radically different social futures. Political philosophers propose scenarios and dreams where political scientists offer snapshots of existing polities. While these disciplines are distinct, Mario Bunge asserts that they must inform each other. 2008 - ISBN: 978-1-4128-0828-6 (cloth) The great writings of the past on the subject of international relations add an important dimension to the contemporary study of the field. The Theory of International Relations consists of substantial selections from authors whose ideas should be readily available to all students of international relations. All the passages selected by the editors ask fundamental theoretical questions searching for the essence of interstate relations. This quest for answers carries the reader into investigations of the causes of war, the balance of power, the relationship between international relations and the political theory of the state, and other major issues concerning this subject. Book jacket., Unnatural States is a radical critique of international theory, in particular, of the assumption of state agency--that states act in the world in their own right. Peter Lomas argues that since the universal states system is inequitable and rigid, and not all states are democracies anyway, this assumption is unreal, and to adopt it means reinforcing an unjust status quo. Looking at the concepts of state, nation, and agency, Lomas sees populations struggling to find an agreed model of the state, owing to inherited material differences; and unsurprisingly, among theorists of the nation, only controversy and a great confusion of terms. Meanwhile, the functional incarnations of the state agent are caricatures: the mandarin state, the lawyer state, the landlord state, the heir-to-history state, and the patriot state. Yet recent developments in international theory (constructivism, scientific realism, postmodernism) sacrifice state agency only at the price of an unhelpful abstraction. The states system is dysfunctional and obsolete, Lomas contends, and international theory must be recast, with morality as central, to inspire and to guide historic change. He focuses in his conclusion on prescriptions for change, led by four moral concerns: human rights, weapons of mass destruction, relations between rich and poor societies, and the environment. "I begin this book," writes Lomas, "with the commonest commonplace of international theory, to expose it as a meaningless clichE. In the masterly hands of Hobbes, it was elaborated into a shock formula for organized society, a reading of history as civilization's failure. Kant sought to rescue morality from Hobbes and create the structures of modernity, but Kant's influence is coming to an end. In the Cold War, politicians disagreeing over another philosopher almost brought the world to an end. Hence the challenges of our time. These are primary and profound. Philosophers have done much to define the modern world. The point of international theory is to change it."
Unnatural States : The International System and the Power to Change by Peter Lomas ebook MOBI, EPUB
Providing practical, step-by-step assistance on how to actually conduct research, the text offers chapters on: Project design Data collection using a range of methods, including poetry, story-telling, short-film, photography, visual art and music Data analysis Dissemination.At least forty per cent of internal conflicts globally are related to natural resources and the business community's preferred method for avoiding their implication in this figure is CSR.
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A Biography of Albert Jay Nock
July 30, 2013 · by joseywales1965
Reprinted from The Triumph of Liberty by Jim Powell
American individualism had virtually died out by the time Mark Twain was buried in 1910. “Progressive” intellectuals promoted collectivism. “Progressive” jurists hammered constitutional restraints as an inconvenient obstacle to expanding government power, supposedly the cure for every social problem. “Progressive” Theodore Roosevelt glorified imperial conquest. “Progressive” President Woodrow Wilson maneuvered America into a European war, jailed dissidents and imposed the income tax which persists to this day. Great individualists like Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson were ridiculed, if they were remembered at all.
Yet author Albert Jay Nock dared declare that collectivism was evil. He denounced the use of force to impose one’s will on others. He believed America should stay out of foreign wars, because this inevitably subverts liberty. He insisted individuals have the unalienable right to pursue happiness as long as they don’t hurt anybody. Intellectual historian Murray N. Rothbard called Nock “an authentic American radical.”
Even though Nock didn’t contribute to mass circulation magazines, and his books had a limited sale, he quietly affirmed that individualism was a living creed. Literary lion H.L. Mencken reportedly told Nock: “Nobody gives a damn what you write — it’s how you write that interests everybody.” Paul Palmer, who edited the American Mercury after Mencken and published a number of Nock’s essays, remembered: “I suppose Nock was the greatest stylist among American writers. At least, no American ever wrote a purer prose.”
Nock won respect, too, because he was a highly civilized man. Explained literary critic Van Wyck Brooks:
“he was a formidable scholar and an amateur of music who remembered all the great singers of his day and could trace them through this part or that from Naples to St. Petersburg, London, Brussels and Vienna. He had known all the great orchestras from Turin to Chicago…and he had visited half the universities of Europe from Bonn to Bordeaux, Montpelier, Liege and Ghent. He could pick up at random, with a casual air, almost any point and trace it from Plato through Scaliger to Montaigne or Erasmus, and I can cite chapter and verse for saying that whether in Latin or Greek he could quote any author in reply to any question. I believe he knew as well the Old Testament in Hebrew.”
American historian Merrill D. Peterson added: “He was a finished scholar, a brilliant editor, and a connoisseur of taste and intellect.”
Nock worked slowly, with exceeding care. As his friend Ruth Robinson observed,
“He wrote by hand with a fountain pen. His manuscripts rarely needed corrections or changes. His fine hand was considered difficult to read, but it was not, if you became accustomed to it.”
Robinson recalled,
“He was a finely constructed man, with small bones, hands, and feet. He was five feet ten inches tall, slight and quick in movement; he kept his excellent figure and carriage throughout life. The salient expressions of his strong face were conveyed through his brilliant blue eyes, which could change instantly, be impenetrable, mischievous, or express great kindliness and sympathy. He had fair skin and high color and during all the years I knew him wore a mustache…Long before his hair turned white, an iron-grey band at the edge of his brown hair was an outstanding characteristic of his appearance.”
Social philosopher Lewis Mumford, who knew Nock early in his career:
“He was the very model of the old-fashioned gentleman, American style: quiet spoken, fond of good food, punctilious in little matters of courtesy, with a fund of good stories, many of them western; never speaking about himself, never revealing anything directly about himself.”
Nock was an intensely private man. People who worked with him for years had no idea that he had been a clergyman. “No one knew even where he lived,” noted Van Wyck Brooks, “and a pleasantry in the office was that one could reach him by placing a letter under a certain rock in Central Park.” Frank Chodorov recalled,
“It was only after I was appointed administrator of his estate that I learned of the existence of two full-grown and well-educated sons.”
“Nock was an individualist,” Chodorov continued, “and he got that way not as the result of study but by force of temperament. As he put it, the ‘furniture’ of his mind was so arranged because no other arrangement would quite fit his mind. A man thinks what he is, Nock would say, and no amount of education can make him think otherwise…he was civilized; knowledgeable but never pedantic, reserved but companionable, cosmopolitan in his tastes and, above all, a gentleman to whom it never occurred to inflict hurt on any man.”
Albert Jay Nock was born October 13, 1870 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was the only child of Emma Sheldon Jay who descended from French Protestants. His father, Joseph Albert Nock, was a hot-tempered steelworker and Episcopal clergyman.
Nock grew up in a semi-rural Brooklyn, New York neighborhood. According to his account, he learned the alphabet by puzzling over a newspaper and asking questions. He didn’t attend school until he was a teenager, but at home he was surrounded by books which he explored. For quite a while, Webster’s Dictionary was his favorite.
When Nock was 10, his father got a job on the upper shore of Lake Huron. There he observed
“independence, self-respect, self-reliance, dignity, diligence…Our life was singularly free; we were so little conscious of arbitrary restraint that we hardly knew government existed…On the whole our society might have served pretty well as a standing advertisement for Mr. Jefferson’s notion that the virtues which he regarded as distinctively American thrive best in the absence of government.”
After attending a private preparatory school, Nock entered St. Stephen’s College (later to become Bard College) in 1887. He relished ancient Greek and Latin literature. He reportedly went on to attend Berkeley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut for about a year and was ordained in the Episcopal Church, 1897. The following year, he began serving as assistant rector at St. James Church, Titusville, Pennsylvania.
It was in Titusville that Nock met Agnes Grumbine, and they were married April 25, 1900. He was 29, and she was 24. They had two sons: Samuel, born in 1901, and Francis, born in 1905. Nock left his wife soon thereafter. His sons became college teachers.
In 1909, he experienced a crisis of faith. He quit the clergy to become an editor of American Magazine, a cauldron of radicalism where he worked four years. He befriended former Toledo mayor and aspiring scholar Brand Whitlock who later wrote a biography of Lafayette. Nock spent time with the likes of muckraking journalists Lincoln Steffens and John Reed.
Nock hung out at the Players Club, fabled gathering place for people in the arts since it was established by actor Edwin Booth and author Mark Twain. A portrait of Mark Twain hangs over a fireplace, and one of his pool cues is on display. Located at 16 Gramercy Park South, Manhattan, it’s a Gothic Revival style five-story house which architect Stanford White transformed into the club in 1888. The Players Club has one of America’s largest libraries on the theatre and portrait paintings by Gilbert Stuart, John Singer Sargent and Norman Rockwell. Nock liked to take mail, eat and play pool at the Players Club. Nock’s business card simply said: “Albert Jay Nock, Players Club, New York.”
Nock had absorbed, too, the ideas of German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer whose radical book Der Staat was published in 1908. An English translation, The State, appeared in 1915. Oppenheimer had noted that there were only two fundamental ways of acquiring wealth — work and robbery. He declared that government was based on robbery.
In 1914, Nock joined the staff of the Nation edited by Oswald Garrison Villard, grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. Nock didn’t like the magazine’s support for government interference with the economy, but he admired its courageous opposition to President Woodrow Wilson who maneuvered America into the First World War. One of Nock’s articles, on labor union agitator Samuel Gompers, provoked Wilson’s censors to suppress the Nation.
Eventually, the Nation’s devotion to government interference became too much, and he resigned. Backed by Helen Swift Neilson, daughter of Gustavus Swift and heir to a meat-packing fortune, he became editor of a new magazine of opinion: The Freeman. The first weekly issue appeared March 17, 1920. The magazine measured 8-1/2 inches by 12-1/2 inches and contained 24 pages of articles and letters about politics, literature, music and other topics.
Nock’s principal collaborator was Neilson’s English husband Francis, a former stage director at the London Royal Opera and radical Liberal Member of Parliament who became a leading pacifist. Disgusted by England’s entry in the First World War, he moved to the United States and became an American citizen. He stirred controversy with his book, How Diplomats Make War, published in 1915 by Benjamin W. Huebsch who later was president of The Freeman.
Nock’s policy was laissez faire: hire talented people and let them run. According to biographer Michael Wreszin, “Members of the staff can remember no time when he attempted to revise their work. Copy, including his own, was subject to the managing editor’s demands as to space — but that was the only limitation.” Although the editorial staff included Suzanne La Follette, a rigorous opponent of government interference with private life, there were contributors like socialist literary critic Van Wyck Brooks, muckraker Lincoln Steffens, Lewis Mumford who believed technology was dehumanizing and Thorstein Veblen who attacked competitive enterprise. The Freeman wasn’t consistently libertarian.
In his contributions, though, Nock discussed many issues involving liberty. Nock on Irish liberty, in the October 26, 1921 Freeman:
“We can see freedom in only one light; that is, as something not to be compromised with or watered down…For us, freedom is freedom, absolutely and world without end…we see Ireland demanding only as demanding freedom from political domination by an alien race; and wherever freedom is demanded, be it political, social or economic, we are there unreservedly, and without asking any questions, to back that demand to the utmost of our slender abilities.”
The First World War, September 19, 1923:
“The war immensely fortified a universal faith in violence; it set in motion endless adventures in imperialism, endless nationalist ambitions. Every war does this to a degree roughly corresponding to its magnitude. The final settlement at Versailles, therefore, was a mere scramble for loot.”
The Freeman never attracted more than about 7,000 subscribers — far from enough to become self-sustaining. Annual losses reportedly exceeded $80,000. The magazine ceased publication after the March 5, 1924 issue. Nock seems to have contributed 259 pieces. Atlantic Monthly editor Ellery Sedgwick remembered Nock’s Freeman as “admirably written, diverting, original, and full of unpredictable quirks.”
He became a good friend of H.L. Mencken who had edited The Smart Set, then American Mercury. “There is no better companion in the world than Henry,” Nock reported after one Manhattan dinner. Nock considered Mencken “immensely able, unselfconscious, sincere, erudite, simple-hearted, kindly, generous.”
Soon Nock was writing for intellectual magazines like American Mercury, Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s Saturday Review of Literature and Scribner’s. American Mercury, for instance, published “On Doing the Right Thing.” He wrote:
“The practical reason for freedom, then, is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed…we have tried law, compulsion and authoritarianism of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of.”
Three admirers from Philadelphia, Ellen Winsor, Rebecca Winsor Evans and Edmund C. Evans, provided funds which enabled Nock to pursue projects of his choosing. He turned to book-length biographical essays. The first was Mr. Jefferson (1926) which skipped the most famous events of the Founder’s life to focus on the development of his mind. H.L. Mencken wrote that Nock’s essay
“is accurate, it is shrewd, it is well ordered, and above all it is charming. I know of no other book on Jefferson that penetrates so persuasively to the essential substance of the man.”
Historian Merrill Peterson called Mr. Jefferson “The most captivating single volume in the Jefferson literature.”
Nock loved the 16th century French humanist scholar, extravagant satirist and maverick individualist Francis Rabelais, and in 1929 he wrote a book about him, collaborating with scholar Catherine Rose Wilson. With her, he edited The Works of Francois Rabelais (two volumes, 1931), and he went on to write A Journey into Rabelais’s France (1934).
Nock embraced ideas of Henry George.
“As a social philosopher, George interested me profoundly,” Nock recalled, “as a reformer and publicist, he did not interest me…George’s philosophy was the philosophy of human freedom…he believed that all mankind are indefinitely improvable, and that the freer they are, the more they will improve. He saw also that they can never become politically or socially free until they have become economically free…”
Meanwhile, in 1930, backed by one Dr. Peter Fireman, Suzanne La Follette and Sheila Hibben had launched the New Freeman, but it lasted only about a year. Nock contributed 54 articles about art, literature and education, reprinted in The Book of Journeyman (1930)
Nock opposed every form of tyranny. He warned in July 1932, before Hitler came to power: “Things in Germany look bad at this distance. The new government, which is making use of Hitler, seems bent on a Napoleonic absolutism.” Nock was decades ahead of most intellectuals in recognizing that all tyrants might come from the same totalitarian slime. “Refrain from using the word Bolshevism, or Fascism, Hitlerism, Marxism, Communism,” he noted in November 1933, “and you have no trouble getting acceptance for the principle that underlies them all alike — the principle that the State is everything, and the individual nothing.”
Nock became an implacable foe of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. In May 1934, he wrote:
“Probably not many realize how the rapid centralization of government in America has fostered a kind of organized pauperism. The big industrial states contribute most of the Federal revenue, and the bureaucracy distributes it in the pauper states wherever it will do the most good in a political way…All this is due to the iniquitous theory of taxation with which this country has been so thoroughly indoctrinated — that a man should be taxed according to his ability to pay, instead of according to the value of the privileges he obtains from the government.”
Around 1934, Nock was invited to deliver a series of history lectures at Columbia University, and he focused on the struggle for liberty. He developed the lecture texts into his great radical prolemic, Our Enemy, the State. He drew from ideas of German sociologist Franz Oppenheimer who had written about the violent origins of the state. Nock championed the natural rights vision of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, the case for equal freedom articulated by Herbert Spencer. Nock ignored a taboo and spoke kindly of the American Articles of Confederation (1781-1789), the association of states without a central government.
Our Enemy, the State appeared in 1935. Nock wrote:
“There are two methods, or means, and only two, whereby man’s needs and desires can be satisfied. One is the production and exchange of wealth; this is the economic means. The other is the uncompensated appropriation of wealth produced by others; this is the political means…the State invariably had its origin in conquest and confiscation. No primitive State known to history originated in any other manner.”
“The State,” he continued, “both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.”
In his June 1936 Atlantic Monthly article “Isaiah’s Job,” Nock explained his view that the future of civilization depended on what he called “the Remnant”:
“They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best they can. They need to be encouraged and braced up, because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society, and meanwhile your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant.”
There was yet another revival of The Freeman in 1937. The instigator seems to have been balding, pipe-smoking Frank Chodorov who had met Nock the year before at the Players Club. He had become director of the recently-chartered Henry George School, and The Freeman served as its flagship publication. It was an 18-24 page monthly. Chodorov published at least eight articles by Nock.
He turned to writing his last, most charming and best-known book — Memoirs of a Superfluous Man. He worked at a house in Canaan, Connecticut. He remained as reticent as ever, omitting most personal details about his life, but he gracefully chronicled the development of his ideas. Nock assailed one of his favorite targets, compulsory government schooling which promoted “superstitious servile reverence for a sacrosanct State.” He lamented, “The American people once had their liberties; they had them all; but apparently they could not rest o’nights until they had turned them over to a prehensile crew of professional politicians.” Harper’s published Memoirs of a Superfluous Man in 1943.
Nock seems to have had few friends during his last years. He corresponded with Discovery of Freedom author Rose Wilder Lane and former American Mercury editor Paul Palmer. He often lunched with Frank Chodorov who recalled his times with Nock:
“he would regale you with bits of history that threw light on a headline, or quote from the classics a passage currently applicable, or take all the glory out of a ‘name’ character with a pithy statement of fact. He was a library of knowledge and a fount of wisdom, and if you were a kindred spirit you could have your pick of both.”
Maverick oilman William F. Buckley, Texas-born son of Irish immigrants, saw himself as part of “the Remnant” whom Nock cherished. Periodically he invited Nock to lunch at his family’s Great Elm mansion in Sharon, Connecticut — despite Nock’s well-known bohemian ways and hostility to the Catholic church. Buckley cherished Nock’s individualism and his scholarship, and Memoirs of a Superfluous Man helped encourage his son William F. Buckley Jr. to defy the collectivist trends of the time.
Since no magazine would take Nock’s writing, several friends set up the National Economic Council. Starting on May 15, 1943, it published the Economic Council Review of Books which he edited. He continued almost two years until failing health led him to bow out. This work was picked up by Rose Wilder Lane.
In 1945, Nock developed lymphatic leukemia, and he gradually ran out of steam. He had told his son Francis: “If sometimes you begin to think the old man is pretty good, and you feel that maybe you ought to be a bit proud of him…realize that he ain’t so much after all.”
He moved in with his friend Ruth Robinson who lived in Wakefield, Rhode Island. There he died August 19, 1945. He was 74. A local Episcopal priest conducted a simple funeral service at Robinson’s house, and he was buried nearby in Riverside Cemetery.
In his quiet way, Nock inspired others to carry on. Frank Chodorov championed his kind of individualism in books like One is a Crowd (1952), The Rise and Fall of Society (1959), Out of Step (1962) and The Income Tax: Root of All Evil (1963). Chodorov edited analysis (he didn’t capitalize the first “a”), a monthly four-page newsletter, then became an editor of Human Events, a weekly newsletter. Chodorov started the Intercollegiate Society of Individualists which aimed to nurture individualism on American college campuses.
In 1950, Nock’s former editorial associate Suzanne La Follette joined with Life editor John Chamberlain and Newsweek columnist Henry Hazlitt to launch another Freeman. There were editorial disagreements, and in 1955 The Freeman was acquired by Leonard Read’s Foundation for Economic Education which has published it ever since.
Albert Jay Nock’s quiet voice has had an influence far beyond what anyone dared imagine a half-century ago. He showed that an intelligent person could embrace radical individualism, which was tremendously important for younger people coming along amidst a collectivist age. He set an inspiring example with his steadfast devotion, cosmopolitan scholarship and elegant literary style. He was right to insist that liberty could be regained only by winning people’s hearts, one by one.
More From Albert Jay Nock
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Akechi Denki visiting Europe (1998)
Posted on juli 3, 2017 by Bergborg
Japanese-inspired erotic rope bondage is now a widespread subculture in Europe. In the last few years, we have also seen a number of Japanese bakushi visiting Europe to give workshops, master-classes, private tuition and make performances. This has had a huge impact.
In this blog-post I share an article written by Ayano Katsuragi for the magazine SM Sniper (January 1999). In addition to her writing, Ayano Katsuragi collaborated as a model for example with Nureki Chimuo, Osada Eikichi and Yukimura Haruki. You can read more about her here: http://smpedia.com/index.php?title=桂木綾乃
The topic for her article is Akechi’s first trip to the Netherlands that took place in 1998 (July 25th – August 1st). (Akechi returned for a second visit during the De Mask EuroPerve-party in 1999, together with Raika, Randa Mai, Mira Kurumi, Mai Itoh and Kanda Tsubaki. But that is a story for another time.)
I have been in contact with the manager of Club Doma, and some Dutch and German rope-friends, and hope later to be able to add some material from this visit as reported in some European SM-publictions.
A great THANK YOU to rish for her work with the translation.
Katsuragi Ayano: Bound up in The Netherlands
Akechi Denki, the top name of Kinbaku stage shows, was invited to go to Europe to perform a Kinbaku session. A session that was even written about in the general press. Assisting him is Katsuragi Ayano, who has written down her thoughts about this experience, accompanied here by Handa Ryosuke’s gorgeous photos.
It’s been a while. It’s Ayano. A while ago, I wrote about my experiences in the column ”Ayano no taikendan”, but it’s been four years since I somewhat mysteriously disappeared from Sniper’s pages. It’ll become too long if I wrote about what’s happened since last time, so I’ll just write about the very interesting things that happened this summer.
It started with a phone call from Akechi-sensei.
‘How are you? Are you doing well?’
It was Saturday afternoon and I was in a sort of in an idle slumber when suddenly, he asked me a question: ‘Won’t you come with me to The Netherlands?’
A model would follow Akechi-sensei to The Netherlands and show what Japanese Kinbaku is.
After some further conversation about the details, it seemed like a very interesting project that would allow me to enjoy SM in The Netherlands.
I said yes right away, because it meant I could go to a famous torture museum I had heard about and become fascinated by. Also, I could be some kind of good-will ambassador. From there it was a busy two weeks with preparations for the trip, and then – on to Narita Airport.
We assembled at Narita Airport at 8.20 in the morning. Before that, I had no idea who the other people coming with us were, but it turned out I had met all of them in one way or another already. Everyone’s magnificent.
First of all, there were some people from the company that organised this trip – Square Ship (they have produced ”Hana no onnazumou” etc); The producer of a cat fight film, Nakano Tadao; A photographer and writer whose work is featured in this report, Handa Ryosuke; And a dominatrix, Kuronuki Hyouko. There was a huge interest in going on this trip, even from ordinary people, but it’s hard to take leave for a week on such short notice with plans changing and so on. There were also people who were going to meet up with us in The Netherlands (from England, Portugal, Los Angeles). It felt so international and I was very excited.
The plane took off at noon and we arrived the same day just past three o’ clock at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. I was a bit surprised at immigration control, because they checked the persons before us, but let us go straight through without checking us. It’s a shame because I would have wanted a stamp. And also, what if I was an atrocious terrorist? Such big-hearted people, I thought.
We met up with the rest of the group and took the shuttle bus to hotel in The Hague. The view from the window was even more beautiful than I had imagined. I thought that the houses were so cute because they all looked the same; it made me feel that I was really in Europe.
The hotel was just as luxurious as I’d heard it was, but I was overwhelmed the most by the view of the sea. I hadn’t associated The Netherlands with the sea and I was at loss of words when I saw the seaside view, the little shops, and the merry-go-round. It will stay bright outside because The Netherlands is in a high latitude, and you won’t get all sticky from the breeze because there is not much humidity. We had dinner at a restaurant by the seaside and got acquainted with each other and enjoyed the view of the setting sun.
Experiences at the torture museum
It was time to visit my beloved torture museum. I’ve mentioned this before, but I had a history teacher in high school that would tell me all sorts of trivia. Since he was a history teacher, he’d tell me about witch-hunts and the types of torture that was used during that time and I would borrow books from him about those kinds of things. The day before the graduation ceremony, he called me out. I remember thinking if I’d done anything bad, he wasn’t my class teacher after all, but I was nervous. He gave me a graduation present. It was a book called ”The world history of torture”. Thinking back, he must have seen through me… Anyway I’ve liked it since I was little.
I was surprised at how plain the museum looked. There it was, in the middle of town. It was pretty old and intricately built. They say people were actually tormented here in the olden days. There were many instruments of torture displayed and descriptions of how they were used. There would be guillotine executions announced at the square and the people would play football with the chopped-off heads. The guide-lady told us this quite cheerfully; I thought she was quite strange. While waiting for a sentence, they would cram the prisoners in a tiny jail-cell (barely 2 sqm) with fresh wounds. They also used stones, some of which were laying around in the museum. There was a real Spanish Donkey as well; it looked like it would really hurt if sat on. I really really wanted to touch the front of it but I wasn’t allowed to. I wonder why the instruments humans have used to inflict pain and pleasure are so genius. They’ve really thought about how to make it really hurt. Just thinking about it makes me excited.
The day after arrival: Performing a kinbaku show at an SM club
I would have liked to take my time and enjoy my stay, but I had serious matters to attend to – the performance at one of Europe’s most prominent clubs, CLUB DOMA. I had a look at one of their pamphlets before going; it’s truly extravagant there. They spend their money differently than in Japan. The audience can leisurely watch the show and drink alcohol. There were also well-equipped play rooms, and each one of them were gorgeous. They also had lots of original videos.
The shows were usually only on weekend nights, but they advertised intensely, so although the shows were held in the middle of the day, lots of people gathered, and there was this strange excitement in the air. There were also about 30 people from Germany for news coverage, and as if pushing their way through the crowd were some women in bondage outfits working as waitresses. Compared to me, foreigners are huge. I’m so dainty compared to them.
The stage was smaller than I thought, and the audience is right in front of you, so you can see their reactions directly.
‘Hello, nice to meet you!’ The owner and his wife came out and we shook hands. They talked about the four shows on the program. First, they would put on a show, then it would be me and Sensei, then their turn again, and lastly Sensei and a Dutch woman. There was some time before the show, so they told us to relax for a while. We sat in the back and had some alcohol to ease our nerves when something happened.
‘Uh-oh, I’ve forgot something….’ Don’t you think Akechi-sensei looks scary in magazines or videos? He’s an honest gentleman like other rope artists I’ve met, but he is also very scatterbrained. When we arrived at the hotel, he realised he had forgotten his bag with his wallet and passport on the bus (luckily they found it quickly). This time, he had forgotten the bamboo whip he had especially brought from Japan. One of the staff members called a taxi so we just about made it in time. Right, Sensei?
The lights were dimmed and curtains opened. The show started. Until then, the audience had been noisy, but now they became silent. This was my first time on foreign grounds and I let my body embark on a new adventure. On the stage were a man and a woman, he in his forties, and her in her twenties.
Until then I’d only seen it on videos, but the people there were all shaved and had piercings. Also, tattoos. I wonder how they see my, in that sense, untouched body.
The man touched her really, really gently, and sometimes pulled at her nipple piercing. And used a whip (he was using a cat-of-nine-tails)… He was winding it up and lashing out.
‘So that hurts, huh?’ I spontaneously asked the Londoner next to me.
‘It might look soft, but he keeps hitting the same spot.’
I see. The skin kept getting redder and redder. Every now and then, he’d lash out strongly. A new question came to mind. She hardly moved or let out any sounds even if it hurt. It was like she was taking in the pain. I felt the reaction was kind of strange.
‘In the West, it’s considered good if you endure the pain and only let out sounds when it’s unbearable.’
That’s interesting. Westerners usually have quite a showy body-language, yet now it’s good when they don’t show much? There are so many differences… No time to be impressed, though. We’re up next!
In the backstage room, I put on a yukata and Sensei a jinbei. We thought it fitting to have something explicitly Japanese for this.
‘Let’s do our best, Ayano-chan…’
Of course we will. It’s an honor. Well, doing my best means letting my body go with the flow – the rest is up to Sensei. ‘Yes’, I answered as I was tying my hair up. It’ll probably get unraveled later on.
I kept asking myself: Why the Netherlands? I was puzzled. This might be just my own perception, but wouldn’t Germany or France be the more obvious place? Of course, there are a lot of places for SM, but their guards are up. It’s a bit unlikely for them to accept a foreigner like me (it’s pretty hard getting in to DOMA too). As you know, the Netherlands is where marijuana and prostitution is legal. There are so-called coffee shops where they smoke and use marijuana; there are also the famous display windows. They are loyal to their desires, or rather tolerant.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for our special guest all the way from Japan. The rope artist Mister Akechi and his slave!’
The announcement was made, and the audience became silent.
‘Do your best, Ayano-chan. We will be taking pictures.’ Handa was gripping his camera, grinning. On the other side of the stage were the people from Germany. What on earth have I signed up for?
The curtains opened. The audience was really close. You can’t really see them, because of the darkness, but I was painfully aware that their eyes were on me. I thought for a moment: I can’t do this. I’m weak… and thinking about it, I haven’t done this in front of people for a while and I’m in a faraway country.
It’s also sad not to be seen, but in that instance I didn’t want them to look. Please, don’t look, I thought. I just wanted to disappear, but there was no chance of that happening. As I was thinking all of this, my body was bound up and my skin was exposed. I’ve seen them use ropes in the West, but just as a tool for restriction. We were here to show the pain and pleasure that can be inflicted by a single rope. The rope was like magic as I was bound up. It seemed like my reactions piqued their interest.
Sensei became more determined and suspended me mid-air. Things are a bit hazy in my memory, but I do remember hearing saliva being swallowed from the audience. Candles, and the wax dripping onto my body, and the bamboo whip that relentlessly struck me. I was unable to pay attention to my surroundings and just screamed with all my strength. It echoed throughout the room.
The audience was shocked by Akechi’s and Ayano’s hardcore kinbaku performance. There were announcements saying: ‘This is not abuse’.
I heard applause when I came to myself. Sensei was drenched in sweat.
‘It’s over…’
It’s always the same after every performance, I get this washed-out feeling, but I also feel very refreshed, and it’s exhilarating. The owner and his wife came on to the stage and started talking. What were they saying? I talked to the interpreters and they said it was something in the lines of:
‘She didn’t cry because she was sad, they were tears of joy. It might have looked like abuse to you, but this is not the case.’
The people in West are used to softer reactions, so to them our style was very intense. It came to my mind that SM can be very different depending on culture and country. It’s very interesting.
Sensei had another performance coming up, so I got changed and returned to my seat. Everyone’s eyes were on me, I could feel it. I guess people were thinking: ‘She’s so delicate, I wonder where her power comes from’. Because I’m so delicate, the power is condensed – if I could speak Dutch, I would have wanted to tell them that.
Next up was a tall and cool dominatrix and her slave. Her slave had genital piercings and weights on them. Surprisingly, she was defiant; it was a bit scary. When it hurt, she would stomp her feet and glare. I don’t think I would react in a such rebellious way even if it hurt, and still smile at the beginning and the end of it. Usually when I watch other people’s play, I become emotional, but this time I was just calmly observing. There is probably a type of SM suited for Westerners and a type of SM suited for Asian people. It’s not exclusive, but enjoying the differences might be fun. I do like the Japanese SM though.
Lastly, it was Akechi-sensei and a Dutch woman. In poor English, I asked her how she felt.
‘I’m really nervous’, she answered stiffly. Maybe she felt it was scary, like the audience had? I tried consoling her, saying Sensei is very gentle, and that the previous session was so intense only because I was used to it. I wonder if she understood it.
As expected, Sensei tied her up with care. She was calm and let her body go with the flow. She was a bit dumbfounded when he suspended her mid-air, but she seemed to really enjoy it.
I asked about her thoughts after the show. ‘As a matter of fact, I’ve been bound up by a Japanese person before, and that time it was painful. Today it was like I was gently embraced.’
We had come to DOMA in the afternoon, and as we left it was only nine o’ clock in the evening, and still bright outside. We had fun together and talked about our experiences as we had Indonesian food and went to a casino afterwards.
I wonder what tomorrow has in mind for me.
This text has been translated by rish, commissioned and edited by Bergborg / KinbakuBooks.
Det här inlägget postades i 1990ies, Akechi Denki, japanese rope bondage, Kinbaku, Magazines, Shibari, Translations av Bergborg. Bokmärk permalänken.
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If You Do One Thing at a Maui Shopping Mall, Learn to Play the Uke.
April 13, 2018 dboy
I mean, it’s not as if you want to emulate Taylor Swift or Meghan Trainor, for that matter. (If you didn’t know, she has a ukulele acoustic version of “All About That Bass” out now.)
According to the UK’s The Guardian, “you can play all the songs in rock ’n’ roll with just three chords, so you’re quickly busting out tunes. All you need is C, F and G7. Then you can play “Twist and Shout,” “Rock Around the Clock” and most blues songs. “Singin’ in the Rain” takes just a C and a G7. In this quick fix world where you want instant results, the ukulele is ideal.”
If that’s not enough, you’ll be joining the ranks of more classic noteworthy musicians who played ukulele, like Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, and Jimi Hendrix.
Not bad company to be amongst, and a uke could also be the perfect souvenir from your Maui vacation.
Reasons Why You Should Learn Ukulele in Lahaina, Maui
Shopping in Lahaina
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When Female Exploitation Films Are Flat-Out Fun
Dodai Stewart
Filed to: film schooledFiled to: film schooled
film schooled
Female exploitation films
Gator Bait
Bad girls go to hell
women in Hollywood
Doris Wishman
Stephanie Rothman
Beverly Sebastian
Defamer
A UCLA Film & Television Archive series kicks off tonight, looking at prison flicks, biker pictures and slasher movies — made by women. It's called "No She Didn't!: Women Exploitation Auteurs," and features some hard-to-find titles with interesting themes:
LA Times writer Mark Olsen says that Doris Wishman, who made the 1965 flick Bad Girls Go to Hell, was in many ways the forerunner of the feminist exploitation genre. The movie involves a woman being raped by her janitor while her husband is at work; she kills him with a bowl. But fearing the consequences of the murder, she flees the city and travels to New York, where she changes her name and has a tryst with a woman, then gets raped by some other guy, then eventually wakes up to find it has all been a dream. Then her husband leaves for work… And the janitor comes in and rapes her. Uplifting? Here's the trailer:
Then there's Terminal Island, directed by Stephanie Rothman. The movie revolves around a an island penal colony where the male and female prisoners fend for themselves without guards. But the subtext is all about power, sexism and social upheaval. Critic Dave Kehr claims the film can be seen as a "lurid exploitation subject turned into a crafty feminist allegory… It's difficult now to believe there was a time when such progressive politics could be expressed in a drive-in movie." This is not the original trailer, but a remix that might not be safe for work, view with caution: (And check out the trashtastic poster!)
"No She Didn't" will also look at Gator Bait, what's called a "hicksploitation" movie directed by Beverly Sebastian. Kathleen McHugh, director of the UCLA Center for the Study of Women says: "Even in the mid-'70s, the kind of proto-feminist element was being written about… you have these powerful, self-assertive, one might even use the term 'extremely aggressive' women who are wreaking vengeance against forces, people, men who are trying to keep them down." Gator Bait, looks, in a word, awesome:
Of course, all of these films are still part of a genre which is deemed "exploitation." So you'll find gratuitous nudity, violence and general sleaze. But the female filmmakers were following what was — at the time — a viable career path in Hollywood. Notes Olsen: "Where many male filmmakers who worked the same route moved on to more respectable projects and acclaim, their female counterparts largely faded into obscurity." Still, the women making these movies injected their point of view. McHugh points out: "A significant part of feminism was women taking charge of representations of sexuality. And you clearly see, albeit in an extreme and sort of trashy way, you do see it in these exploitation films." Paul Malcolm, who is the programmer of the UCLA series, puts it this way: "The films are really flat-out fun genre films, but there's something else at work."
Female-Exploitation Films Seen In New Light [LA Times]
Bad Girls Go To Hell [YouTube]
Gator Bait [YouTube]
Terminal Island [YouTube]
[Image via MovieGoods.com]
Recent from Dodai Stewart
The Best Stories Splinter Published in 2017
A Closer Look at Puerto Rico in Crisis
BAN ALL THIS SHIT
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Writer, humorist, weirdness enthusiast. Yes, I wrote that Misfits book. Hit me up: jgreenejr [at] gmail [dot com].
Tag Archive | Kent Brockman
in Hollywood, Pointless Lists, Shit That Can't Be Real Yet Somehow Is, The Boob Tube
Six Deaths That Altered The Course Of “Simpsons” History
I pitched this article to the current list-happy version of Cracked about a month ago and they passed. Little too depressing, they said—at least I think that’s what they said; it was hard to hear through all my tears. Anywho, the darn thing came up in conversation recently and a few people expressed interest in reading it, so here it is, in all its first draft glory (pardon the numerous tense changes).
SIX REAL-LIFE DEATHS THAT ALTERED THE COURSE OF “SIMPSONS” HISTORY
By James Greene, Jr.
The hilarious, self-contained world of “The Simpsons” is a fictional entity whose popularity at times has eclipsed that of Jesus, oxygen, and Walter Mondale. Yet the continuity of Homer and Bart’s fake yellow world has been interrupted and altered on several occasions by real life, three-dimensional expirations. Consider now these six instances of human mortality that forever skewed the show that birthed Kent Brockman and Disco Stu.
1. RICHARD NIXON
THE SITUATION: In the episode “Two Bad Neighbors,” notorious one termer George H.W. Bush moves across the street from the Simpson clan. This naturally leads to some classic hi-jinks as Bart becomes Jay North to Bush’s Joseph Kearns (or Gale Gordon, depending on which version of Mr. Wilson you preferred on the old “Dennis the Menace” TV show). After a wild climax involving a fight in the sewer and a box of locusts, George and Barbara vacate their Springfield residence, setting the stage for the entry of another infamous Commander-in-Chief.
POST-MORTEM: According to the Season 7 DVD commentary, the original choice for Springfield’s second presidential resident was perennial “Simpsons” punching bad Richard Nixon. However, Nixon died during the production of “Two Bad Neighbors,” and in a rare show of restraint, the writers decided not to kick the disgraced politician while he was permanently down. Their next idea was Bob Dole, who was gearing up for a presidential run the same year “Neighbors” aired (1996). That didn’t seem like a good gamble, considering Dole didn’t have a shred of a chance against incumbent Slick Willy Clinton. Eventually, it dawned on them—who was the only living former prez at the time who’d even consider hanging out with Homer? Gerald R. Ford. Thus, Jerry was dropped in for a satisfying “Two Bad Neighbors” conclusion.
2. ANTHONY PERKINS
THE SITUATION: “Last Exit To Springfield,” often considered the BEST…EPISODE…EVER, centered around Homer’s attempts to unionize the workers at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. One of the bald guy’s major motivations for this was his daughter Lisa, who needed braces the family couldn’t afford without the company’s oft-neglected “DENNAL PLAN!” A key role in this story was that of Lisa’s evil, creepy dentist. Originally, the part was offered to Anthony Hopkins; he turned it down, as did Clint “I Work With Baboons But I Don’t Do Cartoons” Eastwood. So Matt Groening and crew called up the third bone-chillin’-est guy in Hollywood – Norman Bates.
POST-MORTEM: Psycho star Anthony Perkins gladly accepted the role as sadistic Dr. Wolfe. Sadly, Perkins expired from an AIDS-related death on September 12, 1992, before he could record a line of dialogue. Dr. Wolfe’s role was filled by jack of all “Simpsons” voices Hank Azaria (who probably endured severe psychological damage of his own during that infamous turn in 1998’s Godzilla).
3. HAING S. NGOR
THE SITUATION: Homer Simpson’s trophy case is noticeably barren in the bowling-themed episode “Team Homer.” In fact, the poor sap only has one trophy—an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor that he stole from The Killing Fields‘ Haing S. Ngor, scratching out Ngor’s name to carve in his own. As if living under Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge wasn’t bad enough, now Haing S. had to deal with Mr. Plow swiping his Oscar.
POST-MORTEM: About a month after “Team Homer” aired in 1996, Haing S. Ngor was brutally murdered just outside his home in L.A.’s Chinatown area by alleged Khmer Rouge sympathizers. Refusing to let the actor’s memory be tarnished by Homer’s theft in subsequent reruns, “Simpsons” animators changed the Oscar in question to that of Don Ameche. Ameche, who won his statue for being all wrinkly and awesome in 1985’s Cocoon, had died in 1993 of prostate cancer. Thus, no one cared about fucking with his legacy.
4. DORIS GRAU
THE SITUATION: Doris Grau was the “Simpsons” script supervisor, but more people knew her as the gravely voice of Lunchlady Doris. Under the guise of Springfield Elementary’s number one tater tot slinger, Doris offered up such classic lines as “More testicles mean more iron!” and a non-plussed response to Groundskeeper Willie’s passionate demand that she “grease” him up.
POST-MORTEM: Doris Grau died from lung cancer (who could have guessed?) on December 30, 1995, a scant eight days before the aforementioned “Team Homer” aired. The episode was dedicated to her memory and the character of Lunchlady Doris was retired out of respect…until 2006, when “The Simpsons” was so desperate to be good again they let Tress MacNeille take a crack at Doris’s smokey voice. The idea that “Team Homer” is a cursed “Simpsons” episode has yet to gain momentum outside of my apartment complex, but hopefully this article will help spread that around.
5. THE PASSANGERS OF THE EDMUND FITZGERALD
THE SITUATION: The Season 3 entry “Radio Bart” featured one of the most amazing musical sequences in the history of “The Simpsons”: Homer Simpsons singing the 1970s trucking hit “Convoy.” Here was one of the stupidest characters in animation history singing one of the stupidest songs in American history on one of the stupidest devices in global history (the Superstar Celebrity Microphone). Comically, it was pure win. Originally, though, Homer J. was slated to sing another Carter-era hit, “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald.”
POST MORTEM: Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 hit seemed like perfect comic fodder for the Simpsons patriarch until creators learned of the unique royalty arrangement surrounding the song. Lightfoot had worked it out so that the surviving family members of those who perished aboard the titular bulk carrier (which sank in 1976 in Lake Superior) had to give their OK for the song to be used in any kind of media. With a death toll of 29, weaving through those associated with “Fitzgerald” seemed like a logistical nightmare. So the producers said, “Fuck it, let’s use that dumb-ass truck drivin’ song.”
6. PHIL HARTMAN
THE SITUATION: Seasoned “SNL” funnyman Phil Hartman first appeared in the Season 2 episode “Bart Gets Hit By A Car” as smarmy attorney Lionel Hutz. A classic recurring character was instantly born thanks to Phil’s talents, but he didn’t stop there. Three episodes later, Hartman debuted struggling has-been actor Troy McClure, possibly the most hilarious and iconic “Simpsons” character outside the central yellow family. Although we didn’t literally remember him from such films as Leper In The Backfield, Dial ‘M’ For Murderousness, and They Came To Burgle Carnagie Hall, we gladly pretended we did and never tired of learning Troy’s past accomplishments.
POST-MORTEM: In perhaps the most unexpected and sad Hollywood-related crime of the 1990s, Phil Hartman was shot to death by his mentally unstable wife Brynn (who shot herself the same day) on May 28, 1998. Troy McClure made his final tv appearance that September on the episode “Bart The Mother.” Fans were devastated, knowing they’d never again hear the chipper, syrupy tones of Springfield’s favorite fish-philandering thespian. Perhaps the greatest creative casualty here was the instant death of the much-talked about live action Troy McClure movie Phil Hartman was apparently very keen on doing. That certainly seemed to have more rich comedic possibilities than the live action Krusty the Clown vehicle Matt Groening came up with wherein Krusty lives in a house on stilts that’s constantly in danger of being destroyed by beavers (no lie).
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I'm not sure how much air time this "disaster" is receiving in the rest of the world, but a off-shore oil well has been leaking oil and gas into the Timor Sea since August 21st.
A really good summary of the situation in this article - reproduced here:
KEY QUESTIONS IN A 71-DAY DISASTER
AS the Montara spill continues to grow as one of Australia's biggest environmental disasters, environment reporter Narelle Towie examines the crisis off our coast.
On August 21 at 5.30am, PTTEP Australasia reported a sweet crude oil and gas leak at the Montara wellhead in the Timor Sea, 250km northwest of Truscott in WA.
The West Atlas mobile drilling rig is sitting above the leaking pipe. When the leak began the 69 workers on board were evacuated.
PTTEP has refused to confirm what caused a concrete and rubber plug at the end of a well pipe 3.6km below the sea floor to crack - sparking the leak - because the incident is now the subject of a Government inquiry.
Who is responsible for the oil spill?
The West Atlas is a mobile offshore drilling rig owned and operated by Atlas Drilling. But the rig is leased to PTTEP Australasia.
PTTEP is Thailand's national petroleum exploration and production company and is one of the nation's largest publicly listed companies.
PTTEP is working to plug the flow while the Australian Maritime Safety Authority is responsible for managing and cleaning up the resulting oil slick.
How many days has it been since the oil escaped?
The leak started 71 days ago.
What sort of oil is it?
Sweet light crude oil is a type of petroleum that contains less than 0.5 per cent sulphur, giving it a ``sweet'' taste and odour.
High-quality crude oil is processed into gasoline, kerosene and diesel.
Why wasn't a boom used in the first days of the leak to contain the slick?
Booms are used to contain spilt oil close to shore or in areas not affected by waves or currents, such as harbours. The oil is then cleared with skimmers similar to vacuum machines.
Before now, AMSA says it has never tested a boom in an offshore environment.
However, booms are being trialled in the clean-up and so far have been successful because of seasonably calm waters.
Conservation group Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard said AMSA waited too long to test the booms.
"We are very concerned that dispersants are toxic and therefore could be doing more harm than good,'' he said.
“We were surprised that there were no booms available to contain the leak when it first happened. This could have determined whether dispersants were needed to be used at all.”
What is the extent of the slick?
The Montara oil spill is one of the biggest in Australian history and the longest flowing. But reports on the size of the slick differ.
PTTEP would not provide an estimate of the extent of ocean affected by the leak.
AMSA also said it was unable to provide an estimate of polluted areas because the slick was constantly moving.
The Wilderness Society said oil had contaminated 50,000sq km of ocean.
Based on estimates provided by PTTEP - that 400 barrels of oil have leaked into the ocean a day - 4,515,600 litres of oil has spilled from the leaking well head so far.
But, The Wilderness Society believes this figure to be much higher.
The biggest spill in Australian history occurred in Victoria's Port Phillip Bay in 1903 when the Petriana ran aground, spilling 1300 tonnes of bulk oil on to the beach.
Has the oil reached the shores of Roti and has it damaged fish and seaweed farms there?
Farmers on Indonesia's Roti Island, 500km northeast of Australia, say oil from the Montara field has damaged more than 1000ha of seaweed ready to harvest.
Hundreds of local fishermen also claim thousands of fish have been killed as a result of the spill, massively decreasing stocks of red snapper in the area.
Normally clear waters off the island have reportedly turned a milky-white colour, emitting a rancid odour.
PTTEP claim information they have received from AMSA and satellite imaginary shows the slick to be 250km from the Indonesian coast.
“The basic information is what we are hearing and what information we have is not the same,” Mr Martins said.
To what extent has wildlife been affected by the slick?
PTTEP's consultant environmental scientist John Wardrop said 25 oil-coated birds had been discovered and 17 had died.
But WWF Australia's conservation director Gilly Llewellyn said a recent survey found hundreds of migratory seabirds, turtles, sea snakes and dolphins had been found in the slick-affected area.
Up to 15 species of whales and dolphins, more than 30 species of seabirds and five species of turtles were potential victims of the Montara Field oil spill.
“New estimates show up to 30,000 individual sea snakes and 16,000 turtles may be found in the area affected by the slick,” the conservation group say in an online press release.
"We need to shatter the myth that an oil spill only affects marine wildlife when it washes up on our beaches," Dr Llewellyn said.
A report commissioned by the federal Department of the Environment on the impacts of the spill on birds, cetaceans and marine reptiles is inconclusive. "It was impossible to ascertain how many individual species were adversely affected,'' the report said.
"However, the presence of dying birds and dead sea snakes suggests that there is an immediate risk to species utilising the water that has been affected by the oil slick.''
Is the slick likely to move towards Australian shores?
Seasonal changes are likely to push the slick towards the WA coast, Mr Wardrop conceded.
Still conditions and northeasterly winds would change in the next few months as the cyclone season arrived -- from November to April -- potentially moving the slick towards the Australian coastline.
What other options are there to fix the leak sooner?
The simplest, but far more dangerous, method of plugging the leak would be to work directly on the exposed wellhead from the West Atlas rig.
PTTEP said this option wasn't chosen because of the risk to human life.
``What looks like smoke is gas with oil and water in it and, of course, with a gas cloud there, any spark has the potential for ignition,'' a spokesman said.
``It was just deemed too dangerous.''
Why didn't the company accept help from Woodside when the leak first started rather than shipping in its own relief rig?
The relief rig, which took weeks to ship to Montara from Indonesia, is called a jack-up rig. It stays on top of the water because it is pinned to the sea floor and is therefore able to support the heavy mud needed to plug the leak.
The rig offered by Woodside is a semi-submersible platform and would sink under the weight of the mud, PTTEP director Jose Martins said.
What has the spill cost the company?
PTTEP says it has spent $170 million on clean-up, a relief rig and costs associated with the incident.
This figure did not include the cost of oil lost in the spill. If 400 barrels a day had leaked into the ocean for 71 days, based on present prices, the company had lost more than $US2 million in sales since August 21
If this wasn't bad enough, the rig and well head platform is now on fire (article and video clip here).
Also check out http://feww.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/australian-oil-slick-satellite-images/ for additional satellite images and maps.
Hopefully a solution will be found soon and the spill can be contained without any more drama.
Ouch... It is always interesting how the eco-nazis predict gloom and doom, and subscribe to the chicken little theories... Yes there will be some damage, but I can't believe the companies are not doing everything they can SAFELY to control/end the spill and leak.
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Joe Studwell's blog
On the theme of development in East Asia, Britain, Italy, and the United States
« And so we locked up a million people…
In Cambridge, friends in Cambridge? »
The EU works. A bit. And slowly
As the Guardian reports below, the EU has finally taken down Italy’s pants and spanked both its cheeks for its grotesque, puerile, unprofessional and corrupt handling of the Meredith Kercher murder case. This is edifying and reminds us that the EU does perform a vital role in setting standards for its more backward members. If only, however, the EU would do more to enforce those standards in a uniform fashion.
Within Italy, the Sollecito-Knox case has led to zero change that I am aware of. Giuliano Mignini, the original narcissistic Italian magistrate-nut-job, continues to work as a public prosecutor in Perugia. No policeman, as far as I know, has been sanctioned for the many, many laws the police broke. And Italy still has no equivalent of the UK’s Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE, 1984), which makes collusion between courts and police very difficult by imposing a review layer between them — what in the UK is called the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Italy has every single one of the judicial and police problems that led to the passage of the PACE in the UK 35 years ago. But because Italy is presently masquerading as a country called Shitaly, it won’t get on and do the same thing.
Owen Bowcott Legal affairs correspondent
Amanda Knox. Photograph: NBC NewsWire/Reuters
Amanda Knox: European court orders Italy to pay damages
The European court of human rights has ordered Italy to pay Amanda Knox €18,400 for police failures to provide her access to a lawyer and a translator during questioning over the 2007 killing of her British flatmate Meredith Kercher in Perugia.
The ruling opens the way for Knox’s lawyers to challenge her last remaining conviction, for malicious accusation, in the Italian courts.
The court, in Strasbourg, declared that Italy must pay Knox €10,400 in damages plus €8,000 to cover costs and expenses.
As well as concluding authorities had twice violated her right to a fair trial, the ECHR also found they had failed to investigate her complaints she had been subjected to degrading treatment, including being slapped on the head and deprived of sleep. The court did not, however, uphold her complaint of ill-treatment.
The 31-year-old American’s convictions for murder and sexual assault were previously overturned. She was also found guilty by an Italian court of making a malicious accusation, by allegedly suggesting someone else was guilty of the murder.
The killing of Kercher, a Leeds University European Studies student on a one-year exchange course in Umbria, generated global headlines for several years as charges of sexual assault and murder were fought through the courts – exposing Italy’s justice system to international criticism.
Knox, a language student and Kercher’s flatmate, and Knox’s Italian former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were initially charged with sexually assaulting and killing her. Kercher was stabbed in the neck.
The following year Knox was also charged with malicious accusation for suggesting another person should be a suspect. Italian detectives alleged she was trying to hide her responsibility for the attack by blaming someone else. Knox wants to have that conviction quashed.
Judges at the ECHR said the Italian government had failed to show that Knox’s restricted access to a lawyer had not “irreparably undermined the fairness of the proceedings as a whole”.
Meredith Kercher. Photograph: PA
“Ms Knox had been particularly vulnerable, being a foreign young woman, 20 at the time, not having been in Italy for very long and not being fluent in Italian,” the court noted.
The ECHR’s decision was “not a big surprise for me because the supreme court already said there were many mistakes,” said Knox’s lawyer, Carlo Dalla Vedova. “That is one of the reasons that invited us to tell Amanda to go to Strasbourg. For me this is a certification of a mistake, probably the biggest legal mistake in the last years in Italy, also because the attention that this case has had.”
Dalla Vedova said of the malicious accusation conviction: “It is impossible to compensate Amanda for four years in prison for a mistake. There will be no amount. We are not looking for compensation of damages. We are doing this on principal.”
In 2009, Knox was convicted in an Italian court of falsifying a break-in at their Perugia flat, sexual assault, murder and defamation. She was sentenced to 26 years in prison. Sollecito was also found guilty of the attack and sentenced to 25 years.
Both appealed. In 2011, the Perugia court of appeal acquitted the pair of the more serious charges, but upheld Knox’s conviction for malicious accusation.
After nearly four years in custody, Knox was released and returned to the US. She appealed again to challenge the malicious accusation conviction. It was quashed but in 2014 she was re-convicted of both malicious accusation and murder.
The murder conviction was again annulled by the court of cassation, the country’s highest court, the following year but the malicious accusation conviction was not removed. Ivory Coast-born Rudy Guede is serving a 16-year sentence for his role in the killing.
Lawyers for Knox, who lives in Seattle, then appealed to the ECHR to overturn the last remaining conviction. They argued she was denied the right to legal assistance when first interviewed by police in 2007, was not given access to a professional or independent interpreter and that she did not receive a fair hearing.
Knox has always denied any involvement in the murder.
I wrote a ton of stuff about this case while it was going on. It ought to all be under the ‘Italy to avoid’ tab
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Tags: Italian legal system, Italian police, Italian professional classes, Knox, Mignini, Sollecito and Knox
This entry was posted on January 25, 2019 at 12:03 pm and is filed under Development, Do Something Useful, Italy, Italy to avoid, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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ATLANTA POPS TO PERFORM HOLIDAY GALA CONCERT
on November 7, 2016 May 23, 2017 By Melissa Sanders
JOHN DRISKELL HOPKINS AND ATLANTA POPS ORCHESTRA
TO RELEASE DOUBLE VINYL LP
IN THE SPIRIT: A CELEBRATION OF THE HOLIDAYS (DELUXE EDITION)
Bonus Tracks To Include “Mele Kalikimaka” and “Angels We Have Heard On High”
AT CALLANWOLDE FINE ARTS CENTER, DECEMBER 1, 2016
Christmas at Callanwolde Gala Concert To Feature John Driskell Hopkins,
Michelle Malone and the VaudeVillains
ADDITONAL POPS HOLIDAY CONCERTS TO BE PERFORMED AROUND SOUTHEAST
ATLANTA, GA — This holiday season, the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and Zac Brown Band’s John Driskell Hopkins will reissue its beloved holiday CD (released in 2015) as a double vinyl LP — In The Spirit: A Celebration of the Holidays (Deluxe Edition). Featuring Hopkins and his signature baritone voice, the recording includes Christmas favorites — both new and old — with the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and some very special guests. For a sneak peek of one of the bonus tracks, “Mele Kalikimaka” with Hopkins, watch the video here.
Tap into a beautiful and nostalgic world, complete with soaring arrangements, expansive harmonies, and even humor! Iconic friends Indigo Girls help to light up the classic “Do You Hear What I Hear?” while bluegrass trailblazers Balsam Range bring the Appalachian mountains into view on “What Child Is This?,” and Laura Bell Bundy and Hopkins take “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” for a new spin.
The new Deluxe Edition LP will be available for purchase as a doubly vinyl LP or digital download beginning Friday, November 18, 2016, at the Zac Brown Band website, or as a dgital download via iTunes, Amazon and GooglePlay.
The orginal CD (released Nov 2015) is currently available online at JohnDriskellHopkins.com, ZacBrownBand.com and AtlantaPops.com, as well as a digital download via iTunes, Amazon and GooglePlay.
The CD and double vinyl LP will also be available for purchase at upcoming Atlanta Pops Orchestra performances.
CHRISTMAS AT CALLANWOLDE
In addition, the Atlanta Pops Orchestra will perform another season of holiday music around the region, including a Gala Concert at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center on Thursday, December 1, 2016, at 7:30 p.m., as part of its annual Christmas at Callanwolde,a spectacular Atlanta Christmas destination. Featured on the gala concert program, alongside the orchestra, will be John Driskell Hopkins (Zac Brown Band) and Michelle Malone (blues guitarist and vocalist), led by conductor Dr. Tom Gibson. Hopkins will sing various holiday classics with the orchestra — which
are also featured on the Pops recording, In The Spirit: A Celebration of the Holidays —including “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas,” “Christmas Time Is Here,” and “O, Holy Night.” Malone
will also sing holiday songs with the orchestra including “Count Your Blessings,” “Jingle Bells,” “Blue Christmas,” and one of her own original songs, “Feels like Christmas.” Opening the evening will be the traditional country guitar trio, the VaudeVillains. Tickets for the Christmas at Callanwolde Holiday Gala can be purchased online at atlantapops.com/callanwolde.
This year, Callanwolde has partnered with Illuminating Design Inc. to transform the exterior grounds and gardens of the historic Candler Estate into a spectacular wonderland for a new Christmas at Callanwolde Light ShowNovember 21–December 29, from 6–10:00 p.m. The always popular Designer Show House will return November 28 – December 13, from 11:00 a.m. –6:00 p.m., where visitors of all ages will enjoy touring the 27,000 square-foot historic Candler mansion which will be elaborately decorated with professional holiday displays, an expansive artist market and themed events for all ages and offering a variety of opportunities to celebrate the season with daily events.
