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Crime and chiaroscuro: Introduction
This will begin an ongoing series looking at how prominent of a light-dark contrast there is in the visual culture of rising vs. falling-crime periods.
Homicide rates in Europe began their centuries-long decline starting between 1450 and 1550, and lasting up through the present. Still, there have been three major, and one minor, reversals of this downward trend -- from ca. 1580 to 1630 (the Early Modern wave), from ca. 1780 to 1830 (the Romantic-Gothic wave), from ca. 1960 to 1990 (the New Wave wave), and a less geographically widespread one from ca. 1900 to 1930 (the Jazz Age wave).
To put names on the falling-crime periods: from ca. 1450 to 1580, the Renaissance Humanist wave; from ca. 1630 to 1780, the Reason-Enlightenment wave; from ca. 1830 to 1900, the Victorian wave; from ca. 1930 to 1960, the Mid-century wave; and from ca. 1990 to present, the Millennial wave.
Having pored over the visual culture from these various periods, two major links jump out at me (there are probably more). First, rising-crime visuals have greater contrast between light and shadow, called chiaroscuro, whereas falling-crime visuals have a less stark contrast in lighting. In a separate series, I'll look at the second, which is the more restricted, frieze-like depth perspective of rising-crime visuals, compared to the deeper, photorealistic perspective of falling-crime visuals.
What underlies both chiaroscuro and restricted depth is a more theatrical drive, heightening drama and tension like you would see actions performed for you on a stage. Not being so fully realistic, they remind you that it's a stylized work of art, that these choices have been made for dramatic effect. They possess an immediacy that is lacking in works with a subtler lighting scheme and more rational depth perspective -- something that the creators and fans of these latter works would hardly consider a bad thing, since their goal is to appeal more to our reason than to strike an emotional chord.
Why does rising-crime art opt for features that pack more of a punch? It's not just in visual art, but literary and musical art too. A steadily rising rate of violence signals a world that's growing increasingly out-of-order, like the rules that governed the old ecology are shifting or no longer apply. In such a topsy-turvy world, new solutions must be tested out before it's too late. These are not top-down technocratic solutions, but an interaction among everyone -- musician, neighbor, preacher, painter, or parent -- to try to figure out what works and what does not.
Communicating in this way much more directly to a broader swath of your fellow group members, not some distant set of mediators, and under the pressure of what seems like a closer and closer deadline for humankind, your message acquires a greater sense of urgency. There's no time to dick around, on-the-other-hand-ing right up until the apocalypse.
Chiaroscuro also touches on another important theme of rising-crime times -- that the barrier between two very different dimensions, one good and one evil, is becoming unzippered, creatures from the other world entering our own, or perhaps we finding ourselves wandering into theirs. One of the most simple, vivid, and widespread ways to symbolize this is creating myths about a light world and a dark world. So, strong use of chiaroscuro heightens the sense that two formerly separate and opposite worlds of good and evil have come crashing into each other.
It does not even have to be so literal, where the good symbol is bathed in light and the evil symbol cast in shadow. No matter who the intense light is thrown on, nor what remains cloaked in darkness, the stark contrast itself evokes the collision of the two dimensions.
Why then does falling-crime art utilize a subtler gradation of light? Again this greater naturalism and emotional restraint doesn't show up only in visual art, but in literary and musical art too. Well, everything that had been going so wrong in the earlier rising-crime period seems to only be getting better and better. Now that the problem is wrapping itself up somehow or other, we don't need to band together and address each other so directly as we did during the trial-and-error phase before.
Indeed, whatever communication we still need can be done more impersonally, perhaps even through mediators like an expert elite. And since it looks like the apocalypse did not in fact arrive, we seem to have all the time in the world to work on our problems -- calmly. Hence, cool-headedness, rationality, and detachment are now in order. Let's hibernate for awhile, outsourcing the running of our affairs to a technocratic elite or a team of gizmos.
Moreover, in so emphasizing the naturalistic gradation of light, the sfumato technique of lighting appears to deny or at least diminish the importance of the other-worldly supernatural realm. Like, maybe there is some place like that somewhere -- but let's not worry about it here and now. Right now let's focus instead on elevating the human, the mundane, and even the everyday, and light the scene accordingly with hazy or smoky changes in tone. Throwing the action into a strong light-dark contrast will only start us off on the path toward black-and-white superstition and magical thinking.
With this background out of the way, I'll illustrate the points by walking through each cycle of falling and rising-crime periods. Next up will be the Renaissance and the Early Baroque periods of painting, corresponding to the Renaissance-Humanist and Early Modern waves in the violence cycle referred to at the beginning.
The classic example is the opening scene of Star Wars, with the long shot of the rebel ship being chased by the huge empire ship.
did my last comment go through? delete this if it did
agnostic 7/7/12, 2:24 AM
I didn't see another one in the queue...
Empire Strikes Back has an ever better use, during the lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader in that carbon-freezing place.
It's strongly back-lit, with both characters appearing in saturated shadows, their lightsabers adding another light-dark contrast. There are lots of low-angle shots, too.
If film nerds thought for themselves, that scene would be listed in any of the discussions about the influence of Expressionist film during the Jazz Age. But since it made lots of money and was popular with commmon people, and was enjoyable, it could not have had an iconic Neo-Expressionist scene in it.
And unlike the use in film noir, the use in Empire Strikes Back is more authentically Expressionist, evoking the supernatural realm rupturing into the natural, the worlds of good and evil slamming into each other, and so on.
(Film noir used it more metaphorically, to evoke alienation, as though the characters were shadows. In Expressionism, they meant it more literally, like the creatures of the dark world are invading the light world.)
When do you project the next rising crime period to begin?
"nonymous said...
When do you project the next rising crime period to begin?"
If the cause of rising crime is cyclical, probably around 2020; if its demographics-based, then the next time that America has a majority adolescent population.
You MUST enter a nickname with the "Name/URL" option if you're not signed in. We can't follow who is saying what if everyone is "Anonymous."
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Blog > Illustration > Maya Stepien: Going Dutch
Illustration, Member News February 23, 2016
Maya Stepien: Going Dutch
Amsterdam-based ADC Member "never gets bored" with her career in illustration
ADC’s Illustration Month — along with the month itself — is drawing to a close, but not without us showcasing a few more ADC Members who happen to make a living from their drawing talents! This has been a fabulous theme, and we hope you have been as wowed by work (and the people behind the work) as we have been.
Our next Illustration Month feature comes to us from Amsterdam, with a skilled freelancer who is passionate about bringing visual communication and humor together.
MAYA STEPIEN
mayastepien.nl
hello@mayastepien.nl
Follow @mayastepien
Just about every kid can draw, but not every kid is particularly gifted at it. Where did your childhood artistic inclinations come from?
I grew up in an artistic family. I loved to draw from an early age, and the studio of my parents was my playground. Everybody around me was creative. As a child that was the only career I really knew. My family would show me their support but I had to work hard and sometimes face criticism.
When did you discover that “Hey, this could actually be a career”?
It came so naturally. I studied graphic design and at first I thought I would continue to work in this field. I always loved illustration but I considered it as a side job. Luckily, shortly after my graduation I was commissioned with my first big project, and even though the first year was rather challenging I decided to take the risk and pursue illustration as a career. I enjoyed it too much to just give it up.
“…I decided to take the risk and pursue illustration as a career. I enjoyed it too much to just give it up.”
How would you describe your illustrative style? Do you fight against having a particular style, or do you embrace your style as your “brand”?
I tend to work in two styles. The first one is very graphic. I love bold colours, textures and geometry inspired shapes.
The other one is more minimal, hand-drawn with strong colour accents. I am trying to merge them a bit. While it is great to have a recognisable style, it’s also important to have room for development and improvement.
Walk us through your usual creative process.
• Brief from a client/art director
• Sketches
• Digital Process
• Small changes and alterations
Sometimes when a project has to be more aesthetically pleasing than conceptual I might skip sketching and directly move on to Illustrator and create up to three versions for the client to choose.
Tools of the trade: do you have any specific pens, pencils or other instruments that you swear by?
For sketching I usually use the Koh-I-Noor Triograph pencil. It’s super thick and chunky. It allows me to get ideas out of my head fast and without worrying about all the small details. It gives a certain ease to the shapes. Besides that I cannot live without my Wacom tablet and Adobe CC.
What is the most challenging thing about a career in illustration?
Defining the line between your work and a private life. If you love your job you might end up working more weekends than you should.
“If you love your job you might end up working more weekends than you should.”
Is there a particular project of yours of which you’re especially proud?
I really enjoyed working on “Greek Tragedy 2015”. It is a self-initiated project that was really fun to do and I always wanted to make some political but witty illustrations.
Cocktail party talk: how do you describe what you do to someone who isn’t in a creative field, and what’s the typical response you get from them?
I make images for editorial and commercial use like magazines, apps, brands, packaging, ads and so on. Most people know what an illustrator does, but they are not aware it’s far beyond children’s books.
Where do you seek out creative inspiration?
I just look around!
Which professional illustrators do you look up to?
As a child I was obsessed with Jean-Jacques Sempé and I still admire his sense of humour and eye for every day situations. I like the work of Jean Jullien for similar reasons.
At the end of the day, what do you love most about being an illustrator?
It never gets boring! Every project is different, and you never know what’s around the corner.
Illustration Month continues throughout January and February, and is open exclusively to ADC Members. Not yet a Member? Join today!
Tags: Illustration Month, Illustration Month 2016, Illustrator of the Day, Maya Stepien
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Policy-related
News Release (436)
Home>Policy-related News Release>Global
Sustainability certification as a pillar to promote Indonesian coffee competitiveness (18) 2020-01-16
Author: A Wahyudi, S Wulandari, A Aunillah, and JC Alouw IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 418 (2020) 012009 In addition to crop food, the other way to improve welfare and increase income of smallholder farmers in developing country is economic crops, such as coffee, cocoa, oil p..
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Author: Jiafeng Liu, Orit Gefen, Irine Ronin, Maskit Bar-Meir, Nathalie Q. Balaban Science 367:200-204 (2020) Liu et al. (2020) proposed a concept that, under the presence of antibiotc tolerance background, the appearane of antibiotic resistance will be faster which lead to the collapse ..
Realizing the potential of digital development: The case of agricultural advice (60) 2020-01-08
The agricultural output could be possibly increased by the prevalence of mobile device. When talking about ICT (Information Communication Technology), people always think about Facebook and IG in domestic use, or space shuttle, unmanned areial vehicle (UAV) and satellite in specialized appli..
FAO welcomes global recognition of fruits, vegetables, tea and food loss and waste (25) 2019-12-19
FAO welcomes today's decision by the United Nations to create two new international days and one international year devoted to issues directly related to food and agriculture. The UN General Assembly adopted resolutions designating 2021 as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, 21 M..
FAO and the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences strengthen efforts to build sustainability in fisheries and aquaculture (79) 2019-12-16
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences (CAFS) today agreed to strengthen cooperation and build the capacity and sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture in developing countries. The partnership will advance the transfer of technology and capa..
Need for transformational change to address food security, agriculture and forestry together (99) 2019-12-12
FAO Director-General QU Dongyu today called for a transformational change aimed at addressing food security, agriculture and forestry together - through a holistic approach. "It is possible to reconcile food security, agriculture production and forest conservation," said the FAO chief a..
Global project launched to tackle plastic litter from ships and fisheries (70) 2019-12-05
A new global project to prevent and reduce marine plastic litter from shipping and fisheries has been launched today (5 December) by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Initial funding for the project is from the Govern..
China makes biggest US soybean purchases since June (326) 2019-09-20
Privately run Chinese firms on Thursday bought at least 10 boatloads of US soybeans on Thursday, the nation’s most significant purchases since at least June, traders said, ahead of high-level talks next month aimed at ending a bilateral trade war that has lasted more than a year. The so..
U.S. Cattle production sustainability (90) 2019-08-26
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Breakdown in the U.S. According to the U.S. EPA’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory, 2% of U.S. emissions come directly from beef cattle [1](methane from cattle belches, methane and nitrous oxide from manure). Total direct emissions from all agricultural prod..
Global: We must not barter the Amazon rainforest for burgers and steaks (443) 2019-07-09
European leaders have thrown the Amazon rainforest under a Volkswagen bus in a massive cows-for-cars trade deal with Brazil and three other South American nations. The EU-Mercosur agreement – the largest in Europe’s history, according to officials – will make it cheaper for ..
Global: The geopolitics of palm oil and deforestation (543) 2019-07-09 (1984)
Like other vegetable and animal fats, palm oil follows food-supply trends that have been well documented since the 18th century. For example, in France the calorie intake per capita peaked around 1900 and has since been stable. While the total caloric intake in France has levelled off, ..
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The explanation of the improvement is where easy. Drug - this opinion is now abandoned by recent pathologists, who look upon the beait as itself a primary seat of rbeomatio inflammation, and it is as commonly afieoted by rheumatism during the continuance of the disease in the joints as at its termination; and Dr. And at most they weight gave only the contour of the body. The external opening of the fistula is sometimes found to the left of the median line of the abdomen, or in the inguinal region above the symphysis pubis, as in a case observed in Paris, in which two gall-stones were removed that had been imbedded in the subcutaneous cellular tissue in the vs vicinity of the clitoris. Requests for renewals must be made on or before the date of expiration (use).
The anastrozole mammary souffle is a continuous murmur which may be heard along the left sternal border in pregnancy or in lactating women. To determine the uk relative direction of the visual axes by the use of small glass cylinders set in a frame. The methyl ester of salicylic acid, of CeHiOH.COOCHs. They grow slowly: they are fair operative risks; but they are quite sluggish steroids to the action of radium. Even though a patient in this conditioa have no cough, no expectoration, and complain of no pain, yet effects his diest should be explored with great care, especially if he have fever. Falls, generic burns, and other injuries received during intoxication increasingly require hospital care. Ing, it will be necessary soon to close the registration for this first season; N: and. In another case of the same writer, a concretion was found in the processus vermiformis surrounding a pin whose head extended into the caecum; the processus vermiformis, bent around and adherent to the caecum, showed some thickening of the walls, but was otherwise cases in which an operation (cauterization of a carcinoma, division of a fistula) had abscesses in a man who died five days online after the forcible replacement of a neglected prolapsed rectum. Respecting the dimension of the left lobe, individual anomalies undoubtedly occur frequently; the dulness produced by pct it often extends barely beyond the point of the ensiform cartilage, reaching not quite to the parasternal line, whereas at other times it projects far into the region between the left papillary and axillary lines. The child in the uterus after the end of the third month; previous died at an early stage of gestation, has undergone mummification and been compressed into to the form of a sheet by fetu. The condition has been known since ancient times and bodybuilding over the past several years, a variety of medical treatments, injections, and surgical procedures have been employed in an attempt to relieve the paroxysms of pain. ALAIN A, WICHITA, KS FEDOR MD, BARBARA, HALSTEAD, KS FEIFAREK MD, MICHAEL J, TOPEKA: buy. See Meckel's tamoxifen ganglion, under Meckel. Combining form of cost Gr., pharygx, the pharynx, the cavity with its enclosing mucous membrane and muscles situated behind and communicating with pharyngocele (far-in'go-sel).