ADDITIONAL HOLIDAY CONCERTS
In addition to the Christmas at Callanwolde Gala Concert, the Orchestra will continue to travel the southeast with performances throughout the holiday season, including:
Sat, Nov 12 | Ellijay, GA| Ellijay Auditorium
Thur, Nov 17 | Enterprise, AL| Coffee County Arts Alliance
Fri, Dec 2 | Lake Junaluska, NC| Balsam Range Art of Music Festival
Tue, Dec 6 | Dothan, AL| Music South with John Driskell Hopkins
Wed, Dec 7 | Greensboro, GA | Oconee Performing Arts
Sat, Dec 10 | Cartersville, GA| The Grand Theatre
Sun, Dec 18 | Atlanta, GA | The Vista Room with John Driskell Hopkins
Sat, Jan 7 | Newberry, SC | Newberry Opera House
ABOUT ATLANTA POPS ORCHESTRA
The Atlanta Pops Orchestra is a premier provider of live orchestral music programming for the state of Georgia, the Southeastern U.S. and beyond. With a rich history spanning more than seven decades, the orchestra has captivated audiences throughout the world. Equally adept performing pop, jazz, folk, hip-hop, light classical, country and more, the Atlanta Pops challenges the expectation of what an orchestra is capable of delivering.
The Atlanta Pops Orchestra has released a number of recordings over the years, the most recent being 2015’s In The Spirit: A Celebration of the Holidays, a collaborative effort with John Driskell Hopkins — a founding member of three-time GRAMMY-winning and multi-platinum group, Zac Brown Band. The Christmas recording showcases a sound firmly rooted in tradition, but distinctively modern. Featuring new arrangements by Wes Funderburk, the album also includes guest appearances by singer Laura Bell Bundy, legendary folk duo Indigo Girls and award-winning bluegrass group Balsam Range. The album continues to be well-received by fans and critics alike, serving to showcase the versatility of the orchestra in the recording studio. To mark the orchestra’s 70th anniversary, efforts were made in 2015 to reconnect to the vibrant energy of the present-day, collaborative Atlanta music scene. A two-night engagement at Oglethorpe University brought together a diverse group of Atlanta superstars representing the diverse sounds of the city. Guest artists included former Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Henry Mancini trumpeter Cecil Welch, pianist Brent Runnels, blues guitarist Michelle Malone, hip-hop trailblazers Arrested Development, beatbox protégé HeaveN Beatbox, jazz trumpeter Joe Gransden, singer Chris Wright (performing a song written by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal), world-fusion duo Montana Skies and Americana singer-songwriter Levi Lowrey. Entitled Bringing Together the Past and the Present, the concerts have served as a springboard for the orchestra’s current-day endeavors.
Under the direction of Conductor and Music Director Dr. Jason Altieri, the Atlanta Pops orchestra performs concerts throughout the Southeast for special events, performing arts center subscription series, concert associations, and colleges and universities. The orchestra also accompanies celebrity artists on tour and performs at national and international business conventions. Atlanta Pops Orchestra musicians perform as pit musicians for the Fabulous Fox Theatre Broadway Series as well as for other travelling productions, such as Celtic Woman, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Mannheim Steamroller. Dr. Altieri also serves as Associate Conductor of the Reno (NV) Philharmonic and as Director of the Orchestra Program at The University of Nevada, Reno.
Atlanta Pops Orchestra media contact:
Melissa A.E. Sanders, Watkins McGowan
404.909.6726 | msanders@watkinsmcgowan.com
Twisty puzzles offer an entertaining way of improving your dexterity and problem solving skills.
About Melissa Sanders
Posted InAnnouncement, Press Release, The Holiday Album
Previous ATLANTA POPS ORCHESTRA TO PERFORM HOLIDAY GALA CONCERT
Next PREVIEW OF CHRISTMAS AT CALLANWOLDE TO INCLUDE THE LIGHTING OF NEW 23-FOOT CHRISTMAS TREE
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Walk In Silence
Jon Chaisson and His Obsessions with Music and Writing
Buy Stuff!
Linkage!
Blogging the Beatles 53/54: “Let It Be”/”You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)” and Let It Be
Posted on February 1, 2014 by Jon Chaisson
By early 1970, all four members of the Beatles were already busy with their own solo projects. By the end of 1969, John had already come out with four albums–three of them experimental noise recorded with Yoko, and the fourth being a live album he’d recorded in Canada with a hastily gathered all-star band–as well as two big singles, “Give Peace a Chance” and “Cold Turkey” (with “Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)” to be rush-released in early February 1970). Ringo had recorded an album of standards called Sentimental Journey that would be released in March. George had only snuck out a single experimental album in May 1969, Electronic Sound, but by the end of 1970 he’d have a triple album release of All Things Must Pass.
Paul, on the other hand, had chosen to lay low. He’d been recording himself, and had only chosen to release his debut solo release, McCartney, when he was good and ready. As luck would have it, however, the original release date of Let It Be would originally conflict with McCartney, and it was only through stubborn will and frustration that he would win out, pushing the final Beatles album out a month. The decision was not without acrimony, however. On Paul’s side, he’d planned the 17 April release date for some time, and was not informed of the Let It Be release date until he’d already made concrete plans. On the other hand, the other members argued that he should move the date, considering the band’s release was more important. Paul would eventually win the debate, it was a bitter victory. John and George had sent Ringo, the always amicable best-buddy to plead one more time…only to have Paul explode at him in a rage. He wasn’t so much angry at Ringo, per se…it was more that they’d been so coy about breaching the subject and sending someone else. And it ended up being one of the final wedges that split the band. Perhaps not entirely due to this event but certainly related to it, when promotional copies of McCartney were sent out, he’d attached a self-scripted Q & A, which contained vague but telling news: he really didn’t see the Beatles recording anything else anytime soon. He hadn’t exactly come out and said they’d broken up…but he hadn’t dismissed the idea, either.
Credit: jpgr.co.uk – The Beatles Complete UK Discography site
Single: “Let It Be”/”You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)”
Released: 6 March 1970
By March, the planned Get Back project had gone through multiple revisions, and was now being given to Phil Spector to see if he could do anything with them. In the meantime, they chose to release the next single from the sessions as sort of a precursor to the eventual album. This particular single was recorded at the recently built (and rebuilt, to working order this time) Apple Studios, in the basement of their Savile Row business office, with George Martin stopping by to produce. It was recorded on 31 January, technically the final date of the Get Back sessions, and a day after their ersatz “live” rooftop concert the previous day. This session was primarily to record tracks they would not have been able to perform up on the roof; it was a sort of “live in studio” performance instead. Three songs would be recorded and finished after multiple takes, and would all eventually show up on the album.
It was also at this time that the end result of the sessions had changed its name to Let It Be, not just to coincide with the latest single (and one much closer in date than “Get Back”), but also because of the change in the related film/performance project. The filming, originally planned as a “band at work” documentary to release alongside a potential television special, had turned into a full-blown feature film documentary instead. The idea of “getting back” to their roots was now obscured enough that a new title was necessary. This single would have been the first official mention of the title, its picture single cover saying as much.
Side A: Let It Be
Paul’s lovely piano piece dates back to late in the sessions for The Beatles (Paul was noodling around on the piano with this piece at least around 15 September 1968), and finally gets its full, gorgeous release here. It’s a solemn ode to his long-departed mother Mary, who’d been a nurse and midwife and definitely a force of nature in the McCartney household in his youth. She was strong and independent, but she was also deeply caring to everyone she loved, and she’d deeply affected Paul in that way. The lyrics are said to be very indicative of her, a solid emotional anchor when everything around was chaos (which makes sense, considering when Liverpool had gotten bombed in the early 1940s, she would gladly offer assistance to any wounded civilians).
The performance here is strong and heartfelt, with Paul on grand piano, John on bass, George on guitar, Ringo on drums, and their guest Billy Preston on organ. Interestingly, however, by this time their “no overdubs” policy had pretty much been dropped, so any tweaking on the music was given the go-ahead. On 4 January 1970, George Martin added a simple orchestral backing quite similar to “Hey Jude”, with the orchestra playing minimal notes. Also during that session, George Harrison dubbed on a guitar solo to replace the one he’d recorded on 30 April 1969. This solo is how one can tell the difference between the single version and the album version, as otherwise they are exactly the same: George’s solo is much slower and more meandering here.
Side B: You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
This would most likely have to be the most curious of Beatles b-sides, and for many reasons. Originally started way back on 17 May 1967 during the Yellow Submarine sessions, it was dropped and returned to on multiple occasions as time and interest warranted. It’s somewhat similar to their cabaret/pantomime Christmas recordings of that era, recording the same melody and lyric (the entirety of it being “You know my name” and “look up the number”, natch) in varying music styles. The May ’67 recording was the crunchy and boisterous first segment; it was revived on 7 and 8 June of that year with additional styles added, with Rolling Stone member Brian Jones playing an admirable alto saxophone solo. It wasn’t until 30 April 1969–the same day George overdubbed the above solo–that John and Paul revived it once more, this time on a later-aborted plan to release it as the b-side to “What’s the New Mary Jane”, itself to be a Plastic Ono Band single. It was eventually edited down from a nearly six-minute track (its nearly full version is available on Anthology 3) and used as the b-side to their final single. Perhaps an odd choice, but an interesting one nonetheless, as each song balances the other out quite nicely.
This would be the final Beatles single in the UK canon, at least until whatever became of the Anthology sessions of 1994. However, the US chose to release one last single after this, the equally strong ballad “The Long and Winding Road” with George’s “For You Blue” as its b-side. Either way, this is a fine choice for a final single–despite everything, the band soldiered on and delivered a highly memorable and much-loved release.
Album: Let It Be
For those who have not followed the history of the band and only know them by their releases, this album is somewhat of a let down, especially after the brilliance of Abbey Road. Its many flaws are apparent; some of the songs only reach jam session-level professionalism, others are tightly played but weak in melody, and others suffer from the Spector-ized bombast of overproduction. It’s not entirely a soundtrack to the movie’s tracks, either; some were recorded at Twickenham, others at Apple after filming had ended, and there are many overdubs and edits, despite the album’s liner notes commenting otherwise. Still, it’s an interesting collection in and of itself, and there are fine moments that rose out of the troubled sessions.
Track 1: Two of Us
Paul’s folky traveling song may have originally been inspired by his northern travels with Linda Eastman, but it can also easily be seen as a return to the folky singalong of “Love Me Do” in a way. With Paul and John dueting on vocals and Martin acoustics (George is on bass and overdubbed electric guitar, Ringo on drums), it’s a lovely example of the band recapturing their early to mid-60s folk-based sound. The lyrics are simple, maybe even a little silly and self-deprecating, but that’s part of its charm…it’s supposed to be that way. The album version was one of the songs recorded “live in studio” on 31 January 1969, and it’s actually a different take on their original version, which was much more electric and upbeat. [This version can be heard in part in the Let It Be film.]
Track 2: Dig a Pony
John’s first offering isn’t one of his best–he’d dismissed this one as “garbage” later on his career”–but it’s certainly up his alley in terms of quirkiness. This one of the few tracks recorded on the roof of the Savile Row Apple building, and after a quick false start (which you can see in the movie–Ringo yells “Hold it!” so he can quickly stub out his cigarette and pick up his drumsticks), it kicks into a quick 6/8-time introduction that has little to do with the main melody, which is a much slower 3/4. The song itself is a sort of blues, but its constant and unexpected chord changes give it an off-kilter ambience, which fits nicely with the odd wordplay. The lyrics don’t really mean much, an attempt at playing with as many differing and strange variations of “You can do anything if you set your mind to it”. The verses are balanced out with an “All I want is you” passage which may or may not serve as a chorus, and borrows the melody from the introduction. Again, it’s not one of John’s best, but it’s an interesting attempt nonetheless.
Track 3: Across the Universe
The first Spectorized Beatles song makes its appearance here. This is also a strange choice of track, as the version here is the early 1968 recording massively remixed and overdubbed with orchestral and choral layers and slowed down to its original speed. The band did practice full versions during the Get Back sessions, but the original was used instead. One reason was that a portion of the track does show up in the movie, but the other is that John’s donations to the album are so slim here that they felt this would be a good addition. The album version is the most well known version, and does have its own dreamlike quality similar to the No One’s Gonna Change Our World version, and though the strings and chorus sound like overkill now, it does in fact sound more polished and cleaner than the latter.
Track 4: I Me Mine
George provides his first of two tracks for the session here, and it’s one of his most personal and scathing. It’s partly inspired by his ongoing studies in Indian philosophies, but more to the point, it’s his second track in just under a year, just after “Not Guilty”, that’s squarely (but obliquely) aimed at John and Paul. By early 1969 he’d about had enough of his two leading bandmates’ egos, having passed over so many of his songs, only to work on half-baked tracks like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” or some such. The result is short (just under two minutes in the original April 1970 studio recording), but in those few minutes he spares nothing, all but singing “yes, it’s all about you, isn’t it?” This is also one of the tracks on the album that actually benefits from Phil Spector’s remixing; he repeated one full section to lengthen it by another thirty seconds or so, and the horns are only added to the back end of the verse. It’s one of the rare times where Spector truly understood how the Beatles worked with overdubs.
Track 5: Dig It
This fifty-second snippet is part of a much longer jam recorded at the Apple studio on 26 January, much shorter than even the four minute version shown in the movie. There’s not much to say here other than it’s a three-chord repetitive riff echoing Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” but much bouncier, and featuring Billy Preston on organ and George Martin on maracas. John’s ad-libbed vocals don’t go very far other than riffing on the Dylan line and listing off random famous names. The only excitement here is John’s silly ad-lib at the end (taken from an earlier version of the same jam), which dovetails nicely with the next song on the album.
Track 6: Let It Be
Paul’s lovely piano ballad makes a return here. Again, it’s features the same backing tracks as the single version, though Spector tweaks this one as well. The orchestration has been punched up, some effects have been added, and a few of the lyrics have gotten slightly rearranged, especially near the end. A livelier guitar solo (recorded 4 January 1970) played by George is used here instead. The two versions are so similar that it’s quite hard to tell the two apart other than by George’s solo, but this one seems much more complete.
Track 7: Maggie Mae
The first side closes with a forty-second leftover from the Apple studio jams, which they would often rely on for warming up. On 24 January 1969 this particular morning’s warmup featured a number of their old skiffle favorites from their Quarrymen days, including this old standard about a prostitute who would rob her clients. It dies out rather quickly, but it’s a fun little aside nonetheless.
Track 1: I’ve Got a Feeling
The second track on the album to be culled from the rooftop concert, it’s a catchy track equal parts Paul and John. John kicks off the song with his excellent fingerpicking style he’d honed so carefully during sessions for The Beatles, but it’s Paul’s offering of the main “I’ve Got a Feeling” melody that drives the track. John’s “Everybody Had a Hard Year” (a Beatles demo that never got recorded) and “Watching Rainbows” (the origin of the fingerpicked riff, and found on many bootlegs) is a perfect counterpoint to Paul’s melody. An almost unintelligible bridge pops up twice in the middle of the track, a pounding, climbing riff, only to stop cold and be brought back down to earth by George’s quick solo guitar drop. [That drop may have been quite the source of contention during the sessions; soon after a run-through of this track in the movie, Paul and George quietly argue until George delivers the infamous “I’ll play whatever you want me to play” remark.] This is probably the strongest song of the entire rooftop concert.
Track 2: One After 909
Paul mentions this old track (probably written around 1957 and attempted but never released in 1963) in the film as one of the “Lennon-McCartney Originals” they wrote in the pre-fame days. They dismiss it as a rather corny lyric, but chose to include it in the sessions as part of their warmup jams of old favorites. While the original from way back when was a bluesy rocker, the album version, recorded as part of the rooftop concert, is more of a honkytonk country track. It’s played very loosely, perhaps a little too much so, as their performance sounds less than enthusiastic. On the other hand, it’s obvious that they’re having fun playing this old gem.
Track 3: The Long and Winding Road
Paul’s slow piano ballad may have been a hit single in the US and a much-loved track for many, but it has one of the most troubled of histories of any Beatles track. Musically, it’s inspired by Paul’s drives with Linda through the sparse landscape of Scotland, to and from his farmstead near Kintyre, and the original version, heard in the film and later on the 2003 release Let It Be…Naked, is actually quite lovely. It’s very sparsely arranged, with Paul on piano, John on bass, George on quietly-strummed guitar, Ringo on delicate drums, and Billy Preston on organ, including quite a moving hymn-like solo. However…the album version is the end result of an increasingly unstable Spector, who added such cloying and overbearing orchestral and choral overdubs that it turned a decent ballad into a horribly over-the-top schmaltzy track. The version is so precious that it enraged Paul to the point of quitting the band once and for all. He’d asked to have it redone without the overdubs, but his request was ignored and the version was the one released. Paul sued Allen Klein (their ersatz manager at this time, but more of a financial manager if anything) and the other three to dissolve the company they’d only created a few years before, and used Spector’s mishandling of the track as one of the major points. He’d hated Klein for some time and had never trusted him (John and George liked him, and Ringo was his usual ambivalent self), but he’d chosen to be the bigger man for some time…but this blatant mishandling had been the final straw. No other track in the Beatles catalog has this sound, and thankfully so.
Track 4: For You Blue
George brings things back to normal with an easy, fun twelve-bar blues track recorded at the Apple studio on 25 January. It’s jangly and lightly played, with George on acoustic guitar and vocals, John on a slide guitar (the slide used was actually a shotgun shell!), Paul on restrained piano, and Ringo playing soft but tight drums. It’s clear they’re all having fun playing this track–it’s evident even in the movie, where all four are full of smiles as they play. Lyrically it’s a simple love song that could easily have fit in with the lyrics of their early years, but the highlight is George’s asides of “Go, Johnny, go!” and “Elmore James has got nothing on this, baby!” during John’s spirited slide solos.
Track 5: Get Back
The album ends with another version of their early 1969 single. It’s exactly the same take, though expertly rearranged by Spector here to sound like a different one. He adds a bit of studio chat, including a tongue-in-cheek rewrite of the lyric from John (“Sweet Loretta Fart, she thought she was a cleaner, but she was a frying pan”), and instead of the breakdown at the end of the single version, he treats that as the end of the song and edits the classic ending line of the rooftop concert and the movie itself: ” “I’d like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we’ve passed the audition!” This is a bittersweet line, considering it’s a play on their very early days of auditioning for shows, as well as the very last lines heard by the band on vinyl as they broke up. Saving the track for last was a brilliant move, as it leaves the listener on a high note. It’s a reminder that, despite the band’s history (and the dodginess of the album itself), the band remained as true to their goals as entertainers and accomplished musicians.
Let It Be is often seen as a flawed masterpiece, and not exactly a fan favorite, due to its unhinged performances and lack of inspired musicianship. It’s glaringly obvious that this was an album of tracks where Spector was given, in the words of John a year later, “…the shittiest load of badly-recorded shit with a lousy feeling to it ever, and he made something of it.” Glyn Johns had done what he could, and the Get Back version of session does sound admirable if extremely disjointed, but John had a point–the band had been in a bad place and going in a bad direction after sessions for The Beatles, and no one was really in the mood. They’d been trained so soldier on despite their mental and emotional states, however, as that was the norm for the music industry in the sixties. Had they truly taken time off, time away from each other, and especially after sessions for Sgt Pepper back in 1967, perhaps things would have turned out differently. As it stands, however, the era of 1968 into the first half of 1969 was a band on the wane.
That said, the album itself does have merit. There are many interesting tracks that, if taken in a chronological context, serve as a middle ground between the angry and organic The Beatles and the slick and poppy Abbey Road. Many of the tracks here could fit on either album. “Two of Us,” “Dig a Pony” and “I’ve Got a Feeling” would have fit nicely on the former; “Let It Be” would have been a brilliant standalone single on par with “Hey Jude”; the non-Spectorized “The Long and Winding Road” and “I Me Mine” would have fit on the latter; “Get Back” could have remained a great standalone single as well. This view would also make Abbey Road the final album, which also makes sense, considering its own deliberate finality.
It also has been given much love over the years as well; in 1988, Slovenian industrial band Laibach recorded their own interpretation of the album (minus the title track) in a multitude of interesting ways, including a disturbingly dark “Get Back”, an operatic “Two of Us”, and an angelic “Across the Universe”. Many of the tracks have been covered over the years, and Paul himself has revisited “Get Back”, “Let It Be” and “The Long and Winding Road” many times during his solo tours. It’s by no means their best album, but as Beatles albums go, it’s still a solid one, despite its faults.
It would be the last new Beatles album released during their career, and the last release of their official canon, but it was by no means the last release ever. In 1973, Capitol released the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 compilations, and for the next ten years they released various further compilations, each one a solid mix. In 1987 these compilations were all out of print and the entire catalog finally released on compact disc, with only the two Past Masters volumes serving as a compilation, collecting all non-album tracks. Still…these were all albums of previously released tracks. There would be no more new Beatles tracks.
At least, not until twenty-five years later, in 1995.
Next Up: the Anthology series, and the “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love” singles
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged Beatles, blogging the beatles, music by Jon Chaisson. Bookmark the permalink.
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December 8, 2012 in Reflections.....
‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.’ How ’bout when a man’s ego is torched?
1st post from the mini, after what seems like a gazillion years away from the blog.
Indeed how time flies!! So many happenings this year, some good, others, not so.
But hey, all things work out for the good for those who love him. No?
First meeting in JJ zone. Glad & grateful to have Johann not only as a zone supervisor, but also as a cell group leader. After all that’s happened in the past, how some dreams die, but new ones are birthed.
So…. What next? Honestly, I daren’t go beyond school days as I’m in the take things as they come phase. Learned not to be so presumptuous and to yield to god’s ways over certain matters. Especially in the realm of relationships.
And there’s also a certain change in my personality. Something’s……hardened?
Perhaps more streetwise. More battle-ready. Some issues were ironed out, those that weren’t….well lets just say I’m getting better at masking it with a smile. Good or bad thing? Perhaps both.
And there’s a certain nasty streak. As long as something’s deemed to’ve crossed the line. Especially if the other party’s well aware & recalcitrant. I somehow go into combat/war/attack mode. Where in a not so good way I launch a counter strike at the offending party, often in ways that let them have a taste of their own medicine. Not nice, nor good I know……
Tells you all you need to know about the experiences & hurts I’ve encountered before. And still struggling.
At least now I’ve no desire, not as much as before to conform & be accepted. To remain unique, just as I am. But to be unique also means strengths together with flaws. The full package.
But I’ve had it with been trodden upon. Made to feel like the odd one out, or the joke of the group. Least of all in a safe environment. And sometimes when being nice for too long doesn’t solve the issue….. Time for a shot across the bow. Before the artillery comes their way.
And it only stops when (if necessary) both parties have been damaged to a certain extent. Where the lesson is clear to the other party. Especially with words & deeds.
I’m not to be stepped on, ever again. But I do know this ain’t gonna end well. In fact I know god’s gonna frown at it.
But then again, I’m human ain’t I? Until he does something, or something happens. This is a weakness I’ve.
Ego, to a certain extent self-esteem. I won’t tolerate anybody stepping across the line of making me feel like a freak or the odd one out.
End of rant. I’ve launched a heavy strike on someone close today….. Still feeling the anger even after an hour, but I know the remorse will follow shortly….
Just like batman/Bruce Wayne in Christopher Nolan’s depiction, I’m one step away from being a full scale murderer (rage) even as he tries to keep it in control as Gotham’s protector.
And the friend’s depiction of myself as Loki……well even if its true it still burns within. Why’d such a depiction?
I’m NOT LOKI. I’m hector. I’m not a villain, but don’t push me too far. Or the guns will be loaded. Don’t load the guns or point them towards you. Not gonna end well…….
Rant over
« Poet’s solitude
Hello & goodbye: part one »
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University Policy:
This Policy governs the possession and consumption of Alcoholic Beverages on Campus.
[Jump to Appendix I, Appendix II, Appendix III]
The laws of North Carolina closely regulate all activities related to Alcoholic Beverages, from manufacture to consumption. As a general rule, consumption, transportation, manufacture, service, Sale, or transfer of Alcoholic Beverages is prohibited except as expressly permitted by statute. Violations of the Alcoholic Beverage laws are punishable by criminal and civil penalties. Of particular importance in the University community are those statutory requirements on who may legally possess, consume or provide others with Alcoholic Beverages. All state-law requirements related to Alcoholic Beverages are in effect on the University Campus. All students, staff, faculty, and guests are expected to comply.
In addition to statutory requirements concerning alcohol use, courts throughout the country are increasingly likely to impose civil liability on those whose irresponsible service or consumption of Alcoholic Beverages results in property damage, personal injury, or death for innocent parties. All students, staff, faculty, and guests are viewed by the University as individually responsible and legally accountable for their actions relating to the use of alcohol.
Finally, the University community presents a special context in which an environment compatible with academic endeavors must be preserved. To preserve that academic environment without unnecessarily restricting exercise of legal privileges, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has established this policy concerning the use of Alcoholic Beverages on the University Campus.
II. Definitions
As used in this policy, certain terms are defined as follows:
Affiliated Group; Non-Affiliated Group; Sponsored Non-Affiliated Group:
The definitions for "Affiliated Group," "Non-Affiliated Group," and "Sponsored Non-Affiliated Group" set forth in University Policy 601.6, "Scheduling University Facilities," also apply to this Policy.
Alcoholic Beverage:
Any beverage containing at least one half of one percent (0.5%) of alcohol by volume.
Approving Authority:
For the Harris Alumni Center - the Vice Chancellor for University Advancement, or designee;
For the Center City Building - the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, or designee;
For residence areas - the Housing and Residence Life Office;
For all other areas of Campus - the Conference, Reservations and Events Services Office.
Malt beverages, including Beer, liquor, malt liquor, ale, porter, and any other brewed or fermented beverage except Unfortified Wine or Fortified Wine containing at least one half of one percent (0.5%), and not more than fifteen percent (15%) alcohol by volume. Any malt beverage containing more than six percent (6%) alcohol by volume shall bear a label clearly indicating the alcohol content of the malt beverage.
BYO or Bring Your Own Event:
An event, other than Tailgating, at which an invitee may carry in Beer or Unfortified Wine for personal consumption; no other Alcoholic Beverage is available at the event.
All property owned or leased by UNC Charlotte, with the exception of the Chancellor’s residence.
Common Source Containers:
Kegs, coolers, and similar containers of Alcoholic Beverages intended to serve as a source of such beverages at a party or other gathering.
Fortified Wine:
Any wine, of more than sixteen percent (16%) and no more than twenty‑four percent (24%) alcohol by volume, made by fermentation from grapes, fruits, berries, rice or honey, or by the addition of pure cane, beet, or dextrose sugar; or by the addition of pure brandy from the same type of grape, fruit, berry, rice, or honey that is contained in the base wine and produced in accordance with the regulations of the United States.
Group Event:
A Service Event sponsored by an Affiliated Group; Non-Affiliated Group; or Sponsored Non-Affiliated Group.
Mixed Beverage:
A drink composed in whole or in part of Spirituous Liquor and served in a quantity less than the quantity contained in a closed package or a premixed cocktail served from a closed package containing only one serving.
Sale of Alcoholic Beverages means any transfer, trade, exchange, or barter, in any manner or by any means, for consideration. Sale is broadly interpreted by law enforcement authorities to include such practices as charging admission to events where alcohol is served, requiring the purchase of tickets, or requiring donations or other exchanges in order to receive Alcoholic Beverages. Such exchanges are viewed as indirect payment for Alcoholic Beverages and are, therefore, illegal. However, as a limited exception to this general rule, the service of Alcoholic Beverages at a ticketed fundraising event sponsored by the University or a non-profit organization that is an Affiliated Group, Non-Affiliated Group, or Sponsored Non-Affiliated Group shall not be construed as a sale, provided (a) there is no separate charge for the Alcoholic Beverage that is served (b) no State funds are used to purchase the alcohol, and (c) the non-profit organization or the University obtains the appropriate permit from the ABC Commission for the service of Alcoholic Beverages at the event. (N.C.G.S. 18B‑1002(a)(5))
Service Event:
A Service Event is an event sponsored by the University or an Affiliated Group, Non-Affiliated Group, or Sponsored Non-Affiliated Group at which Alcoholic Beverages are served to invitees.
Spirituous Liquor:
Distilled spirits or ethyl alcohol, including spirits of wine, whiskey, rum, brandy, gin and all other distilled spirits and mixtures of cordials, liqueur, and premixed cocktails, in closed containers for beverage use regardless of their dilution.
Tailgating:
A gathering of Patrons outdoors that typically occurs around a vehicle or in a parking lot or parking deck, which may include consuming food and beverages, including Alcoholic Beverages, at an approved, designated area during approved times before or after official UNC Charlotte intercollegiate athletic events. See University Policy 718, Tailgating.
Unfortified Wine:
Wine any wine of sixteen percent (16%) or less alcohol by volume made by fermentation from grapes, fruits, berries, rice, or honey; or by the addition of pure cane, beet, or dextrose sugar; or by the addition of pure brandy from the same type of grape, fruit, berry, rice, or honey that is contained in the base wine and produced in accordance with the regulations of the United States.
III. Applicable Laws
This UNC Charlotte Policy is consistent with North Carolina laws governing the use and possession of Alcoholic Beverages on the University Campus. The specific laws cited below are pertinent to this Policy, but this list is not exhaustive. All North Carolina laws, whether or not cited in this Policy, are applicable.
Generally, persons who are twenty-one years old or older may purchase Alcoholic Beverages and may possess and consume Alcoholic Beverages at their homes or temporary residences, including Campus residence hall rooms where they reside. (N.C.G.S. 18B-300 and 18B-301)
It is unlawful for any person under the age of twenty-one to purchase, possess, or consume Alcoholic Beverages. (N.C.G.S. 18B-302(b))
It is unlawful for any person to sell or give Alcoholic Beverages to anyone less than twenty-one years old or to aid or abet a person under the age of twenty-one to purchase, to attempt to purchase, to possess, or to consume any Alcoholic Beverage. (N.C.G.S. 18B-302)
State law prohibits the Sale of any Alcoholic Beverage on the University Campus by any person, organization, or corporation on the Campus of the University, except a nonprofit alumni organization with a mixed beverages permit or a special occasion permit; provided, however, that Beer and Unfortified Wine may be sold at performing arts centers located on property owned or leased by the University if the seating capacity does not exceed 2,000 seats. Any such sale of Beer or Unfortified Wine must be conducted by the University’s contracted food service vendor with the appropriate permit. (N.C.G.S. 18B-1006(a))
It is unlawful for any person to display publicly at any athletic contest Fortified Wine, Spirituous Liquor, or Mixed Beverages. (N.C.G.S. 18B-301(f)(2))
It is unlawful for any person to consume or offer to another person Fortified Wine, Spirituous Liquor, or Mixed Beverages on any public road, street, highway, or sidewalk. (N.C.G.S. 18B-301(f))
Without a permit, a person may purchase at one time (1) not more than 80 liters of Beer, other than draft Beer in kegs; (2) any amount of draft Beer in kegs; (3) not more than 50 liters of Unfortified Wine; and (4) not more than eight liters of either Fortified Wine or Spirituous Liquor, or eight liters of the two combined (N.C.G.S 18B-303(a))). It is unlawful to transport a greater amount of Alcoholic Beverages than a person is allowed to purchase under N.C.G.S. 18B-303(a) without a purchase-transportation permit (N.C.G.S. 18B-400, 406).
It is unlawful for a person to transport Fortified Wine or Spirituous Liquor in the passenger area of a motor vehicle in other than the manufacturer's unopened original container. It is unlawful for a person who is driving a motor vehicle on a highway or public vehicular area to consume any Alcoholic Beverage in the passenger area of that vehicle. (N.C.G.S. 18B-401(a))
State funds and student fees collected by the University cannot be used to purchase alcoholic beverages. (Section 4.8.5, NC State Budget Manual, OSBM)
IV. Coverage and Jurisdiction
This Policy applies to any person who possesses or consumes Alcoholic Beverages on the University Campus.
V. Permitted Alcoholic Beverages; Restrictions
Beer and Unfortified Wine are the only Alcoholic Beverages permitted on the Campus, unless specifically permitted under paragraphs V.B and V.C.
Students at least 21 years of age and their guests at least 21 years of age may consume Alcoholic Beverages within their own private Campus residence rooms, but not elsewhere, except when Tailgating. Such students are permitted to transport unopened containers of Spirituous Liquor, Fortified Wine, or Mixed Beverages from off Campus directly to their private Campus residence rooms, but may not otherwise transport those beverages on the Campus.
Possession and consumption of Spirituous Liquor, Fortified Wine, or Mixed Beverages are permitted on Campus (other than in Campus residence rooms) only on such occasions and in such places as the Approving Authority designates in writing.
Only the University’s contracted food service vendor is permitted to serve Spirituous Liquor, Fortified Wine, or Mixed Beverages at events where those beverages are provided. At any such event, the following sign must be posted: “This Event Hosted per NC ABC Commission Special Occasion Permit #00129988AR”.
Affiliated Groups wishing to serve Spirituous Liquor, Fortified Wine, or Mixed Beverages on the University Campus at a Service Event (see Section VII.D below) must:
complete an “Acknowledgement of Responsibility Form” (see Appendix I) and
complete a "Special Circumstances Approval Form" (see Appendix II) and
submit both forms to the appropriate Approving Authority
Non-Affiliated Groups and Sponsored Non-Affiliated Groups are not permitted to serve Spirituous Liquor, Fortified Wine, or Mixed Beverages on Campus.
VI. Limitation on Common Source Containers
Common Source Containers are prohibited within any Campus residence building and in all Campus outdoor areas. Common Source Containers are prohibited at events sponsored by student organizations.
VII. Group Events on the University Campus
A. Procedures and General requirements
The only events at which Alcoholic Beverages may be consumed on the University Campus are a BYO Event, a Service Event, or during Tailgating.
Alcoholic Beverages are permitted at Group Events only if:
A space reservation application is approved in advance by the Approving Authority.
Individuals responsible for the Group Event complete the appropriate "Acknowledgment of Responsibility" form (see Appendix I) and submit it to the appropriate Approving Authority.
The Acknowledgement of Responsibility Form must be submitted to the appropriate office between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM on Monday through Friday, and not later than 72 hours in advance of the Group Event. In addition, the reservation of University space must meet all requirements of UNC Charlotte University Policy 601.6.
B. Additional procedures and requirements for students and student organizations
The only events at which student organizations may have Alcoholic Beverages are approved BYO Events.
Prior to reserving space for a BYO Event, a student group is required to have at least one of its current executive officers complete an Alcohol Education Workshop, which will be presented by the University twice at the beginning of each Fall Semester. Faculty/staff advisors to student groups are encouraged to attend these sessions.
C. BYO Events; requirements
Each of the following requirements must be observed at a BYO Event:
Unless an exception is granted by the appropriate Vice Chancellor or unit head, Event Marshals must be present during entire BYO Event and will not consume Alcoholic Beverages in connection with the event. The minimum number of marshals who must be present for any event is two, and at least one marshal must be present for each 25 attendees. If the Vice Chancellor or unit head grants an exception to the Event Marshal requirement, he or she shall designate an Event Coordinator, who shall be in attendance at the event and shall be responsible for the requirements set forth in this Section VII.C.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will notify Police and Public Safety in advance of the BYO Event of the date, time, place, and expected attendance at the BYO Event.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will check identification cards at the entrance to the event. Only those persons who are aged 21 or over will be permitted to carry in or to consume Beer or Unfortified Wine. Such persons will be provided a hand stamp, I.D. bracelet, or tag to assist in monitoring consumption.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will assure that no person is admitted with an amount of Beer or Unfortified Wine exceeding that which could reasonably be consumed by one person.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will assure that persons who are noticeably intoxicated will not be admitted to the event. If a person becomes noticeably intoxicated at the event, he/she may be asked to leave the event or facility.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will assure that each person consumes only his or her own Alcoholic Beverages; sharing of Alcoholic Beverages is prohibited.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will assure that no Alcoholic Beverages except Beer or Unfortified Wine are permitted at the event.
No Sale of Alcoholic Beverages may occur at the event.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will permit attendees to carry in non-alcoholic beverages and food in any amount, consistent with UNC Charlotte University Policy 709, Food Service Policy.
Persons not specifically invited will not be permitted to attend.
Attendance will not be permitted to exceed the safety capacity of the facility.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will assure that all advertising related to the event shall make no reference of any kind to Alcoholic Beverages or their use at the event or state or imply that excessive drinking is encouraged. The simple reference "BYO" or "BYOB" is permitted in advertising.
The Event Coordinator or Event Marshals will notify Police and Public Safety in the event of a disturbance.
A properly signed copy of the Acknowledgment of Responsibility (see Appendix I) will be in the possession of a marshal present at the event at all times.
Tailgating, as defined above, is exempt from the BYO Event requirements set forth in this Section VII.C. The rules governing Tailgating are set forth in University Policy 718, Tailgating.
D. Service Events; requirements
Each of the following requirements must be observed at a Service Event:
No Alcoholic Beverage other than Beer of Unfortified Wine will be served or permitted at the event except by special permission and approval from the Approving Authority, as provided in Section V.C above.
State law regarding purchase and transportation of Alcoholic Beverages to be served will be observed.
All Non-Affiliated Groups that are using University space contracted through the Conferences, Reservations & Event Services Office are required to use the University’s contracted food service vendor for service of Beer and Unfortified Wine.
No person under the age of 21 years will be served or allowed to possess or consume Alcoholic Beverages at the event. Proof of age may be required for any person requesting an Alcoholic Beverage.
Persons who are noticeably intoxicated will not be admitted to the event. If a person becomes noticeably intoxicated at the event, he/she will not be served any Alcoholic Beverage and may be asked to leave the event or facility.
No Sale of any Alcoholic Beverage will be permitted.
Attendance at the event is limited to those specifically invited and their guests accompanying them.
All advertising of the event is prohibited.
The maximum amounts of Beer or Unfortified Wine permitted at the event are:
1 keg or 7 cases (12 oz.) of Beer per 50 persons estimated attendance, or
3 liters of Unfortified Wine per 10 persons estimated attendance, or
a proportionate combination of Beer and Unfortified Wine.
Non-alcoholic beverages will be available at the same place as Alcoholic Beverages and featured as prominently as the Alcoholic Beverages.
Food items must be provided, proportionate to attendance.
Persons attending will not be permitted to carry in Alcoholic Beverages.
With the exception of Tailgating as set forth in University Policy 718, Tailgating, the period during which Alcoholic Beverages are served at a Service Event on Campus may not exceed two hours, provided, however, that the Approving Authority may, in his/her sole discretion, grant an exception to this time limit upon written request and justification.
VIII. Locations for Events Involving Alcoholic Beverages
The Conferences, Reservations & Event Services Office may approve the serving and consumption of Alcoholic Beverages in only the following areas:
Belk Track and Field
Bonnie E. Cone University Center and Plaza
Cafeterias (including Prospector and the Gold Room)
Energy, Production, and Infrastructure Center (EPIC) Building
Halton-Wagner Tennis Complex
Hayes Stadium
James H. Barnhardt Student Activity Center
Judy W. Rose Football Complex (including, but not limited to, University Box and Hospitality Deck)
Miltimore-Wallis Athletics Training & Academic Center
Partnership, Outreach, and Research to Accelerate Learning (PORTAL) Building
Robinson Hall
Rowe Arts Building
Wells Fargo Fieldhouse
Events at which Alcoholic Beverages may be consumed in the residence areas must be approved by the Director of Housing and Residence Life.
The Conferences, Reservations & Event Services Office will seek approval from the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs or designee when other locations are requested for special events at which Alcoholic Beverages may be consumed that are sponsored by non-student groups. (See "Special Circumstances Approval Form," Appendix II.)
UNC Charlotte Acknowledgment of Responsibility for Service of Alcoholic Beverages
Special Circumstances Approval Form
Initially approved July 21, 1986
Revised March 10, 1997
Updated December 1, 2006
Revised August 26, 2013
Updated May 8, 2019 (with references to University Policy 718, Tailgating)
Authority: Chancellor
Responsible Office: Student Affairs
NC General Statutes, Chapter 18B
Appendix I, UNC Charlotte Acknowledgement of Responsibility for Service of Alcoholic Beverages
Appendix II, UNC Charlotte Special Circumstances Approval Form
University Policy 718, Tailgating
University Policy 601.6, Scheduling University Facilities
University Policy 709, Food Service Policy
Section 4.8.5, NC State Budget Manual
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The funny thing to me is that what was described in the article was not at all foreign to me and I was thinking “what’s new” when I was reading it, but if you’ve never done it before, it’s really really unpleasant. We’d always fly in the night before the weigh ins and the day of, I’d often wake up at 5am and cut for 12 hours straight. The hardest part is to have the discipline to not check your weight too frequently because it gets extremely hard to get your sweat going when you’re dehydrated, especially in the absence of a sauna. My mom also noticed that I’d go running in a foot of fresh snow at 3am when I’d have an early flight and at that point she decided she didn’t have to worry about my determination.
Monica May is a Fitness Trainer, Nutritionist, Health Coach, and the writer and voice behind the Fit Girl’s Diary blog. She uses her blog as a way to motivate and support her readers through ongoing weight loss battles. Her passion and belief that a solid support system can make all the difference is what makes Fit Girl’s Diary of the most inspirational blogs for your journey. With healthy recipes, diet and workout programs, and endless support, Fit Girl’s Diary is there to help!
The key to losing weight is eating fewer calories than you expend. That creates an energy deficit, so your body taps into other sources of fuel — namely, your fat stores — to make up the difference. You’ll be able to lose weight safely by creating an energy deficit of up to 1,000 calories a day, which will allow you to lose up to two pounds per week.
Of course, you want to get to the bottom of why you’re not feeling so hot. One study found that practicing relaxation techniques helped obese women who were emotional eaters lose weight over the course of three months, along with helping them reduce depression and anxiety. (7) Engaging in other activities that can help you relax are a better option than emotional eating.
About: For some people, the idea of sweating it out in a gym or running for miles along the road is this side of awful. And for them, there’s Graceful Fitness, an approach that incorporates dance, yoga and deep-breathing — but also acknowledges the body’s limits and celebrates rest time. Plus, Graceful Fitness author Faith also has a unique approach to food — blending eating for health with eating for fun. It’s pretty much the peaceful way to incorporate fitness and healthy eating into your weight loss regime, and it’s all done by a young woman whose blog shows you step-by-step how to get there.
We don’t recommend thinking about macros in terms of percentages, especially if you’re focused on weight loss. We recommend keeping your carb intake under 30 grams/day, eating the protein requirement we outline in our protein post, and eating fat to satiety. There’s more info on our rationale around macros in this post by Steve Phinney and Jeff Volek: https://blog.virtahealth.com/how-much-protein-on-keto/
About: Jess doesn’t blog as often as she used to, but every once in awhile she’ll pop in to share her latest life experiences, and, when she does, it’s sure to touch you deeply. Jess started blogging in 2013 to document her training for her first marathon, but quickly found that running ran in her veins. She uses it as a way to cope with life’s hardships and adventures — and takes her readers along a relatable journey as she does.
Luckily, most foods these days are void of these pesky fats, however you can still find them in margarine, spreads, and some processed foods. Trans Fats have been linked to chronic diseases, including obesity. A 6-year study was performed on a group of monkeys to prove the effects that trans fats can have on abdominal obesity. All of the monkeys were fed the same amount of calories per day, however, half of them consumed trans fats while the others were given monounsaturated (good) fats. At the end of the study, the monkeys that consumed trans fats had a whopping 33% increase in abdominal fat.
Trying to lose weight? Having trouble? Women often find it harder than men to shed excess pounds. In part that's because women's bodies have a tendency to "hold on" to a certain amount of fat. But in some cases the problem can be traced directly to certain habits and lifestyle traps - including many that can easily be remedied. Here are 10 weight-loss traps to watch out for:
My weight was pretty consistent throughout middle school, high school, and into college. As a middle schooler, there was so much going on in just trying to develop as a human that fitness, nutrition or creating a healthy lifestyle was never going to be a priority. I exercised by figure skating (I used to be a competitive figure skater!), track and field, and soccer (I played goalie for one year so honestly I shouldn’t even count that.) I also remember many sleepovers spent eating pizzas, candy, and soda. I specifically have one memory of me and a friend challenging each other to eat entire medium pizza from dominos by ourselves…and we both succeeded…so that’s where I was as a 7th grader. I remember feeling bigger than a lot of girls and embarrassed about my weight sometimes, but I had super great friends, kept busy with activities, and overall was supported and I think that is why my weight never got me down too much. Overall, I probably lived a generic middle school life.
"Order without looking at the menu. Almost every restaurant has the basics—veggies, grains, and protein. If you go in knowing what you want, I guarantee you'll be able to make a meal. If you're too uncomfortable to ask for what you need, tell a white lie: Say you're allergic. I know it's controversial to suggest this, but women in particular can really have trouble standing up for their own needs. So if you want the broccoli soup puréed without cream, tell the waiter you're lactose intolerant."
When you want to lose leg fat, it pays to be the hare, not the tortoise. Fast, intense exercises, like sprints, are one of the most effective ways to shed fat quickly. Research published in the Journal of Diabetes Research reveals that shorter periods of intense exercise, like sprinting, are just as effective at reducing body fat as longer periods spent exercising at moderate intensity, so go ahead and add some quick sprints to your routine. Pair those sprints with the fat-burning foods and you’ll be looking leaner before you know it.
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PHOTOS / RECAP: D’Angelo and The Vanguard @ The Fox Theater, Oakland, CA 6.7.15
Words by Jerome Zech // Photos by Justin Yee
There are countless stories over time of artists that make a lasting first impression, take a leave of absence & never quite sound the same again. How many classic albums have you heard, where the follow-up is “not as good as the first one,” or the quality isn’t what you’re accustomed to?
None of these rules apply to D’Angelo, regardless of how many setbacks & roadblocks come his way.
I don’t know that there has ever been an artist quite like this in our lifetime. Since the release of Brown Sugar in 1995, he’s been revered as the savior of soul – an instant icon that challenged pop culture, with a unique sound of his own. He carried this momentum through his second studio album (Voodoo), which was another massive success. While it seemed that D’Angelo was set to take the music industry to new heights, nobody expected what would happen next.
Fifteen years of (almost) complete silence left his devoted fan base in the dark. Rumors of a new album never came to fruition, and many (like myself) had all but given up. Then, seemingly out of nowhere & without warning, D’Angelo drops a bomb – D’Angelo & The Vanguard’s Black Messiah. Overall, it’s the perfect continuation from Voodoo – a triumph in its own right. While slightly more “grown man” this go-around, this is the D’Angelo we know & the album we’ve been waiting for all along.
Sunday night at the infamous Fox Theater in Oakland was one of the biggest and best celebrations possible. Start to finish, there was a feeling in the room of anticipation & complete, unfiltered excitement – a person even passed out next to me at one point (seriously).
The set started with choice album cuts & singles from the new LP, including “Really Love” & “Betray My Heart.” Not only was his new album well represented, but D’Angelo did an excellent job of sprinkling in some of classic material along the way as well. “Brown Sugar” & “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” were two of the more special moments – the latter ending the show with the sold out theater singing along at the top of their collective lungs.
There were also several elements of impromptu jamming with members of The Vanguard, reminiscent of James Brown & the J.B.’s (even a little Prince at times) – including shouting out the band throughout and breaking off into dance routines with his backup singers. He must have changed wardrobes ten times and played on a handful of different guitars (seemingly whenever he felt like it). Every voice fluctuation and note was hit to perfection too. So much so, that it sounded like a studio recording – not the first show of his first headlining tour in fifteen years.
Personally, I’ve never witnessed a better performance in my life, nor do I think this will ever be topped. He is one of the greatest artists of our generation, and this was his return to the spotlight (where he belongs). You could feel how special this accomplishment was for D’Angelo too. He continued to thank the crowd throughout & had to stop himself at times to soak it all in.
Two ground-shaking encores later, and one thing was pretty clear – D’Angelo was back. Happy, healthy, and entirely reinvigorated.
D'Angelo and the Vanguard
The Fox Theater
Justin Yee
Justin Yee is a freelance photographer currently living and working in San Francisco. His work is heavily influenced by music and fueled by the desire to capture the “perfect” moment. When he’s not attending concerts, he enjoys biking, skateboarding, digging for vinyl and exploring the Bay Area. Follow him over at Instagram: @yeesus and Twitter: @datninja
FESTY RECAP: Why FYF is THE Festival that LA Deserves
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CONCERT RECAP / PHOTOS: D’Angelo and the Vanguard @ Club Nokia, Los Angeles 6.8.15
FYF Fest 2015 Lineup Announced: D’Angelo, Flume, Frank Ocean & more
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A Green Flash of Brilliance: Tycho Closes His Tour @ Fox Theater, Oakland, CA 10.30.14
Breaking Down The Bonnaroo 2013 Superjams
CONCERT RECAP / VINES: Tame Impala, Jonathan Wilson @ Fox Theater, Oakland 5/29/13
Austin City Limits 2013: The Cure, Depeche Mode, KoL, Atoms for Peace, Muse and More
WATCH: D’Angelo & Questlove Bonnaroo Superjam Features Ohio Players and Funkadelic Snippets
Bonnaroo 365 Releases D’Angelo and Questlove Superjam Mini-Doc
Live Music Blog’s Best of 2012: Concerts, Albums, Artists and More (Part Two)
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THE PATRICIA – GOING STRONG
As Jesmond bistro, The Patricia, celebrates a year of success and national attention, Jessica Laing chats to chef-owner, Nick Grieves, about food memories, simple pleasures and putting business into his own hands…
March 2018 734 Views
It’s the affectionately-named neighbourhood bistro that’s won the hearts of the region’s foodie fanatics (and the compliments of one of the country’s big-name critics) for its remarkably simple – and yet sublime – plates of food. The kind of gratifying, seductive grub that stays with you for days on end.
After only a year in business, it appears one thing’s for sure; the future’s looking rather tasty for The Patricia and the man behind its teeny-tiny kitchen, Nick Grieves.
Well settled on the leafy outskirts of Jesmond, the restaurant is fully-booked most evenings and weekends, comfortably crammed with hungry diners and wine-lovers, all looking to sample the delights from Nick’s ever-evolving, ever-mouthwatering menus.
Getting to this point, I discover, has been quite the journey for the self-taught chef. Though a food-fan since day dot, it turns out, the 33-year-old never intended on confiting mutton and steaming mussels for a living.
“I actually wanted to work in construction, can you believe that?” he laughs. “I did a construction project management course at Northumbria University, among many others, and, a few years later, even started my own business. But it just wasn’t meant to be.
“Nevertheless, I knew that I wanted to work for myself and so, one day, I bought a
pub with my dad, one of my mates and his old man.”
The foursome took over the reigns at Durham’s Garden House Inn – which still remains one of the city’s most-loved pubs – with the view that they would run it as joint managers from behind-the-scenes.
“I saw it purely as a business venture – I never dreamt I’d end up in the kitchen,”
he tells me. But we soon found ourselves short on chefs, so I stepped in to help one afternoon – and completely fell in love with it.
“The creativity, the satisfaction you feel after a great service, the pressure and the periods of mania…I remember thinking to myself ‘yeah, I quite like this!’
“I think when you find something you’re naturally good at, and enjoy, it’s pretty easy to pick things up. I’m a fast learner and soon found my feet under the watch of our head chef, who’s now a good friend of mine. It became my passion.”
It was a job-swap that’d change his life forever. An intense love affair with cooking quickly blossomed – (“if I wasn’t making food, I was either eating it, reading about it or watching it being made on YouTube.”) – and he and his father, would spend the next four years putting The Garden House on the map as one of the North East’s most sought-after pubs, until Nick decided it was time to cut the apron strings.
“The more popular the pub became, the less freedom I had to make the kind of food I wanted to put out,” he explains. “We were juggling a few different menus and I grew tired of it. So, I sold my half of the business to my dad and made my way down south.”
Setting his sights on the more refined kitchens of the Big Smoke, Nick, along with his long-term girlfriend, Sophie, made the bold move to London in 2015, where the chef soon found himself plating up the Michelin way at two of the capital’s most reputable restaurants: Fera at Claridge’s, formerly led by revered UK chef, Simon Rogan, and iconic Italian restaurant, The River Café.
“Leaving the security of the North East for a chance at making a living in London was a massive leap of faith,” Nick says. “But it was a one that, thankfully, paid off for me.”
“It was pretty intense; I went from working in a small kitchen of about five, to a multi million-pound workspace of about 30 chefs, all on one rota. It was like another world.”
“But I learned so much at both restaurants – things that I’ve carried with me throughout my career. The food at Fera was so intricate and stylised – real ‘fine dining’ stuff.
You don’t leave a place like that without knowing a thing or two about technique and presentation.
“And the food at The River Café… it just blew me away. The importance of buying only the best quality ingredients and how they can transform a dish into something amazing was paramount. There we’d use two to three ingredients max; really relaxed, simple, honest cooking, which was super liberating.”
So why move on?
“I just couldn’t shake the desire to work for myself,” he tells me. “In the end, it didn’t matter how great the food was, or how happy the working environment was at The River Café, I wanted to do things on my terms, my way.”
And so he did, but not before what would be a life-changing telephone call from his treasured grandmother, Patricia.
“She lives in Wiltshire so we didn’t see her a lot growing up, but when we did, she was always cooking. I remember her making scones in her kitchen. A lot of my earliest, fondest food memories are tied to her.
“Anyway, I called her while having a pint after work one night, telling her how much I wanted to come back home, but that I didn’t have a lot of money. Living in London was, and is, so expensive and I only had so much left from selling The Garden House.
“Low and behold, she ended up giving me the money to make the move back to Durham – my home town – to open up my own place. I couldn’t believe it – her support was amazing. I wouldn’t be where I am today without her.”
It was the kick-start Nick needed. After moving back to Durham, where he grew up, and a few months spent searching for the perfect plot, he discovered the site where The Patricia – named after, and in tribute to, the woman who granted him his golden ticket home and a new start as a chef-proprietor, now lies – and set up shop in the spring of last year.
It’s an unassuming spot – blink and you might miss it – but it’s exactly what Nick had envisioned for his first solo foodie venture.
“I could never have opened a big restaurant in the city centre – it had to be in a neighbourhood,” he says.
“My vision was to open a small, no-frills bistro. In my mind, somewhere locals could walk to, all wrapped up, from the comfort of their own homes if and when they didn’t fancy cooking.
“I imagined them opening the door to somewhere relaxed and warm, where they could enjoy a good glass of wine, eat simple, honest food, and unwind, before walking back home feeling full and, in a way, comforted.
It appears Nick has very much brought that vision to life. Residents love the place; for many, the bistro has become their go-to for Saturday night, carb-fuelled feasts, Sunday roasts of towering Yorkshire puds and sensational slabs of meat and fish, and celebratory suppers.
“I’d like to think I’ve created a place in which families, couples and friends can get together and enjoy themselves,” says Nick.
“After all, isn’t that what eating out is all about? An excuse to eat great food – hopefully anyway – and make memories with the people closest to you?”
Regardless of when or why, eating here, as I discover, is nothing but a joy. Not least because of the spreads on offer – all of which show off Nick’s talents when it comes to menu-writing, championing only the best seasonal ingredients and changing regularly to keep diners on their toes.
“Our menus change with the weather,” he enthuses. “A lot of places will say they cook seasonally – but to them, that means four times a year. That isn’t how we work here.
“We like to switch things up week to week – sometimes every other day, depending on what comes through the door. We look at what kind of ingredients are best at that given moment and build our menus around them.”
“For me, the food doesn’t necessarily have to be locally-sourced, but it does have to be of the best quality. Our fish, for example, is sent up from Cornwall because we believe it’s the best place to get your hands on the most spectacular cod, anchovies, mussels and so on.”
Alongside Cornish cod are dishes that inspire, please the palette and warm the heart – each one an example of some of Nick’s most-loved ingredients.
Things like brussels sprouts, smothered in velvety parmesan sauce with sticky onion jam, and sweet-and-stinky Époisses de Bourgogne cheese and preserved cherry sandwiches, along with heartier plates influenced by his travels.
The “Frankie Spuntinos” meatballs, the size of golfballs, served in a rich bath of slow-cooked tomato sauce, are a total triumph – inspired by the kind he once stumbled across at a tiny Italian-American bistro in New York.
Desserts are an even more relaxed affair; think fudgey homemade chocolate mousse, as thick and indulgent as ganache, and crumbly slices of pear and almond tart.
“We’re not in it to try and test people,” says Nick. “The food I bring to the table is genuinely the kind of food I love to eat – and the wine we serve is the kind of wine I love to drink.”
The Patricia is one of the few venues in the area to specialise in ‘natural’ wines – vino that’s been farmed organically, usually, and made without adding or removing anything during the wine-making process.
“We have around 100 bottles on our wine list at the moment – and most are ‘natural’ or biodynamic,” says Nick. “I first came across the concept in London – a few of my favourite restaurants were serving the same kind of stuff.
“I think natural wine tastes far nicer and I love the idea of some old guy, on a tiny patch of land in some hot, far-off country, making it the traditional way. It really represents a time and a place for me – I find it really special.”
Another person who shares this opinion is critic Marina O’Loughlin who anonymously visited The Patricia during a trip to the North East, from London for The Guardian.
The “little belter” of a bistro (as O’Loughlin puts it), which had only been open two weeks, was granted a glowing review, in which Nick receives top marks for his menus.
“The review was a real turning point for us,” Nick recalls. “It just felt like we’d won the lottery. We were completely floored – we had no idea she’d been in.
“It’s been one hell of a ride so far.”
139 Jesmond Road, Newcastle, NE2 1JY
the-patricia.com
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Articles » Regional Differences
How the Heavy English Accents in Dragon Quest IV Work in Japanese
Posted on January 3, 2014 by Clyde Mandelin ‧ 60 Comments
One of the common questions I’ve gotten has to do with the English translation of Dragon Quest IV for the DS. Here are some examples:
How do characters speak in the Japanese version of Dragon Quest IV DS? In Eng, they have obnoxious accents.
This is just a quick suggestion but it’s something that’s been sort of bugging me since I noticed it. I read an LP for Dragon Warrior IV and Ragnar was pretty straight-forwardly translated, but then I looked up a video for the DS re-release of the game, and Ragnar and his whole kingdom had a sort of Scottish brogue going on. Was there originally a dialect in his town that was never translated in the NES version, or was that totally made up for the DS version?
I’d heard that recent English-language Dragon Quest localizations use heavy dialects but I’d never really looked into it before. So now’s as good time as any to take a really quick look! But first, a disclaimer – the Dragon Quest/Warrior games are full of little bits of knowledge and translation retcons that only superfans might know, so if I’ve gotten something wrong here or forgotten to mention something here, please let me know!
Okay! First, here’s a sample of English text from Dragon Quest IV for the DS:
That’s indeed a pretty heavy dialect/accent going on there! Plus it’s at the start of the game and used by lots of characters and NPCs here, so I can totally understand why some players might find it unusual or confusing. Here’s that same example line side-by-side with the Japanese version:
Japanese DS release English DS release
The Japanese text is… pretty much just regular Japanese text, the formal kind you’d expect a guy in a castle to use. It doesn’t stand out in any way at all, so it looks like the Scottish accent was indeed an addition the localizers made.
Just for further reference, here’s another line shortly after – this time it’s the actual king talking:
Again, it looks like the original Japanese text is pretty standard stuff for what you’d hear from a king; no accents or dialects or anything of the sort. I gotta admit, it’s kind of unexpected to see a king in a Japanese video game saying “youse” and “aboot”, but I also see what the localizers were going for.
For even further reference, here’s what this scene looked like in the original Japanese release and in the original English translation a few decades ago:
Japanese Famicom release English NES release
So it looks like the original English translation stayed much closer to the original text. Neat!
Digging a little deeper, it looks like the DS translation changed things around a little more. First, Chapter 1’s main character is known as “Ryan” in Japanese, but this was changed to “Ragnar McRyan” in the localization. The “Mc” was apparently added in to fit with the Scottish theme the localizers chose to go with:
It seems his name had been changed to Ragnar in the original English translation, so that’s probably why he retained the Ragnar name in the DS localization:
Japanese release English release
Upon a cursory glance, it looks like the English DS localization added in a graphic at the chapter title screen and changed the chapter title from “The Soldiers of the Royal Palace” to “Ragnar McRyan and the Case of the Missing Children”:
Famicom release NES release Japanese DS release English DS release
So, just from a super-quick look at the start of the game, it looks like a good deal was changed in the game’s localization – whether it’s for the better or worse is entirely up to the player, but it sounds like the game was pretty well-received outside of Japan, which is what I think matters most.
In general, if you ever encounter a really specific English dialect or a really specific English accent in a Japanese game, you can almost bet that it wasn’t present in the original Japanese text. On the other hand, if you encounter more generic speech styles like “rural” or “spoiled girl” or “noble warrior”, that was probably was in the original Japanese text. This is because super-specific, English-centric speech styles like “Scottish guy speaking in Japanese” dialects generally don’t exist, but “country bumpkin” dialects do.
So how and why did these characters end up talking in heavy Scottish English if the Japanese text didn’t have anything unusual at all? Usually this sort of localization change is the result of someone saying, “This is bland, let’s rewrite things to sound more interesting.” or the result of the reverse localization process that I mentioned recently.
Summary: The accents in Dragon Quest IV’s localization were added in by the localization team; the Japanese script didn’t use anything of the like.
Spicing up localizations with heavy accents and dialects like this is a recent trend in game localization… so if you ever come across any, now you know more about it! And if you ever come across any particularly interesting or wild dialects, let me know. It’s always really cool to see what new tricks localizers come up with.
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Jason Moses January 3, 2014 at 12:52 am
I could see what they were trying to do with the script when I played the game at the time — the different regions of the world look and feel really similar, so they probably thought adding accents would lend a unique character and flavor to the proceedings. Problem is, they immediately slam you with the Scottish accent, which for a lot of folks was borderline incomprehensible, confusing, and stupid-sounding all at the same time. By the midway point you’ve been around the world and hey, yeah, it’s cool to have towns differentiated by dialect, but I know more than a few people who gave up on the game before that payoff. They also removed the party talk feature from the English-language version, which lets you see little conversations between party members after significant story events. Having all the characters chatting with each other in their own accents would have been huge, but I guess they ran out of time and money.
Clyde Mandelin January 3, 2014 at 8:14 am
Oh man, I thought taking a detailed look at any DQ game would take a ton of time and have a lot of stuff to write about, I didn’t expect it would have THIS much though. I guess I should’ve realized it, since each game has had multiple releases over the years.
kajillion January 17, 2014 at 3:03 am
Yeah, since DQ7 they’ve had ridiculous amounts of text. In DQV alone every one of the 7 or so party members has a line or two of dialog in response to nearly every major plot point, let alone minor plot points, interactions with generic NPC’s, and even every new screen in a dungeon.
Ryan Fox January 3, 2014 at 1:13 am
Also, Ragnar is a Germanic name. I get that changing his name entirely would have been confusing for people who played the original (Oh man, I spent so many hours on it when I was a kid!) but it would have made more sense to give him a Celtic name if they were going for a Scottish-ish setting. Or perhaps make Burland a Norse/Scandinavian-themed country.
joeymartin64 January 3, 2014 at 1:35 am
I hate dialects in text. I realize that dialogue is not required to be grammatically correct, but seeing stuff like this still makes the copy editor in me weep.
I wonder if this trend has anything to do with the also-somewhat-recent advent of voice acting becoming so commonplace. That is, I wonder if it began, at least in part, through localizers trying to convey a bit more character and flair by stylizing the text in circumstances when voicing it wasn’t possible, and it just spilled over into other projects, becoming a stylistic choice in and of itself. That’s just speculation, of course.
Vanasto January 3, 2014 at 2:02 am
This must’ve been done by the same person (team?) who localized DQIX… heavy accents and slang usage to the point where you need to sound it out aloud for it to make sense sometimes. Occasionally it’s interesting and neat, and other times exhausting (especially when you have to pause what you’re doing to look up words from some obscure British vernacular). But ultimately, since I’m a bit of a language geek, it made for a more rewarding playthrough for me. I’m curious just how much the actual content or nuance of the dialogue was changed with such an extensive localization, though…? Finally, what impressed me most was I came across NO TYPOS or inconsistencies with the various in-game dialects – the translation team’s meticulous attention to detail is outstanding (and I just can’t help but spot any mistakes while reading – blessing and a curse).
Freezair January 3, 2014 at 3:10 am
Heavy accents, hmm…? Well, Ni No Kuni on the PS3 (a game I’ve mentioned before) has the character of Drippy, the protagonist’s sidekick and exposition fairy. I don’t know what he was like in Japanese (he’s a JPN trailer with his original voice acting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_J_OSdsYN0), but in the English version, he was given a thick Welsh accent. That was reflected in his non-voiced text as well: Every time he says “your”, it’s written as “youer”; man becomes “mun,” as well as a couple of other things I don’t recall off the top of my head (Though he also has a verbal tic: “Tidy!”). He was also given a surprisingly brusque character who says a lot of blunt and seemingly rude things (like constantly calling the protagonist a crybaby), which contrasts with both his cute-critter design and his role as the healer and support character (which comes through more in the never-localized DS version, since he’s directly playable in that one).
Speaking of games I’ve mentioned before, the same Monster Racers that provided the “Flowrwolf” palindrome also features a character who’s a walking fountain of Australianisms, and 90% of his dialogue is incomprehensible and rapid-fire Australian slang. He is, in fact, meant to be Australian (the world representative for Australia in the monster racing of the title), so it was probably just the translators having some fun.
And you know what the last thing that came to mind was? The Cockney mice in Mother 3! Ahh, but that’s probably one for whenever you get back to updating the M3 translation comparison dealie…
Ooh, nice! I gotta check out more of that Monster Racers game, it sounds like it’s really interesting from a localization standpoint.
And actually I wrote up a thing about the Cockney mice in MOTHER 3 a few years ago for EB Central: http://earthboundcentral.com/2010/08/mother-3-cockney-mice/ I’ll go into more detail whenever I get to that part in my translation notes, but that won’t be until 1034 AT.
Freezair January 3, 2014 at 2:27 pm
Its localization is surprisingly excellent! I have a lot of affection for the game, partially because of how surprisingly good and funny the writing is. It reminds me of the job Nintendo did with the Paper Mario games over here: Lots and lots of wordplay, affectionately parodic humor, and knowing winks to the audience.
Bringing it all together, I could have sworn one of the Mario RPGs had an item in it called “Dodgy Syrup”–syrups being quite common items in Mario RPGs, but “dodgy syrup” also being a Cockney slang term meaning “obviously wig.” But I have no idea which it was, or if I’m just making it up whole cloth…
Nyperold January 13, 2018 at 7:26 pm
The Super Mario Wiki has no such item listed, but there is the “Dodgy” status effect, and as you said, there are like three different Syrups: Honey, Maple, and Gradual. However, the closest I can come to a relation is that Syrups (at least, before SPM) restore FP, which may be used to activate Flurrie’s “Dodgy Fog” move, which is one way to confer said status effect.
GH January 3, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Drippy/Shizuku is playable only for a short while in the DS version. He has only a very weak attack, and a defensive buff, but that’s it. After you learn how to capture monsters (after getting the Harp) he is made unavailable in the party selection for good, which is a shame considering his 3D model in the menu is gorgeous for a DS game.
Besides that, the team translating Ni no Kuni DS is stalled right now because they don’t have any translators available, despite having all the tools and files ready. If anyone loves the game and would like to help with the Japanese text, be my guest.
http://gbatemp.net/threads/ninokuni-shikkoku-no-madoushi-translation-project.310214/page-29
The PS3-exlusive Zodiarchs in No no Kuni had a pretty difficult antiquated pattern of speech in the Japanese version, from what I hear.
Ah October 1, 2015 at 4:49 pm
Drippy had an Osakan accent in Japanese, and he was indeed rather brusque.
Deraj626 January 3, 2014 at 5:51 am
The recent DQ games and remakes are infamous for this (along with bad puns). I really hate it though, it’s just annoying to try to interpret sometimes (although I love the puns). I put up with it though since the DS versions of 4, 5, and 6 really are the best versions. Ok, maybe the PS2 version of 5 was better, but that was never released outside of Japan.
Morgil March 3, 2018 at 10:30 pm
Though i don’t know Japanese, some quick online research has shown me that the Japanese games are filled with puns, too. The accents, however, are indeed a product of the English versions. I honestly don’t mind, though, since i rather like when dialog text tries to emulate the way people talk like that. Plus, it’s kinda been around since the very beginning, with the first two games using Elizabethan-style English, so i guess i’m just used to it (even though i only started playing since last year)
The Wanderer January 3, 2014 at 7:28 am
From my experience (far more limited than yours), regional or other dialects are very common in Japanese RPGs, and are extremely difficult to represent accurately in English. The idea of using established accents/dialects in their stead, to retain the distinction if not the nature of the distinction, is a reasonable one – though I’m not sure it’s one I’d go with myself, nor one I’m entirely comfortable with.
Inserting dialects where the original Japanese didn’t have the distinguishable dialects or other speech patterns – as seems to have happened here – is quite another matter, however, and I’d be inclined to say that there’s not really any excuse for it.
As a translator I’m pretty much in agreement, but the localizer side of me can also understand the need to spice things up. Actually, I kind of wonder if that should even be called localization – in a way it feels more like an adaptation. I dunno, I need to sit down and think about the word “localization” – it seems to have like a bunch of different meanings, many of which have different philosophies behind them.
Morgil January 3, 2014 at 9:27 am
One other game that comes to mind is Chrono Cross on the PS1. That game REALLY goes overboard on the accents, and i’ve only ever gotten little more then an hour into the game, so as bad as i’ve seen in it, i’m sure it only gets worse.
You know, Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite games of all time, so i really wanna play the sequel, mainly for the story. But between the annoying accents, the rediculous amount of characters (whom i’m sure a good chunk of them probably have little to no impact on the story), and the insanely f-ed up battle system, i’ve never been able to get very far in the game without giving up. It’s the same with Final Fantasy VIII, which took me like five or six attempts before i was finally able to complete it just cuz of the idiotic draw/junction system. Ugh, i swear someday i’ll beat Chrono Cross.
The thing with Chrono Cross is that all the characters speak in their unique (and often annoying) ways in the Japanese version too, which is what actually put me off of the game when I first played it way back in 2000. In fact, there were so many different Japanese speaking styles that the head localizer actually had to add some new programming to keep the unique speech stuff intact in English.
ZettaiRyouiki January 6, 2014 at 1:46 am
Sorry for the dumb question, but do you know any Japanese site with examples of the Chrono Cross accents? I once got curious but found nothing.
Oh man, it looks like that’s one of the things I’ll have to compile and write up someday as an article… So many characters though 😯
Anyway, with a quick search the best I can find is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_Chrono_Cross#Accent_system
And this: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=14173953
TheZunar123 January 3, 2014 at 10:05 am
I don’t think we went way overboard with the accents in Chrono Cross, just maybe a tad. Either way, they don’t bug me much. I enjoy them, actually. Gives the game a nice touch. Sure, there’s the occasional sentence I have to read a time or two to figure out what they’re saying, but overall I don’t think it’s too bad.
It’s definitely a good game, though. The battle system takes a while to get used to, but it’s not as “f-ed up” as you think. It’s just different.
Same with Final Fantasy 8. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I personally enjoy it. Part of that might be nostalgia kicking in though, it was one of my very first PS1 games and I remember playing it as a child (I didn’t understand half of what was going on, but it was still fun)
Justin January 3, 2014 at 6:18 pm
Not to be a buzzkill, but if you don’t like the characters or the gameplay, and the whole reason you want to beat Chrono Cross is for the story… let’s just say the game can get even worse.
Let January 3, 2014 at 7:06 pm
That depends on how you view the story. For 2000, it was quite compelling and well written. I know that if analyzed today, a lot of people just say the plot is really convoluted and is full of holes. I can’t deny it, but the messages hidden underneath all the various scenarios and the true ending make it worth as many runs through the game as you can handle.
Zindkeeper January 3, 2014 at 6:47 pm
Personally I find the Chrono Cross accents to be a great touch. The dialogue would have been really dull otherwise.
Darien January 3, 2014 at 11:00 pm
I’m pretty much right there with you. Chrono Cross and FF8 were pretty massively f-ed up. Though I’m the opposite; I did eventually force myself through Chrono Cross, but FF8… after about forty hours I suddenly realised that I still hadn’t had any fun at all, and just kind of stopped and never looked back. It is to date the *only* video game I have ever lost — I mean literally physically lost, like I have no idea where the discs are and this does not bother me.
The neat thing about Chrono Cross, though, is that it starts out sort of lousy but promising, and then somehow manages to get consistently worse until eventually it ends.
Cavery210 January 3, 2014 at 10:05 am
The aboot thing kinda reminds me of this Nostalgia Critic scene. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjbvYgxAoDA
Milk January 3, 2014 at 12:10 pm
The Dragon Quest games started their fascination with various dialects with Dragon Quest 8, the first game released with an overhauled translation style. One of the features they added to the localization was full voice acting, and they decided to put it to use by having characters from different regions of the world have different accents. But this was rarely shown in text, it was mostly handled by the voice acting.
DQ4DS was released afterwards, and it’s apparent they tried to recreate that feeling from DQ8, but without voice acting the only thing they could do to make the differing accents clearer to players was to write it more phonetically in the text, and use more foreign terms and slang. This seemed to have backfired, as many people had difficulty understanding the dialogue, and didn’t find it as charming as before. The later Dragon Quest games toned it down a lot, but they still try their hand at it. For example, writing dialogue for NPCs who live in small villages and farms with a “country hick” accent.
Joseph Valencia January 3, 2014 at 12:36 pm
I seem to be in the minority that liked the accents. According to the head of the localization team, they added the accents in order to make the world feel more epic. The whole premise of DQ4 is that all these characters from different parts of the world are joining forces with the Hero to battle evil, so the accents help underscore the whole “global” feel. They even gave the animals in each region equivalent sounds. (e.g. dogs in the “Russian” area say “gav” instead of “bark”.)
The original DQ4 had a cool story, but the text in the NES version was very bland and didn’t convey much of the playful tone of the Japanese version, so I find the DS script with its puns and silly accents to be a huge improvement.
pdSlooper February 27, 2014 at 11:08 am
I really liked them, myself, and wouldn’t have enjoyed the game as much without them. It was some nice world-building. I liked the “lame wordplay” too, which I pretty much consider essential to Dragon Quest.
Tharthan January 3, 2014 at 4:34 pm
The guilty party here is a two-person “translation” group that calls themselves Plus Alpha. Their slogan is “You’d never know it started in Japanese.”, and they are quite true to that slogan indeed; personally, though, I’d argue that a better slogan for them would be “You’d never know we read the original script”, or even “You’d never know it used to be enjoyable.” Better yet, “We don’t give two hoots about the games we translate.”
For some reason, they were picked to be the new translation AND localisation group for the Dragon Quest series starting with Dragon Quest VIII. They’ve undone various attempts at staying truer to the original Japanese text (such as in the GBC re-release of Dragon Quest I and Dragon Quest II; “Dragon Warrior I & II”, and the English release of Dragon Quest VII) and instead riddle the entire script with lame puns and summarial translations. They also have not kept any of the Japanese version’s character names in the Dragon Quest games (to my knowledge) aside from “Slime” and “Dracky”.
Furthermore, they’ve stated in an interview with DQShrine that they’ve occasionally received hate mail calling them out on their trolling (hereafter known as “localisation choices”) and that they wish people could “…express their disappointment in more measured ways.”
At the end of the day, Plus Alpha adds more than just 「プラスアルファ」 to their “translations”; they essentially replace the original script with what I can only assume to be an old script for some comedy show that they wrote up that was never picked up by a producer (perhaps due to it not actually being funny in the slightest).
Ah, thank you. I’ve always wondered who the clowns were who were butchering the poor Dragon Quest series.
You’re exaggerating. Although all enemies’ names are changed, the new translations have very naturalistic dialogue that makes me actually want to talk to NPCs. Beyond that, clearly they don’t just ‘replace the original script’ with something from ‘some comedy show they wrote up’; comparing the two you can clearly see the script was translated.
Let’s see, a quick google search shows that everything they’ve done has been personally approved by Yuji Horii, the franchise’s head writer, and also the fact that the Japanese versions are also littered with lame puns. Heck, there’s another article on this very site dealing with a pun in DQ4.
Anon November 3, 2018 at 3:31 am
Turns out, the old translators were much, *much* more guilty of script-replacing. Have a look at this: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/688276-dragon-quest-vii-fragments-of-the-forgotten-past/77164275
Also, the scripts are actually really good, and a lot less dry than the old translations.
Neko Knight January 3, 2014 at 6:14 pm
I’ve been a Dragon Quest fan for a long time now, and I grew up with the Dragon Warrior localization canon. So I was pretty disappointed when Square Enix turned everything on it’s head with an entirely new canon that abandoned almost everything that had been established before. Personally, I felt that it was almost insulting to us Dragon Warrior / Dragon Quest fans, as we really loved the original canon. Now the only ” new Canon ” Dragon Quest game that I’ve beaten was Dragon Quest IV DS, and it was a heart wrenching experience for me. As awful as this may say, I have decided that until the localization changes to a more faithful one, I won’t buy any Dragon Quest games in English anymore. Seriously, the ” new canon ” makes me literally sick. I understand the need to make dialogue and all that good stuff interesting, but the localizers simply take things just too far. My belief is that dialogue in a video game should be smooth and comprehensive, and that you shouldn’t have to ” stop and think ” to try and figure out what’s going on. I know that this may be too much to ask, but I think that a full localization comparison of Dragon Quest IV DS would truly expose to the English speaking world just how terrible the so called ” localization ” really is. Sorry new canon lovers, but I just had to get that off my shoulders.
edgethelucas January 3, 2014 at 7:50 pm
The only Dragon Quest game I’ve played was Dragon Quest V for the DS. And I LOVED it. the accents everyone is complaining about were supposed to be read aloud, which reminded me of how Shigesato Itoi loved making the text in his Mother games fun to read aloud as well. Which, of course, he took from Dragon Quest.
Still, like others said, the way they changed the way certain characters speak can put people off. Like there’s this character called Sancho. He talks with a very stereotypical Mexican accent (his text even has upside down question marks whenever he asks something) and although he’s supposed to be your father’s loyal friend and guardian, I could sadly never take him seriously because he always sounded like Speedy Gonzales instead of somebody cool like Pancho Villa. I wouldn’t have minded so much but he’s the only Mexican in the entire game, whereas with other accent speakers they have whole communities of them.
I’d love to play the fan translations of the original Super Famicom release one day, I just don’t know if I’ll ever get to it. Sounds like they at least made Sancho sound better.
That’d be an over-the-top reference to Sancho Panza, Don Quixote’s faithful companion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sancho_Panza
On a related note, the character “Torneko” was originally given the name “Taloon” in the English Dragon Warrior 4 (though the English-language releases of his spinoff series of roguelikes kept his name as Torneko, just to be confusing). In the DS remake, they do in fact call him “Torneko Taloon,” just like the “Ragnar McRyan” chimera.
They like doing that sometimes. Like Robotnik is now the man’s name and Eggman is his nickname. And I believe a certain Street Fighter character is “Charlie Nash” now.
Zar January 4, 2014 at 3:32 am
Ah, this is so cool! Thanks for answering my silly question. :B
Shaun Musgrave January 16, 2014 at 10:37 pm
It’s funny reading these comments and seeing all the games that are mentioned, because they all go back to Richard Honeywood. Chrono Cross? Richard Honeywood. Ni no Kuni? Richard Honeywood. Dragon Quest 8, which set the tempo for the other DQ localizations? Richard Honeywood. The man loves his accents and dialects. It’s always fun to see the reactions to them, too. He did the translation for Layton Brothers on iOS and people thought the game was poorly translated because one of the main characters was using a coarse British accent.
Clyde Mandelin January 16, 2014 at 11:09 pm
Ha, yeah, he’s really into his accents. I gotta say, I actually admire that – I’m not gutsy enough to make that big of a leap in my work. I think the closest I ever got was with the Cockney-speaking mice in Mother 3, and that was only a few lines of text. So I definitely admire the guy for his localization guts 😛
Ed January 22, 2014 at 7:50 pm
I was reading the article and thought to myself “hmm…this makes me think of the dwarves in FF9”, sure enough Mr. Richard Honeywood localized it too!
pdSlooper February 26, 2014 at 6:45 pm
I beat this in English, then played it in Spanish up until the last chapter. They did some really weird stuff with Spanish dialects, too. I’m not a native speaker, so I can’t identify it as accurately as a Spanish native could … plus it’s been years since I played. But I seem to remember every region had something unique. The weirdest one was Chapter 2, Alena’s chapter, where many verbs are left unconjugated (meaning they end in R) and a unique font was used so that all r’s look like the Cyrillic ya (like the backwards R you see in the Toys R Us logo).
Ruben Martinez June 18, 2017 at 8:48 am
Hi! This is old but I just finished the game in Spanish and I wanted to talk about the accents in this version. It’s Spanish with an exaggerated accent from different countries or regions in Spain. Just like actors (and voice actors) do in movies.
Alena -> Russian. The “R” is supposed to sound hard.
Torneko -> middle east. They add an “i” in some places: “barato -> bariato”, “vender -> viender”.
Meena and Maya -> French. Replace “r” with “g”.
Riverton -> They just add “vite” at the end to imitate Argentinian spanish XD
Juanchito (the guy with the caravan) -> Ecuadorian, i think.
And there’s also a town speaking with Andalusian accent. There’s probably some other accents but I can’t remember right now.
Ronixis March 23, 2014 at 11:35 am
The ‘random use of Cyrillic letters for things they kind of look like in the Roman alphabet’ thing was also done for one character in DQV DS. I would imagine that for someone who knows how that alphabet’s supposed to be read, it might be very hard to read.
Karol Piotrowski July 18, 2014 at 6:39 am
That’s certainly true, everytime I see someone using faux Cyryllic alphabet for ‘it will look cool when we use Я instead of R and so on’ I want to bang my head against the wall. When I saw this poster http://www.impawards.com/2006/borat_ver2_xlg.html – I was pretty sure that movie is called ‘Voyadt’ with Я (ya) mirrored. It took some time for me to catch on that my friends were talking about the same movie as I’ve seen on poster.
And I’m not even native speaker, just learned Russian at school (for 2 years).
Pakomaru June 2, 2014 at 11:57 am
as someone who’s not a native english speaker, the first time I tried playing the game, it was on a ds flashcard, I was so confused by those accents that I thought there was some kind of Anti-piracy code to mess up the text!
I actually gave up on the game for a while because I couldn’t understand anything from the first chapter and i didn’t even know what to do
my english was not as good at the time, but it wasn’t so bad..
I’d really like to know which kind of accent each one was
Heidi Mandelin June 22, 2018 at 4:34 pm
This is the biggest reason I’m against the use of heavy accents/dialects in video games. It’s hard enough for native speakers, but it’s near impossible for non-native speakers 🙁
I’m glad I’m not the only one who found the accents obnoxious. The article only touched on the dialogue in Chapter 1, which was painful enough, but I remember when I got to Chapter 2 it got so bad to the point it was just unreadable. I knew the story since I can read Japanese and had played the Famicom version, but even if I couldn’t, I’d have had an easier time reading that than try to decipher whatever dialect they were using. Thankfully I found that this game has the full Japanese text in the data which can be enabled with an Action Replay. I’d surely have never finished the game without it.
Like, why does it suck so bad? Well, I have one complaint – one fucking complaint about this dialogue: I can’t read it. Now what’s the most important aspect about any story? Well, being able to fucking read it!
If you can’t read it, maybe it’s your brain that was at fault*. I had no problem reading any of the accents in DQ4 and found the whole thing added incredibly to the atmosphere and charm of the game.
*not intended to be an insult, just to say maybe you don’t have a mind suited to accents.
nobody April 29, 2016 at 10:39 pm
They’d been doing it since the original release of 8. I don’t really mind it though. It’s even better in 4, because you can tell when an NPC “came from” another region just by how they spoke. It was a real treat, and I’ll always enjoy the livelier translations than the old, ultra-stiff ye olde englishe translations.
Eric August 17, 2016 at 1:43 am
I HATE the accents in DQ4 DS. It’s annoying and hard to read. I gave on the game because of it.
JPtropes April 19, 2017 at 3:18 pm
I’ve never met someone who actually enjoyed these accents, they ruined Dragon Quest in English for me. They sound horribly offensive and out of place, I can’t see why Square Enix thought it was a good idea. And they completely ruin the original’s ‘classic child’s book/fairy tale’ style that made the series so popular in Japan.
I’m spanish but I usually prefer to play games in English, mainly because of the names being similar to japanese and the text fitting much better in menus. I can read in english just like I do in spanish, but with this game I had to go back to spanish because it was really annoying having to stop and decipher almost every line. They also used accents in spanish, but it’s much more readable. In any case, I prefer good dialog no accents, or really soft accents, I recently started DQ6 in english, and I can identify an american accent almost at the beginning of the game, which throws me off almost completely, because it doesn’t even make sense with the medieval fantasy setting.
I just recently got into this series. It started at the end of last July when i went to my local state fair and found a copy of Dragon Warrior 1 on NES for $7 in the shopping pavilion. I was instantly hooked, and proceeded to go online and buy the rest of the series. I was able to get 2 and 3 on NES fairly cheep, and since 4-6 and 9 on DS weren’t that old, i was able to get all of them brand new for standard retail price. Same with 7 and 8 on 3DS, which only came out like a year ago. Then before i knew it, i found that i had addictively plowed through the first 6 games in exactly 6 months. I was a bit burned out after 6 (mainly due to a massive week-long grind-fest to prepare for a post-game superboss), so i took a break for a while. Now i back into it with 7, but this time i’m playing at a more slow and leisurely pace.
Anyway, I actually like the accents in the DS games. I actually think it fits perfectly fine after the first couple of games used an Elizabethan-style English in their localizations. Yeah, they can sometimes be a bit tricky to read at a glance, but i still feel like they give the series some nice flavor. Plus, i looked up some cutscenes from that one recent Heroes game on youtube, and i really like the way the voice actors in that game pulled off the accents. It really makes their voices sound unique and memorable.
Also, just as a side note. After i finished Dragon Warrior II on NES, i felt like i finally “got” Earthbound Beginnings/Mother 1 and all its satire.
DaVince March 28, 2018 at 10:48 am
Judging by the graphic of the soldier they added, I feel like the localization team had been having a lot of fun with this and Ragnar McRyan pretty much became an inside joke!
Angel R. Rivera Santana June 3, 2018 at 6:21 pm
The translation didn’t seem too bad to me, specially when I like to write with a transliterated dialect and speak with mimic accents in certain kinds of context (Mostly bored or in comedic tense), and I don’t feel like it’s terrible, because I think that what Richard Honeywood did for the translation was hella bold and it felt like a breath of fresh air from all of the more coarse scripts (Too bad the talking option was removed, because it woulda been a cacophony because ‘a the accents and dialects).
And it’s hella hilarious that they’re bothered with this, while the original DQ games had Elizabethian English in the script (And I like how the GBC games also had a quite coarse, yet decent translation style that followed the Horii script by a perfect 1-1 gap) that was quite hard to understand…
I also hear that the Spanish release did something similar, in a way comparable to movie dubs (Like, hard Rs for the Russian style villagers in Alena’s chapter, and constant I’s in Torneko’s village, because they’re Eastern European)
PoeHello December 17, 2018 at 8:30 am
I danna like da accentz in dragooon warriare/queste remakes cawse eet es abnawkous en weigh tooo paynefull tooo reed!
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You know how when couch potatoes watch sports, some get angry and yell at players as if they were genuine super-experts who could do better? That same thing happens with translators all the time, so my hope is that the Legends of Localization series will help explain what it's like to actually be in the translation trenches.
- Clyde Mandelin
Twitter @ClydeMandelin
& Becoming a Translator
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Posts Tagged ‘Architecture’
George Haecker’s Design for Living: “Trying to understand what a building wants to be.”
George Haecker’s Design for Living
“Trying to understand what a building wants to be.”
photos by Bill Sitzmann and provided
story by Leo Adam Biga
Originally appeared in the May 2019 edition of Omaha Home Magazine (https://omahamagazine.com/articles/george-haeckers-design-for-living)
Don’t look for ostentatious displays in the work of award-winning Omaha architect George Haecker. He’s a form-follows-function man, whether designing residential, commercial, or civic projects. Above all, his organic approach tries “to avoid cliches,” he says.
“The architectural world is just inundated with cliches,” he says. “I think architecture is way too important as a physical presence in our world, city, and neighborhoods to be trendy. I think the manifestation of it needs to be mature and careful and, hopefully, timeless. It’s public sculpture, whether you like it or not.”
Haecker strives for subdued, not showy, answers to whatever a project’s needs are.
“The thing I bring is, ultimately, an originality to the solution but not an artificial imposition of a style or a big statement,” he says. “I don’t look for the finished product to show off in any way. It might subtly, but you kind of have to look at it twice to say, ‘Well, that’s something different.’ I don’t like to shout and yell and just grab your attention. I want it to be more comfortable and, of course, livable.”
Haecker communes with the unborn structure by “trying to understand what a building wants to be.”
“Every project has a context, a location, an owner, a program, and a need, and the architect’s thought is to try to meld, digest, and mix that all together,” he says. “All kinds of factors influence the result, including budget.”
Brandzel Cottage in Fremont, Nebraska
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate, whose brother Foster Woods Haecker and son Alex Haecker are also architects, broadened his own vision working for firms in Hawaii, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas Virgin Islands, and New York.
“I didn’t leave Nebraska to leave Nebraska,” he says. “I like it here very much for many reasons. But, in your youth, you have an itch to look at different things, and that variety of geography and mentors was extremely valuable.”
A job offer from Dana Larson Roubal & Associates (DLR) lured him back to Nebraska in 1968. By the early 1970s, he became a founder of the Omaha office of BVH Architecture. During his nearly half-century run as a principal and part-owner, leading architectural periodicals published his work, he earned numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects, and he received The Harry F. Cunningham Gold Medal from AIA Nebraska in 2006 (the highest honor that AIA Nebraska bestows upon an individual).
He took a hand in such signature public projects as the Gene Leahy Mall and the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge.
Historic renovation work is a big segment of BVH’s portfolio, and he was part of teams that repurposed Omaha’s Union Station and Union Pacific’s Harriman building.
An activist in the preservation community for many years, he successfully campaigned to save the Omaha Building downtown. He also wrote the preface for the 1977 book Omaha City Architecture.
His enduring residential works include private homes in and out of Nebraska. Perhaps his personal favorite is the Woods Cottage in Madeline Island, Wisconsin.
Interior of Woods Cottage in Madeline Island, Wisconsin
Front of Woods Cottage in Madeline Island, Wisconsin
“It’s a traditional lake-shore cottage with low-pitched shingle roofs, big overhangs, a big screened-in porch,” Haecker says. “All the siding and windows are real wood with real mullions. There’s no drywall in it. It’s all natural materials inside and out, so it has a real warmth to it. It fits into its environment.”
Another out-of-state favorite is the Keene residence in Crested Butte, Colorado.
“That was a very special challenge,” he says. “That historic town has strict design guidelines for roof pitches, proportions, and windows. My objective was to design a house that fit into that historic environment with the articulation of the floor plan, the pitches of the roofs and the selection of materials. The Keene house is, really, pretty contemporary when you stand back and look at it, but you don’t see it as an intrusion when you drive down the street or you’re inside it.”
Keene Residence
Keene residence in Crested Butte, Colorado
Back home in the Omaha metro, the Matthews residence in Elkhorn’s Skyline Ranches presented the challenge of a new house in a new development.
“It’s a bigger house—pretty grand really in scale and square footage with a big dining room, great room, and game room,” he says. “The topography there was very much a part of it. It’s on a very steep site, so the house steps down the hill with the living levels. It’s somewhat dramatic but not glaring in its forms and colors and materials.”
Then there’s the Liakos residence in southwest Omaha. He didn’t touch the street facade of this house inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School. But in the back living quarters, he designed a new family kitchen, a new dining room, and a new master bedroom.
Liakos residence in southwest Omaha
“The way the old morphs into the new is what’s kind of fun with that house,” he says. “It’s got big clerestory windows with a lot of light shining in. I like a lot of light, so I use clerestory windows to reach up into the sky and bring light inside.”
He also designed a screened-in porch and deck for the property.
Whatever the project, it’s the architect’s intuitive, interpretive expression of the client’s program.
“Sometimes all the pieces come together with the owner and the site and the budget, and it’s just a joyful passage, and sometimes it doesn’t work at all,” Haecker says. “They’re hiring you, in the end, to bring your perspective and talent and aesthetic into a compatible solution that they’re comfortable with. If you just blindly do what the client wants, you’re just going to end up with, probably, a mediocre solution.”
It’s a delicate dance. “Without being overt about it, the architect needs to gently influence the client to do this or that,” he says.
Matthews residence, Elkhorn Nebraska
After working most of his career in his own firm, he’s now in independent practice.
Like a lot of architecture shops, he says, BVH “started out loosely organized with unspoken philosophies. Then, as we got bigger, more structure crept in and it morphed from a spiritual camaraderie to a business with a board, policy manuals, schedules, payrolls, insurance. That happens to every firm. I just didn’t fit anymore with the structure of the thing. It was just time to step away from that.”
Today, he enjoys his well-earned autonomy working from a home studio in the 1929 Memorial Park Tudor he shares with wife, Judy. It’s the only home the couple has ever owned. The studio, which he added on, is filled with overhead windows that stream in light. A large drafting table is its centerpiece.
“I still draw by hand,” Haecker says. “A few of us do, but it’s a dying breed.”
He also writes and paints in his sanctuary of a studio space that’s filled with books, maquettes, and artwork.
The three-story home has undergone several other tweaks by his design, including adding bay windows in the living room and a study and sunroom in the back.
Haecker is a collaborating architect with The Architectural Offices in Omaha. He works up conceptual designs for the practice. He also partners on projects with his son, Alex.
In a career spanning six decades, Haecker’s pretty much done it all in terms of architectural types.
“It’s happened that way, and happily so,” he says. “I do like the variety—everything from a bridge to a lake cottage—that I’ve done and been involved with.”
Visit georgehaecker.com for more information.
This article was printed in the May 2019 edition of OmahaHome. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
Spellman dacha, Niobrara, Nebraska
Categories: Architect, Architecture/Design, Design, George Haecker, Historic Preservation, Omaha, Writing Tags: Architect, Architectural Design, Architecture, BVH Architecture, Design, George Haecker, Historic Preservation, Omaha, Omaha City Architecture
Photographer Jim Scholz and his lifelong mission to honor beauty
April 27, 2018 leoadambiga 1 comment
Appearing in the May 2018 issue of the New Horizons
They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Photographer Jim Scholz of Omaha finds beauty wherever life takes him. The 73-year-old former Roman Catholic priest began making images growing up in the St. Cecilia Cathedral neighborhood.
“I started shooting pictures in high school for the yearbook and ever since it’s been a real passion and interest for me,” he said
He recalls “the magic of that first print when I put the white piece paper in the developer and an image actually came up on it.” It happened in the Cathedral High darkroom. From that moment on, he said, “I was forever hooked by the magic that this is more than just reality. It’s a powerful thing.”
“I started off with a 35-millimeter camera because everybody had one. You could buy the film pretty inexpensively. You could develop the film in your own darkroom. I shot with that for a long time.”
He was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming during the Second World War. His father saw U.S. Army duty in the Pacific. After WWII, his father was offered a job with an Omaha company. Jim was 5 when his family moved here. His father worked management jobs at various Omaha firms. His stay-at-home mom eventually went back to work in her chosen field, dietetics, at area hospitals.
Serving a higher purpose
Scholz kept right on developing his photographic eye at seminary in Denver, Colorado, doing graduate work at Creighton University and serving metro parishes as an Archdiocesan priest.
“It was always a hobby.”
He doesn’t say it, but there’s a sacred dimension to capturing the essence of humanity and nature. As a priest ministering to his flock, he was called to mirror Christ’s unconditional love and to share the liturgy’s sublime peace. As a photographer, he reflects back what people project or see. Sometimes, he shows what they’ve never seen before. Surely, there’s something inspirational, perhaps even spiritual in that.
Omaha fashion designer Mary Anne Vaccaro admires his fidelity to beauty.
“Jim is very grounded and spiritual. As a photographer he embraces his creative gift with love, discipline and respect. He sees beauty in unexpected and unlikely places. His attention to detail and quality is amazing. His passion for his work drives him to excellence.”v
Tom Sitzman, owner of Connect Gallery in Omaha, sees in Scholz’s photography the same sensitivity and compassion that infused his ministry.
“I first knew Jim as my pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Omaha. His homilies were conversations, not lectures, filled with examples of everyday people living everyday lives. Those sitting in the pews could see themselves in those situations of the human condition – funny, sad, enlightening, tragic and giving – knowing he understood. His photography is deeply rooted and grounded in Jim the man and priest. They depict everyday events we too often take for granted. A moon rise over the city. Dark, foreboding storm clouds moving across a still sun-lit hay meadow, An old timber building. Jim knows where to stand to get the feel of size and distance as well as where the light is coming from. They are the works of a well-trained eye that knows how to compose a scene with his camera the way he did with words in a homily.”
Scholz ministered in Elgin, Nebraska and at St. Bernards, St. Cecilia and St. Leo in Omaha. The parish he served longest at was Sacred Heart in North Omaha, where he helped found Heart Ministry, which has grown to serve residents needs in the city’s most poverty-stricken neighborhood.
“I feel lucky to have been not only in that space but other parishes where I served or other jobs that I worked at. When you’re around someplace for awhile you’re hopefully going to make a contribution and I feel good about when I look back at something that helped people and continues to help people.”
Scholz received the 1995 Omaha Archdiocese Sheehan Award (then-the Presidential Citation) recognizing clergy as outstanding leaders in their communities.
Sacred Heart years
During his 1981 to 1998 Sacred Heart tenure, he took over an integrated parish in decline, its ranks thinned by white flight. Mass attendance was abysmal. Gospel already had a hold there, thanks to Father Tom Furlong introducing it in the ‘late ’60s-early ’70s.
“It was a very conservative, quiet little neighborhood parish,” Scholz recalled. “Most of the members were longtime parishioners, many of them quite elderly. Physically, the place was dilapidated. I felt we had to do something dramatic.”
He got the idea for more spirited, gospel music-based “uplifting liturgies” from an inner city parishes conference in Detroit. He was by impressed how churches in similar circumstances turned things around with the help of gospel. He saw the music as a homage to black heritage and a magnet for new members.
“What the music said was we are reaching out to your traditions and we’re trying to make you feel comfortable to come to our church,”
Scholz found a first-rate choir director in Glenn Burleigh, under whom the church’s full-blown entry into gospel began at the Saturday night Mass. The 10:30 Sunday liturgy remained ultra-traditional and sparsely attended.
“Six months later we’d gone from a Saturday service with 30 to 35 people, with hardly any music, to standing in the aisles full with a wonderful ensemble,
“Glenn wrote special music almost weekly for the service. People started to come out of the woodwork once the word got out. It was such a refreshing thing.
“We didn’t grow exponentially in black membership, although we did grow some. What we grew in was white membership.”
When Burleigh was hired away by a mega-Baptist church in Houston, Scholz tapped his assistant, William Tate, to take over. Scholz recruited a new choir director, Mary Kay Mueller, to energize the 10:30 Sunday service. For inspiration, he referred her to The Blues Brothers. So it came to pass the movie’s Triple Rock Church became a model for the expressive Sacred Heart liturgy. No, Scholz weren’t interested in “people doing somersaults down the front aisle. But he wanted “to come up with that spirit.” Unbridled. Joyous. Free. “We really need to come alive here,” he told Mueller. Thus, the Freedom Choir was born. The rest is history as that rollicking Sunday service began packing the pews and still does three decades later.
An abiding passion for photography
All the while Sacred Heart grew its base, Scholz made photographs.
“When I had a little time off, an afternoon, or before I’d go to bed at night I’d probably spend the last half hour of my waking life that day by reading about photography or studying photographers like Ansel Adams and all these heroes of mine.
“The more you get into it then you start studying other people’s work and you try to emulate what they do and improve what you do. Ansel Adams wrote a series of books on the camera, the lens, photo development and so on. I checked them out of the library a number of times and studied these things to learn how he developed film and how he arrived at his vision.”
Other photographers Scholz has admired and studied include Wynn Bullock and Edward Weston.
Scholz followed his cleric calling for 27 years. After much deliberation and prayer, he shed the collar in 1999. He is still Catholic and regularly attends Mass. Now, he’s nearing 20 years in his second career as a full-time architecture, portrait and fine art photographer.
He describes his own aesthetic this way: “Probably at the baseline is a sense of beauty, whether color or color harmony or composition or subject. That would be the underlining thing. I love landscapes. I love abstracts, I love people, you name it.” He finds beauty in it all. “There are certain patterns hardwired into the fabric of our beings that produce pleasure, and we declare them beautiful. This is also true of music and other art forms. We are better because of what Michelangelo and Beethoven created and left to us;”
Ideas for projects are not hard to come by.
“I probably have more imagination than time. Every now and then I’ll get cranked up about a certain theme or methodology. I started a project photographing Omaha and Nebraska artists a few years ago. I just wanted to do that. I know a number of artistsand i started taking their picturesI’m about half way through that and hopefully I’ll have a show.
He envisions an exhibition in which each of his artist portraits is displayed next to a work by the artist, whether a sculpture or painting or whatever it might be.
“I’ve talked with a couple gallery owners about it. It might also be a book. We’ll see what happens.”
Catherine Ferguson is among the artists Scholz has photographed. He’s also photographed her work.
“Jim and I worked together to produce photographs of my stacked glass series,” Ferguson said. “He is a generous artist ready to help another artist see their vision realized. Jim is a patient, calm, gentle perfectionist. He gives me all the time necessary to have the prints exactly as I want them, no hurry, no pressure. I feel he is under-recognized as an artist in our community.”
Another artist friend is Shelly Bartek.
“I’ve known Jim from the time he was a priest at Sacred Heart to now where he is a successful national photographer,” Bartek said. “He is an authentic, all-around photographer serving to bring his clients the best quality images that represent their brand. His personal
passion to create art in his work has inspired us all through his concept and technical perfection.
“Best of all, he’s a great friend.”
About a decade ago, Scholz collaborated with writer Leslie Little on a museum quality book about Paris.
“I made the Paris Icons book images during two short visits to the city in 2007,” Scholz said. “It then took several months to edit, layout and in general prepare for print. The result was well received and we were awarded three international awards for the publication.
“It is always a joy to produce something of beauty that people appreciate.”
By choice, he’s not little documentary work on the gritty margins of life. “That’s a whole journalistic approach I respect greatly – it’s just not me. I like to show the best of people.” That includes showcasing the works of makers’ hands. Then there’s the joy he takes in picturing the natural splendor of God’s handiwork.
Expanding and honing his vision
Shooting Opera Omaha rehearsals and productions has deepened a long-held appreciation for music.
“What it’s done is it’s really stretched me in terms of my knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the whole operatic canon. My vision has been broadened.”
Photography has opened new vistas for him.
“If I never made another photograph, if I never went click again, I still think my life would be much richer because as I look at the world I see things that before I would never have noticed. The angle of the light or the color or whatever. There’s a whole bunch of stuff I would never have paid attention to, but the discipline of seeing as a camera sees forces you to see these things.
“I can sit an airport waiting for a plane for two hours and not be bored at all because I’m looking all around, seeing a grandma with little kids, the light coming in the windows, the big airplane rolling up on the tarmac outside. All this stuff.”
Cultivating a vision of what he wants to shoot and executing that vision, he said, is “a process.”
“It’s a lot more the work you put into it then the gizmo that goes click. The ultimate satisfaction is the process itself – getting to see things maybe in a little bit unique way and presenting them so that people say, ‘Oh, look at that, I never noticed that, I walked by this every day and never saw it.’ It’s finding what’s interesting.
“You’re expressing it from your perspective. You bring a whole life history and all kinds of things to color that.”
Photographers like him prefer to say they “make” rather than take photos.
“There’s a distinction.” Scholz said/ “You see something and you have a vision of how you want to present it.”
He saw in his mind’s eye what he wanted to achieve with his portrait of the late sculptor John Walz before ever shooting anything. “I had a vision of what I wanted to present, so I exposed the film to achieve that and I printed the print to achieve that.”
Walz turned a former Burlington Railroad Station power plant into his home-studio.
“I did the photo shoot with him part way through the remodel,” Scholz said. “I wanted to show him in his art creation, but we wanted a little mystery, so that’s why his face is a little in shadow.”
Contrasting elements can communicate mystery, energy, texture, whimsy, depth of perception, the passage of time, et cetera.
“I like to work with the idea of the human figure and the natural world,” Scholz said,
For an image he made of footprints in the sand at Canon Beach on the Oregon coast, he explained, “I wanted it to convey the essence of nature and humanity. The ocean is kind of symbolic of the timeless and I had to wait for somebody to walk along the beach to produce footprints, which get washed out with the next wave or two. That’s a story about how nature is constantly washing over us.
“As humans, we think we’re so important but in the big picture we’re real new on the scene and we probably won’t last all that long either. We’re just a little part of that from the beginning-to-the-end scenario.”
For a picture he made of a nude young woman lying on a fallen redwood tree in a Big Sur Coast grove, he wanted the contrast of “the old rugged, hard-edged woods and the softness of the young human figure.”
“That was done very deliberately to hopefully make the image strong.”
On a trip to Chatterbox Falls, British Columbia, he captured for posterity a sublime setting he awoke to,
“My friends, Ron and Judy Parks, rented a Nordic Tug for the summer to explore the coast and invited me to join them for a few days. We docked there for the night and in the morning I liked the reflections from the rain on the dock and the movement of the water. I made the picture with the falls in the background.”
During a Colorado sojourn he set out to photograph one of the state’s most prominent mountains, Longs Peak.
“Since the Forest Service does not allow camping there we had to leave the parking lot at midnight and climb all night to get there just before dawn. It was cloudy at sunrise but just for a moment the clouds partially broke and I was able to get the shot.”
Intuitive and intentional
Sometimes, the opportunity for a picture appears as he’s driving to or from an assignment.
“I was coming from Kansas City and I took the back roads and just about sunset I saw this partially plowed wheat field with terraced ridges in a pattern. So I stopped and took a picture. But the sky was very dull – there was nothing. Driving back, I was thinking, what can I do with this? Then I decided to put a woman’s flowing hair in the sky.”
He secured a model for the shoot at his studio. He made the image and overlaid it in the picture of the field.
“That was fun. I think that sort of thing makes the image richer.”
Manipulating images on a computer or in the darkroom, he said, “is just a creative tool.”
“People have the idea that in an earlier era of photography, working in the darkroom was somehow pure. Okay, it wasn’t, it never was. As long as I can darken this part and lighten that part (or crop or burn or do any number of things to manipulate an image), it’s a subjective, editorial process.
“Just the act of making a picture, you choose what to include in the frame and what not. My act of putting a frame around that image begins to edit right there.”
He embraces today’s digital tools.
“What I love about PhotoShop is that now I can do things that even in my wildest dreams in the darkroom I couldn’t achieve. For instance, I have an image of an abandoned ore processing plant high in the Colorado back country that’s been a favorite in galleries. I made it with an eight by ten camera and black and white film. I worked and worked in the darkroom to get all the various tonalities but it was hard because the inside of the building was kind of dark.
“Well, you can only burn an edge so much in the darkroom.”
For this oversized image, he placed his developing tray on the floor and angled the enlarger on the print.
“I’m crawling down there, lightening this part and darkening that part, but you could only go so far and you couldn’t change the focal contrast. With PhotoShop you can adjust the tonality and contrast. The nice thing is once you get done, two years or 20 years from now when you hit print it’s still going to come out the same.Or you can change it.”
“I had an early ’90s show of my work in Omaha. One of the prints was very successful in terms of sales. It also happened to be a print that involved six different negatives at various exposures in the enlarger. The original print probably took me six evenings from seven to midnight and now I suddenly had orders for 10 more. By the time I got done with that whole thing, I was spent and none of the prints were exactly the same because you couldn’t exactly get it the same.”
Whether intuitive or intentional, he’s after the same result – to distill beauty and endow permanence to an ephemeral moment.
Scholz depends on what he earns photographing for his living. He started his own business, Scholz Images, in 1999. He works from a high-ceilinged downtown studio with ample natural light. It’s outfitted with lights, tents, screens, filters, cases and framed prints.
Most of his time is spent not on making photographs but scheduling. marketing, billing and other business matters. Finding and juggling projects isn’t easy.
“If you’re doing it on your own, you’re always kind of dancing between jobs. It’s a constant changing. When I first started the business I wanted to mostly go in the fine art direction. What i found is that in order to really make a living at it I had to have an additional niche and architecture became the thing I gravitated toward. I realized it was something I could do and it’s a good market. The architecture puts bread on the table and allows me to pay the mortgage and that sort of thing.”
He’s shot for Omaha firms Holland Basham Architects and HDR, for Lincoln-based Clark Enersen Partners and for Denver-based Fentress and Ruggles Mabe.
Fentress flew him to Quantico, Virginia for a week’s shoot at the National Museum of the Marine Corps and to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for an even longer shoot of the Central Terminal Expansion.
Traveling for his work brings it’s own challenges.
“When you travel a lot you get to sleep on airport floors, have bears come into your camp in the middle of the night, have flat tires on cactus in the back country, be in the center of a bison herd, have foreign police order you to not use your tripod. Just the usual stuff.”
When not flying, he travels to assignments via his trusty Chevy Silverado.
“I find I make my best photos when I have my camera and tripod with me. It can be anywhere that the moment presents itself.”
For most clients, he’ captures objective reality, though he sometimes heightens things via filters and strobes.
“With the commercial work I do, I’m called to record what’s there. Architects like to see all the bricks and everything the way it is. I then like to think of it the way a filmmaker does – how’s this going to look when the sun goes down and there’s still some light in the sky. You’re alway working with light.”
Another major commercial client is J & J Flooring Group, which has sent him on various assignments.
“It’s very challenging to get really interesting pictures of carpet.”
Buildings are easier. For his architectural work, he used to shoot with four by five film.
“In those days if you could get eight pictures a day you were doing really good, especially with color because you had to use several different filters.”
Though there’s little call for it now, he’s fond of large format film photography because he can attain certain qualities with it he can’t in smaller formats or digitially. He first moved to the bigger format in 1980.
“My father built a wooden kit for my four-by-five inch camera. I used that for years. Then I thought, well, if four-by-five is good, then eight-by-ten must be better, so I eventually bought an eight-by-ten.”
He admits he’s “a gear-head” like most photographers when it comes to camera gadgets.
What the large format offers in quality it sacrifices in efficiency.
“The tradeoff is, if you get the image perfectly you’ve got great quality to work with, but you can only make a small number of images, whereas with a smaller camera you might be able to get a hundred images in the same amount of time. So you have to pick your tool for what you want to do
“The larger format allows for more clarity and tonality. You can make increasingly large enlargements that still look good. But it comes at a great cost. The equipment is expensive but the really big cost is hauling it around because it’s heavy and awkward. It’s really tough flying. I much prefer to drive – that way I can load up the truck with lighting gear and I don’t have to worry about it being broken or arriving late or getting lost. When I fly, it really has to get edited down to the very essentials, plus backup. You cant check it – it will end up broken or lost. I carry it on board and stow it overhead.”
Old habits die hard.
“I sometimes think about getting rid of the four-by-five and eight-by-ten but occasionally I do have a client that comes along that wants something in large format film and I’m one of the few guys left that can do it.”
In order to stay current, he’s adapted to digital cameras.
He’s remained true to certain brands.
“I settled in on Nikon for whatever reason and have stayed with it because once you invest in a bunch of lenses then you can use them forever. I can still shoot with the Nikon lenses I got back in the 1960s. I don’t use them all that often anymore, but I can still use them on the camera because they never changed the lens body.”
For portraits, he uses whatever best serves the subject. A favorite portrait is of a corporate CEO whom Scholz wisely took out of the stuffed shirt, sterile office setting for something more fun and authentic.
“The guy needed a picture for an annual report. I could see in talking to him he just wasn’t into it at all, so I asked, ‘What do you like to do? ‘ He said, ‘I just bought a motorcycle and I like to ride it Sunday afternoons. I said, ‘Okay, let’s do that.” I sat in the back of a pickup with my camera and his wife drove. We were over in Iowa and we drove maybe 30-40 miles down the highway with his hair blowing in the wind. I made lots of pictures in black and white. The whole thing was stronger to me in black and white.
“Later, I decided I wanted a little more drama, so I put the clouds in. The only parts of the image that are in color is the burnt orange gas tank and front fender. It was a custom color designed just for that particular motorcycle. I like black and white because color sometimes is so pretty people stop there without looking deeper, where with black and white you’re reduced to light and dark contests that make your image pop.”
After decades making pictures for public display, Scholz is a fixture on the local photographic scene.
“In general, I think the photographic community here is pretty open and receptive. Most people like each other and get along.”
He counts as peers such well known shooters as Larry Ferguson, Andrew Baran, Monte Kruse. Patrick Drickey, Kat Moser and Sandy Aquila.
He’s talked shop with Omaha native Jim Krantz, who now enjoys a national and international reputation based out of Chicago.
“One of the local people I really admire is Vera Mercer,” Scholz said, “Her work to me is outstanding. I really love what she does.”
His work has shown at Gallery 1516 and Connect in Omaha, at the Museum of Nebraska Art in Kearney and at galleries in Kansas City, Missouri, Santa Fe, New Mexico and other locales.
His work is in public and private collections around the nation and even in in other countries.
Photography equals opportunity
He makes images to be seen. Naturally, he likes it when people respond favorably to his work. Another fringe benefit of shooting for hire is gaining entree to people and places he’d otherwise not get.
“Being a photographer often times opens doors to things. You get admitted to a lot of places and things you wouldn’t otherwise have access to. For instance, maybe 15 years ago I got a call from a company here in town sponsoring ex-president Bill Clinton to give a keynote talk at an event in Aspen, Colorado. They wanted a lot of pictures of bill involved with people, so they flew me out to Aspen to do that. I spent three days with Bill. Hilary (Clinton) was there. I made all the pictures. Well, this repeated itself in Miami, once here in Omaha, and several times in Aspen.
“That’s not a world I would normally have access to at all, but it was really fun. I remember once in Aspen Bill got there in the afternoon. He was pretty tired having been on the road a lot. He checked into the hotel and decided he wanted to go for a walk downtown. He didn’t get more than a block when he was surrounded in this park by a hundred mothers with little kids. You could see him getting energized. It was fun to see over the course of several events how he would wk with crowds. He had a magic about him
“I remember prior to a cocktail party and dinner he was keynoting there were some guys waiting for his arrival and they were talking about how when they saw Bill Clinton they’re going to give him a piece of their mind. Well, Bill shows up and if by magic those guys are the first people he walks up to. He’s got his hand around one guy telling him a joke and within 10 minutes he totally won them over. I saw that hundreds of times.”
Being a photographer also means forever chasing perfection that can’t be attained.
“My photographer friends and I all know there are certain images meant to tease us into spending a lot of time and effort but we never quite get them. They’re always just a little beyond us.”
Scholz feels it’s good to have something to chase just beyond your grasp in order to stay sharp and hungry. “If you could roll a 300 game every time you bowl, you wouldn’t bowl. It wouldn’t be any fun. It’s the same thing with golf and shooting par.”
The same when making pictures.
“Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Hits and misses come with any creative art. There are times where from start to finish you work it right through and, boy, the whole thing just comes out great.”
The magic of first seeing an image he’s just made still enthralls him. Hooked for life.
Visit http://www.scholzimages.com.
Categories: Architecture/Design, Art, Jim Scholz, Omaha, Photography, Priest, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Writing Tags: Architecture, Art, Jim Scholz, Omaha, Opera Omaha, Photographer, Photography, Portraiture, Sacred Heart, Scholz Images
Go Bold and Build Big Omaha – A Contrarian’s View
Go Bold and Build Big Omaha
A Contrarian’s View
With the College World Series upon us again, the contrarian in me comes out. First, let me say that I embrace the CWS as a cornerstone and touchstone event for the city. It is great that Omaha has hosted this NCAA championship for so long and has truly made it its own. The CWS is in many ways emblematic of Omaha itself. Stolid, stable, safe, conservative, family-friendly. Those qualities are certainly admirable in the context of a mass appeal, community-oriented event. But the CWS is also representative of Omaha settling for things that are, well, less than perhaps they could be. I refer to our fair city’s lack of truly major attractions and of monumental places and spaces to visit and gather in. Yes, I know all about the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. But for many of us a zoo is a zoo is a zoo, no matter how many new exhibits you add, and frankly a zoo is a very niche thing that doesn’t even fall into the monumental places and spaces conversation. Indeed, a zoo is the antithesis of wide open expanses by the very nature of its secured confinement fences, gates, enclosures and borders. No, what I mean is an urban park or square or plaza that is rather epic in scope and scale. Something measured in a few acres or a couple square miles. A place where many thousands can gather without being on top of each other. Something where permanent attractions and features are part of the landscape, such as wide walkways, extensive gardens, fountains, sculptures, gazebos, amphitheaters, et cetera. It might also be home to brick and mortar museums, theaters, nature conservancies and other large attractions. The actual outdoor area should be conducive to concerts, plays, arts festivals, hot air balloon launches and any number of other things.
It would be expansive enough to accommodate more than one of these activities at the same time. The closest thing we have to anything like that in Omaha is Memorial Park, which is quite nice for what it is but it is a rather small park with limited features and it certainly strains to the limit when a major concert is held there once a year. There’s the park, a small garden area, the memorial and one big event a year, and that’s it.