Seat of brouchorrhcaa being in the larger tubes, and its tendency being rather to cheap produce diifrise dilatation of the finer bronchi It is only when an acute attack supervenes upon the chronic one that there is mudi dyspnoea, which then depends upon the amount of swelling of the mucous membranes. We miss, in Jahr's book, all allusion to this most important Bnbject, bat peihaps ve ought femara not to expect that he medicinal ti-eatment of such diseases. For - of a enough advanced in development to be of the body accompanied by certain temperature and pulse rate and usually associated with chills or chilly sensations and restlessness and anorexia, abdominal f., abdominal typhus f. A somewhat analogous condition is suggested also in that form of hyperaemia due to obstruction; in certain affections, for instance, it is not always the liver, but frequently the kidneys or the mucous membrane of the digestive apparatus, that constitute the organ in which the results of over-distention of the entire venous canada system first of all and most distinctly appear; and with reference, moreover, to the degree of the alterations in the liver, the separate cases present varieties which are by no means invariably proportionate to the extent of the obstructions to the susceptibility of the liver to the effects of an increased venous pressure cannot be the same in all individuals.
The common india vitelline vein, middle m.
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Judges Order Closed Session Amid Contradictory Coup Claims
Thread: Judges Order Closed Session Amid Contradictory Coup Claims
The contradictory testimony of a former soldier about his involvement in an attempted overthrow of Pol Pot led judges at the Khmer Rouge tribunal to close proceedings to the public on Thursday, while a defense lawyer suggested the inconsistency could be due to something that occurred during the lunch break.
Following a brief closed session, however, a judge announced that the witness had informed the court that he was not approached or threatened by anyone during the recess.
Victor Koppe, defense counsel for Nuon Chea, speaks at the Khmer Rouge tribunal in 2015. (ECCC) Although generally reticent to answer questions, Suoy Sao, who was a teenager when he joined the Khmer Rouge’s Division 310, confirmed a statement he had previously made to the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), saying during the morning session that he had been involved in an attempted coup led by division commander Ta Oeun.
“What happened to Ta Oeun?” asked Victor Koppe, a defense lawyer for Khmer Rouge second-in-command Nuon Chea, who is on trial for crimes including genocide.
“He was arrested,” responded Mr. Sao.
“He staged a coup at the time,” he continued. “He wanted to topple Pol Pot’s regime.”
Mr. Sao also confirmed claims that he attended a secret meeting of 100 combatants in 1976 during which Ta Oeun outlined plans to seize Phnom Penh, and helped transport weapons before the plot was foiled.
Evidence of internal rebellions are integral to the Nuon Chea defense, with his lawyers claiming the Khmer Rouge was not strictly hierarchical, but rife with factional infighting. Another former Division 310 soldier, Sem Hoeurn, spoke of similar plans for a coup led by Ta Oeun when he testified at the tribunal last year.
But when senior assistant prosecutor Dale Lysak was questioning Mr. Sao in the afternoon, the witness reversed course. He said he had not attended the meeting with Ta Oeun and had only heard about the movement of weapons.
Prompted by Judge Claudia Fenz, Mr. Sao reiterated that his DC-Cam statement was accurate—only for him to continue contradicting it.
Mr. Koppe then suggested that his new version of events could be the result of something that took place during the lunch recess, and requested the closed session.
“The sudden change in the nature of his answers made me stand up for a brief period to have the doors closed to see if something happened during lunch with this witness,” Mr. Koppe said.
Although the Trial Chamber denied his initial request, the Dutch lawyer interjected when Judge Fenz began grilling the witness on whether his DC-Cam statement was correct.
“Something happened and you should ask him. That’s what the court is about—proper proceedings,” Mr. Koppe said, and a brief closed session was called.
When the courtroom was opened to the public again, Mr. Sao continued to claim he had no knowledge of events that he had previously described.
In response to a request by Mr. Lysak, Judge Fenz then announced that the witness had told the court he was not approached during the lunch break.
“I’m doing this to inform the public that the witness confirmed that he hasn’t been approached by anybody or threatened by anyone, before or during this statement,” the Austrian judge said, to the annoyance of Mr. Koppe.
“Well, so much for promising a witness that nothing will be said from a [closed] hearing,” Mr. Koppe said.
wright@cambodiadaily.com
The post Judges Order Closed Session Amid Contradictory Coup Claims appeared first on The Cambodia Daily.
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Resources + Courses
Brewing in the Cities
Brewing in the Cities Shorts
A Veiled Truth
(The Hunted #2.5)
Amazon, B&N, Kobo, iBooks, Inktera, Oyster
Add the book on Goodreads
A 31,000 word novella set in The Hunted world
She’s about to learn life isn’t like her controlled experiments.
Edie Brown is a lab rat, dedicated to improving the lives of her fellow Gifted. And while she saved countless Gifted soldiers with her research during the war against the Hunters, she’s haunted by the one person she hasn’t saved: her aunt. With a new pair of joint illusionists to help her, Edie’s closer than ever to a breakthrough.
But her well-ordered scientist’s life unravels when her best friend Marcus proposes a different kind of experiment — one that puts her heart at risk — and her aunt collapses, leaving Edie wondering if she’s too late to help. She’s not about to give up yet, though, not when there’s still a chance she can cure her aunt — and find the one thing she didn't even know she needed.
There was something in the way her twin brother Will and his no-longer-enemy Jane stood next to each other, without touching, that piqued Edie’s curiosity. They didn’t look at or brush up against each other. Edie cocked her head. And yet, they seemed highly aware of the other.
It brought to mind all kinds of questions. Were they still sharing energy, even though the illusion was supposed to be over? What reason did they have? Why were they being so reticent about it? Sharing energy wasn’t bad. Just unusual if not for illusionary purposes.
She threw them a smile. The better to disarm them. A click of her pen and the flourish of her notebook was all she needed to prepare herself for notes. She looked between Will and Jane again, trying to identify the weakest link: who was most likely to talk?
Will was usually her first choice, but ever since the incident — when Edie had sent Jane to the Hunter compound to save Will — he had been surprisingly tight-lipped about all things Jane. A distinct turnaround from his previous behavior. Which, come to think of it, was telling enough. Edie scribbled her thought, then turned to Jane.
Jane had always been notoriously uncooperative, but Edie had noted changes since the incident. Jane smiled more, she answered more questions, and she had once — just once, but that in itself was its own clue — offered information. Edie hoped she’d be forthcoming now.
She turned up her smile to full force and aimed it at Jane. She clicked her pen, once, twice. “Are you currently sharing energy?”
Jane blinked. She didn’t look to Will, who’d averted his gaze to stare at the opposing wall, but she shifted infinitesimally closer. “We stopped sharing energy when you asked us to.”
Edie nodded slowly. Lie or truth? People seemed to lie to Edie with alarming frequency. There was a certain fear that came with interacting with intelligence, she figured. They were afraid she would uncover their deepest darkest secrets. What they didn’t know was that she only cared about their secrets if it had to do with joint illusions.
Most secrets didn’t.
This was a little more…delicate of a situation. Edie studied the chair in the middle of the tiny practice room. It was like any other one might see. Metal. Folding chair. Odd to find it in the middle of the mat, odder yet to know it hadn’t existed before she had asked Will and Jane to create it.
Edie tapped her chin with her pen. “Joint illusions disappear after the energy transfer stops.” She pointed to the chair. “New manifestation of your energy or still sharing energy?”
Will and Jane did look at each other then, and an audible crackle through the air signaled the disappearance of the joint illusion. Edie sighed, feeling the faint edges of a headache poking at her forehead.
“This would be a lot easier if you cooperated.”
Will dug his shoe into the mat, not meeting her eyes, and said, “We’re tired.”
Jane nodded.
Another lie. If they were tired, why share energy? It would drain them further, not help with exhaustion. But of course the day those two would be in agreement — not at each other’s throats — would be to unite against her efforts. It wasn’t like they’d spent the last decade looking for answers. Her fingers itched with the urge to bar them in the room until they performed all the tests she needed, and she could solve the mysteries of joint illusions once and for all.
Edie bit the inside of her cheek. “Fine.” She struggled to keep her voice even. “Go. We’ll meet here again tomorrow. And seriously, rest up. I can’t do this without your help.”
You know how much I want this. She let the words, unspoken, hang in the air. They knew how much she wanted it; she didn’t have to articulate it. But if she thought to chasten them, she was wrong. Before she could so much as blink, they were gone. Edie jogged to the door. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll just take care of Judy tonig—”
Edie’s words cut off as she entered the hallway. Will had Jane pressed up against the wall. Was horniness a manifestation of their shared energy? No. She covered her eyes. But if sexual attraction was a symptom of shared energy, it was something she would need to know. Even if the thought of Will and Jane and that made her want to scrub her eyes out until they bled. Her fingers spread open.
Will yanked Jane into what Edie was quite positive was a supply closet. She had just pulled a new box of gloves from there earlier today. Thank goodness it had been earlier, not later. She clicked her pen a few times and wrote sexual attraction? With that taken care of, it was time to flee. Past time.
She didn’t want to think of what her brother and Jane were doing.
Edie whirled around in the direction of her lab and ran straight into a wall of muscle. She uffed into the chest, and her pen and notebook went flying. The smell of warm male tickled her nose as the impact bounced her back.
“Sorry,” she said automatically, lunging toward her things.
She had to get better at watching where she was going. It was the second time this week it’d happened; it was Tuesday. Tuesday! At least the first time had been with Will, and he was used to her not paying attention to her surroundings. One of these days, she was going to run into a wall, and how embarrassing that would be.
Her pen was closest, off to the right. She clicked it, then shoved it into the pocket of her lab coat. Where was her notebook? It should have been near her feet, but a quick check showed only her black boots, and the shiny boots issued to every soldier in the Gifted army. Big, she noted. And you know what they say about big feet.
“Looking for this?”
The familiar voice snapped her head up, and pain bloomed as her skull connected with his chin. “Marcus!” Just the person I’d been hoping to avoid. “My notebook.” She clutched it to her chest as he rubbed his chin absently.
Three weeks. Three weeks since he’d posited the question: Is there a chance you want more from this relationship? This relationship being their friendship, and more being, well, more. Romance, Edie supposed. Physical relations. She had given it thought — a lot of thought, truth be told, that had led to some unsatisfying nights — but no good answer existed.
She pressed her lips together and inched away slightly, lest she be tempted to continue her earlier exploration into big feet and what may lie underneath his standard issue khakis.
His green eyes flashed, missing nothing, and he swept out an arm. “Going home? I’ll walk you there.”
Home is what Marcus had nicknamed her lab, since she spent more time there than her own dorm. Her heart pinched. She had been careful to keep their relationship the way it was: platonic. Romance — that elusive more Marcus wanted — wasn’t in her future. Friendship was comfortable. Safe. She wasn’t going to ruin something working perfectly fine.
Yet, whether she told him yes or no, she would irrevocably alter their relationship forever. It was why she’d avoided him for as long as she could. She pulled her notebook tighter against her chest, unaware of the people trickling through the hall.
“Edie.”
Her name snapped her attention back to him. The problem was, she’d thought of nothing but him since he’d posited the question. Avoidance had turned to obsessive thinking. Her heart raced. She wanted him. Except she didn’t do relationships. She kept everything neat and tidy. Sex was in one box, carefully chosen partners who’d never inspire her to great heights of passion or idiocy, but who got the job done. Friendship was in another box, the value of someone who didn’t lie and told it straight too great to combine the boxes together.
It’d been insidious, the way Marcus had become her rock. Little by little, she hadn’t realized it until faced with the possibility of losing him. A no, whether he knew it or not, could drive a wedge between them. And if she said yes — well, Edie didn’t do relationships, not with her aunt Judy, locked in a state of nothingness after her uncle died, providing such a sterling example of how everything could go wrong.
Neither option was acceptable; nothing was guaranteed. His eyes were steady on her. His face was familiar, the angular lines of his jaw and cheekbones hidden by the dark stubble that told her he hadn’t shaved today. How would it feel against her skin? She shook her head to banish the thought. That was the absolute wrong direction to go. Her fingers itched to touch him.
His full lips curved into a smile. “Edie.”
“What?” She liked the way his mouth formed her name, the corners of his eyes crinkling, as if he was saying a favorite word.
He placed his hand at the small of her back and pushed her down the hall. “A little distracted today?”
A fleeting touch. He dropped his hand almost immediately, but phantom fingers caressed her back, the touch spreading out from its initial contact until it encompassed her entire body. She shivered.
He continued as if she had responded. “Saw your brother and Jane disappear.”
Edie glanced at him, her gaze drawn to the slight pucker of a scar on his neck, the exact spot where Jane had pressed a knife and drawn blood. How easily he could have died, had Will not interrupted. She shivered again, this time from the chill of what could have been.
“They’ve been spending a lot of time together,” he said. His tone was even, neutral. He was fishing for how she felt about the situation. Testing the topic. She would spill eventually, if he didn’t pry. He knew it as well as she did.
“In supply closets, you mean,” Edie said. “Not helping me as they should be.”
Her surroundings returned by degrees: the squeak of their shoes on the tiled floor, the low murmur of other soldiers as they passed by, the pungent odor of cleaning products. People nodded at them as they passed through the halls, but Edie watched without returning the gesture, too entranced by Marcus and where he could place his stubble to notice.
He bumped into her shoulder. “There are worse places to be.”
Did he wish they had their own supply closet? Her breath caught. She listed everywhere she’d rather not be instead. “The Hunter compound, toilet duty, the north. Not necessarily in that order.”
Marcus laughed, and she felt its reverberations under her skin. She listed toward him, missing his laugh. Why had she avoided him for so long? Oh, right. He wanted to irrevocably alter their relationship — and so did her horniness that had an inconvenient way of popping up every time he was near. She nearly tripped over her feet. Stall. If she got Marcus to leave, she wouldn’t have to answer his question. It’d worked for weeks already.
“I’m working on a new drink to help boost Gifted energy,” she lied. No one willingly stuck around for her concoctions. “I thought it might help my studies with joint illusions.”
“Need a test subject?”
She was impressed he managed to ask with a straight face, no trace of irony. “Yes.”
She stopped in her tracks, earning her a glare from the person behind her, who had to dart around her to avoid a collision. Edie waved an apology.
“Marcus.”
He seemed to know what she was driving at, even before she said anything. “You’ve avoided me long enough.”
She darted a quick look around the hallway. There were enough people that she felt their hungry eyes on her, waiting for the latest bit of drama. It was well known that she’d been responsible for sending Jane back to the Hunter compound — and that they were now working together. Their eyes lingered on her wherever she went, no doubt waiting for something interesting to happen. Let them wait.
“I don’t want to talk here.” She grabbed his arm and propelled them forward.
The tension and frustration at the slow progress with Will and Jane melted away as they entered her lab. The lights were low, barely illuminating the gleam of shiny glass and spotless counters. Spotless because someone had come in and straightened her papers to the side of her microscope. Her jaw clenched. They’d sent cleaners in again; despite insisting she worked better with a little chaos, it kept happening.
She tilted to the side, her nostrils flaring. Marcus. His arm was solid beneath her hand. She was still holding him. Letting go of Marcus as if she might be burned, she flipped on the lights and shot to the opposite side of the room. A safety net. No amount of physical space would be enough to separate her from Marcus’s question and its implications, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.
She tossed her notebook onto the counter, watching with a smile when the corner hit her stack of papers and they went askew. A quick throb of her head wiped the smile off her face, and her shoulders slumped. She was tired. When had she last slept? Yesterday. No, before that. Too long. The enhancing drink she’d downed earlier must be wearing off.
But it was more than that. She was tired of chasing down her brother and Jane, tired of running from Marcus, tired of not finding any answers that would help her help Judy. Tired of running from life? She gave herself a mental shake. Surely not. She squared her shoulders and faced Marcus.