The city fathers have missed many opportunities to put something of this scale in place. The planners of the 1898 Trans-Miss Exposition designed something along these proportions but did not have the foresight or will or funding to build permanent structures and thus that magnificent faux city disappeared. Another missed opportunity came in the first quarter of the last century, when Omaha was being built out as a finished city, but nothing even approaching monumental arose. None of our major vintage public spaces compares in size or grandeur to those in similar sized Midwestern cities such as Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Minneapolis or our far west neighbor Denver. Was this because of lack of vision or support? It doesn’t really matter now, except that we are left with what we are left in a rather fixed downtown and inner city landscape. But even within those restrictions more opportunities presented themselves – only Omaha failed miserably each time to realize what could have been. Whether you think it was a good idea or not, the Gene Leahy Mall presented a chance for Omaha to create a big open green space right in the heart of downtown but the leaders got it terribly wrong when they built a smallish sunken mall/park that has virtually no open space to speak of it is so densely designed and its main feature, a filthy lagoon or pond, is less than breathtaking.
Then there was Jobbers Canyon. Of course, it should have remained just it was – a huge cluster of historic multi-story warehouse buildings begging to be redeveloped for commercial and nonprofit uses. If in the end it did have to be razed, then at least ConAgra and the city should have worked out a deal to create a truly impressive public use park with grand features and spaces. That was not done. What was created is nice enough, but it pales to what could have and should have been. Ah, then there’s the rest of the riverfront development that ensued. Again, it’s a good thing that Omaha finally made it back to the river and cleaned up what had become an environmental wasteland, but leaders were far too timid and constrained with how they repurposed the area. They wasted what was a once in a lifetime opportunity to make a bold statement. What’s there is okay. but that’s the point, it’s merely okay, and mediocre and uninspiring. The biggest fault is that there is just not enough there, there. It needs much more open space and many more amenities. The pedestrian bridge is yet another underwhelming structure. None of these things standup to their counterparts in peer cities. Where is our Arch? Our Forest Park? Our Walker Art Center? Our Millennium Park? Our Lincoln Park? Our City Park? Our Liberty Memorial? Our Nelson Atkins?
Another lost opportunity saw the city never follow through and finish the grand boulevard and parks system that would have given Omaha an enduring and distinguishing urban design highlight.
While I am at it, Omaha also lacks a super wide city street to accommodate a truly massive parade with large floats and inflatables and armies of paraders or protestors, as the case may be.
A whole related conversation could be had about all the historic buildings the city has let go and that would have contributed to a much more interesting architectural aesthetic than the one we are left with today.
Perhaps Omaha is a victim of its own easy to please nature. It is ironic though that just as a new generation of creatives and dreamers have emerged in the city, many of them doing bold entrepreneurial things that enrich the culture, they and the rest of us are stuck with a blah city landscape that does not do justice to their/our aesthetics and aspirations. I wish the design of Omaha could start all over again from scratch but since that is not happening, I pray that some dreamers mesh their grand vision with big dollars to create the kind of space and place I describe. Only where would it go? North Downtown and Northeast Omaha would seem the most likely urban, inner city prospects.
Since Omaha will never have an ocean front or a mountain backdrop or dramatic skyline, much less a major professional sports team, it needs a defining, image-making place or space, not just for branding purposes outside the city, but as a point of pride celebration and destination gathering spot for us residents. Nothing we presently have even comes close to cutting it. Perhaps it’s not too late for a major redesign that would build a public park that encompasses the east Creighton Campus and its arts and sports amenities along with the Joslyn Art Museum, the Rose Theatre and the Omaha Children’s Museum, with new amenities added to the mix, in one contiguous park complex. Nah, wouldn’t work. you say. Probably not. Then again, why not, or why not something like it somewhere else? Why not a grand design element that somehow ties together the string of amenities up and down 10th Street from North Downtown to the new Blue Barn and beyond to the Lauritzen Gardens and the Zoo. Perhaps it involves somehow making 10th Street a wider, prettier thoroughfare that includes a landscaped promenade with extra wide sidewalks and plenty of perches for vendors. And a true trolley system serving that stretch and the greater downtown and midtown districts.
You can’t tell me that the resources are not available do something of scale given the level of private philanthropy here and the kinds of public monies that can be had for projects that redevelop so-called distressed or blighted areas. It’s just a matter of where the funds are directed or diverted. And what the priorities are. But we’re talking vision here, not soup and nuts. And this city is starving for a big bold vision. We just need enough deep-pocketed folks to catch the vision.
I dread having to go through this litany again in a decade or two. That’s why I say, Go Bold and Build Big Omaha. What are we afraid of?
Categories: Architecture/Design, Historic Preservation, History, Journalism, Leo Adam Biga, Leo Adam BIga's Blog, Leo Adam Biga's My Inside Stories, Omaha Conservatory of Music, Writing Tags: Architecture, Blog, Leo Adam Biga, Omaha, Opinion, Public Spaces, Urban Design
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From the Archives: Earth, WiND and Fire
Author: University Archives
It was around 1:50 pm on Friday, March 29, 1963, when the Jazzmen of Crane Junior College in Chicago began their set at the 5th Annual Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival in the Fieldhouse. The Jazzmen, one of 22 groups invited to the festival, competed for prizes like music scholarships and more than $5,000 worth of instruments. The best combo would be invited to play at the Village Vanguard Club in New York City.
All groups were judged in three preliminary sessions, and six finalists (including the Jazzmen) were picked to play in the final session on Saturday. Their roster consisted of band leader Don Myrick on alto sax, Maurice White on drums, Louis Satterfield on trombone, Fred Humphrey on piano, Charles Handy on trumpet and Ernest McCarthy on bass. Two of the musicians, Myrick and McCarthy, earned praise from the judges as the "Most Promising Instrumentalists" of the festival.
All the members of the Jazzmen moved on to become noted session musicians — Handy, Myrick and Satterfield even released a studio album under the band’s new name, The Pharaohs, in 1972 — but one name from the lineup may sound particularly familiar.
Fr. Sorin's Eyeglasses
Irish Brigade Flag
Flannery O'Connor at ND
Main Building Steps
Corby Hall
Shakespeare Script
State Charter
After leaving the Jazzmen, Maurice White went on to found Earth, Wind, and Fire, one of the most influential funk bands of the 1970s. The group would win 7 Grammy Awards in the course of its career and rack up such Billboard hits as “Shining Star,” “September,” “Boogie Wonderland,” and “After the Love Is Gone.” In the early ’70s, two of White’s fellow Jazzmen, Myrick and Satterfield, would even join the band as members of its horn section, the Phenix Horns — a subgroup that would later play alongside Phil Collins and the rock band Genesis.
At the Collegiate Jazz Festival, Crest Records recorded all of the finalists’ performances, and jazz enthusiasts could place their orders for the three-vinyl set in front of the Fieldhouse during the festival. The archival clips featured below include two versions of a short segment of the Jazzmen’s 1963 performance. The first clip is the unaltered original; the second has been cleaned up with audio editing and restoration software. The clicks and pops have been removed and the sound has been enhanced by audio-visual archivist, Erik Dix.
In addition to the Jazzmen, many other promising jazz musicians played at the Notre Dame Collegiate Jazz Festival that year, including Count Basie collaborator Oscar Brashear, noted film pianist Mike Lang, and saxophonist Jamey Aebersold, who would go on to become a preeminent jazz educator. In the 55 years since, many more soon-to-be stars have played with their college bands at Notre Dame. The oldest festival of its kind in the U.S., the Collegiate Jazz Festival will convene for its 61st year this weekend, February 22 and 23, in Washington Hall.
From the Archives is written by the staff of the University of Notre Dame Archives highlighting notable pieces from their collection. Through its rich historical resources, the University Archives provides campus, national and international communities with a broad historical focus on the evolution of the University of Notre Dame, its contributions to higher education, and its place in history.
From the Archives: Seal of approval
Having coffee with Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
That time I was a fan
Matt Cashore '94
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Mania Delight
Website of author D. J. Moore
Colson Whitehead Reading
March 25, 2018 ~ D. J. Moore
On March 15th, Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad, gave a reading at the Salt Lake City Library. What really struck me about him is how funny he is. Except for when he read somber sections from his book, it felt more like a stand-up comedy routine than a book reading.
The person who introduced him said Colson Whitehead is more genre than most literary writers. While other literary writers like to wade into genre from time to time, Whitehead dives in.
Whitehead told the audience how much he loved genre shows such as The Twilight Zone when he was growing up and about his desire to become the black Stephen King. He spoke about how he viewed the Donna Summer song “MacArthur Park” as a metaphor for the writer’s journey: You go to a lot of trouble gathering ingredients and when you’re done, someone leaves the cake out in the rain. “Knopf Publishing, why did you leave my cake out in the rain? Houghton Mifflin Publishing, why did you leave my cake out in the rain?” In a hilarious interlude, he even played the song for us.
He said the average literary novel only sells about 5,000 copies, which is depressing when you consider there are billions of people in the world. He tried to reassure himself by imagining beings on other worlds wanting to read his book, but the chances of us discovering life on other worlds is slim, and even if we do, they probably won’t want to read our crap anyway. They’ll probably be into haikus or something else like that.
At one point, he joked about a snooty medieval writer telling his friend, “I don’t watch puppet shows. I don’t even own a puppet show set.”
After he first came up with the idea for The Underground Railroad, it took him 18 years until he wrote it because he didn’t think he was a good enough writer to tackle it yet. He said that when he was writing it, he reread other books about slavery such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and he realized that no matter what you write about, someone else has already written a better book about it than you. You’ve just got to trust that you’ve got something unique to say. He also mentioned that it’s hard for him to watch movies about slavery. Reading about it is easier than seeing it depicted on the screen.
Whitehead said that he sometimes gets asked if he’s worried about readers thinking the The Underground Railroad is real and he quipped, “It says ‘A Novel’ on the cover. That’s a tip off.” He joked about the people who die every year stepping into a tornado thinking it will take them to Oz. He sometimes gets asked why write about slavery? Aren’t there enough books about slavery already? His response: “I guess I could write about upper middle class white people who get sad sometimes.”
His jokes continued even into the audience Q&A. Someone asked how race relations could be improved and Whitehead joked that we could have a post-racial society if 99.99% of the human race was dead as in his zombie novel, Zone One. Things like race, religion, gender, and whether or not someone is a Yankees fan will cease to matter when there aren’t that many of us left.
Someone asked why Cora (in The Underground Railroad) didn’t kill the slave catcher when she had the chance and Whitehead replied, “Maybe she’s a better person than you.”
When asked what he thought of the recent Black Panther movie, he joked that his favorite Afrofuturism movie is the “California Love” music video by 2pac and Dr. Dre.
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Asimov’s May/June 2019
The Complete Colony Saga by Michaelbrent Collings
セレネ on In Defense of Bad Reviews
LTUE Part 5 | Mania… on LTUE Part 4
LTUE 2017
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No. 157: Jackie Winsor, David Anfam
Episode No. 157 of The Modern Art Notes Podcast features artist Jackie Winsor and curator David Anfam.
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is showing “Jackie Winsor: With and Within,” Winsor’s first solo museum exhibition since 1997. The show, which was curated by Amy Smith-Stewart, features early works such as Painted Piece (1979-80, above), a work that Winsor created by dragging it behind a car, Fifty-Fifty and Burnt Piece, plus documentation of the processes and performances that created them. The exhibition also includes ten works from Winsor’s more recent “Inset Wall Series.” It’s on view through April 5, 2015.
Over the course of a near-50-year career, Winsor has had solo exhibitions at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Museum of Modern Art, the Virginia MFA, and that 1997 show, which was at PS1. In 1991 the Milwaukee Art Museum organized a retrospective of her career that traveled to the Newport Harbor Art Museum, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the MFA Boston and to the Akron Art Museum.
On the second segment curator and historian David Anfam returns to the program to discuss one of the most interesting exhibitions of the year: “The War Begins: Clyfford Still’s Paths to Abstraction.” Anfam organized “The War Begins,” and it’s at the Clyfford Still Museum through January 18, 2015. The show is the first exhibition to examine the impact World War II — and Still’s work in the war industries — may have had on his work. Still is just one of two artists from the first generation of abstract expressionists who was engaged in war work . (Ad Reinhardt was drafted into the Navy.) The show offers a significant revisionist history of how abstract expressionism may have developed.
Special thanks to Nancy Lee and the team at the Hammer Museum for their help with this week’s show.
Air date: Nov. 6, 2014.
Jackie Winsor, Cheesecloth Piece, 1981. Collection of the MCA Chicago.
Jackie Winsor, Fifty-Fifty, 1975.
Jackie Winsor, Bound Logs, 1972-73. Collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Jackie Winsor, Double Column, 1970.
Jackie Winsor, Bound Square, 1972. Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Jackie Winsor, Burnt Piece, 1977-78.
Jackie Winsor, Green Piece, 196-77. Collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Jackie Winsor, Paul Walter’s Piece, 1975. Collection of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.
Jackie Winsor, Burnt Sphere, 1980.
Jackie Winsor, Inset Wall Piece, White Face, One-Inch Grid with Gray Stepped Inset, 1995.
Jackie Winsor, Painted Piece, 1979-80.
Clyfford Still, PH-620, 1942.
← No. 156: Ross Bleckner, Helga Kessler Aurisch
No. 158: Charles Ray, George Shackelford →
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Agama & Spiritualitas
Qbal Eview: Iqbal Academy Pakistan
Judul Asli: IRE-APR-2001
Diunggah oleh Sejo
Deskripsi: None
simpanSimpan IRE-APR-2001 Untuk Nanti
The Hikam the Wisdom of Ibn Ata Allah by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri
Ungs2030 Standard
222Commentary on the Creed of at-Tahawi-Part 1
Revision Note
To Define Sufism
jamaat tableegh and deobandis
SS 287 - Islamic Spirituality (2)
Al wala al Bara
Corbin 1978 Letter on Monotheism & Polytheism
An Assessment on Some of the Opinions and Theological Convictions of Seyyid Burhaneddin (Rumi’s Master)
JCR Vol. 01 No. 01: Symposium on Creation
The Path of Initiation
Four Foundations Of Shirk
Tau Heed
Urban Poetry Movement
Rethink Community
videoinstallationsa
Journal of Aging and Identity Sufi
Spirituality of Systemic Change .ppt
IQBAL REVIEW
Journal of the Iqbal Academy, Pakistan
Muhammad Suheyl Umar
IQBAL ACADEMY PAKISTAN
Iqbal Review (April 2001)
Classification (DDC)
Classification (IAP)
8U1.66V12
Iqbal Studies
IQBAL CYBER LIBRARY
(www.iqbalcyberlibrary.net)
(www.iap.gov.pk) 6 th Floor Aiwan-e-Iqbal Complex, Egerton Road, Lahore.
Iqbal Review: April 2001
GOD: THE REALITY TO SERVE, LOVE AND KNOW
2. EAGLE IN IQBAL’S POETRY
3. REVOLT OF ISLAM .......................................................................................
4. THE ANTHROPOCOSMIC VISION IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT
5. RESPONSE TO “THE ANTHROPOCOSMIC VISION IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT”
................................................................................................................
6. RETURN OF THE “NATIVE”
7. THE ISLAMIC ECONOMIC SYSTEM
THE CASE OF MUSLIM SCHOLARSHIP
........................................................
9. ALLAMA IQBAL— NEWS, VIEWS AND EVENTS: A SURVEY OF THE ENGLISH NEWSPAPERS OF PAKISTAN DURING 1952
10. MODERN WORLD AND ITS CHALLENGES
11. ALLAMA IQBAL CONFERENCE: TEHRAN —FEBRUARY 24, 2001
12. ISLAMIC UNITY
IN VIEW OF ALLAMA IQBAL
13. IQBAL DAY— EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN, DUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN .......................................................................................................................................
14. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON “AL-GHAZALI’S LEGACY: ITS CONTEMPORARY
15. PATHS TO THE HEART
16. FIRST GRADUATE STUDENT CONFERENCE ON IBN
SINA. ............
In the Islamic tradition it is with this sentence meaning “In the Name of
God-The All Good, the Compassionate” that all legitimate daily acts commence and surely I could not begin a conference on God without beginning with this statement which is also the profoundest commentary upon the Divine Nature as it relates to not only humanity but also to the
whole of creation. The two Divine Names al-RaÁm«n and al-RaÁâm are both derived from the root r. Á. m. that is also the root of the word raÁâm meaning womb similar to the word rehem for womb in Hebrew which belongs to the same linguistic family as Arabic. The world and we amidst it are born from the womb of the Divine Mercy without which we would not even exist. The very substance of cosmic reality is the “Breathe of the Compassionate” (nafas al-RaÁm«n) as the Sufis assert and to mention God’s Names, RaÁm«n and RaÁâm, is to be reminded of that Mercy from which we have issued forth, in which we live whether aware or not of our real natures and to which we ultimately return if we remember who we are and accept
that great “trust of faith” to which we must consent by our free will as
human beings.
From the point of view of traditional teachings the relation between the Divine Source and creation rooted in this Mercy is a relation that transcends time and becoming time being nothing but one of the conditions of our terrestrial mode of existence. God at 2000, the title of this conference, should not for one moment imply a temporal condition set upon that meta-historical relation. What is much more important to realize than what we comprehend
by “God at 2000” is the truth that the world at 2000 like every other world at
whatever moment of time it might be is a reflection of a meta-temporal reality and is rooted in that reality whatever might be our passing understanding of things. Perhaps rather than speaking of God at 2000 one
should speak of the world at 2000 “in” God, for multiplicity is at every
moment mysteriously plunged in Him.
The organizers of this conference have asked the speakers to speak of
God from an experiential and “personal” point of view which is usually not
my preference. I would have rather spoken of God in a manner which transcends the personal idiosyncrasies of individual existence. Nevertheless, having accepted the invitation to speak in this important conference at the beginning of the new Christian millennium about the most important of all subjects, I am obliged to begin by saying something about my background and education in as much as they are related to my understanding of the subject at hand. But my purpose most of all is to write a few humble words about God from the point of view of the Islamic tradition to which I belong.
I was born and brought up in a Muslim family in Persia from which I hail originally. My family ambience was one in which the reality of Islam was very strong and the dimension of transcendence and the reality of God was felt and experienced everywhere. My childhood years were inseparable from the constant observation of the sacred rites of the daily prayers and the ever
present chanting of the Qur’an, which for Muslims is the verbatim revelation
of God and His very Word. Not only my maternal family hailed from a long line of famous religious scholars or ‘ulama’, but my father in addition to being a great scholar and thinker was also devoted to Sufism, the inner or mystical dimension of Islam. Sufism is the heart of the Islamic revelation although today unfortunately some in the West seek to divorce it from Islam and propagate it in a diluted fashion which is far from its authentic reality.
I remember that at the very young age of five or six, in addition to
memorizing certain verses and chapters of the Qur’an, I was guided by my
parents to learn and memorize some of the poems of the greatest Persian Sufi poets such as Rëmâ and À«fiï. With in their incredible spiritual depth, these poems often sang of the unity of religious truth, of the universality of religion, of crossing religious frontiers. They constituted my first lessons in what has now come to be known as religious dialogue and they planted within my mind and soul the seed of a tree which was to grow in later years and become an important axis of my soul and a central concern of my mind. I will just quote one poem from memory by the supreme troubadour of love both human and divine in the Persian language, À«fiï, a poem which I had
already known before the age of ten. Its imperfect translation is as follows:
In love there is no difference between the Christian monastery and the temple of the Magi,
Wherever there is anything, there is the Light of the Face of the Beloved.
I was brought up in such a tradition and I have never left it. At a very young age an intimacy was created in my soul with the Divine Reality, the Reality which was and remains for me at once all-encompassing and all- caring, universal and yet source of particular sacred forms, all loving and yet awesome. The reality of the divine tremendum, the Majesty of God, has always been combined in my understanding of God with His Love and Mercy and of course His Beauty, the Divine Names of Majesty (al-Jal«l) and Beauty (al- Jam«l) complementing each other perfectly in the Islamic perspective. There are verses of the Qur’an, the sacred scripture of Islam, which speak of God as the utterly Other, the Transcendent, the Beyond, as that which has no like and Islam, like Judaism, emphasizes the Oneness of God above all else. And
yet there are other verses of the Qur’an which speak of the intimacy of God with us, of His Love, one of His Names being al-Wudëd which means precisely Love and of course as already mentioned the Qur’an speaks of the Mercy of God which “embraceth all things”. The Qur’an states that God is
closer to man than his jugular vein, of the fact that wheresoever we turn
“there is the Face of God.” In a profound sense the journey of the soul to
God is an oscillation between these two poles of majesty and beauty, farness and nearness, a movement both horizontal and vertical without which no spiritual journey would be complete. Awareness of these two aspects of the Divine Reality and the proper orientation of our soul and in fact the whole of our being accordingly is necessary in order for us to realize the Divine Origin of our existence, to fulfil the purpose of our journey here on earth and to smell the fragrance of the Divine Reality. God is both transcendent and imminent and we must realize both of these dimensions but it is also necessary to add that there is no possibility of the realization of the Immanent without that of the Transcendent.
Returning to my personal life, I was sent to the West to continue my studies when I was quite young, being therefore plucked from the protective ambience of Persia and my family before my mental outlook was completely formed. Coming to America did not, however, mean immediate immersion
in a secular ambience. Before going to M.I.T. I underwent the second part of my secondary education at the Peddie School in New Jersey, a Baptist school where despite being a Muslim I had to attend church every Sunday. That experience came to complement my later intellectual study of Christianity and was precious despite the strangeness of its form. The flame of the love for Christ inculcated in the hearts of Muslims in general and emphasized in my own upbringing in particular was strengthened although I continued of course to view Christ as the greatest prophet before the Prophet of Islam and not as an incarnation which Islam, basing itself in its understanding of God on the Absolute Itself rather than Its manifestation, rejects. The great
love for ‘¥sa ibn Maryam, that is Jesus son of Mary as the Qur’an calls him,
has abided in my heart to this day and in fact has deepened on the basis of that early existential encounter with Christianity as well as much later study and meditation.
It was also a Peddie that the gifts God had given me in the sciences and especially mathematics became manifest. I received some of the highest scores ever achieved in both local and national mathematics tests and so all my teachers advised me to become a scientist. I also felt enthusiastic about studying physics, the mother of modern sciences, and went to M.I.T. with great joy and expectation to discover the nature of physical reality. It took me many years and much more introspection to realize that what I wanted to be in reality was a physikos in the sense given to it by Parminedes, considered by many as the father of Western philosophy, a physikos being a person who sought to understand the nature of things in an ontological sense and not only in appearance. But while only a sophomore, I discovered that modern physics does not in fact deal with the nature of reality, even physical reality in itself, as I had thought. Much reading in the modern philosophy of science, most of it based on positivism, confirmed this fact for me. As I have written in my intellectual autobiography which is to appear in the Library of Living Philosophers 1 dedicated to my thought, it was a lecture and later a more personal meeting with Bertrand Russell, the famous British philosopher, in
Cambridge that proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. He
1 See “Intellectual autobiography of Seyyed Hossein Nasr”, in The Philosophy of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, (edited by Lewis Hahn et. al.) Library of Living Philosophers, Open Court, 2001, pp.
1-85.
asserted that in fact physics deals only with pointer readings and mathematical structures and not with the nature of physical reality itself in the ontological sense.
After that encounter I decided to leave the field of science once and for
all. But I decided to complete my degree before making a change. I remained therefore in the field of the sciences for a few more years, completing my
bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics at M.I.T. and my master’s
degree in geology and geophysics at Harvard. Meanwhile I was studying philosophy and the history of science parallel with my scientific studies and finally turned to them for my doctoral work. This whole experience of modern science and especially the positivistic philosophy of science being then propagated as well as the whole agnostic and to some extent atheistic climate in which I was studying provided a major challenge to my theocentric worldview. But being the type of person that I was, I could not leave any form of knowledge presented to me alone but had to study and seek its meaning and examine its claims.
For many years starting with my M.I.T. days I studied Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel and other Western philosophers up to those of the contemporary period including Whitehead. Of course the immersion in the world of doubt cultivated by the mainstream of post-medieval European philosophy shook the framework of my intellectual world but it did not affect my faith in God nor that inner and intimate relationship with the Divine that I had experienced since childhood. Nevertheless, it created a major crisis within my mind and soul. I am in fact one of the first orientals to have faced such a crisis fully without succumbing to the tenets of modernism. My response, after some period of anguish, meditation, study and introspection, was in fact the total rejection of the whole adventure of Renaissance humanism and Enlightenment rationalism, in other words the very foundations of modernism. Since then my intellectual life has been dedicated to providing answers on the basis of traditional teachings, especially but not exclusively those of Islam, to the challenges posed by modernism and queries which arise from its rejection. I have sought to discuss the consequence of severing the link between reason and intellect in the sense used by a St. Thomas and the reduction of the latter to the former. I have dealt extensively with the consequences of the anthropomorphism
prevalent in the West which absolutizes the terrestrial human state and makes
earthly man “the measure of all things”. In this sense modern science is of
course completely anthropomorphic since it is based solely on the human senses and human reason no matter how much it seeks to exclude man from a cosmology limited to the physical realm but extended to vast expanses of space and time.
At the moment of intellectual crisis when I was reading avidly Western philosophical works and also looking anywhere that I could for intellectual guidance which could re-establish for me the certitude upon which my whole outlook was based until my M.I.T. years, I discovered the works of the authors who are called the traditionalists or expositors of primordial wisdom and the perennial philosophy, foremost among them René Guénon, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy and Frithjof Schuon. These authors opened many doors for me and provided the crucial knowledge based on certainty which I was seeking. They also provided the in-depth criticism of the modern world which allowed me to see clearly the nature of that world and to formulate succinctly ideas concerning that world whose meaning had been still ambiguous and tentative in my mind until then. They presented pure metaphysical knowledge to which my mind was drawn like a moth to the candle. And they opened my eyes to the vast world which was both non- Islamic and non-Western, embracing both the Far East and Hindu India.
A. K. Coomaraswamy was perhaps the most outstanding and certainly the most authentic expositor of Hinduism and Buddhism in this country in the first part of the twentieth century. By what would appear as chance I came to meet his widow, he having passes away in 1947 some five years before. This meeting in turn gained for me access to the incomparable Coomaraswamy library in which I spent countless hours for several years reading about various traditions, especially Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism. Although art was not my field, as a result of the influence of the works of Coomaraswamy I took nearly every course on Hindu and Buddhist art at Harvard and met nearly every important person dealing with Oriental religions and art who came to Cambridge such as D.T. Suzuki. These studies and experiences had a great effect in reconfirming on an intellectual plane what I had already intuited as a young man, namely that the splendour of the Face of God is to be found in different religious climes.
Wherever I journeyed intellectually, if I found in that world a philosophy
rooted in the Divine Reality, I felt at home there. I soon came to realize that my spiritual home is wherever the Divine resides no matter in what form It
had manifested Itself or in what language It had said “I”. This realization was
of course related in its intellectual aspect to the discovery of the perennial philosophy or the philosophia perennis which the traditional authors expounded and which became and remains my philosophical outlook. The perennial philosophy is based on a set of universal truths which its followers believe to lie at the heart of all authentic religions and traditional philosophies. One might in fact assert that there is but a single Truth spoken in different languages which constitute the various worlds of sacred form. Moreover, this oneness does not at all overlook differences on the formal plane nor the preciousness of each sacred form despite its difference from other forms. The perennial philosophy sees unity on the level of inner or transcendent reality and not on the formal plane nor does it ever confuse unity with uniformity. This discourse is of course not on comparative religion but on God. Nevertheless, it is necessary to point to this central issue because in the contemporary world others’ views of God can and often do affect our own views.
It was also during my years of formal university education that I embarked upon the spiritual path within the Sufi tradition. This is a matter about which I prefer not to speak publicly but for the sake of honesty it needs to be at least mentioned especially since the Sufi path has determined the conditions and provided the light and guidance for my life long quest for spiritual realization. Since my twenties, at the heart of my life has stood the quest for God and that quest has remained central throughout all my other activities from teaching and writings to founding or running academic, cultural and educational institutions. What I have to say about God is the fruit of not only the studies and the experiences briefly outlined, but above all of marching upon the Path which leads to Him. The result of following the Path is of course dependent not only on the efforts of the traveller upon the Path, but above all on Divine Grace and affirmation.
There is a well-known Taoist saying according to which, “Those who
know do not speak and those who speak do not know”. This saying refers
not only to the ineffable nature of veritable esoterism about which the sage
must keep silent, keeping his mouth shut which is what the root of the world mysticism precisely signifies. But it also refers to the ineffability of the supreme knowledge of God to which others in this conference have also referred. All that we can say about God is little in relation to what cannot be uttered about Him because certain truths cannot be contained in human language and can be transmitted only by either symbols or through silence itself combined with what the Sufis call indication or ish«rah. The most eloquent discourse on God leads ultimately to silence and the silent and yet so eloquent Divine Presence is itself the most powerful means of conveying the reality of God.
Since several participants of this conference have taken recourse in the ancient art of story telling, it is perhaps not inappropriate to recount here a personal story that concerns very much the issue at hand. In 1971 when I was living in Iran, I made a journey to southern India, my many earlier trips having been to the north. Since I was going to Madras, I asked for arrangements to be made for me to meet the Shankaracharya of Kanchipuram, at that time one of the supreme spiritual figures of India who was in the direct lineage of the great Shankara and who resided near Madras. He was a venerable sage who moved about with a large retinue like a king but who lived at the same time in extreme simplicity. On the day of the appointment I was driven to Kanchi and taken to a wonderful orchard in the middle of which they had placed a beautiful carpet for me to sit on. Wearing traditional Islamic dress, I sat cross-legged on the carpet awaiting the coming of the great Hindu master. After a few minutes he entered the orchard holding the staff of a sanny«sin. He came to within some ten yards of me and then squatted on the ground without his staff touching the earth. He had a disciple with him who greeted me on behalf of the master who, according to him, was observing a fast of silence. Being an untouchable from the point of view of Hindu law, which I of course honoured greatly, I could not come closer to the Hindu master nor could he to me. And so we looked each other in the eye for several minutes in utter silence. Then he smiled and made some signs with his hands to his disciple who then said to me, “The master says that he wishes to tell his Persian friend (that is, myself), how happy he is that the understanding of the reality of God in Advaita and Sufism is the same.” Here was a discourse on God at the highest level carried out in
silence and also the most profound religious dialogue I have ever carried out
with the representative of another religion although not a single word was exchanged between us.
Those who claim to speak about God must always respect this principial silence, which must even penetrate into our speech. We come from silence and return to it. We are like waves of the sea, which issue from the calm waters of the sea and ultimately return to that infinite calm and quietude. This having been said, it is necessary to state also that it was by the Word that all things were created and that our speech which is a divine gift has the power to express in some ways the highest realities which the heart/intelligence is capable of knowing. The classical theological and philosophical principle of adequation also holds true for language. Human language is capable of expressing truths about the Divine; otherwise there would be no sacred scripture.
With both these principles in mind, namely, the primacy of silence and the power of language to express supernal realities, I wish now to say a few words about God from the metaphysical and spiritual points of view especially in the context of my own tradition which is Islam and as I have learned through both personal spiritual experience and the study of works pertaining to metaphysics and theology from not only Islam but many different religious climes. Furthermore, it needs to be emphasized that the experience by various humanities of the Divine Reality is not tainted by time but transcends temporarily. It is therefore a living reality today as it was yesterday and is the heritage of all humanity, of all human beings beckoned to the call of the Spirit, to whichever branch of the human family they might belong.
Let me begin with the basic distinction made in Islam between three modes as well as stages of approach to God, namely, fear, love and knowledge of Him. Man’s relation to God falls under these categories and they also constitute the stages that the person on the spiritual path must traverse to reach the supreme goal of Divine Proximity. There is in fact an aspect of simultaneity as well as temporal success in the spiritual life of the individual as far as the three great stations of fear, love and knowledge are concerned to which classical Islamic texts refer as al-makh«fah, al-maÁabbah and al-ma‘rifah. There is something in man that must fear God, but the fear of
God is not the same negative emotion as the fear of His creatures. As the
famous Islamic theologian and Sufi al-Ghazz«lâ has said, when man fears one of God’s creatures, he runs away from it but when man fears God he runs towards Him. It is this reverential fear that is essential to the spiritual life and
which is mentioned so often in the Bible and the Qur’an. The saying of St. Paul, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” has its exact Islamic
equivalence. Our egos must shrivel before the Divine Majesty and something
in us must contract and die before we can expand spiritually speaking. It is
this fear of God’s Majesty that expresses itself in religion as service to God,
and the performance of actions pleasing to Him. It is in fact because service is related to the plane of action that it can be associated with the station of reverential fear.
The attitude of service in this sense is closely related to that of surrender. God has given us free will and surrender means to submit our will to His freely and not by coercion, a surrender which is so difficult and yet when one succeeds so sweet. There is a moment when we will all have to surrender to
God and that is the moment of death which is beyond our will. Blessed is the person who can experience that moment now through the exercise of his free will rather than by necessity. This is the secret of the saying of the
Prophet of Islam, “Die before your die” to which the Sufis adds, “so that you
will not die when the moment of ordinary death arrives”. It is interesting to note that the same idea and in practically the same words is expressed by the German mystical poet Angelus Silesius whom some authorities such as A. M. Schimmel believe to have been influenced by Sufism. The dying before one dies refers of course to spiritual or initiatic death based on perfect surrender to the Divine Will, an idea which is to be found also in other mystical
traditions such as those of Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism and mutatis mutandis even in a non-theistic climate such as that of Buddhism.
To be able to surrender one’s will to God turns even trials and tribulations
of life into sweet victory. It is, however, very difficult to achieve because God has given us freedom and wants us to surrender this will on the basis of both fear and love of Him. This existential situation in which we find ourselves demonstrates in fact the grandeur of the human state and the consequence of
our being created in “His image”. We share in some way in both God’s
necessity and freedom and surrender means to give up this relative freedom before that Absolute Necessity which is God.
In Arabic the very word Islam means both surrender and peace which issues from it. All other creatures are in a sense muslim in that they are
surrendered by their nature to Him and cannot rebel because they have no free will. In the context of the Qur’anic revelation, the word isl«m is used not only in the sense of the religion brought by the Prophet and not only the surrender of all creatures to God. It also means surrender to God within any religious context in general. That is why Abraham, the father of Semitic
monotheism, is called specifically Muslim in the Qur’an and in that sense
isl«m is the generic term for all authentic religion whatever its formal structure might be. From another point of view it can be said that there are three levels of meaning to the term muslim: the first refers to all creatures save man which are by nature surrendered to God; the second to those who have accepted the Qur’anic revelation and are called muslim in the ordinary sense of the word; and the third to the saint who is in perfect surrender to God and who is therefore the complement of the cosmic order except that his surrender is conscious and those of other creatures by nature and constraint. Surrender for man is so significant precisely because of the gift of free will which is also the element within the soul which makes possible the committing of acts of evil as well as acts of goodness.
The surrender to God is of course also related to love which follows the fear of God and is along with knowledge the grand path for spiritual realization. Many Western authors have written over the centuries that Islam is based only on the conception of God as judge and is deprived of the understanding of the love of God. That is one of the reasons why in the past so many in the West who studied Sufism and saw therein the great emphasis upon the love of God concluded that Sufism must have come from a non- Islamic source. They had perhaps forgotten that one of God’s ninety-nine sacred Names is, as already mentioned, al-Wudëd meaning Love. The Prophet of Islam was also called Àabâb meaning lover and Sufi poets such as Rëmâ and À«fiï often refer to God as the Beloved. Moreover, a saint in Islam is called wali Allah, literally the friend of God or sometimes ‘«shiq meaning lover of God. All of these terms are common in everyday Islamic parlance.
In any case in Islamic spirituality there is no possibility of the love of God without the realization of His Majesty and transcendence and without the fear and surrender which that Transcendent and Majestic Reality requires of
us. The love of God must be such that all other love is dissolved in it. The spiritual person cannot love anything outside of Divine Love and all love for him or her is a reflection of that ultimate Love. In fact ultimately all love is
God’s Love for His own theophany within us and within His creation. We
are but the channels for that greatest love which is that of God for that which ultimately is nothing but Himself.
Finally, there is the knowledge of God which is existentially based on both fear and love of Him although not dependent in its essence upon them. For a person to know God in a realized sense requires his possession of the attitude of both fear and love combined with faith (âm«n), while principial knowledge in itself depends from the human side on the heart/intellect alone, the heart which is the instrument of noesis or intellection, in its original sense, of the divine realities. Needless to say, the light and grace emanating from the Divine and faith from the human side are also absolutely necessary for the attainment of realized knowledge. Unfortunately in contemporary language knowledge has become equated with only the conceptual, rational and empirical and is depleted of its sacred nature so that many are ambivalent as to its usage in relation to God. My series of Gifford Lectures, Knowledge and the Sacred, was in fact devoted to the question of the resacralization of knowledge in the context of the contemporary West. In Islam, as in nearly all other traditions, the acquiring of knowledge is itself a sacred activity and knowledge is inseparable from the sacred. To know is ultimately to know God. The ground of the intellect is the Divine and so is its ultimate goal. We can know nothing in essence without knowing the Divine Reality manifested in it and traditionally speaking all authentic knowledge leads to the knowledge of the One, the end of all knowledge. This kind of knowledge is not conceptual knowledge but what Islamic philosophers call knowledge by presence. It is not rationalistic knowledge although reason itself is a ray of the Divine Intellect. It is ultimately knowledge by means of the divine spark within us, a spark which itself issues from the Divine Light. As in the case of love so in the case of knowledge, and even more so, knowledge of God is in the deepest sense the knowledge by God of Himself through us in whose heart He has placed the light of the Divine Intellect. That is why in Islam the
“knower of God” or the gnostic in its original sense is called al-‘«rif bi ’Llah, the knower by God.
Before the secularisation of knowledge in the West during the Renaissance and the 17th century and in fact before the rise of nominalism in the late Middle Ages, which marked the swan song of medieval Christian philosophy, such a view was also held by the sapiential Christian mystics. With Descartes knowledge became bound to the radical separation of subject and object or bifurcation and the desacralization of both poles involved in the act of knowing. Today in the West, whether one speaks of philosophy, science, anthropology or even much of theology, one operates, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, within the framework of Cartesian bifurcation and therefore in the context of a desacralized conception of knowledge. But it is not this kind of knowledge of which I speak when addressing the question of the knowledge of God. Principial knowledge transcends miraculously the dichotomy of subject and object. This kind of knowledge is based on the unity of knowledge and being, of the ultimately sacred subject and the ultimately sacred object. This unity is impossible to reach through mere conceptualisation which is based by definition on the imposition of the mental concept between the knower and the known.
The hierarchy of fear and service, or action, love and knowledge of a metaphysical nature leads to vision of the Divine Reality and makes possible assertions about God which are non-temporal and are as true in the year 2000 as they were in 1000 and will be so a millennium from now. The first assertion that can be made on the basis of realization of the Divine is that the Ultimate Reality or God is one. This truth emphasized so much by Judaism and Islam may appear to some to be a pleonasm, an obvious fact not in need of being emphasized over and over again. But this assertion is more profound than simply the statement of there being only one Judge sitting on His Throne in Heaven rather than two. Such a meaning is of course there and is on its own level very important. It can prevent many a simple soul from falling in error. But there are many more profound levels of inner meaning involved in such a confirmation. Let us remember that oneness implies also integration. The word tawÁâd or oneness/unity which is the alpha and omega of Islam means at once the state of being one, with all the metaphysical meanings that it has above and beyond the numerical
significances of oneness and the act of making into one or integration. The
statement about the oneness of God is not only about Him. It is also about the inter-relation of all things and the integration of all things including
ourselves into the Centre where the One “resides”. Without the oneness of
the Origin of creation, there would not exist that inner sympatheia between all things, that inner bond which binds us not only to God but also by virtue of that relationship to each other and to all of creation. That there is a universe is the result of the oneness of the Divine Principle while all harmony in the universe in all its different levels is nothing but the reflection of unity in the domain of multiplicity. The oneness of God also means ultimately that there is but one Being and that all existence issues forth from that original source.
The implication of God’s oneness is also that we also have to be one.
Fallen man, removed from that primordial norm in which God created him, is like a house divided unto itself and as Christ has said such a house cannot stand. We usually do not act from a single centre nor are our minds in a state of concentration. Rather than being mindful and concentrated, we are usually mentally scattered while our emotions pull us in different directions and our actions are not based on harmony. When we attest to the oneness of God, we do not immediately gain knowledge of what that oneness means, that tawÁâd whose highest meaning is known to God alone. But we do realize that we must lead an integrated life rooted in a divine norm that makes possible the integration of our whole being including our thought, emotions and actions. This is the first major consequence of tawÁâd. The second is the realization of unity within all of creation and awareness of the interrelatedness of all that exists from the lowly dust to the highest stars in heaven. The third and highest is to realize that there is ultimately but a single
Reality whose gradations and manifestations constitute the realms of multiplicity.
All traditional cosmologies are based on this principle of interrelation between all things and the dependence of all things on the One, principles that modern Western man has neglected for several centuries and now only speaks of wholeness and integration because of the environmental catastrophes brought about thanks to the segmented view of reality that has been dominant in the West since the Renaissance. Here in Oregon with its magnificent trees, the debate that goes on about cutting or preserving forests
is there precisely because for some forty thousand years before the coming of the white man, Native Americans lived in these forests on the basis of a religion and worldview which emphasized in the strongest terms the link between all beings and the sacred quality of nature. Had the cosmology based on the interrelation of all things not existed among them, the trees would have been cut long ago and there would not even be a problem to debate today. In recent years integral studies and holistic philosophies have become popular in certain circles. Interest in such philosophies is in fact due to the need to rediscover that forgotten unity encompassing all creatures, the unity that flows from what Islam calls tawÁâd, the principle which it places at the centre of its perspective. This doctrine, far from being a pleonasm, is cardinal in that it determines who we are, where we are, where we are going and what our relation should be to other creatures while on this terrestrial journey. From tawÁâd flow consequences of the utmost importance for all men and women whether of yesterday, today or tomorrow and teachings which are especially pertinent in the present situation in which contemporary humanity finds itself.
Let it also be added here that although some Christian theologians in their defence of the Trinity oppose the Jewish and Islamic emphasis upon Unity and there are Muslims who believe that Christian Trinitarian doctrine is the negation of tawÁâd, if the matter be studied inwardly and in greater depth, one will realize that metaphysically speaking Trinity does not negate Unity. That is why for centuries Catholics have repeated in their formation of the credo the phrase credo in unum deum. Whatever is said of the oneness of the Divine Principle in Islam in fact applies to other traditional and orthodox religions even though some do not emphasize the doctrine of Divine Oneness as much as do Jews and Muslims.
In addition to being one or in Islam the One, al-AÁad, the Divine Reality also possesses other attributes about which one can speak in a positive manner provided the symbolic quality of language—symbol being understood here in its traditional sense and not as sign or metaphor—is preserved and language is not reduced to purely logical and operation definitions as in so much of modern Anglo-Saxon philosophy. First of all God is absolute. This term is of course shunned in all relativistic philosophies which claim that there is no absolute and that everything is
relative except of course the statement made by such relativists which is then taken to be absolute. But such criticisms are irrelevant from the point of view of traditional metaphysics and I continue to use the term absolute according to the teachings of the perennial philosophy to which I adhere philosophically.
The God who spoke to Moses on Mt. Sinai, who addressed Christ in the desert and whom the Prophet of Islam encountered during his nocturnal ascent (al-mi‘r«j) is absolute. Metaphysically absoluteness in this highest sense means that God is completely and totally Himself, excluded all that is other than Him and bears no division within Himself. There is nothing in God that is not completely there in the metaphysical sense. In the non-theistic world of Buddhism this quality of absoluteness corresponds to “suchness”. Moreover, God is also infinite in the sense that all possibility, all that is possible is already contained in the Divine Reality. There is a metaphysical question concerning the relation between potentiality and possibility since both words come from the same Latin root and because God is pure actuality possessing no potentiality whatsoever. Unfortunately, I cannot delve into this question here. For the purpose of the present discussion it is enough to state that while God is pure actuality from the point of view of being, He contains within Himself the root of all things and is the treasury containing all the possibilities which have been or will be manifested in the cosmos, to use the language of Islamic metaphysics. God is infinite and what can be called the All-Possibility. The doctrine of Divine Infinitude is an esoteric one not usually discussed in ordinary theological texts but it certainly exists in Western sources as well especially in the Kabbala and among certain Christian mystics. And finally God is the Perfect Good, as Plato would say, tó Agathon, or Perfection (kam«l) as mentioned in so many Islamic sources. To know God is to know that He is absolute, infinite and the perfect good, to use the formulation which goes back to Frithjof Schuon. From this principial knowledge flow many tributaries which water the garden of human existence and provide the most profound meaning for various aspects of human life and thought.
The first consequence of this knowledge is the realization that the distinctions between genders far from being accidental have their roots in the Divine Reality Itself. The duality which manifests itself in the masculine and
the feminine in the human, animal and vegetative life and in other ways in the non-animate world, including for example polarity in magnetism or positive and negative charges in electricity, has its roots in the Divine Nature. The masculine has its source in the Divine as absolute and the feminine in the Divine as infinite which is also the interior and inward aspect of the Divinity. It is interesting to note that in Islam while God as the creator and revealer is seen to have a masculine character, the non-manifesting aspect of the Divinity is seen as having a feminine character, the Divine Essence Itself in Arabic being al-Dh«t which is grammatically feminine. Also while the masculine aspect of the Divinity is associated with justice, rigor and majesty related to the Divine Name al-Jal«l or Majesty, the feminine aspect is associated with mercy and generosity and is related to the Divine Name al- Jam«l or Beauty. The name for Divine Mercy Itself al-RaÁmah is in feminine
form and since Arabic is a language in which gender is clearly defined in both nouns and verbs, it is easy to see in the Qur’anic description of God at once the masculine and feminine dimensions of the Divinity as well as the reality
that the message of the Qur’an is addressed to both sexes and concerns them
equally.
The absoluteness and infinitude of God also means that on the one hand God excludes all otherness, all relativity, all becoming and that on the other hand all creation is an externalisation of realities whose metaphysical roots are in God. Creation is in the deepest sense the self-determination and self- manifestation of God. Man should therefore live in such a way that he could at the same time be constantly aware of the reality of God as the Absolute and of the evanescence and evaporation of all existence before that immutable Reality and be conscious of the truth that all things, to the degree that they exist, issue from Him and have their roots sunk in the Infinite. In fact while God is absolutely beyond, all things are mysteriously plunged in God.
As for perfection and goodness, Islam shares with Christianity and Judaism the cardinal idea that goodness in itself belongs to God alone and that all good comes from God. Only the Good, that is God, is absolute goodness for as Christ said, “only my Father in Heaven is good”. This also explains why there is evil in the world. Since the world is not God, it cannot be absolutely good and this absence of goodness is what appears in the world
of relativity as evil. Evil is the consequence of the existential separation from the source of all good, that is, the Good as such. As for why there should even be a world, the answer lies in the infinitude of the Divine Nature which by virtue of its infinity had to include all possibilities including the possibility of the negation of itself which is the world. Evil is the moral aspect of that separation from the Source which the world is by its nature. As Dante expressed it so beautifully in the Divine Comedy, evil is separation from God and the pain of hell is precisely the awareness of this separation from the source of all beauty and goodness.
The attainment of sapience or gnosis (ma‘rifah) also makes it possible to realize that God is at once transcendent and immanent, totally other and completely here. In the practical life of the spiritual seeker, there is a pendular motion between the consciousness of these two relations which are ultimately one. It is important to emphasize, however, in the context of the modern world in which so many seek the Divinity as immanent while rejecting the Transcendent, that there is no possibility of experiencing the Immanent before surrendering oneself totally to the Transcendent. The attempt to reach the Divine within without recourse to the Transcendent is one of the gravest errors of our times. Some think that they can reject traditional religions but through some self-realization centre become another St. Francis and see God everywhere. What a delusion to look for the sun in
the bottom of a well. One must first cast one’s eyes to the heavens to behold
the sun or at least to accept its reality and presence before being able to contemplate its reflection upon a lake. One must realize, to use the language
of the Qur’an, that “there is nothing like unto Him” and that “His is greater”
than anything that can be said about Him before being able to realize that he
is near to man than his jugular vein. The life of the spiritual person is governed by the rhythm and pulse alternating between farness and nearness, transcendence and immanence but the metaphysical doctrine concerning God must of necessity include both dimensions.
In Islam it is not God who is veiled from us. It is we who are veiled from Him. In a sense it is not God who is the mystery; it is we. If we could only lift the veil over our eyes and realize who we are, we would realize God. That
is why the Prophet said, “He who knoweth himself knoweth His Lord.”
There are many Arabic and Persian poems rhapsodising about the mystery
that while God is so close to us, we are so veiled and distant from Him. In the deepest sense we are veiled from God precisely because of His proximity to us. Since He is everywhere, we cannot perceive His Presence. If it were theoretically possible for Him to be separated from the reality we experience, we would realize that separation and absence. But until we have opened our spiritual eye, it is that ubiquitous Presence that we interpret blindly as
“ordinary” existence equated by us with the absence of God.
Also God is at once personal and impersonal. Some Muslims do not wish to translate Allah as God for many reasons including Trinitarian associations with the term God used in ordinary English. But I am not one of them, for there is nothing essentially privative in the term God or for that matter Dieu in French or Gott in German if we remember its most universal and all embracing meaning which includes what a Meister Eckhart would call the Gottheit or the Godhead. In its most universal sense the term God in English is not bound completely to a Trinitarian relationship as seen specifically in Christian theology nor limited only to His personal aspect. God is both personal and impersonal as the Name All«h signifies in Arabic. God has a Face turned towards us and His creation but that does not exhaust the Divine Reality. God loves His creation and we are able to address Him in our prayers, but He can also be contemplated as an infinitely extended placid sea upon which we fall gently as snowflakes, dissolving in that calm and peaceful water. God is Thou whom we address in our I-ness, but He is also the Infinite Reality beyond all duality, impersonal while possessing the Face turned toward His creation which we experience as the Divine Personal Reality.
Herein also lies the meeting point between the monotheistic conceptions of God and the non-personal and non-theistic conception of the Divinity in such religions as Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, not to speak of Shintoism and the primal religions. In these religions there is certainly the sense of the Sacred, the possibility of spiritual realization, religious ethics and even prayer but all within the context of the impersonal conception of the Divine. The Buddha nature, just to speak of Buddhism, or the state of nirv«na is the realization of the subject pole of the impersonal Divinity. To understand God as the personal as well as the impersonal is to reach a knowledge of the Divinity which is all embracing and which includes all
different metaphysical and spiritual possibilities. To consider not only the
Face of God, to use the Qur’anic terminology, but also the infinite reality of
the Divine beyond the realm of being and existentiation is to take nothing away from the Glory of God. On the contrary it is to attest to the fullness of His majestic Reality.
In speaking of the knowledge of God, it is necessary to emphasize in the face of the scepticism and the secularisation of knowledge characteristic of the modern world, what is taken for granted in all traditional civilizations, namely that there is such as thing as the science of God which is in fact the supreme science. The meaning of the term theology which meant originally such a science has become so diluted in the West today that it is necessary to use another terminology to designate this highest of all sciences. I have tried to resuscitate the term scientia sacra in its Latin form in order to avoid the limitative connotations associated with the term science especially in the English language as it is used today. I have even written a book entitled The Need for a Sacred Science with the aim of creating a consciousness of the importance of sacred science whose highest form is precisely scientia sacra, the science of God or the Ultimate Reality.
Since the Renaissance, metaphysics in its authentic sense became more or less forgotten and soon relegated to a branch of rationalistic philosophy while gnosis, has continued to possess a negative connotation at least in the Western Christian milieu as a result of its association with the historic Christian heresy of Gnosticism, in contrast to Eastern Christianity where it remains a perfectly respectable and in fact central reality. A number of Catholic theologians such as de Lubac and von Baltazar have tried to resuscitate its positive meaning but the general anathema cast against it continues in many circles. That is why while using both the terms metaphysics and gnosis in their original meaning, I find it necessary also to emphasize the term scientia sacra. In every integral traditional civilization there is something that corresponds to philosophy, something to theology and something to what one can call metaphysics in its authentic sense or gnosis or theosophy. For example, in Islam one can observe clearly the presence of the schools of falsafah (philosophy), kal«m (theology) and ma‘rifah/‘irf«n (gnosis). The latter category has been forgotten or at least eclipsed in the
West and it is precisely this category that concerns the science of God and what can be called scientia sacra.
In trying to approach God at the beginning of this new millennium it is this scientia sacra that must be taken seriously once again and it is knowledge that has to be re-sacralized. If this science of the Real were to be taken seriously and placed at the centre of our intellectual concerns, it would affect all realms of knowledge and how knowledge is envisaged and its formal teaching carried out in academic settings. Until that takes place, it is necessary to swim against the current and to point out to the reality of this supreme science which, when realized fully, transforms us completely and leads to our spiritual salvation and freedom from the bondage of ignorance.
Since we live in the world of change, it is also necessary to say something about the relation between God and the world of change and temporality. Now, the spiritual person in quest of God today is not usually interested in developing a philosophy of history of Hegel. Nevertheless, as a result of the historicism developed in the 18th and especially the 19th centuries in Europe and still dominating the current worldview of the West, many people with the urge to follow the path leading to God are confused between the manifestations of God in the spacio-termporal domain of reality and the Divine Reality Itself which transcends all becoming. God, while being immutable, is also the source of all that changes but the Divine Reality cannot be imprisoned in time. There is the tendency in the modern world to reduce everything to the historical and to reject as unreal everything which cannot be proven historically as this term is usually understood and on the basis of data of often limited nature. This view of things constituted the philosophical position called historicism which is a most dangerous intellectual perversion and which has done the greatest harm to religion in modern times. One can accept the significance of history without falling into the trap of historicism. That is why in fact I use when necessary the term historial as distinct from historical.
To accept historicism, either consciously or unconsciously, is to negate the permanent in favour of the transient as we see in this day and age when the transient has come to constitute practically the only reality which then seeks to replace the permanent in our mind and thought. Many today in fact
worship “the times” as a divinity even if they are not aware of it. Already the 70’s are for many like the Pharonic period. Our present moment in history is alone significant, but paradoxically our insistence on an extreme form of historicism has led to the destruction of history itself. Post-modern man has
come to “absolutize the transient”. We have come to take “our times” too
seriously, losing our vision of the timeless and also the significance of our sacred history in which timeless values were manifested in the world of transience and impermanence. This attitude is a truly demonic perversion of the Sufi idea of being “the son of the moment” (ibn al-waqt), that is, living in the now which is the sole gate of access to the Eternal. The serious quest for God means taking a step away from this position which is based on a one- dimensional vision of reality. We must be able to remove ourselves from the stream of mere change and becoming in order to be able to gain a vision of the Immutable and the Eternal in Itself and also to be able to contemplate the immutable archetypal realities in the world of becoming.
Even in traditional societies this need was present and was fulfilled in different ways in various religions such as monasticism in Christianity and Buddhism, becoming a person outside of a caste or a sanny«sin in Hinduism,
or withdrawing inwardly from the world while living in it as in Sufism and Jewish mysticism, that is in religions which do not accept the formal
institution of monasticism. How much more is that true for today’s world
when the world of transience has become so emptied of the sacred!
To come back to the question of the relation between God and the world of manifestation and our approach as beings living in time towards God, we must remember that we begin our journey as creatures possessing consciousness of things, objects, people, colours, forms, etc. around us, immersed as we are in multiplicity. Spiritual growth means usually the step- by-step realization that all things come from God and return to God and that
all things manifest some aspect of the Divine Reality. I say “usually” because
there are exceptional cases where by the Will of Heaven all of these truths are realized instantly as if one were struck by lightening. The realized sage sees God everywhere and everything for him or her is a symbol of a higher reality. Such a person realizes that not only sacred scriptures but also nature is a
divine revelation, in fact God’s primordial revelation about which the Qur’an
speaks so often. If one understands the Book of Genesis according to its
inspired traditional commentaries, it points to the same truth. God not only
revealed the Decalogue to Moses and the Qur’an to the Prophet, but He also revealed nature. In the deepest sense in fact religion is not only for man but
for the whole of creation and as the Qur’an asserts, everything and not only
man prays and praises God. If we only had eyes we could detect the message
of God upon the face of all things. According to a Áadâth (tradition) of the Prophet, “God has written the mark of beauty upon all things”. This saying
is particularly important for the understanding of Islamic art but it also pertains to the whole of cosmic reality. If we cannot see the marks of beauty on the face of creatures, it is because our eyes have lost their original power of vision which Adam, the primordial man, possessed in paradise.
To see the manifestations of God everywhere imposes upon us two duties which are of particular significance in this day and age: the first to see the reality of God in religions other than our own and the second to be fully aware of the manifestations of God’s wisdom, power and presence in the world of nature.
For millennia, human beings lived in a homogeneous religious world of their own and did not have to delve into the reality of other religions although there were some exceptions such as the meeting of Islam and Hinduism in India or Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Muslim Spain, but even in these cases the truly spirited contacts and exchanges were between the few who belonged to the inner dimensions of their own tradition. In fact ordinary human beings are in fact created to live within a single religion in
the same way that they are conscious of living within a single solar system although there are other suns in the firmament. To live any traditional and divinely inspired religion fully is to have lived religion as such. The destruction of the homogeneity of the religious ambience by modernism, has, however, created a new situation for those affected by the secularising forces of the modern world and yet seeking religious truth. Usually a medieval Christian or Muslim did not have to be existentially concerned with the
“other” even if the “other” lived next door. And a Christian woman before
modern times would not most likely have become influenced by what went on in Benares even is she travelled there as the young girl from Montana,
that is Diana Eck, who is now professor of Hinduism at Harvard and has
written with empathy about that religion, was when she went to study religion in that holy city.
This new spiritual and psychological reality imposed by the advent of modernism is one with which we now have to contend especially in the more modernized regions of the world. The challenge of penetrating seriously into
other religious worlds religiously—and not as a philologist, anthropologist or historian—is in fact the most exciting intellectual challenge of today if this task be taken seriously and without loss of one’s religious moorings. It is in
fact “the only new thing under the sun” although on a limited and also more
esoteric level, it has had its historical precedence. To accept and respond to
this challenge is to become aware of the ubiquitous nature of God’s Presence. It is to be able to see the other “Faces of God” which He has
turned to human collectivities other than our own, thereby enabling each religious society to provide the means for its members to realize the goal, the telos, for which man was created.