Before she could open her mouth — a blessing, that, considering she hadn’t formulated what she wanted to say — Marcus prowled further into the room, his movements strong, controlled, clipped. Her pulse quickened. He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up. A lock of hair flopped onto his forehead, and her fingers itched with the need to brush it off. He looked up at the ceiling, then set his green eyes on her, as if he could read her soul. He was going to force the issue.
Fine. She clutched her hands together. “Any answer I give you has the potential to change our friendship. You know I don’t do relationships. It would never work. And if I say no, you’ll resent me eventually.”
“You’re forgetting I’ve already changed our friendship by asking.”
Her eyes widened. She hadn’t considered that. The sound of her pen clicking filled the space. She looked down at it in her hand oddly, not remembering palming it.
“There are too many unknowns. We’re in stasis.” She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. Take that.
He cleared his throat. One corner of his mouth hooked up. “You’re avoiding me. There’s a difference.”
Her eyes darted to the door. Marcus was between her and freedom. Trapped. She put a hand over her stomach to settle its churning. He was right. She wanted to rewind to before this happened and continue on as if it hadn’t. If only she’d invented the time machine she’d attempted when she was twelve. A scientist’s regrets.
His gaze calculating, he continued his prowl through the room, invading her space. She escaped backward, held in thrall of the noiseless way he hunted her around the middle table. The counter was hard when she bumped into it. He crowded her, closing the gap until there was a bare inch between them. He was so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body, and her body answered, tilting toward his as if to steal his heat for herself. He raised his hand and twirled a stray piece of her hair around his finger.
“Think of it as an experiment.”
Her breath hitched, and time slowed, the increasing thump of her heart and his fingers in her hair the only two sensations capturing her attention. Her voice came out soft and slightly breathy and far too close to signs of arousal for her comfort. “An experiment.”
How intriguing. It would give them a definitive time limit and parameters. A way out. They could go back to friends when their sexual attraction ran its course — it always did for her. She could gracefully exit before they reached crucial tipping point; relationships ran the risk that one would end up like Judy. Will was already headed down that path with Jane. One of them had to keep their sanity — and their pants zipped.
“We can try it and see what happens.” He dropped her hair and tipped her chin up. “If you want more detail than that, you’ll have to come up with that yourself.”
“I’m not sure,” she said, but inside, her heart was tapping a yes. Yes to the way his fingers trailed desire across her skin.
His thumb brushed her bottom lip; his eyes lowered. “Perhaps a quick test to determine our compatibility?”
Her body thrummed. He knew how to play her, knew her well enough to say the right words. She was riveted by the way his green eyes had darkened and his head began the descent.
He was going to kiss her. Marcus was going to kiss her. And more than that, she wanted it. For all her hesitation, despite her reservations, she wanted him. Just not at the expense of their friendship. Her insides quickened. With only a split second to make a decision, she listened to the whisper deep inside and let her eyes flutter shut.
His lips met hers, and she came alive. Her focus narrowed down to the barest sensations. Her blood rushing through her veins. Her heart pounding, reaching out to him. The briefest caress of his hand sliding into her hair and pulling her closer. The abrasive rub of his stubble. Rough. That was what his stubble felt like against her skin. Answers.
Their bodies collided, any amount of space between them no longer acceptable. Lust spread through her as his lips moved over hers, coaxing her mouth open. Something within her loosened when he slid his tongue in, tasting her, encouraging her to do the same.
Teasing her with possibilities.
She put her hands on his chest. To explore or push him away, she wasn’t sure. The strength of her desire to strip off his clothes and hers until there was nothing between them frightened her. Marcus was her friend. Friend and lover weren’t boxes that were supposed to be mixed.
He lifted his head. She had to clench her fingers to keep from pulling his head back down to hers.
For weeks, she had been avoiding not Marcus, but this insidious feeling he’d awakened: the one that burned for him, that left her aching for more in the middle of the night.
He hadn’t let her go, despite ending the kiss. Their breaths rushed out, heavy, mingling with the hum of the machines. The counter was firm against her back, no longer cold. Not with the way her body raged with heat.
She didn’t want to leave the safety of his embrace. “An experiment.” She licked her lips, tasting him. “What’s your working hypothesis?”
A smile flashed across his face. His hands tightened around her arms and he pulled her in for another kiss that left her more unsatisfied than she’d ever been. An experiment meant an out, a way of indulging desire without getting hurt.
His facial hair scraped across her cheek. He nipped her ear. “That we’d be good together.”
Edie’s head tilted to allow him greater access; she didn’t bother insulting them both by playing dumb about what together meant. “How do we measure the results?”
“You’re having dinner with Judy tonight.” He found a spot, just behind her ear, and suckled until the pleasure pinched to pain. “We can discuss the details then.”
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HOMEPAGE >> BLOG >> Copper Gap Looms as Demand for EV Tech Continues to Surge
Copper Gap Looms as Demand for EV Tech Continues to Surge
By Sandra Wirtz | Posted: May 3, 2018 at 2:03 pm
While just a few short years ago, Rare Earth Element coverage dominated non-fuel mineral resource news cycles, it is the metals and minerals that fuel electric vehicle and battery technology that are making headlines these days.
Here, the spotlight has been on Cobalt, Lithium, and, to a lesser extent, Nickel and associated supply and demand scenarios, but Copper — both a traditional mainstay metal and tech metal in its own right that also serves as a “Gateway Metal” to several other tech metals — also warrants attention. Perhaps less flashy than its peers, Copper is widely used in electric vehicles, charging stations, and supporting infrastructure.
But along with these new uses of a long-mined metal, Moody’s Investors service offers a warning:
“Supply constraints affecting cobalt, lithium, copper and nickel, key metals for making the batteries that power electric cars, could slow production rates of [EV] power storage units in the near term.”
Mining.com cites Carol Cowan, a Senior Vice President at Moody’s:
“Declining ore grades for copper, continued lack of investment in new mines and the time required to bring new discoveries to production will constrain metal availability and, ultimately, the metal sector’s ability to meet growing demand from automakers for battery electric vehicle production.”
Moody’s, which also expects Nickel and Cobalt supply insufficiencies against the backdrop of growing demand for EV battery technology, anticipates Copper consumption to greatly outstrip supply as it is slated to increase more than six times.
CRU analyst Hamish Sampson estimates that “unless new investments arise, existing copper mine production will drop from 20 million tonnes to below 12 million tonnes by 2034, leading to a supply shortfall of more than 15 million tonnes.”
Sampson, who had previously pointed out that over 200 currently-operating Copper mines will be reaching the end of their production cycle before 2035, has put together a graphic that paints a drastic picture of a looming Copper gap, of which ARPN’s Dan McGroarty had warned as early as 2013:
Only if “every single copper project currently in development or being studied for feasibility is brought online before then, including most discoveries that have not yet reached the evaluation stage, the market could meet projected demand,” said Sampson according to Mining.com.
All of this his goes to underscore what ARPN has long touted, and most recently outlined in our new report on the inter-relationships between Gateway Metals and their Co-Products:
Copper is “far more than just your old school industrial metal” — which is why including it into the draft critical minerals list released by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke would be a common sense proposition.
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The Elec Tet
While most bands seem to exist as self-sustaining music creating machines, The Elec Tet has favored a more "collective" approach to the creative process. Originally conceived as a tribute project, Chicago based drummer Ben Scholz has morphed the group into a proving ground for new material in both live and studio situations. Not all ideas stand the performance test, but the ones that do are still subject to the rigors of studio production and editing. The debut album "Shiny Metal Objects" is the result of many months of trial and error by some of the top performing musicians in the country.
Says drummer/producer Ben Scholz - "We were lucky enough to have the chance to bring guitarist Oz Noy in to overdub on five songs for 'Shiny Metal Objects'. His contribution as a guest artist set the standard for what we hoped to accomplish. In my mind, his ability to create in the studio is on par with guitar legends such as Scofield, Stern, Metheny, even Hendrix."
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It's the Season
From all the staff here at S?nnet Beskerming we wish all our readers a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We hope that the security advice and reporting that we have provided to you this year has helped you avoid difficulties, and that it is allowing you to have a peaceful break over the Chr....
Little Compositions
This week has seen quite a number of smaller news articles come to surface, many being follow ups to stories that gained prominence earlier in the year, including spear phishing, Chinese state sponsored hackers and more.
In one of the most recent cases where spear phishing has been the claimed, a....
Of Disaster and Online Terror
As the Christmas and New Year period arrives again for another year, it is time to consider how you may be leaving your Information Technology infrastructure over the holiday period. From disaster recovery plans in the case of catastrophic system failure, through to inadvertent information leakage i....
Little Bits and Pieces
The ongoing issue with the recent Internet Explorer arbitrary code execution vulnerability continues to worsen, with active exploitation by at least one new system worm. There is some speculation that Microsoft will be issuing an out-of-cycle patch for the Internet Explorer issue, although their sch....
This is Not an Email From the FBI
With a number of anti-virus companies and IT news sites calling it the biggest email based threat of 2005, new variants of the Sober email worm started hitting email inboxes in the last several days. Although the worm has employed various social engineering methods in an attempt to get victims to ex....
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The Boom and Bust of Lehman Brothers Is Dramatic, but Not Good Theater
‘The Lehman Trilogy’ promises to tell the rise and fall of an American banking institution, but it is woefully lacking when it comes to charting the disaster that finished it off.
Benedict Nightingale
Updated Jul. 13, 2018 7:57AM ET / Published Jul. 12, 2018 7:02PM ET
Mark Douet
Sam Mendes’ production of The Lehman Trilogy at Britain’s National Theatre begins where most people know it will end, with files being removed from recently emptied offices of glass, steel, plastic and neon lights while offstage voices murmur about impending bankruptcy.
It’s clearly 2008, when one of the greatest of all American banks collapsed, precipitating the global financial crisis whose ripples are with us still. But the moment passes, leaving the audience with an obvious question. How, why did such a disaster occur?
The Italian dramatist Stefano Massini’s play—which opened in London on Thursday night—comes in three acts, and lasts three-and-a-half fact-packed hours, but doesn’t come up with a full and adequate answer. Its thesis is simple, some might say simplistic.
In 160-odd years an enterprise that began with heart, soul and plenty of good business sense evolved into a heartless, soulless and ultimately senseless money-making machine. Lehman Brothers more or less committed fiscal suicide.
So does Es Devlin’s office set – which intermittently rotates to a background variously evoking southern plantations and a changing New York City – teem with merchants, traders, tycoons and Wall Street desperadoes?
Far from it. Mendes, Massini and Massini’s British adaptor, Ben Power, are deep into minimalism. Three performers, and only three, act out everything in Lehman Brothers’ turbulent history, 1844 to 2008.
Fortunately, they are among Britain’s best. Simon Russell Beale is Henry Lehman, the German Jew who arrives in what a sometimes florid text calls “the magical music box called America” with little but a battered suitcase and a look of wary wonder.
Ben Miles, who follows, is his sleeker, smoother younger brother, Emanuel. Adam Godley, the last and youngest of the siblings to leave their native Bavaria, is Mayer, the geek who quietly moderates and reconciles his occasionally quarrelsome elders.
“One longs for a bit of the color which the production’s creators have gone out of their way to avoid”
Fine, but why must they spend the entire evening in their original frock coats, ties and waistcoats? They are dressed in period black whether they’re embodying their descendants, their clients, even their women, endlessly talking about themselves and their characters in the third person.
This wearies. One longs for a bit of the color which the production’s creators have gone out of their way to avoid. Did Henry, who died young of yellow fever, not even have a red handkerchief to stem his sneezes? The three actors certainly possess and display charisma, versatility and skill, but at times it’s as if a trio of morticians is describing the slow demise of a favorite client.
The Lehman story begins with the brothers in their tiny store in Montgomery, Alabama, selling fabric and cheap suits while themselves huddled in a three-room apartment where they wash with whale oil as cheap soap.
Then they start selling raw cotton to factories in the north, a business that grows and grows. With their headquarters gradually moved to lower Manhattan, they somehow survive the fire that destroys some of Alabama’s plantations, and even the Civil War. The remaining brothers, Emanuel and Mayer, are enterprising and resilient, the very embodiment of the American dream.
But then Emanuel begins to get nightmares and retreat into silence, the result of the growing influence and power of his son, Philip.
As played by Russell Beale this Lehman is unsmiling, curt, interested only in “rows and rows of zeroes,” meaning millions and more millions of dollars. Lehman Brothers becomes a bank and a hugely successful one, investing in railroads, oil fields, tobacco, automobiles and the Panama Canal.
Enter Mayer’s precocious son, Herbert, giving us an episode in which he asks an appalled rabbi why God went to the trouble of plaguing Egypt with locusts, boils, darkness and infant deaths when he could simply have killed the Pharoah.
It’s an entertaining little scene which, however, serves to expose how little lightness and fun there is elsewhere in this very long three-parter.
We don’t hear enough of Herbert who, though you’d scarcely know it, became a famously liberal governor of New York and its representative in the U.S. Senate. And maybe we could hear more about Philip’s son, Bobbie, an art collector and philanthropist who was a member of the board from 1925 to 1969.
The quirks and quiddities of character aren’t the play’s strengths. Nor, indeed, are important moments in its history. The Great Depression is initially evoked by actors holding pistols to their heads to the sound of bangs backstage, but it’s not at all clear how the Lehmans managed to steer their way through it.
The company’s subsequent history is even more sketchily evoked. It seems that it does well with war, armaments and post-war rebuilding. At any rate, Bobbie is able to say “we’ll be everywhere for all eternity”, dominating the Earth as well as America.
“I didn’t hear one word about short selling or even about the sub-prime mortgages widely blamed for the financial crisis and crash of 2007 and 2008”
But we all recognize hubris when we hear it, and punishment duly comes, mainly during the watch and at the behest of some of the outsiders who replace family members in the later 20th century: Lewis Glucksman, famous for his short temper, and Richard “Gorilla” Fuld, named by Condé Nast's Portfolio magazine as the worst American CEO of all time.
They come and all too quickly go, leaving it less than clear why Lehman so spectacularly failed. I didn’t hear one word about short selling or even about the sub-prime mortgages widely blamed for the financial crisis and crash of 2007 and 2008.
One moment the actors are jokily doing the twist, presumably to demonstrate the energy and optimism they believe will carry them to nirvana. The next a phalanx of supernumaries crowds onstage to clear away what’s left of the files containing the company’s chequered history. And that’s that.
Last night the audience rose to its feet, perhaps to acknowledge the 200-minute marathon the three actors had so gamely run. I’m afraid I stayed in my seat, admiring them but also feeling I’d learned more about the triumphs and tribulations of Lehman from an erudite program note and a flip through Wikipedia, a journey that took me maybe ten minutes.
Yes, The Lehman Trilogy is a brave and, for a British theater, unusual foray into American economics. It’s also quite an ordeal.
The Lehman Trilogy is at the Lyttelton, National Theatre, London SE1, until October 20. Book here.
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PartyPOP > Party Themes > Mardi Gras
Home > Themes > Mardi Gras
This year's company picnic was the best yet. We usually have an ordinary get together at a park or restaurant, but this time the bosses went all out and organized a Mardi Gras themed party.
It took place in the office parking lot. Several tents were brought in and set up. Each tented area contained food or entertainment. Purple, gold, and green – the official colors of Mardi Gras – were the colors of the balloons, crepe-paper streamers, flamboyant masks, and beads. These decorations were everywhere, transforming a dull, plain lot into a colorful piece of the Big Easy during Mardi Gras. There was a huge sign that welcomed us to “Fat Tuesday” and there were mock street signs for some of New Orleans' famous landmarks, like “Bourbon Street” and “The French Quarter.” It was our very own street festival and all of the employees loved it.
Everyone had to attend dressed for Mardi Gras. There were lots of outlandish costumes with feathers, fringe, lots and lots of gaudy jewelry, and of course masks. The masks were sensational and ranged from ceramic wall masks to silk and metallic masks adorned with the flashiest feathers. I visited a thrift store and was able to put together a fabulously bright, lavish ensemble with beads, feathers and sequins. I embellished my inexpensive mask with glitter and ribbon. It was great fun dressing up and seeing everyone else out of their business attire and in something crazy.
In one of the tents a display of jazz instruments was set up for people to try. There were trumpets, trombones, drums, tambourines, and other musical devices for exploring, and a knowledgeable staff (two men) giving instruction, the history of, and demonstrations of, these and other instruments. The also had large books with beautiful color pictures of famous musicians and Dixieland bands.
That brings me to the next tent where there was a jazz band and dance floor. They played great Cajun, zydeco, and New Orleans jazz music for the entire evening. Their instruments included a fiddle, accordion and triangle. The sounds were loud and contagious and there was rarely an open spot for dancing. In fact, dancers spilled over onto the black top and even continued outside of the tent area. Mardi Gras is about dancing and we sure did a lot of it.
Another tent, larger than the others, was set with tables, chairs, and a huge buffet. The tables were simply set with metallic confetti sprinkled on the gold tablecloths. The folding chairs were covered with plain green or purple cotton slipcovers. It was a colorful set up, to say the least. The food was fantastic. It was a treat feasting on foods we don't normally eat. There was jambalaya, shrimp gumbo, rice, sweet potatoes, Cajun spiced chicken and swordfish, and sausages. The dishes were spicy so there were also plenty of beverages on hand. For dessert there was a traditional Mardi Gras cake, or King cake. It's a sweet pastry-like cake that's glazed with icing and sugar and has a plastic baby baked inside. I know, that sounds strange. But I guess that's what they do in New Orleans. The person who gets the slice of the cake with the baby inside is considered to have good luck for the coming year. It was indeed good luck on this night, as my friend got the lucky slice and was rewarded with a bonus check.
The last tent was for game playing. The bosses thought it would be a good idea to learn about Louisiana and it's cultures, people, and sights. It was really fun and I enjoyed participating in a question and answer round robin. The information we were quizzed on included: “Fast Facts,” one word answers to questions like Capital, State Bird, State Flower, Largest City; “The People,” questions about Creoles, Cajuns, and Native Americans; “Seeing the Sights,” questions about Louisiana's rivers and bayous, towns, forests, national parks, and of course, New Orleans itself. Prizes were awarded at the end of each round and included gift certificates to restaurants, baskets filled with all the fixings for a Cajun meal, and music CD's by famous Louisianans like Louis Armstrong, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Hank Williams Jr. There was also a raffle. Tickets were sold one for $10.00 or three for $20.00. The prize was a trip to, you guessed it, New Orleans.
We all stayed into the wee of hours of the night, eating, dancing, talking, and enjoying some camaraderie outside of the office. The party was a perfect boost to get everyone on more friendly terms and allowed us to let our hair down. Spouses got to meet other spouses and work associates, and we were all impressed and thankful for the event.
The next day at work (we had the weekend to recover) everyone seemed a little happier, a little more friendly, and a little more willing to get down to business. The Mardi Gras company picnic was a huge success!
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100% Design, Culture, Film & Photography, Literature, Music, Music
By Jo Phillips
“He was like a funnel. It was like someone was pouring songs into him and they just continued to spill out of him. Instead of water it was songs.”
Ever think of the colour purple without thinking of Prince? Impossible. Seductive, erotic and hypnotising, Prince was the walking definition of this colour. The life and soul of Prince represents true artistry and individuality between 1958-2016. It has been said he “lived life like movie”, his head being a constant radio, forming melodies and rhythms – a procedure he used for the “one take” process of his music. He is an iconic symbol of a man who did not go by social norms, he played and performed the way he wanted to completely within his own vision. It seems as if he was obsessed with this controversial colour, making it his total theme for music and art as if he really did adopt it like his own. The newly released book by Mobeen Azhar ‘PRINCE Stories from the Purple Underground’ gives an ultimate pictorial tribute to the artist in the truest form of his life, evolution, career and death. For the first time we see key members of Prince’s ongoing legacy give a first-hand account of the artist in a light never seen before. Author of the piece Mobeen is a fanatic of Prince, even appearing on stage with the man himself, who evidently is the perfect passion and person for the making of the book.
This is a beautiful record of Princes life, it features photos all the way back to when he got his first record deal at 19 years old, to performing at Madison Square Garden decades later. The photographs are bold, powerful and heroic, helping us understand the real Prince on and off stage. It is an unbiased, yet honest portrayal of the artist, making the pages personal and sentimental to the reader. We witness how much of an inspiration he was to many, even teaching one guitarist to only love the way they play guitar and no one else, to fully embrace yourself (without being arrogant). These personal monologues prevent the Purple Underground book from being a cliche autobiography, making us hear the different voices and experiences from many who feature in the book. One story in particular comes to mind which mentions having to share a an awkward moment inside of a lift with him.
Left: Prince in Canada, December 1996.
Top right: On stage during the Parade tour, 1986.
Bottom right: Photoshoot at Kemps
Ice Cream building. Minneapolis. 1997.
What comes to mind when imagining the colour purple? Perhaps a smoky jazz bar or even the only two flags in the world that contain this colour. Although it is seen upon as a colour of spiritual awareness in China it is somewhat a controversial tone, even to be seen as a negative, unlucky or a forbidden colour in some cultures. As a powerful member of the rainbow, it’s a colour that represents a strong level of power which is particularly used by royals or emperors. Considering it to be culturally controversial and neglected in some areas, Prince saw it as the ultimate colour of inspiration (as do some others) which could still quite be an unusual choice to make in the world today.
Demi Bailey Paul
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Radiant; The Faces Behind the Period
The fifties are usually identified by housewives, swing dresses and rock and roll. The sixties are, for many people, sexual … “Radiant; The Faces Behind the Period”
Radiant; Treasured Language
How often do we take language for granted? How often do you see someone walk up to a local in … “Radiant; Treasured Language”
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Robert Campbell's Home Page
Welcome to my Web pages. This one was last updated on September 10, 2019.
Who Is Robert Campbell, anyway?
I'm a Professor Emeritus in the Psychology Department at Clemson University. I retired in May 2019. I taught at Clemson University for 28 years; before that, I spent five and a half at the IBM Research Division in Hawthorne, New York. At IBM I was a Human Factors specialist; at Clemson I specialized—if that is the right word—in Developmental and Cognitive Psychology.
You can reach me by email here: campber@clemson.edu
My interests include theoretical psychology of various stripes, developmental psychology, and cognitive psychology. I've written about the development of mathematical reasoning in children, the development of expertise in adults, and the development of moral values across the life-span--you can find more on these and other endeavors in my vita.
I teach several undergraduate courses at Clemson. You can see the syllabi for
Cognitive Psychology Laboratory
(Advanced) Experimental Psychology
Infant and Child Development
Music and Psychology
Systems and Theories in Psychology
At the graduate level, I have taught
Advanced Studies in Systems and Theories in Psychology
Advanced Cognitive Psychology
I'm also a retired jazz critic (I wrote reviews for Cadence magazine from 1992 to 1998). I have done a good deal of research on the life and music of Herman Poole Blount (better known to the world as Sun Ra). The first edition of my discography, The Earthly Recordings of Sun Ra, was published by Cadence Jazz Books in 1994. The second edition (co-authored with British Ra expert Chris Trent) came out in 2000. If you have information about released or unreleased recordings of Sun Ra and his Arkestra, please contact me by email, campber@clemson.edu.
A project that I have been involved with since 1996 grew out of an attempt to understand the strange and highly fruitful environment in which Sun Ra grew to artistic maturity. I have been gathering information on the many neglected musicians in Chicago during the two decades after World War II, especially those who worked on the boundaries between jazz and blues, or jazz and R&B... or jazz and rock-and-roll. In this research, I have the good fortune to work with knowledgeable and generous collaborators like Armin Büttner, Leonard J. Bukowski, Bill Daniels, the late Otto Flückiger, Ferdie Gonzalez, Dani Gugolz, John Holley, Dan Kochakian, Tom Kelly, Big Joe Louis, Konrad Nowakowski, the late George Paulus, Victor Pearlin, Bob Porter, Robert Pruter, Bill Sabis, Yves François Smierciak, Dr. Robert Stallworth, Helge Thygesen, Billy Vera, George R. White, and Art Zimmerman. Check out the Red Saunders Research Foundation page for more about this effort. We have compiled discographies of such figures as Buster Bennett, the Dozier Boys, the Four Blazes, King Kolax, Red Saunders, Sax Mallard, Tom Archia, Jimmy Coe, Tommy Dean, King Fleming, Eddie Johnson, Willie Jones, Claude McLin, the early Sun Ra, and Al Smith, and of such labels as Aristocrat, Boxer, Chess, Chance, Club 51, Cobra, Cool, Drexel, Gold Seal, Hy-Tone, Miracle/Sunrise, Premium, Jazz Ltd., JOB, Mad/M&M, Marvel/Planet, Old Swing-Master, Opera, OraNelle, Parkway, Parrot/Blue Lake, Ping, Rhumboogie, Rondo, S D, Session, Seymour, Sonora, Sultan, Sunbeam, Tempo-Tone, Theron, United/States, Vee-Jay, and Vitacoustic.
Ayn Rand and Objectivism
Objectivism is a neo-Aristotelian philosophy developed by the novelist Ayn Rand. Many of Rand's ideas have influenced my work. In her later years, Rand called the philosophy elaborated by herself and by two of her leading disciples Objectivism. I long since quit using the Objectivist label, because I do not accept an incomplete philosophical system that has some errors in it as a total package—and Rand, loudly seconded today by those who care little about ideas and a lot about maintaning institutions, insisted that her philosophy be accepted or rejected as a total package. Those with a scholarly interest in Ayn Rand and her ideas should become familiar with the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, founded by the late R. W. Bradford, and edited by Stephen Cox, Roderick Long, Chris Matthew Sciabarra, and myself.
Click here for the Clemson University Home Page.
Click here for the Clemson Psychology Department Page.
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The unintended consequences of green energy: or, why Oakville is in Napanee
by Stephen E. Aplin • September 17, 2018 • 1 Comment
As of around mid-August 2018, a former chief of staff of a former Ontario premier had spent four months in jail for his part in a fiasco known as the Gas Plant Scandal. This fiasco involved the politically motivated cancellation, apropos of the 2011 provincial general election, of two gas-fired power plants that had been planned for Oakville and Mississauga (both in Ontario near Toronto).
Local opposition to the plants had forced the ruling Liberal government to cancel them,1 prompting threats of legal action by the plant owners. Instead of utilizing its salaried legal talent to deal with a fairly straightforward legal challenge by fighting to limit the financial damage to whatever amount would have covered the complainants’ legitimate sunk costs, the government cried Uncle and chickened out of the fight it had started—agreeing to neither argue too closely the meaning of “legitimate” as put by the complainants nor to scrap the plants altogether.2
The cost of this capitulation to provincial taxpayers and ratepayers was ultimately more than a billion dollars, a fact the government would have greatly preferred we never learned. Unfortunately for the government, we did learn it. That was only because, while the gas plant cancellations had served their purpose in that they protected incumbent Oakville and Mississauga Liberals from defeat in the 2011 election, other electricity policy moves ensured Liberal defeat in ridings elsewhere—especially ones into which the Green Energy Act of 2009 had enabled forcing large numbers of wind turbines.
Ironically, it was the Liberals’ certainty of defeat in the wind ridings that led them to such desperate measures to hang onto Oakville and Mississauga.
The upshot was that the Liberals won only a bare minority government in 2011. They thereby lost control of the parliamentary committees that have the power to investigate matters like these. Opposition strength on one of these committees was such that the opposition was able to force the government to turn over documents concerning the cancellations. Those documents contained some very interesting, and for the government extremely embarrassing, details about the cancellations. When it came to actually handing over the documents the government stonewalled, Watergate style, and the whole thing became a major scandal that cost then-premier Dalton McGuinty his job and legacy.
It reverberates even today. As CTV reported on April 11, McGuinty’s former top aide David Livingston was sentenced to four months of jail time for his role in destroying emails that could have been incriminating.
The entire affair can be traced directly to green energy (specifically the GEA).
It is an inconvenient and dirty fact of green energy—i.e., wind and solar—that it cannot support a grid on its own. For wind and solar to survive in a grid, there must be massive power from the very fossil fuels that wind and solar are intended to replace. The Ontario Auditor General, in his reports on the gas plant scandal3, noted this fact4.
The OAG asserted that combined cycle gas is required to “fill in the gaps” of intermittent renewable sources like wind and solar5. This is an interesting assertion, and important to clarify. While proponents of combined cycle gas have certainly succeeded in portraying it as a “clean” alternative to coal, this is a simplistic and self-serving comparison. Megawatt for megawatt, when a plant is running at or close to capacity, combined cycle gas indeed is cleaner than coal, by about fifty percent. But combined cycle gas is actually not suited to “filling in the gaps” of wind and solar. If you must fill in these gaps and you must do it with natural gas, the best cycle is simple cycle gas turbine or a reciprocating (piston) engine. Simple cycle turbine and reciprocating engines can start from cold and put power into a grid within minutes. For combined cycle gas to achieve its advertised CO2 per kilowatt hour, all units including the steam turbine must be at or near full power. The steam unit cannot be at or near full power unless the gas turbines have been at that level for some time—it is their waste heat that makes the steam in the first place.
Nonetheless, relocating Oakville to Napanee, literally next door to the massive Lennox plant, underlines the foobar character of the gas plant fiasco. Of the two plants, Lennox is the only one that is truly flexible, the only one actually capable of maneuvering around fickle, erratic wind—when it does run, which it does very rarely, it frequently puts single-digit megawatts into the grid; see the figure below. This from a plant whose smallest unit is 500 MW. The CCGT next door, when it comes online, will not be able to deliver this kind of flexibility without dumping Lennox-sized amounts of CO2 (assuming Lennox is running on gas; it also runs on Bunker C fuel oil)—assuming its gas turbines can produce power on their own, without the steam unit. It therefore cannot serve the purpose for which it was originally planned—unless that purpose was to provide baseload power. And why would Ontario have needed in 2008 900 MW of fossil baseload when it had literally thousands of megawatts of laid up nuclear capacity (the Bruce A restart was underway at that point, and units 1 and 2, totalling over 1500 MW, would re-enter service in 2012). If the goal was clean air, then nuclear was or should have been the only option for baseload.
This brings me to why the gas plant scandal was a direct if unintended consequence of green energy. Ontario tried an energiewende before even the Germans did. When they came to power in 2003, the Liberals’ stated intent was to replace coal with green energy. The real intent, after the overzealous staffers were apprised of the realities of running an electricity grid, was to replace it with gas, with renewable energy as the physical propaganda greenwashing the whole thing. But as I have described in earlier articles, that plan became unworkable when the continental price of natural gas started to show extreme volatility.