As for our second duty and responsibility, it is to become fully aware of the presence of God in His non-human creation, of the sacred quality of nature. Anyone fully aware of the present state of affairs knows that if we do not change our current attitudes towards the natural world radically, nothing else in this world will matter in the long run because we will not be around much longer to concern ourselves with any issue. The environmental crisis cannot be solved by means of cosmetic actions. It requires a profound
transformation of modern man’s understanding of who he is what the world
of nature is, and what rights we have over nature. It makes all the difference in the world whether we see the majestic redwoods of the state or for that matter the still pristine forests of the Amazon or Borneo as sacred trusts which one must protect or simply as mere commodities from which we can benefit economically as so many in America and Europe come to consider nature and now thanks to the globalisation of secularism and consumerism more and more people do so in the rest of the world. To look upon the natural world and its riches as only economic resources is nothing but the formula for gradual suicide. One can in fact say that during this new century either modern economics will have to be re-interpreted within the matrix of
ethics and environmental considerations or we will perish as a species.
Why have we come to such an unprecedented impasse? There are of course many secondary reasons, but the primary reason is that modern man has cut off the Hands of God from nature, creating a science from which the Divine Presence in nature is excluded. There are of course human beings in the modernized world who still believe in God but for the majority of them,
their vision includes only God’s relation to humanity and excludes other creatures. But God is not only “our” God or at best the God of the whole of
humanity. He is God for the whole of creation. The molluscs crawling on the sea, the birds flying in the air and the smallest fish swimming in the water are
also God’s creatures. By what right then do we decimate and annihilate
species every day?
The knowledge of God means an awareness of His Presence in nature and brings about the awe and respect which we must exercise towards this Presence. When St. Francis, now chosen as the patron saint of ecology, lived in Tuscany, he loved the birds and trees of his homeland while the beautiful countryside of Tuscany was not in danger of destruction. Therefore when he
addressed the world of nature, he did not have to apply his love and knowledge of the Sacred Presence in creation to the formulation of a living theology and philosophy of nature according to which human beings should live. Today, however, anyone who speaks of God and at the same time has
concern for humanity must also address himself to God’s creation and the
necessity to protect nature not on the basis of mere sentimentality but on the
firm ground of the knowledge of God in both Himself and His manifestations. This principial knowledge is not only the supreme goal of life but on the plane of outward application is extremely crucial to our very survival as human beings. We need to articulate a metaphysics of nature which must become the framework and guide for our attitudes and actions towards other creatures.
The goal of approaching God is to be illuminated by the light of that Sun which both illuminates and enlivens, which is the source of both that light which is liberating knowledge and that warmth which is the love that flows in the arteries of the universe and gives live to all things. It is furthermore, to see the Divine Presence everywhere and to hear the voice of the sacred not only in the B Minor Mass of Bach which I am sure many in the audience
have experienced, but also in the song of birds, the chant of the whales and the thunderous sound of storms.
At the highest level to know God means to realize that only God is. The testimony of faith in Islam is L« il«ha illa ’Ll«h, meaning that there is no divinity but God. Each person understands this sacred assertion according to the level of his or her awareness and comprehension. But on the highest level it means that there is no reality but the Divine Reality. At the end of the road one realizes that we are not, the world is not, only God is and other things are nothing but the manifestations of this one eternal Reality.
There is a verse of the Qur’an (LVII; 3) which states, “He [God] is the First and the Last, the Outward and the Inward.” This outwardly enigmatic
statement summarizes the whole truth about God and our relation to Him if we understand its meaning according to the inspired traditional commentaries. God is the First, or the alpha, which means that God is the Origin of all things and it is from Him that we have issued. God is also the Last, or the omega, and so He is our final end and not only we human beings but all creatures return to Him. Whether we like it or not, we must return to God. Our choice based on free will is how and in what condition we make this return journey. Jal«l al-Dân Rëmâ says that since we have to make this journey of return, why not walk upon the path of God with a smile and in submission to Him through the exercise of our free will rather than being
pulled on the path by our hair while we kick and scream. In any case, the Divine Name, the Last, means that whether we like it or not our return is to God.
God is the Inward, the inner dimension from which all that is external issues forth. The spiritual life is in fact nothing other than the life of inwardness. The person who lives in the inward dimension of his being is also able to see all things with the eye of inwardness and therefore see the inner, spiritual face of things rather than only their outward form. What is most difficult to understand in this verse is, however, the assertion that God is also the Outward. This truth is in fact the most difficult to realize because one can ask if God is the Outward why then do we not see Him with the outward eye in the same way that we see each other. The truth of the matter, however, is that God is the light with which we see all things. How can we
then ever expect to see with the eye the light which is itself the source of our vision? God as the Outward is everywhere but it needs the opening of the
inner eye or the “eye of the heart”, as the Sufis would say, to perceive this
We live in a world bound by these four essential Divine Attributes. We come from God; we return to God; God resides inwardly at the centre of our being; and the world itself is nothing but levels of Divine Presence which, however, is not perceivable as such save with the eye of inwardness. Happy is the person who before he is forced to open his eyes at the moment of death realizes this truth while in this life and with full possession of the gift of free
will. Such a person will not but seek to serve, to love and to know God and through the realization thus gained be a true light to the world of service to
both human beings and God’s other creatures, lover of the good and the beautiful and of all of God’s creation and locus of that unitive and
illuminative knowledge of God which is the ultimate purpose of creation and the fountainhead of all wisdom.
THE EAGLE IN IQBAL’S POETRY
Mustansir Mir
The most significant and certainly the best known, image in Iqbal’s poetry is that of the eagle. “Live in the world like an eagle, and like an eagle die,” says Iqbal (Javâd N«mah, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Persian [Iqbal Academy Pakistan, 1994], 654/182). An understanding of the eagle motif in Iqbal’s poetry thus becomes essential to understand Iqbal’s thought and message.
Two points should be made at the outset. First, Iqbal’s eagle is a construct. It would be a mistake to analyse Iqbal’s descriptions of the eagle
with a view to determining how accurate they are from an ornithological
standpoint. Second, we shall often be using the word “eagle” for the various
names, Iqbal uses for the bird: sh«hân, ‘uq«b, b«z, shahb«z. Metrical constraints often determine which word will be used in a given place, but otherwise, too,
Iqbal seems to be using these words interchangeably (see, for example, “Advice,” in B«l-i Jibrâl, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Urdu [Iqbal Academy Pakistan,
1994], 448/124, and “The Eagle,” Ibid., 495/171; see also ibid., 355). The
interchangeable use makes sense because it enables Iqbal to borrow traits
from the several members of the same family and produce a composite, but
unified, portrait that will serve Iqbal’s particular purposes.
The two points can be illustrated by means of the following examples. Iqbal says that the fiercely proud eagle disdains to eat dead prey and eats only the prey it itself has caught live (B«l-i Jibrâl, 372/48, Pay«m-i Mashriq, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Persian, 343/167). One might object that this description fits the hawk but not the eagle. But that would be missing the point. In another place, Iqbal says that the eagle is above making nests (B«l-i Jibrâl, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Urdu, 353/29). This statement, too, is not correct, but it makes good sense in the place where it is made and is in fact defensible in a certain sense (see n. 10 to “The Eagle”). Iqbal uses the eagle to make certain philosophical points, offer observations on aspects of life and exhort, motivate his audience to action. To this end he invests his eagle with certain character
traits for which it would be futile to look for exact correspondences in the animal kingdom. The eagle we are dealing with is the Iqbalian eagle, and it is in terms of the qualities, role, and function Iqbal assigns to the eagle in various contexts that we should view his descriptions of the bird.
1. Iqbal wants Muslims to stop living a life of indolence and accept the challenges of life. Using the garden and the desert as metaphors respectively, for easy and tough life, he tells Muslims to quit the garden, reminding them that they have the power to fly like “the mountain eagle” (B«ng-i Dar«, 300/284; see also Pay«m-i Mashriq, 237/61, first quatrain (no. 150), Zarb-i Kalâm, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Urdu, 691/191, last two lines, and Zabër-i ‘Ajam, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Persian, 405/61). The Muslims are, by origin (aÄl), eagles, but their eyes no longer have the piercing look of an eagle (B«l-i Jibrâl, 407). In a passage in Pas Chi B«yed Kard? (in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Persian, 692/16, last two lines and 694/18, first six lines) Iqbal has this to say on the subject (he is addressing those who advise Muslims to renounce the world):
This world of clay and water is game to the believer.
Are you saying to the falcon, “Let go of your game?”
I have failed to solve this difficult problem:
Why does the eagle shun the skies?
Pity the eagle that does not act like one,
And whose claws never caused hurt to a bird,
An eagle that is nest-bound, abject, crestfallen,
And does not flap its wings in the blue space!
In Iqbal’s view, in fact, the Muslims have acquired the ways of the vulture
(the kargas, with which Iqbal often contrasts the sh«hân, signifies, in Iqbal’s poetry, not so much greed or rapacity, as it would in English, but baseness of
stock, lowness of ambition, and parasitic attitudes), and Iqbal tells them to go back to their roots and become eagles again (Pas Chi B«yed Kard? 809; cf. B«l-i Jibrâl, 408, where Iqbal, alluding to Muslims, remarks that they have been corrupted by their association with ravens, and Zab«r-i ‘Ajam, p. 479, 11. 9-10, which is similar). “You are the eagle of Muhammad,” says Iqbal, addressing the Muslim, “and angels and houris are your prey” (B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 376, 4th quatrain).
In a short piece, “The Philosopher,” (B«l-i Jibrâl, 456) Iqbal points out the limitations of philosophical thought. For all its achievements, philosophy has not yielded definitive and reliable guidance on issues of fundamental importance to man. The philosopher is like a vulture (in the sense just explained) that flies around in space like an eagle, but unlike the eagle, fails to catch live prey (cf., in a similar context, Pay«m-i Mashriq, p. 359: “The wings of a nightingale are of one kind, those of an eagle of another”; and in a slightly different context, Javâd N«mah, 795, where the truly religious are contrasted with the shallow and unscrupulous pretenders to religiosity).
2. What distinguishes the eagle from the other birds is its sharp vision, its ability to soar into the air and rule the skies, its swift movement, its daring and its love of freedom and action. Cultivation of aquiline traits is therefore a requisite for success in life:
If you are bareheaded, develop high resolve,
For here the crown is only for the eagle’s head.
(B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 338)
Slavery turns an eagle into a bat (Zarb-i Kalâm, p. 545; also Pay«m-i Mashriq, p. 323, 11. 3-4), and life denying art has a similar effect-certain kinds of poetry, for instance, turn a free man-an eagle into a slave-a pheasant (Asr«r-i Khudâ, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal: Persian, p. 36; cf. Armagh«n-i Àij«z, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal:
Persian, p. 915, I st quatrain). Freedom, on the other hand, would transform a nightingale into an eagle (Zarb-i Kalâm, p.516; see also Armagh«n-i Àij«z, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal Urdu, p. 679, 11. 5-4), and cf. Pas Chi B«yed Kard? p. 816, 1. 18). In a poem on the Arab poet Abu ’l-‘Al« al-Ma‘arrâ, Iqbal makes the
vegetarian poet say the following on the gift of roast partridge a friend had sent him (B«l-i Jibrâl, pp. 448-449):
Alas! A hundred times alas that you did not become an eagle!
Your eyes failed to catch the hints of nature.
The judge of fate has since eternity decreed:
“The crime of weakness merits instant death.”
The last line is also a neat summation of Iqbal’s understanding of the
workings of history.
3. 1qbal criticizes the teaching institutions of the Muslim world. The teachers, for one thing, have failed to provide the vision and drive the Muslim youth need in order to perform their role with distinction in the world: the teachers “are teaching the eaglets how to play with and roll in dust B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 324; cf. Javâd N«mah, p. 790, last couplet and Zarb-i Kalâm, p. 540, 11. 1-2). Quite naturally, 1qbal sees himself in the role of reminding the eagles—the Muslims—of their roots and their potentialities:
Those who had been prey for long now have a new vision,
For I have divulged the ways of the falcon.
(B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 324; see also Ibid., p. 378, 1 st quatrain, B«ng-i Dar«, p. 269,11. 1-2, and Zabër-i ‘Ajam, p. 496, 11. 21-22)
But if Iqbal has divulged to the community of eagles, or Muslims, the ways of the eagle then Iqbal might be expected to regard himself as an eagle and at least in two places he does so (B«l-i Jibrâl, pp. 350, 352).
4. Occasionally it seems that Iqbal has mentioned the eagle in a negative context. In one poem, for example, God addresses the angels, commanding them to rouse the poor and servile nations of
the world to revolt against their rich and powerful but oppressive overlords, saying:
Heat up the slaves’ blood with ardent conviction:
Set the lowly sparrow against the eagle.
(B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 402; see also Ibid., p. 415, and cf. Armagh«n-i Àij«z, in Kulliy«t-i Iqbal, Urdu, p. 652, II. 11-12, and Armagh«n -i Àij«z, in Kulliy«t-i lqbal: Persian, p. 991, 2nd quatrain)
But this does not necessarily put the eagle in a bad light. Iqbal here uses the sparrow and the eagle as simple metaphors, without necessarily implying any judgement as to their relative worth, just as elsewhere (B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 418) he speaks of the eagle and the pigeon as different but related manifestations of the all-encompassing current of life. In the poem “Conquest of Nature” (Pay«m-i Mashriq) Iblis (Satan) asks Adam to choose a life of action over a life of idle peace. Agitation under the net would, he tells Adam, turn even a dove into an eagle (256), and he exhorts Adam to spread the wings of an eagle and spill the blood of pheasants (257). Again, the eagle here does not stand condemned; a life of action, symbolized by the eagle, is being referred to, only the speaker happens to be Iblis. The following are to be explained similarly: Zabër-i ‘Ajam, 521. 11. 1-2, Javâd N«mah, p. 659, 11. 19-20.
A few remarks about the three poems here translated will be in order, but first a general observation. All three poems are, of course, about the eagle. Iqbal is perhaps the first poet in the Islamic literary tradition—might one say, in the world literary tradition?—to make an elaborate and consistent use of the eagle to symbolize character. 2 The very mention of the world “eagle” in connection with Iqbal’s poetry conjures up a whole set of distinctive physical, moral and behavioural traits with which Iqbal has endowed his eagle. And as far as the literary genre of the ghazal is concerned, Iqbal is certainly the first one to employ it to write about a subject—the eagle—in a way that broadens
2 Rëmâ could, perhaps, be cited as a precursor who had used the symbol of the eagle in a similar, albeit more elevated and profound meaning, for his prophetology. See John Renard, All the King’s Falcons, Albany, 1994; rept. Suhail Academy, Lahore, 2001. (Editor’s Note)
the hitherto narrow channel of the genre, enabling it to accommodate serious philosophical thought and giving it a unity of structure it probably did not have before. The ghazal is, by definition, devoted to the theme of love between man and woman. Although it had occasionally been used before Iqbal to express quasi-philosophical notions, such use had more to do with mood than with thought. The ghazal, that is to say, might reflect a mood, usually sombre and melancholic (another respect in which Iqbal’s ghazal is different), that passed for philosophical seriousness and fanciful musings that passed for weighty thought. Iqbal effectively redefined, at least for his own purposes, the ghazal, using it to treat a variety of serious subjects and his use of the genre to talk about the eagle should be seen in that larger context.
The first poem, “The Eagle,” highlights the “ascetic” and freedom-loving
nature of the eagle. The eagle shuns the pleasurable but enervating life of the garden, preferring the austere but salubrious environment of the desert. The
second poem, “Beyond the Stars” is an exhortation to the eagle to discover new worlds by soaring ever higher. Iqbal’s addressee here is evidently an
eagle that has lost its nest and Iqbal consoles it by saying that there are
realms yet to be explored and conquered. The third poem, “An Eagle’s
Advice to Its Young One,” is the most complete portrait of the Iqbalian
eagle, and deserves special attention from the readers.
THE EAGLE 3
I have turned my back on that world. 4
Where sustenance is called grain and water. 5
THE EAGLE:
3 Source B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 457.
4 world: The word used is kh«kd«n, which, literally, is “rubbish dump.” Although this word is also used in the simple sense of “world,” the sense probably intended here, pejorative connotations are not entirely absent.
5 Where
water: The word used for “sustenance” is rizq. In the Qur’an the word rizq is used
... for ordinary food but also for spiritual and intellectual food. The eagle criticizes the limited definition of rizq—in terms of bread and water alone (cf. the well-known New Testament
I like the solitude of the wilderness-
I was always a hermit by nature-
No spring breeze, no rose-plucker, no nightingale,
And no illness of the songs of love! 6
One must avoid the garden-dwellers 7
Their charms are too seductive! 8
It is the desert wind that gives effect
To the stroke of the brave youth in combat. 9
saying, “Man does not live by bread alone”), and the criticism reflects the Qur’anic view, which Iqbal might consciously be alluding to. In the phrase “grain and water” (idiomatically, “food and water”; original: «b-o-d«nah), “grain” is suggestive: grain is used as bait to catch birds under a net. The eagle is thus expressing disdain for birds that fall for cheap rizq.
spring. . .
love: That is, the wilderness fortunately has no distractions of garden life. The
elements enumerated have double significance. At one level they make up a simple description: the spring breeze blows and the garden is filled with flowers; the flower-plucker comes and robs the garden of its beauty; and the nightingale, pining for the rose, sings its
sorrowful songs. At another level they contain allusions to some of the stock-in-trade of Urdu poetry, which Iqbal generally regarded as decadent and sterile. The phrase bâm«ri-i
naghmah-i ‘«shiq«nah can have three meanings: (1) the illness that characterizes songs of love, (2) the illness songs of love cause in those who listen to them, and (3) the illness that leads one to compose songs of love. While all three meanings may be intended, the last one seems
to be the most relevant. “Illness” here stands for a bad, chronic habit, and “songs of love”
refer to the hackneyed love poems composed by Urdu poets.
7 the garden-dwellers: Those who live comfortable lives, as in populated cities with nice parks and gardens. The line thus alludes to urban life with its amenities, and a contrast with the simple and austere life of the wilderness is intended, the latter being the style of life preferred by the eagle.
seductive! The implication is that these charms are artificial and not natural.
It is not that I am hungry for pigeon and dove-
Renunciation is the mark of an eagle’s life-
To swoop, to withdraw, and to swoop again
Is but a pretext to keep up blood heat.
This cast, this west is the pheasants’ world, 10
Mine is the boundlessness of the blue sky!
I am the monk 11 of the kingdom of birds,
For the eagle is not given to making nests. 12
BEYOND THE STARS 13
There are other worlds beyond the stars;
More tests of love are yet to come.
9 It is
This east
the word here.
permanent home.
B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 353.
combat: Note the almost imperceptible transformation of the eagle into-or rather
identification of the eagle with-the brave youth.
world: Iqbal’s eagle transcends the limitations of the compass points.
monk: The word in the original is dervish, a man who has few needs, is content with what he has and rises above the temptations of the world. “Monk” seems to be closest to the spirit of
nests: This may be interpreted to mean that the eagle does not take any place as its
BEYOND THE STARS:
This vast space is not lifeless-
In it there are hundreds of other caravans.
Do not be content with the world of colour and smell: 15
There are other gardens, and other nests, too.
What is to worry if you have lost one residence?
There are other stations one might sigh and cry for!
You are an eagle; your job is to fly:
You have other skies in front of you.
Do not get lost in this maze of day and night,
There is, for you, another space, another time.
Gone are the days when I was an isolate in the group: 16
Many here now are, confidants of mine. 17
come., The connection with the first line is as follows: There are yet other worlds
you will be required to conquer, and your commitment and devotion-or love, in 1qbal’s terminology-will be put to the test therein.
15 the world of colour and smell: The terrestrial world.
16 group: or “assembly” (original: anjuman).
mine: A personal postscript by Iqbal which does not seem to be integrally related
to the rest of the poem. It should be remembered, however, that this is a ghazal, whose
individual couplets do not necessarily have to treat the same theme. But there may well be a connection: the eagle (and 1qbal may be addressing a typical eagle or one representing a
group) presumably understands 1qbal’s message, which gives 1qbal the assurance that many
now share his ideas.
THE EAGLE’S ADVICE TO ITS YOUNGSTER 18
“You know that all eagles are, of essence, one:
A handful of feathers, they have the heart of a lion.
Be of good nature, and of mature strategy; 19
Be daring, dignified, 20 and a hunter of big game.
Do not mix with partridge, pheasant, and starling 22
Except if you should desire to hunt.
What lowly, fear-stricken group they are
That they wipe their beaks clean with dust! 23
THE EAGLE’S ADVICE TO ITS YOUNGSTER:
18 Pay«m-i Mashriq, pp. 272-273.
19 strategy: I have tried to combine the two principal (and interrelated) meanings of tadbâr, “counsel, opinion” and “management or handling of affairs. Pukhtah tadbâr, the complete phrase used in the original, commonly means “mature, wise counsel.”
20 dignified: Ghayyër, the word used in the original, means: one who is high-minded and jealously guards his honour.
21 a hunter of big game., That is, aim high and do not be content with small achievements. cf. n. 6 below.
22 Do not
starling: Elsewhere Iqbal says that an eagle associating with weaker or smaller
birds will lose its eaglehood, while those other birds will not become eagles. Iqbal is by no means advocating elitism, something he detested and preached against in his prose and
poetry both. He simply wishes the eagle to remain an “authentic” eagle. cf. Zarb-i Kalâm, pp. 550:5-6, where Iqbal says that an eagle cannot serve a pheasant.
The falcon that imitates the ways of its prey
Becomes the prey of its own prey.
Many a hunting bird that descends to earth
Perishes through mixing with pickers of grain. 24
Take care of yourself 25 and live in contentment.
Live the life of one brave, strong, and rugged.
Leave for the quail the soft and delicate body;
Develop a vein tough like the horns of a deer.
Any joy that becomes the lot of the world
Is due to hardship, toil, and fullness of breath.” 26
Well did the eagle speak to its son:
“One drop of blood is better than pure wine. 28
23 That they
dust! The above-named birds are content to derive their sustenance from the
dusty ground. They have, that is to say, no higher goals in life. cf. n. 4 above.
24 pickers of grain: Ordinary birds, like those mentioned in the beginning of the poem.
25 Take care of yourself: The Persian phrase, Nig«h dar khud ra,
moral ring
it,
meaning being: guard your virtues, avoid evil, etc. See the very next line in the text.
26 fullness of breath: Indefatigableness. See also Zarb-i Kalâm, p. 534: 11. 7-8.
27 Well did
son: It is possible that this sentence, too, is part of the advice the eagle is giving.
It is more likely, however, that it is an interjection by the poet, dividing the poem into two
halves, thus necessitating enclosing each half in quotation marks.
Do not, like deer and sheep, seek out company;
Go into seclusion like your ancestors. 29
I remember this of the words of the old falcons:
‘Do not make your nest on the branch of a tree.’
We do not make nests in garden or field,
For we have a paradise in mountains and deserts.
To pick up grain from the ground is an error,
For God has given us the vastness of the skies.
One of noble stock, if he scrapes his feet on the ground,
Becomes more despicable than a house bird.
For falcons the rock is a carpet
Walking on rocks sharpens the claws.
You are one of the yellow-eyed of the desert, 30
You are noble of nature like the sâmurgh. 31
28 wine., The blood of a bird will keep you fit and strong, but wine will make you
effete.
ancestors: Do not cultivate the herd instinct, but learn to withdraw into your own
self, as did your ancestors, so that you can bring out your potential.
30 the yellow-eyed of the desert: Desert hawks.
You are noble-born, one who, on combat day,
Draws out the pupil of the tiger’s eye.
Your flight has the majesty of angels,
In your veins is the blood of the k«fërâ falcon. 32
Under the humpbacked, revolving sky
Eat what you catch, be it soft or hard; 33
Do not take your food from another hand,
Be good and take the advice of the good. 34
31 sâmurgh: A legendary bird. In Farâd al-Dân ‘AÇÇ«r’s long Sufi allegorical poem, ManÇiq at- ñayr, a group of birds, wishing to have, like all other species, a king of their own, set out in search of the sâmurgh, their would-be king. The name thus comes to have connotations of royalty and majesty.
32 k«fërâ: Iqbal has written this note to the word: “A white hunting bird of the type of the falcon which is found in the mountains and deserts of Turkistan.”
33 be it soft or hard: Whether it is delicious and palatable or not.
34 Another poem, entitled “Advice” (again by an eagle to its young one), is found in B«l-i Jibrâl, p. 412. It is short enough to be quoted here in full:
The eagle said to its youngster:
May the heights of the lofty sky be easy your wings!
Youth means burning in one’s own blood:
It is hard work that turns life’s bitter into sweet.
The delight of swooping on the pigeon, my son,
Is perhaps not found in the pigeon’s blood itself.”
THE REVOLT OF ISLAM
A. J. Arberry
HETHER OR NOT IT MAY BE AGREED THAT ‘POETS ARE THE UNOFFICIAL LEGISLATORS OF MANKIND’, THERE IS NO GAINSAYING THE FACT THAT POETS HAVE PLAYED A PROMINENT, IN SOME INSTANCES INDEED A LEADING PART IN THAT MOST EXCITING DRAMA OF MODEM TIMES, THE REVOLT OF ISLAM AGAINST INTERNAL CORRUPTION, AND ESPECIALLY AND MOST COMPELLINGLY AGAINST EXTERNAL DOMINATION.
OF THE HIRELING’S BLOOD OUTPOURED
LUSTROUS RUBIES MAKES THE LORD;
TYRANT SQUIRE TO SWELL. HIS WEALTH
DESOLATES THE PEASANT’S TILTH.
REVOLT, I CRY!
REVOLT, DEFY!
REVOLT, OR DIE!
CITY SHEIKH WITH STRING OF BEADS
MANY A FAITHFUL HEART MISLEADS,
BRAHMAN BAFFLES WITH HIS THREAD
MANY A SIMPLE HINDU HEAD.
PRINCE AND SULTAN GAMBLING GO;
LOADED ARE THE DICE THEY THROW
SUBJECTS SOUL FROM BODY STRIP
WHILE THEIR SUBJECTS ARE ASLEEP.
BROTHER MUSLIMS, WOE TO US
FOR THE HAVOC SCIENCE DOES!
AHRIMAN IS CHEAP ENOUGH,
GOD IS RARE, SCARCE-OFFERED STUFF.
(FROM ZABËR I ‘AJAM) 35
THE PASSIONATE SHOUT OF INQIL«B AY INQIL«B WAS RAISED BY THE MAN WHO WAS AFTER HIS DEATH TO BE HAILED AS THE PROPHET OF PAKISTAN.
35 See Zabër i ‘Ajam, in Kulliy«t i Iqbal, Persian, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, 1994, pp. 401-3.)
SIR MUHAMMAD IQBAL, DISTINGUISHED LAWYER, DISTINGUISHED PHILOSOPHER, DISTINGUISHED POET, AS LEARNED IN WESTERN SCIENCE AS IN EASTERN TRADITION, INSPIRED MILLIONS OF HIS FELLOW-MUSLIMS IN INDIA TO FIGHT FOR SELF-REFORM, AND SELF-REALIZATION AS A NECESSARY PRELUDE TO FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENT NATIONHOOD.
LITTLE FLOWER FAST ASLEEP,
RISE NARCISSUS-LIKE, AND PEEP;
LO, THE BOWER DROOPS AND DIES
WASTED BY COLD GRIEFS; ARISE!
NOW THAT BIRDSONG FILLS THE AIR
AND MUEZZINS CALL TO PRAYER,
LISTEN TO THE BURNING SIGHS
OF THE PASSIONATE HEARTS, AND RISE!
OUT OF LEADEN SLEEP,
OUT OF SLUMBER DEEP
ARISE!
NOW THE SUN, THAT DOTH ADORN
WITH HIS RAYS THE BROW OF MORN,
DOTH SUFFUSE THE CHEEKS THEREOF
WITH THE CRIMSON BLUSH OF LOVE,
OVER MOUNTAIN, OVER PLAIN
CARAVANS TAKE ROUTE AGAIN;
BRIGHT AND WORLD-BEHOLDING EYES,
GAZE UPON THE WORLD, AND RISE!
ALL THE ORIENT DOTH LIE
LIKE STREWN DUST THE ROADWAY BY,
OR A STILL AND HUSHED LAMENT
AND A WASTED SIGH AND SPENT.
YET EACH ATOM OF THIS EARTH
IS A GAZE OF TORTURED BIRTH:
UNDER IND’S AND PERSIA’S SKIES,
THROUGH ARABIA’S PLAINS, O RISE!
SEE, THY OCEAN IS AT REST,
SLUMBROUS AS A DESERT WASTE;
YEA, NO WAXING OR INCREASE
E’ER DISTURBS THY OCEAN’S PEACE.
NE’ER THY OCEAN KNOWETH STORM
OR LEVIATHAN’S DREAD SWARM:
REND ITS BREAST AND, BILLOW-WISE
SWELLING INTO TUMULT, RISE!
LISTEN TO THIS SUBTLETY
THAT REVEALS ALL MYSTERY:
EMPIRE IS THE BODY’S DUST,
SPIRIT TRUE RELIGION’S TRUST;
BODY LIVES AND SPIRIT LIVES
BY THE LIFE THEIR UNION GIVES.
LANCE IN HAND, AND SWORD AT THIGHS,
CLOAKED, AND WITH THY PRAYER MAT, RISE!
THOU ART TRUE AND WORSHIPFUL
GUARDIAN OF ETERNAL RULE,
THOU THE LEFT HAND AND THE RIGHT
OF THE WORLD-POSSESSOR’S MIGHT,
SHACKLED SLAVE OF EARTHY RACE,
THOU ART TIME, AND THOU ART SPACE:
WINE OF FAITH THAT FEAR DEFIES
DRINK, AND FROM DOUBT’S PRISON RISE!
AGAINST EUROPE I PROTEST
AND THE ATTRACTION OF THE WEST:
WOE FOR EUROPE AND HER CHARM,
SWIFT TO CAPTURE AND DISARM!
EUROPE’S HORDES WITH FLAME AND FIRE
DESOLATE THE WORLD ENTIRE;
ARCHITECT OF SANCTUARIES,
EARTH AWAITS REBUILDING; RISE!
SIR MUHAMMAD IQBAL DIED IN 1938, TEN YEARS BEFORE THE REALIZATION OF THE FIRST PART OF HIS VISIONARY PROGRAMME, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN. WE SAY THE FIRST PART, BECAUSE HIS WHOLE DREAM WAS OF A WORLD UNITED IN GLAD ACCEPTANCE OF THE CHALLENGE OF ISLAM, THE CHALLENGE TO MAN AND MEN TO MAKE THEMSELVES SHARERS WITH GOD IN THE CREATION OF A PERFECT AND PERFECTLY SELF-REALIZING UNIVERSE.
BRIGHTER SHALL SHINE MEN’S CLAY
THAN ANGELS’ LIGHT, ONE DAY;
EARTH THROUGH OUR DESTINY
TURN TO A STARRY SKY.
THE FANCIES IN OUR HEAD
THAT UPON STORMS WERE FED
ONE DAY SHALL SOAR, AND CLEAR
THE WHIRLPOOL OF THE SPHERE.
WHY ASKEST THOU OF ME?
CONSIDER MAN, AND SEE
HOW, MIND-DEVELOPED STILL,
SUBLIME THIS SUBJECT WILL
COME FASHIONED FORTH, SUBLIME,
THIS COMMON THOUGHT, IN TIME,
AND WITH ITS BEAUTY’S RAPTURE
EVEN GOD’S HEART SHALL CAPTURE.
(FROM ZABËR I ‘AJAM.) 37
THOU, WHO HAST MADE WITH THE INVISIBLE
THY COVENANT, AND BURST FORTH LIKE A FLOOD
FROM THE SHORE’S BONDAGE, AS A SAPLING RISE
OUT OF THIS GARDEN’S SOIL; ATTACH THY HEART
TO THE UNSEEN, YET EVER WITH THE SEEN
WAGE CONFLICT, SINCE THIS BEING VISIBLE
INTERPRETS THAT UNVIEWED, AND PRELUDE IS
TO THE O’ERMASTERY OF HIDDEN POWERS.
37 See Zabër i ‘Ajam, in Kulliy«t i Iqbal, Persian, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, 1994, pp. 410.)
ALL OTHERNESS IS ONLY TO SUBDUE,
ITS BREAST A TARGET FOR THE WELL-WINGED SHAFT;
GOD’S FIAT BE! MADE OTHER MANIFEST
SO THAT THY ARROWS MIGHT BE SHARP TO PIERCE
THE STEELY ANVIL. TRULY IT REQUIRES
A TIGHTLY KNOTTED CORD, TO WHET AND PROVE
THE WIT OF THE RESOLVER. ART THOU A BUD?
INTERPRET IN THYSELF THE FLOWERY MEAD;
ART THOU A DEWDROP? DOMINATE THE SUN!
IF THOU ART EQUAL TO THE BOLD EMPRISE,
MELT THOU THIS SUN-LION WITH ONE TORRID BREATH!
WHOEVER HATH SUBDUED THE THINGS PERCEIVED
CAN OF ONE ATOM RECONSTRUCT A WORLD,
AND HE WHOSE SHAFT WOULD PIERCE THE ANGEL’S BREAST
FIRST FASTENS ADAM TO HIS SADDLE-BOW;
HE FIRST RESOLVES THE KNOT PHENOMENA
AND, MASTERING BEING, PROVES HIS LOFTY POWERS.
MOUNTAIN AND WILDERNESS, RIVER AND PLAIN,
ALL LAND AND SEA—THESE ARE THE SCHOLAR’S SLATE
ON WHICH THE MAN OF VISION LEARNS TO READ.
O THOU WHO SLUMBEREST, BY DULL OPIATES DRUGGED,
AND NAMEST MEAN THIS WORLD MATERIAL,
RISE UP, AND OPEN THY BESOTTED EYES!
CALL THOU NOT MEAN THY WORLD BY LAW COMPELLED;
ITS PURPOSE IS TO ENLARGE THE MUSLIM’S SOUL,
TO CHALLENGE HIS POTENTIALITIES;
THE BODY IT ASSAULTS WITH FORTUNE’S SWORD
THAT THOU MAYEST SEE IF THERE BE BLOOD WITHIN;
DASH THOU THY BREAST AGAINST ITS JAGGED ROCK
UNTIL IT PIERCE THY FLESH, AND PROVE THY BONE.
GOD COUNTS THIS WORLD THE PORTION OF GOOD MEN,
COMMITS ITS SPLENDOUR TO BELIEVERS’ EYES;
IT IS A ROAD THE CARAVAN MUST PASS,
A TOUCHSTONE THE BELIEVER’S GOLD TO ASSAY;
SEIZE THOU THIS WORLD, THAT IT MAY NOT SEIZE THEE,
AND IN ITS PITCHER SWALLOW THEE LIKE WINE.
THE STALLION OF THY THOUGHT IS PARROT-SWIFT,
STRIDING THE WHOLE WIDE HEAVENS IN G. BOUND;
URGED EVER ONWARDS BY THE NEEDS OF LIFE,
RAISED UP TO ROVE THE SKIES, THOUGH EARTHBOUND STILL;
THAT, HAVING WON THE MASTERY OF THE POWERS
OF THIS WORLD-ORDER, THOU MAYEST CONSUMMATE
THE PERFECTING OF THY INGENIOUS CRAFTS
MAN IS THE DEPUTY OF GOD ON EARTH,
AND O’ER THE ELEMENTS HIS RULE IS FIXED;
ON EARTH THY NARROWNESS RECEIVETH BREADTH
THY TOIL TAKES ON FAIR SHAPE. RIDE THOU THE WIND;
PUT BRIDLE ON THAT SWIFT-PACED DROMEDARY.
DABBLE THY FINGERS IN THE MOUNTAIN’S BLOOD;
DRAW UP THE LUSTROUS WATERS OF THE PEARL
FROM OCEAN’S BOTTOM; IN THIS SINGLE FIELD
A HUNDRED WORLDS ARE HIDDEN, COUNTLESS SUNS
VEILED IN THESE DANCING MOTES. THIS GLITTERING RAY
SHALL BRING TO VISION THE INVISIBLE,
DISCLOSE UNCOMPREHENDED MYSTERIES.
TAKE SPLENDOUR FROM THE WORLD-INFLAMING SUN,
THE ARCH-ILLUMING LEVIN FROM THE STORM;
ALL STARS AND PLANETS DWELLING IN THE SKY,
THOSE LORDS TO WHOM THE ANCIENT PEOPLES PRAYED,
ALL THOSE, MY MASTER, WAIT UPON THY WORD
AND ARE OBEDIENT SERVANTS TO THY WILL
IN PRUDENCE PLAN THE QUEST, TO MAKE IT SURE,
THEN MASTER EVERY SPIRIT, ALL THE WORLD.
(FROM THE MYSTERIES OF SELFLESSNESS.)
THE ANTHROPOCOSMIC VISION IN ISLAMIC THOUGHT
William C. Chittick
take the expression “anthropocosmic vision” from Tu Weiming, Director I of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and Professor of Chinese History and Philosophy and Confucian Studies at Harvard University. Professor Tu has used this expression for many years to encapsulate the East Asian worldview and to stress its salient differences with the theocentric and anthropocentric worldviews of the West. 38 By saying that the Chinese traditions in general and Confucianism in particular see things “anthropocosmically,” he means that
human beings and the cosmos are understood as a single, organismic whole. The goal of human life is to harmonize oneself with heaven and earth and to return to the transcendent source of both humans and the world. As long as Chinese civilization remained true to itself, it could never develop
“instrumental rationality,” the Western Enlightenment view that sees the
world as a conglomeration of objects and considers knowledge as a means to manipulate and control the objects. In the anthropocosmic vision, the world as object cannot be disjoined from the human as subject. The purpose of knowledge is not to manipulate the world, but to understand the world and ourselves so that we can live up to the fullness of our humanity. The aim, to
38 Tu in turn takes the word “anthropocosmic” from Mircea Eliade. Tu, Centrality and Commonality: An Essay on Confucian Religiousness (Albany: SUNY Press, 1989), p. 126. The present paper is partly an offshoot of an on-going “Islamic-Confucian Dialogue” begun five years ago by Tu and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, in which I have been a regular participant. It is also the fruit of an in-house dialogue with my wife, Sachiko Murata, which has been going on for many more years than five. I do not mean to suggest by these remarks that I will now interpret the Islamic tradition in Chinese categories. I cite Tu Weiming to acknowledge a certain influence on my own conceptualization of things and to point out that there is nothing unusual about the Islamic worldview. One can even argue that the anthropocosmic vision I discuss here is the Islamic version of a perspective that is normative for the human race. If there is an incongruity, it is Western natural science and following in its wake, the other disciplines of the modern academy. The real question is not why Confucianism and Islam share a common vision, but why the West has broken from the perennial pattern. The oddity is modern science and thought, not the holistic visions of pre-modern civilizations and cultures.
use one of Tu Weiming’s favourite phrases, is “to learn how to be human.” As he writes, “The Way is nothing other than the actualisation of true human nature.” 39
With slight revisions in terminology, Tu Weiming’s depiction of the Confucian anthropocosmic vision could easily be employed to describe the overarching worldview of Islamic civilization in general and Islamic thought in particular. 40 By “Islamic thought” I do not mean the many scholarly disciplines that developed in the Islamic world, but rather those specific schools that asked and answered the deepest human questions about ultimacy and meaning. These are the questions that great thinkers, philosophers and sages have addressed in all civilizations. Specifically, I have in mind the Islamic wisdom tradition. I understand the word “wisdom” in the broad sense of Arabic Áikmah, which embraces Hellenized philosophy as well as other perspectives, in particular theoretical Sufism (what is often called ‘irf«n or “gnosis”). I focus on the wisdom tradition for two reasons. First, among all the Islamic approaches to knowledge, this discipline alone has produced figures who have been looked back upon by Western historians and modern-day Muslims as “scientists” in something like the
39 Ibid. p. 10.
40 Western scholars have rarely looked to East Asia for help in interpreting Islamic thinking.
One reason for this is that we are talking about “Western” scholarship, with all the
presuppositions and interpretive biases that this implies. Moreover, Western scholars have been primarily concerned with situating Islamic thinking in its historical context, not with understanding what Muslim thinkers were trying to say and this context is largely the same as that of the Judeo-Christian and Hellenistic West. I am not denying the great value of such research, but this approach has meant that interpreters of Islamic intellectuality have been peculiarly insensitive to certain dimensions of Islamic thinking that happen to have a deep resonance with the East Asian traditions. Most modern-day Muslim scholars follow Western models or assume an apologetic and reactive stance vis-à-vis Western scholarship, so they also have not looked to East Asia. Nonetheless, there is no reason to suppose that Islamic thought is in any essential way uncongenial with the East Asian traditions, as Sachiko Murata has illustrated in her study, The Tao of Islam (Albany: SUNY Press, 1992). Her more recent research has shown that Muslim scholars in China were at home in the Neo-Confucian worldview, which is eminently anthropocosmic and that they employed its technical terminology to express an Islamo-Confucian vision of reality. See Murata, Chinese Gleams of Sufi Light (Albany: SUNY Press, 2000).
current meaning of the word. And second, only this approach has discussed the significance of being and becoming without presupposing faith in Islamic dogma, so its language can easily be understood outside the context of specifically Islamic imagery.
In the technical terminology of the Islamic sciences, the wisdom tradition is commonly classified as “intellectual” (‘aqlâi ) rather than “transmitted” (naqlâ ). Transmitted learning is all knowledge that has been passed down from previous generations and that cannot be gained by the human mind functioning on its own. Typical examples are language, divine revelation and
law. “Intellectual” learning is all knowledge that can, in principle, be acquired
by the human mind without help from past generations or divine revelation. Salient examples are mathematics and astronomy. However, intellectual
learning also includes what can be called “metaphysics,” “cosmology” and “psychology.” It is these three domains that are most explicitly informed by
the anthropocosmic vision about which I wish to speak.
In Western civilization, it has been common to draw a sharp distinction between reason and revelation, or between Athens and Jerusalem. In order to
understand the role that the “intellectual” sciences have played in the Islamic
tradition, it needs to be understood that the predominant Islamic perspective sees reason and revelation as harmonious and complementary, not
antagonistic. The very content of the Qur’anic message led to a viewpoint
that diverges sharply from what became normative in the Christian West. Without understanding the divergence of viewpoint, it will be difficult to grasp the role that the wisdom tradition has played in Islam.
If Christianity is considered in terms of the dichotomy between intellectual and transmitted knowledge, what immediately strikes the eye is that the first truths are indebted to transmission, not intellection. The defining notion of the Christian worldview is the incarnation, a historical event that is known to have occurred on the basis of transmitted knowledge. To be sure, the incarnation was seen as a divine intervention that transmuted history, but it was also understood as occurring in the full light of historical actuality. In order to know about it, people needed the transmission of
knowledge within history. Once the incarnation was acknowledged, it was
possible to see how it is prefigured in the unity of God, through the logos and the trinity. Even though a whole tradition of thinking developed that began with the ideas in the divine Mind and that can be called “Christian Platonism,” the Christian content of this tradition depended upon the
historical fact of the incarnation.
The Islamic tradition has a very different starting point. It is often assumed by both Muslims and non-Muslims that Islam began with the
historical event of Muhammad and the Qur’an. Of course, there is some truth in this, but this is not the way the Qur’an presents the picture, nor is it
the way more reflective Muslims have understood their religion. Rather, Islam began with the creation of the world. In its broadest Qur’anic meaning, the word Isl«m (“submission, submittedness, surrender”) designates the universal and ever-present situation of creatures in face of the Creator. 41 This helps explain why the first and fundamental dogma of the religion has
nothing to do with the historical facts of the Muhammad and the Qur’an. It
is simply the acknowledgment of a universal truth, a truth that expresses the nature of things for all time and all eternity. 42
The primary truth upon which the Islamic tradition is built is stated most succinctly in the first half of the Shahadah, the testimony of faith that is the basis for all Islamic teaching and practice. This is the statement l« il«ha
41 Take, for example, this verse: “What do they desire other than the religion of God, while to Him has submitted [aslama] everything in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly?” (Qur’an 3:83). On the different meanings of the word islam in the Qur’an and the Islamic tradition, see Sachiko Murata and William C. Chittick, The Vision of Islam (New York: Paragon, 1994; rept. Suhail Academy, Lahore, 1998), pp. 3-7.
42 Except, of course, in the sense that there must first be a contingent reality for the truth to find expression in the universe. Muslim thinkers often say that God’s unity (waÁda or aÁadiyya) pertains to God alone, transcending all contingency and all creaturely attributes, whereas tawÁâd is the human response to that unity. It is also pointed out that the human response is only possible because God’s own reality declares its own unity—as the Qur’an puts it, “God bears witness that there is no god but He” (3:18). This is why it is sometimes said that no one truly voices tawÁâd but God himself and every human assertion of God’s unity can only be a pale reflection made possible by the human image of God.
illa’llah, “(There is) no god but God,” a formula known as kalimat al-tawÁâd, “the word that declares unity.” This statement is taken as a declaration of the actual situation of all things, since everything submits to God’s Unity by the
very fact of its existence. All creatures declare the oneness of their Creator by their very createdness. However, this is not a free declaration, but rather one that is imposed by the actual situation of all things. Only human beings have the peculiar situation of being able to accept or reject this truth. Its free acceptance is declared by uttering the first half of the Shahadah and thereby
giving witness that God is the Unique Source of all reality. The Qur’an attributes tawÁâd, the acknowledgment of God’s unity, and the free acceptance of its consequences to all rightly guided human beings, the first of whom was Adam. Included here are all the prophets—who are traditionally said to number 124,000—and all those who correctly and sincerely follow the prophets. 43
In the Islamic perspective, tawÁâd stands outside history and outside transmission. It is a universal truth that does not depend upon revelation. So basic is the recognition of this truth to the human situation that it is typically said to be an inherent quality of the original disposition (fiÇrah) of Adam and all his children. Remember here that in the Islamic view, the fall from the Garden does not represent a serious shortcoming. Rather, it signifies a momentary lapse, a single act of forgetfulness and disobedience. The lapse had repercussions to be sure, but it was immediately forgiven by God and Adam was designated as the first prophet. God had created Adam in his own
43 The specific verse I have in mind is 21:25: “And We never sent a messenger before thee save that we revealed to him, saying, ‘There is no god but I, so serve Me.’” Lest someone claim that the statement of tawÁâd is itself historically particular, we need to remember that the linguistic formulation is not at issue, but rather the unique, unitary reality that gives rise
to the universe. Note also that the Qur’an says that God sends every prophetic message in the language of the messenger’s people (14:4), thereby acknowledging that God speaks every language, for “Each community has a messenger” (10:47). In this way of looking at things, what was different about each revelation was not tawÁâd, but rather the specific teachings and practices necessitated by the historical context of the people to whom the message was revealed. Of course, it can also be objected that this unitary reality is itself historically particular, because it was invented by human minds. People who hold this position still have to justify it, and that demands a metaphysics: On what basis do we declare history, language, politics, gender, atoms, energy, the brain, or whatever foundational?
image and this image was in no way blemished by the fall, even if the divine
image does indeed become obscured in many if not most of Adam’s children. 44
As for the historical tradition of Islam, that began in the seventh century
with the revelation of the Qur’an. The testimony of faith does not acknowledge it until its second half, the statement “the Muhammad is the
messenger of God.” TawÁâd precedes Muhammad and his revealed message because it does not pertain to history. Rather, it pertains to the nature of reality and the substance of human intelligence.
In this perspective, tawÁâd informs all true knowledge in all times and all places. Every one of the 124,000 prophets came with a message based upon
tawÁâd, and each of them taught it explicitly. However, they did not teach it because people could not know about it without being told. They taught it
because people had forgotten it and needed to be “reminded” of it. The Arabic word used here, dhikr (along with its derivatives tadhkâr, tadhkira, and dhikr«) designates one of the most important concepts in the Qur’an. It informs Islamic religiosity on every level of faith and practice. The word
means not only to “remind,” but also to “remember.” In the sense of
reminder, it indicates the primary function of the prophets and in the sense
of remembrance it designates the proper human response to the prophetic reminder. The whole process of “learning how to be human” depends first upon being reminded of tawÁâd and second upon the active and free
44 This is why certain Muslim thinkers (e.g. Ibn al-‘Arabâ, as cited in Chittick, The Sufi Path of Knowledge [Albany: SUNY Press, 1989], p. 296) can maintain that even Adam’s “forgetfulness” (nisy«n), which caused his fall, pertains to the divine image that is the defining characteristic of the human race. The transmitted support for this idea is the Qur’anic verse, “They forgot God, so God forgot them” (9:67). If God “forgets,” then “forgetfulness” is a divine attribute. Adam “forgot” because he was made in the divine image. This rather
audacious way of putting things can be explained by saying that humans manifest every attribute that configures their divine image. God is both merciful and wrathful. Inasmuch as humans experience the reality of his wrath, they are distant from God, the source of knowledge and wisdom and in this respect their understanding is obscured. Inasmuch as they experience the reality of his mercy, they are near to him and participate in his awareness, luminosity and grandeur.
remembrance of tawÁâd, the assertion of God’s unity that is innate to the human soul.
In short, tawÁâd, the foundational teaching of Islam, stands outside history because it is woven into the deepest nature of every human being from Adam onward. With rare exceptions, however, coming to understand it will depend upon being reminded of it by someone who knows it. Once it is understood, it is recognized as a self-evident truth having no essential connection with historical revelation. The Islamic doctrine that Adam was the first prophet suggests in mythic form the idea that to be human is to have present within oneself, as a direct consequence of being created in the image of God, the recognition of God’s unity.
Given that the Islamic testimony of faith differentiates between a universal, a historical truth and a particular, historically conditioned truth, it already distinguishes implicitly between knowledge that is intellectual and knowledge that is transmitted. The first half of the Shahadah declares tawÁâd, a knowledge innate to the original human disposition and free of historical particularity. The second half of the Shahadah designates the
specific, historical fact of the coming of Muhammad and the revelation of
the Qur’an. This second knowledge cannot be gained without historical
transmission.
Although transmitted and intellectual knowledge are implicitly differentiated in the first principles of the religion and explicitly differentiated by the later tradition, this does not mean that the two sorts of knowledges should be considered independent. It is obvious that all understanding depends upon transmission, if only the transmission of language. And it is also obvious that transmission alone is no guarantee of understanding. The relationship between the two modalities of knowing can perhaps be best understood as complementary, in something like the yin-yang manner. Transmission is needed to actualize understanding and understanding is needed to grasp the full significance of transmission. 45
45 Some of the discussions concerning the relationship between the two sorts of knowledge might remind us of the constant battles that go on among educational theorists about the
Among all the schools of Islamic thinking, the philosophers were the most careful in distinguishing between transmitted and intellectual learning. They themselves were not primarily interested in transmitted knowledge, so
they paid relatively little attention to the Qur’an, the Hadith, and disciplines such as jurisprudence (fiqh). This is not to deny that most of them were well versed in these sciences, or that some of them even wrote Qur’anic
commentaries and juridical works. Despite the suggestions of some historians, they were not hostile to the transmitted learning. Rather, they focused their primary attention elsewhere. They wanted to develop their own intellectual vision, and they saw this as the task of working out all the implications of tawÁâd. 46 If they were to understand the full significance of the transmitted knowledge, they needed to investigate the nature of the Ultimate Reality, the structure of the cosmos, and the reality of the human soul. These are the three domains of metaphysics, cosmology, and
relative merit of rote learning or cultural literacy (transmitted knowledge) and critical thinking or creativity (intellectual knowledge). Like other traditional civilizations, Islam stressed that transmitted learning was the foundation for all real understanding. This explains
why the process of learning began at a very young age with the memorization of the Qur’an.
46 I am focusing on tawÁâd, the first principle of Islamic faith. It should be noted that the philosophers also investigated the other two principles of Islamic faith—“prophecy” (nubuwwah) and the “return” to God, or eschatology (ma‘«d)—as intellectual rather than transmitted issues. They were not especially interested in the historical events surrounding Muhammad and other prophets, or in the details of revealed scripture. Nor, in the earlier
period, did they defend the graphic Qur’anic depictions of the afterlife as anything more
then rhetorical necessity. However, they were extremely interested in “prophecy” as the highest form of human perfection and they were especially concerned with the immortality of the soul, an immortality that is achieved through intellectual perfection. Because they discussed the three principles of the faith with little explicit reference to the transmitted learning and much mention of Greek antecedents, some historians have found it easy to ignore the thoroughly Islamic character of their writings. If the philosophers were often criticized by other Muslim scholars for the positions they took on the principles of faith, it was because their interpretations did not coincide with the theological and dogmatic readings. Given the nature of theological polemic, the criticism often took the form of accusations of unbelief. But, in a broader view, philosophy and theology were in agreement, especially if we compare their positions with the beliefs that infuse most modern
psychology mentioned earlier. However, in the quest for understanding, tawÁâd was always the underlying axiom. The philosophers took it for granted that anyone with a healthy understanding would see the unity of God as a self-evident truth. Nonetheless, they did not neglect to provide numerous proofs to help human intelligence remember what is latent within itself.
My basic point here is that Muslim “intellectuals”—in the specific sense of the term intellectual that I have mentioned—always saw themselves as investigating things in the context of the most fundamental declaration of the Islamic tradition, which is the unity of God, the Ultimate Reality that rules all things. They never saw their efforts as opposed to the goals and purposes of the religious tradition. They accepted that the prophets came to remind people of tawÁâd and to teach them how to be human. However, they also believed that the commoners had one path to follow, and the philosophical elite because of their specific gifts and aptitudes, had another path. It was perhaps the attitude of keeping aloof from religious dogma and counting the theologians and jurists as commoners that often led to their being severely criticized by other Muslims.
In the view of the wisdom tradition, seekers of intellectual knowledge were trying to learn how to be human in the fullest sense of the word human. The primary focus was always on the transformation of the soul. As Tu Weiming says of the Confucian anthropocosmic vision, “The transformative act is predicated on a transcendent vision that ontologically we are infinitely better and therefore more worthy than we actually are.” 47 This is a “humanistic” vision, but the humanism is elevated far beyond the mundane, because the “measure of man” is not man or even rational understanding, but rather the transcendent source of all. As Tu puts it: 48
Since the value of the human is not anthropocentric, the assertion that man is the measure of all things is not humanistic enough. To fully express our humanity, we must engage in a dialogue with Heaven because
47 Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation (Albany: SUNY Press, 1985), p. 137.
48 Centrality and Commonality, p. 102.
human nature, as conferred by Heaven, realizes its nature not by departing from its source but by returning to it. Humanity, so conceived, is the public property of the cosmos, not the private possession of the anthropological world, and is as much the defining characteristic of our being as the self-conscious manifestation of Heaven. Humanity is Heaven’s form of self-disclosure, self-expression, and self-realization. If we fail to live up to our humanity, we fail cosmologically in our mission as co-creator of Heaven and Earth and morally in our duty as fellow participants in the great cosmic transformation.
For the Islamic wisdom tradition, grasping the full nature of our humanity necessitates investigating the nature of things and the reality of our own selves. This means that intellectuals could not limit themselves to the mere acceptance of transmitted learning. They could not ignore the human imperative to search for knowledge in every domain, especially not when the Qur’an explicitly commands the study of the universe and the self as the means to know God. Although some philosophers paid scant attention to the transmitted learning and looked upon the dogmatic theologians with something akin to contempt, they did not step outside of the Islamic tradition, because they could not doubt the universal and a historical axiom upon which it is built. In other words, there was no historical chink in their intellectual armour. Historical contingencies cannot touch tawÁâd because, once it is grasped, it is seen as a self-evident truth so foundational that it becomes the unique certainty upon which the soul can always depend. 49
As for the theologians and jurists and their claims to authority in all religious matters, the representatives of the wisdom tradition saw their positions as pertaining to transmitted learning, not to intellectual learning, and they saw no reason to submit themselves to the limited understandings of pious dogmatists. To a large degree they kept themselves apart from theological and juridical bickering, and this helps explain why they preferred
49 I am not suggesting, of course, that it is self-evident to everybody, any more than mathematical truth is self-evident to everybody. My point is rather that the position of the
intellectual tradition on tawÁâd was that once it is understood, it cannot be denied. Its truth is such that, once one understands it, one knows that it has always lurked in one’s soul. This
is precisely the sense of “remembrance.”
to employ a language coloured more by Greek models than the imagery and
symbols of the Qur’an.
Once we recognize that Islamic “intellectual” learning stands aloof from
transmitted learning, we can begin to understand why the modern scientific enterprise could never have arisen in Islam. Science gains its power from the rejection of any sort of teleology, the brute separation of subject and object, the refusal to admit that consciousness and awareness are more real than material facts, the exclusive concern with the domain of the senses, and the disregard for the ultimate and the transcendent. The instrumental rationality of scientific knowledge could appear in the West only after the baby had been thrown out with the bath water. Having rejected the bath water of theology—or at least the relevance of theological dogma to scientific concerns— Western philosophers and scientists also rejected the truth of tawÁâd, the bedrock of human intelligence. Once tawÁâd was a dead letter, each domain of learning could be considered as independent from the others.
Instrumental rationality did not appear suddenly in the West, of course. A long and complex history gradually led to the total separation of the domains of reason and revelation. Many scientists and philosophers remained practicing Christians, but this did not prevent them from coming to consider the rational domain as free from the trammels of revelational givens. It is precisely because these givens were posed in the dogmatic and historical terms of transmitted learning that the separation between reason and revelation could occur. In contrast, the Islamic intellectual tradition was always rooted in tawÁâd, never in theological dogma. No matter what sort of misgivings critical Muslim thinkers may have entertained about the historical contingency of the Arabic language, the events surrounding the coming of
Muhammad, the transmission of the Qur’anic revelation, and the
interpretation of the revelation by the theologians and dogmatists, these misgivings could never impinge on the fundamental insight of tawÁâd, which to them was utterly transparent.
My first conclusion, then, is this: Many historians have suggested that medieval Islamic learning declined when Muslim scientists neglected to build on their early discoveries. But this is to read Islamic history in terms of the ideology of progress, which in turn is rooted in contemporary scientism—by
which I mean the belief that science has the sort of unique reliability that was once reserved for revealed truth. Scientism gives absolute importance to scientific theories and relativizes all other approaches to knowledge, if it considers them in any way legitimate.
Moreover, historians who talk of the decline of Islamic “science” ignore
two historical contexts. 50 The first is the Islamic, in which the axiom of tawÁâd infused all intellectual endeavour. TawÁâd declares the interrelatedness of all things, because it asserts that everything comes from the First Principle, everything is constantly sustained and nourished by the First Principle, and everything returns to the First Principle. Given that Muslim intellectuals saw all things as beginning, flourishing, and ending within the compass of the One Source, they could not split up the domains
of reality in any more than a tentative way. They were not able to disengage knowledge of the cosmos from knowledge of God or from knowledge of the human soul. It was impossible for them to imagine the world and the self as separate from each other and from the One Principle. Quite the contrary, the more they investigated the universe, the more they saw it as manifesting the principles of tawÁâd and the nature of the human self. They could not have agreed more with Tu Weiming, who writes, “To see nature as an external
object out there is to create an artificial barrier which obstructs our true vision and undermines our human capacity to experience nature from within.” 51
The second context that people ignore when they claim that the Muslim intellectual tradition declined is the Christian. Christian civilization, qua Christian civilization, did in fact decline, because it experienced the breakdown of a synthetic worldview and the eclipse of Christian Platonism.
50 I am not denying that there was a decline. I am simply saying that by making the criterion for measurement “scientific progress” or the lack of it, we are accepting the ideological presuppositions of scientism. Why should this historical oddity be considered the universal criterion by which all civilizations should be measured? If we keep in view Islamic criteria (e.g., adherence to tawÁâd, the Qur’an, and the Sunnah), there was certainly a serious decline in Islamic civilization, especially in the intellectual tradition, but it began much later than historians typically maintain.
51 Confucian Thought, pp. 46-47.
The transmitted nature of the basic religious givens was not able to withstand the critical questioning of non-dogmatic thinkers. In the Islamic case, the Muslim intellectuals did not depend on revelation and transmission for their understanding of tawÁâd, so theological squabbles and historical uncertainties could not be taken as serious issues. 52
In order to suggest some of the implications of the anthropocosmic vision, I need to expand on the distinction between intellectual and transmitted. The ‘ulama, by whom I mean the experts in transmitted learning, claimed authority for their knowledge by upholding the authenticity of the transmission and the truthfulness of those who provided the knowledge— that is, God, Muhammad, and the pious forebears. They asked all Muslims to accept this knowledge as it was received. The basic duty of the Muslim believer was taqlâd, that is, “imitation,” or submission to the authority of the transmitted knowledge. In contrast, the intellectual tradition appealed to the relatively small number of people who had intellectual aptitudes. The quest for knowledge was defined not in terms of taqlâd or “imitation” but in terms of taÁqâq, “verification” and “realization.” 53
52 I do not mean to imply that Muslim intellectuals did not accept Muhammad as their prophet or the Qur’an as their book of guidance. The philosophers saw no reason to
question the dogmatic basis of the transmitted knowledge, because they considered religious teachings to be beneficial for everyone and certainly so for the masses. Wisdom—true intellectual learning—was by its nature reserved for the qualified, who are few and far between. This “undemocratic” and “elitist” position goes back to the fact that political ideology does not colour their view of social reality. They took human beings as they are, not
as they wished them to be.
53 It is important not to confuse the issue of taÁqâq with that of ijtih«d. Both these words are used as opposites of taqlâd. However, taÁqâq pertains to the intellectual sciences and it means to find the truth and reality of all things by oneself and in oneself. Ijtih«d is employed in reference to the transmitted sciences, specifically fiqh or jurisprudence. Ijtih«d is to gain such a mastery of the Sharâ‘iah that one does not need to follow the opinions (taqlâd) of earlier jurists. For centuries, many legal experts considered “the gate of ijtih«d ” to be closed. But the “gate of taÁqâq” can never be closed, because it is mandatory for all Muslims to understand God and the other articles of faith for themselves. “Faith in God” by imitation is
no faith at all.
An important key to understanding the different standpoints of modern science and the Islamic intellectual tradition lies in these two concepts. Unless we understand that knowledge attained by verification and realization is not of the same sort as that received by imitation, we will not be able to understand what the Muslim intellectuals were trying to do and what modern scientists and scholars are trying to do. We will then continue to falsify the position of the Muslim philosophers by making them precursors of modern science, as if they were trying to discover what modern scientists try to discover, and as if they accepted the findings of their predecessors on the basis of imitation, as modern scientists do. 54
The Arabic word taÁqâq or verification/realization derives from the word Áaqq. Àaqq is both a verbal noun and an adjective. It means true, truth, to be true; and, with similar permutations, it means real, right, proper, just, and appropriate. The word plays an important role in the Qur’an and in all branches of Islamic learning. Its first Qur’anic meaning is as a name of God. God as Áaqq is absolute truth, rightness, reality, properness, justness and appropriateness.
54 Given that scientism—the firm belief in the unique reliability of scientific, empirical knowledge—infuses modern culture, it is difficult for moderns to remember that the whole scientific edifice is built on transmitted learning. Despite all the talk of the “empirical verification” of scientific findings, this verification is not possible except for a handful of specialists, since the rest of the human race does not have the necessary training. In effect, everyone has to accept empirical verification on the basis of faith (taqlâd). Moreover, the tiny amount of verification that any individual scientist is able to accomplish follows the
“scientific method,” which is to say that it is based on “instrumental rationality.” The
experiments show that, given certain conditions and certain goals, y will follow from x. There is no question of discovering the ultimate truth of things, because the means are
inadequate and no scientist, qua scientist, can claim that the means are adequate. If he does claim that they are adequate, he does so as a believer in scientism or as a philosopher, not as scientist. It is in terms of scientism, not science, that people declare that there is no such
thing “the soul” or “absolute reality.” Neither science nor scientism would dream of
acknowledging what appeared as a simple fact to the wisdom traditions in all pre-modern civilizations: Human possibility transcends time, space, history, physicality, energy, ideation,
the angels and even the gods (though certainly not “God” in the proper meaning of the
word).
TaÁqâq is a transitive and intensive verbal form derived from Áaqq. It means to ascertain the truth, the right, the real, the proper. Ascertainment is to know something for certain. The only place where certainty can be found is within the human self, not outside of it. TaÁqâq is to understand and actualise truth, reality and rightness within oneself, to “realize” it and to make it actual for oneself and in oneself.
The word Áaqq is applied to God, because God is the absolutely true, right, real and proper. But it is also applied to everything other than God. The secondary application of the word Áaqq acknowledges that everything in the universe has a truth, a rightness, a realness and a properness. If God is Áaqq in the absolute sense, everything other than God is Áaqq in a relative sense. The task of taÁqâq is to build on the knowledge of the absolute Áaqq, beginning with the axiom of tawÁâd, and to grasp the exact nature of the relative Áaqq that pertains to each thing, or at least to each thing with which we come into contact, whether spiritually, intellectually, psychologically, physically or socially.
The formula of tawÁâd can help us to understand the goal of taÁqâq. If “There is no god but God,” this means, “There is no Áaqq but the absolute Áaqq.” The only true and real Áaqq is God himself. This absolute Áaqq is transcendent, infinite and eternal. In face of the absolute Áaqq, there is no other Áaqq. At the same, all things are God’s creatures and they receive what they have from God. God creates them with wisdom and purpose and each has a role to play in the universe. Nothing that exists is inherently batil—the opposite of Áaqq, that is, false, vain, unreal, inappropriate. 55 The Áaqqs of the individual things are determined by God’s wisdom in creation. It is in respect to these individual Áaqqs that the Prophet commanded people “to give to each that has a Áaqq its Áaqq” (ita’ kulli dhâ Áaqqin Áaqqah). “Giving each thing its Áaqq” is often taken as a nutshell definition of taÁqâq.
55 This is not to say that there is no such thing as “evil.” The issue of discerning the Áaqq of “evil” things is one of the more subtle dimensions of taÁqâq. Recognizing a thing’s Áaqq may entail acknowledging that part of its proper role is to be the occasion for evil and that the appropriate human response is to avoid it. This very need to avoid it alerts us to something of its cosmic role. Without evil, human freedom of choice is meaningless.
To give things their Áaqqs is obviously more than a simple cognitive activity. We cannot give things their rightful due simply by knowing their truth and reality. Over and above knowing, taÁqâq demands acting. It is not
simply to verify and realize the truth and reality of a thing; it is also to act toward that thing in the appropriate and rightful manner. The intellectual tradition always considered morality and ethics as an integral part of the quest for wisdom, and many of its representatives made a conscious effort to synthesize Greek ethical teachings and the moral and practical teachings of
the Qur’an.
The task of the seeker of wisdom, then, was to verify and realize things.
This could not be done by quoting the opinions of Aristotle or Plato, or even
by citing the words of the Qur’an and Muhammad. One verified and realized things by knowing them as they truly are and by acting appropriately. More than anything else, the intellectual quest was a rigorous path of self-discipline, and the goal was to achieve true knowledge of self and appropriate activity on the basis of this knowledge. Nothing encapsulates the spirit of the quest as well as the famous maxim attributed to the Prophet, “He who knows himself knows his Lord.” Historians have considered this statement to be an Islamic version of the Socratic maxim, “Know thyself.” Certainly, the fact that this version of the maxim links knowledge of self with knowledge of God is indicative of the primary importance that is always given to tawÁâd.
It should be obvious to everyone that one cannot know oneself and one’s
Lord by memorizing the opinions of Avicenna. One can surely take the
prophets and the great philosophers as guides on the path to self-knowledge, but one cannot claim to know what they knew unless one discovers it for oneself and in oneself. The quest for wisdom was an intensely personal
activity, a spiritual discipline that demanded the training of one’s mind and the honing of one’s soul. To verify and realize things was to achieve an
authentic vision of reality, a correct perception of the world, a sound understanding of the self, and a true knowledge of the First Principle. At the same time, it was to act in keeping with what one had come to know. It demanded an ethical vision and virtuous activity.
In order to grasp the purpose of taÁqâq, it is useful to reflect on how the philosophers understood the word ‘aql, the noun that gives us the adjective form ‘aqlâ—which I have been translating as “intellectual.” ‘Aql means intellect, intelligence, reason, mind, nous. To understand what is meant by the word, we need to review a few of the basic teachings of the intellectual tradition. These teachings provide pointers toward the knowledge that Muslim intellectuals were trying to verify and realize. The teachings should not be taken as dogma, because no one can realize anything by memorizing catechisms. One has to find out for oneself.
The underlying substance of a human being is called nafs, a word that functions as the most important reflexive pronoun in the Arabic language. Nafs is typically translated as both “self” and “soul.” In its philosophical sense, it designates the invisible something that makes its appearance in the cosmos wherever there is life and hence it can be ascribed to any living thing.
Verifying the nature of soul was one of the foundational activities of the
Muslim intellectual. A standard way to do so was to begin by investigating the apparitions of soul in the visible world. The visible realm is a conglomeration of bodily appearances, yet we instinctively differentiate among things in terms of their modality of appearance. We know the difference between living things and dead things precisely by their
appearance. “Soul” is a generic name for the invisible power that shows itself
when we recognize life and awareness. Moreover, in the act of recognizing soul in other things, we are simultaneously recognizing it in ourselves. To see the apparitions of soul in the outside world is to experience the presence of soul in the inside world. Life and awareness are precisely the properties that we find in ourselves in the very act of seeing them in others.
There are degrees of soul, which is to say that this invisible power is more intense and influential in some things than in others. 56 The classification of
56 Compare Tu Weiming’s description of the degrees of spirituality as viewed by the Confucian vision: “Rocks, trees, animals, humans, and gods represent different levels of spirituality based on the varying compositions of ch’i” (Confucian Thought, p. 44). In the typical Islamic version, the ch’i or invisible power that animates rocks is called “nature” (Çabâ‘ah). Only at the plant level is a second modality of ch’i, called “soul,” added to the first. Rocks are by no means “only matter.” In the hylomorphism adopted by the intellectual tradition, the
creatures into inanimate, plant, animal, human and angel is one way of acknowledging the different degrees. The most intense and at the same time the most complex and layered soul is found in human beings. Outwardly, this appears in the indefinite diversity of their activities which clearly has something to do with vast differences in aptitude and ability. Because of the diverse and comprehensive powers of their souls, human beings can grasp and replicate all the activities that appear in the world by means of other modalities of soul.
In discussing the human soul, the texts frequently elaborate upon the intimate relationship between it and the cosmos. So similar are soul and world that they can even be considered mirror images. As two mutually
reflecting images, they are often called “microcosm” and “macrocosm.”
The correspondence between microcosm and macrocosm was understood as something like a subject-object relationship. The human soul is an aware subject that can take as its object the whole universe. So closely intertwined
are soul and universe that, in Tu Weiming’s term, their relationship can properly be called “organismic.” The human soul and the world can be seen
as one organism with two faces. It follows that there can be no microcosm without macrocosm, and no macrocosm without microcosm. The vital cosmic role of human beings was always affirmed. It was recognized that the macrocosm appears in the visible realm before human beings, but it was also understood that the macrocosm is brought into existence precisely to make it possible for human beings to appear and then to learn how to be human. Without human beings (or, one can guess, analogous beings), there is no reason for a universe to exist in the first place. The teleology was always acknowledged.
role of matter (m«dda) is largely conceptual, because there is no such thing per se. “Matter” is simply the name that is given to an observed receptivity for the apparition of “form” (Äërah). Form itself is an intelligible and spiritual reality that descends into the domain of appearances from the spirit or intellect and ultimately from God, who is, in Qur’anic language, “the Form-giver” (al-muÄawwir). Since all things are “forms,” there is nothing in the universe that does not manifest the living presence of the intelligent and the intelligible.
In the more religious language, this is to say that God created the world with the specific aim of crowning his achievement with human beings, who alone are made fully in his image and are able to function as his vicegerents (khalâfah). They alone can love God, because true love demands loving the Beloved for himself. If one loves God with the aim of receiving some gift or
benefit, one has not in fact loved God, but the gift or benefit. 57 Nothing can love God for God’s sake alone and without any ulterior motive except that
which is made in his image. God created human beings precisely so that they could verify and realize their own divine images and love their Creator, thereby participating in his infinite and never-ending bounty.
For the intellectual tradition, the purpose of studying the macrocosm is to come to understand the powers and capabilities of the microcosm. By understanding the object, we simultaneously come to understand the capacities and potentialities of the subject. We cannot study the natural world without learning about ourselves and we cannot learn about ourselves without coming to understand the wisdom inherent in the natural world.
Social reality was often studied for the same purpose—as an aid in understanding the human soul. It was not uncommon for Muslim philosophers to provide descriptions of the ideal society. But they were not interested in the utopian dreams that have so often preoccupied modern political theorists. Rather, they wanted to understand and describe the various potentialities of the human soul that become manifest through social and political activity. They did not want to set down a program, but rather to illustrate to aspiring philosophers that every attribute and power of the soul, every beautiful and ugly character trait, can be recognized in the diversity of human types. When seekers of wisdom recognize their own selves as
57 To those who know the Islamic tradition, this will sound like a “Sufi” idea rather than a philosophical position. Notice, however, what Avicenna says: “The knower [‘«rif ] desires the Real, the First, only for His sake, not for the sake of anything else. He prefers nothing to true knowledge of Him. His worship is directed only to Him, since He is worthy of worship and because worship is a noble relationship with Him. At the same time, the knower has neither desire nor fear. Were he to have them, the object of his desire or fear would be his motive and it would be his goal. Then the Real would not be his goal but rather the means to something else, less than the Real, which would be the goal and the object.” Al-Ish«r«t wa ’l- tanbâh«t, edited by S. Dunya (Cairo, 1947), vol. 3, p. 227.
microcosms of society, they can strive to know and realize the sovereign of the soul, the true philosopher-king, the intellect whose duty is to govern both soul and body with wisdom and compassion.
If the philosophers analysed the souls of plants, animals, humans and even angels, and if they described all the possibilities of human becoming in ethical and social terms, their purpose was to integrate everything in the universe into the grand, hierarchical vision of tawÁâd. It was self-evident to them that the intellect within us—the intelligent and intelligible light of the soul—is the highest and most comprehensive dimension of the human substance. The intellect alone can see, understand, verify, and realize. The intellect alone gives life, awareness and understanding not only to our own souls, but to all souls. The intellect alone is able to grasp and realize the purpose of human life and all life.
What then is this intellect that is the fountainhead and goal of intellectual learning? To define it is impossible, because it is intellect that provides all the awareness and understanding that allows for definitions. It cannot be limited and confined by its own radiance. However, we can describe it in terms of its role in cosmogenesis, whereby all things are created through it. And we can also depict it in terms of the human return to God, which can be experienced in its fullness only by the actualized intellect, which is the self-aware image of God. Let me deal with cosmogenesis first.
The wisdom tradition typically began discussing the birth of the cosmos
in terms of God’s creation or emanation of the first creature, which is given
many names in the texts, such as intellect, spirit, word, pen, light and Muhammadan reality. Things appear from the One Principle in a definite, intelligible order and in keeping with a fixed and known hierarchy (known, that is, to God and the intellect, but not necessarily to us). It was obvious to Muslim thinkers that the One God creates intelligently and that the first manifestation of his reality, the contingent being closest to his unity, the stage of created actuality nearest to his utter and absolute simplicity, is pure intelligence and awareness. Within this awareness is prefigured the universe and the human soul.
This living intelligence is the instrument with which God planned,
ordered, arranged and established all creatures and it lies at the root of every subject and every object. It is a single reality that is the self-aware and self- conscious principle of the universe and the human soul. Among all creatures, humans alone manifest its full and pure light, a light that in Qur’anic language is called “the spirit blown into Adam by God.” The “fall” of Adam
is nothing but the obscuration of this light.
When we look at the intellect from the point of view of the human return to God, we see that the goal of human existence is to remember God and to recollect our own divine images by awakening the intellect within. The task of seekers of wisdom is to recover within themselves the luminous consciousness that fills the universe. This recovery is the fruition and fulfillment of human possibility. Although the intellect is already dimly present in every soul, human or otherwise, in human beings alone is it a seed that can sprout and then be cultivated, nourished, strengthened and fully actualized.
Although the human soul is a knowing and aware subject that has the capacity to take as its object the whole universe and everything within it, it is typically blind to its own possibilities, and it takes on the color of souls that are not fully human. The soul needs to learn how to be human and being human does not come easy to it. Most of us have to be reminded by the
prophets about what being human implies and even budding “intellectuals,”
with all their gifts, have a steep and rocky road ahead to them if they are to
achieve the goal.
The intellectual tradition held that one of the best ways to begin learning how to be human is to differentiate the qualities of the human soul from the qualities of other souls. Here we come back to a discussion of plants and animals, which represent limited and confining possibilities of soulish existence. All the moral injunctions to overcome animal instincts rise up from the understanding that animals cannot manifest the fullness of intellectual and ontological possibility. This is not to denigrate animal qualities, since they also play important roles in the human soul. The issue is rather one of priorities. People need to put things in their proper places. They must order the world and their own goals in an intelligent manner and
this means that they must understand everything in terms of the ruling truths of the cosmos, the first of which is tawÁâd.
The soul, then, is the subjective pole of manifest reality and its counterpart is the universe, the objective pole. The soul in its human form
has the unique capacity to know all things. However, the soul is only the potential to know all things. It is not the actuality of knowing. Actuality is a quality of intellect. Every act of knowing actualises the soul’s potential to know and brings it closer to the intelligent and intelligible light at its core.
But what exactly is the limit of the soul’s potential? What can it know? What
should it strive to know? The intellectual tradition answers that there is no
limit to the soul’s potential, because nothing exists that the soul cannot
know. The goal of learning is to know everything that can possibly be known. However, knowable things need to be prioritised. If we do not search for understanding in the right manner and the correct order, the goal will remain forever unattainable.
As long as the soul remains occupied with the search for wisdom and has not yet actualised its full potential, it remains a soul—that is, an aware self with the possibility of achieving greater awareness. Only when it reaches the actuality of all-knowingness in the inmost centre of its being can it be called
an “intellect” in the proper sense of the word. At that point it comes to know
itself as it was meant to be. It recovers its true nature and it returns to its
proper place in the cosmic hierarchy. 58
The Muslim philosophers and sages often refer to the actualisation of the intellect by the Qur’anic terms “salvation” (naj«t) or “felicity” (sa‘«da). They would agree with Tu Weiming, who writes, “Salvation means the full realization of the anthropocosmic reality inherent in our human nature.” 59
58 The philosophical tradition often calls the human soul a “potential intellect” (‘aql bi ’l- quwwa) or a “hylic intellect” (‘aql hayël«nâ), which is to say that it has the capacity to come to know all things. The soul that has ascended through the stages of actualising its own awareness and achieving its own innate perfection is then called an “actualised intellect” (‘aql bi ’l-fi‘l).
59 Tu, Confucian Thought, p. 64.
For them, this anthropocosmic reality is the intellect that gave birth to macrocosm and microcosm and that is innate to human nature, a nature that is made in the image of God and identical with his intelligent and intelligible light.
If the Muslim philosophers saw the quest for wisdom as the search to know all things, can we conclude that they are simply following Aristotle, who says as much at the beginning of the Metaphysics? I think not. They would say that they are trying to live up to the human potential and if Aristotle also understood the human potential, that is precisely why they respect him and call him “The First Teacher” (al-mu‘allim al-awwal). They
would remind us that the Qur’an discusses the human potential in rather explicit terms. It tells us, after all, that God taught Adam all the names (2:31), not just some of them. They might also point out that this quest for omniscience is implicitly if not explicitly acknowledged not only by all the
world’s wisdom traditions, but also by the whole enterprise of modern science. But, from their perspective, omniscience can only be found in the omniscient and the only created thing that is omniscient in any real sense is the fully actualised intellect, the radiance of God’s own Ipseity. Omniscience, in other words, can never be found in the compilation of data, the collections of facts and the spinning of theories. It is not an “objective” reality, but a “subjective” experience —though no distinction can be drawn between subject and object in the very being of the omniscient.
Nothing differentiates the Islamic intellectual quest from modern scientific and scholarly goals more clearly than the differing interpretations of the quest for omniscience. Both the Muslim intellectuals and modern scientists are striving to know everything, but the Muslim intellectual does so by looking at roots, principles and noumena and by striving for synthesis and the unity of the knowing subject. In contrast the modern scientist looks at branches, applications and phenomena and strives to analyse objects and multiply data.
The traditional intellectual undertakes the quest for omniscience as an individual who knows that he must accomplish the task within himself and that he can only do so by achieving the fullness of humanity, with everything that this demands ethically and morally. The modern scientist undertakes a quest for facts and information as a collective undertaking, knowing that he is one insignificant cog in an enormously complex apparatus. He sees omniscience as something that can be achieved only by Science with a capital S, for Science alone has uniquely privileged methodologies and brilliantly sophisticated instruments. He rarely gives a thought to the possibility that every knowledge makes ethical demands upon the knower. If he does give a thought to it, he does so not as a scientist, but as an ethicist or a philosopher or a religious believer. There is no room in Science for ethics.
Traditional seekers of
wisdom aim
to actualise the
potential of
intelligence in order to understand everything that is significant for human ends and these ends are defined in terms of a metaphysics, a cosmology, a psychology and an ethics that takes Ultimate Reality as the measure of man. Modern seekers of facts aim to accumulate information and to devise ever
more sophisticated theories in order to achieve what they call “progress.” In
other words, they want to achieve a transformation of the human race on the
basis of scientific pseudo-absolutes if not political ideology.
The quest for wisdom is qualitative, because it aims at the actualisation of all the qualities present fully in the divine image and named by the names of God. The modern quest for knowledge and theoretical prowess is quantitative, because it aims to understand and control an ever-proliferating multiplicity of things.
The more the traditional intellectual searches for omniscience, the more he finds the unity of his own soul and his own organismic interrelationship with the world. The more the modern scientist searches for data, the more he is pulled into dispersion and incoherence, despite his claims that overarching theories will one day explain everything.
The traditional quest for wisdom leads to integration, synthesis, and a global, anthropocosmic vision. The modern quest for information and control leads to mushrooming piles of facts and the proliferation of ever more specialized and narrower fields of learning. The net result of the modern quest is particularization, division, partition, separation, incoherence, mutual incomprehension and chaos. No one knows the truth of this statement better than university professors, who are often so narrowly specialized that they cannot explain their research to their own colleagues in their own departments—much less to colleagues in other departments.
Let me recapitulate my conclusions as follows:
For the Islamic intellectual tradition, the study of the universe was a two- pronged, holistic enterprise. In one respect its aim was to depict and describe the world of appearances. In another respect its goal was to grasp the innermost reality of both the appearances and the knower of the appearances. The great masters of the discipline always recognized that it is impossible to understand external objects without understanding the subject that understands. This meant that metaphysics, cosmology and psychology were essential parts of the intellectual quest. The goal was to see earthly appearances, intelligible principles and the intelligent self in one integrated and simultaneous vision. It was understood that intelligence is not only that which grasps and comprehends the real nature of things, but also that which gives birth to things in the first place. Everything knowable is already latent within intelligence, because all things appear from intelligence in the cosmogenic process.
The anthropocosmic vision allowed for no real dichotomy between the subject that knows and the object that is known. The structure and goals of
the intellectual enterprise precluded losing sight of the ontological link that binds the two. To do so would be to forget tawÁâd and to fall into the chaos of dispersion and egocentricity. Ignorance of the reality of the knower leads to using knowledge as a means to achieve illusory ends and ignorance of the reality of the known turns the world into things and objects that can be manipulated for goals cut off from any vision of true human nature.
The possibilities of human understanding define the possibilities of human becoming. To know is to be. To ignore the reality of either the object or the subject is to fall into foolishness, error and superstition. An impoverished and flattened universe is the mirror image of an impoverished and flattened soul. The death of God is nothing but the stultification of the human intellect. Ecological catastrophe is the inevitable consequence of psychic and spiritual dissolution. The world and the self are not two separate realities, but two sides of the same coin, a coin that was minted in the image of God.
RESPONSE TO “THE
ANTHROPOCOSMIC VISION IN ISLAMIC
M. S. UMAR
t is now more than a decade that I was introduced to the writings I /translations of Dr. William C. Chittick. A decade of admiration and
“distance learning” is a formidable barrier that may take away the edge from
one’s objectivity and sense of proportion. I do not, therefore, consider my selection for responding to Dr. Chittick’s article as the best choice. 60 The observations are, however, detailed in the following.
In the early decades of this century René Guénon, the brilliant French traditionalist and metaphysician, had pointed out that “The civilization of the
modern West appears in history as a veritable anomaly
Other voices joined him. Huston Smith formulated it with reference to Western thought and suggested that somewhere, during the course of its historical development, western thought took a sharp turn in another direction. It branched off as a tangent from the collective heritage of all humanity and claimed the autonomy of reason. It chose to follow that reason alone, unguided by revelation and cut off from the Intellect that was regarded as its transcendent root. 62 Political and social realms quickly followed suit.
60 The paper of Dr. Chittick and the response were presented at the International Conference on God, Life and Cosmos: Theistic Perspectives, Islamabad, November, 2000. It was an exciting event in the history of science and religion discourse bringing together a selected group of scholars to Islamabad for three days. There were Christian-Muslim positions on similar subjects, there were papers on cosmology, evolution, methodology, genetics, neuroscience and other major fields. All papers are now available at www.kalam.org.
61 Rene Guenon, East and West, Luzac, 1925.
62 See Martin Lings, “Intellect and Reason” in Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions, rpt. (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 1988, 57-68; F. Schuon, Gnosis Divine Wisdom London: J. Murray, 1978, 93-99; S. H. Nasr, “Knowledge and its Desacralization” in Knowledge and the Sacred (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981, 1-64; Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth (San
Focusing on the ravages of this tendency in the realm of Western philosophy he observed, “the deepest reason for the current crisis in philosophy is its realization that autonomous reason – reason without infusions that both power and vector it – is helpless. By itself, reason can deliver nothing apodictic. Working (as it necessarily must) with variables, variables are all it can come up with. The Enlightenment’s “natural light of reason” turns out to have been a myth. Reason is not itself a light. It is more like a transformer that does useful things but on condition that it is hitched to a generator.
Clearly aware of reasons’ contingency, medieval philosophy attached itself to theology as its handmaiden. Earlier, Plato too had accepted reason’s contingency and grounded his philosophy in intuitions that are discernible by the “eye of the soul” but not by reason without it. In the seventeenth century, thought, responding to the advent of modern science with the controlled experiment as its new and powerful way of getting at truth, philosophy unplugged from theology. Bacon and Comte were ready to re- plug it at once, this time into science, but there were frequencies science still couldn’t register, so philosophy took off on its own.” 63
Dr. Chittick’s often elucidated the same point with reference to various
aspects of the Islamic Tradition in his earlier works. But lately he has brought this issue to the centre stage in a series of articles written in his remarkably perspicacious and penetrating manner. His present exposition focuses on the
salient differences of the Islamic thought, especially in its wisdom-tradition- form, with the theo-centric and anthropocentric worldviews of the modern Western thought. The overarching worldview that informs the Islamic tradition and more particularly its wisdom tradition is encapsulated in the expression “anthropocosmic vision”. Throughout his exposition he has treated the Islamic intellectual tradition as a monolithic whole without taking into consideration the differences that exist between the various perspectives of the Islamic intellectual tradition, the differences about which he himself has presented penetrating studies in his earlier writings. Perhaps he regards it
Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992), 60-95. Also see his Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989). 63 Huston Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989, p.89.
more opportune for the purpose of the present discussion. One could also
think of another reason for it. All Islamic thinking, especially the intellectual
tradition, shares the “anthropocosmic vision” to such an extent that it was
unnecessary to differentiate between, say, the philosophers and the Sufi epistemology in this respect. But during the course of his exposition it becomes clear that the perspective that he has foremost in his mind is that of the philosophers. For example when he says, “They never saw their efforts as opposed to the goals and purposes of the religious tradition. They accepted that the prophets came to remind people of tawÁâd and to teach them how to be human. However, they also believed that the commoners had one path to follow, and the philosophical elite, because of their specific gifts and aptitudes, had another path. It was perhaps the attitude of keeping aloof from religious dogma and counting the theologians and jurists as commoners that often led to their being severely criticised by other Muslims.” 64 This is a typical example of the philosophic perspective. Did the Sufis share it and did it bring them under attack from the theologians? I think not.
The same thing is evident from other places as well e.g. “Although some philosophers paid scant attention to the transmitted learning and looked upon the dogmatic theologians with something akin to contempt, they did not step outside of the Islamic tradition, because they could not doubt the universal and ahistorical axiom upon which it is built. In other words, there was no historical chink in their intellectual armour. Historical contingencies cannot touch tawÁâd, because, once it is grasped, it is seen as a self-evident truth so foundational that it becomes the unique certainty upon which the soul can always depend.” 65
In his earlier expositions he made it clear that the basic questions, the issues and the objects of investigation were the same for the theologians, the Sufis and the philosophers; the differences arising from their respective methodology, manners of approach and their perspectives that were brought to bear upon the issues. Secondly, he always advocated the subordinate role of discursive reasoning in the Islamic perspective, emphasising the fact that autonomous reason is an anomaly and the human mind can not spin the basic data from its own substance. It has to rely on objective criteria. Against this back ground when we read that “this approach has discussed the significance of
64 Chitick, p. 4.
65 Ckittick, p. 5.
being and becoming without presupposing faith in Islamic dogma, so its language can easily be understood outside the context of specifically Islamic imagery” 66 it does not become clear that whether one is being told about the Muslim thinkers or their prospective readers? Similar is the case when we read, “the Muslim intellectuals did not depend on revelation and transmission for their understanding of tawÁâd, so
theological squabbles and historical uncertainties could not be taken as serious issues” 67 . The notes at the end clarify a little but the uninitiated reader would find it difficult to reach the conclusion.
On the other hand the readers that are uninitiated in the Christian tradition would feel that his view of Christianity (p. 2) needs further elucidation. Is
there anything like that in existence in reality and is it possible for us to speak of Christianity as such, especially in the contemporary world where there are so many strands, and they are all strong in their points of view. Moreover,
Incarnation, that is cited as an example of “transmitted learning” (3rd para,
page. 2), is not accepted by all sects of Christians.
But there is another point here: the glorified position of the Islamic intellectual tradition that Dr. Chittick presents here. Is it a reality; can find anything like that in literature? My questions may have their origin in my ignorance but the problem is that, at the face of it, I feel that it verges on a romantic approach towards the intellectual tradition.
There is a reference to the decline “ p. 7: Would you not say that there was
a decline in the intellectual tradition, not to speak of sciences
how one construes it
.... yes, one can debate on the timings of this etc. but to
one only needs to look
... deny the decline is historically not correct, I think
... around to grasp that terrible reality. His explanations that come in the notes
endorse it but the text remains in the “romantic domain”. The notes read, “I am not denying that there was a decline. I am simply saying that by making the criterion
for measurement “scientific progress” or the lack of it, we are accepting the ideological
presuppositions of scientism. Why should this historical oddity be considered the universal
criterion by which all civilisations should be measured? If we keep in view Islamic criteria
(e.g., adherence to tawÁâd, the Qur’an, and the Sunnah), there was certainly a serious
decline in Islamic civilisation, especially in the intellectual tradition, but it began much later
than historians typically maintain.”
As for the main idea of the article it is excellently elucidated and focuses our attention on the core issue of the conceptual underpinnings of the modern Western science as contrasted with the vision that informed the Islamic tradition. It was a vision not peculiar to it but a shared heritage of all humanity.
SOMEWHERE, DURING THE COURSE OF ITS HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT, WESTERN THOUGHT TOOK A SHARP TURN IN ANOTHER DIRECTION. IT BRANCHED OFF AS A TANGENT FROM THE COLLECTIVE HERITAGE OF ALL HUMANITY AND CLAIMED THE AUTONOMY OF REASON. IT CHOSE TO FOLLOW THAT REASON ALONE, UNGUIDED BY REVELATION AND CUT OFF FROM THE INTELLECT THAT WAS REGARDED AS ITS TRANSCENDENT ROOT. 68 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL REALMS QUICKLY FOLLOWED SUIT. AUTONOMOUS STATECRAFT AND EXCESSIVE INDIVIDUALISM IN THE SOCIAL ORDER WERE THE ELEMENTS THAT SHAPED A DOMINANT PARADIGM THAT DID NOT PROVE SUCCESSFUL. 69 A FEW CENTURIES OF UNBRIDLED ACTIVITY LED WESTERN PHILOSOPHY TO AN IMPASSE. 70
COMMENTING UPON THE SITUATION, HUSTON SMITH REMARKED, “THE DEEPEST REASON FOR THE CRISIS IN PHILOSOPHY IS ITS REALIZATION THAT AUTONOMOUS REASON--REASON WITHOUT INFUSIONS THAT BOTH POWER AND VECTOR IT--IS HELPLESS. BY ITSELF, REASON CAN DELIVER NOTHING APODICTIC. WORKING, AS IT NECESSARILY MUST, WITH VARIABLES, VARIABLES ARE ALL IT CAN COME UP WITH. THE ENLIGHTENMENT'S “NATURAL LIGHT OF REASON” TURNS OUT TO HAVE BEEN A MYTH. REASON
68 See Martin Lings, “Intellect and Reason” in Ancient Beliefs and Modern Superstitions, rpt. (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 1988, 57-68; F. Schuon, Gnosis Divine Wisdom London: J. Murray, 1978, 93-99; S. H. Nasr, “Knowledge and its Desacralization” in Knowledge and the Sacred (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1981, 1-64; Huston Smith, Forgotten Truth (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1992), 60-95. Also see his Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, Wheaton: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989).
69 See René Guenon, “Individualism” in Crisis of the Modern World, (Lahore: Suhail Academy, 1981, 51-65. Also see Social Chaos” in the same document.
70 For a few representative writings that indicate this situation, see “Scientism, Pragmatism and the Fate of Philosophy, Inquiry, No. 29, p. 278, cf. Huston Smith, Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, loc. cit. p. 142; Hilary Putnam, “After Empiricism” in Behaviorism, 16:1 (Spring 1988); Alasdair MacIntrye, “Philosophy; Past Conflict and Future Direction,” Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, Supplement to 16/1, (September 1987); also see Proceedings of the American Philosophical Association, Vol. 59 (1986), and Kenneth Baynes et al., Philosophy: End or Transformation? (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1987).
IS NOT ITSELF A LIGHT. IT IS MORE THAN A CONDUCTOR, FOR IT DOES MORE THAN TRANSMIT. IT SEEMS TO RESEMBLE AN ADAPTER WHICH MAKES USEFUL TRANSLATIONS BUT ON CONDITION THAT IT IS POWERED BY A GENERATOR.” 71 THE NATURE AND DIRECTION OF THESE “INFUSIONS” IS STILL BEING DEBATED. 72
A SIMILAR AWARENESS COULD BE DISCERNED IN THE ARENA OF POLITICS, HUMANITIES, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES. THE IMPASSE, THOUGH WITH DIFFERENT IMPLICATIONS, WAS REACHED BY THE PARALLEL PARADIGM OF AUTONOMOUS POLITICS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES WHICH HAD REFUSED TO ACCEPT ANY “INFUSION” FROM A HIGHER DOMAIN. THIS TIME THE NEED FOR A REVISION OF THE PARADIGM WAS FELT IN THE UNITED NATIONS ITSELF. THE AWARENESS MATERIALIZED IN THE CONVENING OF THE WORLD SUMMIT FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT, IN COPENHAGEN IN MARCH 1995. THE AGENDA
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(Un)Covered: Shape of You
Ed Sheeran vs UMC By Sam Devotta | August 30, 2017 at 1:00 PM
Writers: Ed Sheeran, Steve Mac, Johnny McDaid, Kandi Burruss, Tameka Cottle, Kevin Briggs
Original Release Date: January 6, 2017
If you’ve ever wondered what Ed Sheeran would sound like if he was in a metal band (who hasn’t?), you’ll be happy to know that such a thing actually exists.
You can’t really escape “Shape of You”, and I’m actually okay with that. Ed Sheeran is usually so mellow (and, let’s be real, often melancholy), so any time he breaks out his dancing shoes, you know you’re in for a good time. This song was actually written with Rihanna in mind, but Sheeran decided to keep it for himself, and it’s proving to be a successful decision—it’s currently the second most streamed song on Spotify (right after Drake’s “One Dance”). I didn’t really notice until people started pointing it out, but the pre-chorus line, “Boy, let’s not talk too much / Grab on my waist and put that body on me” sounds so similar to “No Scrubs”, that Sheeran actually gave co-writing credits to TLC.
A few months ago, Germany-based YouTube duo UMC released a cover of “Shape of You”. UMC prides themselves on producing metal covers of radio hits, and they’ve outdone themselves with this version. Admittedly, the breakdowns make the song come across as more threatening than seductive like the original, but it weirdly works. The roiling drums, heavier guitars, and almost staccato vocals come together so well, you’ll immediately pop over to UMC’s page and spend a ridiculous amount of time listening to their other covers (not that I’ve done that or anything…).
I really like UMC’s cover and enjoy starting a circle pit whenever I listen to it, but honestly, this is Ed Sheeran’s world and we’re just living in it.
Un(Covered)
Fresh Pressed [new music friday] – 113
July 12, 2019 | By Joe DeAndrea
July 5, 2019 | By Joe DeAndrea
June 28, 2019 | By Joe DeAndrea
Film Review: Yesterday
June 26, 2019 | By Sherin Nicole
May 31, 2019 | By Joe DeAndrea
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The Million Dollar Mermaid Swims Out Of Our Lives. All About The Lovely Esther Williams. (35 photos)
Most of my readers are too young to know who Esther Williams was. But if you like bathing beauties, pin-up girls, singing, acting, swimming, big production numbers (Busby Berkeley) and corny romances, you'll want to know more about the legend we just lost at the age of 91.
I grew up watching her beautiful face -predominately smiling at me from underwater- and marveled at her swimming, acting, singing, figure and ability to seemingly do it all submerged in a pool. She aged as gracefully as she swam, a beauty until the very end.
above: Esther William's in Neptune's Daughter, 1949
I've gathered some of my favorite images, facts, movies and more about the Million Dollar Mermaid for your entertainment and education.
"Wet she was a star." --Hollywood producer Joe Pasternak
She was born Esther Jane Williams in Inglewood, CA on Aug. 8, 1921, to Lou, an artist and Bula, a member of the Inglewood Board of Education who helped raise funds for neighborhood school's swimming pool. Esther took to the water at a very early age, earning her first paycheck at the age of eight as a towel girl at a local swimming pool. Her older brother Stanton Williams was the first member of the family to become a star by appearing in a handful of silent films and stage productions before his untimely death at age 16. His sister took the athletic route and gained fame as a teenage swimming champion; by 16, she had earned three national championship titles in freestyle and breaststroke. Eventually, she made the 1940 Olympic swimming team, but her dreams of a medal were dashed by the outbreak of World War II.
Undaunted, she took up part-time work as a model while studying at Los Angeles City College. Theater impresario Billy Rose saw one of her print layouts and immediately contacted her to audition for his Aquacade, an all-singing, all-dancing, all-swimming production at the San Francisco World's Fair. Former Olympic swimming medalist-turned-movie Tarzan, Johnny Weismuller, was the star of the show, and according to showbiz legend, he personally selected her to be his Aquabelle No.1.
Williams' looks and flawless skill with the show's choreographed swimming duets captured the attention of audiences, as well as executives at MGM, who saw a box office bonanza in her abilities. She was quickly signed up for a screen test opposite none other than Clark Gable, the then-reigning King of the Movies. Both the star and the studio liked what they saw, and Williams was signed to a contract. Her movie debut came with a small role in 1942's "Andy Hardy's Double Life," with star Mickey Rooney giving Williams her first screen kiss.
above: Mickey Rooney and Esther Williams on the set of Andy Hardy's Double Life, 1942
Audience response to Williams was overwhelming. She was already a star by her third picture, a Red Skelton comedy originally titled "Mr. Coed" that was transformed into a starring vehicle for Williams and re-dubbed "Bathing Beauty" (1944). A special tank was built at Stage 30 on the MGM lot to accommodate choreographer Busby Berkeley's elaborate water routines. The film's climax, which sees Williams crowned as queen amidst an orgy of smoke, flames, synchronized swimmers and gushing fountains, became one of the most iconic numbers in Hollywood history. The film itself became the third highest-grossing title in MGM's history to that date.
above: Esther Williams in Bathing Beauty, 1944
The film's success led to a 10-year string of aquatic-themed musicals for Williams, each more lavish than its predecessor. There were occasional forays out of the MGM pool, such as 1946's "The Hoodlum Saint," which paired the 24-year-old actress with the 54-year-old William Powell as her love interest, and Berkeley's terrific "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1949), in which baseball players Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly vied for the hand of new owner Williams.
above: Esther Williams publicity still from Hoodlum Saint
above: Esther Williams in Take Me Out To The Ballgame in which Busby Berkeley was sure to give her a swimming scene
But for the most part, audiences preferred seeing Williams in the water in features like "Million Dollar Mermaid" (1953), a biopic about real-life swimming star Annette Kellerman, or "Jupiter's Darling" (1955), which found her in the improbable role of a Roman woman who helps Hannibal (Howard Keel) swim the Tiber River. The aquatic features were challenging and even dangerous - prolonged exposure to the studio tank led to repeated eardrum ruptures, near drownings and a broken neck during a diving sequence for "Mermaid" - but Williams was "America's Mermaid," as the press dubbed her, so she had little choice in the matter.
above: images of Esther in Million Dollar Mermaid
But she was also shrewd enough to realize that her particular brand of musical was limited - there were just so many films that could be built around her swimming routines. She departed MGM as audience demand for their musical product began to dry up, and moved to Universal for her first drama, "The Unguarded Moment" (1956). A lurid melodrama about a high school teacher (Williams) who becomes the object of obsession for a deranged student (John Saxon), the film raised eyebrows with its sexually suggestive subject matter but failed to translate into a lasting dramatic career for Williams. She appeared in several more forgettable features before retiring at the demand of her third husband, actor Fernando Lamas, in the early 1960s.
In the late latter part of that decade, Williams was approached by swimming pool manufacturers, the Delair Group, to license her name to their above-ground models. The decision was a savvy one, and the line became one of the most popular for suburbanites across the United States. Further licensing agreements led to her own line of swimwear for older women, based on the suits she wore in her movies, and a modern line for younger women. All three business decisions proved to be lucrative and popular for the former actress.
above: Esther designing her line of swimwear
above: The Esther Williams Collection of Swimwear, still in business
In 1999, Williams penned her autobiography, The Million Dollar Mermaid , with co-author Digby Diehl. The tome generated a great deal of press for its controversial stories about her love life, which included trysts with co-stars Victor Mature and Jeff Chandler; a revelation about the latter actor's penchant for women's clothing was among the book's most scandalous statements.
Williams also discussed her three marriages (she had a fourth after the book was written), which included loveless unions with a former college classmate and singer/actor Ben Gage, whom she described as an alcoholic spendthrift.
In addition, the book recounted her various struggles with studio heads, fending off the amorous advances of Weismuller and Howard Hughes, and dealing with the egos of co-stars like Gene Kelly and Lamas, who reportedly demanded total servitude from Williams.
Some career milestones:
1941: Signed MGM contract
1942: Film acting debut in "Andy Hardy's Double Life"
1942: First came to attention in her first swimming film, "Bathing Beauty"
1949: Twice made the annual exhibitors' poll of top ten box office stars; placed eighth both years
1955: Last major aqua-musical, "Jupiter's Darling"
1955: Ended MGM contract (date approximate)
1957: Made TV debut in "Lux Video Theatre's The Armed Venus"
1958: Last film for three years, "Raw Wind in Eden"
1961: Made one-shot return to films to play a leading role in "The Big Show"
:Retired from the industry in the early 1960s
1994: Was one of the hosts of the musical compilation documentary "That's Entertainment III"
above: publicity stills of Esther in Pagan Love Song
Husbands/Companions/Lovers:
Hubby #1: Leonard Kovner. Married in 1940; divorced in 1944; met when he was pre med student at USC.
Hubby #2: Ben Gage. Radio announcer. Married in 1945; divorce became final in 1958.
Companion: Jeff Chandler. Actor. Worked together on "Raw Wind in Eden" (1958).
Hubby #3: Fernando Lamas. Actor. Married in two separate ceremonies: a civil ceremony in Europe (some sources say in 1963, others 1967) and one in a church (Founders' Church of Religious Science, near Hollywood) on December 31, 1969; born on January 9, 1915; died in 1982.
Hubby #4: Edward Bell. Businessman. Married on October 24, 1994; met during 1984 Summer Olympics.
10 Fun Facts About Esther
1. She First Gained Fame in California as a Competitive Swimmer.
Born in 1921, Williams started swimming at an early age and quickly distinguished herself for her speed. By 16 she was winning national championships, and by 19 she had shattered records for breast stroke and freestyle. Williams planned on competing in the 1940 Tokyo Olympics, but the event was canceled due to the outbreak of World War II.
2. in 1941, she signed with MGM studios, with whom she began starring in "Aqua-musicals."
In her memoir, Williams said that just a year after the end of her swim racing career she, "walks through the gates of MGM a year later and swims her way to movie stardom." Her first films helped to show off her swimming abilities by prominently featuring her in pools and bathing suits.
3. She appeared in some of the highest-grossing movies of the 1940s and 1950s.
The 1940s and 50s catapulted her to stardom. During this movie she started in movies with Mickey Rooney, Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly, and Frank Sinatra. Many of her films, like Thrill of Romance and Neptune's Daughter were some of the highest grossing films in the years they were made.
above: Esther in Neptune's Daughter, 1949
4. Her nickname was the "Million Dollar Mermaid."
The name of one of her most popular films, Million Dollar Mermaid would stick with her as a nickname for the rest of her life. The 1952 film was a major hit and earned an Academy Award Nomination for Best Cinematography. The nickname also stuck because as her fame grew in the 1940s and 1950s, so too did her income.
5. She left MGM in 1959 and retired from movies in the 1960s.
Her memoir explains that the time period around 1959 was a dark time for her.She had recently gotten a divorce, she suffered from alcoholism and exhaustion, and she found herself in an increasingly fragile mental state. She eventually retired from film.
6. She created a line of swimwear and lent her name to a brand of swimming pools.
Later in her life, Williams helped to create a line of retro-style swimwear like the kind she wore in her hit films. This business, as well as the pool company named after her, helped to keep her busy until her death.
Vintage Cole of California Esther Williams Swimwear ads:
7. She served as a commentator during the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
In 1984 she served as a commentator for swimming events, specifically synchronized swimming, in the Los Angeles olympics. According to a New York Times interview, she had a face lift before the event to look her best.
8. She was married four times, the last marriage being to Edward Bell. She had three children: Benjamin Gage, Born in 1949; Kimbell Gage, Born in 1950 and Susan Gage, Born in 1953.
9. In 1959, Cary Grant claims he used LSD with Williams, she confirmed this in her autobiography.
10. She suffered a stroke in 2007.
some of the above 10 facts are courtesy of Heavy
Her complete filmography:
1. Busby Berkeley: Going Through The Roof (1998) as Interviewee.
2. That's Entertainment! III (1994) as Host; Song Performer.
3. MGM: When the Lion Roars (1992)
4. The Big Show (1961) as Hillary Allen .
5. Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958) as "Sheila Brooks" from Andy Hardy's Double Life .
6. Raw Wind in Eden (1958) as Laura .
7. The Unguarded Moment (1956) as Lois Conway .
8. Jupiter's Darling (1955) as Amytis .
9. Easy to Love (1953) as Julie Hallerton .
10. Dangerous When Wet (1953) as Katy [Higgins] .
11. Skirts Ahoy! (1952) as Whitney Young.
12. Million Dollar Mermaid (1952) as Annette Kellerman .
13. Texas Carnival (1951) as Debbie Telford .
14. Callaway Went Thataway (1951) as .
15. Duchess of Idaho (1950) as Christine Riverton Duncan .
16. Pagan Love Song (1950) as Mimi Bennett .
17. Neptune's Daughter (1949) as Eve Barrett .
18. Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949) as K. C. Higgins .
19. On an Island with You (1948) as Rosalind Rennolds .
20. Fiesta (1947) as Maria Morales .
21. This Time for Keeps (1947) as Leonora "Nora" Cambaretti .
22. Till the Clouds Roll By (1947) as Movie star .
23. The Hoodlum Saint (1946) as Kay Lorrison .
24. Ziegfeld Follies (1946) as Dancer in "A Water Ballet" .
25. Easy to Wed (1946) as Connie Allenbury .
26. Thrill of a Romance (1945) as Cynthia Glenn .
27. Bathing Beauty (1944) as Caroline Brooks .
28. A Guy Named Joe (1944) as Ellen Bright .
29. Andy Hardy's Double Life (1942) as Sheila Brooks .
Cast (special)
30. Glorious Technicolor (1998) as Interviewee.
31. Golden Globe's 50th Anniversary Celebration, The (1994)
32. Stars and Stripes: Hollywood and World War II (1991)
33. 48th Annual Golden Globe Awards, The (1991) as Presenter.
34. Thalians, The (1991)
35. Happy Birthday, Hollywood! (1987)
36. Esther Williams at Cypress Gardens (1960) as Host.
Cast (short)
37. INFLATION (1943) as Mrs. Smith.
Esther Williams aged beautifully as you can see from these later photos (with the admitted help of a face lift or two):
Esther Williams Movies on Amazon
Purchase her Autobiography:
An Esther Williams Paper Doll Book:
The Million Dollar Mermaid will be missed. Swim In Peace, Esther.
information and images courtesy of IMDB and TCM
Labels: acadamy award winning actresses, celebrity, celebrity death, death, logo pin up girls, movies, news, oscars, swimming pools
Keely said...
What a lovely tribute!! I can't wait to read her book :)
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Mid to Late 1941
Due to war time conditions, these manuals were basically a cut down version of the pre-war manuals, with a reduced number of models and an economy cover. Models 1.41 to 1.48 and 2.22 to 2.25 were deleted. Click here for more details. Main manuals had a reduced number of models from the smaller sets included. Previously the main manuals 1 - 6 had all the models from the smaller manuals included as well.
The July 1941 manuals had a flimsy shiny white cover with green print.
These flimsy covers were replaced in August 1941, with a thicker more substantial cover printed in black and a single colour - Blue for the main outfits and green for the Accessory outfits. The August 1941 copies also have a 'war' sticker posted inside the front cover explaining the Lighting and Car and Aeroplane Constructor sets were no longer available.
Due to paper shortages etc., further manuals could not be printed during the war. Therefore when supplies of the normal manuals ran out, wartime outfits appeared with appropriate surplus manuals from the 1934-37 lettered set era with over-printed covers. These also came with a little sticker explaining the problem.
Page content last updated - 28 October 2011
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< Back to collections by Elliott Erwitt
Elliott Erwitt - USA. Andy WARHOL.
USA. New York City. 1986. American artist Andy WARHOL.
USA. New York City. 1986. Andy WARHOL.
USA. New York City. 1986. American singer/actress Grace JONES and artist Andy WARHOL.
USA. New York City. 1986. Grace JONES and Andy WARHOL.
USA. New York City. 1987. Andy WARHOL with Elliott Erwitt's daughter Amy.
USA. New York City. 1986. Andy WARHOL and Grace JONES.
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< Back to collections by Thomas Hoepker
Thomas Hoepker - USA. NYC. Marathon.
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USA. New York City. Staten Island. November 2, 2003. Thousands of runners make their way over the Verrazan
USA. New York City. November 2, 2003. A runner waits in the "tent city" area with his running gear before
USA. New York City. November 2, 2003. Christina RIPP of Illinois makes her way over the Verrazano Narrows
USA. New York City. A glove remains behind with other articles of clothing on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge after runners crossed for the start of the New York C
USA. New York City. November 2, 2003. Cups litter a Queens street as the back of the pack of runners passe
USA. New York City. November 2, 2003. A runner wears an "I Love New York" breathing strip on her nose befo
USA. New York. 2003. Runners cross the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at the start of the New York City Marathon
USA. Queens, New York. 2003. New York City Marathon.
USA. New York City. November 2, 2003. A group of spectators eat pizza on a Queens sidewalk where they watc
USA. New York City. November 2, 2003. Gatorade cups litter a Queens street as runners pass during the New
USA. New York City. Staten Island. November 2, 2003. Participants rest in "tent city" after being shuttled
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2015 Human Genetics Award Goes to UCLA's Leonid Kruglyak
Dr. Leonid Kruglyak, PhD
Award-winning geneticist Leonid Kruglyak, PhD, didn't start his career in a biology lab. He trained in theoretical physics and honed computational skills that served him well when he switched to human genetics research in 1993.
"The Human Genome Project was just ramping up, and it was really interesting stuff," says Dr. Kruglyak, professor of human genetics and biological chemistry in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. "It was clear the field would need more mathematical and quantitative expertise, and I thought I could make a real contribution."
Kruglyak was right; in the past 20 years, his work has been cited more than 40,000 times in scientific literature. He personally has received numerous awards as well. Most recently, the American Society of Human Genetics honored him with the 2015 Curt Stern Award for outstanding scientific achievements over the past decade.
Receiving this award has been gratifying and humbling for Dr. Kruglyak. "Scientists spend many years doing work we hope is having an impact," he explains. "But we know lots of other people are doing important work, too. Being singled out by my colleagues means a lot to me."
Here's why Dr. Kruglyak is considered a pioneer in human genetics, and what's next for this award-winning researcher.
From providing answers to asking questions
Dr. Kruglyak has devoted his career to understanding how changes in genes lead to differences between individuals, and how genetic information ultimately passes through generations. His earliest achievements weren't about asking those questions, but about giving other scientists the tools to answer them.
In the mid-1990s, he developed algorithms for GENEHUNTER, a computer program that allowed geneticists to analyze complex data sets from human families that carry genetic diseases. He published several key papers on this concept, including a controversial prediction about the number of genetic markers required for genome-wide association studies in humans.
"My number was much higher than people thought was necessary or practical at the time," Dr. Kruglyak says. "Some insisted I was wrong. Others thought that even if I was right, putting such a daunting number out there might slow down the field. But the opposite happened. A number of practical projects sprang up. My prediction was largely validated, and the types of studies that people thought would be impossible based on that number are now routine in the field."
Although Dr. Kruglyak lists these among his proudest accomplishments, he eventually shifted focus and opened his first experimental lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. In 2002, he published the results of his groundbreaking work on gene expression (eQTL analysis).
"I originally considered myself a technology guy," Dr. Kruglyak admits. "I had the skill set to attack problems mathematically in a way that would help other geneticists who were asking scientific questions. This was really a shift in my career — from thinking about how I could help other people answer questions, to thinking about what questions I wanted to ask."
The Kruglyak Lab at UCLA
Today, Dr. Kruglyak asks questions in his laboratory at UCLA, where he's using the baker's yeast "Saccharomyces cerevisiae" and the roundworm "Caenorhabditis elegans" as models for studying complex genetic variation.
"One of the maxims in physics is to study phenomena in the simplest possible system," Dr. Kruglyak explains. "All the complex inheritance patterns we want to understand in people also take place in yeast, but its genome is 300 times smaller than the human genome, and the biology of its genes is better understood, so we can make more sense of the information."
Dr. Kruglyak's team is trying to get the most comprehensive picture possible of how genetic inheritance works, using state-of-the-art technology. "This has been a golden age in technology development, and UCLA has made significant investments in human genetics and genomics. We can do experiments today that five years ago would have been pure science fiction, and we'll be able to do even more far-out ones in the next five years," he says.
By Taylor Mallory Holland
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Here are some of my favourite film and TV events from 2018.
Released in 2017, but first bought by me this year, David Lowery’s A Ghost Story is by far my favourite film of the year.
A lot of people seem to have been put off by the pace of the film (especially THAT scene) but for me this is one of the highlights. The slow pace, and periods of everyday life add to the feeling of reality, which makes the loss and grief all the more palpable.
Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara are perfectly cast, and offer sympathetic portrayals of their characters. The soundtrack by Daniel Hart adds so much depth to the film, which is one I have returned to regularly this year.
Buy A Ghost Story on Amazon
Threads (remastered)
First broadcast in September 1984 on BBC2, Threads is the most harrowing depiction of nuclear war ever committed to film.
Written by Barry Hines and directed by Mick Jackson, Threads covers the growing tension in the weeks leading up to war, the attack itself and the bleak years of nuclear winter that follow.
The major nations nuclear weapons are even more powerful today, but I still think this film should be shown to all world leaders to give them a glimpse into what they would unleash by pressing that button.
This 2-disc set presents the original film remastered in 2k from the original BBC prints. It is available in HD on Blu-Ray for the very first time in the UK, and includes the world premiere of the director-approved widescreen edition. It’s difficult to watch, but Threads is a piece of British TV history.
Buy Threads (remastered) on Amazon
Hereditary is the directorial debut from Ari Aster, and there is not much I can say about the film without dishing out major plot spoilers, but the film has the feel of the classic 70s horror flicks, which is always a good thing in my eyes.
Buy Hereditary on Amazon
Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water features Sally Hawkins and Michael Shannon in a story that seems to reference 1950’s creature movies, particularly Creature from the Black Lagoon, and is a surprisingly moving experience. The visuals are stunning and for once, the monster is not the enemy.