Eager to stick to their coal phaseout promise, the Liberals wisely went with the only real alternative to coal: nuclear. Unlike policymakers in Germany, they were not handicapped by having to pander to a dedicated and well organized anti-nuclear lobby: Ontario anti-nukes, following the tradition of most Canadian liberal-progressives, are too timid and parochial to formulate doctrine that even hints at independence and originality, so they import it wholesale from their betters in America, a country they despise as the arch-vanguard of cultural imperialism. American anti-nukes are motivated more by money than German. As a result, the North American koolaid isn’t as strong as the German.
Hence the Liberals, for what they likely viewed as a small price, were able to replace coal with nuclear without alienating anybody in their base who wasn’t a true-blue anti-nuke fanatic. That price was a cap on nuclear and massive support for green energy. The government was quick to foist the payment of the price of green energy entirely onto Ontario ratepayers, which may have given them (the Liberals) the hugely mistaken impression that green energy is cheap.
The Liberals, eventually, learned the true size of the green energy price tag. On June 7 this year they were electorally annihilated, losing official party status and reduced to a legislative rump that now competes for media attention with the hapless comedy act that is the Green Party.
Both plants would have been located in electoral districts the Liberals held at the time.
Both plants were slated to replace existing publicly owned fossil plants, both steam cycle. These steam plants were Lennox GS and Lambton GS. Both are (Lennox) or were (Lambton) rated at 2,000 MW and owned/operated by Ontario Power Generation, a generation successor of the former Ontario Hydro. Lennox is still in operation (though it rarely puts power into the grid), and Lambton was one of the infamous Ontario coal plants phased out by the Liberals.
Dalton McGuinty’s successor Kathleen Wynne herself asked the OAG to report on the affair.
See the OAG’s reports on the Oakville and Mississauga cancellations.
Page 5 (p.7 of the PDF).
← Climate change ironies in Canada: choosing the devil’s excrement over God’s gift
The business of green energy: Ford vs the banks (and NDP) →
1 comment for “The unintended consequences of green energy: or, why Oakville is in Napanee”
Engineer-Poet
Fascinating tale. I hope to have time to read all the supporting documents.
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Carrie Lamanna
practicing the art of resistance writing
Righteous Rage
Colorado State, Come Get Your White People
May 15, 2018 By Carrie Lamanna Leave a Comment
Some of you know that I live in Fort Collins, Colorado, but only those of you who are bored enough to read my C.V. know that I worked at Colorado State University for seven years. When we first moved here in 2007, none of our family and friends knew where Fort Collins was. Then “Ballon Boy” hit the news and our new town became famous for a ridiculous prank. Now my adopted hometown is in the news again, but this time it’s because CSU is joining the ranks of places where people of color are unwelcome.
Two weeks ago two brothers drove up to Fort Collins to participate in a campus tour of CSU, a school they described as their “dream school.” They saved their money for the trip, registered online for the tour, and borrowed the family’s only car for the trip. The only thing they did wrong, was arrive late for the tour. Oh yeah, and not be white.
So even if you don’t know the story, you can probably guess what happens next. Someone calls the cops. And of course that someone is a white woman. What possible excuse could she have for calling the cops on two kids who showed up late to a campus tour? She said they made her “nervous” (not a reason to call the cops, by the way), and her call to campus police tells us everything we need to know about why:
Hi … I am with my son doing a campus tour … There are two young men that joined our tour that weren’t a part of our tour. They’re not, definitely not a part of the tour. And their behavior is just really odd, and I’ve never called, ever, about anybody, but they joined our tour. They won’t give their names and when I asked them what they were wanting to study, like everything they’re saying isn’t … they were lying the whole time.
The odd behavior she refers to is that the brothers are quiet and one of them keeps his hands in his pockets. That’s it. If that’s odd behavior for college age students, then I should have called the cops on at least one student in every damn class I ever taught. But it’s not their behavior that gets the cops involved. It’s that they refused to answer the nice white lady’s questions. These young men didn’t think they needed to justify their existence to her, and because of that they get pulled off the tour and questioned by the police while she goes on her merry way with those “creepy [brown] kids” safely out of view. (Yes, she actually called them creepy.) She even admits her call is not justified:
It’s probably nothing. I’m probably being completely paranoid with just everything that’s happened …
I can’t be certain what she means by “everything that’s happened,” but it’s a pretty safe bet she’s referring to America’s epidemic of mass shootings. However, her racism is blocking one key fact about those shootings from taking hold in her brain: they are overwhelming committed by white men, and these two young men are Native American. But of course, she doesn’t know they are Native American, just that they aren’t white. When the 911 dispatcher asks her to describe the brothers she says
I think they’re Hispanic, I believe. One of them for sure. He said he’s from Mexico.
No lady, they’re from NEW Mexico. The state that borders Colorado to the south. Not Mexico, but the land we stole from Mexico and the indigenous people that lived there long before you and your army of police arrived to make this whole region a whitopia.
What’s infuriating and frightening about this incident is how common it is. There are so many examples of white people calling the police on Black and Brown people that I can’t keep track of them all. People have been harassed while shopping for prom or for a vintage 70s outfit, while barbecuing in a public park, napping in their college dorm, moving into their apartment, moving out of their AirB&B, golfing, working out, and of course while sitting in a Starbucks. And this isn’t even half of the incidents in the news in the last few weeks. I’ve been trying to write this post for days, but every time I open up my computer to work on it there’s a new story of white fuckery I have to take in.
Of course, CSU issued an apology/statement after the harassment these two prospective students received. And honestly, it’s better than most, but the bar is low. University President Tony Frank is clear that the brothers did nothing wrong and that CSU is a place that values diversity.
Two young men, through no fault of their own, wound up frightened and humiliated because another campus visitor was concerned about their clothes and overall demeanor, which appears to have simply been shyness. The very idea that someone – anyone – might “look” like they don’t belong on a CSU Admissions tour is anathema. People of all races, gender identities, orientations, cultures, religions, heritages, and appearances belong here. As long as you want to earn a great education surrounded by people with the same goal who come from every part of our state, our country, and our world, then you belong here. And if you’re uncomfortable with a diverse and inclusive academic environment, then you probably have a better fit elsewhere.
The problem with Frank’s statement on the incident is that it puts all the focus on the the Native American men who did nothing wrong and makes it their job to help the university improve campus procedures to more clearly identify tour participants. What about the white woman who called the police in the first place? Is anyone talking with her? Is anyone from the university calling her in so she can learn why what she did is racist and life threatening to people of color? The way to prevent things like this from happening again is not better tour procedures like making participants wear lanyards (something emphasized in Frank’s statement). The way to keep white people from calling the cops is to make them less racist.
In his statement, Frank says to prospective students and their families, “if you’re uncomfortable with a diverse and inclusive academic environment, then you probably have a better fit elsewhere.” So the message is “It’s OK to be racist as long as you don’t do it here,” and its implication is that the people of Colorado State are immune from racism as long as they can keep the racists off their property. It shoud go without saying that this is not the message we should be getting from an educational institution that claims to value diversity. Colorado State, it’s time to get your white people and start doing the hard work of antiracism education.
President Frank, you have a Vice President for Diversity, whose office runs dozens of programs, and countless faculty members researching and teaching diversity and antiracism. Use these resources to start educating all prospective and current white students. Call them in and tell them that preventing racism is their responsibility. In the meantime, you can send Megan Izen’s guidelines on when to call the police to that white woman CSU is shielding from public scrutiny. Here’s a pocket checklist she can carry with her to remind her of the rules:
Should I call the cops?
Is my or someone else’s life in imminent danger?
One more time, am I absolutely certain that the situation is life threatening?
If the people that are involved were white, would I still call the police?
Is there anyone else I can call or any other resources available to address the situation?
So in short, “If there is gushing blood or flames, dial 911. But don’t default to the police if you are just uncomfortable.”
President Frank, CSU has the resources and the power to promote real and lasting change, but only if it has the courage to call out racism when it happens and call in white people who need a course of study in white privilege. You end your letter by asking the CSU community “to be a little kinder, a little better, to work a little harder at seeing each other’s point of view, and to use our voice. Not always to agree, but always to defend each other and to oppose hate,” but that’s not even close to enough. This is not about the CSU community being kinder or opposed to hate (because who will disagree with kindness and opposition to hate). This is about creating programs that work to dismantle the white privilege you claim to be working on in your own self. This is about being an educational institution of courage and conviction.
If I write this…
May 16, 2017 By Carrie Lamanna 2 Comments
Several months ago I took Isabel Abbott’s Unapologetic Writing class. I was trying to unlearn all the negative lessons I had internalized about what truths it was appropriate to speak and write. I wrote a lot and kept it all to myself. Most of what I produced was process writing—writing to help me work through the hurt and the anger and the fear. One piece emerged as a manifesto of sorts for my unapology—my taking back of apologies past and writing what needs to be written. It’s not a graceful poem, but it’s jarringly true, and at this moment that’s what counts.
you might not like me anymore
and I might not care
because I might not be the same.
I might go out and get a tattoo
smoke too many cigarettes
drink gin and lie down in the street naked
I might remember the way they grabbed me
out of the long line of girls returning from gym class
pulled me behind the stage and held me down
on a table there to hold props.
Till I screamed and they ran.
I might remember my clothes
thrown at me as he ordered me to get out
his laughter as he said no on would want me now.
I might remember I am broken, angry,
not fit for the PTA and garden parties.
I might go out in the rain and dig in the dirt
ripping up roots of deep buried weeds
waiting to rise up in place of all I have planted with my soft hands.
I will know that feeling
the one that seeps in at night,
that surrounds me in the shower like tiptoeing fingers of doom
that makes me mutter “shut up” to the empty room.
I can’t stuff it at the bottom of the hamper with the bloody sheets and come to dinner.
you will have to know with me because I won’t remember to be silent anymore.
Dear White Reader, here is your weekend Beyoncé reading list
February 13, 2016 By Carrie Lamanna 3 Comments
This wasn’t the post I planned to write this week. I was sick with the flu for half of January, and trying to catch up ever since. I wanted to write about how illness can impact one’s writing process. But because I feel compelled to write when I am angry and troubled about an issue—sometimes against my rational mind’s better judgement—I put that post away for later, and started writing what you see here.
I may not be the right person to make this argument. There are people out there with much bigger followings (really, if you have an online following at all you are ahead of me) whose blog posts could have a greater impact. But I’m writing anyway and here’s why: I know my friends and family will read this because I wrote it and they love me, and I know many of them would not read a post about race and racism if it were written by a stranger. If I only reach that small group, it will be worth it.
The Problem With Us White People
My Facebook news feed this week was filled with stories about two things:
Bernie v. Hillary
Beyoncé’s “Formation” video and Super Bowl half time performance
The fact that the political dialogue in my feed is mostly respectful I take as a sign I have chosen my Facebook hive mind well. The fact that my mostly white friends were sharing positive articles about Beyoncé overwhelmingly written by Black* people is a sign I have chosen a group of awesome antiracist allies as part of my friend group. But the fact that it is my white friends doing this reminds me that out of my 256 Facebook friends only seven of them are Black.
Seven. I counted.
This concerns me greatly because it’s evidence of how deeply segregated we are as a nation (myself included), and this segregation contributes to the ignorant conversations white America is having right now about Beyoncé, and overall about #blacklivesmatter, police brutality, affirmative action, and institutional racism.
Put simply, the vast majority of us (i.e., white people) don’t know what we’re talking about. Our knowledge of Black culture and the Black experience begins and ends with the entertainment industry, and when a Black entertainer reminds us they are Black we lose our minds. All white America can talk about after the Super Bowl halftime show is Beyoncé’s Blackness. Bruno Mars is Black too, but dear white reader, did you think about that at all this week? Probably not because he sang that song you like, danced with Coldplay, and left the field. I wish I were surprised so many white people freaked out started waving their racist arms in the air after the halftime show, but I’m not. That sort of reaction is typical.
What does surprise me is the white people who have said they didn’t notice the political message Beyoncé was sending. Some think it wasn’t there at all, that Beyoncé wouldn’t do something like that. Really? A dance troop of Black women in all-black military style outfits, wearing berets, sporting afros, getting into a giant X formation on the field, and you didn’t notice? That is serious ignorance of Black history or some serious denial. Probably both. I’m willing to bet the majority of white Beyoncé fans do not want to be reminded of her Blackness—they just want her to keep singing about all the single ladies. Being one of her fans as a white person is only easy and safe if we can erase her race from our consciousness.
Now, if you are a dyed in the wool Giuliani-loving #alllivesmatter supporter, and are planning a road trip to the upcoming anti-Beyoncé rally in front of the New York NFL offices, then nothing I say here is likely to change your mind. But, if you are confused by the video or don’t understand why Black people might be angry or don’t see the need for the Black Lives Matter movement because we are all post-racial now, then I hope you will read some of the articles below and reconsider your opinions.
The first time I watched “Formation” I recognized its rhetorical power. Sinking a New Orleans police car in the flood waters, police in riot gear surrendering to a black child—these messages are hard to miss. But I also knew there was a lot a was missing because I am not the primary audience. Beyoncé is not asking me to get in formation, to take action. That message is directed at Black women. She is asking me to STFU and listen. and read. and learn. So that’s what I did all week. And now I’m offering my reading list to you, dear white reader.
Note: If you read everything here, that is not license to claim you now understand Black America and are entitled to speak for and about Black people. As a white person, you will never be qualified to do that. Doing the work of reading and listening means you have a framework from which to ask questions and listen further. I hope you will STFU and join me in the quiet space necessary to create understanding.
Your Weekend Reading List
If you haven’t watched “Formation,” do that first. And if you somehow missed the Super Bowl halftime show you should do that too.
Next, read these articles that break down the lyrics and imagery in the video. The first three use humor, so you get a warm up before moving on to the heavy stuff. And follow the links in the articles, especially the ones in Zandria Robinson’s article—it’s crucial you know who Messy Mya is. After reading you might want to watch the video again.
Beyoncé’s Formation is Her Best Thing Yet and it’s the IDGAF Anthem by Luvvie Ajayi
Beyoncé Is the New Black: The 10 Blackest Moments in Beyoncé’s “Formation” Video by Damon Young
If Beyoncé Has Gone Full Black, I’m Here for It by Panama Jackson
We Slay, Part I by Zandria F. Robinson
Then read this message to racist white people written by fellow white person Melissa Hillman. She says everything I want to say, but way better.
White People: Shut Up About Beyoncé by Melissa Hillman
Then watch Jessica Williams tell white people to STFU about Beyoncé because The Daily Show is where white people go when they want to get a privilege check, and because Jessica Williams is amazing.
Then read Awesomely Luvvie’s breakdown of why loving Blackness is more important than hurting white feelings and why you don’t get to say shit like white power and “all lives matter” because Black people use Black power and Black lives matter.
About Writing While Loving Blackness and Hurting White Feelings by Luvvie Ajayi
And after all that, if you want to read something that critiques Beyoncé to “get the other side of the story,” don’t listen to Giuliani and the other racist baiting asshats on Fox news. Try reading a critique written by an African American who is not questioning #blacklivesmatter but whether Beyonce is the spokesperson the movement needs. Here are three for you.