Buy The Shape of Water on Amazon
Killing Eve was broadcast at the same time as Bodyguard, and although it did not achieve the same attention in the press, I found it to be the more rewarding and enjoyable of the two Autumn TV dramas.
I loved the dry, emotionless portrayal of the assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) alongside the equally strong performance from Sandra Oh as Eve Polastri.
Buy Killing Eve on Amazon
Season 4 was a strong collection – with my favourites being the Jodie Foster directed Arkangel and Hang the DJ which is up there with San Junipero (from Season 3) as Black Mirror highlights for me.
I’m writing this with my head in a mess after watching the premiere of Bandersnatch, the first interactive (and a rare feature length) Black Mirror episode.
Hopefully we will get a new, full series of Black Mirror in 2019.
Buy Black Mirror Season 4 on Amazon
The Deuce Season 2
Season 2 of HBO’s The Deuce was set in the years 1977 -1978, so the series had a wonderful, mostly new wave and disco, soundtrack along with a new theme tune, a re-imagining of This Year’s Girl by Elvis Costello with Natalie Bergman on co-vocals.
Season 2 saw some of the characters becoming more independent and powerful, but also saw three main characters die. The third and final season of The Deuce will hopefully air in September 2019.
Season 2 is now available on bluray. Season 1 is also available here.
Here’s to a great year of film and TV in 2019. You can read my 2018 end of year music favourites here.
Tags: A Ghost Story, Black Mirror, Film, Hereditary, Killing Eve, The Deuce, The Shape of Water, Threads, Threads remastered, TV
Categories : Film review, TV review
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Adaptive Throwing Sports: Discus, Javelin, Shot Put, and Boccia
Les Autres (“The Others,” including dwarfism and multiple sclerosis)
The International Paralympic Committee Classification Code provides a universal template for further sub-classification within each sport that takes into account both the anatomical and functional limitations of the athlete. The purpose of subclassification is to allow for even competition by categorizing athletes in reference to the total impact of their impairment(s) [ 1 ]. Generally speaking, the greater the degree of disability present, the lower the athlete’s classification.
Field Events: Discus, Javelin, and Shot Put
In the sports of discus, javelin, and shot put, the goal is to hurl, throw, or put an object as far as possible. In the adaptive form of these sports, the distance is then converted to a score based on the athlete’s classification, thus allowing for fair competition among athletes with differing levels of impairment. Athletes participating in all field events, including discus, javelin, and shot put, are classified in the F10s through F50s. The “F” stands for “field,” and the number that follows signifies level of disability. The F10s are athletes with visual impairments; the F20s are athletes with intellectual impairment; the F30s are athletes with varying degrees of motor dysfunction, including cerebral palsy; the F40s are athletes with short stature, limb deficiencies, or amputations; and the F50s are wheelchair athletes, including tetraplegics and paraplegics [ 2 ]. As previously mentioned, the lower the classification number within each grouping, the greater the degree of disability. For more details on the classifications, see Table 24.2.
Table 24.2
Field classifications for discus, javelin, and shot put [ 2 ]
No light perception or small amount of light perception but incapable of recognizing the shape of a hand at any distance or in any direction
Can recognize shape of hand and perceive clearly up to 20/600. Visual field is <5°
Can recognize shape of hand and perceive clearly >20/600 but ≤20/200. Visual field is >5° but <20°
IQ <75, with significant limitations in adaptive behavior, and age of onset before 18 years old
Athetosis, ataxia, and/or hypertonia. Compete in seated position. Demonstrate increasing trunk and upper extremity control from 31 to 34
Athetosis, ataxia, and/or hypertonia. Compete standing. Moderate dysfunction of lower limbs, good functional strength in upper limbs
Athetosis, ataxia, and/or hypertonia. Compete standing. Involuntary movement affects all four limbs, cannot remain still
Athetosis, ataxia, and/or hypertonia. Compete standing. Movement/coordination difficulties affect non-dominant side of the body
Athetosis, ataxia, and/or hypertonia. Compete standing. Minimal functional loss, generally affecting only one limb
Single side above knee amputation (AKA) + arm deficiency. Compete standing
Double below knee amputation (BKA). Compete standing
Single BKA. Compete standing
Double above or below elbow amputation
Single above or below elbow amputation
No leg or trunk function. Demonstrate increasing degrees of shoulder, arm, and hand function from 51 to 54. Includes tetraplegics
Upper limb function intact. Demonstrate increasing degrees of trunk and leg function from 55 to 58
Adaptive Discus
The purpose of discus is to throw a circular biconvex disk as far as possible from a designated circular throwing area. In an able-bodied throw, the athlete begins by facing away from the throwing field before forcefully spinning 1.5 times and then releasing the discus in a sidearm fashion, allowing the discus to spin off the fingers. In adaptive discus, some of the standing athletes use the able-bodied spin technique (see Fig. 24.1), while others use a more stationary standing technique, relying solely on trunk and upper extremity rotation to generate torque. The seated athletes also rely solely on trunk and upper extremity rotation as they throw from a stationary throwing frame. In both able-bodied and adaptive discus, all throws are made from a caged enclosure designed to prevent errant throws from traveling toward spectators or other participants. For a throw to count, the discus must land within a marked landing sector. The actual discuses used in adaptive sport weigh between 0.750 and 2 kg, depending on the classification, as compared to the able-bodied population which uses 1 kg discuses for women and 2 kg discuses for men [ 2 , 3 ].
An F44 discus thrower (Photograph provided by the United States Olympic Committee. Photograph by Joe Kusumoto)
Adaptive Javelin
The purpose of javelin is to throw the spear-like javelin as far as possible from a designated throwing area. A runway leads up to the throwing area, and able-bodied athletes will run up this track before launching the javelin. The javelin is held by a single hand at the grip site near the center of the javelin and must be thrown over the shoulder or upper part of the throwing arm. For a throw to count, the tip of the javelin must be the first part to land on the ground within the marked landing sector. In adaptive javelin, the standing athletes use the runway just as the able-bodied athletes do, while the seated athletes throw from a stationary throwing frame (see Fig. 24.2). The actual javelins used in adaptive sport are 2.0–2.7 m in length and weigh between 500 and 800 g, depending on the classification. Comparatively in the able-bodied population, female competitors use 2.2–2.3 m javelins that weigh 600 g and male competitors use 2.6–2.7 m javelins that weigh 800 g [ 2 , 4 ].
An F58 javelin thrower (Photograph provided by the United States Olympic Committee. Photograph by Becky Miller)
Adaptive Shot Put
The purpose of shot put is to throw a spherical metal shot as far as possible from a designated circular throwing area. The shot is held in close proximity to the neck/chin region and cannot be dropped below this position during the throw. In an able-bodied throw, or put, the athlete begins by facing away from the throwing field, just like discus. From here, the athlete may execute one of two force-generating techniques, the “spin” or the “glide.” The “spin” is essentially the same as the discus technique, with the athlete forcefully spinning 1.5 times before releasing the shot. The “glide” consists of a forceful turn from the rear-facing position, pushing off the dominant leg, before releasing the shot. The put itself is executed by one hand, in a pushing fashion, with the point of release being above the level of the shoulder. For a put to count, the shot must land within a marked landing sector. In adaptive shot put, the standing athletes use the able-bodied “spin” or “glide” techniques, while the seated athletes put from a stationary throwing frame (see Fig. 24.3). The puts used in adaptive sport weigh between 2.0 and 7.260 kg, depending on the classification, whereas in the able-bodied population, female competitors use a 4.0 kg shot and male competitors use a 7.260 kg shot [ 2 , 5 ].
An F57 shot putter (Photograph provided by the United States Olympic Committee. Photograph by Becky Miller)
A BC 3 boccia athlete (Photograph provided by the United States Olympic Committee. Photograph by Shelly Higgins)
Boccia is the adaptive sport equivalent of bocce. It was originally developed for athletes with cerebral palsy but is now inclusive of athletes of other impairment groups including stroke, traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal cord injury (SCI), muscular dystrophy, and multiple sclerosis. It is played indoors on a flat, smooth surface and features individual as well as team play. Each individual, or team, has six leather balls (either red or blue), and the purpose is to land the ball as close as possible to the “Jack” or white target ball. To begin the game, or match, the red individual (or team) throws the Jack out onto the court. Athletes, depending on their impairments, are permitted to throw, kick, or use an assistive device known as a pointer to propel the ball from a designated throwing area. After throwing the Jack, that same player then throws his or her first red ball toward the Jack. Blue then throws their first ball. Whichever ball is closer to the Jack identifies the “in team.” The “in team” watches as the other team throws their balls one by one until they either displace the “in team” or run out of balls, after which the other team resumes throwing. A round, or “end,” is completed after all balls are thrown. At this point, the score is tallied. The individual, or team, that is closest to the Jack will score as many points as they have balls closer to the Jack than their opponent’s closest ball [ 1 , 6 ].
Each match consists of four to six ends depending on the number of players per team (individuals and pairs play four ends, teams of three play six ends). Each player, or team, throws six balls per end (i.e., an individual throws six balls, pairs throw three each, and teams of three throw two each). The winning individual, or team, is the one with the most points at the end. If there’s a tie, a tie-breaker end is played. If at any time during an end the Jack is pushed or rolls out of bounds, the Jack gets placed in the center of the court and the closest ball determines the new “in team” [ 1 , 6 ].
Individual and team play is comprised of seven different divisions, four divisions of individual play and three divisions of team play (two for pairs and one for teams of three). For a description of each division, please see Table 24.3. The actual boccia balls weigh 275 ± 12 g with a circumference of 270 ± 8 mm [ 6 ].
Boccia divisions [ 6 ]
Individual BC 1
Sport assistant may provide assistance to athlete, such as passing athlete the ball, adjusting wheelchair orientation, or shaping the ball, but the athlete must specifically instruct these actions and the assistant must remain in a designated area behind the throwing area
No assistance from a sport assistant is permitted during a match. The referee, however, can provide some assistance, such as handing the athlete a ball that was accidentally dropped
A ramp is used as an assistive device to propel the ball (see Fig. 24.4). A sport assistant can assist in orienting the wheelchair or ramp or can roll the ball, but the athlete must specifically instruct these actions. Also, the assistant cannot look at the court and must keep their back toward the court
Athletes with locomotor disabilities of a non-cerebral origin and athletes that “throw” with their foot instead of their hand. The BC 4 foot players may receive assistance from a sport assistant as the BC 1 players do
Pairs BC 3
At least one of the two players must have cerebral palsy. Otherwise they operate under the same rules as Individual BC 3
Same rules as Individual BC 4
Team (BC 1 or BC 2)
Teams of three composed of BC 1 and BC 2 athletes. There must be at least one BC 1 athlete on the court for each team at all times
Adaptive Equipment
Depending on the athlete’s impairment(s), adaptive equipment may include prosthetic limbs or wheelchairs. Beyond these, the adaptive equipment is more sport specific. As previously mentioned under the field events, seated athletes, specifically F31–34 and F51–58, utilize a throwing frame in discus, javelin, and shot put. The throwing frame is secured to the ground and the seat height cannot exceed 75 cm. Holding bars may be present which can be held by the hand of the non-throwing arm to assist in maintaining balance and generating greater force. There may also be footplates present for added support and stability. Straps can be placed over the thighs and/or pelvis. The use of gloves as an adaptive device to improve grip is permitted for classes F51–53 only [ 2 ].
For boccia, specific adaptive equipment may include ramps and pointers, as previously mentioned. BC 3 athletes who cannot throw or kick the boccia ball are eligible to use ramps and pointers. Ramps are slide-like structures that the boccia ball can be “launched” from, and pointers are devices fixed to the athlete’s head, mouth, or arm to push the ball down the ramp [ 6 ].
Sports Medicine Overview
Like all athletes, adaptive throwers are subject to injury. Many adaptive throwers have unique medical issues related to their underlying health conditions. It is important to be aware of these issues first and foremost. In addition to underlying medical issues, adaptive athletes are at risk for injuries related to both their disability and sport-specific activity.
Unique Medical Issues
Athletes that compete in adaptive sports often have unique medical issues based on the very health conditions that precipitate their impairments and disabilities, particularly the athletes with spinal cord injuries. Regardless of what sport they are participating in, athletes with spinal cord injuries are at varying risk, based on the level of lesion, for developing urinary stones, bladder infections, respiratory infections, pressure sores, and autonomic dysfunction [ 7 – 10 ]. While insensate individuals are at higher risk of pressure sores/ulcers at baseline, there are added risk factors which are pertinent to adaptive athletes that include increased moisture from sweating and repeated movements during sport activity [ 7 , 11 ]. All athletes competing in wheelchairs are potentially subjected to this risk. Therefore, it is important for the athletes to have adequate cushioning of the buttocks, frequent pressure reliefs, high-performance moisture-wicking clothing, and optimal nutrition [ 10 , 11 ]. Autonomic dysfunction, in the form of poor vasoregulation and impaired innervation of sweat glands, places the athlete at risk of hyperthermia, dehydration, and intolerance of environmental extremes, emphasizing the need for proper fluid hydration before, during, and after competition [ 7 , 9 , 10 ]. Another unique medical issue worth noting is the increased seizure risk associated with cerebral palsy. Athletes with cerebral palsy may be at higher risk as the seizure threshold may be lowered through stress encountered during competition, fatigue from training, or dehydration [ 7 ]. It is important to keep these underlying health issues in mind when caring for adaptive athletes.
Injuries by Disability
Underlying disability can predispose the adaptive athlete to specific injury patterns. Generally speaking, upper extremity injuries are more common in wheelchair athletes, while lower extremity injuries are more common in ambulatory disabled athletes [ 8 , 12 – 14 ]. More specifically, a study that looked at the 1996 Paralympics found that among US competitors with soft tissue injuries, wheelchair athletes had a predilection for shoulder, arm-elbow, and forearm-wrist injuries; visually impaired athletes a predilection for hip-thigh, cervicothoracic region, and shoulder injuries; and cerebral palsy athletes a predilection for lumbar region, foot-toe, and ankle injuries [ 14 ]. A separate study that looked at the 2004 Paralympic Games found that injury occurrence was different based on classification, with more injuries occurring among track/field (T/F) 11–13, followed by T/F 40–46, T/F 51–58, T/F 32–38, and finally BC 1–4 [ 15 ].
Among disabled athletes, the wheelchair athlete warrants special mention because of the factor of wheelchair use and the unique risk factor for injury from the wheelchair. Repeated contact with the wheelchair push rims for purposes of propulsion increases the risk of blister formation on the hands and fingers, though this is more common in wheelchair racers. To prevent further irritation, blisters should be treated with petroleum jelly and a tape or gauze dressing, while the use of gloves may prevent blister formation from occurring [ 10 , 11 ].
In addition to blisters, soft tissue injuries and skin lacerations/abrasions are the most prevalent injuries sustained by wheelchair athletes, with estimates of 33% of all injuries being soft tissue injuries [ 10 , 11 , 16 ]. Soft tissue injuries, including strains, sprains, bursitis, tendinopathies, and peripheral nerve entrapments, are most likely to affect the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and hands, with the shoulders being the most commonly affected [ 11 , 17 ]. The risk of shoulder pathology, including rotator cuff impingement, rotator cuff tears, glenohumeral instability, and biceps tendonitis, is unusually high among wheelchair users. Though this risk is essentially the same for wheelchair athletes in general compared to nonathletic wheelchair users, wheelchair athletes competing in overhead sports appear to be at increased risk [ 10 , 17 – 19 ]. Many of these injuries are the result of overuse and correlate with duration of impairment, duration of wheelchair use, and more training hours per week [ 16 – 18 ]. Muscle imbalances of the shoulder girdle may be correlated with wheelchair-related overuse injuries. Training programs should therefore focus on shoulder flexibility and strengthening of the shoulder adductors, internal and external rotators, supraspinatus, pectoralis major, triceps, and anterior deltoid muscles [ 17 , 20 ].
Feb 25, 2018 | Posted by admin in SPORT MEDICINE | Comments Off on Adaptive Throwing Sports: Discus, Javelin, Shot Put, and Boccia
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It is our people who are sitting in the dark because of these cowardly and treacherous attacks, not our occupiers.
Iyad Allawi
Iyad Allawi's quotes
We see an extensive program of dismantling state institutions... These are ingredients for catastrophe.
We are succeeding in Iraq. It's a tough struggle with setbacks, but we are succeeding.
Saddam Hussein's trial would not be public since he could name countries and persons whom he gave money.
We are safer, the region is safer, the world is safer without Saddam.
We are succeeding in Iraq. Thank you, America.
With nearly 20 days until Iraq emerges as a free sovereign state for the first time in more than three decades, terrorists have increasingly targeted our country's infrastructure.
We are losing each day an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is.
These are facts, these are not imaginary things.
There is no executive order; there is no law that can require the American people to form a national community. This we must do as individuals and if we do it as individuals, there is no President of the United States who can veto that decision.
Barbara Jordan
Young people discovering their sexuality must know they walk with a strong tradition and that they are not alone. They have a right to information without being pressured.
DJs and people in the street know what they like.
People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.
Judith Guest
Some people are directors and I think they should stay behind the camera.
We dominated Survivor - there is no way we would not dominate that, too. I can see it already, us making deals with people. That's the best part, and with the Race, it would be even more fun because I've got a lot of tricks up my sleeve.
Rob Mariano
I'm getting a wider circle of fans now. More women, more middle class people.
We must support initiatives that provide clear, concrete measures and milestones that our troops need for defeating the insurgency, building up Iraqi security forces, and handing over Iraq to the Iraqi people.
Sherrod Brown
Yeah, that's what kind of, we get the idea a little bit yeah, because other people from different countries also try as hard as they can to get a medal or a gold medal in the Olympic Games. And you know, if they can work hard, we can work hard as well.
Well concerning the world records that I did, I think it helps a lot to me, yeah. I think it's a very individual thing because I heard some people say, like, oh I don't like it at all. But I definitely, for me it really made a big difference.
My goal is, of course, for this show to do well, and I would love it if people liked it.
Julia Louis Dreyfus
I hate wasting people's time.
Religions get lost as people do.
I also do not like the idea of soft money, these issue ads - people don't know where the money is coming from, millions and millions of dollars outside of the control of a candidate - there's no accountability.
Scott McCallum
The people of England are the most enthusiastic in the world.
Benjamin Disraeli
The avantgarde are people who don't exactly know where they want to go, but are the first to get there.
My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.
It's sometimes shocking to find out what people really believe in.
That's Tommy, this great producer who comes in contact with people and must have a mental library of personnel who are great for this and great for that, and he brought this whole group of musicians to the project that I'd never worked with before.
Rock and rollers can get you the youth buzz, and younger people are fanatical readers.
Sitting at home the way I do, I'd just love the hear from people. It'd be a great help in passing the time.
I guess I strike people as very serious, or very intense.
My parents were amazing people who had no business being together - and they knew it.
Some people don't like competition because it makes them work harder, better.
I took Laura on a trip once where we followed the Immigrant Trail for about six hundred miles. She really learned a lesson. People forget too often how it was back then.
Don't underestimate the people. Let them decide.
Thaksin Shinawatra
I'm lucky enough that directors sometimes seek me out for little projects that people don't even know about, that just surface later on.
We need to begin an all-out diplomatic offensive on Darfur in order to prepare the way for a peacekeeping force that can ensure protection for the people of Darfur.
Kendrick Meek
Our supporters support us for one reason, people pray for us for one reason - because of the healing ministry.
The secret to success is to offend the greatest number of people.
I got to sit down with people who I admired, and have conversations with some of the greatest thinkers and artists and performers. It's a huge privilege for me to be a journalist.
James Daly
Awards were made in Hollywood, in whatever the time it was created. They're to promote each other's movies. You give me an award, I give you an award and people will believe that we are great movies and they'll go to see them. It's still the same.
It may be shocking to some people in this country to realize that, without meaning to do so, they hold views in common with Hitler when they preach discrimination against other religious, racial or economic groups.
Henry A. Wallace
The best part of my carreer is getting to meet so many different people, because I learn so much from everyone.
People always ask me how long somebody can last as long as I've been lasting and continue to keep doing it, so I figured that people didn't really know how to do that.
Personally, I'd never seen a graphic novel. I knew they existed because friends of mine like Jonathan Ross collect them and some very literate and intelligent people really rate the graphic novel as a form.
People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.
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« Over stayed our welcome?
Prophecy Headlines for Tuesday February 28th, 2012 »
Muslims Gone Wild
February 27, 2012 by myblessedhope
Todd had a great commentary this week. It is part of the ongoing up is down, evil is good phenomenon that we are experiencing.
It just amazes me how extreme the contrast is between Christianity and Islam. It plays out every time the same way and yet this world gives Islam a pass and says it’s the Christians or Jews that provoke them.
The real bad guy is this “1984” world are the “Christians” that burned the Korans (accidentally). The Muslims that rioted and killed dozens of people, they were justified.
Let that sink in a minute.
They killed people over the accidental burning of a book! And they are justified?
Todd’s comment of “shouldn’t they be at the Syrian embassy”, I think speaks volumes for the religion. They value a book (not the message in the book, but the book itself, more than human life.
It truly is the opposite of Christianity.
A series of riots has swept over the nation of Afghanistan. Thousands of enraged Afghans have taken to the streets to vent their outrage after U.S. soldiers inadvertently set fire to copies of the Koran when clearing out a library of old books.
More than thirty people have been killed since the unrest began, including four U.S. soldiers. A group of demonstrators tried to attack the U.S. consulate in the city of Herat, setting police vehicles on fire.
We’ve been down this road before. Last year, at least twenty-four people died in protests across Afghanistan after Rev. Terry Jones threatened to burn a Koran outside his Florida church. In 2005, there were violent disturbances over claims of the Koran being mishandled, but those allegations turned out to be false.
Top American officials in Kabul are apologizing profusely for the incident. President Barack Obama has sent a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzai apologizing for the Koran burning.
“I wish to express my deep regret for the reported incident,” Mr. Obama wrote in the letter. “I extend to you and the Afghan people my sincere apologies.”
I am just dumbfounded over the idiocy of this situation. It should be obvious that there was no malice on our part. It’s insane to have the president of the U.S. groveling before people who are incapable of understanding the kindness we gave them. Before the American invasion, the Taliban brutalized the nation. We spend over a trillion dollars on this rat hole, and when we leave in 2014, the Taliban will probably be voted back into power.
GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is the only political person I could find with a reasonable view of this matter. He said a U.S. apology to Afghan authorities for burned Qurans on a military base was “astonishing” and undeserved.
“There seems to be nothing that radical Islamists can do to get Barack Obama’s attention in a negative way, and he is consistently apologizing to people who do not deserve the apology of the president of the United States, period,” Gingrich said.
It’s too bad Muslims are unable to focus their outrage on offenses taking place within their own ranks. The Afghan people should stop by the Syrian embassy and throw a few rocks at it to protest the genocide that President Bashar al-Assad is committing against his own people.
There was another incident of Muslim madness in Jerusalem. Riots broke out on the Temple Mount after a right-wing activist posted online ads with calls to “cleanse the Arabs from the al-Aqsa Mosque.”
After Friday’s prayers, hundreds of worshippers began hurling rocks at the Mughrabi Bridge at the entrance to the Temple Mount, which prompted Israeli police forces to enter the plaza and attempt to scatter the protesters.
Why does the phrase “after Friday’s prayers” always leads to something bad? In America, we don’t call out the riot police every time Christians emerge from Sunday services. There is no justification for murder and mayhem.
The Muslim faith has deep moral flaws that are totally in compatible with Western values. You can’t even trust a follower of Muhammad in our own legal system. Judge Mark Martin, an Iraq war veteran and a convert to Islam, threw out an assault case against a fellow Muslim who choked any atheist posting his religion.
American Atheists’ Pennsylvania State Director Ernest Perce wore a “zombie Muhammad” costume and proclaimed that he was the Prophet Muhammad risen from the dead at the Oct, 11, 2011, event in Mechanicsburg, Pa. A “zombie pope” was also featured in the parade that night. (http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/atheist-choked-by-muslim-and-then/)
Judge Martin is now using his authority to go after Perce. He has threatened to hold him in contempt of court for releasing the recording of him trying to trample on his free-speech rights. Perce claims he had permission to post the audio, and did so because the judge treated him unfairly and showed preferential treatment for the Muslim who attacked him.
It seems clear to me that Muslim appeasement is satanically driven. It’s too illogical to be anything else. What will eventually break the anything-to-please-Islam spell will be a series of disastrous conflicts that these people will drag the world into. Right now, the Iranians are working to generate a war that will easily send oil soaring.
Things would be a lot better in the world if Western leaders had a sterner attitude towards the Muslim world. If you go back over the last two decades and erase any negative event related to Islam, you would be left with a period of amazing tranquility. The Bible already warns about the nature of the children of Ishmael:
“And the angel of the LORD said unto her, Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael; because the LORD hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren” (Genesis 16:11-12).
Click on the article title for a link to full original referenced article.
Posted in Christian Persecution, Days of Noah, Deception, End Times Prophecy, One World Religion | Tagged christian persecution, christianity, days of noah, deception, end times, end times prophecy, islam, koran burning, last days, nearing midnight, one world religion, prophecy, rapture ready |
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MY INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR KRIS JACEN
What’s your name and what genre would you consider your books to be?
Kris Jacen and I’d say my books are gay romance.
Tell me about your book. How did you come up with that (story, angle, idea)?
STEP UP WITH ME is book five in my With Me series. The main characters, Richard “Tank” Martin and Dr. Jack Dillon, were secondary characters in the previous two books and really stepped up in the last book wanting their story. Here’s the blurb:
Richard “Tank” Martin was a big boy from the start. Born weighing over 11 pounds, he didn’t stop growing. When he was in middle school, a football coach took him under his wing and finally explained to him the mystery of calories in, calories out and from then on it was all good for him. At least he thought. Being called to meet with his platoon sergeant and told that he was now part of the Army’s overweight program, sent him into a spin that only his crews can help him out of.
Dr. Jack Dillon thought his life was good and finally settled. Part of an active veterinarian practice, volunteering with a service dog organization, spoiling his sister’s triplets and training in sports jiu-jitsu…the only this missing was a partner. He never thought that his world could be shattered with just a phone call even after being around his military friends.
Tank and Jack have been dancing around each other for months until Tank takes a chance and kisses Jack at their friends’ wedding moving their slow dance into a heated bump and grind. Can these two survive the changes coming their ways together or will all the changes break them apart?
How did you get interested in writing this particular genre (historical novels, mysteries, sci-fi, children’s books, etc.)?
I’ve been editing MM fiction of all types for over eleven years so it fit.
What kind of research did you do for this book?
While I do know quite a bit about the military and the Army in particular, I have had to do research on different facts. I’ve done research on things like “how far is the hospital in Mobile from the bay” or the specific details of a military funeral (I’ve unfortunately been to a few but I wasn’t really paying attention).
Can you tell me about your Series?
I have a series of military romances (book five releases at the end of February 2019). Here’s the series blurb:
Serving in the military is a hard job and even harder for those that love those in uniform. Dealing with deployment to the final respects to a soldier, the military holds tight to their traditions and family formed through it all is the backbone. Someone to help you move a couch or talk you through a PTSD patch at two am. A group of seven — the heptad— have been there done that for each and every one of them.
Jeff “Mackay” MacNamara has been there for his friends when they’ve found love and now they’re there for him in WAIT FOR ME. Danny Glenn thought that he’d lose his connection with his friends but instead, it changes when he falls for Mackay’s brother in EXPLORE WITH ME. The heptad had been there for the Army for over twenty years, maybe it was time to train the next generation to take care of the soldiers; one of those is Carter May, who served with Mackay, helped out Danny and is now learning from Mooney as he falls in love and deals with hatred in LEARN WITH ME. May is forming his own family (the mil crew and civ crew) and one of them, Randolph is extremely protective especially when May’s former best friend shows up. Seems there’s more than meets the eye to Briar Mason and they’ll learn their individual and combined strengths when they face challenges in CHALLENGE ME. Formed and biological families meet and come together to support Tank and Jack as they’ve got to figure out how to STEP UP WITH ME. The last in the series will release in 2019 and readers will get to see the set of twins that first appears in WAIT FOR ME, all grown up and finding their futures and loves.
Do you have a favorite book out of this series?
I think if I had to pick, I’d say LEARN WITH ME (book three). It really touched me when I was writing it. I have two daughters who grew up with daddy leaving and not really understanding so being able to show some of the impact the military has on “military brats” stood out to me.
Where did you get the inspiration/idea for your series?
My husband was in the Army for over 26 years. It’s always seemed to me that there are a lot of stories out there with SEALs or Marines or pilots but not the soldiers. When it came down to I was writing a book (I said for years that I had no interest in writing; I was an editor), I decided that I could educate readers on different aspects of military life that don’t necessarily get and showcase some of the traditions that are honored.
I haven’t really needed to do much research for STEP UP WITH ME.
Was it always meant to become a series?
Absolutely not. I was going to write WAIT FOR ME and then I’d be done but the heptad, the group of soldiers that showed up had different ideas.
What’s a typical working day like for you? When and where do you write? Do you set a daily writing goal?
I don’t really have a typical work day. I write when I’ve got time and I tend to squeeze writing in during breaks at the day job. I don’t set a daily goal until I’m close to my deadline then I try and get at least 2-3k each day. I absolutely can’t write without music playing.
Do you have a new book in the making and if so, what’s the name of your upcoming book?
I’m moving on to the final book in the series, entitled ALWAYS WITH ME. Readers will get to see the twins that I’ve had in each book all grown up and getting their own partners. It’s tentatively scheduled for a May 2019 release.
How important are character names to you in your books? Is there a special meaning to any of the names?
I’m not sure how important the names are. I do try and avoid repeating names. I have so many characters in each of my books and most of the characters have a nickname.
I wrote a Christmas story this past year (SUGAR COOKIES AND COMPUTER CODE) and one of the names is very special to me. A good friend unexpectedly passed as I was writing the story and he never found his forever partner on this plane so I gave him one.
Is there a genre that you’ve been wanting to experiment with?
I’m toying around with writing a romantic suspense around a serial killer, one of the survivors of an attack and the police detective trying to solve it all. But I’m not sure if I can pull it off.
What is the hardest part of writing for you?
The sex scenes. I’m almost terrified of writing something that’s corny or too over the top on accident.
What do you think of book trailers? Do you have a trailer or do you intend to create one for your own book?
I’m not a big book trailer person. If I have one, my PA that takes very good care of me made it and probably showed it to me and I’ve forgotten.
What do you consider to be your best accomplishment?
I’m not sure. I didn’t have the anticipation that some go through. When I wrote the opening scene to WAIT FOR ME, I sent it to Laura Baumbach (the owner/publisher of MLR Press) and her response was “not sure who the author is for this but you better have given them a contract”.
What’s the best thing about being an author?
Having readers tell me that my characters and stories touched them. I had a retired first sergeant tell me that while he read a bunch there were only a few that he needed in print and my LEARN WITH ME was one of them (I signed it for him at GayRomLit 2018 in Virginia).
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Still writing and editing, possibly retired from my day job.
What writing advice do you have for aspiring authors?
I’ve written so many blogs on this subject. The main things that I’d recommend: choose a pen name that people can remember and spell; put your contact information on the first page of your manuscript including your email address (that can be associated with your pen name – babygirl234@whatever.com tells an editor/publisher absolutely who it is); and read, read, read – knowing what is out there when you’re writing is a good thing.
Do you read reviews of your book(s)? Do you respond to them, good or bad? How do you deal with the bad?
I sometimes will look at reviews. I’ve always held that reviews aren’t for the authors, they are for readers. If I respond, I will likely thank the reviewer for taking their time to spend it with my story. Reviewers/Readers have so many options that if they’ve spent time with mine, that’s important. As for dealing with a bad review? Not every book is for every reader; something that one likes, another doesn’t. It’s hard but shaking it off is necessary.
I’m gearing up for ALWAYS WITH ME and just finishing up the last tweaks on STEP UP WITH ME.
Can you give us a few tasty morsels from your work-in-progress?
Here’s a little bit from STEP UP WITH ME where Jack meets his nephew and nieces for the first time. The triplets play a big part in the story.
Tom pulled back and wiped his cheeks on his shoulders before pulling Jack toward the hallway. “Come meet the babies.” Tom pushed open the third door on the left and led Jack in the room. Jack looked over and there was Sandy propped in bed holding a baby with a basinet next to the bed.
“Hey Uncle Jack. Come meet your nephew,” Sandy greeted him holding out the baby. As Jack took the baby in his hands, she said, “Ethan, this is your uncle Jack. He’ll always be there for you and your sisters.”
“Your mama’s a smart woman, Ethan. I will always be there for you.” Jack placed a kiss on the baby’s head before turning toward the basinet. “What are the girls’ names?”
“Faith is on the left and Grace on the right,” Tom said as he stroked their cheeks.
“Hello, princesses. I’m your—”
“Oh hell no! Princess is unacceptable. My girls will know that they are more important for what they do and how they act than how they look. I’m putting a list on the refrigerator.” Jack looked over at Sandy and saw that she was dead serious.
“Okay, no princesses. I’ll find a different nickname for them. For now, hello little ones, I’m your uncle Jack.”
Where did your love of books come from?
I’ve been a reader for as long as I can remember. Always had a book with me throughout high school and college. Both of my parents are huge readers.
Do you have any favorite authors or favorite books?
Within the category of MM — Sean Michael (THREE TO GET READY); Kiernan Kelly’s RIDING HEARTBREAK RIDGE; AKM Miles (SOLDIER), JL Langley (Everything she writes); Susi Hawke’s LEGACY CHRONICLES and LEGACY WARRIORS
Outside of MM – Nora Robert’s INNER HARBOR or her McGregor Series; Suzanne Brockmann’s OVER THE EDGE (it was the first that I can remember with an enlisted service member as the lead character)
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favourite and why?
I love four characters of mine that seem to show up in all my books:
The twins, Camden and Calvin – they just have such an energy about them that they make me smile
Command Sergeant Major Raphael Luna aka Mooney and Luny – the twins’ dad who is a problem fixer and loves to hep
Josiah “Siah” Kent – he’s not in book one but he’s in all the rest; he’s like a grown up version of the twins and grows a lot in his book and the others.
Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?
I’d say original since I tell Army stories with enlisted soldiers instead of officers.
What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?
There is absolutely no way that I can list the authors that I’m friends with. Since I’ve been editing for so long, I’m friends with a number of authors that I feel fortunate that they’re in my life. They push me to not overlook little details in descriptions; they push me to finish a story.
If you were writing a book about your life, what would the title be?
I have a tattoo on my hip that I got just for me and it says “I Can…” because I can do whatever I set my mind to.
Where can your fans find you and follow??
Website www.krisjacen.com.
Amazon: smarturl.it/KrisJacen
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kris-jacen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kris.jacen
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1027160227461354/
Thank you for taking your time to do this interview ❤️
Image · March 8, 2019 March 8, 2019 ·
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Wake’s Claim by Michelle Dare »
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“Without A True Count, There’s Even Less Accountability”: How Many People Are Killed By Police? We’re Only Beginning To Find Out
Amazingly, although people are killed by police virtually every day in the United States, there is no government agency, no bureaucracy, and no database that counts them all. Nor is there any national prayer wall or shrine where images of the dead and their stories are collected in an effort to portray them as individuals.
Last week, almost simultaneously, The Washington Post and The Guardian US unveiled large-scale journalistic projects that tried to supply a comprehensive, independent accounting of citizens killed by police since the beginning of this year. Same story, similar journalistic standards. So far, The Guardian story, with its interactive database linking to photos and stories of the dead, has come closest to filling the shameful gap.
In what Lee Glendinning, the new editor of The Guardian US, called “the most comprehensive public accounting of deadly force in the US,” the site launched “The Counted,” an interactive database of those killed by police since January 1 that includes the names, locations, background, race, means of death—along with, when possible, photos and stories of the dead.
Combining traditional reporting and “verified crowd sourcing,” Glendinning said the idea was to “build on the work on databases already out there,” most of which, she said, “are largely numbers and statistics. We wanted to build on these by telling the stories of these people’s lives, over a whole year, every day, and update them every day.”
Most Americans probably assume that some agency keeps track of the people who have been killed by police, but no such authoritative clearinghouse exists. There are partial counts by various bureaucracies, as well as by organizations like KilledByPolice.net and FatalEncounters.org, but none are complete.
“You could tell me how many people, the absolute number, bought a book on Amazon,” FBI director James Comey himself complained in a speech last month. “It’s ridiculous, I can’t tell you how many people were shot by police in this country last week, last year, the last decade.”
Some of the difficulties in keeping count are due to the reluctance of local police departments to file reports when they kill someone. But, as Tom McCarthy wrote at The Guardian, “The structural and technical challenges to compiling uniform data from the 18,000-plus local law enforcement agencies in the US far exceeds the reporting problem, in some cases.”
Without a true count, there is even less accountability. “A counting is a prerequisite,” Glendinning said, for any kind of “informed public debate about the severity of the problem.”
The Guardian didn’t attempt to determine whether the deaths were justified or unjustified. But they did find some disturbing trends and alarming sloppiness:
In the first five months of 2015, 464 people were killed by law enforcement—that’s twice as many as calculated by the US government’s official public records. (The FBI “counted 461 ‘justifiable homicides’ by law enforcement in all of 2013, the latest year for which official data is available.”)
Of those 464 killed, 102 people were unarmed.
Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with police as white people: “32% of black people killed by police in 2015 were unarmed, as were 25% of Hispanic and Latino people, compared with 15% of white people killed.”
Fourteen of the fatalities occurred while the victim was in custody, including the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore.
The analysis revealed five people killed by police whose names have not been publicly released before.
A day before the Guardian story broke, The Washington Post came out with similar trends and numbers based on its own in-depth investigation of police-caused fatalities. (“We knew they were working on something, and they knew we were,” Glendinning said, but she believes the timing is coincidence.) One big difference between the two projects is that the Post limits its data to death by police shootings, which, it found, have amounted to 385 so far this year. The Guardian’s 464 police-caused deaths in the same period, however, also include those by Taser (27), vehicle, and other means. Hence, Eric Garner’s death while the NYPD held him in a chokehold wouldn’t be included in the Post tally. (Mother Jones compares some of the two publications’ findings here.)
It was probably the one-two punch of the Post and Guardian investigations that led to an uncharacteristically quick political response. Within 48 hours after the pieces appeared, senators Cory Booker and Barbara Boxer proposed a plan to “force all American law enforcement agencies to report killings by their officers” to the Department of Justice.
Another difference between the two projects is that, while both will collect data through the end of the year, the Post’s database—and any photos, stories and interactive bells and whistles that might accompany it—won’t go public, it said, until “a future date.”
And so in terms of emotional impact, The Guardian has the jump. In fact, “The Counted” reminds me of the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times project, “Portraits of Grief,” which ran more than 1,800 capsule biographies, with photos when possible, of those killed on 9/11. “Portraits” was a daily feature, filling one full page, sometimes two, and ran through New Year’s Eve 2001. Like today’s police killings projects, “Portraits” began, the Times wrote, “as an imperfect answer to a journalistic problem, the absence of a definitive list of the dead…”
The portraits, now archived online, were based on a phalanx of reporters’ interviews with families and friends of the dead, and gave more personal snapshots (like “Taking Care of Mozard: Maria Isabel Ramirez”) than either the Post or Guardian have the resources to muster today.
The Guardian stories are presented almost Facebook-style in a photo mosaic of faces. You could find yourself, as I did, clicking on faces to see whether they fit or explode the stereotypes you might have of someone who would be killed by the cops, all the time overwhelmed at the scale of the problem.
Beyond the database, The Guardian is running almost-daily features on how police violence affects various communities, including deaths of the mentally ill, women, Latinos, and the elderly (“about six elderly people a month,” it finds).
By the way, that figure of 464 people killed by police in the first five months of 2015 has climbed, as of today, to 489.
By: Leslie Savan, The Nation, June 8, 2015
June 14, 2015 Posted by raemd95 | Law Enforcement, Police Shootings, Police Violence | Barbara Boxer, Black Americans, Cory Booker, Deadly Force, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Hispanics, James Comey | Leave a comment
“What It Means To ‘Love America'”: To Believe We Should Evolve And Change Toward Becoming A More Diverse And Just Society
On May 30, 2013, Kalief Browder was finally released after more than three years in Rikers Island. His crime? There wasn’t one. He was accused of stealing a backpack and the backlog in the courts meant that Browder, who refused to plead guilty to a crime he didn’t commit, stayed behind bars until the prosecutor finally dropped the case. He attempted suicide while in prison.
Meanwhile, it was announced today that Maureen McDonnell, wife of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, has been sentenced to one year and a day. The former governor received just a two year sentence. That means that after being convicted in federal court on fourteen counts of corruption, both McDonnells will likely serve less time in jail than a black teenager who was never convicted and never even went to trial.
This is what FBI Director James Comey meant in his speech last week, titled “Hard Truths About Law Enforcement and Race” when he said, “there is a disconnect between police agencies and many citizens – predominantly in communities of color.” Comey went on to say that bridging that divide is a two-way street that requires law enforcement and communities of color seeing each other more fairly and equally.
But as Jonathan Capehart has pointed out, unlike when President Barack Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder discusses race, the right and its organs like Fox News paid Comey no attention. Because when a white male Republican law enforcement official points out the racial imbalance in America’s justice system, the right wing noise machine suddenly goes silent.
And that goes to the heart of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s ghoulish, repulsive, race-baiting assertion that President Obama doesn’t “love America.” The fact is that Giuliani’s view of America and its history privileges the powerful, so any acknowledgment of the Kalief Browders of the world must be a sign that someone doesn’t “love America.” This has also been manifested in the growing national fight over AP History classes, which conservatives now complain are insufficiently patriotic. Last fall, thousands of students fought back against the right wing ideologues on the Jefferson County School Board here in Colorado a valuable lesson in civil disobedience; and more recently an proposal by Republicans in the Oklahoma state legislature to defund AP history classes gained national attention.
Maybe some of us love our country enough to believe its judicial system should hold the powerful as much to account as the powerless. Maybe some of us love our country enough to believe access to health care shouldn’t depend on your income, that a poor kid with asthma deserves a doctor as much as a rich one. Maybe some of us love our country enough to believe that sacrificing our soldiers to war shouldn’t be done out of dishonesty or caprice.
Maybe some us love our country enough to believe that Dr. Marting King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail is a profoundly patriotic document. Maybe some of us love our country enough to believe that we should embrace and correct its flaws, not turn a cruel and blind eye to them. Maybe some of us love our country enough to believe it should evolve and change toward becoming a more diverse and just society, not remain calcified by class.
And maybe some of us love our country enough to believe that it is the Rudy Giulianis of the world, and his cowardly enablers like Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker, who betray what we stand for and who we aspire to be as a nation.
By: Laura K. Chapin, U. S. News and World Report, February 20, 2015
February 22, 2015 Posted by raemd95 | American History, Criminal Justice System, Rudy Giuliani | Bob McDonnell, Bobby Jindal, James Comey, Kalief Browder, Maureen McDonnell, Patriotism, Racism, Scott Walker, White Privilege | Leave a comment
“From The Fringe To The Hill”: For Conservatives, Strange Ideas Effortlessly Seep Into The Mainstream
It’s alarmingly common to hear congressional Republicans repeat some deeply odd conspiracy theories. But more often than not, the theories didn’t start on Capitol Hill; they just ended up there.
This keeps happening.
Four Republican senators have sent FBI Director James Comey a letter regarding conservative author and political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who was indicted for campaign finance fraud last month.
In the letter, Sens. Charles Grassley, Jeff Sessions, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee quote Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz as saying, “I can’t help but think that [D’Souza’s] politics have something to do with it…. It smacks of selective prosecution.”
“To dispel this sort of public perception that Mr. D’Souza may have been targeted because of his outspoken criticisms of the President, it is important for the FBI to be transparent regarding the precise origin of this investigation,” the senators write.
Last April, I laid out the flight plan, showing the trajectory of these theories: they start with the off-the-wall fringe, then get picked up by more prominent far-right outlets, then Fox News, then congressional Republicans.
Now note the Dinesh D’Souza conspiracy theory. It started with Alex Jones and Drudge. It was then picked up by Limbaugh. And then Fox News. And now four members of the U.S. Senate.
It is one of the more striking differences between how the left and right deal with wild political accusations: for conservatives, strange ideas effortlessly seep into the mainstream.
In this case, D’Souza, a fairly obscure anti-Obama provocateur, was charged with violating federal campaign finance laws, allegedly using straw donors to make illegal third-party donations to a Senate candidate in 2012. D’Souza has denied any wrongdoing.
Looking at this in the larger context, let’s make a few things clear. First, there’s no evidence to suggest politics had anything to do with the charges against D’Souza. Second, if the Justice Department were going to politicize federal law enforcement, risk a national scandal, invite abuse-of-power allegations, and use federal prosecutors to punish conservative activists, it’d probably go after a bigger fish than Dinesh D’Souza.
Third, when the Bush/Cheney administration actually politicized federal law enforcement during the extraordinary U.S. Attorney purge scandal, and there was overwhelming evidence of a genuine scandal, Senate Republicans couldn’t have cared less. Now that an obscure right-wing activist is accused of campaign-finance violations, they’re interested?
And finally, there’s just the unsettling pattern in which Alex Jones and Drudge come up with some silly idea, and within a few weeks, congressional Republicans – including the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, for goodness sakes – are demanding answers from the Justice Department.
As we talked about last year, this just doesn’t happen on the left. This is not to say there aren’t wacky left-wing conspiracy theorists – there are, and some of them send me strange emails – but we just don’t see Democratic members of Congress embracing ideas from the far-left fringe.
On the right, however, no one seems especially surprised when a story gradually works its way from Alex Jones’ show to Chuck Grassley’s desk.
By: Steve Benen, The Maddow Blog, February 21, 2014
February 24, 2014 Posted by raemd95 | Conservatives, Conspiracy Theories | Chuck Grassley, Dinesh D'Souza, FBI, Fox News, James Comey, Jeff Sesions, Mike Lee, Republicans | Leave a comment
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Church in Zanzibar, Tanzania Shaken as Court Supports Muslims’ Opposition to Building
Christian leaders see Islamist bias in ruling.
July 26, 2017 By Our East Africa Correspondent - Leave a Comment
Pastor Amos Lukanula, his wife and church members in Zanzibar. (Morning Star News)
NAIROBI, Kenya (Morning Star News) – A court on the semi-autonomous island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, ruled on Thursday (July 20) that a church cannot continue constructing a worship building it has tried to finish for eight years, sources said.
Hard-line Muslims outside Zanzibar City have been fighting construction of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God building since 2009, having demolished the partially built structure twice before then. They claim the party that sold the property to the church was not the rightful owner.
Christians believe the court on the overwhelmingly Muslim island acted out of religious bias. A previous court ruling allowed construction to go forward.
Pastor Amos Lukanula of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God church said last week’s ruling has serious implications for the survival of congregation on the island, and that the church plans to appeal to the High Court of Zanzibar.
“Our church members have persistently worked alongside with me and are frustrated and weary, but we are always hopeful that God will still intervene,” Pastor Lukanula said. “We cannot allow the Muslims to put up a mosque in place of the church.”
The case has dragged on for more than eight years as the area Muslims have forced the church in Chukwani to incur legal costs of $100 per month in an effort to take over its property, sources said. Pastor Lukanula said the court had been waiting for the church to fail to attend the monthly court hearing in order to rule against it on a technicality.
The church purchased the property in 2004 and began putting up a temporary structure, but the area Muslims pulled it down. The church then spent three years putting up a semi-permanent structure, which the hard-line Muslims also destroyed, sources said.
After a third structure of stone blocks was half-way finished in 2009, the Muslims stopped construction with a court order until the legal dispute could be resolved. This forced the church to raise 5.7 million Tanzanian shillings, more than US$2,500, to fight the case in court, with an attorney from mainland Tanzania traveling to Zanzibar each month at a cost of $100 per visit.
“We bought the land from Harun Gikaro Wanzo, who passed on in 2009, and now his widow is the one remaining who has a small piece of land,” Pastor Lukanula said, saying the church has allowed Wanzo’s widow, Annah Philippo Barihuta, to remain living on the premises. “Now she might too lose that land, and she has several children to take care of. We appeal for support and prayers as we appeal for justice to be done.”
On Feb. 21, 2011, a lower court ruled in favor of the church, which then continued with construction. But after the death of Amina Binti Saleh, the seller of the property to Wanzo, area Muslims and Saleh’s daughter, Jilubai Binti Saleh, filed another appeal to stop construction in 2011. The Muslims claimed that Saleh’s son, Sadik, was not the blood son of her late husband, Abdul Shakar, and hence did not have the right of ownership of the land that was sold to Christians. They held that Saleh’s daughter, Jilubai Binti Saleh, had been the rightful heir.
In the church’s bid to show that Barihuta’s late husband, Wanzo, had the right to sell the land to the church, the impoverished widow and her family have borne much of the costs of the court case. Barihuta is a member of the church.
The Muslims claimed in court that Barihuta invaded Saleh’s land in 2004 and uprooted 20 coconut trees, then put up a house illegally, and that in 2007, Pastor Lukanula illegally put up the church building within a residential area and destroyed trees worth 2 million Tanzanian shillings (US$885).
Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact editor@morningstarnews.org, or send check to Morning Star News, 34281 Doheny Park Rd., # 7022, Capistrano Beach, CA 92624, USA.
Filed Under: Spotlight | Regions: Tanzania
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‘The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear’ Reviewed
Paul Seaburn February 22, 2018
When it comes to monsters, it seems like the bigger they are, the smaller the places they’re from. At least that appears to be the case with the strange creatures chronicled by the fine folks at Small Town Monsters as they work their way across Middle America making excellent films about the people and places where their company’s namesakes have arisen. Their latest work visits the tiny town of Flatwoods in Braxton County, West Virginia, where a tall creature reportedly paid a visit some 65 years ago and left an impression that is still felt there today.
“The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear” opens with the look of a classic 1950s sci-fi movie befitting the UFO and alien event which occurred on September 12, 1952. As with his previous films, writer, producer and director Seth Breedlove introduces the small town of Flatwoods with beautiful aerial and ground views leading to the homes, local businesses and outdoor locations where witnesses, relatives of witnesses, national experts and local residents do a compelling retelling of the arrival of the craft bearing the tall being that came to be known as the Green Monster.
The experience gained on their other films shows as Seth and co-producer Adrienne Breedlove supplement the interviews, newspaper copies and audio clips with original illustration, stop-motion animation and special effects that match the 50’s era and the story.
And what a story it is. Original witnesses, brothers Ed and Fred May, recreate how they watched something land in the nearby Appalachian hills, then told their mother Kathleen, who accompanied her 13- and 12-year-old sons, their friends and their dog to the landing site where they meet the monster and suffer from the after-effects of the encounter. The strange descriptions of the huge, possibly mechanical creature by the Mays and other witnesses are like nothing of this planet. Reports are made to local and national authorities and the media, investigations are conducted and things may have been found and taken away. Yet 65 years later, the cause of the incident and the identification of the Flatwoods Monster remain unresolved.
Seth Breedlove and his Small Town Monsters team continue their knack for finding and telling the little yet important and interesting details of the before and aftermath of this monster tale. They also do another fine job of putting witnesses and townspeople at ease so they recount the events as if they’re telling them to their friends. That’s a plus with the Flatwoods Monster, as those interviewed make it clear at the end that they’re growing tired of telling their tale to so many non-believers and sometimes wish it had never happened.
That won’t be the case for those who watch “The Flatwoods Monster: A Legacy of Fear,” which will be available on April 6, 2018 at the Small Town Monsters website.
Tags alien cryptid Cryptozoology Entertainment Flatwoods Monster Green Monster monster Paranormal ufo
Paul Seaburn is the editor at Mysterious Universe and its most prolific writer. He’s written for TV shows such as "The Tonight Show", "Politically Incorrect" and an award-winning children’s program. He's been published in “The New York Times" and "Huffington Post” and has co-authored numerous collections of trivia, puzzles and humor. His “What in the World!” podcast is a fun look at the latest weird and paranormal news, strange sports stories and odd trivia. Paul likes to add a bit of humor to each MU post he crafts. After all, the mysterious doesn't always have to be serious.
You can follow Paul on and
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There’s Something in the River…
Nick Redfern August 19, 2013
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Rush Limbaugh’s health care plan Tuesday, Mar 14 2017
Uncategorized Limbaugh Trumpcare, monetary non-sovereignty, monetary sovereignty, Ten Steps to Prosperity Rodger Malcolm Mitchell 6:10 pm
It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed and the treachery of their leaders..
Rush Limbaugh is a very smart man. He has become fabulously wealthy hosting a popular radio show millions of people invest their precious time to hear.
So, it is instructive to see a smart man’s plan to provide health care to those millions of his listeners.
What follows are excerpts from Limbaugh’s own website:
CALLER: I thought that Trump wanted to get rid of Obamacare. Apparently that’s not what they want to do right away. But if the government was so good at running the health care or dictating health care, why isn’t the VA or the American Indian plan a shining example of what government can do?
RUSH: Great question. They can’t.
CALLER: How long is it gonna take before somebody either asks Paul Ryan that or the American people just say, “Why isn’t the VA a shining example?” I mean there is government health care right there staring you in the face. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it.
RUSH:You have just demonstrated that when the government administers health care institutions, they’re a disaster, okay? So why do you think they want to continue to exercise that kind of control and power over health care when every example of them doing it is pretty bad?
CALLER: Because I don’t think it really has anything to do with health care. I think it’s just the redistribution of wealth, the power. That’s all I can think of. I don’t understand how they — if they can’t handle the limited amount of veterans that are in the VA system — and I realize that’s a lot of people, but it’s a limited amount compared to the population of the country, how are they gonna get 300 million people?
Let’s stop here to remind you that the VA is a government RUN hospitalization program while the dreaded Obamacare is a government FINANCED insurance program.
Seemingly, Limbaugh and his CALLER don’t understand the difference between actually managing health care, like a hospital does, vs. paying for health care like an insurance company does.
Mr. Limbaugh: VA = hospital; Obamacare = insurance company. Get it?
I also should mention that one of the biggest problems facing the VA is underfinancing by the Republican Congress, which wants America to believe that our Monetarily Sovereign federal government somehow can run short of its own sovereign currency, the dollar.
The Limbaughs of the world have been making this false claim for at least 77 years. They were wrong in 1940; wrong in all the following years, and still are wrong, today.
RUSH: Well, but you don’t have to focus just on the VA. You can look at Medicare and Medicaid. Does anybody want them expanded as the American health care? Well, yes, some people do! They’re the exact people you’re talking about.
RUSH: Well, what do you think liberalism is, in part? About making these people feel good about the messes that they’ve made, all because they care and they have great compassion.
And they’re great at using other people’s money, which is what Medicaid and Medicare are, to take care of people and keep ’em away from you.
If put everyone on Medicaid and Medicare then you can assume they’re gonna have health care, problem solved. You don’t have to hear them complain anymore, you don’t see ’em, you don’t run into ’em.
If we can unwind the above gibberish, it seems to mean that Medicare and Medicaid are bad plans. Why? Well, although they do provide good health care, “they use other people’s money.”
To Limbaugh, providing health care is meaningless, if you use other people’s money — which Medicare and Medicaid don’t. They use government money, created by the federal government. No “other people” involved.
You must understand that Limbaugh is a multi-millionaire, who can afford any health care he wants. He doesn’t care about your health. He cares about his money. So he creates a false narrative to make you think he cares about your money and your health.
Medicare and Medicaid are government financed insurance programs, which pay for excellent care and are much loved by the people who use them.
There goes Limbaugh’s VA example, right down the toilet.
RUSH: I think we’re gonna need to give Trump time. The thing we have to understand, folks, Donald Trump is not — he may be a political neophyte in terms of experience, but he’s not stupid, and he’s not dumb. And he has a track regard of getting done what he wants done more often than not.
Actually, Trump has a rather poor track record “for getting things done.” Following his disastrous bankruptcies and thousands of lawsuits, when trying to do things himself, and his disastrous and crooked Trump University, for which he was fined millions, he pretty much has done nothing other than give his name to other people who did get things done.
As for giving him time, how much time does he need? In addition to that $25 million Trump University scam, he already has:
–Called climate change a Chinese hoax and hired a climate change denier to head the Environmental Protection Agency
–Lied that 122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield.” (The correct number is 9.)
–Falsely claimed Obama tapped his phones
–Falsely claimed he won the popular vote because there were 3 million illegal votes against him.
–Falsely claimed there were more people at his inauguration than at Obama’s
–Banned Muslims from countries that haven’t sent terrorists, rather than from countries that have.
–Refused to reveal what must be incriminating tax returns.
–Wishes to deport good people who have lived here illegally, but never have committed a crime, because . . . well, just because.
–Tells us we all will be safer when mentally ill people can carry guns
–Denied he groped women after boasting that he did.
–Is reluctant to condemn intimidation against immigrants, Muslims, and Jews.
Well, why continue? You get the idea. Donald Trump has lied to the American people more than 100 times in just his first month in office.
So what is it that we are supposed to “give him time” to do?
And he knows there’s no benefit to him by telling everybody “I reformed health care. We got rid of Obamacare, we’ve replaced it and it’s great” when it isn’t. If it’s close, he might be able to get away with touting it as such.
But, folks, there’s a huge obstacle still remaining in this, and until this thing is dealt with, I don’t know how you fix this.
And that is this preexisting condition business. We’re talking about reforming health insurance, and when we get to that, we’re not even talking insurance.
And now you will see the heart of Limbaugh’s “plan”: Don’t cover people who have pre-existing conditions.
Yep, that’s the plan, folks. If you have cancer, heart disease or any other serious medical problem, you are out of luck.
Providing health care for people with preexisting conditions is the equivalent of selling somebody a homeowner’s policy for a hundred dollars while the fire is burning their house down.
It just doesn’t happen, yet in health care we’re doing it. And it screws up all of the actuarials.
And nobody in Washington has the guts to eliminate coverage for preexisting conditions. But the Democrats don’t want to. That’s exactly the kind of thing they want health care to be.
Right. Private insurance won’t cover people with pre-existing conditions, but the federal government can and should. That is a primary benefit of Medicare.
My health care fix, do you know what it is? I’m so simple-minded in these things. I’m not complex at all. I have no desire to run anybody else’s life. I don’t care whether somebody can run theirs or not; that’s their responsibility and their problem.
I’m not interested in making sure you don’t screw up other than what I do here, but I do not live under any illusions that I should tell everybody how to live.
My health care reform plan is real simple. For everybody who can, and we would have to have a very, very honest assessment of that, you buy your own.
Ah yes, he’s just a “simple-minded” man. How modest of him.
That “very honest assessment” is Medicare and ACA. What he’s describing is exactly what he’s advocating against. He just isn’t clever enough to realize it.
You can either get it from your employer as part of your deal there, or you don’t and you go out and make your own deal.
There are insurance companies all over this country selling health insurance, and they’re competing with one another, and you buy what you need.
And if you’re 25 and you don’t want to buy the kind of health insurance where you go to the doctor 15 times a year, you don’t. If all you want to buy is insurance for when you have a car crash or some other calamity, that’s what you buy, and you’re not responsible for anybody else.
Huh? How is anyone supposed to know if or when they will be involved in a car crash or other calamity? What kind of decision-making is that?
And what does the phrase “you’re not responsible for anybody else” mean? Where in Medicaid or Obamacare does it say you’re responsible for “anybody else.”?
And everybody else does the same thing. You buy what you want. And then what you can’t buy, you insure.
This is one of the screwier comments. You buy the insurance you want, and then what you can’t buy, you insure. What does that mean?
And that would be catastrophic, terminal diseases, long-term care. If you want to invest when you are 25 years old in a retirement home that has health care, you buy it then and start making payments on it. Your responsibility, you do it.
“But Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Limbaugh, what about the people that can’t afford it?” That’s where we are a compassionate country. And people who can’t, we have a plan, but we’re not gonna assume nobody can pay for it on their own anymore!
Limbaugh, who is widely known for his compassion says, in essence, “If you can’t afford it, that’s your tough luck. I’ve got mine.”
To me, there ought be no guarantee, just like no hotel is the same, health care, where is it written that no matter where you go to get health care it’s just as good as where anybody else goes?
You know that’s not the case already. You know there are places that specialize in treating cancer that are better at it by reputation than other places, but not everybody gets to go to those places. It’s just the way it is.
In Limbaughland, the rich should get better hotels and better cancer treatment than do the poor. “It’s just the way it is.”
And even now, with government running it, we don’t even promise people that they’ll get the best. And how do you know what the best is anyway until there’s competition and the best is determined by who has the most customers and who sells the most service and who does the best job by virtue of the market telling everybody that?
Does health care really work that way? Would you want to go to a hospital that cuts costs so it can cut prices? Would you rather go to a hospital that has the most up-to-date (though expensive) equipment, or a cheap hospital?
We’re not talking about cars or sofas. We’re talking about your health. We’re talking about life or death.
Health care is anything else you buy. In my plan, the prices would start plummeting left and right. My plan would be introducing market competition. If people are in the health care business, you think doctors are doing what they do just for the service?
You think people that run hospitals don’t want to make money? Everybody wants to make money in everything they do. And competition is one of the greatest ways of weeding out the good and the bad, and it’s a way of making everybody better.
No, it isn’t a way of making everyone better. It’s a way of making everyone worse. Patients are not capable of judging hospitals the way they judge wallpaper. Cheaper isn’t better.
Clearly, Limbaugh neither knows nor cares to know anything about the health care world. To him it’s all, money, money, money.
When I was a kid, I went to the dentist when necessary, left the dentist’s office, he sent a bill. Parents paid the bill, that was it. Same thing with the pediatrician. There were house calls, although I’m not making a stink about that.
The point is, you could afford it. If it was something catastrophic, then of course there was insurance available or you made a deal with the hospital to pay it off over time, what have you. If you can’t pay for it, you pay for it in installments or what have you. But why did that system fade away?
It faded away because it didn’t work. The fact that it faded away should have been a clue for Limbaugh. Doctors and hospitals eventually began to reject people who couldn’t pay for services.
One wonders what Limbaugh’s reaction would be if his station manager told him they couldn’t afford his pay.
Well, here’s the Breitbart piece, ladies and gentlemen. “Seven Reasons Why Obamacare 2.0 Is All But Guaranteed to Impose Crushing Costs on Voters, Hurt Trump’s Base, and Hand Power Back to the Democrats.”
Okay, that’s the headline of the Breitbart piece. Let me ask you a question. I mean, the way I react when I see a headline like this, if it’s this bad, how in the world can the people in charge of it not know it’s this bad? If it is this bad, then why do the Republicans want to hand power back to the Democrats? Why do the Republicans want to hurt Trump’s base?
I can’t wait to learn the answer.
Now, that I can answer. Why do Republicans want to impose crushing costs on voters? Does any of this make sense? And why do Republicans want to hand power back to the Democrats? And why does Trump want to do that? Trump supposedly signed on to this.
Number 1. “The bill’s provisions increase health care costs for Trump voters in critical states.”
Senior citizens — who vote regularly in mid-term elections — will see their health care costs increase under the Republicans’ bill. Plus, Obamacare 2.0 phases out credits for people who start earning more than $75,000. Why? Because screw the voters and they’re on their own? What a great message to send to the middle class!”
So Breitbart claims here that this Obamacare repeal and replacement bill actually targets senior citizens in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and makes their tax credits less effective and raises their health care costs. Those are three blue states that Trump won. Why would the Republicans do that? Do you think that’s in the bill?
Hint: You will see that Limbaugh’s argument is quite simple: Trumpcare is so awful that no sane political party would support it. Therefore it isn’t what you think it is, though he has no idea what it is.
Number 2. Conservative author Daniel Horowitz says that the bill is a gift to illegal aliens. Why and how? Well, he says that “Illegals can get health care through identity theft and fraud, because Obamacare 2.0 makes it impossible to check enrollees’ immigration status.”
Oooh, how awful. The federal government, which can afford anything, might pay for the health care of illegal immigrants rather than allowing them to die in front of a hospital’s doors.
And those federal payments not only would save lives but also help stimulate our economy and provide consumers of our products. But who wants that if we can be cruel and stupid at the same time?
Do you think the Republican Party still believes this business that if they don’t do something about shoring up their support from the Hispanic community, they’re political toast? I think they still believe it, no matter what happened here with Trump.
And so can you see them putting in an Obamacare replacement bill a little provision that nobody may find that says illegals do not have to prove immigration status in order to enroll in health care?
Do you think them capable of this? The Republicans, I’m asking. And would Trump sign off on this? I’m just asking.
Get it. Now Limbaugh moves past ignorant to crazed. He hints that the Republicans will insert secret provisions that no one can find (except the immigrants) to appeal to immigrants.
Number 3. “Obamacare 2.0 will be labeled as ‘Trumpcare,’ and Democrats and their media allies will highlight every hard case” they can. After this thing’s enacted, they’re gonna run around the country and they’re gonna be doing story after story after story, person after person after person denied treatment and blame it on Trump and the Republicans for hurting the poor and the elderly.
Uh, yes. That is exactly what a political party does, and thank goodness for it. How else will the public realize the full witlessness of Trumpcare?
And now for one tiny lucid moment from Limbaugh:
Nobody in the federal government worries about the cost of anything. If they did, there wouldn’t be a 20 freaking tSov federal government should worry about the cost of anything, and they shouldn’t worry about the “freaking trillion-dollar national debt” either.
Actually, nobody in our Monetarily Sovereign federal government should worry much about costs, and should not worry at all about the so-called “national debt.”
The national “debt” is nothing more than the total of deposits in T-security accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank. That fearsome national debt is just bank accounts.
Unfortunately, Limbaugh who writes about things economic, seems not to understand one of the basics of economics.
Let me ask you a question. I’ve spent, well, 43 minutes minus six, 37 minutes talking about this. Do you know any more about it now than you did when I started?
Yes, I know that you, Mr. Limbaugh, care nothing for the 99%, the people who listen to your show, and I know you are beholden to the 1%, the people who want to keep the 99% down.
And I know you don’t understand economics, though you blow about it constantly.
And I know the right-wing would rather commit political suicide than to help American men, women and children achieve healthy lives.
But I guess I always knew that. Trumpcare only confirmed it.
And by the way, the real solution to medical care in America: Step #2 of the Ten Steps to Prosperity (below): FEDERALLY FUNDED MEDICARE — PARTS A, B & D, PLUS LONG TERM CARE — FOR EVERYONE
The single most important problems in economics involve the excessive income/wealth/power Gaps between the have-mores and the have-less.
*Does the economy benefit when the rich can afford better health care than can the rest of Americans?
3. PROVIDE A MONTHLY ECONOMIC BONUS TO EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN AMERICA (similar to Social Security for All) (The JG (Jobs Guarantee) vs the GI (Guaranteed Income) vs the EB (Guaranteed Income)) Or institute a reverse income tax.
4. FREE EDUCATION (INCLUDING POST-GRAD) FOR EVERYONE Five reasons why we should eliminate school loans
An educated populace benefits a nation, and benefitting the nation is the purpose of the federal government, which has the unlimited ability to pay for K-16 and beyond.
6. ELIMINATE FEDERAL TAXES ON BUSINESS
Businesses are dollar-transferring machines. They transfer dollars from customers to employees, suppliers, shareholders and the federal government (the later having no use for those dollars). Any tax on businesses reduces the amount going to employees, suppliers and shareholders, which diminishes the economy. Ultimately, all business taxes reduce your personal income.
Cutting FICA and business taxes would be a good early step, as both dramatically affect the 99%. Annual increases in the standard income tax deduction, and a reverse income tax also would provide benefits from the bottom up. Both would narrow the Gap.
5 Responses to Rush Limbaugh’s health care plan
Listen to a dishonest politician claim the Congressional Budget Office is dishonest for disclosing the fact that Trumpcare would take health care from 24 million people.
Wants to abolish the CBO.
The irony: Those red states that didn’t expand Medicaid don’t want the people to have healthcare. Now they suddenly want those people to be covered.
Fortunately, the White House has no history of lying.
Penguin pop says:
Even some (former) Trump supporters I’ve seen have been hitting Peak Donald Trump and see him for the clown he truly is now, though it should have been obvious from the start. A pure cheeseball through and through. This is a damn disaster. Trump’s stupidity + sadist GOP libertarian morons = a nightmare scenario.
ejhr2015 says:
It’s a secret, didn’t you know? Trump with or without Rush wants to crush the GOP. [Maybe even Trump hasn’t seen that] But once the GOP is decimated in elections he can ride in with a universal healthcare deal and save the day! [Ahem.] It’s the only thing that makes sense.
My take on this: Trump doesn’t care about the Republican Party. His sole concern is how much money he, Jared and Ivanka can steal earn from his Presidency.
You will see repeated stories of their conflicts of interest — so many stories the whole issue will lose its meaning.
The Trump family will steal make billions out of this Presidency, and his “religious” right followers won’t care.
reavis1963 says:
look up the word selfish and you’ll see a picture of Trump next to it.
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List of 5 Most Famous Pilgrimage Places in India
The land of India is filled with religious places that are sought after by people with religious sentiments. Some of these are located in tough terrains but have visitors growing in number every year. The following article consists of a description of five such pilgrimage sites in India that are visited by pilgrims to fulfill their spiritual needs and attain salvation.
India is a country rich in culture and religious traditions. Most Indian people have religious beliefs and sentiments. Apart from following religious guidelines, they also make pilgrimage visits every year. Here are the top 5 pilgrimage sites that Indians visit every year.
Sacred Pilgrimage Sites of India
01. The Chardham (Uttarakhand)
The Chardham literally translates the four small abodes or seats. It is one of the major Hindu pilgrimage circuits in the Himalayan region (India). The Garhwal area in Uttarakhand houses this circuit which includes the four sites- Gangotri, Yamunotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. The pilgrims generally have to hike to reach these four sites. The roads get rougher and dangerous as one climbs higher. The pilgrims need to get themselves ready physically before plunging into this entourage. However, many travel agencies provide lucrative packages to help ease the journey with facilities for the pilgrims. One can avail road, rail or air transport to reach up to a certain point from where the hiking starts. However, one needs to carry first-aid kit and other necessities for safety reasons.
02. Amarnath Dham
The Amarnath Cave in Jammu and Kashmir is a prime pilgrimage site for the Hindus. Devotees come to worship Lord Shiva here. It lies 12,756 feet high and its distance from Srinagar is 141 km. One can reach this place starting from Srinagar and traveling via Pahalgam. The shrine is among the holiest ones in the country despite the difficulty in scaling this mountain cave, which lies snow-covered, almost all-year round. Pilgrims start with ‘Pratham Pooja’ to reach this cave protecting a naturally formed ice-stalagmite called the Shiv Ling. People rush to receive blessings from this Shiv Ling and start their journey with Shri Amarnathji blessings. Pilgrims mostly resort to various Tour Packages for the Amarnath Yatra.
03. Shirdi:
The Sai Baba Temple in Shirdi is another holy shrine that attracts devotees in millions every year. This Mandir (temple) lies 90 km away from Nashik, a prominent city in Maharashtra. One can hire taxi or from Nashik to reach this temple in Shirdi. One can also take a bus (or taxi) from Manmad, the nearest railway station, to reach this small town. One goes to worship Sai Baba in the Shirdi Temple, a saint of the early 1900s. People of all colour, creed and religions can visit this holy shrine. The most important shrine is the Samadhi temple. It is here that the Sai Baba’s mortal body lies. Next to the Samadhi is the Sai Baba’s marble image in a seated position. Sri Talini, a famous sculptor from Mumbai, has carved out this image. Tour agencies also offer interesting packages for this shrine so that devotees can reach this place with comfort and ease.
04. Tirupati:
Tirupati, in Andhra Pradesh (southern part), houses the famous Sri Venkateswara Temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Devotees take the pain to seek the blessings of this deity from all corners of the country. The temple lies on the seventh peak called Venkatachala of Tirumala, a mountain range of the Eastern Ghats. The Lord Vishnu is also worshiped as Govinda in South India and Balaji in the northern part of the country. The foothills of the temple have a town and devotees take shelter in this town before climbing up to the temple for spiritual fulfillment. One can reach Tirupati via rail, road and even airways (up to Hyderabad) with packages available at cost-effective rates.
05. Puri:
Puri is a prime place for pilgrims visiting the State of Odisha. It lies on the Bay of Bengal, 60 km away from Bhubaneswar, the state capital. The place is also called Jagannath Puri, named after the Jagannath Temple, the reason for which devotees flock in Puri. This 11th-century temple dedicates to Lord Jagannath, a famous deity among the Hindus. The Hindu teachings profess that no pilgrimage completes without visiting the Jagannath temple in Puri. The best time of the year to visit this popular pilgrimage site is during the Rath-Yatra when the deity travels on a chariot for all the devotees to seek his blessings. Puri Travel Packages help one to conveniently travel and lodge so that the pilgrim can get his spiritual needs.
Apart from these five pilgrimage sites, there are other less important ones too. However, to a Hindu, these shrines hold utmost importance for spiritual guidance.
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Does America Really Need Overseas Bases?
October 17, 2016 Topic: Security Blog Brand: The Skeptics Tags: Overseas BasesDefenseNational SecurityDeterrenceNATOA2/ad
Even during the Cold War, the service rendered by troops in Europe was more about deterrence and to guarantee U.S. involvement in a conflict, not to be particularly useful in battlefield scenarios.
by John Glaser Follow @jwcglaser on Twitter L
In the ongoing debate over U.S. grand strategy, one of the key points of discussion is the strategic utility of permanently stationing American forces abroad. Overseas U.S. bases are often thought to be the frontline forces in any outbreak of conflict. We must continue to maintain an indefinite global military base presence, we are told, so that if conflict erupts in any critical region, our forces can get there quickly to stabilize the situation. But a forward-deployed posture has lost much of its operational value in terms of contingency responsiveness.
Even during the Cold War, the service rendered by troops in Europe was more about deterrence and to guarantee U.S. involvement in a conflict, not to be particularly useful in battlefield scenarios. As President Dwight D. Eisenhower once commented in reference to the 1958-59 Berlin crisis, “If resort to arms should become necessary, our troops in Berlin would be quickly overrun, and the conflict would almost inevitably be global war. For this type of war, our nuclear forces were more than adequate.”
A RAND Corporation report on basing posture reiterates this point for today: “the forces that are forward-deployed are not sufficient of themselves to address conflicts of every scope.” Indeed, “after the initial phase of operations to stabilize or even resolve a situation, the response by the U.S. military to a contingency of any substantial size will come primarily from forces deployed from bases in the United States.”
In other words, forward bases are useful mainly for rapid deployment of lighter forces in emergency situations. Anything beyond minor stabilization missions requires reinforcements from the continental United States. What’s interesting about this insight is that thanks to revolutionary technological advances in military capability, transportation, and communications, according to RAND, “lighter ground forces can deploy by air from the United States almost as quickly as they can from within a region.” So for any contingency that truly warrants U.S. intervention, we should be able to handle both minor and major deployments by relying on bases at home.
The bottom line is that forces can deploy to virtually any region fast enough to be based in the continental United States. An armored brigade combat team can get from Germany to Kuwait in approximately 18 days, only about four days quicker than if it deployed from the east coast of the United States. As the RAND report explains, “The movement and time advantages for moving light and medium [brigade combat teams] from overseas compared with [the U.S.] by air is minor.”
To get a sense of how much things have changed over the years, consider that, “during the first three weeks of the American buildup to the Gulf War,” according to Kent Calder, “the United States moved more troops and equipment than in the first three months of the Korean War.” And that was a quarter century ago. Capabilities have continued to improve mightily since then.
According to the basing expert Robert Harkavy, “the development of longer range aircraft and ships, plus the development of techniques for aerial refueling of planes and at-sea refueling of ships has had the effect of greatly decreasing the number of basing points required by major powers to maintain global access networks.”
Think about our ability to fly bombing missions from a transcontinental distance. In the Gulf War, the U.S. flew B-52s from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to conduct bombing raids against Iraq in round-trip missions that exceeded 10,000 miles and took only 30 hours. In 1999, the U.S. Air Force conducted attacks against Serbian targets from the United States. In the initial operations against Taliban-held Afghanistan in 2001, B-2 stealth bombers based at Whiteman Air Base in Missouri flew 44-hour missions with the help of aerial refueling capabilities “without using any bases in the vicinity of Afghanistan at all,” according to Calder.
Admittedly, U.S.-based deployment would not be as convenient as with a forward posture. The transit time to the Taiwan Strait, for example, for a carrier strike group deployed from Yokosuka, Japan would take 3 to 5 days, whereas deployment from the West Coast would take up to 16 days. However, those transit times can be mitigated with sufficient basing capacity in Hawaii (about 12 days) or in port at the U.S. territory of Guam, which would allow transit times comparable to that of Yokosuka, Japan.
But the loss of any transit time conveniences also has to be balanced against the increased vulnerability of forward-deployed military forces. As technological innovation has made forward-deployed forces less necessary logistically, it has also made them more vulnerable.
The development of extremely accurate intermediate- and long-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, integrated air defense systems, and modern satellite-based sensors, among other innovations, make overseas bases exceedingly susceptible to asymmetric attacks that are very difficult to defend against. China, in particular, has invested heavily in these capabilities, meaning a large percentage of overall U.S. facilities – over 90 percent of U.S. air facilities in Northeast Asia - are within high-threat areas. The People’s Liberation Army’s conventional theater-strike system, the DF-21, “can hit all military facilities along the entire Japanese archipelago.” These weapons and others like them “could cripple an airbase, incapacitate an aircraft carrier, and devastate concentrated ground forces.”
Not only do anti-access/aerial denial capabilities make overseas U.S. bases more vulnerable, they also undermine the deterrent effect of a forward-deployed posture by weakening the credibility of a rapid response. As RAND Corporation analyst Michael J Mazarr recently wrote, “Primacy is operationally infeasible in an age of A2/AD.”
One of the prominent arguments in favor of maintaining an indefinite overseas military presence for purposes of contingency responsiveness is that it is too difficult and time-consuming to secure permission for access from host governments in the middle of a crisis situation in which U.S. forces are needed. This concern is overstated. To begin with, contingency access is always conditional on host government permission. Basing agreements typically stipulate that the U.S. must consult with host nation governments before conducting any non-routine operations. But more to the point, we have historically not had trouble securing basing access in wartime. Indeed, the U.S. has been able to add new operating facilities overseas for every major conflict over the last 40 years.
For any contingency important enough to warrant U.S. intervention, forces can be deployed to any region from offshore within a reasonable time frame. And if a crisis situation does require establishing overseas bases, we can do so rather quickly. The reduced ability to consistently engage in military exercises, freedom of navigation operations, or constant drone flights is an acceptable loss of contingency responsiveness given the new vulnerabilities to forward bases and the fact that an offshore posture would benefit overall U.S. interests by encouraging allies to contribute more to their own defense and thus reduce the burden on the U.S.
John Glaser is a Washington, DC based writer and a graduate student in International Security at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He has been published in CNN, Time, Newsweek, and The Guardian, among other outlets.
Image: U.S. Air Force
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Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Wall
Home » Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Wall
Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Wall2019-02-152019-02-15https://news.unclesamsmisguidedchildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/uncle-sams-misguided-children-logo.pngUncle Sam's Misguided Childrenhttps://news.unclesamsmisguidedchildren.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/screenshot-2019-02-15-09.39.19.png200px200px
We knew it was coming, although some of us hoped it wouldn’t come to this: President Trump declared a National Emergency this morning in order to build the wall. He is expected to be able to free up about $8 Billion to finish the remainder of the border barrier. Congress gave him just shy of $1.4 Billion to only take care of 55 miles, and had numerous restrictions. So he bypassed them.
The “deal” from Congress didn’t contain just a little bit of money for the barrier. It had wording preventing the President from moving funding around to build the wall. It is that wording which likely contributed to this declaration.
The National Emergency Powers
The President of the United States has available certain powers that may be exercised in the event that the nation is threatened by crisis, exigency, or emergency circumstances (other than natural disasters, war, or near-war situations). Such powers may be stated explicitly or implied by the Constitution, assumed by the Chief Executive to be permissible constitutionally, or inferred from or specified by statute. Through legislation, Congress has made a great many delegations of authority in this regard over the past 200 years. National Emergency Powers
Because he is declaring the emergency, it will be reviewed by the Judiciary branch and will end up at the Supreme Court. That’s not counting if the Congress in both houses passes a resolution against his action. If that happens, and he vetoes that resolution, it could split the Republican party. However, such a resolution requires a 2/3 majority, which is unlikely.
Most liberal media say that the National Emergency is based on “false pretenses” which is not true.
The elements of a national emergency: 1) An emergency is sudden, unforeseen, and of unknown duration. 2) An emergency is dangerous and threatening to life and well-being. 3) An emergency requires ‘immediate’ action, although that action, as in this case, may be handled slightly differently than usual.
The constant migrant caravans that are organized by outsiders – no, they are not spontaneous – could be considered the “emergency” to build the wall. They have overwhelmed our border agents, brought diseases which threaten our citizens, overwhelmed American resources, and created an untenable problem at the border. Whether or not the courts will see it that way is a tossup.
I stand firmly behind President Trump’s decision to use executive powers to build the wall-barriers we desperately need.https://t.co/E2OvdT7pNo
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 15, 2019
The President believes he is on secure legal footing to do this, as many other Presidents have done. Only because his name is Donald J. Trump are people complaining.
The New York Daily News reported,
“The 2006 Secure Fence Act, for example, commands the executive branch to “take all actions…necessary and appropriate to achieve and maintain operational control over the entire international land and maritime borders of the United States…,” specifically including physical barriers.
The Immigration and Nationality Act grants the President the authority to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate.”…
…Every administration since Jimmy Carter’s has invoked the NEA repeatedly. In fact, 31 “national emergencies” are in force today, including three that President Trump himself initiated without major controversy.
It would be absurd to argue that this President has authority to declare a national emergency over human rights abuses in Nicaragua, but not in response to the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis of human trafficking, drug importation, and unchecked illegal immigration on our own border.”
Border wall, National Emergency, President Trump
Faye Higbee
I'm a published author of 3 in-print creative nonfiction books: Dog Paw Chronicles- Life Journeys, Whispers of Heaven, and Bobby Convict - I've written numerous short stories in anthologies, blogs and editorials. I've been working at Uncle Sam's Misguided Children since 2013. I have two degrees in Criminal Justice and worked for over 31 years at a local police department. I am a patriotic American.
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VU News
Vanderbilt Research
VUMC Office of Research
A-Z Research
Research News @Vanderbilt
Law and neuroscience research gets $1.4 million in additional grant money
by Jim Patterson Sep. 14, 2015, 12:21 PM
(iStockphoto)
A research network based at Vanderbilt University that has pioneered research into the implications of neuroscience for criminal justice has been awarded a $1.4 million grant by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
To date, the MacArthur Foundation has contributed more than $6.2 million to the research network. The new grant will push that total to more than $7.6 million.
Owen Jones (Vanderbilt University)
“The MacArthur Foundation was the first to recognize that the implications of neuroscience for criminal justice could be positive or negative,” said Owen Jones, New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law and professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt and director of The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience.
“Its investment has enabled researchers and policymakers to get out in front of developments,” Jones said.
The MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience was created to help the legal system avoid misuse of neuroscientific evidence in criminal law contexts and explore ways to deploy neuroscientific insights to improve the fairness and effectiveness of the criminal justice system. For the past four years, the research network has worked toward those goals through six overlapping, interrelated working groups, which in barely four years have published results on more than half of 60-plus planned projects.
“I’ve never seen an interdisciplinary team as smart, collaborative, nimble and hardworking as this one,” Jones said.
The effects of race on threat perception
The new grant will allow completion of existing projects and enable the network to leverage its recent findings into deeper insights about memory (led by Anthony Wagner, director of the Stanford Memory Lab at Stanford University) and the effects of race on threat perception. The working group on threat perceptions is led by BJ Casey, Sackler Professor of Developmental Psychobiology and director of Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
“Police violence toward minority suspects is chronic and tragic,” Jones said. “And behind every shooting is a cascade of perceptions, including threat assessments. With the new funding, the network will begin to explore how the brain’s perception of race affects both perception of threat and downstream impulsive behavior.”
Other examples of achievements of the research network so far:
A Primer on Criminal Law and Neuroscience, a book for judges and practitioners on where, when and how neuroscience can and cannot be useful in legal contexts;
Law and Neuroscience, a book which has helped found the interdisciplinary topic as a field of inquiry;
Aiding the legal system’s efforts to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate uses of neuroscience in criminal justice proceedings;
Clarifying the relevance of neuroscience to juvenile justice reform;
Demonstrating that under some conditions, memory for a previously encountered face can be decoded from a person’s brain patterns;
Showing that changes in jury instructions can yield improvements in fair juror functioning and combat juror confusion;
Identifying the circuitries and interactions involved when analytic regions of the brain, during punishment decisions, suppress the effects of emotional reactions;
Analysis showing judges should rule against the admissibility of fMRI-based lie detection testimony because it is presently unreliable; and
The paper “Group to Individual (G2i) Inference in Scientific Expert Testimony,” published in The University of Chicago Law Review, which set forth a set of best practice guidelines for evaluating expert testimony that involves statements about a group and an individual. The paper has been citied 12 times, including in appellate court documents, a cert. petition to the United States Supreme Court and numerous secondary sources.
Members of the research network include:
Owen Jones, New York Alumni Chancellor’s Chair in Law and professor of biological sciences at Vanderbilt University;
Richard J. Bonnie, Harrison Foundation Professor of Medicine and Law; professor of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences; director, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy; professor of public policy, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia;
BJ Casey, Sackler Professor of Developmental Psychobiology; director of Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University;
Andre M. Davis, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit;
David L. Faigman, John F. Digardi Distinguished Professor of Law; associate dean of the UCSF/UC Hastings Consortium on Law, Science and Health Policy, University of California, Hastings College of the Law;
Morris Hoffman, judge, Second Judicial District Court, Colorado;
Read Montague, professor, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute; professor of physics; professor of psychiatry and behavioral medicine, Virginia Tech; professor, The Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College, London;
Stephen J. Morse, Ferdinand Wakeman Hubbell Professor of Law; professor of psychology; professor of law in psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania;
Marcus E. Raichle, professor of radiology; professor of neurology; professor of anatomy and neurobiology, Washington University in St. Louis;
Jennifer Richeson, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Professor of Psychology, Northwestern University;
Elizabeth Scott, Harold R. Medina Professor of Law, Columbia University;
Laurence Steinberg, Distinguished University Professor of Psychology, Temple University;
Kim Taylor-Thompson, professor of clinical law, New York University School of Law;
Anthony D. Wagner, professor of psychology; director of the Stanford Memory Lab; associate director of the Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging Center, Stanford University; and
Gideon Yaffe, professor of law; professor of philosophy; professor of psychology, Yale University.
Tweet@MacFound grant keeps research on the brain and crime moving
TweetVanderbilt-based research network gets $1.4 million grant from @MacFound
Jim Patterson · (615) 322-NEWS ·
Law, Business and Politics myVU myVU News releases Research Trans-institutional Programs crime criminal justice featured research MacArthur Foundation neuroscience Owen Jones race Vanderbilt Research Trending
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American Employers Are Hung Up on Hiring Ph.D.s
Noah Smith
Bloomberg March 27, 2019
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- For a few lucky, talented and highly educated workers, the U.S. job market is booming. Artificial-intelligence researchers sometimes make more than $1 million a year. In the more general field of data science, salaries continue to rise despite a flood of new supply:
Meanwhile, salaries for electrical, mechanical and software engineers are rising as well, if a bit less spectacularly. For those with the skills to “tell computers what to do” (as venture capitalist and inventor Marc Andreessen once put it), capitalism still looks like a good deal. And there’s also the financial industry, which has long offered attractive salary premiums for highly talented people willing to endure the competitive culture and potential moral ambiguity.
But there’s a hidden downside to this high-end labor market. Many of these good jobs require Ph.D.s. A survey by Paysa found in 2017 that about 35 percent of AI jobs required a doctorate. In finance, Ph.D.s are heavily recruited for top quant trading jobs — as a professor at Stony Brook University, I helped advise applied-math doctoral students who were aiming for that industry. Plenty of workers at top tech companies such as Intel have Ph.D.s too. And more Ph.D. economists are going to work for industry. A quick Google search reveals a vast array of tech industry positions that now require this most advanced of degrees.
Why are so many companies asking for Ph.D.s? One reason might be that there are simply more Ph.D.s on the market. The number of doctorates awarded in the U.S. has increased in recent decades (though it fell a bit in 2017):
Meanwhile, tenure-track academic jobs — the kind of positions that doctoral programs groom people for — are on the wane:
So with more Ph.D.s looking for alternative careers in industry, why shouldn’t companies demand these degrees? Doctorate holders need money, tech and finance companies need expertise, so the market is matching the two.
Another reason might simply be the increasing need for both specialization and independent research in top technical jobs. Continuous innovation is the norm in knowledge industries, which compete by constantly offering new products. Ph.D.s teach students independent research skills. Also, the increasing technical complexity of the jobs might simply require Ph.D. levels of talent — corporate AI research, for example, is arguably as cutting-edge as anything in a university lab.
But the practice of requiring Ph.D.s for technical jobs could have some drawbacks. First, if the practice becomes an entrenched norm — that is, if companies start to assume that top jobs should go to Ph.D.s — it could create a segmented labor market, where qualified job candidates with only master’s or bachelor’s degrees would be overlooked and ignored.
If Ph.D.s become de rigueur for top tech jobs, it could also entice many more Americans to get Ph.D.s. But the program of study required to earn the degree isn't optimized for sending people to industry. Because doctoral students work under professors, they get trained for the academic life. Academia is more independent than corporate research, especially for students trying to prove their research skills through single-authored papers. It’s also driven by different imperatives — an academic may choose to research an esoteric topic of interest, while a corporate research team tends to be driven by the demands of the market. The culture mismatch is so great that there is a whole industry devoted to helping academics transition to the private sector.
Doctoral programs can also take a heavy psychological toll on students. A recent paper in the journal Nature Biotechnology found that more than a third of doctoral students report symptoms of depression and anxiety — a rate about six times higher than the general public. About 40 percent experience severe symptoms. Other studies have found similar results. (Though it’s worth noting that the tech and finance industries have their own problems with stress and depression.)
Finally, Ph.D. programs come with a high opportunity cost. Grad students tend to spend six or seven of their peak years in school. During that time, they’re learning advanced topics and research skills, but they’re also spending time signaling their professorial abilities to potential academic employers. That signaling process could be wasted if they end up going into industry.
So there are reasons to think that the Ph.D. system is not ideal for producing the employees that U.S. industry needs. One possible solution is to offer Ph.D. tracks that guide students toward industry. This could involve having some advisers in the private sector, and doing more research at university-affiliated labs on or off campus. This research could be compensated by the companies, making the poverty of grad school less acute. Dissertations written by Ph.D.s aiming for industry could be team efforts instead of individual demonstrations of prowess. Industry-focused Ph.D.s might take less time and convey more certainty about students’ future careers.
But companies should also think twice about requiring Ph.D.s for research jobs. Master’s or even bachelor’s degree holders are often highly talented, and many can learn Ph.D.-level research skills on the job as they go. Employers should be careful not to overlook the vast pools of talent among those who lack the most polished credentials.
To contact the author of this story: Noah Smith at nsmith150@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Greiff at jgreiff@bloomberg.net
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Noah Smith is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. He was an assistant professor of finance at Stony Brook University, and he blogs at Noahpinion.
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion
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Iraqi security forces find 53 blindfolded bodies south of Baghdad
Reuters July 9, 2014
HILLA Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi security forces found 53 corpses, blindfolded and handcuffed, in a town south of Baghdad early on Wednesday, local officials said.
They said the bodies had been left in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim village of Khamissiya, about 25 km (15 miles) southeast of the city of Hilla, near the main highway running from the capital to the southern provinces.
The head of the provincial council, local police and the governor's office all confirmed the discovery of the bodies, but had no immediate information on the identity of the dead, who appeared to have been killed execution style.
The bodies were found at 2 a.m. (2300 GMT) on Wednesday, they said.
Sunni Islamist fighters seized control of large parts of northern and western Iraq last month, sweeping toward Baghdad in the most serious challenge to the Shi'ite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki since the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 2011.
Fierce fighting between the insurgents and the army, backed by Shi'ite militias, has raised fears of a return to the devastating sectarian bloodshed which peaked in Iraq in 2006 and 2007.
Sunni militants have been carrying out attacks around the southern rim of Baghdad since the spring. In response, Shi'ite militias have been active in the rural districts of Baghdad, abducting Sunnis they suspected of terrorism, many of whom later turn up dead.
According to medical officials, the number of unidentified bodies found around Baghdad have risen steadily since the beginning of the year.
(Reporting by Raheem Salman; Editing by Louise Ireland)
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Hong Kong Protest Organizers Call for March on Sunday
Carol Zhong, Anna Luk and Stephen Engle
Bloomberg June 13, 2019
(Bloomberg) -- Organizers called for people to demonstrate Sunday amid growing public concern over the current version of a controversial extradition law. One of Hong Kong’s top business groups called on Carrie Lam’s administration to “engage in meaningful dialogue with the public,” saying the mass protests show the city is wary about the bill.
Lawmakers scrapped debate for a second straight day on legislation that would allow extraditions to China, as tensions remained high between police and protesters after violent clashes on Wednesday. Overnight, police began clearing several road blocks to reopen thoroughfares closed off Wednesday as thousands of protesters converged on the Legislative Council, preventing discussions from getting underway.
U.S. President Donald Trump weighed in on the turmoil that left dozens injured, saying he was sure that Hong Kong and China would “work it out.”
Here are the latest developments (all times Hong Kong):
Hunt Call (8:31 p.m.)
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt spoke directly to Lam and “called upon the Hong Kong government to listen to the concerns of the people and to take steps to preserve Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms and its high degree of autonomy,” Mark Field, the U.K. minister of state for Asia, told Parliament on Thursday.
Field said Hong Kong’s government should “pause” its extradition law reforms and added that the Sino-British declaration “remains as valid today as it did when it was signed 30 years ago.”
Government Stance (5:30 p.m.)
Western countries are unlikely to take punitive action against Hong Kong for the government’s handling of the protests, Matthew Cheung, the city’s No. 2 official, said in an interview with Now TV. The clashes would only have limited impact on Hong Kong’s international image, the chief secretary added.
Government officials weren’t involved in the police decision to fire rubber bullets, which was the minimum level of force available at that time, Cheung said. He reiterated the administration will continue with the legislation.
More Protests (5 p.m.)
Protest organizer the Civil Human Rights Front called for a Sunday 2:30 p.m. march, saying it had applied for a permit. It would originate in Hong Kong’s Victoria Park, as did a mass demonstration last Sunday that brought hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets. It also called for a Monday assembly in Admiralty, the center of Wednesday’s clashes between demonstrators and police. In a statement, CHRF said it condemned the use of police violence and repeated previous demands for the bill’s withdrawal and Lam’s resignation.
Business Worries (3:47 p.m.)
Hong Kong’s General Chamber of Commerce, which says it represents businesses employing a third of the local workforce, said large-scale protests show the public has “serious apprehensions” about the bill. “We sincerely urge the Government to continue to listen to stakeholders and engage in meaningful dialogue with the public,” said Aron Harilela, the group’s chairman, adding that it agrees with the underlying principle of the bill.
“We call for restraint from all parties to ensure that this issue will not undermine business confidence in Hong Kong and our international reputation,” Chamber CEO Shirley Yuen added, according to a statement.
Taiwan Support (3:19 p.m.)
Hong Kong people have the right to pursue their way of life and system they want, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters on Thursday. Her government won’t accept the Hong Kong extradition bill, she added, saying it violates Taiwan’s sovereignty. The city’s leader, Lam, has repeatedly cited a grisly murder in Taiwan last year as a main reason for the extradition bill.
Teachers Speak (12:45 p.m.)
The head of the city’s largest teachers’ union pushed back against criticism over the group’s call for a school strike. Ip Kin-yuen clarified that the union’s call was directed at teachers -- not students. “We have never had such strong requests from teachers to clearly voice our stand. We want to reiterate that we are asking teachers to strike. We hope students are present in class. We urge high school students under 18 not to go to dangerous places,” he said. Turnout at protests since Sunday has been largely driven by young people, including students, many of whom are on summer break.
Meeting Cancelled (11 a.m.)
The Legislative Council will not hold a session to debate the bill Thursday, Hong Kong’s Cable TV reported, without saying where it got the information. Opposition lawmaker Alvin Yeung says the body’s chairman, Andrew Leung, would send further notice on when it would take place. Lawmakers had said earlier that it was unlikely the meeting would be held amid the continued threat of protests.
Protesters Return (10:45 a.m.)
A small crowd of protesters -- many of them young people wearing surgical masks to hide their identities -- began gathering on a covered walkway in Admiralty, the central area that was ground zero for Wednesday’s demonstrations. They appeared to be re-provisioning to stay, with water bottles, hard hats and bags of food. Police with canisters of pepper spray gathered inside the Legislative Council building nearby. Protesters were out on the streets late Wednesday night, handing out helmets and supplies and continuing to block some main roads in the financial district.
Opposition Speaks (10:12 a.m.)
Opposition lawmakers repeated calls for Lam to withdraw the bill at a briefing on Thursday. Claudia Mo, who’s been vocal throughout the protests, told reporters it looked unlikely that the legislature would re-open at 11 a.m. -- or for the rest of the day. Government headquarters next door to the council building was also shut down for the day. They also criticized Wednesday’s violence. “As we have seen yesterday, the force the police used was disproportionate,” said Wu Chi-wai, chairman of the Democratic Party. Police have defended the use of tear gas and rubber bullets, calling it a “riot” situation.
Beijing Reports (8:37 a.m.)
One of China’s most widely read state media outlets -- which had held off on reporting the Hong Kong protests -- finally weighed in. The official Xinhua News Agency said in a news story that Wednesday’s demonstrations were a “disturbance.”
How Events Unfolded: Day One of the Hong Kong Protest
China’s tightly-controlled state media has thus far dismissed the protests in support of the Hong Kong government. The state-run Global Times pointed to international interference and “collusion” in writing off last weekend’s mass demonstration in the city, in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.
Debate to Resume (7:40 a.m.)
Opposition lawmakers Claudia Mo and Alvin Yeung said the Legislative Council has rescheduled debate for 11 a.m., although the body’s president, Andrew Leung, hasn’t yet announced the move. Leung had slated 66 hours of debate on dozens of amendments introduced by the opposition, proceedings that were originally expected to wrap up June 20.
Police Clear Streets (6:30 a.m.)
There were no signs of organized protests around Hong Kong government offices in Admiralty Thursday morning, save for masks, umbrellas and other things discarded during Wednesday’s demonstrations. Police had reopened several roads in the affected area including Harcourt Road and Queensway. Still, protesters could soon return, with Radio Television Hong Kong reporting that opponents of the bill have been asked to muster again at 7 a.m.
Government Complex Shut (6:08 a.m.)
The Hong Kong government said it would close Central Government Offices on Thursday and Friday, citing security concerns. Staff working there were advised not to go to the office and should work in accordance with contingency plans. All visits to the government headquarters will be postponed or canceled.
MTR Station Closed (5:55 a.m.)
Service at the metro station serving the government center and business district at the center of the protest zone in Admiralty has been suspended at the requested of the police, Radio Television Hong Kong reports.
U.S. Cautions ‘All Sides’ (2:09 a.m.)
A spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department in Washington spoke out against the proposed legislation but encouraged “all sides” to avoid violence. “People are protesting as it relates to this proposed legislation because they don’t want to be subjugated to the Chinese as it relates to some of their fundamental rights,” Morgan Ortagus, the spokeswoman, said on Wednesday in Washington. “That framework puts at risk Hong Kong’s long-established status in international affairs.”
Trump Speaks (12:18 a.m.)
Trump said he was confident that Hong Kong and China would resolve their differences over the proposed extradition law. “I hope it all works out for China and for Hong Kong,” Trump said Wednesday during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda at the White House. “I’m sure they’ll be able to work it out.”
Protest Injuries (12:14 a.m.)
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority confirmed that 72 people have been injured in the protests. At least 50 men and 22 women are being treated in seven public hospitals, according to a spokesperson.
Lam Urges Order (8:35 p.m., Wednesday)
In a brief video statement, the city’s leader urged a return to order. “I hope society will return to order quickly and no one gets hurts in riots again. I urge everyone who loves this place to stay away from violence,” she said, sounding resolute. “I believe Hong Kong as a civilized society, can use peaceful and rational methods to solve any problems.
--With assistance from Justin Sink, Kelly Belknap, Huang Zhe, Colin Keatinge, Daniel Ten Kate, Dominic Lau, Ryan Lovdahl, Fion Li, Chris Kay and Simon Lee.
To contact the reporters on this story: Carol Zhong in Hong Kong at yzhong71@bloomberg.net;Anna Luk in Hong Kong at aluk9@bloomberg.net;Stephen Engle in Beijing at sengle1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Scott at bscott66@bloomberg.net, Karen Leigh
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
Shelters full, hopes dim for migrants in Mexico seeking US asylum
Protesters Throw Umbrellas at Police During Clashes at Hong Kong Shopping Mall
An anonymous Democratic group leaked a poll that shows swing voters deeply dislike Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the left-wing, widening the party's rift
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Twin Falls House Candidate Continues Marijuana Legalization Push
PeterforIdaho.com
The Idaho 2nd Congressional District Election of 2018 includes a Twin Falls' man who has a noteworthy past when it comes to one of the nation's most debatable topics.Peter Rickards, who is running opposite Aaron Swisher in the Democratic primary, has two main goals right now, the removal of nuclear waste from the Gem State, and making marijuana legal, particularly for medicinal purposes.
Rickards, a former Twin Falls' podiatrist, is no stranger to Idaho's political scene. In 1998, his pursuit to become governor of Idaho (ran as Independent) ended after gaining just 3.2% of votes, in the three-way race with Dirk Kempthorne and Robert Huntley, according to state election archives. He also ran, unsuccessfully, in the 1996 Republican primary ( vs Mike Crapo), and again in the state legislature race of 2008.
In 2013, Rickards was arrested after a search warrant yielded more than 30 marijuana plants, and over four pounds of processed marijuana, from his Twin Falls home, according to his arrest file. Rickards is once again the underdog, due in large part to the state's knowledge of his past.
High health insurance premiums, and the presence of nuclear waste in Idaho, are two other issues Rickards would like to see dealt with, according to his website.
State elections will take place November 6, 2018.
Filed Under: Twin Falls
Categories: General, Idaho News, Lifestyle, Magic Valley News
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Pepperdine University Ranked Number 32 in The Economist’s First-Ever Undergraduate Rankings
November 4, 2015 | 1 min read
In The Economist’s first-ever set of college rankings, Pepperdine University was named one of the top universities in the United States for students that receive above-average pay after graduation. The newly released numbers in “The Value of University” ranking list Pepperdine at number 32 out of the 1,275 four-year non-vocational American colleges, which were ranked by alumni earnings above expectation.
“While we don’t actively pursue rankings for their own sake, we are pleased when employers recognize the value of a Pepperdine graduate,” says Pepperdine provost Rick Marrs. “We strive to educate our students in such a way that their value to employers is not only economic, but enhances and enriches their work environment and the ethical reputation of the company.”
According to the publication, the rankings are "based on a simple, if debatable, premise: the economic value of a university is equal to the gap between how much money its graduates earn, and how much they might have made had they studied elsewhere."
The full rankings and a description of the methodology can be found on The Economist's website .
University News Academics Rankings
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Annual and Sustainability Report 2018
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Porsche Newsroom
Fascinating Movement
Friedemann Vogel was born in Stuttgart, attended the John Cranko School and is principal dancer at the internationally renowned Stuttgart Ballet. He finds his inspiration in many things – including Porsche sports cars.
His performance is about to begin. Friedemann Vogel is standing at the edge of the stage, in the dark. He appears calm, focused. No sign of nervousness. There comes his cue. Vogel straightens up and walks into the bright spotlight. What follows is pure perfection. The movements: powerful and elegant at the same time, explosive and fluid in equal measure. And always gracefully and precisely executed.
Friedemann Vogel is “Kammertänzer” and principal dancer at Stuttgart Ballet
Friedemann Vogel is a multi-award winning ballet dancer. Born and raised in Stuttgart, Germany, he trained at the world-famous John Cranko School before going to the prestigious Princess Grace Academy in Monte Carlo. Today he can be seen on stages in Moscow, Milan, Shanghai or Vienna. An international star. In 2015, he was awarded the honorary title “Kammertänzer” in Germany: the highest honour that can be bestowed on a dancer in the country. In his Swabian homeland, people are proud of this prominent son of the city, not least of all because he has remained loyal to his native city until this day. As principal dancer, he belongs to the permanent ensemble of the Stuttgart Ballet for 20 years.
The Staatsoper Stuttgart, home to the Stuttgart Ballet
Offstage, the 39-year-old is unpretentious, calm and sociable. The hustle and bustle around him comes along with success, but that is not his focus. Friedemann Vogel simply wants to dance. This has always been the case. “As long as I can remember, dance has been in me,” he says with a smile. “At the age of four or five, I started dancing ballet. Since then I never wanted to do anything else.” Even now, he practises for several hours every day driven by high expectations of himself.
Care and precision as foundation for top performance
Vogel is inspired by his surroundings for his art form. This also includes sports cars. In fact, he has been driving Porsche for more than ten years. “For me, as a Stuttgart native, there was actually no other choice. I've always dreamed of owning my own Porsche at some point.” Powerful dynamics, but also silent gliding in hybrid mode, beautiful curves, precise movements, the demand for perfection – these are all parallel attributes between Porsche and ballet for Friedemann Vogel.
Common ground of sports cars and dancers: both are athletes
“In my eyes, dance and sports cars have a lot in common. The body of an athlete, for example, has to be fine-tuned very precisely like an engine and the chassis.” You can also see that in Vogel. His training has resulted in a perfect body. But it is not just for show. Each muscle serves art, expression and emotion. At Porsche, they call it “form follows function”. With strong discipline and hard work, Friedemann creates the basis for making his performance on stage completely effortless.
This is the core of the common ground. Yes, sports cars and dancers both convey emotions; both are athletes. Above all, however, it is the high degree of care and precision hardly visible from the outside that lays the foundation for top performance in the background. For Vogel, the fact that Porsche has for many years been a major sponsor of both the John Cranko School and the Stuttgart Ballet as part of its cultural sponsorship programme just drives home the point.
As part of the series “Inspired by Porsche”, Friedemann Vogel has had the opportunity to translate the driving experience of the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid into his art form of dance. Here you can see how he interprets the mixture of quiet electric and powerful sport modes:
When you watch Friedemann Vogel dance, this thought inevitably comes to your mind: “What fascinating movement!”
You could say the same thing about Porsche sports cars.
Inspired by Porsche
“Inspired by Porsche” is a series of reports from the Porsche Newsroom in which artists interpret their emotions about Porsche. In Part 1, Friedemann Vogel manifests his driving impressions of a Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid through dance.
Consumption data
Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid: Fuel consumption combined 3.3 l/100 km; CO2 emissions 74 g/km; electricity consumption (combined) 16.0 kWh/100 km
“Inspired by Porsche”: Ballet dancer Friedemann Vogel
Download all elements
John Cranko Schule
Stuttgart Ballet
Friedemann Vogel
Products 02/24/2017
Premiere: Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid
Porsche launches a plug-in hybrid as the flagship of a model line for the first time.
Factory site or hall of mirrors, Porsche bodywork or ballet barre?
Company 07/18/2018
Peter Lindbergh photographs Porsche models
Photographer to the stars Peter Lindbergh created a photographic series as part of the “Porsche Talent Project”.
Alicia Amatriain is ballerina at the Stuttgart Ballet - Porsche partner since 2012.
The Porsche Newsroom is a service provided by the Porsche Communication for journalists, bloggers and the online community.
© 2019 Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG
The data presented here was recorded using the Euro 5 test procedure (715/2007/EC, 692/2008/EC, 566/2011/EC and ECE-R 101) and the NEDC (New European Driving Cycle). The respective figures were not recorded on individual vehicles and do not constitute part of the offer. This data is provided solely for the purpose of comparison between the respective models. Fuel consumption was recorded on vehicles with standard specification. Optional equipment may affect fuel consumption and vehicle performance. Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are not only determined by a vehicle’s fuel efficiency, but also by the driving style and other factors irrespective of vehicle specification.
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1. All information offered on Porsche Newsroom, including but not limited to, texts, images, audio and video documents, are subject to copyright or other legislation for the protection of intellectual property. They are intended exclusively for use by journalists as a source for their own media reporting and are not intended for commercial use, in particular for advertising purposes. It is not permitted to pass on texts, images, audio or video data to unauthorised third parties.
2. All logos and trademarks mentioned on Porsche Newsroom are trademarks of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (hereinafter: Porsche AG), unless otherwise stated.
3. All contents of Porsche Newsroom are carefully researched and compiled. Nevertheless, the information may contain errors or inaccuracies. Porsche AG does not accept any liability with respect to the results that may be achived through the use of the information, in particular with respect to accuracy, up-to-dateness and completeness.
4. Insofar as Porsche Newsroom provides information concerning vehicles, the data refers to the German market. Statements concerning standard equipment and statutory, legal and tax regulations and repercussion are valid for the Federal Public of Germany only.
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Porsche uses cookies to optimise and improve the website, as well as enable the availability of certain functions. By continuing to use this website, you agree to our use of cookies. For further information, please click here
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The NGO-Partnership System (NGO-PS) Portal (NGO-DARPAN) was earlier maintained by erstwhile Planning Commission, which has been replaced by the NITI Aayog w.e.f. 1st January, 2015. The Portal, therefore, is being maintained at present under the aegis of NITI Aayog. NITI Aayog invites all Voluntary Organizations (VOs)/ Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to Sign Up on the Portal.
VOs/NGOs play a major role in the development of the nation by supplementing the efforts of the Government. This portal enables VOs/NGOs to enrol centrally and thus facilitates creation of a repository of information about VOs/NGOs, Sector/State wise. The Portal facilitates VOs/NGOs to obtain a system generated Unique ID, as and when signed. The Unique ID is mandatory to apply for grants under various schemes of Ministries/Departments/Governments Bodies.
Click here to visit NGO Darpan Portal
Updated On : 07-04-2017 10:56:23
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First International Bank growing with Dakota Carrier Network services
COURTESY PHOTOS
First International Bank & Trust, and its chief operating and strategy officer, Michael Toy (left inset) rely on the team at Dakota Carrier Network (right inset Barb Pfeifer, DCN ethernet/IP technician) to deliver powerful, reliable network technology services to its multiple locations.
As First International Bank & Trust has expanded its locations in recent years, Dakota Carrier Network (DCN) has been a key partner in providing the technology connectivity the bank network requires.
First International is a North Dakota-based banking business, which has an historic link to a bank in Arnegard in 1910, assuming its current identity after opening a bank in Watford City in 1934. Throughout its history, First International has been owned by the Stenehjem family. Today, First International operates 20 banks in North Dakota, three in Minnesota and three in Arizona.
DCN – a relatively new business in comparison to First International – is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the broadband network and information technology business in North Dakota. Created in 1996, DCN is owned by 15 independent telecommunications companies representing 85 percent of all telephone exchanges in North Dakota and more than 90 percent of the state’s total surface area. These companies serve more than 164,000 customers in approximately 250 communities, and currently have more than 40,000 miles of fiber optic cable in service.
Michael Toy, chief operating and strategy officer for First International, indicates that DCN has been dependably providing the technology linkages critical to the collective success of the bank’s network.
“We draw on DCN for all of our network connectivity, from the wide area network perspective,” Toy says. At first, DCN helped link parts of the First International network together, leading up to the fully connected network of banks today, he says. DCN typically partners with one of its local telecom company affiliates, such as RTC serving Watford City, so local connections, linked to wide area connections, are assured.
Toy says First International is pleased and impressed with DCN’s willingness to expand its level of service to keep upgrading the connectivity speeds and capacities which benefit First International. An indication of the growth mode for DCN is the current data center expansion at its Network Operations Center in north Bismarck. Approved by DCN’s owner companies last August, the 30,000-square-foot expansion project is currently under construction and is expected to be complete by early 2017.
“This expansion is being built in response to customers’ continuing demand for secure and reliable information technology solutions and services,” says DCN CEO Seth Arndorfer.
The expanded data center will be built to the same fort-like specifications as DCN’s current data centers in Bismarck and Fargo. The building will be a carrier-grade hardened facility able to withstand F4 tornado-force winds, backed by a 1-megawatt generator and battery plant having an N+1 uninterruptible power supply. DCN’s data center expansion will provide customers with additional capacity to house their business critical applications, ensuring 99.999 percent network uptime to customers, including critical health care, public safety, state government and financial institutions in North Dakota.
For Toy and the First International team, information technology needs continue to grow in their business and they appreciate that DCN responds so well to them.
“In recent years, we have gone anywhere from 10 to 50 times faster with the data movement speeds than what we had a few years ago,” Toy says. Increased data traffic, complex phone systems, advanced video conferencing, and imaging and scanning practices all contribute to their need for a much larger, and always reliable, information technology system.
“Our needs have risen and we have been able to grow with DCN,” Toy says.
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Are petra and max dating
Dancing with the Stars Couples: Some of the Show's Most Memorable Romances | negeriku.info
Petra Ecclestone looks leggy in her tiny LBD as she enjoys rare date night with beau . Petra Ecclestone enjoys rare date night with beau Sam Palmer at Catch . Big drop: Mihir Jain, 14, poses for a picture at Max Hospital. Petra Ral (ペトラ・ラル Petora Raru) was a hand-picked soldier of the Survey Corps by Levi Ackerman placed in the Special Operations Squad. Petra was a. 14 Couples Who Found Romance in the Dancing with the Stars Ballroom. The newest romance comes courtesy of pro Bersten and model Ren, who’ve been particularly open about their feelings throughout season In a November episode, following Ren’s confession she was falling.
Doctors foresaw long-term difficulties and little possibility of a dancing career; however, he recovered and was dancing again six months later.
At 15 he began working at a local Russian restaurant, dancing as entertainment. Working at the restaurant, Chmerkovskiy decided winning competitions as a dancer would be a way to argue for higher pay. The studio relocated a few times until it ended up in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. He said in of choosing a New Jersey location, "I didn't want to open a studio that would become just one of the studios in the area.
I wanted to open my studio somewhere where there was nothing like it and where people would look at it with no preconceived notions.
Maks Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd's Wedding: Photos and Details | negeriku.info
Dancing with the Stars[ edit ] Pro dancer[ edit ] Chmerkovskiy competed as a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars for fifteen seasons. They made it to the finals and finished in third place. Following the season 5 finale, Chmerkovskiy reportedly told TV Guide Magazine he would not be returning to the show, something he later told People Magazine he had announced his departure because of stress.
Seasons 7—9[ edit ] He returned for the show's seventh season, this time paired with two-time Olympic volleyball gold medalist, Misty May-Treanor.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy - Wikipedia
Chmerkovskiy and May-Treanor were forced to withdraw from the competition in Week 3. During a practice for their jiveMay-Treanor ruptured her Achilles tendon and required surgery. Her withdrawal gave them a finish in 10th place. They were eliminated second in the competition, giving the pair a finish of 12th place.
Maks • Val • Peta – STORY SO FAR
In the ninth season, he was paired with actress Debi Mazarduring which they were eliminated fourth. Halfway through season 9, Chmerkovskiy partnered Joanna Krupa for one week while Derek Hough was ill.
For season 11, Chmerkovskiy partnered with singer and actress, Brandy. They made it to the semi-finals but were eliminated with a fourth-place finish. On week 3, his leg gave out causing her to fall heavily on him, earning 21 points out of Maksim is originally from Ukraine and immigrated with his family to Brooklyn in He is Co-Founder of Dance With Me dance studios with eight high end social dance clubs nation-wide dedicated to first-rate dance instruction.
Maks is married to Dancing with the Stars pro, Peta Murgatroyd and in January they had their first child, a son, Shai. It was in a small Eastern European community in South Brooklyn where Val first picked up ballroom dancing as an after school activity. Soon after, Val found another passion, playing the violin.
In Val joined his brother Maks as a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars for its 13th season. The time US National Champion and two-time World Dance Champion quickly rose to stardom, becoming a fan-favorite for his impeccable performances. Val won his first Dancing with the Stars Mirrorball Trophy with partner Rumer Willis during the ten year anniversary season of the show.
Most recently, Val was partnered with Paralympic swimmer Victoria Arlen, making it to the semi-finals. Peta Murgatroyd Peta Murgatroyd, the Two-time Mirror Ball Champion, first appeared on Dancing With The Stars in and over the past six years has cemented herself as a fan favorite on the show, starring in over episodes.
New Zealand born and raised in Australia, Peta has been dancing since the age of 4. Winner of national and international dance competitions, she excelled in Ballet, Contemporary, ballroom and Latin dancing.
In Peta joined the cast of Burn The Floor, touring globally and became the lead female dancer when it hit Broadway in It was through dance that Peta met the love of her life and now husband Maks Chmerkovskiy and in January they had their first child together, a son named Shai.
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