Dear Beyoncé, Katrina is Not Your Story by Maris Jones
“Formation” Exploits New Orleans’ Trauma By Shantrelle Lewis
My (Apparently) Obligatory Response to “Formation”: In List Form by Benji Hart
* My reasons for capitalizing Black and not white are similar to those of Melissa Hillman, but also include a desire to emphasize the centrality of Black people to these conversations: “No, capitalizing “Black” does not reveal a secret plot for racial superiority. Capitalizing the word “Black” in reference to people is a linguistic thing. “White people” has a squidgy definition and refers to a hodgepodge of people from varied ethnic groups, all of which are capitalized, such as “Celtic people” or “Swedish people.” “Black” as shorthand for “The people of the African Diaspora living in the United States” is rightly capitalized as “Black people” in the same way we say “French people.” “African American” is linguistically and historically troubled because “Africa” is a continent with thousands of disparate cultures, and the people we label as such were forcibly separated from most aspects of their cultures of origin when they got to the US, creating an entirely new, coherent culture best described as “Black.” Of course, the word as an ethnic descriptor has other applications (“Black people in Germany,” for example), but this is the one I’m using in the article. Not all linguists agree, but that’s my position.”
© 2017 by Carrie Lamanna Writing, LLC
© 2016 An Ordinary Life, LLC · Powered by WordPress
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Texas Charter School Association
Joliet No Longer in Running for Private Immigrant Detention Center
June 5, 2013 1126 Views Baylor University, Dan Patrick, David Dunn, Eastern U.S., GSA, Health Care Risk Management, Texas Charter School Association
JOLIET, Ill. — The Corrections Corporation of American (CCA) announced Monday that it will no longer consider Joliet, Ill. as a potential host city for a new immigrant detention center. The Immigration and Enforcement Customs, which would contract CCA to operate the detention center, will continue its search for a Chicago-area site.
The decision comes at a time in which immigration reform is being debated upon and the local lawmakers expressed heavy opposition.
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Corvid Corner
All about Corvids (Crows, Ravens, Magpies, Rooks, Jays, etc)
Corvid Videos
Copyright © 2020 CorvidCorner.com.
Corvidae in The Bird Book by Chester A. Reed
Posted on March 4, 2013 by MegLeave a comment on Corvidae in The Bird Book by Chester A. Reed
CROWS, JAYS, MAGPIES, ETC. Family CORVIDÆ.
Magpie.
475. Magpie. Pica pica hudsonia.
Range.–Western North America from the Great Plains to the Pacific and from Alaska to Arizona and New Mexico.
Grayish white.
These large handsome birds have the entire head, neck and breast velvety black, abruptly defined against the white underparts. The back, wings and tail are greenish or bluish black, and the scapulars, white; length of bird 20 inches. They are well known throughout the west, where their bold and thievish habits always excite comment. They nest in bushes and trees at low elevations from the ground, making a very large nest of sticks, with an opening on the side, and the interior is made of weeds and mud, lined with fine grasses; these nests often reach a diameter of three feet and are made of quite large sticks. During April or May, they lay from four to eight grayish white eggs, plentifully spotted with brown and drab. Size 1.25 x .90.
476. Yellow-billed Magpie. Pica nuttalli.
Range.–Middle parts of California, west of the Sierra Nevadas.
This species is slightly smaller than the last and has a yellowish bill and lores, otherwise being precisely like the more common species. Their habits do not differ from those of the other, the nests are the same and the eggs are indistinguishable. Size 1.25 x .88.
NEST OF AMERICAN MAGPIE.
YOUNG BLUE JAYS.
Blue Jay.
477. Blue Jay. Cyanocitta cristata cristata.
Range.–North America, east of the Plains and north to Hudson Bay; resident and very abundant in its United States range.
Greenish buff.
These beautiful and bold marauders are too well known to need description, suffice it to say that they are the most beautiful of North American Jays; but beneath their handsome plumage beats a heart as cruel and cunning as that in any bird of prey. In the fall, winter and spring, their food consists largely of acorns, chestnuts, berries, seeds, grain, insects, lizards, etc., but during the summer months they destroy and devour a great many eggs and young of the smaller birds, their taste for which, being so great that they are known to watch a nest until the full complement of eggs is laid before making their theft. They nest in open woods or clumps of trees, indifferently, in pines or young trees, building most often below twenty feet from the ground; the nests are made of twigs and rootlets, lined with fine rootlets. During May they lay from four to six eggs of a greenish buff color spotted with olive brown. Size 1.10 x .80.
477a. Florida Blue Jay. Cyanocitta cristata florincola.
Range.–Florida and the Gulf coast.
The nesting habits and eggs of this smaller sub-species are the same as those of the northern Blue Jay. Like our birds, they frequently nest near habitations.
478. Steller’s Jay. Cyanocitta stelleri stelleri.
Range.–Pacific coast from southern California to Alaska; resident and breeding throughout its range.
Greenish blue.
All the members of this sub-species are similar in plumage, having a sooty black head, crest and neck, shading insensibly into dark bluish on the back and underparts, and brighter blue on the wings and tail. They usually have a few streaks or spots of pale blue on the forehead. They are just as noisy, bold and thievish as the eastern Jay and are also excellent mimics like the latter. They nest in fir trees at any height from the ground and in April or May deposit their three to six greenish blue eggs which are spotted with various shades of brown. Size 1.25 x .90. Their nests are more bulky than those of the eastern Jay and are usually made of larger sticks and held together with some mud.
478a. Blue-fronted Jay. Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis.
Range.–Coast ranges of California and Oregon.
The nesting habits and eggs of this variety are indistinguishable from those of the preceding. The bird has more blue on the forehead.
478b. Long-crested Jay. Cyanocitta stelleri diademata.
Range.–Southern Rocky Mountains from Arizona to Wyoming.
No general difference can be found between the eggs of this species and the Steller Jay, and the nests of each are constructed similarly and in like situations.
Florida Jay.
478c. Black-headed Jay. Cyanocitta stelleri annectens.
Range.–Northern Rocky Mountains from northern Colorado to British Columbia.
The eggs of this sub-species cannot be identified from those of the other varieties. Like the others, their nests are made of sticks plastered together with mud and lined with weeds and rootlets.
478d. Queen Charlotte Jay. Cyanocitta stelleri carlottæ.
Range.–Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia.
479. Florida Jay. Aphelocoma cyanea.
Range.–Locally distributed in Florida.
All the birds of this genus have no crests or decided markings, are white or grayish below, and more or less intense blue above, with the back grayish or brownish blue. This species is 11.5 inches long, has a pale blue crown and a nearly white forehead. It has a very limited distribution, being confined chiefly to the coast districts of middle Florida, and very abundant in some localities and rare in adjoining ones. They build shallow structures of small sticks and weeds lined with fine rootlets and placed at low elevations in bushes or scrubby trees. The three or four eggs, which are laid in April or May are dull greenish blue, marked with olive brown. Size 1.00 x .80. Data.–Titusville, Fla., April 17, 1899. Nest of sticks in a scrub oak, five feet from the ground.
480. Woodhouse’s Jay. Aphelocoma woodhousei.
Range.–United States west of the Rockies and from Oregon and Wyoming to Mexico.
Bluish green.
This species has the crown and forehead bluish, and the underparts gray, streaked with bluish gray on the breast. It is also larger than the last, being 12 inches long. They are very abundant in the Great Basin between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevadas, breeding during April or May in scrubby trees or bushes at low elevations and generally near streams. They lay from three to five eggs of a dull bluish green color, spotted with umber and lilac gray. Size 1.08 x .80. Data.–Iron County, Utah, May 3, 1897. 4 eggs. Nest of sticks and weeds in a small pine tree.
Page 307 480.1. Blue-eared Jay. Aphelocoma cyanotis.
482–484a–485.
Range.–Interior of Mexico north to the southern boundary of Texas.
The nesting habits of this species are the same as those of the others of the genus and the eggs are similar but the markings are generally more prominent and larger. Size 1.10 × .80.
480.2. Texas Jay. Aphelocoma texana.
Range.–Southeastern Texas.
It is not likely that the eggs of this species differ essentially from those of many of the others.
481. California Jay. Aphelocoma californica californica.
Range.–Pacific coast of California and Washington.
Bright bluish green.
This is a very abundant species both about habitations and in low woodlands. They are very bold and familiar, stealing everything they may take a fancy to, and frequently robbing smaller birds of their eggs and young. They are said to be more tame and familiar than the eastern Blue Jay, thereby bringing their bad habits much more frequently to the attention of the masses. They nest most often in bushes or low trees, but not as a rule, far above the ground. Their eggs are a bright bluish green color, speckled and spotted with brownish and lavender. Size 1.10 × .80.
481a. Xantus’s Jay. Aphelocoma californica hypoleuca.
Range.–Lower California.
The habits and nests and eggs of this lighter colored variety do not differ from those of the California Jay.
481b. Belding’s Jay. Aphelocoma californica obscura.
Range.–San Pedro Martir Mts. Lower California.
A darker variety of the California Jay, whose nesting habits will not differ in any essential particular.
481.1. Santa Cruz Jay. Aphelocoma insularis.
Range.–Santa Cruz Island, California.
This species is the largest and darkest colored bird of the genus Aphelocoma. It is said to be a very abundant species on the island from which it takes its name, and to have the habits and traits common to all the members of the Jay family. The nesting habits are the same as those of the others, but the eggs are slightly larger, averaging 1.15 × .85. Set of three in the collection of John Lewis Childs, taken by R. H. Beck on May 10, 1897.
482. Arizona Jay. Aphelocoma sieberi arizonæ.
Range.–Arizona and southwestern New Mexico south into Mexico.
Green Jay.
482a. Couch’s Jay. Aphelocoma sieberi couchi.
Range.–Eastern Mexico, north to western Texas.
483. Green Jay. Xanthoura luxuosa glaucescens.
Range.–Northeastern Mexico and the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas.
Grayish buff.
This handsome species has a bright blue crown and patches under the eyes, the rest of the upper parts being greenish; throat and sides of head black, underparts greenish white. This gaudy and noisy bird has all the habits common to other Jays including that of robbing birds’ nests. They build generally in tangled thickets or low bushes, placing their nests at a low elevation and making them of twigs, weeds, moss, etc., lined with fine rootlets. Their four or five eggs, which are laid during April or May, are grayish buff in color, spotted with various shades of brown and lavender gray. Size 1.20 × .85.
484. Canada Jay. Perisoreus canadensis canadensis.
Range.–Southeastern British Provinces and the adjacent portions of the United States; west to the Rockies.
Grayish.
Canada Jay.
This is the bird that is well known to hunters of “big game” by various names such as “Whiskey Jack”, “Moose Bird”, “Camp Robber”, etc. During the winter months, owing to the scarcity of food, their thieving propensities are greatly enhanced and they remove everything from the camps, which looks as though it might be edible. Birds of this genus are smoky gray on the back and lighter below, shading to white on the throat; the forehead and part of the crown is white and the nape blackish. Their nests are placed at low elevations in bushes or fir trees, and are usually very different from any of the preceding Jays’ nests. They are nearly as high as wide, and are made of small twigs, moss, catkins, weeds and feathers making a soft spongy mass which is placed in an upright crotch. The eggs are a yellowish gray color spotted and blotched with brown and grayish. Size 1.15 × .80. Data.–Innisfail, Alberta, March 12, 1903. Nest a beautiful structure of twigs, moss and feathers in a willow bush, 6 feet from the ground. The thermometer registered 32 below zero the day the eggs were taken. Collector, W. Blackwood.
Page 309 484a. Rocky Mountain Jay. Perisoreus canadensis capitalis.Range.–Rocky Mountains from Montana to Arizona.This variety has the whole crown white and only a small amount of blackish on the nape. Its nesting habits and eggs are precisely like those of the last.
NEST AND EGGS OF CANADA JAY SHOWING CONSTRUCTION.
484b. Alaska Jay. Perisoreus canadensis fumifrons.
Range.–Alaska.
A very similar bird to the Canada Jay but with the forehead yellowish or duller; the nests and eggs are like those of the others of the genus.
484c. Labrador Jay. Perisoreus canadensis nigricapillus.
Range.–Labrador.
This is a darker variety of the Canada Jay. Its eggs cannot be distinguished from those of any of the others of the genus.
485. Oregon Jay. Perisoreus obscurus obscurus.
Range.–Mountain ranges from northern California to British Columbia.
These birds are very similar to canadensis but have the whole underparts white. Like the Canada Jays they appear to be wholly fearless and pay little or no attention to the presence of mankind. Their nesting habits and eggs are the same as the preceding except that they have generally been found nesting near the tops of tall fir trees. Size of eggs, 1.05 × .80.
YOUNG CROWS
Page 311 485a. Gray Jay. Perisoreus obscurus griseus.Range.–British Columbia to northern California, east of the coast ranges.This bird is said to be larger and grayer than the preceding.
486. Raven. Corvus corax sinuatus.
Range.–North America west of the Rockies and from British Columbia southward.
Pale greenish white.
The Raven is like a very large Crow, length 24 inches, but has the feathers on the neck lengthened and stiffened. Their habits are similar to those of the Crow, but more dignified, and they remain mated for life. Besides grasshoppers and worms, they feed largely upon animal matter such as lizards, shell fish, frogs, eggs and young of birds, and carrion. They nest on ledges of high inaccessible cliffs or the tops of tall trees, making large nests of sticks lined with smaller ones and hair or wool; the eggs are laid in April or May, number from four to seven, and are light greenish in color, blotched with umber and drab. Size 1.95 × 1.25.
486a. Northern Raven. Corvus corax principalis.
Range.–Eastern North America chiefly north of the United States and northwest to Alaska; south on some of the higher ranges to Georgia.
This variety is like the last but is larger. They are not nearly as abundant as the western form and are very rare within the United States. A few pairs still breed on some of the rocky islands off the coast of Maine; more off New Brunswick and Newfoundland, and they are quite common on the cliffs of Labrador and Alaska. Their nesting habits and eggs are like those of the last.
487. White-necked Raven. Corvus cryptoleucus.
Range.–Mexico and the border of the United States; north to eastern Kansas.
Pale bluish green.
This small Raven is of about the size of the Crow, and has the bases of the neck feathers white. They are very abundant in some localities, especially in southern Arizona. Their food consists chiefly of animal matter, the same as the large Ravens, and they are not nearly as shy, frequently feeding in camps upon refuse which is thrown out to them. They build at low elevations in any tree, but preferably in mesquites, making their nests of sticks and lining them with hair, leaves, bark, wool or anything soft. During June they lay from four to six pale bluish green eggs, generally sparingly spotted or scratched with dark brown and drab. Size 1.75 × 1.20.
American Crow. American Raven.
488. Crow. Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos.
Range.–Whole of North America south of the Arctic Circle; most abundant in eastern United States; rare in many localities in the west.
Greenish white.
These birds, against which the hand of every farmer is uplifted, are very shy and cunning; as is well known, they nearly always post a sentinel in some tree top to keep watch while the rest of the flock is feeding in the field below. In the fall and winter, large numbers of them flock, and at night all roost in one piece of woods; some of the “crow roosts” are of vast extent and contain thousands of individuals.
Bluish white.
Crows nest near the tops of large trees, preferably pines, either in woods or single trees in fields. Their nests are made of sticks and lined with rootlets, and the eggs, which are laid in April or May, range from four to seven in number, are a bluish or greenish white, sparingly or very densely speckled, spotted and blotched with various shades of brown and lilac. Size 1.60 × 1.15.
488a. Florida Crow. Corvus brachyrhynchos pascuus.
Range.–Florida.
This variety has a slightly shorter tail and wings than the last.
490. Fish Crow. Corvus ossifragus.
Range.–Northwest coast from Oregon to Alaska.
This small Crow which is but 16 inches in length, is found only on the coast, where they feed upon shell fish and offal. They nest, as do the Ravens, either on ledges or in tree tops. The eggs resemble those of the common Crow, but are smaller. Size 1.55 × 1.05.
489. Northwestern Crow. Corvus caurinus.
Range.–South Atlantic and Gulf coasts, north in summer to Connecticut.
From Virginia southward, this small Crow (length 16 inches) is more abundant on the coast than the common Crow which is often in company with this species. Their food consists of grain, berries, and animal matter. Their nesting habits are like those of the common Crow and the eggs are similar and have as great variations, but are smaller. Size 1.45 × 1.05.
Clarke’s Nutcracker.
491. Clarke’s Nutcracker. Nucifraga columbiana.
Range.–Mountains of western North America from Mexico to Alaska.
Grayish blue.
The Clarke Crow, as this bird is often known, is a common resident in most of its range. The adults are grayish with black wings and central tail feathers, the tips of the primaries and outer tail feathers being white. Their tail is short and their flight slow and somewhat undulating like that of some of the Woodpeckers. Their food consists of anything edible from seeds and larvæ in the winter to insects, berries, eggs and young birds at other seasons. In the spring they retire to the tops of ranges, nearly to the limit of trees, where they build their large nests of sticks, twigs, weeds, strips of bark, and fibres matted together so as to form a soft round ball with a deeply cupped interior; the nest is located at from ten to forty feet from the ground in pine trees and the eggs are laid early before the snow begins to leave. They are three in number, grayish in color with a greenish tinge and finely spotted over the whole surface with dark brown and lavender. Size 1.30 × .90. Data.–Salt Lake Co., Utah, April 25, 1900. Nest placed in pine 40 feet up on a horizontal branch, and not visible from below. The tree was at the upper edge of a pine forest at an altitude of about 3000 feet above Salt Lake City. The nest was discovered by seeing the parent fly into the tree; the next day a nest was found with three young nearly ready to fly. Collector, W. H. Parker. This set of three eggs is in the oological collection of Mr. C. W. Crandall.
492. Pinon Jay. Cyanocephalus cyanocephalus.
Range.–Western United States between the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas, and from southern British Columbia to Arizona.
This Crow-like Jay has a nearly uniform bluish plumage, and is found abundantly in the pine belts of its range. Their habits are similar to those of the Clarke Crow and the nests are similarly built at lower elevations in pines or junipers. During April or May they lay from three to five eggs of a bluish white color specked and spotted with brown. Size 1.20 × .85.
Title: The Bird Book
Illustrating in natural colors more than seven hundred
North American birds; also several hundred photographs of
their nests and eggs
Author: Chester A. Reed
Release Date: September 15, 2009 [EBook #30000]
Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus)
Posted on August 5, 2010 by Corvid GyrlLeave a comment on Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus)
Pêga-azul / Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus), originally uploaded by Armando Caldas.
The Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyana) is a bird in the crow family. It is 31–35 cm long and similar in overall shape to the European Magpie (Pica pica) but is more slender with proportionately smaller legs and bill. It belongs to the monotypical genus Cyanopica.
It has a glossy black top to the head and a white throat. The underparts and the back are a light grey-fawn in colour with the wings and the feathers of the long (16–20 cm) tail are an azure blue. It inhabits various types of coniferous (mainly pine) and broadleaf forest, including parks and gardens in the eastern populations.
It occurs in two population groups separated by a huge geographical region between. One population lives in Western Europe, specifically the southwestern part of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain and Portugal. The other population occurs over a much larger region of eastern Asia in most of China, Korea, Japan, and north into Mongolia. Recent genetic analysis has shown that the two populations are distinct at species level, under which the Iberian Azure-winged Magpie would take the name Cyanopica cooki, though this change has yet to be formally incorporated in the European bird list.
Often Azure-winged Magpies find food as a family group or several groups making flocks of up to 70 birds. The largest groups congregate after the breeding season and throughout the winter months. Their diet consists mainly of acorns (oak seeds) and pine nuts, extensively supplemented by invertebrates and their larvae, soft fruits and berries, and also human-provided scraps in parks and towns.
This species usually nests in loose, open colonies with a single nest in each tree. There are usually between 6–8 eggs that are incubated for 15 days.
The voice is a quick fired and metallic sounding kwink-kwink-kwink usually preceded by a single krarrah.
(Source: wikipedia.com)
The Revered, Reviled Crow Clan by Howard Youth
Posted on May 6, 2009 by MagpieLeave a comment on The Revered, Reviled Crow Clan by Howard Youth
I read an excellent article about corvids from their habitat to myths and legends about them in the May/June 2001 issue of Zoogoer. I think it is worth the read. Here is an excerpt:
For centuries, a dark specter haunted the bloody battlefields of Europe. Waiting to feast on the dead, common ravens lined up at bloody clashes between invaders and invaded, tribes and kingdoms. War-weary observers could not ignore the jet-black scavengers, with their four-foot-wide wingspreads and cross-shaped flight profiles. Ravens, not surprisingly, were branded harbingers of bad luck, or death.
Away from the carnage, common ravens (Corvus corax) also coasted into folklore, legend, and language, strongly hinting that these creatures and their 100-plus brethren in the family Corvidae are not your average birds. Two ravens, Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory), rode the broad shoulders of the Norse god Odin. In Inuit legend, the raven became creator and trickster. In the Bible, Noah sent not only a dove but also a raven to seek land, as did many ancient mariners. Tame ravens still stroll within the Tower of London’s walls, where for centuries they’ve been sequestered as guardians against invasion.
One reason why ravens, crows, jackdaws, rooks, magpies, treepies, choughs, nutcrackers, and jays stand out is that they have above-average brains—proportionately, they possess the largest cerebral hemispheres of the feathered set. Plucky, crafty, curious, social, vocal, and adaptable, corvids, as family members are known, are among our most familiar yet enigmatic neighbors. On all continents save Antarctica, they flourish in backyards and wilderness, although more than 20 species barely hang on within shrinking habitats. Ethiopia’s thick-billed raven (Corvus crassirostris), bigger than a red-tailed hawk, is the world’s largest songbird, while the dun-colored Hume’s ground-jay (Pseudopodoces humilis) of the Tibetan plains is the smallest family member. In between lies a broad spectrum of glossy, splashy, and plume-tailed characters.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Magpie (pica pica) Rhymes
Posted on April 10, 2009 by Corvid GyrlLeave a comment on Magpie (pica pica) Rhymes
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told.
Two for mirth
Three for a wedding
Four for a birth
Five for heaven
Six for hell
Seven you’ll see the de’il himsel’
One for sorrow, two for joy;
Three for a girl, four for a boy;
Five for silver, six for gold;
Seven for a secret, never to be told;
Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss;
Ten for a bird that’s best to miss.
I cross the magpie
The magpie crosses me,
Back luck to the magpie,
And good luck to me.
The Social Life of Corvids
Posted on April 4, 2009 by MagpieLeave a comment on The Social Life of Corvids
Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.
Nicola S. Clayton1, and Nathan J. Emery2,
1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK
2Sub-department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 8AA, UK
Available online 20 August 2007.
Of the 120 species of birds in the corvid family, which includes the crows, ravens, magpies and jays, the bare-faced rook is perhaps the most social of them all. At a rookery in Norfolk, for example, winter roosts can number up to 60,000 individuals. The name for a congregation of rooks is a ‘parliament’. In English folklore, parliament is an apt name for rook justice, as it is said that rooks form a circle around a wrongdoer producing a cacophony of calls and caws which can go on for hours until the offender is either attacked and killed or released to live another day. Although only fiction, such tales reflect their canny reputation as thieves and tricksters, as well as possessors of great wisdom.
Like most birds, corvids are monogamous, and the core unit is therefore the mated pair. This pair bond is typically for life, and the pair remains together throughout the year. For example, rooks and ravens find a partner during the autumn months, taking part in impressive aerobatic displays and food sharing which may be to assess the quality of a potential mate. Once juvenile rooks and ravens pair, they engage in extensive mutual preening and bill twining (bill holding) and support one another in fights.
Corvid cognition
Posted on April 1, 2009 by MagpieLeave a comment on Corvid cognition
Nicola Clayton and Nathan Emery
aDepartment of Experimental Psychology and Sub-department of Animal Behaviour, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Available online 7 February 2005.
What is a corvid? There are just over 120 species of corvids, a family of songbirds that includes the crows, ravens, rooks and jackdaws, as well as the more colourful jays, magpies and nutcrackers. Although belonging to the same order as nightingales and other birds with melodious songs (Oscines), corvids tend to be identified by their raucous calls. Little is known about corvid songs, perhaps because they are surprisingly quiet. Corvids can be found throughout the globe, except for the southern most tip of South America and the polar ice caps. In Britain, many of the common species, such as magpies and crows, steal other birds’ eggs and raid agricultural crops. They are therefore treated with disdain by many birdwatchers and farmers.
Why study intelligence in crows? Corvids have not always had such a bad press. Native Americans believed that a raven had created the earth; the Norse god, Odin, consulted two ravens Hugin (Thought) and Munin (Memory) for their wisdom; and Aesop cast corvids as the smart protagonists in many of his fables. Along with their reputation in folklore as the wisest of animals, corvids have the largest brains for their body size of any bird. Perhaps most surprisingly, the crow brain is the same relative size as the chimpanzee brain. Other aspects of corvid biology also give us clues to their intelligence. In the wild, young corvids have an extensive developmental period before they become independent from their parents. This allows them more opportunities to learn the essential skills for later life. Many corvids also live in complex social groups. For example, in the cooperatively breeding Florida scrub-jay, several closely related family members share the responsibility of raising the young with the parents. Furthermore, rooks congregate in large colonies, where juveniles associate with many non-relatives as well as kin. In both cases, this long developmental period provides increased opportunities for learning from many different group members.
Perhaps it is not surprising then that many corvids are also renowned for their innovative feeding skills. For example, Japanese crows in Sendai City have learned to crack nuts safely by dropping them onto pedestrian crossings and waiting until the traffic lights turn red before retrieving the nut’s contents. Rooks at a motorway service station in England have discovered a novel method for gaining access to food thrown in rubbish bins. Two birds cooperate in pulling up the bin liner and then either feeding from the raised food or tossing the contents onto the ground where the waiting crowd of colony mates reap the rewards.
As the crow flies… Most of the corvids that have been studied in detail hide food for the future in times of food abundance and then rely on memory to recover the food caches at a later date when food is scarce. For example, the Clark’s nutcracker is estimated to hide over 30,000 pinyon seeds in many different places during the autumn in preparation for the harsh months ahead. Laboratory experiments have shown that they have highly accurate spatial memories, which enable them to recover these caches up to 9 months later. This is no mean feat when there are so many caches to keep track of, scattered throughout the territory, and when many aspects of the landscape change so dramatically across seasons. It has been suggested that Clark’s nutcrackers rely on remembering the location of large vertical landmarks such as trees and rocks in the environment, because these landmarks are unlikely to be blown away or buried under the snow.
What do scrub-jays recall about past caching events? Although western scrub-jays do not hide as many seed caches as the nutcrackers, they are known to cache a variety of perishable foods, such as insects and fruit, as well as non-perishable nuts and seeds. In the laboratory, these birds demonstrate remarkable memories for what they have cached on a given day, and how long ago, as well as where they hid the various food items during that particular caching episode. This ability to remember the ‘what, where and when’ of specific past events is thought to be akin to human episodic memory, because it involves recalling a particular episode that has happened in the past. Until recently, this ability was thought to be unique to humans.
Avian espionage… Food-caching is a risky strategy, however, because the caches can be stolen by other birds. In addition to hiding their own food caches, corvids also play the role of thief: they watch and remember where other birds have hidden their caches and use this information to steal those caches when the owner has left the scene. When playing the role of thief, speed is of the essence and may make the difference between a successful raid and vicious attack by the owner of the food-cache. Not surprisingly, corvids also employ a number of counter strategies to reduce the risk that their own caches will be stolen by another bird. For example, they attempt to cache out of sight from potential thieves, or wait until the raider is distracted before hiding their caches, and if that is not possible, they hide caches in places that are difficult for the thief to see. When there is little option but to cache when others are around, then the birds will return to the caches once the others have left, and quickly re-hide any remaining caches in new places unbeknown to the potential raider.
Laboratory experiments have established that western scrub-jays use all these techniques to protect their caches from potential thieves, and only do so if another bird is present at the time of caching. Furthermore, they only move their caches to new hiding places if they have been thieves themselves in the past. Naı̈ve jays, even ones who have watched other birds caching but have never had the opportunity to raid those caches, do not do so. This suggests that experienced birds relate information about their previous experience of being a thief to the possibility of future theft by another bird, and adjust their caching behaviour accordingly. Using your own experience to predict another individual’s future behaviour in relation to your own – ‘putting yourself in someone else’s shoes’ – is thought to be one of the hallmarks of Theory of Mind, another ability that was thought to be uniquely human.
Cultural tool use in crows? New Caledonian crows are extraordinarily skilled at making and using tools. In the wild, they make two types of tool. The hooked tools consist of twigs that are trimmed and sculpted into a functional hook, which the crows use to poke insect larvae out of tree holes. The crows also manufacture stepped-cut Pandanus leaves, which they use in different ways for different jobs: they make rapid back and forth movements for prey under soil, yet slow deliberate movements if the prey is in a hole. These tools are consistently made to a standardized pattern and carried around on foraging expeditions. The only other animals that display this diversity and flexibility in tool use and manufacture are the great apes. Thus, chimpanzees have been observed to manufacture a range of different tools that are used for specific purposes, and different geographical populations of chimpanzees use different tools for different uses, suggesting that there may be cultural variations in tool use. Observations of the crows’ tool use in the wild also suggest similar levels of cultural complexity. For example, there is potential cumulative evolution in the complexity of stepped tools (increasing the number of steps required to make a more complex tool), analogous to minor technological innovations in humans. Crows from different geographical areas have different designs of tool, suggesting that crows may also show cultural variations in tool use.
Laboratory experiments confirm the sophisticated intellectual capabilities of these crows. One tool-using crow, called Betty, can manipulate novel man-made objects to solve a problem, such as reaching food in a bucket only accessible by using a hook to pull the bucket up. When the bent wire was stolen by another bird, Betty found a piece of straight wire that was lying on the floor, bent this wire into a hook and used it to lift up the bucket and reach the food! Betty proceeded to do this consistently. Furthermore, when given a tool box containing a variety of different tools to reach normally inaccessible food, she was able to select one of the correct length and width. So evidence of tool use and manufacture suggests that these crows can sometimes combine past experiences to produce novel solutions to problems.Feathered apes? Corvids are large-brained, social birds. They have an extensive developmental period in which they are dependent on their parents, and so have a long time-window in which to learn many different things from their parents and peers. They show a great propensity to find innovative solutions to novel problems, from the manufacture of tools to the protection of food from competitors. Furthermore, they appear to be particularly adept at predicting the future behaviour of conspecifics. These features are things they share in common with the apes. The common ancestor of mammals and birds lived over 280 million years ago, so it is hardly surprising that they have very different brains. It follows that intelligence in corvids and apes must have arisen independently in two groups with very different brains. Interestingly, the thinking part of the brain is correlated with propensity to innovate in both birds and primates, with the corvids and apes as the ‘star inventors’. So when it comes to intelligence, corvids are feathered apes.
R.P. Balda, A.C. Kamil and P.A. Bednekoff, Predicting cognitive capacities from natural histories: examples from four corvid species, Curr. Ornithol. 13 (1996), pp. 33–66.
N.S. Clayton, T.J. Bussey and A. Dickinson, Can animals recall the past and plan for the future?, Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 4 (2003), pp. 685–691.
N.J. Emery and N.S. Clayton, The mentality of crows: Convergent evolution of intelligence in corvids and apes, Science 306 (2004), pp. 1903–1907.
Heinrich, B. (1999). The Mind of the Raven (Harper Collins).
G.R. Hunt and R.D. Gray, Diversification and cumulative evolution in New Caledonian crow tool manufacture, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B. 270 (2003), pp. 867–874.
L. Lefebvre, S.M. Reader and D. Sol, Brains, innovations and evolution in birds and primates, Brain Behav. Evol. 63 (2004), pp. 233–246.
A.A.S. Weir, J. Chappell and A. Kacelnik, Shaping of hooks in New Caledonian crows, Science 297 (2002), p. 981
“Reprinted from Current Biology, Vol 15 / Issue No 3, Author(s) Nicola Clayton and Nathan Emery, Corvid cognition, Page No. 1, Copyright 8 February 2005, with permission from Elsevier.”
Direct Link to Article click here.
Welcome to Corvid Corner
Posted on September 4, 2008 by MegLeave a comment on Welcome to Corvid Corner
When you hear people discuss crows or ravens (or their cousin-birds), you quickly realize people’s reactions to these birds are relatively strong; they either adore them or despise them. We know there are people who do not much appreciate the corvids. They think they are savage, dirty pests. There are websites dedicated to complaining about them, even instructing people on how to kill them (GASP!). We are on the other end of the spectrum. We love these beautiful birds. They are infinitely fascinating and amusing. We are unabashed corvid ((Corvids are also also known as crows, ravens, magpies, scrubjays etc.)) -admirers and we have decided to share our admiration of these intelligent and quirky birds with anyone who is interested.
We hope you enjoy our site. Please, look around, read, learn and share with us your thoughts. We would love for you to email us your corvid stories or pictures or any information you have that is not posted here. We will be adding information as we go along. Thank you for coming to visit, please come back often.
CorvidCorner.com
Copyright © 2020 CorvidCorner.com.
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The Cricket Thread, Mark 2
By SirFozzie, July 14, 2013 in SPORTS
SirFozzie 424
Evansville Crimson Giant
Holy shit what a finish, England beat Australia by 14 runs as Australia's last stand falls just short (the final wicket partnership in the two innings nearly provided half of Australia's runs in total)
Been watching it on Willow TV... talk about drama, as the last wicket was under review.
Zheroen 331
Minnesota Purple Rage
Thought it was a good match overall, not to mention the tension with England almost running out Australia for the last wicket before the lunch break, but I felt the actual last wicket was kind of dubious for such a close call that seemed fairly inconclusive with the hot shot replay.Wish it was shown on ESPN3 in HD and I didn't have to rely on a dodgy stream, though.
Well, willow is like $8 a month through YouTube, so the stream quality is really good, but I hear ya.
adamsie 3
The tension in the match was great such a pity it ended on drs after all the controversy with Trott, Broad and Agar.
hope this isn't as close as Australia get to a win this series.
So far in the second test, the story is England rebuilding from near disaster, and Australia failing to. It's up to Haddin and Agar again..
So, Aussie tempers are flaring after another close call (that admittedly looked like it should have gone to the Aussies) goes against them. It's not like England need the help, but the last decision caused a bit of a flutter as someone with access to CricketAustralia's Twitter feed posted "That decision sucked ass. #bullshit"
The offending tweet was later deleted and Cricket Australia's investigating.
Graeme Swann's dismissal of Chris Rogers yesterday is one of the funniest I've ever seen.
Bad delivery, bad swing, bad decision, bad decision not to review.
It was a comedy of errors
edit: Reminds me of this "delivery" from Phil Tufnell
And England lead is 566 with two full days to play. Expect a declaration overnight (shame, would love to see Root go for 200.) to give England two full days to bowl the Aussies out.
They don't need two days to get them out so they should let him go to 200 or till he gets out.
Next test the Aussies should play Klinger for the hell of it since he's making runs in England
Yeah, I think they'll let Root go for 200.
he when for it and only added two runs and they declared, now i hope Aussies can make it to 200
Well, they did, making 235 in their second innings, which means they lost by a mere 347 runs.
Haven't followed cricket that closely in a few years.
Boy have roles been reversed in England/Australia since just a few years ago.
Well, Australia now has 10 days to think about the shitkicking they just took as the third test (where England can officially retain the Ashes with a win or a draw) doesn't start till August 1... although it looks like Kevin Pietersen is doubtful with a calf injury
38 charged in IPL Spot Fixing scandal
Well i guess we'll never get a test in this series without DRS umpire making bad decisions.
also great to see australia bat out the whole day pity about the rain that's be forecast
Be a shame if England won the Ashes not on the field, but due to the weather.
Big partnership for england right now, Pietersen and Bairstow are just about 80 runs short of the follow on target.. they do still have Prior and Broad left to bat, but these are England's best two batsmen left. Pietersen's already reached his century, but will he resist the urge to play one shot too many? Another 100-150 runs here could make it hard for Australia to build a big enough lead to declare and bowl England out, especially if the weather does not cooperate.
Bairstow out for 22, with England 50 runs short of the follow on target, I think they'll still get there (prior averages about 40, Broad about 25), but it's getting close to squeaky bum time for England.
They finally got Pietersen, England finish the day 294 for 7, 233 behind Australia. Tomorrow morning, the Aussies will need to break the Prior/Broad partnership, and then pick up Swann and Anderson cheaply (england need 34 to avoid being asked to bat again immediately). With rain in the forecast both Sunday and Monday,m it's starting to be now or never for Australia.
England survive, currently at 366 for 9. Now, every over they bat out will be a growing problem for the Aussies, the lead is 161 (and shrinking slowly), the Aussies will have to race out and bat up a lead as quickly as possible and gamble that they will have enough time to bowl England out again.
and.... I spoke too soon. England all out for 368, and Australia basically sprint to the lockerroom to get ready for batting. Expect some fireworks that wouldn't look out of place in an one day game or even a twenty20 game.
Unfotunately, we continue to have a bit of the (Cricket) Ump Show, as the umpires decided unilaterally the level of light was too low, and ordered the teams off, costing Australia a half hour or so of scoring before rain came. Australia finish the day 172 for 7 (they spent their wickets in trying to get more runs.), lead of 331, but with Day five apparently going to be a rain fest, it may not happen for Australia
And despite the Aussies getting three fairly quick wickets (including Pietersen), the only winner in this Test is the rain, which will deliver the Ashes back in Englands hands... until the end of the year at least.. Good battling by the Aussies, if not for the rain they may have had a shot, and talk about "5-0, 5-0" has been put in the rubbish bin
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2014 SHOT Show, Last Day
2014 SHOT Show, Final Day:
The 2014 SHOT Show is now over.
Mood was apprehensive, but upbeat. General consensus is that no federal gun legislation is likely during the balance of the BHO Administration.
Interesting to see that there were a number of manufacturers of gun-making machinery represented, complete, in several cases, with massive punch-presses and CNC machines, all set-up and running on the display floor! Strong, continuous consumer demand us obviously anticipated.
Las Vegas is the perfect town for a trade show like SHOT, as it has more than adequate hotel and restaurant capacity for a group this size (upwards of 70k this year). However, Las Vegas is no longer an inexpensive, nor even moderately expensive, destination! Hotels and restaurants, particularly those associated with the Sands Convention Center, are all nice, but really pricey! Casino/hotel restaurants are also pleasant, but ridiculously expensive. And, all that before anyone even starts gambling!
As in past years, it is still disappointing to see large, promotional graphic displays at the Show, depicting people casually shooting, without necessary protective equipment, like glasses! Bimbos in provocative postures, displaying various guns pointed in various unsafe directions, with manicured fingers wrapped around triggers. Once again, with painful safety gaffes like these, we don’t need enemies!
I talked with friends at Blackhawk this morning. They just secured a federal contract to supply the Army with thousands of “SERPA Tactical Holster Systems.” They’ve already secured a similar contract to supply the Marines. The System consists of a SERPA Holster for the M9 (Beretta 92F) Pistol, with three separate mounting systems, one for the vest, a drop-holster for the leg, and a belt attachment. The holster itself can be moved around and mounted at any angle, via an ingenious, rotary mounting arrangement. It is a solid piece of gear!
The SERPA has its detractors, to be sure, but for those for whom open-top holsters won’t work, it is a good way to go. For one, I like the SERPA!
Navy Arms, long known for replica percussion revolvers and other period-weapons, all fully functional, showed-off a 1903 Springfield rifle in its original, issue form. It is beautiful, and at 1k/copy, not a bad deal. Many instructors discussed among ourselves, over dinner, the necessity of all of us being in a position to be able to competently and authoritatively instruct students in the serious operation lever-guns and bolt-guns, as some day these may become the only variety of rifle to which some will have access.
The 1903 Springfield is a wonderful, military weapon! In the hands of a competent Operator, it can be used to settle most fights right-readily! Once you learn how to run a bolt and use a stripper-clip, the fact that your rifle is not autoloading becomes almost irrelevant!
I saw the new SIG 320 this morning. It is a striker-fired, duty pistol. No decocking lever, and no manual safety. SIG’s version of a Glock!
I discussed this morning with friends at EOTech the subject of all the EOTech look-alikes currently on display. Among all of them, the EOTech is still the only “holographic” sight! Their copyright on the technology will expire soon, and, when it does, many others will predictably start making similar systems. But, not right now! One advantage of a true, holographic sight is the fact that the aiming dot does not grow with range. It stays the same size.
Tapco had on display 30-round plastic magazines for the Ruger Mini-14! Many of my Urban Rifle students who bring Mini-14s to Courses lament that they can’t find high-quality, high (normal)-capacity magazines. The ones I saw from Tapco were very nice, at $18.00/copy!
We noticed at the Show this year a significant increase in the number of companies making concealed-carry accouterments specifically designed to appeal to women.
“Concealed Carrie” had a nice, albeit pricey, line of handbags. We met “Carrie” herself, and she was enthusiastic about the prospect of making routine, concealed-carry appealing to women. Unfortunately, her otherwise attractive graphic showed a woman casually pointing a pistol in the air, with her finger wrapped about the trigger, all while looking in another direction. Carrie needs to come to one of our Courses!
Not the only promotional gaffe, as noted above!
Looper Leather, makers of the famous “Flash-Bang” holster, had a nice display. The “Flash-Bang” is, in fact, so popular it has been seamlessly, shamelessly copied by at least one other manufacturer! Looper also had belts, in various colors, designed to appear for female consumers.
The most well-known of the lot is GTM (Gun-Tote’n Mamas). Their line of purses and handbags is now extremely extensive. While I make no claim to style expertise, there has to be something there that will appeal to nearly anyone! Off-body carry has risks and benefits, but for many women, it represents one of the few viable options for continuously going armed.
Two clever variations are an iPad case with an integral holster, and a small, cross-body purse, with enough room for a cell phone, glass-case, and small 9mm pistol!
Next year’s SHOT Show will be in the same place. It is a wonderful way for us to renew old friendships, see old comrades, and get updated on all the latest developments. For vendors, it represents an expensive and time-consuming diversion from the business of making product, and all of them deserve much credit for being there. Like all trade shows, it is far from perfect, but I try not to miss it!
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18-1597-EL-GRD
IN THE MATTER OF THE POWERFORWARD DATA AND MODERN GRID WORKGROUP
OPEN-OPEN
EL-ELECTRIC
GRD-SmartGrid and Advance Metering Applications
12/13/2019 Report Data and Modern Grid Workgroup (DWG) Final Report electronically filed by Mr. Ronald J Chebra on behalf of EnerNex, LLC. 45
11/26/2019 Notice of Withdrawal of Counsel and Notice of Appearance of Counsel electronically filed by Mr. Lucas A Fykes on behalf of Whitt Sturtevant LLP. 3
11/15/2019 Notice of Substitution of Counsel electronically filed by Ms. Caroline Cox on behalf of Environmental Law and Policy Center. 3
09/30/2019 Correspondence Regarding Correction to Intervening Entity electronically filed by Ms. Rebekah J. Glover on behalf of Direct Energy Services, LLC and Direct Energy Business, LLC. 2
08/30/2019 Motion to Intervene and memorandum in support by Mission:data electronically filed by Ms. Madeline Fleisher on behalf of Mission:data Coalition. 8
06/21/2019 Notice of Withdrawal of Counsel by the Environmental Law & Policy Center electronically filed by Madeline Fleisher on behalf of Environmental Law & Policy Center. 5
02/26/2019 Motion to Intervene and Memorandum in Support electronically filed by Ms. Miranda R. Leppla on behalf of Ohio Environmental Council and Environmental Defense Fund. 11
01/23/2019 Service Notice 3
01/23/2019 Motion to Intervene by the Environmental Law & Policy Center and Memorandum in Support electronically filed by Madeline Fleisher on behalf of Environmental Law & Policy Center. 8
01/23/2019 Entry ordering that EnerNex be selected to perform the consulting activities set forth above in the RFP. 5
01/08/2019 Notice of Designation of Counsel of Record by the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel electronically filed by Ms. Deb J. Bingham on behalf of Healey, Christopher Mr. 4
01/03/2019 Motion to Intervene of Evelocity, Ltd. and Memorandum in Support electronically filed by Mr. Christopher J. Klym on behalf of Evelocity, Ltd. 5
12/21/2018 Notice of withdrawal Notice of Withdrawal of Counsel by the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel electronically filed by Ms. Deb J. Bingham on behalf of Sauer, Larry S. 3
12/10/2018 Motion to Intervene and Memorandum in Support electronically filed by Ms. Rebekah J. Glover on behalf of Direct Energy, LP. 5
12/04/2018 Motion to Intervene and Memorandum in Support of Interstate Gas Supply, Inc. and IGS Solar, LLC electronically filed by Regan Donoughe on behalf of Interstate Gas Supply, Inc. and IGS Solar, LLC. 8
12/04/2018 Motion to Intervene and memorandum in support by the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel electronically filed by Ms. Deb J. Bingham on behalf of Healey, Christopher Mr. 9
11/28/2018 Entry ordering that Staff issue the RFP attached to this Entry and that December 28, 2018 be set as the due date for proposals in response to the RFP; that in accordance with Paragraph 8, the EDUs equally bear the cost of the consulting services of the contractor chosen by the Commission and that the EDUs and the contractor shall observe the requirements set forth herein. 24
10/31/2018 Motion to Intervene and Memorandum in Support of Industrial Energy Users-Ohio electronically filed by Mr. Matthew R. Pritchard on behalf of Industrial Energy Users-Ohio. 7
10/25/2018 Motion of Ohio Energy Group (OEG) to Intervene and Memorandum in Support electronically filed by Mr. Michael L. Kurtz on behalf of Ohio Energy Group. 3
10/24/2018 Service Notice 72
10/24/2018 Entry ordering that three separate dockets be opened for the PowerForward Collaborative, the Distribution System Planning Workgroup, and the Data and Modem Grid Workgroup, respectively; that That the first meeting of the Collaborative be scheduled for December 6, 2018, at 10:00 a.m. at the offices of the Commission on the 11th floor. 5
10/23/2018 In the matter of the PowerForward Collaborative, Distribution System Planning Workgroup, and Data and Modern Grid Workgroup. 1
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